We are excited to announce the launch of a new section in the EFI newsletter, titled “Ask the Expert.” Each month, we will feature a question and answer from our FAQ page that aligns with the newsletter’s theme.

If you have any questions about our product line, its use, or effectiveness, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@essentialformulas.com. A team member will respond directly to you. Additionally, your inquiry may be featured in a future newsletter to help other retailers.

Q. I hear a lot about CFUs and that more probiotics are better. I notice that Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics doesn’t contain billions of CFUs. How is it effective?

A. CFU refers to Colony-Forming Unit. It is an estimate of the number of viable bacteria in a sample. The majority of probiotic supplements on the market today advertise the number of “bacteria per dose” in their products (usually upwards of 10 billion or more) as a good thing. But take a step back and think about this.

The human gastrointestinal tract is a remarkably diverse and complex environment. For explanatory purposes, let’s compare the human GI tract to a large metropolitan city. To run efficiently, a city needs to have police and fire departments, garbage disposal services, city maintenance, schools and teachers, grocery stores, restaurants, lawyers, and hundreds of other types of workers, ranging from janitors to veterinarians. Essentially, a city requires a diverse range of citizens with various skills, talents, goods, and services to function effectively. The same applies to the human gut – A healthy microbiome contains hundreds to thousands of strains of probiotic bacteria, all with unique and varied functions. Therefore, when a company states, “Our probiotic contains 20 or 30 billion CFU,” it is essential to note that these are high doses of only one or a few probiotic strains contained within the product.

If we look back to the “city analogy”, supplementing with a very high dose of only a few strains is similar to suddenly having your city flooded with thousands of electricians, or thousands of teachers. It creates an imbalance, leading to overpopulation, and overlooks the importance and necessity of all the other types of bacteria (workers) that are essential for your city to function correctly.

What the human GI tract needs is a probiotic supplement that contains numerous types of live probiotic strains, but more importantly, it should also contain prebiotics and probiotics. These are effective in supporting the growth and increase of your existing probiotic bacteria. Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics is the only probiotic that provides 13 live probiotic strains, along with both prebiotics and postbiotics. Again, you can’t just introduce thousands of new workers (bacteria); you also need to help your existing city workers flourish.