Beware of Microscopic Monsters!
What you can’t see can hurt you!
Jon and Sue Collins and their four children ranging in age from 6 to 15 are a healthy small town Nebraska family. Grandma Collins, Jon’s widowed mother who shares their home, is also healthy at the age of 67. But suddenly last Summer something happened that brought sickness and suffering to the whole family. They all experienced a scourge of fever, severe stomach discomfort with abdominal cramps, seemingly endless watery diarrhea and almost total loss of appetite for food.
Family physician “Dr. Jack” was consulted. He ordered Grandma to the hospital immediately and wrote antibiotic prescriptions for the rest of the family. Fortunately all recovered and were pretty much back to normal a week later. And you may be sure it was a learning experience for the entire Collins family. Dr. Jack diagnosed the problem as an attack of villain bacteria known as salmonella enteritidis – more commonly known simply as salmonella. Speculation about the source settled on either contaminated eggs or chicken.
Salmonella bacteria are by no means the only villains. Hundreds of thousands of American families experience bacterial and viral assaults each year. The four major types of disease-causing infectious agents, generally called germs, are bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa. By far the most persistent and threatening to human health are bacteria and viruses. Let’s get acquainted with them, observing what they are, how they attack, how your immune system attempts to defend you from them, and how to prevent infection by them.
The World of Germs
It’s an invisible world literally full of ultra-tiny entities that fill every environment of your life, day and night, from your first breath on Planet Earth to your last. Although certain research scientists must create germ-free environments in order to conduct their experiments, most of us swim in a sea of germs – little villains that fill air, earth, food and water, seeking always their opportunity to attack our body and damage our health.
Bacteria are microscopic single-celled living organisms that get their nutrients from their environment. Their environment may be your food, your kitchen counter, your cutting board, your money, your door knob, your nose, your lungs or your intestinal tract. There are both good and bad bacteria. The good bacteria, such as those found in certain foods such as yogurt and kefir, reside in your intestinal tract. They are your friends because digestion could not occur without them. Without their faithful service you would die. In fact, they work hard for you, because within your intestinal tract they must at all times struggle for predominance over millions of destructive “bad” bacteria.
Some of the bad bacteria are those that cause tetanus, typhoid, pneumonia, septicemia (blood poisoning), strep throat and cholera. They are lurking opportunists that can enter your body from the air, from water, from contaminated food or through cuts and wounds. Some bacteria are more dangerous than others, and the result of exposure to them may be anything from no serious illness to death. They pose the greatest danger to people with weaker immune systems such as young children and the elderly.
Viruses are much smaller than bacteria – so tiny that over a million of them can occupy the head of a common pin. A virus is an ultra-tiny bit of DNA inside a protein coat. Its strategy is to penetrate a human cell, steal its machinery and energy, and multiply through that cell almost as if the host cell was a ready-made incubator. Viruses cover a broad spectrum in terms of their ability to inflict damage. For example, the “AIDS Virus” (HIV- Human Immunodeficiancy Virus), is a type of virus called a retrovirus, and it’s a death-dealing villain that is infecting an estimated 30 million Africans.
Various viruses cause common cold, chicken pox, hepatitis A and B, rabies, mumps, polio, measles, smallpox, influenza and some kinds of pneumonia. The viral villains can enter the body in a variety of ways – through the air from coughing, from food or water, from insect bites, needles, body fluids, etc. Some viruses, such as HIV, mutate (change) at such a rapid rate that scientists have experienced great difficulty in their attempt to find effective countermeasures against them.
How to Prevent Infection
Knowing how exploitive, pernicious, opportunistic and downright dangerous so many bacteria and viruses can be, it makes sense to take reasonable steps to protect yourself and your family from infection by them. Protective measures will largely free you from worry. Such caution will assure a safer, more healthful lifestyle for yourself, your family members, and friends. You’ll want to share freely with others concerning the crucial importance of Cleanliness, Separation of foods, proper Cooking and Refrigeration.
CLEANLINESS. Train yourself, and form a habit of life, to practice cleanliness at each step of the food handling and preparation process. Practice it when you go shopping for food, when you arrive back home, when storing the food, when preparing it for the table, and when saving leftovers. Keep antibacterial liquid soap close by your kitchen sink and use it liberally. Wash your hands, utensils and food preparation surfaces with hot soapy water before and after preparing food. Wash fruit and vegetable surfaces thoroughly.
Do not place uncooked chicken, turkey or any meat, eggs or seafood on your sideboard or on a cutting board, then use that same surface for other food preparation without first washing that very same area with hot, soapy anti-bacterial liquid soap. As an extra precaution, use a disinfectant cleaner or a mixture of bleach and water on food preparation surfaces – and hot anti-bacterial soapy water on all surfaces of your hands. That’s the way to defeat the tiny villains before they can launch their attack on your body.
SEPARATION. Always separate any food that might possibly be contaminated with germs from other foods that are ready to be eaten. If you have bought chicken or ground beef wrapped in plastic, remember that your hands could have picked up some bad germs even when removing the wrapped meat from your shopping bag in your kitchen. Some leakage could have occurred, and some of it could have been transferred to your hand or hands. Even if no leakage of juices had occurred, that package of meat might have been positioned tightly against another package that was leaking back there in the refrigerated display counter of that supermarket. Don’t take careless chances, because your family’s health and your own health is at stake! If there is the slightest chance that one food is contaminated, keep it separate from all other foods.
COOKING. Be sure to cook food – especially poultry and meats – through to an internal temperature that will assure the destruction of villain germs. Cook eggs until yolk and white are firm, and egg dishes to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Use a food thermometer that will penetrate flesh foods to the depths in order to assure a safe temperature. Internal temperature of adequately cooked beef, pork and lamb must be 160 degrees Fahrenheit, and of chicken and turkey 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook fin fish to 145. This will assure that the terrible e-coli bacteria, which afflicts about 73,000 Americans annually and imposes scores of deaths, will be rendered harmless.
REFRIGERATION. Refrigerate or freeze perishables, prepared foods and leftovers within two hours. Make sure the refrigerator is set at no higher than 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and that your freezer unit is set at zero degrees Fahrenheit.
Summing it Up
These simple precautions would have spared the Jon and Sue Collins family all the pain, misery and cost of sickness and a lost week of life. Germ-caused diseases can be frightening, but there’s no reason to live in fear if you take the precautions that remove the reason for fear. To recap the crucial points, observe the following:
● Keep all food preparation surfaces clean with anti-bacterial liquid soap.
● Always keep foods that are most likely to be contaminated from other foods.
● Cook all flesh foods to adequate internal temperatures to assure safety.
● Refrigerate or freeze perishables and leftovers properly and promptly
Protect your family and yourself, share the principles of safe shopping, food preparation, cooking and refrigeration with others, and enjoy the good life.
Dr. H. Edward Rowe
Mister GreenGenes Nutrition Center
Green Valley, Nevada
702-450-2100
Germs and Your Immune System
Although your body is under attack by vicious predators day and night throughout your life, you are equipped with elaborate and normally effective defenses designed to fight off the villain germs. Your body’s defense capability is called your Immune System, and it is a functioning miracle. Let’s look at some of the main actors that comprise your immune system and see how they operate.
Your Phagocytes. Their name literally means “giant eaters.” They are faithful and valiant sentries that stand guard in your bloodstream and in all the tissues of your body. Produced in your bone marrow, they grow in size and wander out through your bloodstream. Always on the alert for invading villains who would impose illness on your body, they detect them, attack them, gobble up and destroy them. Thank God for your Phagocytes, also called your Macrophage Cells. They are your first line of defense.
Your T Cells. Referred to as T Lymphocytes, and also as White Blood Cells, they are processed through your thymus gland located at the base of your neck. With the help of your Macrophage Cells, they recognize the precise identity of invading villains by deciphering the combination of molecules on their surfaces. Having identified the invaders, they mobilize a massive counterattack. A sub-set of the T Cells is called the T Helper Cells. They send out a chemically-conveyed call for reinforcements. More Macrophages swarm to the battle and join the fight. The battle rages on with incredible fury.
Your Natural Killer Cells. These guys are a mysterious but powerful volunteer force. They seem to come out of nowhere and appear on the scene of battle ready for action. They are like highly effective “shock troops” rushing to the aid of your Macrophages and T Lymphocytes. Their welcome role is to help turn the tide of battle against the attackers.
Your B Cells and Antibodies. These amazing cells respond to the call to action, begin reproducing rapidly and differentiate into Plasma Cells, which produce counterattacking molecules called Antibodies. Your Antibodies are precisely programmed to recognize the invading bandits and to counterattack them in force. If your immune defenses are operating normally and effectively, the invaders will be overwhelmed and defeated. It is then the function of your Macrophages to clean up the litter of battle – the bits and pieces of the defeated enemy – and expel them from your bloodstream.
Your Memory Cells. After the invaders have been defeated, the defenders will remain in your bloodstream to guard your body against re-infection. The presence of these defenders, your body’s “National Guard,” is to remember the enemy who once invaded, and to smash him if he ever again pokes his nose through the doorway of your bloodstream. This explains why you don’t contract childhood diseases repeatedly. You have become immune to them.
Although your immune system is amazingly organized, superbly coordinated and highly effective, it can become overwhelmed so that you’ll become vulnerable to disease. Excessive prolonged stress, exposure to environmental toxins, lack of rest, family feuding and a shabby junk food diet can cripple your defenses. The villain germs will prevail and you’ll end up sick or, in more serious cases, dead. You’ll be very wise to take control of your precious life. Manage your body! Adopt healthy patterns and habits. Take immune-boosting natural foods and supplements, and enjoy a long, happy and fruitful life. Remember, you are worth it!
Dr. H. Edward Rowe
Mister GreenGenes Nutrition Center
Green Valley, Nevada
702-450-2100
The Human Digestive System
Understanding the basics
The digestive system is a series of connected organs and systems the purpose of which is to break down (“digest”) the food we eat. Food is made up of large, complex molecules which the digestive system breaks down into smaller, simple molecules that can be absorbed into the bloodstream. The simple molecules travel through the bloodstream to all of the body's cells, which use them for growth, repair, replacement and energy.
All humans and animals have a digestive system, a feature that distinguishes them from plants. Human beings must take in food in the form of organic matter, such as plants or animal flesh.
Digestion involves two phases
The two phases are mechanical and chemical.
In the mechanical phase, teeth or other structures physically break down large pieces of food into smaller pieces. In the chemical phase, digestive chemicals called enzymes break apart individual molecules of food to yield molecules that can be absorbed and distributed throughout the body for cell growth and repair. Digestive enzymes are produced and released by glands in the body and from the raw plants we eat.
The digestive system of most humans and animals consists mainly of a long, continuous tube called the alimentary canal, or digestive tract. This canal has a mouth at one end, through which food is taken in, and an anus at the other end, through which digestive wastes are excreted. Muscles in the walls of the alimentary canal move the food along. Most digestive organs are part of the alimentary canal. However, two accessory digestive organs, the liver and pancreas, are located outside the alimentary canal. These organs contribute to chemical digestion by releasing digestive juices into the canal through tubes called ducts.
Function of the Liver
The liver is responsible for the production of bile, which is stored in the gallbladder and released when required for the digestion of fats. The liver stores glucose in the form of glycogen, which is converted back to glucose again when needed for energy. It also plays an important role in the metabolism of protein and fats. It stores vitamins A, D, K, B12 and folate and synthesizes blood-clotting factors.
The liver also functions as a detoxifier, breaking down or transforming substances like ammonia, metabolic waste, drugs, alcohol and chemicals, so that they can be excreted. These may also be referred to as "xenobiotic" chemicals.
If we examine the liver under a microscope, we will see rows of liver cells separated by spaces which act like a filter or sieve, through which the blood stream flows. The liver filter is designed to remove toxic matter such as dead cells, microorganisms, chemicals, drugs and particulate debris from the blood stream.
The liver filter is called the sinusoidal system, and contains specialized cells known as Kupffer cells, which ingest and break down toxic matter. The liver filter can remove a wide range of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites from the blood stream, which is highly desirable, as we certainly do not want these dangerous enemies building up in the blood stream and invading the deeper parts of the body.
Infections with parasites often come from the contaminated water supplies found in large cities, and indeed other dangerous organisms may find their way into your intestines and blood stream from these sources. This can cause chronic infections and poor health, so it is important to protect your liver from overload with these microorganisms.
To be safe, boil your water for at least 5 minutes, or drink only bottled water that has been filtered and sterilized. High loads of unhealthy microorganisms can also come from eating foods that are prepared in conditions of poor hygiene by persons who are carrying bacteria, viruses or parasites on their skin. Foods, especially meats that are not fresh or are preserved, also contain a higher bacterial load, which will overwork the liver filter if they are eaten regularly.
Recently it has become very fashionable for people to detoxify their bodies by various means, such as fasting or cleansing the bowels with fiber mixtures. Fasting can by its extreme nature, only be a temporary method of cleansing the body of waste products, and for many people it causes an excessively rapid release of toxins which can cause unpleasant, acute symptoms.
The liver filter, like any filter, needs to be cleansed regularly, and it is much easier and safer to do it every day. This is easily and pleasantly achieved by adopting a daily eating pattern that maintains the liver filter in a healthy, clean state.
Although it is important to keep the intestines moving regularly and to sweep their walls with high fiber and living foods, it is important to remember that the bowels are really a channel of elimination and not a cleansing organ per se. In other words, the bowels cannot cleanse, filter or remove toxic wastes from the blood stream.
The liver is located in the upper right-hand portion of the abdominal cavity, beneath the diaphragm and on top of the stomach, right kidney, and intestines. Shaped like a cone, the liver is a dark reddish-brown organ that weighs about three pounds.
There are two distinct sources that supply blood to the liver, including:
The liver holds about one pint (13 percent) of the body’s blood supply at any given moment.
The liver consists of two main lobes, both of which are made up of thousands of lobules. These lobules are connected to small ducts that connect with larger ducts to ultimately form the hepatic duct. The hepatic duct transports the bile produced by the liver cells to the gallbladder and duodenum (the first part of the small intestine).
More About the Liver
The liver is the largest internal organ of the human body. The liver, as part of the digestive system, performs more than 500 different functions, all of which are essential to life. Its amazing functions include helping the body to digest fats, storing reserves of nutrients, filtering poisons and wastes from the blood, synthesizing a variety of proteins, and regulating the levels of many chemicals found in the bloodstream.
The liver is unique among the body vital organs in that it can regenerate, or grow back, cells that have been destroyed by some short-term injury or disease. But if the liver is damaged repeatedly over a long period of time, it may undergo irreversible changes that permanently interfere with its ability to function properly.
The liver regulates most chemical levels in the blood and excretes a product called "bile," which helps carry away waste products from the liver. All the blood leaving the stomach and intestines passes through the liver. The liver processes this blood and breaks down the nutrients and drugs into forms that are easier to use by the rest of the body. More than 500 vital functions have been identified with the liver. Some of the better-known functions include the following:
When the liver has broken down harmful substances, its by-products are excreted into the bile or blood. Bile by-products enter the intestine and ultimately leave the body in the feces. Blood by-products are filtered out by the kidneys, and leave the body in the form of urine.
Despite its many complex functions, the liver is relatively simple in structure. It consists of two main lobes, left and right, which overlap slightly. The right lobe has two smaller lobes attached to it, called the quadrate and caudate lobes.
Each lobe contains many thousands of units called lobules that are the building blocks of the liver. Lobules are six-sided structures, each about 1 mm (0.04 in) across. A tiny vein runs through the center of each lobule and eventually drains into the hepatic vein, which carries blood out of the liver.
Hundreds of cube-shaped liver cells, called hepatocytes, are arranged around the lobule's central vein in a radiating pattern. On the outside surface of each lobule are small veins, ducts, and arteries that carry fluids to and from the lobules. As the liver does its work, nutrients are collected, wastes are removed, and chemical substances are released into the body through these vessels.
Between 250 and 1000 milliliters of bile are produced each day. The most important constituents of bile are: water, bile salts, cholesterol, and phospholipids. Between meals, the bile is stored in the gallbladder, which contracts once or twice as food is taken. This causes the bile to enter the duodenum via the common bile duct. 80% to 90% of the bile acids are later reabsorbed by the small intestine and re-enter the liver via the bloodstream (portal system). Here they become available once more for transfer into the gallbladder (entero-hepatic circulation).
The bile acids possess a number of important metabolic functions:
a) Breakdown of fat
b) The transport of substances not soluble in water (e.g. cholesterol, the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, K),
c) The regulation of cholesterol metabolism,
d) Stimulation of intestinal movement,
e) Activation of the pancreatic fluid (lipase) in the intestine
f) Increasing the excretion of sodium and water from the large intestine. Bile also helps transport numerous substances,including those occurring naturally in the body, as well as those which do not. Bile pigments such as bilirubin, for example, waste products of the red blood corpuscles, are eliminated with the bile fluid. Bile also removes numerous drugs from the body.
Pear-shaped, the gallbladder measures ca. 8 cm by 3 cm and is located under the right lobe of the liver. It acts as a reservoir for the bile produced daily in the liver.
Rarely does anyone think about the liver, but it is a powerful organ and is easily improved if treated properly. Indeed the simplest and most effective way to cleanse the blood stream and thus take the load off the immune system is by improving liver function.
The Liver is a fundamental organ for attention by holistic practitioners who takes a naturopathic approach. The Liver is the center of all metabolic processes and its sluggishness is found to underlie the many disorders related to poor digestive function.
This is why so many treatments include remedial and nutritional liver herbs. The liver has been found to be the most stressed organ an the origin of the pathogenic causal chain in the majority of cases.
The Biliary System
The biliary system consists of the organs and ducts (bile ducts, gallbladder, and associated structures) that are involved in the production and transportation of bile.
Functions of the Biliary system
The biliary system’s main function includes the following:
Bile is the greenish-yellow fluid (consisting of waste products, cholesterol, and bile salts) that is secreted by the liver cells to perform two primary functions, including:
Bile salt is the actual component which helps break down and absorb fats. Bile, which is excreted from the body with the feces, is what gives feces its dark brown color.
The Pancreas
The pancreas is an elongated, tapered organ located across the back of the abdomen, behind the stomach. The right side of the organ (called the head) is the widest part of the organ and lies in the curve of the duodenum. The tapered left side extends slightly upward (called the body of the pancreas) and ends near the spleen (called the tail).
The pancreas is made up of two types of tissue:
The endocrine tissue, which consists of the islets of Langerhan, secretes hormones into the bloodstream.
Functions of the Pancreas
The pancreas has digestive and hormonal functions:
The Gallbladder
The gallbladder serves an important digestive function. It is required to emulsify fats.
What is Emulsification?
One can easily understand this concept when washing greasy dishes. It is nearly impossible to properly clean greasy dishes without soap, as the soap emulsifies the fat so that it can be removed.
Similarly, the gallbladder stores bile and bile acids, which emulsify the fat one eats so it can be properly transported through the intestine into the blood stream.
persons who have had their gallbladder removed will need to take some form of bile salts with every meal for the rest of their life if they wish to prevent a good percentage of the good fats they eat from being flushed down the toilet.
If one does not have enough fats in the diet, his or her entire physiology will be disrupted, especially the ability to make hormones and prostaglandins.
Function of the Gall Bladder
Because fat cannot be dissolved in water, a special system exists to provide for its digestion and its absorption through the intestinal wall. Bile is an essential factor in this process, since it contains substances that allow fats to be emulsified. It also stimulates the secretion of an enzyme concerned with the breakdown of fats.
Bile is secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder until needed. When fat is eaten, this stimulates the gallbladder to contract and bile flows down the cystic duct, into the common bile duct and through the papilla of Vater into the intestine.
As well as acting as a storage vessel, the gallbladder concentrates the bile within it by removing water through its wall. Thus, if the gallbladder is removed, although bile still flows into the intestine from the liver, fat digestion may be less efficient because the bile is not concentrated.
]]>
Enzymes are proteins composed of amino acids, the basic building blocks of life, arranged in chains that spontaneously fold into three-dimensional structures. These three-dimensional structures confer specificity of function. Whereas all enzymes are proteins, not all proteins are enzymes.
Enzymes are involved in nearly all metabolic and physiological processes in the body. Thus, they are a key in the maintenance of a strong immune system, a robust cardiovascular tree, a healthy and intact central nervous system, and optimal hormonal balance in the body.
Over the next 20 years “enzyme therapy” will be the buzzword in nutrition. Enzymes will be the nutritional supplement of the future, and the way we strengthen our immune system. They are the essential biochemical units of all forms of life. They regulate everything that happens in our system. They coordinate every physical, mental, and emotional activity.
When enzyme activity slows in our body, so does our system's efficiency. Enzymes affect everything, and when enzyme activity stops, we stop. Your understanding of enzymes and enzyme therapy can have an impact on you and your family's quality of health.
The body produces its own supply of enzymes in requisite amounts, as and when they are needed. The enzymes, however, do get "used up" at rates faster than the body can replenish its supplies under a variety of conditions, such as consumption of "junk" foods or intake of medicines. In fact, with advancing years, the body loses its ability to produce sufficient amounts of enzymes to keep up the demands of the body imposed by metabolic attrition. This insufficiency is a root cause of susceptibility to chronic and age-related diseases.
Given that enzymes are required in all cells of the body to assist in chemical activity, they participate in a myriad of reactions that allow organs, tissues and glands to function optimally and thrive. If the body is imagined as an efficient chemical factory, it is the enzymes that fuel each and every reaction in that factory. As such, enzymes function as catalysts. That is, they make things work at a faster rate.
The reason enzymes are needed for bodily functions is that, in their absence, most of the physiological processes would either not take place, or would proceed at an excruciatingly slow speed. In other words, at normal body temperatures, it will be virtually impossible for the cells to perform their tasks speedily and efficiently. Enzymes initiate, maintain, accelerate, and terminate biochemical processes in the body to foster health and vitality.
Since various enzymes have unique structure, each enzyme is meant to carry out a specific task in your body. Any given enzyme is there to fulfill a definite function, and this specificity allows the body to strictly control the use of enzymes. Once activated, an enzyme will perform its specific function until it is "exhausted," or it is inhibited by another enzyme, in which case its activity is curtailed and/or stopped.
As researchers have found out after years of painstaking and laborious work, there is a good reason for this control: It prevents bodily processes from spinning out of control, which may be detrimental to health and well being.
]]>| Probiotics Enhance Health |
|
Probiotics, the bacteria that have been shown to help certain health disorders, allergies and even some forms of cancer, contain immune system-stimulating DNA, which makes them just as effective when inactivated as when consumed as live microorganisms in dairy products, say US researchers. The study, by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel, also reveals a mechanism that can be used to determine and to select which probiotic bacteria are best for patients with IBD (Intestinal Bowel Disorder). The addition of probiotic bacteria has until now been limited to dairy products such as yogurt because it was thought that they needed to be live to have any effect. Adding live bacteria to other foods would result in fermentation, changing the taste, texture and freshness on an hourly basis. But the new research suggests that the metabolic activity of probiotics is not in fact key to their protective effect. The researchers used gamma radiation to reduce the metabolic activity of probiotic bacteria to a minimum. Previous studies, using heat to inactivate the bacteria, destroyed the cellular structure and beneficial aspects. The irradiated probiotics were given to mice with experimentally induced colitis, which is similar to human IBD. The irradiated probiotics effectively improved the colitis symptoms, as did the administration of viable, 'live' bacteria to another group of mice with colitis. This indicated that inactivated probiotics were as effective as live probiotics. The scientists say that the beneficial, anti-inflammatory activities seen with the inactivated probiotics could be the product of the innate immune system, the body's instant response to invasion by pathogens. The European probiotics market is forecast to more than triple in value from €34.6 million currently to €118.5 million in 2010, according to recent statistics from Frost & Sullivan. But the market research firm also estimated that its gut health cousin, prebiotics, would be helped by much wider scope in applications, as prebiotic ingredients are easily formulated into a number of different foods, including baked goods and even drinks. The new research could however open a vast range of new application areas to probiotics too. Gut health is currently driving sales of functional foods in Europe, according to a Datamonitor report, outpacing those foods targeting consumers at risk of heart or bone diseases. In addition to studying the normal and irradiated probiotics on mice, the researchers also tested a synthetic form of bacterial DNA called immunostimulatory (ISS) oligonucleotide (ODN), a short segment of synthetic DNA with immunostimulatory properties, which mimics bacterial DNA. In a previously published paper in Gastroenterology, ISS-ODN had been found to reduce the harmful effects of experimental colitis in mice, indicating that it worked in a manner similar to probiotics. Evaluation of the immunostimulatory activities of probiotics may also provide an easy screening system for the selection of probiotic bacteria prior to their clinical use, noted the study's first author, Daniel Rachmilewitz, from the Shaare Zedek Medical Center. |
|
|
]]>
Probiotics and Longevity
The idea of long life has been the focus of human interest since long before Ponce de Leon (1458-1521) sought the fountain of youth in Florida. From the beginning of human life on Planet Earth most people have wanted to live longer and have pondered every conceivable way to achieve that goal.
In our time the interest in longevity is so persistent that numerous organizations have sprung into existence to explore ways and means of reversing or slowing the aging process. It is a no-brainer that management of the body for optimum health maintenance will normally extend life. Caring health maintenance is the key to life extension.
Intestinal Flora
Arguably the most important of all health maintenance and life extension factors relates to the situation in the intestinal tract. Indeed, it is now scientifically established and known in ever widening circles that intestinal health is foundational to the health of all body systems. Formerly unknown words such as prebiotics, probiotics, symbiotics and biofermentics have sprung into usage among health professionals, although understanding is lagging in the general public.
What’s it all about? In a word, it’s about the billions of tiny living things called bacteria or microbiota that inhabit the human intestinal tract and largely determine the issues of life and death for every inhabitant of our world. Formerly the big issue in professional health circles was food values, nutrition and nutritional supplements such as multi-vitamins, minerals etc. Now there’s a paradigm shift to focus on the crucial importance of the intestinal flora and the primary importance of what happens in that part of the body.
Let’s take a closer look at the intestinal flora. Biologists use the word flora to designate the mass and variety of microorganisms which reside in the intestinal tract. Our human intestinal flora consists of 100 or more different varieties of microorganisms – also called microbiota – that reside in our intestines.
Some of them protect and preserve health, while others are harmful to health. In proper balance, the superior quantity and activity of friendly microbiota maintain predominance, enhancing digestion and absorption of foods, assuring strong immunity, and protecting the body from disease causing harmful (pathogenic) germs.
Intestinal Health
Intestinal health is all-important. It is the foundation for nourishing all body systems. Indeed, it is widely believed by nutritionists and health professionals that almost all diseases begin in the intestines, and the cure of most diseases must begin there as well.
Overwhelmed by junk food, chronic constipation, perpetual stress and toxins in air, water, soil and food, harmful intestinal bacteria can proliferate, gain predominance and impose disease at some point of vulnerability in the body.
It follows that the key questions about health maintenance are simply these: How can we maintain a healthy situation within our intestinal tract? How can we assure that the “good” microbiota will predominate within our intestinal flora on a continuing basis?
Avoidance of bad foods and constipation, toxins and stress are important precautions. However, such an ideal living pattern in the germ-ridden, polluted modern environments in which most of us live our lives is largely impossible for most of us. What, then, can we do?
SEIGEN
Fortunately there now exists a “super-supplement” called SEIGEN – the result of some 70 years of research and development by leading Japanese scientists. The benefits that it brings to the human body are the subjects of numerous articles and highly favorable testimonials from users who had been suffering from a multiplicity of ailments until they discovered SEIGEN. Following is a list of just a few of these much touted benefits:
● Delivers billions of Probiotic metabolite micronutrients to the intestinal tract
● Regulates the intestinal ecosystem for the increase of beneficial bacteria
● Fosters healthful predominance of beneficial microorganisms in intestines
● Decisively enhances digestion and absorption of all varieties of foods
● Strengthens immune system for protection against disease causing germs
● Detoxifies and nourishes all of the body’s cells, tissues and organs
● Reduces stress effect, improves mood, restful sleep, energy and stamina
● Delivers energizing power to the very core of the physical and mental life
● Heals and revitalizes all body systems like no other dietary supplement
SEIGEN, after seven decades of development, now brings a paradigm shift – a new understanding of the crucial role of the intestinal flora in optimization of health. The current understanding is that the intestinal environment into which foods are delivered will largely determine health and therefore longevity of life.
This reality is not difficult to grasp. The best garden seeds in the world will produce nothing if planted in a parched, rocky soil environment that is void of nutrients, water and sunshine. The same seeds planted in fertile soil and blessed by the sun will produce an abundant harvest.
In a word, the environment makes the difference. Whether you are talking about a garden plot or your intestinal interior, the principle is the same. Health and longevity will bless the lives of those who ingest good nutritious foods into an intestinal environment that is prepared to maximize their effectiveness.
In our unsanitary, polluted, gluttonous modern world your body needs help to cleanse, detoxify, re-fortify and prepare your intestinal environment for the foods that are delivered to it.
SEIGEN will optimize your health and improve your quality of life and longevity more effectively than any other product that has ever been developed.
Dr. Edward Rowe
Mister GreenGenes Nutrition Center
Russell at Pecos, Las Vegas
702-450-2100
]]>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
by American Standard Nutraceuticals, Inc.
Published in Hippocrates Magazine – September / 2007
A New Understanding in Nutritional Science
The Human body is a miraculous set of elaborate systems that we may never fully understand. The intestinal microflora, (more commonly known by scientists as the microbiota - tiny living things or bacteria) in the gastro intestinal “GI” system is crucial to human health. It consists of multiple layers of gelatinous or “jelly like” material located along the digestive tract in sections as thick as half an inch and in other areas as thin as one centimeter. The healthy intestinal microflora has a unique and distinct beneficial function called “colonization resistance” that discourages pathogenic organisms from colonizing inside.
The intestinal microflora has many important disease preventing functions. Microflora work includes food digestion, vitamin production, detoxification and immune system response. Its most important function to our health is protecting us against invasion by a world full of harmful Welsh bacteria. The microbiota protective process starts at the beginning of the GI system, our mouth, and ends about 24 feet later at our anus.
If we were to scrape the microbiota off the intestinal tract wall and set it on a scale, it would weigh on average about 3 lbs. Because this Intestinal microflora comprises approximately 100 trillion bacteria cells, there are about 40% more cells in the microbiota microflora than the number of cells in the entire human body.
In God’s infinite wisdom He gave this tiny ecosystem a much bigger role in human immune response and food-processing than all of the organs of the body combined. Japanese scientists have provided information that will help us put into perspective the importance of our microbiota metabolites, and the knowledge we need to maintain this amazing gift.
We can learn to significantly improve this elaborate ecosystem so that it will detoxify, cleanse and protect our health at a higher level than what is considered normal. With this advanced knowledge, we can provide a “Garden of Eden” like environment that will efficiently support better metabolism, digestion, absorption, distribution of nutrients, and total immune system support.
Our 3 pounds of microbiota has its own separate and distinct metabolism from our own body, yet it is a part of us. Our body is host to intestinal microflora and highly dependent on this complex and very independent ecosystem. If we mistreat our intestinal microbiota over time, it will most certainly reciprocate. The inevitable result will be a serious disease – or multiple diseases – that will attack our cells and body systems.
Scientists tell us this human microbial ecosystem is precisely where 90% of all health challenges start and then manifest themselves somewhere in the body. Fortunately, we now know that our intestinal microbiota can also be where the solution to health problems can begin as well, by controlling to a large extent what we eat and using SEIGEN. However, we must emphasize that SEIGEN (Japanese word that means Life-Source) is not a Probiotic. Properly described, it is an advanced biofermentic Probiotic metabolite complex that is beyond a Probiotic.
By supporting the immune enhancing system known as our intestinal microflora, and by eating foods that help our ecological garden to flourish, such as clean, nutrient dense health enhancing fruits and vegetables, and other nutrient dense real foods, we create a “coral reef type ecological environment” inside our gastro intestinal tract.
Our beneficial bacteria will thrive and produce internal metabolites that neutralize harmful chemicals and toxins. Gradually our body will be detoxified. Creating a healing environment for optimal health is a paradigm of great importance.
In managing your intestinal microflora, keep prominently in your mind that certain challenging factors can intervene to inhibit metabolite activity and shift the advantage over in favor of the harmful bacteria in your body, resulting in unwelcome onslaughts against your health.
Too much prolonged stress, intemperate use of alcoholic beverages, junk foods, habitual shoddy diet, excessive antibiotic treatment, pain pills, cortisones, various drugs, extreme mental fatigue and a host of other factors can disturb the balance in your delicate intestinal microflora system. Under these conditions, harmful bacteria can gain predominance, take over and inflict unwelcome health challenges.
Remarkable improvement of intestinal microflora action, reduced stress effect, improvement of liver and kidney functions, substantial increases in mood, energy and stamina, improved deep rem sleep, increase in anti-oxidant power, and enhanced immune function.
It also reduces lipid peroxide, improves resistance to multiple health problems, exerts anti-proliferative effect on gram negative E. coli bacteria, and performs many other positive health functions.
SEIGEN is increasingly recognized in Japan, and now in North America, as a “Super-Nutrient,” primarily because of the product’s ability to deliver large amounts of the metabolites produced outside the internal microflora system and then safely delivering them to the microbiota internally, at levels that could never be produced in the internal system before, even if we had a perfect diet and a perfect internal environment.
By delivering these symbiotically perfected metabolite compounds, the internal environment is enhanced and ultimately enabled to flourish something like a highly productive “victory garden” flourishes under ideal soil, sun, air, nutrient and water conditions. SEIGEN creates a situation that is analogous to a “controlled incubated environment” or an optimal growth environment in which friendly bacteria multiply rapidly.
As we approach the end of our adult life, (old age can be from 39 to 99 depending on our life long health habits) the total amount of microbiota starts to fall off as the years advance – from 100%, 90%, 80% and so on. In other words, advanced age results in progressive loss of the intestinal microflora for everyone in the previously more ideal environment in the microbial garden.
Unfortunately when this happens, certain opportunistic harmful bacteria begin to take over where the beneficial microbiota previously predominated. With the inevitable advance of age, the body becomes progressively unable to process the harmful chemical poisons that are universally present in earth, air and water. Myriads of destructive microorganisms, which are at home in the impaired intestinal environment, progressively predominate, accelerating the aging process.
If you have ever visited an “old folks home,” you may have noticed in the air a somewhat foul odor. It is caused primarily by the inability of most elderly seniors to maintain internal detoxing and cleansing, due to the impaired state of the microbiotic environment within their intestinal tract.
Unfortunately this condition marks the beginning of the health challenging phase of a human life. The individual’s body literally becomes self-polluting, because of the inability internally to rid the body of accumulated poisons through the normal intestinal microflora means of detoxification.
Prominent Japanese scientists have discovered and developed over the last 70 years a complex symbiotic culturing method using 16 premium probiotic strains. With this highly sophisticated methodology and technical know-how they have produced very special metabolomic compounds that will, throughout our life cycle, elevate the total amount of microbiota by about 10%.
By means of this very complex culturing method, they have demonstrated reduction of the amount of opportunistic harmful bacteria by about 10% all throughout the adult life cycle. Due to this 20% net positive effect on the intestinal microflora, health effects often described as “remarkable” have been observed.
It gets even better. Amazingly, when a person proceeds into old age and consistently consumes SEIGEN, that person’s microbiota level does not diminish.
The elderly person is able to maintain a much higher level of microbiota, better metabolism, better digestion, and better nutrient absorption. Less old age related health challenges are enjoyed until the final day of life. Therefore a vastly improved quality of life is realized and enjoyed, even well into old age.
I have traveled to many countries in search of natural health products, and I am certain that SEIGEN is a unique health supporting supplement. It is one of a kind. I have personally used this product for two years and I will never be without it.
I do know that I have never experienced a nutraceutical in my many years in the nutritional industry that is able to help a person achieve the same level of advanced health.
SEIGEN is a natural nutritional product like no other.
SEIGEN is sold in individual serving packets, 90 servings to a box in a one-month supply.
by Charles Green, CEO
Mister GreenGenes Nutrition Center
Las Vegas, Nevada
702-450-2100
See more information on SEIGEN at the following website: www.seigenusa.com.
]]>