Vegan probiotic encased in an acid-resistant and pH sensitive, enteric capsule
Active Ingredients: Propionibacterium freudenreichii subsp. Shermanii, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus paracasei, Bifidobacterium lactis, FOS and acacia fiber.<br /><br />Other Ingredients: Proprietary probiotic blend, proprietary prebiotic blend, proprietary postbiotic blend, rice fiber, NGProbiome Advanced Probiotic Technology (capsule, prebiotic blend, postbiotic blend), pectin, cellulose.<br /><br />PROS OF THIS PRODUCT<br /><br />1. This product contains 8 billion CFUs per a 2-capsule serving. CFU stands for colony forming units. It is a scientific term of measurement of viable probiotic cells. As a general rule, 1 billion CFUs is the minimum dose a probiotic supplement should contain because the recommended daily dose for both children and adults is between 1-10 billion CFUs. The manufacturer’s recommended dose of 2 capsules per day (making 60 capsules a one-month supply) for this supplement is well within that recommended range for a daily dose. In fact, you could easily get by with taking only 1 of these capsules per day, which would make this product last for two months.<br /><br />2. This product contains a combination of four different probiotic strains. (See below for information on these probiotics.)<br /><br />3. This product contains the well known and well studied prebiotics, FOS and acacia fiber, which feed the healthy bacteria included in this supplement.<br /><br />4. This product is described as having NGProbiome® delivery technology. It is billed as being a type of enteric coating (see Kapoor and Long below on the importance of enteric coating) which is acid resistant and pH sensitive. This is crucial, because otherwise stomach acid would simply wipe out all the expensive, healthy bacteria in this product.<br /><br />5. This product is vegan.<br /><br />6. According to the website for this company, Etana Beauty is located in Orange, California. Their extremely bare-bones website states that they primarily deal in cosmetics, and yet there are only two products listed for sale on their site, this one and a combo supplement of D3 + K2. There is no information on the company itself other than their address, phone number and email. While they are on Facebook and YouTube, the company is not listed with the Better Business Bureau or Dun & Bradstreet. There is no way to know for sure where and how their products are manufactured just looking at their website. However, I did find one useful clue in the description of this product—the “NGProbiome® delivery technology” for the enteric coating of these capsules—that ultimately led me to the actual manufacturer of this product. The company that created this “technology” is Natura-Genics Labs (NGL). NGL is listed with Dun & Bradstreet, but it is not listed with the Better Business Bureau. NGL specialize in probiotics. It is located in Chino, California and advertises itself as a source for any small, nutraceutical company, such as Etana Beauty, to purchase probiotics from NGL. This involves NGL putting that company’s name on the product label. NGL has scientists on staff and appears to manufacture all its probiotics at their facility in California. They are a member of the Natural Products Association, and they are certified CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers), GMP, USDA organic, Kosher, and non-GMO. The company websites states it has been in business for two decades. It is listed as a government contractor on the USA Opps website, under the categories of Medicinal and Botanical Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical Preparation Manufacturing, and Miscellaneous Food Manufacturing.<br /><br />CONS OF THIS PRODUCT<br /><br />1. Natura-Genics, Inc. was sued in July, 2016, by the Environmental Research Center, as Green Wealth, Inc. dba Natura-Genics, pursuant to alleged violation of California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 AKA Proposition 65, for non-permissible amounts of lead in all of their products. Like many other food and supplement products manufactured in California, they were required to put a warning label on all their products. It wasn’t clear from the court filing exactly how much lead the products supposedly contain or what the source of the lead might be.<br /><br />AN ALTERNATIVE TO EXPENSIVE PROBIOTICS LIKE THIS ONE<br /><br />Hundreds of scientific studies (see: Tomova, Glick-Bauer, and Salonen below) have revealed that the most powerful way one can enhance the beneficial bacteria in the colon is not by taking a supplement such as this one. It is to avoid animal products and become a vegan, or at the very least a vegetarian. Animal products, especially red meat, have a well documented toxic effect on the colon, in particular, increasing the risk of colon cancer. (See Aykan and Vulcan below.) In addition, non-organic meat products are laced with antibiotics, which act to kill off the beneficial flora in the colon. (See Martin below.) In contrast, a diet filled with an abundance of high-fiber fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes has an extremely healthy impact on the colon.<br /><br />The purpose of taking probiotics is to, hopefully, promote the healthy functioning of beneficial bacteria within the colon, which are collectively called the “microbiome” or “microbiota” or “microflora.” The microflora in the colon have a primary task of fermentation, which is the enzymatic decomposition and utilization of carbohydrates, particularly dietary fiber. (See Williams below.) During the process of fermenting fiber, these microflora release short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), such as acetate, propionate, and butyrate, and also bacteriocins. (See Silva below.) SCFA serve multiple important functions: (a) They are a major source of energy for colon cells. (b) Along with the above mentioned bacteriocins, they provide an antibacterial function, which stabilizes the normal, healthy microflora population in the colon by preventing the implantation of pathogens in the walls of the colon. (c) They play a key role in the regulation of the neuro-immuno-endocrine system. Research has indicated that the nervous system, immune system, and endocrine system are anatomically and functionally interconnected. What affects one system also affects the other two when their homeostasis (a healthy state of stability and proper function) is disturbed by inflammation, stress, or infection. When the microflora in the colon are operating at peak efficiency, producing adequate SCFA, then the healthy functioning of the nervous system, immune system, and endocrine system is enhanced. But in the reverse, if the microflora in the colon are not efficiently producing SCFA, then those three crucial systems in the body are negatively impacted.<br /><br />EXPLANATION OF PROBIOTICS INCLUDED IN THIS SUPPLEMENT<br /><br />Propionibacterium freudenreichii: This bacterium is typically used in the production of cheese, in particular Swiss cheese. It is commonly found in dairy products and has also been extracted from soil. There has been some recent scientific research into its use in probiotics.<br /><br />Lactobacillus acidophilus (L. Acidophilus). This beneficial bacteria creates lactic acid by breaking down carbohydrates, particularly the lactose in milk. Lactobacilli grow well in milk and foods made from milk. This bacteria serves much the same function as the enzyme lactase.<br /><br />Lactobacillus paracasei (L. paracasei): During the past decade, research has indicated that L. paracasei is a bacterium that has probiotic properties, mainly due to the fact that it is a normal constituent of the human gut microbiota. Researchers have found it useful in treating ulcerative colitis, leaky gut, inflammation, and dementia.<br /><br />Bifidobacterium lactis (B. lactis). Bifidobacterium lactis and Bifidobacterium animalis used to be scientifically designated as two distinct species. Presently, however, both are considered to be B. animalis. Currently, probiotic companies have not caught up with this development and are still listing this bacterium as B. lactis on their product labels.<br /><br />RESEARCH<br /><br />Ahmed, Z., et al. Lactobacillus acidophilus bacteriocin, from production to their application: An overview. African J. Biotechnol. 2010;9(20).<br /><br />Aykan, N. Red Meat and Colorectal Cancer. Oncol Rev. 2015 Feb 10;9(1):288.<br /><br />do Carmo, F., et al. Propionibacterium freudenreichii surface protein SlpB is involved in adhesion to intestinal HT-29 cells. Front. Microbiol. 2017 Jun 8; 8:1033.<br /><br />Durchschein, F., et al.  (2016). Diet therapy for inflammatory bowel diseases: the established and the new. World J Gastroenterol. 2016 Feb 21;22(7):2179–94.<br /><br />Glick-Bauer, M., et al. The health advantage of a vegan diet: exploring the gut microbiota connection. Nutrients. 2014;(6):4822–38.<br /><br />Kapoor, D., et al. Drug Delivery Systems, Chapter 14 Coating Technologies in Pharmaceutical Product Development, in Advances in Pharmaceutical Product Development and Research. 2020;14:665-719.<br /><br />Long, M., et al. Drug Release Test Methods for Enteric Coated Products, Chapter 14 Dissolution Testing of Solid Products, in Developing Solid Oral Dosage Forms. 2009;14(4.1):319-340.<br /><br />Martin, O., et al. Antibiotic suppression of intestinal microbiota reduces heme-induced lipoperoxidation associated with colon carcinogenesis in rats. Nutr Cancer. 2015;67(1):119-125.<br /><br />Miller, L., et al. Effect of Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis HN019 on cellular immune function in healthy elderly subjects: systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrients. 2017;9(3):191.<br /><br />Salonen, A., et al. Impact of diet on human intestinal microbiota and health. Annu Rev Food Sci Technol. 2014; (5):239–62.<br /><br />Silva, Y., et al. The Role of Short-Chain Fatty Acids From Gut Microbiota in Gut-Brain Communication. Front. Endocrinol. 2020 Jan 31.<br /><br />Tomova, A., et al. The Effects of Vegetarian and Vegan Diets on Gut Microbiota. Front. Nutr. 2019 Apr 17.<br /><br />Vulcan, A., et al. Intake of different types of red meat, poultry, and fish and incident colorectal cancer in women and men: results from the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study. Food Nutr Res. 2017 Jul 18;61(1):1341810.<br /><br />Williams, B. Gut Fermentation of Dietary Fibres: Physico-Chemistry of Plant Cell Walls and Implications for Health. Int J Mol Sci. 2017 Oct; 18(10): 2203.
Rating: 4 stars