This product is manufactured in an allergen-free facility with regard to the following:
None of the eight major allergens or their derivatives are present: milk, egg, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, soy or wheat.
We do not use magnesium stearate. We use vegetable sourced stearic acid. Some people claim they are identical. They are not. The simplest difference to understand is that magnesium stearate contains magnesium (Mg(C18H35O2)2). Vegetable stearate does not (C18H36O2). It is required as a flow agent whenever you send a powder with any tendency to stick through either a tableting or encapsulation machine. Otherwise the powder gums up the works and jams the equipment. Stearic acid is an essential saturated fatty acid that is found in all vegetable, seed, nut, and animal oils. Although stearic acid can be derived from several sources, including bovine, the most common source in better quality nutritional supplements is vegetable stearic acid primarily from coconut and palm oils. Incidentally, the amount of stearic acid in a typical tablet or capsule is much less than what you'll find in a salad with olive oil and vinegar dressing. (Olive oil is a source of stearic acid.)
It's probably best to take them separately. We asked Jon Barron about this, and he said that he takes his evening dose of pHi-Zymes about a half hour before bed on an empty stomach. He then takes his Probiotics a half hour later, just before bed. That allows the pHi-Zymes time to clear the stomach before the Probiotics enter.
If probiotics were destroyed unless encapsulated, then for all the centuries people who ate probiotic rich foods such as yogurt and cabbage would have received no benefit since those probiotics would have been destroyed too. But we know that's not true and that eating probiotic rich foods builds beneficial bacteria throughout the intestinal tract. Bottom line: probiotics make it through the stomach quite nicely.
No clinical trials needed. Despite claims by some manufacturers, probiotics have survived stomach acid for millennia. How else did people receive the benefit of eating yogurt, sauerkraut, and other fermented food before there were probiotic supplements? Expiration dates have nothing to do with product safety. The dates allow for a substantial margin for products in terms of efficacy. That margin varies depending on the type of product, and depending on how the product is stored. Probiotics have the shortest margin and should be consumed within 30 days of the expiration date, 60 days if kept refrigerated.
No, the probiotics do not contain any dairy.
Yes, all of our strains include their all-important supernatant -- the medium the culture was grown in. The supernatant, contains a multitude of beneficial byproducts of the growth process, including: vitamins, enzymes, antioxidants, and immune boosters.
Our Probiotic Formula is now stabilized to maintain full potency until the best by date listed on the bottom of the bottle if refrigerated. To ensure the potency, we manufacture our Probiotics in small batches and the bottles are shipped to our fulfillment center in a refrigerated truck. Once they arrive at our fulfillment center, the bottles are put in a freezer until they are shipped out to ensure that they are at maximum potency on the day we ship it to you. We highly recommend using Express delivery when possible for any order that contains the Probiotics during the warmer months (generally, July 1- October 1) to maintain that potency. In non-summer months, the few days in transport will not significantly affect potency as long as you refrigerate the product upon receiving it.
CFU stands for “colony forming units” , and the way probiotic potency is measured.
Hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) is a derivative of cellulose with both water solubility and organic solubility.