Hypertension – How does “Know Your Numbers” become “Lower Your Numbers” with Prebiotic Fibers

High blood pressure is very common – 1 in 10 Americans has high blood pressure. Since 1984, the month of May has been proclaimed National Blood Pressure Awareness Month in the United States. The official motto of the blood pressure awareness initiative is “know your numbers”. Unfortunately, many people that have hypertension do not know that they have it. So self awareness and education is key to preventing the possible catastrophic outcomes – heart attack and stroke.

High Blood Pressure Awareness

High blood pressure is related to high salt or sodium intake, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, and is part of the metabolic syndrome. The later consists of hypertension, overweight coronary heart factors and early diabetes. A significant finding in many of these persons is an abnormal mix of colon bacteria. These bugs are now front and center in the medical community because we now know that a healthy mix of bacteria provide many health benefits. On the other side of the coin, it is known that when bad bacteria predominate in the gut, that this seems to lead to a leaky abnormal gut wall. In turn, bacteria and endotoxins (commonly called toxins) can seep through and into the blood stream. They have been implicated in a number of medical conditions.

What to do?

Each of the above conditions requires the physician’s overview. But prebiotics can play a role in their treatment. Prebiotics are natural plant fibers that exert a beneficial role in correcting the abnormal condition in the colon. As these conditions come back to normal, it can be assumed that blood pressure control is better. Hypertension treatment, especially when it is combined with other of the above conditions, generally consists of:

• Less salt
• Blood sugar control
• Weight control
• An increase in plant foods that contain prebiotic fiber
• Regular exercise
• A diet rich in prebiotics or a prebiotic supplement such as Prebiotin

Plants rich in prebiotics

The general recommendation for total fiber intake each day is 35 grams in males and 25 grams for females depending on weight. When you read the labels on food, you will find that the word fiber is listed. This refers to total fiber including both insoluble and soluble fibers. These are both good and each provide a wide range of benefits. However, it is the soluble fibers that have the most benefit and within this group it is the prebiotic soluble fibers that are the best. You find these in onions, garlic, leeks, asparagus, yams, agave, chicory root, Jerusalem artichokes, and others. If you eat the recommended amount of total fiber in each day, you are likely getting enough prebiotics. To be sure a pure chicory root supplement like Prebiotin can be taken. A medical article on hypertension and prebiotics is provided below.

Anti-hypertensive Properties of Plant-Based Prebiotics
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2812835/?tool=pubmed

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Prebiotin Prebiotics to be featured on “Healthy House Call” Radio Talk Show

Jackson GI Medical’s Prebiotin Family of Prebiotic Dietary Supplements will be featured on “Healthy House Call,” a live call-in radio program that airs on Phoenix’s KFNX News / Talk radio and is streamed live on the internet. Follow this link to listen to the broadcast.

The next program is scheduled to air May 5, 2011 at 12:00p.m.edt / 9:00am mdt and will feature a live interview with Prebiotin’s maker, Frank W. Jackson M.D. The daily show is broadcast live from Healthy Habits Health Foods located at 6029 N 7th Street, in Phoenix, AZ. Additional segments will air in May and June of this year.

“We’re extremely excited to talk with the show’s host Dr. Dan Koontz about the importance of dietary prebiotics and educate his listeners on the health benefits realized by daily use of Prebiotin,”said Dr. Jackson, founder and chairman of Jackson GI Medical. “While bad bacteria spawn sickness, the good colonic bacteria brings health benefits such as stronger bones, strengthened immunity, reduced constipation, greater appetite control, Better glycemic, diabetic control and reduced blood triglyceride levels,” adds Jackson.

The prebiotic fibers in Prebiotin, Oligofructose-Enriched-Inulin, or OEI, are proven to stimulate good bacteria growth throughout the entire colon, thus optimizing the prebiotic benefits realized by taking it daily.

Prebiotin is an all-natural, plant-derived, full-spectrum prebiotic fiber. It’s made from chicory root and comes as a powder that can be stirred into liquids or sprinkled on cereal or oatmeal. It reaches your colon intact and nourishes the good bacteria living there.

Jackson GI Medical offers Prebiotin in four formulations:

• Prebiotin Prebiotic Fiber
• Prebiotin Heart Health with oat bran and psyllium
• Prebiotin Regularity/Diverticulosis with wheat bran and psyllium
• Prebiotin Bone Health with calcium and vitamin D

It costs about .60 cents a serving. In the greater Phoenix area Prebiotin can be found at Healthy Habits Health Food and twoCooper Nutrition locations.

Additional live broadcasts featuring Prebiotin Prebiotics are scheduled for:

• May 5th – 12:00p.m.edt / 9:00am mdt;
• May 19th – 12:00p.m.edt / 9:00am mdt;
• June 2nd – 12:00p.m.edt / 9:00am mdt
• June 16th 12:00p.m.edt / 9:00am mdt.

Additional information about Prebiotin can be found by visiting www.prebiotin.com. Inquiries about offering Prebiotin in your store should be sent to retailsupport@jacksongi.com.

About Jackson GI Medical

Founded by Frank W. Jackson, M.D., Gastroenterologist, Jackson GI Medical is dedicated to the responsible development and marketing of medically credible nutritional supplements in an all-too-often irresponsible marketplace. We back our product with third-party medical research, and emphasize no-nonsense, no-hype educational materials on our site. A nutritionally-aware customer is our favorite customer, so please contact us if you have any suggestions. Or, visit our corporate website at http://www.jacksongi.com.

About Frank W. Jackson, M.D.

Dr. Jackson was educated at Princeton, Johns Hopkins and the University of Pennsylvania and practiced gastroenterology for almost 40 years. He is the founder of several companies, including Jackson GI Medical, Chek-Med Systems, GI Supply and Meducate. Dr. Jackson leads product development and medical research efforts for the company.

About Dr. Dan Koontz

Health Star Talk Show Host Dr. Dan Koontz is a nutritional expert with a medical background and is a walking talking encyclopedia of health and wellness knowledge. He has over 25 years of successful and market dominant broadcasting experience as a radio talk show host.

About “Healthy House Call”

“Healthy House Call” is broadcast live on KFNX ‘News-Talk Radio’ 1100., Monday through Friday 9 AM to 10 AM from Healthy Habit Health Foods It is also streamed broadcast live via the World Wide Web at www.healthyhabithealthfoods.com, and www.1100KFNX.com; click the “Listen Live” button for streaming audio. Millions from all over the world have internet access to the show.

About Healthy Habit Health Foods

Healthy Habit Health Foods is the most stocked and best priced health store in the greater Phoenix area and is located at 6029 N 7th Street, Phoenix. Josh Hartman, the owner of Healthy Habit Health Foods is the executive producer of the show.

About Cooper’s Nutrition

Cooper’s Nutrition offers a diverse selection of products at discounted prices and feature a variety of vitamins, health supplements and specialty diet products, including a large line of gluten-free offerings. Cooper’s Nutrition operates two full-service health and nutritional supplement stores – 36889 N Tom Darlington, Carefree and 20701 N. Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale, Az.

Press inquiries should be directed to glutenfree@jacksongi.com or 855-GoodGut (855-466-3488)

Metabolic Syndrome and Brain Function – The Role of Prebiotics

Metabolic syndrome is very common. It consists of hypertension, overweight, abnormal cholesterol and/or triglycerides, prediabetes or actual diabetes, and, often, heart disease with atherosclerosis. A recent study published in Neurology (the peer-review journal published by the American Academy of Neurology) reported some remarkable findings on this condition:

1. The bacteria mix in the colon, called the microflora, is abnormal. This, in turn, leads to damage to the wall of the gut whereby the gut becomes leaky or permeable and certain toxins and even bacteria leach into the bowel wall. Some of these move into the blood stream and cause further problems.
2. It is known that certain plant fibers, called prebiotics, stimulate the good bacteria already in the gut to grow and displace the bad ones. It seems that this then improves and even corrects the leaky gut problem.
3. A recent large study of people aged 65 and older showed that those with the metabolic syndrome had a significant decline in their mental function as measured by standard cognitive function tests (link below). Wow!

So, the metabolic syndrome not only leads to atherosclerosis and heart disease, but also to a decline in the way our brain works.

The Solution

Correct the metabolic syndrome with the standard means of weight and blood sugar control. And, correct the bacterial imbalance in the gut with prebiotics. Our Prebiotin is the premier prebiotic. Since cholesterol and/or triglyceride are always part of the metabolic syndrome, our Prebiotin Heart Health preparation is recommended.

Metabolic syndrome and cognitive decline in French elders

http://www.neurology.org/gca?allch=&submit=Go&gca=neurology%3B76%2F6%2F518#top-1

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Fatty Liver Disease, Gut Bateria and Prebiotic Fiber

Probiotics and Stomach Acid

A question I frequently get is about probiotics and how to protect these possibly beneficial bugs from the very harsh stomach acid. There is more to this question than meets the eye, so let’s look at several parts of the probiotic picture. First, probiotics are bacteria, present in yogurt, other dairy products and pills. The hope is that these probiotics will establish a presence in the lower gut and render beneficial health effects.

Probiotics Are Live Organisms

As such they can live or die under a variety of circumstances. One such circumstance is time. Some bacteria make spores which can live for many years and then blossom and grow. Most probiotics do not make spores, so they gradually die off if they do not find a comfortable place to grow, meaning a moist, warm, friendly environment like the colon. However, when a probiotic sits on a shelf in a store, the bugs gradually die. The longer they are in a warehouse or on a store shelf the fewer live bacteria will be present. Refrigeration likely prolongs the life of probiotics but we don’t know for which ones and for how long. Most manufacturers will not tell you.

Yogurt and Probiotics

You can be sure that yogurt and other such dairy products have fresh, live bacteria in them. Plus, it is refrigerated. These are two good things. However, we do not know how many bacteria are in a serving and manufacturers do not put this on the labels. You could be getting a very small dose which would not be enough to make a difference. Additionally, many of these bacteria will be killed by stomach acid, especially when eaten with food.

Probiotics and Stomach Acid

Here is the tricky part of the probiotic puzzle. Stomach acid is very, very strong. It does and will kill the majority of bacteria that get into the stomach each day. So, how do you protect the probiotic bacteria you take from this “bacteria execution chamber” which everyone has inside them? Here are some things you can do. First, take the probiotic on an empty stomach. When the stomach is empty, it is not making much acid. You can open a capsule and mix it with a small amount of water. The stomach will empty out liquid in 15-20 minutes, but will keep food in it for 60-90 minutes. During this time it grinds the food up and mixes it with acid and harsh enzymes which are designed to get the food ready for absorption in the small intestine. Another trick you can do is to mix the probiotic with some bicarbonate of soda, a strong alkaline powder. This will neutralize the stomach acid temporarily until the probitoic can get through the stomach.

Coating a Probiotic

Some manufacturers will coat the bacteria with a whey (wheat) protein to resist stomach acid. We do not know how well this works and it is not for a celiac or wheat intolerant person. Another substance is called alginate which coats and protects the bacteria until it gets into the small intestine where it is safe. Again, we don’t really know how well this works. It sounds like it should. You have to check with the manufacturer to know if this is part of their production technique.

So here are the summary points:

• Use a refrigerated probiotic which has just come onto the store shelf. The longer into the future is the expiration date, the more live probiotics are likely to be in the capsule.
• Take a probiotic on an empty stomach with 4-6 oz of water. Even better, twist or cut the capsule and empty the powdered bacteria into a glass, add the water and a teaspoon of soda bicarbonate to neutralize the stomach acid.
• Yogurt is great and most people get a good feeling that they are doing something good for their gut. We don’t know how much, but the adverisers tell us we will almost live forever if we eat their product.
• There are some probiotics that are helpful for certain gastrointestinal diseases. Your physician is the person to help you make the right choice.

Prebiotics and Probiotics

No discussion of probiotics would be complete without mentioning prebiotics. A prebiotic is not a probiotic. A prebiotic is a specialized plant fiber that easily gets through the stomach unchanged and the feeds the good colon bacteria which everyone already has in their colon. That’s right. We have over a 1000 species of bacteria in the colon and many of these are the good gals and guys. Feeding them good prebiotic plant fiber is the key to creating a rich furnace of potent good bacteria. You can learn more about prebiotics from the 2 links below.

Learn about prebiotics on our website:

The Benefits of Prebiotics

Prebiotic Differences

Frequently Asked Questions about Prebiotics

Learn about health benefits of prebiotics: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20920376

Fiber - A Matter of Life and Death

There seems to be a never ending influx of science articles on dietary fiber and its health benefits or the absence of any such outcomes. Still the article published on-line recently merits our close attention. The reason for this is that the study was conducted on an enormous number of people – 567,169 people aged 50-71 were surveyed over a 9 year period. No study anywhere else in the world comes close to these numbers. That is why the outcomes are so significant. They are believable and will remain a benchmark long into the future.

So, what did the study show?

Both men and women were split into 5 groups depending on how much fiber they ingested each day. This ranged from 12.6 grams to 29.4 grams per day for men and 10.8 to 25.8 grams for women. The results showed the following:

• There was a decreased death rate in both men and women which improved from the lowest to the highest fiber intake
• This improved longevity was seen for heart, infectious and respiratory diseases
• There was significant improvement in cancer death for men but not for women
• It was found that the people who had the highest fiber intake and the best survival also had reduced their red meat ingestion

Increasing dietary fiber is simply a matter of life and death. It is that simple. An important part of the fiber story is that fiber is present in 2 types. Insoluble fibers are generally not fermented by colon bacteria while soluble fibers are fermented.

Each of these fibers has health benefits. They are best when both are ingested together. Our Prebiotin product is a pure soluble fiber. Prebiotin-Heart Health and Prebiotin-Regularity/Diverticulosis have generous portions of both types of fiber, each with 11.5 grams per dose. Taken twice a day would provide 23 grams, which is the best point in the above study. Ingesting generous portions of vegetables and fruit would kick this total even higher.

There is now a great deal of information on fiber and the following which will be looked at in subsequent blogs:

• Blood Pressure
• Lipids and Cholesterol
• Glucose and Type 2 diabetes
• Carcinogens in the diet

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/archinternmed.2011.18

RELATED LINKS

The Fiber Content of Foods

The Benefits of Prebiotics

Prebiotic Content of Foods

Autism and The Gut Microbiota

The national debate on autism is vigorous. Why are we now seeing so much of this entity? Are we just looking harder for the diagnosis? I don’t think so. Parents are up in arms. Pediatricians are tuned in more than ever. The media covers the story extensively. Here are the theories on the suspected causes:

• Vaccines
• Genetics
• Environmental Factors
• Diet

There may be one more to consider:

• The Gut Bacteria, or the Microbiota

We in gastroenterology have seen an explosion of interest and research in the bacteria in the gut and how they relate to health and disease. A recent research study reports a possible connection between autism and bad gut bacteria. See Autism and the Gut Bacteria or Microbiota for the complete article.

Oprah's O Magazine features an article on Gut Microbiota

I have been promoting the use of prebiotics for quite a few years. It is rewarding to see it go mainstream. Well done, and to the point. Making a well stated recommendation for prebiotic supplementation could have added to the message. Here are some excerpts. Follow to read the entire article.

Many types of bacteria are fighting it out in your digestive tract, and the winners can determine your risk for a range of health problems. Here's how to get the right mix.

Your belly is a popular place: As many as 100 trillion microbes call it home. Many of them are beneficial bacteria that process hard-to-digest foods, produce nutrients, and—as we're now learning—guard against disease. Yet your gut is also filled with "bad" bacteria that release toxins and are increasingly associated with a range of health problems. So how do you cultivate beneficial bacteria and force the harmful ones out? Here's where new research says to start.

Feed the good bugs.
Intestinal bacteria need to eat, and mounting evidence indicates that beneficial bugs prefer nutrients called prebiotics, which are primarily found in high-fiber foods including onions, garlic, bananas, artichokes, many greens and (supplements.)

Pick the right probiotics.
You can also tilt your balance toward good bugs simply by eating more of them—in the form of probiotics, which are live bacteria contained in foods and supplements.

Avoid bacteria-harming drugs.
The antibiotics we take to kill pathogens also lay waste to the bacteria in our digestive tract. Research from Stanford University published last September found that taking two courses of antibiotics, spaced six months apart, changed the composition of good and bad intestinal bugs, disrupting the overall balance.