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Did you know that the supplement brands you used to know and trust may have been bought out by large corporations?

I use very few supplements, during the summer it is usually two and both are food based. One is Salmon oil and the other is vitamin E. In winter though I do use cod liver oil and sometimes sodium ascorbate and I was sorry to see that Solgar brand has made the list of companies that are now corporate owned. I have noticed reviewer comments about loss of quality in some very popular brands so I thought you might like to know just who might now own your favorite brand.

In the end I do think this is about market control and eliminating the competition from their point of view. I don’t see most vitamins and supplements as competition because the majority are at best worthless and in a lot of cases harmful but that harm in no way measures up to the harm caused by pharmaceuticals or fake food. 

The advantage of real food is that you get the whole substance along with whatever that substance contains including beneficial microbes in the case of most vegetables and fruits if you eat them raw. The actual efficacy that drew so much attention to nutrition in the first place, is that early malnutrition studies never used vitamins because they didn’t exist in pill form so whether it be scurvy, rickets, anemia or any other form of malnutrition the known benefits were achieved by consuming the whole food that contained the beneficial substance and those benefits were lost via a synthetic version in most cases. You might be surprised to learn that there are also differences between plant based supplements and animal based supplements when it comes to efficacy so even the word bio identical is often not bio identical when it comes to the way you as a human/mammal bio synthesize that particular substance. I also place natural concentrated substances in the category of fake food, you know the kind of stuff you buy for ‘green drinks’ etc. hoping they will give a boost in nutrition. They don’t. In a pill they are a filler at best.

Bovine colostrum is different because of the standard which demands specific collection procedures and minimal processing of the substance or it can’t be sold at all. I do suspect an eventual attempt to interfere in this particular market (there have been some) but thankfully farmers have a lot more clout than the general consumer.

In the end I am always leery of supplements and the best science eventually gave up on trying to ‘copy’ natural forms and instead tried to introduce the whole substance to a greater market for the highest efficacy rate and as the form best tolerated in the majority with little to no unwanted effects. This is  why I presume nutrition as a field of study is neglected because nothing really stacks up to the real deal. The same is true for colostrum and breastfeeding as a gold standard benchmark up and until liability issues began to gain prominence when it comes to making comparable claims between breastfeeding and formula feeding. Claims that demand inspection. Only liability presents enough threat to make any long lasting effect on public health outcomes but before then there is almost always an attempt at complete control. 

So if you find vitamin studies to be confusing or have noticed a drop in quality of your favorite brand these may just be a few reasons why. I think it is just one more good reason to avoid pills in the first place even when it appears there are gains in production. When it comes to pills from any outlet profit is the motive because they are for the most part not a necessity but a convenience.

Let me know if you’ve tried this probiotic (not an affiliate). It seems a different approach from what you would normally see in a probiotic, essentially being marketed as a fermented formulation. I haven’t had time to do any research on this product but I also don’t want to forget about it until I am able to so I thought I’d put it out there and see what people think. 

Active Guard

3 Years Fermented Probiotic with 30 Years Research formulated for Women & Men Total Gut & Immune ActiveGuard Since 1999 Proven by 6 Renowned Japan Uni. | 75 Type PREBIOTICS & POSTBIOTICS 60 Soft-Gels

About this item
22 YEARS MARKET IN ASIA SINCE YEAR 1999 – 30 YEARS RESEARCH Digestive Health & Immunity Universities perfected a FERMENTED formulation that succeeds where PURE PROBIOTICS & HIGH CFU’S FAIL. By feeding the 400 CRITICAL COLON biomes pure biotics cannot, this prebiotic, probiotic, postbiotic formulation promotes RAPID MICOBIOME REPAIR, digestive relief, increased nutrient absorption, enhanced bioavailability and the VITAMIN B COMPLEX people with poor gut health otherwise can’t absorb.
SUPPORTS 100% GUT COLON CLEANSE & RESTORATION – 17 SUPERIOR HEAT & STOMACH ACID RESILIENT strains feed YOUR UNIQUE GUT & COLON BACTERIA, nourish healthy biome production and support optimal Base to Acid PH Levels, reducing inflammation & accelerating healthy GI Tract Cells to support ONGOING BIOME HEALTH, reduced serum cholesterol, plus RELIEF FROM PAINFUL gas, bloating, LEAKY GUT, lactose intolerance, putrefaction, BOWEL CARCINOGENS, ANTIBIOTIC overload & CANDIDA overgrowth.
PROVEN FERMENTATION & FEEDING PROCESS – EVERY STRAIN is NATURALLY FERMENTED (without artificial heat) in barrels for 3 years (THE GOLDEN TIMELINE FOR ULTRA-STRONG & EFFECTIVE STRAIN DEVELOPMENT), strengthening with each PROVEN SEASONAL FEEDING with WHOLE FOODS (skin, seeds and all) picked at the peak of perfection from Japan’s “King of Fruits & Vegetables” region, a nutrient-rich locale 300m above sea level. OPTIMIZED FOR RELIEF so they WON’T CAUSE GAS, BLOATING or DIARRHEA.
MONGOLIA & JAPAN – SUPERIOR GUT SURVIVING STRAIN: WE SELECT THE MOST ACID RESISTANT, HEAT RESISTANT, CHANGE RESISTANT strains from the heart Mongolia, where the significant humidity and temperature difference provides the initial foundation for STRAIN GUT DEFENSE, then ferment each strain in Japans Okayama Prefecture, where the LARGE SEASONAL CLIMATE VARIANCE builds the BIOTIC RESILLIANCE REQUIRED to withstand the most troublesome, acidic gut environments.
CERTIFIED BY THE BEST – RESULTS GUARANTEED: We focus on RESULTS (not IRRELEVANT CFU’s), attaining the STRICTEST FPE QUALITY certifications via MICROBIAL & PHYSICOCHEMICAL TESTING to ensure these supplements deliver unrivaled POWER, POTENCY, SAFETY & EFFECT. It’s ULTRA-CLEAN with ZERO artificial additives, preservatives, chemicals, coloring, flavoring, animal byproducts, herbicides, fertilizers, pesticides or SBO’S, plus dairy/gluten-free, vegetarian and MONEY BACK GUARANTEED.

Six Things You Don’t Know About Vitamins

Alternavita: All you need to know (critical info in a nutshell)..... by focusing exclusively on these foundational health and immune development issues up to 90% of chronic conditions can be eliminated.

WHO STATEMENTS: 2017 Millennium Goal

  1. Breastfeeding,
  2. food (security)
  3. and water security (sanitation)

are major protective factors against malnutrition and critical factors in the maturation of healthy gut microbiota, characterized by a transient bifidobacterial bloom before a global rise in anaerobes. Early depletion in gut Bifidobacterium longum, a typical maternal probiotic, known to inhibit pathogens, represents the first step in gut microbiota alteration associated with severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Later, the absence of the Healthy Mature Anaerobic Gut Microbiota (HMAGM) leads to deficient energy harvest, vitamin biosynthesis and immune protection, and is associated with diarrhea, malabsorption and systemic invasion by microbial pathogens. A therapeutic diet and infection treatment may be unable to restore bifidobacteria and HMAGM.

 

Researchers found that malnourished children’s microbiota failed to follow the healthy pattern they identified in healthy children. The microbiota of malnourished children is immature, lagging in development behind that of their healthy peers. Supplementing these children’s meals with widely used therapeutic foods that increase calories and nutrient density reduces deaths from malnutrition, but it does not fix their persistent microbiota immaturity.

“Perhaps more insidious than slowing growth is malnutrition’s effect on less visible aspects of health, including impaired brain development and dysfunctional immunity, which follow these children throughout their lives”.

The Father of The Microbiome

Dr. Jeffrey Gordon

SIBO

SIBO can cause severe malabsorption, serious malnutrition and immune deficiency syndromes in children (non breastfed) and adults. 

Prognosis is usually serious, determined mostly by the underlying disease that led to SIBO.

 

Immunizations

The WHO recommends that immunization or treatment be orally administered due to economic, logistical and security reasons. Furthermore, this route offers important advantages over systemic administration, such as reducing side effects, as the molecules are administered locally and have the ability to stimulate the GALT immune responses  (Levine and Dougan, 1998Neutra and Kozlowski, 2006Bermúdez-Humarán et al., 2011).

 

Infections

For ANY infectious or parasitic disease to start, it is ALWAYS a requisite that the host suffer IMMUNODEFICIENCY. At the same time, infectious and parasitic diseases themselves cause additional IMMUNE SUPPRESSION and more MALNUTRITION. This immune suppression is SECONDARY to the accumulation of free radicals, especially oxidizing species, that occurs during and after infectious and parasitic diseases.

Clinical Aspects of Immunology and Biochem J.

 

Current IBD Research 2016

Currently available treatments for IBD, which target the systemic immune system, induce immunosuppression, thereby exposing the patient to the risk of infections and malignancy. The interplay between the gut and the systemic immune system determines the final effect on target organs, including the bowel mucosa. Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are associated with an altered systemic immune response leading to inflammation-mediated damage to the gut and other organs.

Clinical & Translational Immunology (2016)
Gastroenterology and Liver Units, Department of Medicine, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel

Most importantly, the immune modulatory agents used today for IBD do not achieve remission in many patients.

Not all IBD patients benefit from currently available drugs. Young people with IBD do not want to be on long-term drug therapy. Oral immune therapy, while not yet studied in large cohorts of patients, may provide an answer to this unmet need.

Clinical & Translational Immunology (2016)
Gastroenterology and Liver Units, Department of Medicine, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel

Tolerance

Tolerance is the ability of the immune system to ‘see’ and respond appropriately. Without galactose (a necessary sugar) the immune system can not 'see'. Your immune system would not be able to function without galactose Your body wouldn’t know which cells are “good” and what cells are “bad.” Your body wouldn’t know who the invaders were and which ones should be attacked by antibodies. As you will learn the importance of these ‘sugars’ in gut microbiota health is a rapidly expanding field of research, only recently discovered, including HMO's (human milk oligosaccharides).

Why galactose? Milk sugar aka lactose has been shown to be very beneficial for the human body though unlike sucrose, lactose is made up of glucose and galactose. There is no fructose in lactose. It is a healthy disaccharide sugar. Galactose is known as the “brain sugar” and supports brain development of babies and children. Galactose helps triggers long-term memory formation. Galactose has been shown to inhibit tumor growth and stop its spread, particularly to the liver. This beneficial sugar can also enhance wound healing, decrease inflammation, enhances cellular communication, and increases calcium absorption.
What does immune ‘tolerance’ mean in simple language?
Immune tolerance, or immunological tolerance, or immunotolerance, is a state of unresponsiveness of the immune system to substances or tissue that have the capacity to elicit an immune response in a given organism. The Th1 cytokine profile is vital for clearance of certain organisms and ancillary immune activity, and a limiting effect on this cytokine profile may result in reduced chances for overcoming infections especially intra-cellular organisms residing within macrophages. Effective clearance will depend on appropriate macrophage activation (which occurs through IFN≥ release by Th1 and NK cells) and production of nitric oxide. If this pathway is disrupted IFN≥ secretion is blocked, impairing macrophage activation. Persistent blockade of these inhibitory receptors has lead to the breakdown in immune self tolerance, thereby increasing susceptibility to autoimmune or auto-inflammatory side effects, including rash, colitis, hepatitis and endocrinopathies. Many drugs may cause checkpoint blockade toxicity including pharmaceutical drugs termed ‘immuno therapy’ by pharmaceutical companies, these include Mab drugs and cancer treatments. Checkpoint Inhibitor–Induced Colitis: A New Type of Inflammatory Bowel Disease? Madeline Bertha, MD MS, corresponding author1 Emanuelle Bellaguara, MD, Timothy Kuzel, MD, and Stephen Hanauer, MD ACG Case Rep J. 2017; 4: e112. Published online 2017 Oct 11. doi: 10.14309/crj.2017.112 PMCID: PMC5636906 PMID: 29043290

The Elderly

Mammal milk is required for enhanced phagocytosis as shown by research, especially in the elderly. Whole fat mammal milk can actually restore phagocytosis in senescent cells in the elderly. Phagocytosis, by which immune cells ‘eat’ bacteria or infected cells, is one of the mechanisms that help to resist infections. Lactic acid bacteria strains like acidophilus also increases phagocytosis.