Supplement of the Month: Glutathione

Glutathione is the body’s master antioxidant and is found in virtually every cell of the human body. It is an extremely important cell protectant. This heavy lifter bolsters antioxidant action, promotes detoxification and fortifies the immune system. As the formation of free radicals exceeds the body’s ability to neutralize and eliminate them, oxidative stress occurs. A primary function of glutathione is to alleviate this oxidative stress. Food sources of glutathione are few and oxidative stress and depletion can outpace the body’s need for it.

Glutathione is most prevalent in the main detox organs of the human body which are the liver, lungs and kidneys. Glutathione can become depleted as the body neutralizes the oxidizing effects of battling viruses, bacteria, heavy metal toxicity, radiation, certain medications, and even the normal process of aging. A correlation has been made between increased vulnerability to infection (chronically ill) and glutathione depletion. Glutathione can bind to toxins, heavy metals, solvents and pesticides and help the body to excrete these substances through urine or bile. It also protects the lungs against airborne pollutants and the intestinal lining from absorption of industrial chemicals.

Especially for glutathione, liposomal preparations are important. Liposomes are delivery vehicles for transporting substances into the body effectively by facilitating absorption both in the mouth, skin and digestive tract.

At TWIHW, we offer three glutathione products. One is Essential Pro Liposomal Glutathione Softgels, which are taken orally. We also offer Researched Nutritionals Tri-Fortify Liposomal Glutathione sublingual gel which comes in two flavors and is placed under the tongue. Finally, we also can dose glutathione through IV preparations.

By Admin|2020-04-12T09:40:00-05:00April 14th, 2020|Articles, General|

Support your Immune System

When it comes to prevention and protection, the following supplements that support your immune system make a great basic arsenal of weaponry to have handy to incorporate when you sense your immune system is under unusual attack or stress. Depending on the supplement, increasing the amount you are already taking or adding a couple of them into your daily supplement regimen for a number of days can help to bolster the immune system and/or attack germs that have entered the body. Work with your wellness provider here at TWIHW to develop a strategy that will meet your individual needs.

Vitamin D
Vitamin C
Zinc
Silver Sol
Probiotics
Echinacea – (caution: people with certain allergies (e.g. ragweed) may have adverse reactions to Echinacea)
Essential Oils – stay tuned next month for more on essential oils and their many uses such as immune system support and cleaning the house!

*The product information provided is for educational purposes and is not intended as either diagnosis or treatment of any disease, nor does it replace professional medical advice.

*Warning: Please consult a health care professional before using these products.

By Admin|2014-08-02T09:16:06-05:00August 2nd, 2014|Articles, General|

Health Benefits of Fermenting Foods

Fermentation, or culturing, is the conversion of carbohydrates to organic acids using a combination of favorable bacteria under anaerobic (without oxygen) conditions. These microorganisms protect the food from pathogenic bacteria and mold and when eaten, also repopulate the gut lining with these same favorable bacteria.

An age-old practice in many cultures around the world, traditionally fermented foods provide many benefits to human health. The favorable bacteria in fermented foods, in combination with the slightly acidic environment created by them, deter the growth of pathogenic bacteria and can destroy super bugs currently resistant to most antibiotics. Fermented foods also help to balance the production of stomach acid by increasing the acidity of gastric juices if stomach production is inadequate or helping to protect the stomach and intestinal lining when too much acid is produced. Fermented foods also help the body to produce acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that helps with the movement of the bowel, thus alleviating constipation. It also helps to improve the release of digestive juices and enzymes from the stomach, pancreas and gallbladder, thus acting as powerful digestive aids.

The good news is that with a little practice, just about anyone can master the simple practice of fermenting food. You can enhance the health benefits of your food at considerable savings over purchasing traditionally fermented foods from farmer’s markets, health food stores and on line sources.

There are many great resources to learn how to ferment foods. One very good resource is www.culturesforhealth.com where you can find out about all the many ways to ferment foods in traditional ways as well as using starter cultures, supplies and u-tube instructions and great recipes. Today’s recipe ideas come from this web page as well as the product used to ferment the foods. One of the best cookbooks available for old world cooking including the art of fermentation is Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig.

Just about any food can be fermented but vegetables are one of the easiest places to start. It is a very simple 3 step process of 1) choosing and chopping fresh organic vegetables, 2) creating the right liquid or brine, which is where the cultures are located, (usually water or celery juice with salt or a starter culture) and 3) properly packing the vegetables into a glass jar with the liquid brine and then allowing the fermentation to occur.

To help make it even simpler, today in our recipe corner we are recommending ways to ferment store bought foods by purchasing a vegetable starter culture (recommended brands listed below) and adding it to whole, all natural or organic store-bought food such as hummus, unsweetened applesauce or salsa.

We hope you will take the challenge and give fermented foods a try. Here are some traditionally fermented vegetables available in grocery stores and on line:

www.immunitrition.com sells homemade fermented vegetables
Bubbies, Cortland Valley Organic and Farmhouse Culture are three reliable brand names to look for in better and whole food grocers. You can also search on line for stores that carry them or in some cases, buy them direct from the producer.
Visit local farmer’s markets and natural health food stores for more resources and producers of traditionally fermented foods.
To purchase starter cultures consider Mercola Kinetic Culture, Body Ecology’s Culture Starter or Caldwell’s Vegetable Starter Culture.

At a minimum, buy a culture and try fermenting some of your store bought options. You can’t beat fermented foods as a source for your favorable gut bacteria. Many respected sources claim that several ounces of fermented vegetables consumed each day contain as many beneficial bacteria as a full bottle of a probiotic supplement! It is time to build your military force and protect Your Body Nation.

By Admin|2014-05-31T13:59:56-05:00May 31st, 2014|Articles, General, NANCY’S NUTRITIONAL NUGGET|

How to Pick a Probiotic

Probiotics is the name used for the supplemental form of the favorable microflora so essential to overall health and immune function in the human body. There are many probiotic supplements available in the marketplace today and a few important selection tips to keep in mind.

A good probiotic will have at least 4 or more different species of beneficial bacteria and should include members from the lactobacilli and bifidobacteria species or families. The most valuable and commonly seen species include Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS-1, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus salivarius, Bifidobacterium lactis, Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium bifidum and Streptococcus thermophilus. Many probiotics also include FOS, or Fructooligosaccharides, which are considered a prebiotic because they provide food and nourishment for probiotics. FOS may or may not be present and it is not necessarily essential but ideal.

A good probiotic should have a concentrated amount of bacteria. It takes large doses to see improvement and restore gut bacteria. Your gut is optimal when the microflora population is over 100 trillion. We now recommend a probiotic that provides somewhere between 20 to 70 billion cfu (colony forming units) per dose for most people. At a minimum, adults generally should take at least 15-20 billion cfu per day. Babies up to 12 months can have 1-2 billion; toddlers from 1 to 2 years can have 2-4 billion; children from 2-4 years can have 4-8 billion; children from 4-10 years can have 8-12 billion and from 12 to 16 years, an appropriate minimum dose is 12-15 billion per day.

It is important to slowly build up to the suggested minimum guidelines provided above. Remember, these favorable bacteria get busy about the business of killing unwanted pathogens in the gut, so taking too much probiotic too quickly can result in unpleasant die off symptoms (fatigue, itchy skin, irritability just to name a few) which can be uncomfortable. A slow, small step approach is the safest way to start taking probiotics although it is also interesting to note that it appears that overdosing is not likely if not impossible.

From our perspective at TWIHW, everyone should be taking a probiotic and/or eating fermented foods. Our culture today places very destructive demands on our favorable microflora. Stress, carbohydrates, alcohol, electromagnetic forces, antibiotics, steroids, antibacterial cleaning and body products, birth control pills, and Splenda (aka Sucralose) all contribute to the destruction of our favorable microflora, so we must be diligent at replacing them daily.

At TWIHW, we offer a wide variety of high quality probiotics to meet your needs in both capsule and powder formulations. Moreover, as is our custom, we are happy to take your order and have it ready for pick up or shipped directly to you. Place your order here and start defending Your Body Nation today.

By Admin|2014-05-31T10:40:21-05:00May 31st, 2014|Articles, General|

GI lining

This month we are initiating a three-part series of newsletters dedicated to the overall defense strategy for Your Body Nation. What do we mean by Your Body Nation? Well, the human body can be compared to a nation in many ways. A nation, according to the dictionary is a group of people in a land area under a single government. Here in the nation called the United States, we all live and work within the same defined physical perimeters and we work together with the goal of prosperity, unity and happiness within our borders. Our government’s duty, in good part, is to secure the borders and protect our people from harm. Similarly, Your Body Nation is a large group of microbes and cells that live and work within the same borders. It is safe to say your thoughts and plans emanating from your brain are the government. So like a nation that builds a military force, then protects it from destruction and invasion, and maintains it when some of the force is lost or more force is needed, so too you must have a military/protective strategy for Your Body Nation for the long term so that you will be safe, healthy and functioning optimally. So do you have a clear defense strategy in place for Your Body Nation? Our goal over the summer months is to help you develop a well-balanced and intentional strategy so that you can defend your borders well.

This month we will focus on how to build your own internal military force. What can you do to create a strong, formidable military force to protect Your Body Nation? In July we will focus on ways to protect Your Body Nation from everything trying to cross your borders illegally and inflict damage on your military force. Finally in August, we will tie everything together with protective, proactive ways to maintain your health and be prepared for all the unknowns that life can bring.

Defending The Borders (Part I)

Building A Strong Defense for Your Body Nation

Our regular readers and patients have heard this before, but it ALWAYS bears repeating that 80% of your total immune system is made up of a very large population of microflora in the gut which includes your small and large intestines and your colon. The other 20% of your immune system is composed of white blood cells, many of which also reside in the gut as well as other mucosal linings throughout the body. So it stands to reason that to build a strong fighting machine, you will need to start in the gut. Your gut is the superhighway that carries all necessary resources into the body for delivery into the smaller artery and vein roadways that disperse nutrients all over the body. But what if the superhighway is not well maintained? What if it is full of potholes, sinkholes and weeds overgrowing the asphalt? What if your superhighway has been taken over by bad forces that are preventing valuable resources from even getting into Your Body Nation?

Optimizing gut health is fundamental to optimizing overall health. Open to the outside world from the top of it (your mouth) and again at the bottom (your bottom!), this long tube is a perfect entrance for harmful things. We certainly eat and drink plenty of microorganisms, chemicals and toxins everyday. Your gut microflora provides the natural physical barrier of protection from harmful things. This protective barrier secretes substances that kill harmful bacteria, fungi, viruses, as well as creates just enough acid to discourage the growth and prosperity of pathogenic microbes. This beneficial microflora is also responsible for neutralizing toxic substances, chelating heavy metals and other poisons as well as inactivating carcinogenic substances. And lastly, but also very important, our gut microflora digest some of our food and in turn feed the cells which make up the gut lining, keeping it healthy and able to complete the digestion of our food.

Without our gut microflora we are fully open to invasion from incoming harmful bacteria, fungi, viruses, carcinogens, toxins, poisons and heavy metals. We are also unable to protect our gut lining from damage nor can we properly nourish our gut lining which then becomes inflamed thus leading to not only digestive issues but almost without fail, nutritional bankruptcy, health issues and disease.

Our first step in building a strong Body Nation is to build your military force. Starting with the digestive tract, the goal is to heal, restore and build a big, strong, well prepared military force. This is best done using a formal, therapeutic diet with a three pronged approach: 1) destroy bad microbes 2) starve them by choosing foods that do not feed them and 3) replace favorable microflora. With rare exception, everyone can benefit by a focused, gut restoration program because no matter how you feel, most of us are not at 100% in terms of our healthy microflora. Because of stress, antibiotic use, steroid use, Splenda (aka sucralose), sugary and high carbohydrate diets and exposure to a toxic and electrical world, it is very difficult to maintain a healthy quantity of gut microflora unless you are fully aware of how to do it and you are intentional and organized about your strategy.

The second step in building a strong Body Nation is to provide the best tools and resources to the Body Nation to get the job done. In this day and age, we know better than to send our military men and women to the battle front with clubs, bows and arrows. The same is true for your Body Nation. White blood cells, as well as all of the cells that make up your Body Nation, require very specific macronutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates) to be made and maintained as well as very specific micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients) to function optimally. Good health cannot be achieved without a whole real food diet. By eating food the way Nature provides it to us in an undamaged, unprocessed, un -“man”ufactured state, our Body Nation is able to find all of the necessary tools and resources to make, feed and maintain healthy cells which, in turn, do their assigned jobs well, whether that is to be a heart cell, a blood cell, a brain cell or a white blood cell.

Trying to get healthy? Wanting to feel good? Trying to figure out where to start? All disease begins in the gut. Cleaning up the gut and the diet are the first two steps in defending the borders of Your Body Nation.

Click here to test yourself (questionnaire) for abnormal microflora.

Next month we will talk about how you can actively work to protect Your Body Nation from external forces and destruction of your newly established military force.

By Admin|2014-05-31T10:34:09-05:00May 31st, 2014|Articles, General|

Supplement of the Month: Glutathione

Supplements that Support your Immune System

Support your Immune System

Health Benefits of Fermenting Foods

Probiotics

Defending the Borders, Part I