Hello Everyone-
I live in America, and have recently become interested in our gut microbiomes. I don’t know what things are like in Japan, but in America, we have some issues with our guts. Not very diverse. We have the big meat industry which pumps antibiotics into meat, big healthcare which pumps antibiotics into us, speedy lifestyles where we end up eating ultra processed pre-packaged foods or fast food, and then the germaphobia, where we sanitize and kill off all of the germs and bacteria in our living spaces and fear eating off of each other’s foods and drinking off one another. I’m not here to say that some of these things aren’t good or bad, just reflecting on why I think we’ve destroyed our gut diversity. For example, people in indigenous tribes in the Amazon had their fecal matter tested, and their gut microbiomes were far more diverse, and they experience way less obesity, diabetes, and many other ailments.
If you are Japanese or have lived in Japan for some time, you probably already know these things. Because probiotics aren’t regulated in the US in any meaningful way, I did some online research. Similar to how there are ingredients in skincare products and foods that have been banned for years in the EU and some Asian countries, I thought I would look into probiotic regulations in other countries to see if I can order probiotics from a company in that country and have them delivered to me here in the US.
While I didn’t find any specific brands, I did find that there seems to be some regulations around probiotics in Japan, and that Japanese culture has accepted the use of probiotics as a helpful aid to having a diverse gut microbiome for some time now. So I have some questions if you don’t mind:
Are there supplement probiotics in your country, or is it mostly in food like yogurts? If there are both, which do you utilize more? Do you use both? Or just one or the other?
Are both food and supplement probiotics (if applicable) regulated?
Do you know what the regulations are? I had a GI doctor tell me that there should be at least 5 strains of bacteria in it for it to be useful for your body. Do they regulate which bacteria strains are used? The amount of different strains? The amount or maximum amount of certain strains?
Do any of you have any interesting or useful information that I may not already know about use of probiotics and how microbiomes in the gut affect populations and individuals? Thoughts on the US regulatory system vs that in Japan?
And finally, brand recommendations? I have kids who I would also like to take probiotics. I am weary of buying from the US. Our supplement industry isn’t regulated at all. Some of the supplements, when tested, didn’t even have the supplement in it that was being advertised. Also, just like with anything else, I’m sure too many strains of bacteria or the wrong ones could have a negative impact on your body. And there is no medical supervision or guidance that the companies have to follow to produce these probiotics and supplements. A neonatal baby recently died in the NICU because of the probiotic they were given by the hospital staff, and it was a brand that advertises for neonatal intensive care units specifically. Turns out it had a bacteria in it that caused the baby to develop sepsis. I am open to brands that are not only from Japan as well.
Thanks for your time. I hope that this post is appropriate here.
by FemHierophant