Blood type diet

Some probiotic info…..
D’Adamo 4 Your Type Probiotics
Dr Greg Kelly, ND
The term “Probiotic” means “in favor of life”. It was coined in 1910,
by a Russian physician named Metchnikoff, who promoted a theory of
longevity which associated prolonged life and improved health with
decreased gastrointestinal toxicity. He suggested that aging is a
process mediated by chronic exposure to putrefactive intoxication caused
by imbalances in intestinal bacteria and that this process could be
halted by the routine ingestion of lactic acid bacteria and their
“fermented” (”cultured”) food products. Almost 90 years have passed
since he introduced these radical ideas; however, in many respects his
ideas have been proven to be true. Consumption of lactic acid bacteria,
or food cultured or fermented with these friendly microorganisms does
extend life in animal experiments and does dramatically reduce a wide

range of intestinal metabolites, such as indoles, polyamines, cresols,
nitrates/nitrites, and carcinogens which we now know are
counterproductive to good health.
What are the health benefits of consuming friendly bacteria?
Friendly bacteria restore intestinal balance, which results in the
prevention of adherence of unwanted microorganisms, the production of a
wide array of antibacterial and antifungal
compounds, improved resistance against bacteria like E.coli, Salmonella,
and H. pylori.
Friendly bacteria enhance immunity by promoting improved anti-viral
immune system function, increasing NK cell activity, increasing S-IgA,
producing nitric oxide modulating cell mediated immune response,
activating the reticuloendothelial system, promoting a more balanced
production of cytokines, promoting resistance against some autoimmune
processes, evoking anti-Tn antibodies, decreasing IgE-mediated
responses, enhancing immune system response to administered vaccines,
mediating against radiation-induced depression in white blood cells.
In many respects, friendly bacteria can be thought of as having
“adaptogenic” effects on your immune system. They appear to modulate the
nonspecific immune response differently in healthy and hypersensitive
subjects. This is seen as an immuno-stimulatory effect in healthy
subjects, and as a down-regulation of immuno-inflammatory responses in
hypersensitive subjects.
Friendly Bacteria Promote Detoxification by inactivating and
eliminating carcinogens, decreasing mutagenic compounds, decreasing
activity of nitroreductase, and azoreductase, decreasing activity of
B-Glucuronidase, decreasing activity of B-Glucosidase, decreasing
activity of ornithine decarboxylase, decreasing activity of
tryptophanase, decreasing activity of neuraminidase and mucinase,
decreasing levels of polyamines, cresols and indoles, decreasing
ammonia, decreasing levels of nitrates and, nitrites, enhancing liver
function and promoting elimination of bile acids, enhancing cholesterol
metabolism.
Friendly bacteria promote healthy digestion by normalizing stool
volume and regularity
producing digestive enzymes that help digest proteins, carbohydrates,
and fibers decreasing intestinal permeability decreasing food
sensitivities decreasing lactose intolerance decreasing intestinal
inflammation. Friendly bacteria enhance bioavailability of nutrients by
alleviating symptoms of malabsorption increasing the absorption of zinc,
calcium, iron, copper, manganese,
and phosphorous increasing the production of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5,
B6, B12, A, K, folic
acid, biotin, and tocopherols.
Why Do We Include Cultured Fruits, Vegetables, and Spices in these
Probiotics?
The primary reason is that many different compounds with health
benefits have been isolated in fermented foods. Evidence demonstrates
that many of these health factors are formed from the interaction of
beneficial bacteria with the food substrate; however, these health
promoting factors are independent of the beneficial bacteria and are
lost if the fermented food base is not used as a food.
Cultured Fruits, Vegetables, Spices, and other food substances contain
vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals which promote good health, high
levels of vitamin K, tocopherols and vitamin B12 powerful antioxidant
activities anti-mutagenic properties excellent growth promoting
substrates (e.g. act as prebiotics) for friendly bacteria.
Cultured foods also allow for ease of digestion and improved
bioavailability of nutrients increased bioavailability of compounds like
isoflavones and bioflavonoids improved amino acid and protein efficiency
ratios improved stability and retention of vitamin C levels augmentation
of some of the metabolic benefits of these foods improvement of alcohol
metabolism promotion of improved cardiovascular health.
Why should Probiotics or fermented foods be taken consistently?
Even using strains of friendly bacteria that have a great ability to
survive digestion and colonize your digestive tract, there is a tendency
for a gradual decline in the quantity of these bacteria over time. This
decline is substantially worsened with stress, poor dietary choices,
antibiotics and other drugs. In today’s world, with all of it’s modern
pressures, the ability to maintain an optimal intestinal microbial
balance is almost always taxed. It has also actually been estimated that
we consume 1 million times LESS healthy bacteria in our diet today than
our ancient ancestors consumed.
Why do we combine so many strains of good bacteria?
It is simple really, friendly bacteria work better when more of them
are combined together. There are actually hundreds of strains of
bacteria in your digestive system and the friendly bacteria actually
operate as a team, promoting the beneficial effects of each other. The
term “Synergism” best describes the interrelationship of friendly
bacteria. They mutually support each other by producing bacteriocidins
and organic acids that they are resistant to, but which decrease
pathogenic bacteria. In fact, these bacteriocidins are up to 1000X more
active when combined then when they are isolated. But even more
importantly, health effects of one strain of friendly bacteria are often
not duplicated by other strains. So a more complex mixture, combining
more friendly strains of bacteria, translates into more profound
long-term health benefits.
What does blood type have to do with friendly bacteria?
There are two things actually.
First, your blood type antigens are actually prominent in your
digestive tract and, in about 80% of individuals (secretors), are also
prominent in the mucus that lines your digestive tract. Because of this,
many of the bacteria in your digestive tract actually use your blood
type as a preferred food supply. In fact, blood group specificity is
common among intestinal bacteria with almost 1/2 of strains tested
showing some blood type A, B, or O specificity. To give you an idea of
the magnitude of the blood type influence on intestinal microflora, it
has been estimated that someone with blood type B will have up to
50,000X more of some strains of friendly bacteria than either blood type
A or O individuals.
Second, some strains of beneficial bacteria actually can have
lectin-like hemagglutinin activity directed against your blood type.
Why are we so careful about our growth media and cultured food base?
There are many reasons and criteria for our selection of each blood
type’s media and cultured food combinations. First, the media ultimately
dictates how well the friendly bacteria will grow both outside your body
when the product is produced, but also within your body after you have
consumed these supplements. For instance larch arabinogalactan promotes
growth of B. longum, while ginger promotes the growth of L. plantarum.
Second, some foods are exceptional for people of one blood type, but
are either not as beneficial for, or potentially harmful for members of
other blood types. Unfortunately, even culturing does not eliminate all
of the potentially detrimental lectins present in some foods. So, since
these probiotics offer the unique advantage of the included media and
live-cultured, freeze-dried foods, it is essential to provide only the
most beneficial foods.
Third, certain foods when cultured will have substantial impacts of
health and physiology, which can be used to promote specific blood type
health needs. For example, cultured fruits are extremely powerful
antioxidants, while others have dramatic impacts on immune function,
endocrine function, or cardiovascular health.
Fourth, many of these food compounds will act as excellent substrates
to further promote
enhanced digestive system health by decreasing the activity of certain
detrimental enzymes. As an example, cumin decreases the activity of
enzymes like beta-glucuronidase and mucinase, while green tea promotes
improved intestinal balance by decreasing the activity of ornithine
decarboxylase. Blueberry also decreases the activity of ornithine
decarboxylase, and elderberry promotes improved viral resistance and is
a very powerful inhibitor of neuraminidase.
Also most probiotic supplements should be refrigerated. However, the
D’Adamo Probiotic (and something called L.sporogenes) are exceptions.
Most probiotics are centrifuged off of their growth medium. Because of
this they are are considered to be in a condition that can best be
described as “highly stressed”. In effect this means that they are much
less stable than they would be if they were still complexed with their
growth media. I think of this in simple terms…how comfortable would I
be if someone took me away from my home and removed all of my clothes
and left me standing somewhere. Not very stable or comfortable would be
my answer.
Because of this, these type of probiotics absolutely have to be
refrigerated or they would degrade incredibly fast and be absolutely
useless.
Cultured food products on the other hand are a completely separate
entity. Unlike the majority of probiotics found on the market, bacteria
in cultured foods are very stable and are not considered to be under
“high stress”. Because of this the need for refrigeration goes way down.
However, the need to keep them moisture free is paramount.
With respect specifically to the D’Adamo probiotic: these products
start with a certain count of active bacteria. This amount slowly
declines with time (whether or not they are refrigerated), but the
amount listed on the bottle is the amount that will be found at the
expiration date on the bottle. If the product is refrigertaed before
opening, the decline will be slightly (but not substantially less).
After opening the bottle, temperature is not as big a concern as
moisture. Because of this, after the bottle is open, they should be left
unrefrigerated. This is because every time you remove something from the
refrigertaor, open it, reclose it, and re-refrigerate it; you create a
situation where condensation (moisture) is very likely to be generated
within the bottle. This is much worse for this product then temperature.
So if you wish to refrigerate before opening that is fine, but after
opening is not such a good idea. By the way, this same thing happens to
all supplements if they are put in and out of refrigerators and is not
good for most (IF ANY) of them.
The other really important factor is that this product is cultured food
and the other probiotic products are not. Why is this important?
Cultured foods actually have a range of health benefits (and these are
quite substantial) that simply giving the probiotic bacteria will not
duplicate. In effect, the interaction of probiotic bacteria with food
transforms food into a much more powerful health agent. So in my opinion
(and I have looked at virtually every piece of research on probiotic
bacteria and cultured foods), from a long-term health perspective, there
is never any comparison between isolated bacteria and bacteria-rich
cultured foods. Cultured foods provide so much more. This was the
philosophy that drove the creation of these products, because cultured
foods are relatively scarce in diets and as an option in health food
stores.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 28th, 2003 at 5:17 am and is filed under tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.