FLORA: THE FORGOTTEN COMPONENT OF DETOX
Wrongly regarded merely as the body’s sewer, the normal colon is actually buzzing with life activity. Billions of friendly bacteria should be hard at work in the colon. Their job is the final stage of digestion, leaving only what is absolutely of no use to the body to be eliminated. The friendly bacteria, weighing as much as three pounds in the normal colon, comprising more than 400 species, also function to keep ‘bad’ bacteria in check. A harmonious symbiosis between good and bad bacteria is the optimum situation within the human colon, so that no one species proliferates unchecked.
It happens that most bacteria in the environment and in the body are actually beneficial to our health. Bacteria do more good than harm in the everyday world, working much more often as scavengers than as pathogens. Bacteria are the janitors of the world, disposing of decaying and diseased cells. Think of a beach with no bacteria. What would happen to all those dead fish that wash up there?
Other essential functions of normal gut probiotics include:
Inhibition of food-poisoning bacteria
Suppress tumor growth
Break down undigested proteins
Slow down the progression of ankylosing spondylitis [Shahani]
NO FLORA
In the colon, the whole key is a balance between the friendlies and the potentially pathological bacteria. Problem is, most of us go through most of our lives with little or no intestinal flora. Our friendly bacteria are constantly being killed off. How? Same culprits as cited in the ALLERGIES chapter:
- antibiotics we take
- antibiotics given to the animals whose meat we eat
- Zantac, Tagamet, Prilosec, etc.,
- Advil, Tylenol, Excedrin, Motrin,
- other prescription and over the counter medications
- white sugar
- carbonated drinks
- antihistamines
- chlorinated water
- fluoridated water
- coffee
Without friendly probiotics, the final stage of digestion can’t take place in the colon. Debris rots in there. Opportunists such as Candida albicans start taking over. And food allergies reach epidemic proportions. Whether it’s rotting yoghurt in a blocked colon, a dead coyote in the forest, or infected liver cells in the body of an alcoholic, bacteria are just doing what they do best: cleaning up. When the bacteria are diagnosed as the cause of the illness, rather than a sign of the illness, the medical approach is to try and kill them. But that’s like killing the garbage men. The garbage remains. Understanding such a simple concept is pivotal in arriving at a holistic outlook toward health.
ESSENTIAL ALONG WITH ANTIBIOTIC THERAPY
in the chapter The Post Antibiotic Age, we saw a thorough discussion of the modern consequences of overprescription of antibiotics, especially among children. We learned that antibiotics have only one real purpose: life-threatening, persistent bacterial infections. Taking them for every little sniffle all through childhood has resulted in the appalling situation we see today in the US – where over 80,000 people each year die in hospitals from infections they acquired in the hospital that are resistant to all known antibiotics.
Nosocomial infections – that’s what doctors call such infections.
And over-prescription also results in these chronic allergy cases seen so often today in adults, allergies which go on for years and years. That’s a no-brainer there: if antibiotics are going to work, they will work right away. To keep trying this strain and that strain month after month, especially without culturing– well that doctor is in practice all right. On you!
Now in the serious bacterial infection that has persisted and become life threatening, obviously antibiotics may be indicated. And in the patient who has not abused them all his life, antibiotics may well have a dramatic curative effect. That was their originally intended mode of use, according to Alexander Fleming.
But whenever we do take antibiotics, whether it’s abusive or indicated, we can be sure that we are going to be destroying all flora, all bacteria in the entire body for at least 6 weeks. Maybe more. Obviously this is going to have a pejorative effect on the digestive tract, especially the colon, where good bacteria are supposed to be thriving in order to maintain immune health.
So here’s the life-saving solution: when forced to take antibiotics, the patient should take 6 capsules of Total Florabiotics 2 or 3 times per day, all during the course. This will offset much of the destructive effect the antibiotic has on the digestive tract, and help to return the colon to its normal ecology as soon as possible.
This recommendation comes directly from Dr Shahani himself, as well as all the other legitimate authorities on colon vitality we saw in the Colon chapter.
PART OF 60 DAY PROGRAM
In any health or detox program, flora balance is vital for success. And yet because of general lack of awareness flora are commonly omitted from most health regimens. In the 60 Day Program we take a very simple approach: 3 capsules 3x per day for 2 months. For advanced cases of chronic progressive allergies, that dose can be doubled for the first half of the 60 Day Program.
Finally after all this time we were able to break free of the company that had been providing our flora and enzymes. That company had deteriorated beyond help, and I was losing confidence in their ability to maintain the integrity of the original formulas. Against much opposition, we were able to go back to the actual sources of Dr Khem Shahani’s original flora, ascertain the quality and stability of the probiotics being used, and make some improvements in overall dosage. The best news is that we now own the formula, are confident of the superiority of this new blend, and also that there will never be backorder problems ever again.
Khem Shahani was a premier researcher into probiotics for most of his life, and published over 200 scientific papers, many of them in top medical journals. Over a decade ago Dr Shahani did a study of probiotic supplements on the market and found that 80% of them contained nowhere near the bacterial counts advertised on their labels. So when Shahani finally put out his own product he made sure the counts were in the billions, and also that they were suspended in a medium that would be stable when stored in a cool dark place for up to 2 years. And still were able to proliferate in the human colon once they had bypassed the rest of the digestive tract.
Meeting all these criteria was the crowning achievement of Shahani’s career. It took him years to develop such a formula. That’s what made his probiotics so effective for restoring colon vitality, normalizing its internal ecology, and curing lifelong allergies during all those years when the Arizona company carried them. And now we are lucky to have the same formulation today in Total Florabiotics.
There are four main groups of human probiotics:
Bifidus
Lactobacillus
Streptococcus
Bacterioides
The most prolific and versatile of these is L. acidophilus.
In Cultivate Health from Within we read about one of Shahani’s life achievements: DDS-1 lactobacillus acidophilus, which is found today only rarely in flora supplements, other than in our new Total Florabiotics. This superlative strain of acidophilus – DDS-1 – was developed because of the following unusual properties:
- Inhibits 27 pathogenic bacteria, including shigella, salmonella, E.coli
- Inhibits Candida albicans
- Survives stomach acids so that it actually reaches the colon
- Neutralizes nitrates in food
- Normalizes persistent skin eruptions
- Resolves lactose intolerance
- Very resilient in storage – survives up to 2 years
- maintains high counts
- is a human-specific strain, not soil-based
- is antibiotic resistant
- freeze dried, rendering the bacteria dormant
- non dairy
Most authorities regard lactobacillus acidophilus as the primary vital gut flora. There is no other strain of L. acidophilus which can claim all these characteristics.
Because of pasteurized dairy, most of which is loaded with recombinant bovine growth hormones these days, many babies develop chronic colic, even if they are breastfed. The mothers often drink pasteurized dairy and pass on these allergens to the infant. Shahani discovered that breastfed infants of today have the same gut flora as formula fed infants of 40 years ago. Why? The mothers themselves are drinking pasteurized hormone-laden milk. Dramatic results can be achieved by substitution of raw dairy and/or probiotics, like Total Florabiotics, both for the mother and the infant.
There is simply no valid health protocol, no program of detoxification which can have any hope of success without at the very least restoring normal vitality to the colon. It may take awhile to restore normal ecology because drugs are what most people have tried for all those years. The colon is the #1 casualty of these dead-end programs. But in case after case, colon vitality does turn out to be the missing link in total health.
ACTION
Starting from scratch, it takes at least 2 months to infuse normal amounts of probiotics into a stagnant colon, minimum 3 capsules 3 times per day. Advanced severely debilitated cases may require double that for the first month, as a loading dose. Bur if this really is the missing piece in your health puzzle, and you’ve never allowed normal probiotics to resume control in your tract, you’ll just never know the far-reaching vital effects of normal internal ecology.
Look at the Testimonials page. However sick and irretrievable you might think you are, worse cases than you have recovered completely and got their lives back.
And if you’re in ‘pretty good health for your age,’ there is no better holistic immune booster than adding a full charge of probiotics to the system. Why not be in pretty good health for any age?
WHAT’S IN IT?
Serving size: 3 capsules . . . Servings per Container: 83
. . . . . . . . Amount per serving
Vitamin C (from acerola) . . . 150mg
Calcium chelate . . . 3mg
Magnesium chelate . . . 1.3mg
Zinc chelate . . . .99mg
Manganese chelate . . . .18mg
Enzyme Blend . . . 151mg
Protease 4.5 . . . 10,000 HUT
Amylase . . . 4,500 DU
Lipase . . . 650 FIP
Cellulase . . . 100 CU
Helianthus Tuberosus . . . 90 mg
Probiotic Blend . . . 269 mg*
Bifidobacterium infantis – 600000000 CFU;
Lactobacillus brevis – 600000000 CFU;
Lactobacillus lactis – 600000000 CFU;
Lactobacillus casei – 600000000 CFU;
Bifidobacterium longum – 600000000 CFU;
Lactobacillus acidophilus – DDS-1 1500000000 CFU;
Lactobacillus plantarum – 600000000 CFU;
Lactobacillus rhamnosus – 300000000 CFU;
Streptococcus thermophilus – 300000000 CFU;
Bifidobacterium bifidum – 600000000 CFU;
Lactobacillus salivarius – 300000000 CFU.
Other ingredients: Vegetable cellulose and water.
All natural. Contains no soy, dairy, corn, oils, sugar or GMO ingredients.
THE FLORA BLITZ
Total Florabiotics is a supplement that practically never causes side effects, since all we’re really doing is flooding the colon with friendly bacteria. As we saw above, most people live their lives with insufficient probiotics.
This is why most people feel a dramatic surge in colon vitality when they start taking daily Florabiotics for the first time. The colon is the immune center of the body– its health and motility directly affect every other system.
The normal dosage of Total Florabiotics in the 60 Day Program is 3 caps 3x a day. This is sufficient to jumpstart a devitalized colon most of the time.
However, there are many severely immune-suppressed patients whose colon has been very weakened for many years. Examples:
IBS patients
chronic severe allergies
non healing wounds and lesions
Crohn’s Disease
chronic obstruction
colitis
polyps
scarring of colon endothelium
Leaky Gut
Sometimes these conditions are so thoroughly entrenched that they may be slow to respond to probiotics infusions.
For these resistant cases, we have found that doubling the regular amount of 9 caps per day for the first month can be extremely effective in rejuvenating a colon that is virtually dead. This protocol we call the Flora Blitz. It means that for one month the patient will be taking 6 caps of Flora 3 times per day. That’s 18 caps per day.
But don’t worry – we’ve never had a case where the patient complained of pain or adverse reaction from the dosage. On the contrary, it’s common for people to feel a quick sense of relief as the colon is finally able to become unblocked, especially when used in conjunction with the proper dosage of Expel.
By the second month, the majority of patients have revitalized their colon, and can then downshift to the normal dosage of 9 caps per day for the second month of the program.
It may seem like a lot of capsules, but this program has had dramatic effects on cases that had been long unresponsive to all other treatment protocols. Particularly effective in cases of chronic allergies where the patient has unsuccessfully used course after course of antibiotics, for months or even years. If antibiotics are going to work, it’s usually going to be right away. Opened-ended courses of trying this one and then that one, endlessly may not be the most prudent path. You can read about a few of the many success stories in the Feedback section.
If you are one of those patients who are about to give up because you’ve been to all the geniuses and “tried everything” – well you haven’t tried this! These are the sorts of cases who respond so dramatically to the Flora Blitz. It must work because of the severe deficiency of probiotics the body has been suffering with for such a long time, like finding an oasis in the desert.
If the colon is your chief area of complaint, especially if the imbalance has become entrenched over time, The Flora Blitz may well be the missing piece to your health puzzle. It’s certainly worth a try, with no downside.