How do Probiotics and Prebiotics work together?

Prebiotics and Probiotics working together

The concept is pretty simple as to how prebiotics and probiotics work together. Basically, a prebiotic feeds a probiotic. The prebiotic is food and the probiotic is the living organism that eats it.

In our previous posts we went into some detail about how prebiotics work. The image on the right show that not only do prebiotics feed probiotics, they also have a direct affect on the immune system... stimulating it. The prebiotics help the probiotics establish themselves faster so they can help their host (us, or animals) sooner than if they had to do it all on their own. 

Imagine you bought a rundown home and moved into it right away before fixing it, or perparing it. You moved in and then had to start setting in, but nothing was quite right. You would be pretty stressed.  Now, imagine that you had a crew come in and clean it all up, repaint it, even move all your stuff in..right where you wanted it. You would be able to get right into the swing of things without skipping a beat and would be ready for action. The crew your hired is the prebiotc in this scenario. In reality, we are the broken down house that needs cleaning up and both the prebiotic and the probiotic are working together to fix it all and make it a happy home. Pretty simple, isn't it? When they work together you have synergy. This is why combining a prebiotic and a probiotic is called a synbiotic.

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Prebiotics: How much should you take?

EM-X Gold Probiotic Extract

EM･X GOLD is a health drink so there is no specific dose you need to take. You can drink as much or as little as you want to match your condition or lifestyle. The average person will drink 10ml to 30ml (2 teaspoons-1oz) per day.

Each one of us is different; moreover, the same individual also has different condition from day to day. EM•X Gold will stimulate the microbes in the digestive system. This may cause some people may have loose stool or some slight stomach pain or diarrhea-like symptoms after drinking. In that case, adjust the amount to suit your physical condition. You may need to take less than the recommended dosage. Other people may not feel anything. You can't really take too much, but the average person doesn't need more than the suggested dosage above.

EM･X GOLD is made with all natural and gluten-free ingredients so that it is almost flavorless and odorless.

Because the probiotic extracts in EM･X GOLD have heat-resistance, you can mix it with any (hot or cold) drink or even use it in cooking.

How Do Prebiotics Work?

Shortly after the prebiotic is consumed it becomes a food source for probiotic bacteria, dramatically stimulating their activity. A probiotic extract is a prebiotic because it stimulates the growth and activity of probiotic microbes. Probiotic extracts will improve the balance of gut flora by acting as feed for beneficial bacteria. Moreover, they will also directly promote and regulate immunity, reduce stress, and inhibit aging.

EM-X Gold Probiotic Extract

EM-X GOLD is a probiotic extract that re-creates the ideal gut environment and makes it possible to produce beneficial extracts in a stable way.


Approximately 70 % of our immune system is located in the gut. The immune cells in the gut protect our body from infections by fighting harmful bacteria and viruses. However, modern lifestyles filled with processed foods and stress can disrupt the gut environment and therefore compromise our overall health. Also, there is growing evidence that the gut is like your “second brain” and it even influences your thoughts, feelings and stress levels.  (see this article from Johns Hopkins)  Thus, the key of both mental health and physical health is hidden in the gut. Due to poor diet or stress, beneficial microbes decrease and gut microbes will deliver harmful substances to the body. An example of this is E. coli. E. coli is essential to our health, but is considered a pathogen because it has genes that produce toxic compounds and can grow exponentially, producing excessive amounts of toxic metabolites that will make use sick...or kill us. Thus, the ideal cycle of metabolites when you are not healthy, becomes unstable, and you get sick. The gut environment changes from day to day, therefore it is difficult to produce beneficial metabolites consistently.
 This is possible by stimulating the growth of the good microbes, or probiotics, through the use of prebiotics and probiotic extracts.

By making the extracts outside the body, we can produce high quality probiotic extracts free of influence from living environments. Outside factors such as stress and diet make relying on production of probiotic extracts in the body very unpredictable.

Prebiotics are known to improve the efficacy of probiotic microbes. In other words, prebiotics are little energy power packs that feed probiotics. Here is an illustration of how they work together:

You can see the probiotics alone directly promote a good balance of gut flora. Probiotic microbes also produce lactic acid and suppress the growth of harmful microbes, promote the peristalsis of the intestines and prevent constipation, and stimulate the immure system to adjust metabolism. All this takes time as the probiotic microbes establish themselves and begin to secrete metabolites in the system. By adding the metabolites into the body, the probiotics can immediately use them and stimulate the immune system and begin to help get the host's gut back in balance. The combination of prebiotic and probiotic is known as a synbiotic effect.

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What are Prebiotics?

Today we are bombarded with so much information and new terminology can get confusing. By now most people have at least heard of the term "probiotic". Yogurt companies have been able to get the word out to the masses about probiotics. Although the exact information is not clear to everyone what probiotics really are, at least people now know that probiotics are "good" for you. Once you start looking into probiotics you will start seeing the term "prebiotics" pop up here and there. Well, what are prebiotics? What do they do? Do you need them?

What Are Prebiotics?
Again, this is an area where the definitions vary. It seems most prebiotics are referred to as compounds (fibers and non-digestible sugars) that we cannot digest. One of the most common compounds you'll find are fructooligosaccharides, or FOS. The "fructo" stands for fructose, as sugar found in many fruits. It is often used as a sweetener in commercially processed foods. They are naturally found in onion, chicory, garlic, asparagus, banana, artichoke, and several other foods. "Currently FOS are increasingly included in food products and infant formulas due to their prebiotic effect stimulate the growth of nonpathogenic intestinal microflora." (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20119826).

Another prebiotic is inulin. WebMD has a nice overview of inulin...and it sounds very similar to fructooligosaccharides: 

"It is a starchy substance found in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs, including wheat, onions, bananas, leeks, artichokes, and asparagus. The inulin that is used for medicine is most commonly obtained by soaking chicory roots in hot water.

Inulin is used for high blood fats, including cholesterol and triglycerides. It is also used for weight loss, constipation, and as a food additive to improve taste." WebMD: Inulin

How does inulin work?
Inulin is not digested or absorbed in the stomach. It goes to the bowels where bacteria are able to use it to grow. It supports the growth of a special kind of bacteria that are associated with improving bowel function and general health. Inulin decreases the body's ability to make certain kinds of fats." WebMD: Inulin

There are other known prebiotic compounds: Galacto-oligosaccharides , Soya-oligosaccharides, Xylo-oligosaccharides, Pyrodextrins , Isomalto-oligosaccharides. For more information on these, please see: 

S. MACFARLANE, G. T. MACFARLANE & J. H. CUMMINGs: "Review article: prebiotics in the gastrointestinal tract".

A newly discovered type of prebiotic is known as a probiotic extract. While “probiotics” are known to optimize the gut flora and regulate several bodily functions, “probiotic extracts”, the metabolites produced by beneficial bacteria, are getting quite a bit of attention in Japan and are still virtually unknown in the West. Our EM-X Gold product is a probiotic extract using EM Technology. It is made in Okinawa, Japan by EM Research Organization.

Ingredients in EM-X Gold

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