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North Americans take more vitamin and mineral supplements than anyone else in the world. But for all the supplements we take, we’re no healthier than other societies. Wonder why? Or why B12 shots often help people recover their health when vitamins taken orally aren’t helping?
If you’ve ever looked for that truly revolutionary health discovery that will increase both energy and immunity levels, look no more. Nearly 100 years ago 2 complementary discoveries were heralded as keys to health and longevity. The attention they both received was amply warranted. Yet today the first of them is almost as unknown as the second is well known.
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But being complementary, neither works well alone.
The first discovery was made by Russian-born bacteriologist and Nobel Laureate Ilya Mechnikov. Published in his groundbreaking Prolongation of Life (1908) documented the lifespan of several societies where men and women stayed healthy and active well past 100 years of age. Mechnikov found that their diets favored an abundance of probiotics, a term he coined to describe “friendly” bacteria that produce enzymes in our gut vital to our assimilation of nutrients. |
He concluded that longevity’s key is found in the health of the gastrointestinal tract due to either the abundance or the scarcity of friendly bacteria there.
The second discovery was the role of vitamins and minerals. Although the term vitamin—originally vitamine—was coined in 1912, the isolation and cataloging of all the vitamins and minerals took quite a number of years. As one by one, the limelight shone on each vitamin or mineral added to the list, it seems the discovery of these nutrients eclipsed the brilliance of Mechnikov’s find. Eventually people came to see vitamins and minerals on their own as the key to health and wellness.
But vitamins and minerals haven’t proven to be all we thought they’d be. For without effective assimilation, they do us little good. One out of two North Americans still die due to either cancer or heart disease, reflecting worldwide rates and raising the question of how good such supplements are at prolonging our lives, despite our taking more vitamin and mineral supplements than anyone else in the world. Quite clearly, they aren’t enough on their own.
The fact is, nutrient assimilation is essential to the chemical and hormonal balance that sustains our heartbeat, breathing and other vital functions. So health and vitality are only possible with a healthy colon, since most nutrient assimilation takes place there. Tracing 90% of our illnesses back to an unhealthy colon, recent research has returned to Mechnikov’s idea that “Death begins in the colon.” For not all intestinal bacteria are friendly. Unfriendly or pathogenic bacteria abound and can displace friendly bacteria, colonize the colon and prevent effective nutrient assimilation. Having said that, rest assured that we can restore our vitality by simply maintaining a ratio of 85 probiotic bacteria to 15 pathogenic bacteria. The bad news here is that most North Americans have a ratio of 15 to 85—the exact opposite of what we need! But the good news is that probiotic balance is relatively easy to restore and still works miracles, enabling our bodies to benefit from all the nutrients we supply them with. Yet most people aren’t even aware of the warning signs indicating an imbalance in our bacteria:
- Weight-loss problems
- Carbohydrate/sugar cravings
- Frequent infections, colds, flus
- Headaches, poor concentration/memory
- Insomnia, poor quality sleep
- Depression, fatigue, weakness
- Food allergies or sensitivities
- Frequent diarrhea or constipation
- Poor digestion, acid reflux
- Joint pain, stiffness, inflammation
- Chronic candida, yeast problems
- Eczema, acne, skin fungus
- Extreme PMS or menopausal symptoms
- Bad breath, dental caries, gum diseas
Friendly bacteria prevent the invasion and colonization of harmful bacteria, viruses, yeast, fungi and other parasites. But unaware of the link between such microscopic players and the hefty health problems they can cause, most North Americans simply carry on the best they can, settling for patch solutions—antacids for acid reflux, Aspirin or Tylenol for headaches, chemical cleansers for acne, etc.—before graduating to prescription drugs and more serious solutions. But all the while we’re missing the connection between these varied symptoms and an underlying gastrointestinal imbalance.
When friendly bacteria die off, pathogenic bacteria take off. In no time they outnumber our friendly strains, producing toxins in our gut that lead to 2 things: fatigue & compromised immunity. And sooner or later that miserable duo overwhelms us with illness as nutrient assimilation diminishes and toxins build up.
All of this raises 2 important questions. What causes us to be so imbalanced in our good to bad bacteria? There are many things that lead to the imbalancing of our gastrointestinal bacteria.
The number one problem is antibiotic therapy. Antibiotics are the most prescribed drugs in the world today. They kill not only bad bacteria but good bacteria as well, upsetting the vital balance of beneficial bacteria in our gut.
The number two problem is stress. Stress destroys the vital balance of beneficial bacteria
and can seriously compromise our immune system. Most people lead
a very stressful life today hence the majority of people are in dire need of a good probiotic to rebuild this vital balance.
Other offenders are:
- Coffee and tea
- Carbonated drinks & alcohol
- White sugar, flour & rice
- Food additives & artificial preservatives
- Pesticide & fertilizer residues in food
- Artificial food colors
- Chlorine & ammonia in water
- Fluoride in toothpaste & water
- Pollutants in the air we breathe
- First- & second-hand cigarette smoke
- Radiation from cell phones & X-rays
- Synthetic vitamins
- Steroidal/hormonal drugs
- Birth control pills
All these things work against our maintaining the 85:15 ratio of friendly bacteria to pathogenic bacteria. When kept in check by friendly bacteria, our unfriendly bacteria actually assist in digestion also. But with reduced numbers of friendly bacteria, two things happen. First, we lack the enzymes vital to the assimilation of nutrients. But equally serious, when friendly bacteria die off, pathogenic bacteria take off. In no time they outnumber our friendly strains, producing toxins in our gut that lead to both fatigue and compromised immunity. Sooner or later that miserable duo overwhelms us and brings on illness as nutrient assimilation diminishes and toxins build up.
| This explains why B12 shots often work so well when vitamin supplements taken orally are doing nothing. If the ratio of bacteria in your gut is seriously imbalanced, it’s impossible for you to assimilate nutrients effectively. Vitamin B12 shots, on the other hand, bypass the |
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gastrointestinal tract altogether, going directly into your bloodstream. So poor assimilation or not, you still benefit from them.
Looking at the list of things that compromise our gastrointestinal tracts, we shouldn’t have any trouble seeing why we’re in the state we’re in. Quality of life demands a gastrointestinal environment conducive to effective nutrient assimilation no less than it requires good nutrients to assimilate. For most of us, the problem isn’t so much what we take—for we certainly need our nutrients—but in what |
| we don’t. We simply need to add a probiotic formula to our nutrient intake. If that was true in Mechnikov’s day, how much truer is it now? |
The other question this raises is whether or not all probiotic formulas are the same or some are “more equal” than others. Some probiotic companies make huge claims about the effectiveness of their formulas, but not all their claims stand up to real scrutiny. After surveying the many products on the market, one product stands head and shoulders above the rest. It is In-Liven, one of 2 probiotic formulas made by the Australian company, ONE Group.
Five key things set In-Liven apart from the herd. In-Liven is:
- Third-party Certified Organic. The best probiotics are produced from certified organic vegetables, grains and fruits only, with no use of either synthetic materials or fecal matter, which many formulas use.
- Full-spectrum. Most probiotic supplements have 2 to 3 strains of Lactobacillus. But we need 12 key Lactobacillus family members in our gut to create an environment in which the other 600 sub-strains can live and multiply. Providing all 12 key Lactobacillus members plus Sporogene, as In-Liven does, a full-spectrum probiotic formula does far more to restore balance than formulas limited to 2 or 3 strains.
- Food-enriched. In-Liven contains 26 pre-digested, living whole foods, foods the friendly bacteria need to live and multiply. Formulas without the proper foods leave their bacteria to fend for themselves. Supplied with food, friendly bacteria repopulate the gastrointestinal tract much more effectively.
- Virile in their natural colonies. Friendly bacteria always live in microscopic colonies and must be bottled in their colonies or CFUs to remain virile. Some producers artificially break CFUs apart to inflate their bacterial counts. This may work for marketing, but it does nothing for your gastrointestinal tract. Any number of dead bacteria cannot compare with full CFUs that are alive when they reach your gut! When ONE Group reports 30-50 million per gram of In-Liven’s powder, you can rest assured they’re counting intact, living CFUs. They also take special care to ensure that In-Liven’s probiotics retain their high and active count throughout processing and storage.
- Resistant to stomach acid & bile. In addition, In-Liven’s friendly bacteria have been specially prepared to tolerate both stomach acid and bile, 2 things they must be able to withstand in order to repopulate the bowel.
The best probiotic formulas, then, provide you with food-enriched, full-spectrum cultures able to tolerate the conditions of the GI tract, withstand the attacks of pathogenic bacteria and repopulate the bowel. With more than 20 years of research behind it, In-Liven gives you all this and more. Certified Organic by Australia’s leading certifying body, In-Liven’s 26 pre-digested, living whole foods enrich your body with their phyo-nutrients and all 20 amino acids, so vital to cell functioning and repair. And for anyone allergic to gluten, ONE Group’s new gluten-free probiotic, Fast-Tract, comes in a liquid formula that provides even higher probiotic counts.
So remember, probiotics and vitamins belong together. By rebalancing your gastrointestinal tract, you enhance your body’s amazing ability to assimilate and use nutrients to protect and heal itself. And by doing that, you prolong your life. Probiotics truly are the missing key to health and longevity today!
Mark Anderson RHN January 2007
Based on the article “Death Begins in the Colon,” by Dr. Robert Chamberlain March, RMT, ND
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