Open Wide!

Let's talk about your mouth and what goes on in there... The mouth is the beginning of the digestive system. It is where digestion starts. Saliva lubricates the mouth and contains enzymes and microbes that start dissolving foods in the mouth. Teeth are used to pulverize foods, increasing the surface area and contact points for the microbes and enzymes to start breaking down food before they leave the mouth and head down to the stomach where acids macerate the food further. 

Foods bring microbes with them that are good and bad for you and your mouth. They are bringing lots of enzymes (especially if they are raw foods), and sugars. Sugars in your mouth are food for microbes residing in there. As far as the microbes in your mouth, there have been as many as 600 different species of microbes identified in the mouth! All microbes form a biofilm on surfaces. Biofilms are kind of slimy substances that have some nutrients in them and act as a protective blanket for microbes. If this film in not removed it will calcify and become tartar. Biofilms mostly form between teeth and go down along the teeth into the gums below the surface of the gum. This area is known as the "pocket". 

The bacteria that go into the pockets are the anaerobic bacteria that  produce hydrogen sulfide, the source of most bad breath. The hydrogen sulfide combines with water molecules and forms sulfuric acid (there are other acids that are produced by some other anaerobic bacteria that also colonize the pocket and the rest of the mouth. The acids wear down the bone under your gums and in your teeth. The acid is very irritating and feels like a mild burning. The irritation leads to bleeding and inflammation of the gums, known as gingivitis. If gingivitis is not addressed, it will progress into periodontal disease. At that point, more drastic measures are needed such as gum surgery, removal of teeth, bone grafts, dentures or implants, etc. Periodontal disease can be very painful and lead to other problems such as heart disease.

• Your best methods of prevention are to floss regularly...preferably after every meal. This will remove large particles of food left between the teeth and will also scrape off the film and even some small bits of tartar that have begun to form.   
• Also recommended is using a Water Pik®. This machine uses water to flush out between teeth and can also flush out shallow pockets, removing the bacteria and acids in the pocket. Use this machine (they also make portable ones you can take with you when you travel) after flossing. We recommend adding a tablespoon of Dr. Don's® Oral Rinse in the reservoir of a Water Pik®. It adds several types of antioxidants that help fight inflammation in the mouth.
• The latest development in brushing is a sonic brush. The sonic brush vibrates at a high rate/frequency. This frequency suppresses the growth of pathogenic bacteria and can also help loosen tartar. This is exactly how our Dr. Don's® products work by the way! The ceramics in our Dr. Don's® Tooth Powder emit an ultrasonic frequency that stops pathogenic bacteria growth in your mouth.
• Probiotics are also being studied for their effects on gingivitis, periodontal disease, and bad breath. We recommend using Pro EM•1® diluted with water as part of your oral care program. Dilute 1 tsp of Pro EM•1® in 8oz of water, swish, gargle, and swallow after you have finished flossing, irrigating, and brushing.

Pro EM•1® and Dr. Don's® are available at TeraGanix.com.

Please subscribe to our blog and share with your friends. Future posts will include more details about advancements in oral probiotic care, frequency and bacteria, and more.

Probiotics And Weight (fat) Loss

Over the past 10 years there have been several studies on the use of various probiotic strains in weight loss. Some of the first studies came from the idea of trying figure which microbes were associated with obese and lean subjects. There was an interesting finding that two different phylum were associated with these. There was a ratio between the Bacteroidetes phylum and Firmicutes phylum. The higher amount of Bacteroidetes group was associated with lean subjects. If the balance between the two (a 3:1 ratio) was off in the favor of the firmicutes phylum, the subjects tended to not lose weight. It is interesting to note that the Lactobacillus genus is in the firmicutes phylum and most of the bacteroidetes phylum contains pathogenic organisms. 

Since these studies were first done in the early 2000's, there have been many many more. Several of which cite various strains of lactobacillus having positive effects on lean muscle mass and decreases in adipose (fat) tissue. n a newer, 2014 article in the British Journal of Nutrition, Sanchez et. al. were able to identify some effects of a lactobacillus bacteria that aided in weight loss in obese women in a 24-week period. There was "a significant reduction in fat mass in women (Sanchez et al. p 1517) while "fat regain was observed in women in the placebo group during the weight-maintenance phase, suggesting that probiotics may help obese women to maintain a healthy body weight."(Sanchez et al. p 1518). Unfortunately, for men, there were no differences between the control group and the treated group in this study. There are other studies that do show fat loss benefits for men as well.
  
Muscle weights on average 3 times that of fat tissue, the lack of weight loss would make sense. This is in fact one of the reasons livestock owners feed probiotics to their animals. It helps the animals gain muscle (meat) with less feed. The Sanchez et al., study hints at the benefit of lactic acid bacteria helping in metabolizing food, reducing fat, and increasing lean muscle mass. This is the goal of fitness: decreasing fat and increasing lean muscle. When people start a fitness program they, depending on the workout routine, they may actually gain weight in the first few weeks of the program. This is considered a good sign for a few reasons. This means that the person is building lean muscle. The muscle will help support their body as workout routines get more intense, but it also means that they will begin to burn more calories during their resting phases as muscle also burns more calories.

Although we would like a silver bullet; to be able to just take a pill and watch the pounds shed off, it is not going to happen. However, taking a mixed probiotic is likely going to help build more lean muscle mass, improve digestion and energy conversion, which will improve the overall health of a person. The probiotic will not do it alone, but will help. Combine the use of a probiotic in your daily weight loss and nutrition program and track your progress. Take measurements, photos, and notes and stick to it! EM-X Gold Prebiotic, EM-X Gold Sea Salt, and Pro EM-1 Probiotic are just some of the products you can add to your diet.


Marina Sanchez; Darimont, Christian; Drapeau, Vicky; Emady-Azar, Shahram; Lepage, Melissa; Rezzonico, Enea; Ngom-Bru, Catherine; Berger, Bernard; Philippe, Lionel; Ammon-Zuffrey, Corinne; Leone, Patricia; Chevrier, Genevieve; St-Amand, Emmanuelle; Marette, Andre; Dore, Jean; and Temblay, Angelo. "Effective of Lactobacillus rhamnosus CGMCC1.3724 Supplementation On Weight Loss and Maintenance In Obese Men and Women." British Journal of Nutrition. (2014) 111. 1507-1519.

Image from Instant Health Makeover.com.

What are some of the enzymes in Pro EM-1?

In our last post we discussed enzymes and how they are all produced by microbes. Well, considering there are 6 different species of microbes in Pro EM-1 and each one can produce a multitude of enzymes, we thought it would be a good idea to list out some of these enzymes. It is important to note that microbes produce enzymes when they are exposed to various compounds. Also, keep in mind that these metabolites are all included in Pro EM-1.

Here are enzymes are produce by just Lactobacillus casei:

It gets really cool when you start to look at what each one of these does. And, with the help of Google, it doesn't take too long to not only find out what each microbes produces, but also what each metabolite does. Most of these compounds have been researched pretty heavily so finding the info is pretty easy.  Here are just a few examples from Wikipedia:
Esterase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esterase) is a hydrolase enzyme that splits esters into an acid and an alcohol in a chemical reaction with water called hydrolysis. A wide range of different esterases exist that differ in their substrate specificity, their protein structure, and their biological function.

Esterase (C4)

Esterase-lipase (C8)

Lipase (C14)

Leucine aminopeptidase 

Valine aminopeptidase  

Cystine aminopeptidase

Trypsin 

Chymotrypsin

Alkaline phosphatase 

Acid phosphatase 

Phosphohydrolase

alpha-Galactosidase 

beta-Galactosidase 

beta-Glucuronidase

alpha-Glucosidase 

beta-Glucosidase 

alpha-Glucosaminidase 

alpha-Mannosidase 

alpha-Fucosidase

Chymotrypsin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chymotrypsin)is a digestive enzyme component of pancreatic juice acting in the duodenum where it performs proteolysis, the breakdown of proteins and polypeptides.

alpha-Galactosidase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-galactosidase) This enzyme is a homodimeric glycoprotein that hydrolyses the terminal alpha-galactosyl moieties from glycolipids and glycoproteins. It predominantly hydrolyzes ceramide trihexoside, and it can catalyze the hydrolysis of melibiose into galactose and glucose. 

alpha-Fucosidase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-L-fucosidase)  is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction

an alpha-L-fucoside + H₂O L-fucose + an alcohol