The Gut Health Revolution

Every significant revolution in history spread at grassroots/word-of-mouth...

For those of you who visited the website previously, you’ll be aware that my passion for all things related to health and recovery became firmly cemented in my psyche during a miraculous recovery from brain damage and hemispherical paralysis after being hit by a plane whilst in free-fall at an airshow. At the time I was a professional stuntman, and my experiences and recovery are fully recounted in the book “A Stuntman’s Guide to Surviving Ground Zero.”

Consequently, over the last couple of decades I have been almost obsessively engaged in discovering what works, what doesn’t work, the myths, the mayhem and the truly enlightening stuff. For several years I was engaged in life coaching and helping people recover lost ground or exceeding their perceived and self-imposed limitations. So a natural progression was to reach a broader audience, sharing knowledge and information that would empower people to make better-informed decisions; and give them access to some true health-promoting force multipliers. Bearing all that in mind, it was a logical evolution; register a website and fill it with really useful information; the good stuff.

 

And here you are - Welcome!

From the very beginning, the intention was to only feature the very best health game-changing hacks and products. The first version of the website I introduced the astounding benefits of fulvic acid, a substance I was introduced to just 8 years ago. In one of the articles featured on the previous website, I lamented that I could not understand why fulvic acid was not the number one supplement on everybody’s list; it seems as if fulvic acid has not yet come into its own yet. Fulvic acid is a game-changer, demonstrating one of the broadest positive health footprints of any supplement you might nominate; it’s incomparable. It does so much good it’s sometimes hard to believe a single molecule can achieve so much and so fulvic acid has been extensively researched in many peer-reviewed articles. It was when reviewing an article by Dr. Axe on the benefits of fulvic acid (https://draxe.com/fulvic-acid/) that I was introduced to the concept that the microbes in the gut love and thrive on this completely beneficial substance too. There was the bridge between fulvic acid and the gut, and after doing some more searching relative to gut health, my primary focus changed to gut health, because…

The key to your physical and mental health - your overall wellbeing - is your gut.

The human gut is an intensely fascinating organ largely misunderstood by medical science until the completion of the most expensive experiment ever undertaken; the human genome project which provided some very surprising results. It turns out that a human’s DNA - within the totality of what makes you a human being - is less than 1%. It has now been established that the other 99% of the DNA making you a complete human being you get from your microbes - yes, your germs! You are an individual but you are also a collective! This led to the next experiment, the ongoing human microbiome project (HMP), and since that has been running, our understanding of the human gut and the symbiotic relationship we have with our microbes has grown in leaps and bounds.

For example, when I began researching the human gut, it was estimated that there were approximately 4,500+ species and strains of bacteria in the gut. It has now been established that there are an estimated 20,000+ species and strains of bacteria, and the count is continuing. Most of these you got during childbirth, through breastfeeding and rolling around in the dirt when we weren’t so obsessed with cleanliness, antibacterial soaps and when modern farming methods weren’t sterilising our soil of life-giving bacteria; and with it our food.

It was Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine who said: “Every ailment known to man can be traced back to the gut”
and modern scientific discoveries are proving him right. Consider that Hippocrates lived to the age of 80 when most of his generation were dying of old age at 40. Evidently, Hippocrates knew something.

There are some fascinating facts about the gut which are becoming better known now, many of these facts a direct result of the HMP, and I’ll touch on a few now. I will continue with other articles throughout the website which will be interesting and informative. This is particularly pertinent to the INNOVO-ReGenesis flagship product - FLORISH Spore Probiotics - we are going to introduce to you as it truly is a gut health game changer!

When we are talking about the gut, we are talking of the physical organs of the small and large intestine / colon and the trillions of bacteria (single celled organisms) that inhabit this part of you in the symphony of life.

Just a few facts about your gut:

• For every human cell in your body, you have 100 times more bacteria with which we share DNA
• There are more immune cells in your gut than in the rest of your body put together - your human gut comprises around 70% of your immune system
• There are an equivalent amount of lymphatic cells in your gut as there are in your spleen
• If you thought your skin was the largest organ of your body here is an update - for every square centimeter of skin you have 2 square meters of gut surface area - in total, enough to cover 2 tennis courts
• All of the hormones produced throughout your endocrine system are also produced in the gut
  For example: thyroxine is produced by the thyroid but is also produced in the gut
• There is a large collection of neurons similar to brain cells in your gut, referred to as the gut-brain
• Several neurotransmitters, such as serotonin (vital for us to feel good) are produced in the gut. 80% of your serotonin is produced in your gut by your microbes
• The brain does not regulate the gut, in fact, the opposite appears true. The gut can and does influence your brain via the vagus nerve. A healthy microbiome, therefore, conveys upon its host a healthy mindset, resilient immune system and a robustly healthy human host. This is an intelligent design and a wonderful arrangement.

Since I began researching deeper and deeper into how marvelous our gut is, I coined the phrase which has become something of a mantra:

“You’ve got to love your microbes!”

And I’ll tell you why.

First, we have a little bit of bad news and hard facts to plough through, but some really good news to follow - so hang in there.

Tragically, no other organ in your body is as assaulted by our modern lifestyles as the human gut - from overuse of antibiotics for every ailment, Wi-Fi saturation, processed foods, too much sugar, chlorinated and fluoridated water, all the artificial sweeteners are deadly to our life-supporting microbes, to mention just a few. You also have to include the antibiotics we get in our beef and chicken, because antibiotics indiscriminately wipe out both good and bad bacteria, upsetting our gut microbiome’s delicate balance. And here in South Africa (and in America) we have introduced glyphosate into our food chain with devastating effect on our health.

All the elements listed above affect the gut but it’s almost as if glyphosate was engineered specifically to attack the gut. The manufacturers of Roundup - containing glyphosate - stated that this does not harm human beings but this is not true and currently, there is a lawsuit tackling their false representation in this regard. Glyphosate attacks the shikimate pathway - the metabolic pathway - of our life-sustaining microbes, killing them. Have you ever wondered why so many allergies have appeared out of almost nowhere and previously rare inflammatory diseases have now become common? This can all be traced back to leaky gut, known in medical parlance as endotoxemia. In very simplistic terms, the integrity of the gut  - which is a single cell wall thick is maintained by proteins called tight junctions - and as a direct correlation to the devastation visited on the microbes - which regulate the integrity of these tight junctions - the human gut is leaking.

Dr. Steven Gundry says that glyphosate will destroy your microbial population and accelerate the magnitude of leaky gut. When you have time, watch the following video.

We are seeing the results of this across the full spectrum of our society - allergies, the once rare inflammatory diseases now rampant with mental disorders such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and dementia affecting 1 in 10 older folk (and that number is increasing), systemic lupus, arterial sclerosis, asthma, arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis - everybody you know either has 1 of these or knows someone who suffers from 1! These can all be traced back to leaky gut. As the gut becomes porous, broken down pieces of bacteria called LPS - which, if the colon maintained its integrity would be excreted - now leak into the circulatory system and this wreaks havoc. First of all, the immune system goes into overdrive - it becomes inflamed, recognising the broken pieces of bacteria as actual bacteria, so it begins doing its job: it attacks what it perceives as a deadly invasion. What then starts out as low-grade inflammation throughout the body, if unchecked, leads to inflammatory diseases.

So do we have a solution? Has modern medical science come up with anything marvelous to counter this? If anything, modern medicine is in a boom time, with immense profits being generated for the treating of symptoms of this explosion of inflammatory diseases. Once again, my research eventually led me back to Hippocrates who said:

“Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.”

In the old days - before we became so paranoid about cleanliness, before we thought that all germs were all bad (when, in fact, the vast majority of germs are beneficial) - we would still unknowingly ingest the spores of many beneficial bacteria in our food, fruit and vegetables - even bits of dirt and germ rich soil played a vital part. In their spore form, as nature designed it, these germs were able to easily survive the harsh gastric passage to arrive and germinate in your gut. In fact, our relationship with some of these spore-producing bacteria spans back to time immemorial - they are what is known as gut commensurate, meaning they belong in your gut as their primary habitat. When we find beneficial spore-producing bacteria in soil, the soil is just a vector that the bacteria are using to move from one host to another - in harmony with the governing intelligence of nature. Yet because of modern farming methods and, in particular, the overuse of glyphosate - which is now in our food chain and in our water system - this has produced a toxic environment and we have to find a supplementary source to counter this overwhelming attack on our human gut. Our health and wellbeing depend on it.

The supplement solution - Spore Probiotics

My journey into spore probiotics began whilst I was researching Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt and his application of spore-producing Bacillus subtilis with autistic patients. His observation was that not only did food intolerances decrease but cognitive abilities improved quite dramatically as well. During this time my cousin contacted me from the UK to say that he wanted to put my mother into frail care.  Her mind was slipping, she’d become reclusive and had many gut issues - IBS, diverticulitis and incontinence requiring her to wear dignity robbing adult nappies. She tended to repeat herself many times in any conversation and forget the conversations she had had with us a few minutes before. At the time I was unable to travel to the UK and distressed about my mother’s condition. There appeared to be 3 manufacturers of spore probiotics in the UK and the USA and I sourced 1 of the spore probiotic products available in the UK for her and had it shipped to her.

The results were quite profound.

Within the first 2 weeks the improvements to her mindset were clearly apparent - she felt lighter and more positive, more like her old self - a positive impact through the gut-brain connection. After 6 weeks the IBS had settled down and the diverticulitis was a thing of the past. She now repeats herself no more than the average 82-year-old woman.  Her quality of life was dramatically increased in multiple areas with only 1 product and she has her mind back. Currently, she is walking 5 km per day, sometimes twice, come rain, wind or shine. Her mental improvement has been quite dramatic too as she reintegrated sociologically and is seeking to get a job in the local library as a volunteer. 

I include this study in this article as an example (https://universityhealthnews.com/daily/depression/best-probiotics-for-mood-enhancing-the-gut-brain-connection-with-psychobiotics/). There is a post on the website with all the corroborative studies supporting the effectivity of our flagship spore probiotic - FLORISH.

By improving her gut health through the use of spore probiotics, my mother got a fresh lease on a productive life and I wanted to bring this product to South Africa. Unfortunately the overseas spore probiotic products prove horrendously expensive - at £ 55 for the market leader’s formulation of the key 5 Bacillus spore producing bacteria, even the British are complaining on the blogs - yet the sales continue to increase month by month because the product works exceptionally well. Testimonial after testimonial of radical health turnarounds from inflammatory diseases and all gut issues abound on their website.

Going local by bringing FLORISH home

I started seeking out local expertise and was eventually introduced to possibly the only microbiologist eminently qualified in the specific field of spore-producing bacteria - albeit for agricultural purposes as even the farmers are beginning realise that the health and wellbeing of our crops and the stomachs of their livestock is dependent on the microbes in the soil. We began the research and development phase, basing the formulation on the 5 Bacillus spores that were proving so effective overseas and then improved on the formula by embedding the microbes in a substrate of fulvic acid. Next, we moved into full-scale production from 100 liter test batches and proof of concept, to multiple ton production. This upscaling, coupled to horrendously expensive spray drying at the only facility licensed to do with spores in South Africa, enabled the overall process to guarantee spore counts of 2 billion per capsule. The resultant economy of scale has enabled FLORISH Spore Probiotics to be introduced into the South African market at an affordable price. Not only does the FLORISH spore count of more than 2 billion spores per capsule match the best that the world can offer but it is the only spore probiotic combined with health game-changing fulvic acid!

FLORISH Spore Probiotic’s performance on the South African market

Remember at the beginning of this article I stated every significant revolution in history spread at grassroots/word-of-mouth?  In March 2019 I started knocking on health shop doors. Every day I would call on different health shops and throughout the month I had visited all those within the Pretoria and Johannesburg area that I knew of at least twice. Towards the end of the month, I had broken into only 1 place. It was a new product, people had to be educated into the fact that this was the new paradigm in gut health - I was convinced of it, of course, but the market seemed resistant to what they perceived as just another probiotic. I was using it, friends and family had started using it and we were all experiencing great results which gave me the idea: I began giving samples to the owners and salespeople in the health shops to try out for themselves. This strategy proved to be a winner and made all the difference because FLORISH works! With no advertising to date - other than pamphlets I put together for the various distributors and no supportive website after having to take down the old website because of potential copyright infringement on the name - the resultant sales have been purely results and word-of-mouth driven. FLORISH works and the word began to spread and sales began to increase until I was meeting my basic overheads in April. In May FLORISH sales tripled and in June they more than doubled - all because FLORISH works and people talk about good things that work for them.

It was then that Serelda joined the FLORISH team to take care of all of the administrative aspects of a growing business and I was able to spend more time and focus on setting up and developing this - the new website. This is to serve the purpose of providing valuable information, interesting articles, post testimonials and list the distributors who stock FLORISH Spore Probiotics.

Enjoy your journey and welcome aboard,

Sebastian

***

Dosing guidelines for FLORISH — the key, especially if a person is more sensitive, is to start SLOW and gradually build up — this is to help the person not suffer too many detox / “die off” effects, though this really is so individualistic. Some people experience this, others not at all.

We highly recommend users to read the package insert, for more info on the product, and to familiarise themselves with possible detox symptoms.

FLORISH is best taken with food, or right after a meal — the dose can be sprinkled on food or stirred into non-carbonated beverages. When first starting on FLORISH, during the possible detox period, many have found it helpful to take the dose in the evening, with /after supper, before sleeping, so that any detox symptoms (such as a headache) are lessened, or not felt at all, whilst asleep.

The typical ADULT dosage is as follows:

WEEK 1: 1 capsule every other day

If the person is okay on this …

WEEK 2: 1 capsule daily

If the person is okay on this …

WEEK 3: Full adult dose of 2 capsules taken together every day

For sensitive people, dosage can start at 1/4, 1/3, or 1/2 a capsule every other day, and gradually (even over several weeks) increase to the full adult dose.

Dosing guidelines are to be scaled accordingly for CHILDREN:

Children over 10 years: 2 capsules per day 

Children 5 - 10 years: 1 capsule per day

Children under 5 years: 1/2 a capsule a day

Dosage for young children (three months and older) can start with as little as a sprinkle.

FLORISH can be taken during antibiotic treatment — however, it’s not to be taken with the antibiotic, but must be taken 4 hours away from the antibiotic dose.

FLORISH is produced in South Africa and has a 5 year expiry date.

Disclaimer: FLORISH Spore Probiotic is a natural probiotic food supplement, therefore no medical claims are made or inferred, no claims regarding ameliorating, curing or positively affecting any medical conditions, the above content provided for informational purposes based on information and studies undertaken by numerous progressive and leading probiotic manufacturers worldwide.