Greetings

Toshiya Satoyama, President
NPO Research Institute of Fucoidan

For more than 20 years since our establishment in 2003, we, The NPO Research Institute of Fucoidan, have been providing a variety of information about fucoidan based on the clinical data from hospitals associated with our research institute and the research data from endowed courses at Kyushu University.
The average life span of Japanese people has continued to extend every year. Currently, the life expectancy for men is roughly 81.41 years and 87.45 years for women. Japan has become one of the leading longevity countries in the world. This trend is expected to be continued in the future.
In 2000, WHO (World Health Organization) proposed "Healthy Life Expectancy". In this context, Healthy Life refers to the period during which one can live a healthy and independent life both mentally and physically. In other words, an important challenge for us is to find a way as to how we can extend the healthy life expectancy up to the average life expectancy, rather than simply focusing on the extension of the current average life expectancy.
In Japan, the healthy life expectancy is approximately 72.68 years for men, and 75.38 years for women. It means that the difference between the average life expectancy and the healthy life expectancy is, approximately 9 years for men, and 12 years for women. During these periods, people are less healthy with some restrictions on daily life. ※ 1
Besides, the number of people aged 65 and over, who require long-term nursing care, is increasing each year. According to the report, approximately 2.2 million men and 4.7 million women require medical and nursing care. Among them, approximately 1.5million people are diagnosed with the stage 4 or 5, which generally correspond to being bedridden. Thus, one of our roles is to contribute to the health of people so as to prevent them from being bedridden and live happily and longer. ※ 2
We have advocated the keywords "Extension of Healthy Life Expectancy" and "Preventive Medicine" through the activities of Research Institute of Fucoidan. People themselves need to be responsible for their own health.
It has been clearly proved in the basic research that fucoidan has an ability to activate tumor immunity. There are a number of clinical cases which demonstrated reductions of tumor lesions, maintenance of immune functions as well as mitigation of side effects of anti-cancer drugs and radiation therapy, after the patients were treated with only fucoidan, or with a combination of fucoidan and common cancer treatment.
In addition, anti-tumor immunity is deeply related to suppression of allergy and defense of viral infection. Therefore, fucoidan is expected to be applied in a wide range of areas. Fucoidan is indigestible, water-soluble dietary fiber with excellent antioxidant effect. We believe that fucoidan is a food material that has effective functionality for maintaining health and an ability to improve the blood properties and decrease serum lipids.
We are committed to conducting analysis well and taking empirical data to understand the functions of fucoidan. Our ultimate goal is to help people build a healthy life by taking advantage of fucoidan's immune functions.