The SCIENCE of FUCOIDAN
Characteristics of GOOD Fucoidan Supplements
When we examine the Fucoidan products that are available in the market, it is rather difficult to know which one to choose or what specifications to look for before purchasing. Price is different for all of the brands and the explanation given is very limited. Even many of Supplement Facts do not truly specify the Fucoidan purity and concentration. Under this circumstance, how can we choose the right Fucoidan supplement?
Here are tips to find a good Fucoidan product.
1. Fucoidan’s purity level needs to be adequate.
There are products that claim to contain 60%, 80% or 100% pure Fucoidan. What do these percentages mean? Well, it depends. Sometimes they just claim that it is 100% natural and other times that it contains 80% Fucoidan per weight and not precisely based on purity. Until now, there is no official definition for Fucoidan. Fucoidan does not refer to a single molecule or compound. Instead, it refers to the many compounds (sugars) that are bonded together and sulfated to form the Fucoidan polysaccharide complex.
The main components in Fucoidan include the monosaccharides, fucose, galactose, xylose, mannose, uronic acid, glucuronic acid and sulfated groups. Still, there is no official method established to measure the total Fucoidan content. Thus, each company that produces their own Fucoidan brand can claim their purity based on their own standards. So far, the best suggested method to calculate the Fucoidan amount is by combining the percent of the total carbohydrates, sulfate, cations and acetylation.
NatureMedic® Fucoidan is the best product that utilizes Japan’s Okinawa Mozuku Fucoidan and Mekabu Fucoidan with approximately 85% purity. The Mekabu Fucoidan is Certified Organic from Australia. It is also suggested that if you are unsure of what you are buying, you could consider requesting a copy of their Certificate of Analysis to verify that the Fucoidan being claimed is the same as the one being analyzed.
2. Fucoidan content has to be high.
Even when a product contains 85% Fucoidan, it is necessary to check the actual grams of the Fucoidan that is included in each serving size. For example, even when a product utilizes 85% Fucoidan, it is not possible to refer that product as a good Fucoidan product if the content of a capsule is very low.
3. Are the supplements that contain Fucoidan from one type of brown seaweed considered good products?
This is not necessarily true. From what is known until now, the molecular structure and activity of Fucoidan varies depending on the type of brown algae used to extract it. Meanwhile, the Fucoidan extracted from different species has different functions.
For instance, there is a significant amount of sulfated groups in Fucoidan from Mekabu (Wakame). Results of numerous experiments and studies demonstrated that although this type of Mekabu Fucoidan offers effects that help to enhance health, other Fucoidan extracts such as Mozuku Fucoidan offers other type of positive health benefits.
The results from the studies conducted to this day seem to indicate that the unique and complex combination structure of each of the Fucoidan engage through a synergistic interaction. Likewise, products that are combined with Mekabu Fucoidan and Mozuku Fucoidan just like ones in NatureMedic® Fucoidan are known to help enhance your health in a relatively broader and positively way.
4. Can a product be considered a good product just because it contains Fucoidan?
Fucoidan is a great ingredient that help support Quality of Life, and it has been supported by numerous researches and papers as well as by many people who experienced Fucoidan. However, there are some who feel as if something is lacking in Fucoidan-only formulation, and there also have been many requests for an advanced formulation by adding other great ingredients to Fucoidan. Among premium ingredients, a compound like AHCC that has many data on the clinical studies administered on actual people can be an option to be added to Fucoidan. Even though AHCC is the same polysaccharide as Fucoidan, it has health related benefits that are not offered by Fucoidan. By mixing Fucoidan with an ingredient such as AHCC that can supplement Fucoidan, the formulation could provide benefits of both Fucoidan and AHCC together which could be better than Fucoidan-only product.
