Dear Friends,

As the holidays approach and we are about to celebrate the Thanksgiving Holiday, we would like to thank you, our dear friends, for your dedication and courage in healing, supporting and giving of yourselves to so many people. We thought of you when we designed the Therapeutic Foods, and embraced our overarching theme of Working Together. We all need to come together, recognize our oneness as a world community, correct our ecological practices, and bring about social changes that will create social equity, sustainable economies and environmental quality for all the world’s people.

High-minded goals, of course! Our world, our biosphere, our survival as a species depends on our cooperation at this time, and participating in whatever ways we can—each of us doing our individual part. It begins by focusing on issues in our immediate environment, in our homes, our communities, and cities.

Dohrea and I are slowly adopting habits and practices of a truly green family and company. Slowly, because change is a difficult process. In this great journey, our ordering process is the next step for us to make even greener, and hopefully save energy and resources.

Greener Warehouse and Support Team

We are very excited about our new warehousing facility in Southern California, and its greater ability to get product quickly and efficiently to you. In December we are training and bringing aboard our support team to handle your ordering needs. This will free-up my time to pursue my passion as an educator to teach and bring us together on some of the ecological issues of our day, as I have outlined in our weekly newsletter since Sept. of 2008. My research and educational work in the development of the De-Evolution and the Ecology of the Microbiome has been an important part of my path, and a pleasure to share with all of you. I am planning to start teaching the series and continue the research. What is your New Year resolution?

Collaboration

We have always been the kind of business that considers everyone as a member of the family. Serving you with care and kindness is an imperative with us. We know the hard work you perform every day. The New Year collaborative theme is the additional teamwork we are asking of everyone: Please utilize more the shopping cart! We have built a better and more efficient shopping cart, with a secure ordering process. It is truly exciting! This month you will see great improvements in the whole shopping cart experience. Feel free to call for any help you need, it is always a pleasure hearing from you, and yet, do learn to navigate the shopping cart—as a part of the collective effort to build greener habits. I know! I know! It is difficult to change! I am still learning to check my inbox three times a day… But, our concept of resource conservation helps us to invest more in the product line rather than the infrastructure of the company.

The Greener Ordering Process

Ordering is very easy! For those of you who have not learned the joy of ordering online, lets review the process. It is fun once you learn it.

1. Click on the Ordering Tab on the Bioimmersion Home Page.

2. Click on Log in. Put in your email and password. Click on Sign In.

3. It should say Welcome Back (your name)! You’re in.

4. Click on Products. You will get an alphabetical listing of all the products with their wholesale price.

5. As you add product to your shopping cart an afficient stategy is to fill the cart with the product you want, then go through and change to the qualities you would like of each, and then hit the Update Tab.

6. In checking out when you get to the Shipping Page notice that you have a tab that says Change Address. If you want to have us ship to some location other than your normal ship-to-address, then change the address. The program will save it in the Address Book for future shipments to this customer.

We never include an invoice with our product shipments that come to you, or to your customer. An email will be sent to you immediately upon the completion of your order, which is your invoice. Also they are stored within the My Account Tab of your shopping cart. Just click on My Account and you will see all of your orders, invoices and tracking numbers.

Thanks everyone and Happy Holidays.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

The supportive power of the Blueberry for the brain as demonstrated in this email I received two weeks ago.

Dear Biommersion,

Your Blueberry products, and I do not exaggerate, have been miraculous for me. I have done 3 years worth of Neuroscience Research, 2 of which have been in a laboratory devoted to learning and memory. The Principle Investigator of that laboratory took me aside and said that evidence towards improvement in memory is best for blueberry extract out of all the things on the market. I can attest personally that it has worked for me perfectly and that Biommersion’s brand is by far the best I have tried. I take medication that makes it hard to remember, but after I take my Biommersion freeze dried extract, I very quickly notice that I’m able to recall at normal, and better than normal capacity. I cannot rave about this product enough! I feel that anyone who is noticing cognitive impairment could benefit from Blueberry extract, particularly Bioimmersion’s freeze dried, and anyone who is looking for prevention and added health could speak to their Physician regarding use of the Wild Blueberry Daily. Please get the word out! Please start to advertise! I think you would do a tremendous service to everyone if you would let more people know about the fine qualities of your products and I can personally attest, that it has been a miracle for me.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

A Loyal Customer from the NorthEast

The Last Quiz Answer: This magnificent prehistoric appearing creature is the Southern Ground-Hornbill. It ranges widely through east and south Africa, with this particular bird being filmed by the Planet Earth team in Tanzania. Fitting in well with our Thanksgiving theme, ground-hornbills are big eaters—mostly carnivorous. They eat insects, grasshoppers, beatles, scorpions and termites. During the dry season, they also eat insect larvae, snails, frogs and toads. Sometimes they eat snakes, lizards, rats, hares, squirrels and tortoises. They will also eat carrion.

Just received this email tonight as I was putting the final touches on my newsletter for tomorrow’s mailing to you. Here it is: Our Food, Our Right takes you on a journey through many of the current food systems’ failures and showcases creative solutions that communities are designing to regain control over their food and the health of their bodies and neighborhoods. Click on it. Check this out!!!

Dear Friends,

Today, I will be taking you with me on a journey into the inner workings of the world of the Human Microbiome Project. When one dives into any new content area there is the requisite language/vocabulary to master. Over the last three weeks, as we have begun this journey into the HMP, we have touched upon The Roadmap, The Jumpstart Centers, The Reference Genome, Repository Sites, body sites, bacteria—genus, species and subspecies. In this email, we will add a few new terms such as the Collaborators, the PIs (Primary Investigators), Contigs, Nucleotides, Operons, and The Tree of Life.

I am honored to share with you a portion of my conversation with one of the HMP Collaborators and Primary Investigators—Joseph Petrosino PhD. Dr. Petrosino is an assistant professor of Molecular Virology and Microbiology within the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Dallas, and he also plays an instrumental role as a Primary Investigator or Collaborator with the Human Microbiome Project. A PI or Collaborator is one who heads up a lab or a group of researchers involved in the Human Microbiome Project. Isn’t it interesting that they have chosen the label Collaborator for the leaders within the HMP.

Now let’s listen in to my interview with Dr. Joseph Petrosino

Q. Tell me about The Jumpstart Program, the four jumpstart centers, and your role in the HMP at Baylor.

A. The four jumpstart centers are Washington University in St. Louis, Baylor College of Medicine in Dallas, The Broad Institute at Harvard and MIT, and the J. Craig Venter Institute in Maryland. The Baylor College of Medicine is not to be confused with Baylor University. In 1967 they parted ways because of certain restrictions on government funding in regards to religious institutions. So BCM formed its own entity. These four centers were chosen for the jumpstart phase because each has been NIH sponsored sequencing centers in the US for many years and were responsible for achieving the completion of sequencing for the human genome and many of the sequences we have in data bases today.

The Human Microbiome Project started with what is called The Jumpstart Phase of the NIH Roadmap Project, which means that it has a high profile directive to spawn more research in this area through the many institutes at the National Institute of Health. Therefore they set aside a large bolus of money to send off to centers that are ready to hit the ground running. This phase of the project is called the jumpstart phase.

Q. What is the focus for each of these four centers?

A. All four centers focus on both components of the HMP research—the metagenomic analyses and the reference genome sequencing. My normal position at BMC is as an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology. Within the HMP I function as one of the PIs (Primary Investigators) or Collaborators on the project. Specifically, I oversee the clinical DNA extraction lab. He co-directs with Sara Hylander PhD. I handle more the clinical body site sampling and analyses, while Dr. Hylander leads the Reference Genome sequencing. However, I have my hands in all aspects of the work. My expertise ranges from how to handle the samples to how to get more accurate information from them in terms of sequences to what does it all mean in the end.

Q How many body sites for microbial sampling are there?

A. There are 18 in women and 15 in men. For example there are 8 or 9 sites in the mouth (the saliva, tongue, hard pallet, soft pallet, the buccal mucosa, etc), four sites on the skin, three in the vagina and only one sampling method for the GI tract—multiple stool samples.

There has been much talk about using more invasive methods to get samples from specific site within the GI tract with a small group of volunteers. We were afraid that nobody would volunteer for the sampling because it would be like your worst doctors appointment ever. We wanted to make sure people actually enrolled. We have sequenced around 50 people now and are on the way to completing the 250 individuals who have enrolled.

Q. Describe the different finishing goals—Standard draft vs. High Quality draft?

A. The best way to describe [finishing goals] is when people suggest organisms that should be sequenced. There are several working groups involved in this. One of the things that they do is to take a look at the taxonomical tree of life and see how many organisms are in that genus or how many species within that genus have been sequenced and been looked at carefully. How discrete is that data—how many of the base pairs are known? [This then sets the stage for determining whether a draft or a high quality draft is called for] When we have a goal for a standard draft or a high quality draft, we are referring to the number of times or the number of passes that quality control goes over a genome. So for example, for a standard draft we will basically sequence the genome—the data comes off the machine, there is an assembly generated so the single reads are put into a longer set of what are called contigs—trying to get [the chromosome] to where you have one complete circle. For the most part, all bacteria have one circular chromosome, there are some exceptions, but in general most bacteria have one circular chromosome. If you look at the genome size (the total number of base pairs-nucleotides) and divide that by 1000 that will give you the number of genes for a bacteria. Most people assume that the average size of a gene for bacteria is around 1000 base pairs.

[A contig--from the word "contiguous"--is a series of overlapping DNA sequences used to make a physical map that reconstructs the original DNA sequence of a chromosome or a region of a chromosome. A contig can also refer to one of the DNA sequences used in making such a map.]

For the bacterial chromosome think of a railroad track in a circle. We will know some of the base pairs but won’t know all of them—there will be gaps. There will be certain levels of uncertainty at certain positions. With a Standard Draft there is a threshold of uncertainly that all the sequencing centers hold to. Anything above that limit must receive further reads so as to scrutinize these unknown bases. All bacteria will receive a Standard Draft, which will complete the circle, and many will receive what is called a High Quality Draft, which gives a more detailed accounting of each base in the chromosome.

I will close this portion of the email sharing a bit of our conversation regarding genes, proteins, pathways, evolution and probiotics. I had asked Dr. Petrosino how many of the genes in a bacteria’s 1000 gene collection produce the same protein—is there a redundancy? He seemed to confirm that primarily each gene produces a different protein, but one thing led to the next….as you will see.

A. There is a lot of protein production redundancy is some bacteria depending on the niche that an organism is living in. Sometimes if the host or surrounding bacteria are providing nutrients that the organism needs over a course of evolution certain genes won’t be needed. For example lets say you need a specific sugar metabolized and you are growing in nature you would need to have all the enzymes in that pathway, all the proteins in that pathway to be able to breakdown that sugar. Where as if you find you are in an environment with a host where you have landed in a spot in the body, over the course of evolution where the metabolite is right there then you don’t need all those genes to create the metabolite and those genes will start to eventually mutate and evolve away. Or acquire mutations that will inactivate those genes and then as time passes (many eons) it will be hard to distinguish that the genes were even there. Perhaps rearrangement will occur that will eliminate those parts of the genome entirely. Depending on where an organism lives will sort of dictate the genes that that organism has. If they have just happened to become a human symbiont then they may have more genes than they need for their new environment. Depending on the environment that a bacteria finds itself living in it has regulatory mechanisms available to itself that can switch genes on or off to enable them to adapt to that habitat- like using fermentation as a pathway for energy verses respiration in a more oxygen plentiful environment. Cytocines are proteins and so are most chemocines. Metabolic pathways are the result of a cell, whether it be a human cell or a bacterial cell producing proteins that will take a complex molecule like a protein or a sugar and clip off a small part and pass it on to the next enzyme in the pathway. Metabolic pathways are basically assembly lines with proteins being the stopping points on the assembly line.

OK, that is enough. I realize this last paragraph is a bit of a potpourri of ideas. But I wanted to posit these thoughts here for you, as they are coming from a Collaborator, whose on the bench, in the lab, doing the work of discovery for all of our benefit. Thank you Dr. Petrosino!

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

To all of you, as our customers, thank you for your patience with our shipping over the last two weeks, as we have been moving our warehouse from Portland to Los Angeles. We are thrilled with our new warehouse’s capacity. Friday, last week we began shipping again—full throttle.

I want to encourage you to expand your thinking a bit when it comes to dosing with our synbiotic formulas. Have you tried mixing our different probiotics formulas? For example this morning and for the last week, I take one tablespoon of the Beta Glucan Synbiotic Formula and one teaspoon of the No. 7 Systemic Booster in a large glass of water—I like what it does, I like how my body feels with it. Try it. It even tastes quite good. With this mix I am getting a combination of our American collection of pedigreed good bugs (Beta Glucan Formula) with our Bulgarian collection (No. 7 Systemic Booster). Check what is in each of these formulas.

Another of our customers representing a large consortium of health practitioners suggests we follow a protocol of 1 teaspoon of our Original Synbiotic Formula in the morning and 1 capsule of our Supernatant Synbiotic Formula in the evening. With this regime, patients are getting both the American and Bulgarian collection with fiber and metabolites. Check this one out.

The Last Quiz Answer: Cinereous vultures, also called Eurasian black vultures, are the largest raptors in Eurasia, and boast an impressive 8- to 9-foot wing span. These vultures are considered “vulnerable to extinction” in Europe by the World Conservation Union. Current estimates put the global population at about 4-6,000 individuals. These impressive birds breed in mountainous and steppe areas from Spain to Mongolia and south to the Himalayas. They have been spotted on Mount Everest at altitudes of up to 23,000 feet. They form long-lasting pair bonds, and can live to be 38 years old.

Welcome to the Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms from the National Human Genome Research Institute.

Dear Friends,

Over the last three weeks we have been begun our journey into the human microbiome using the roadmap set out for us by the HMP—the Human Microbiome Project. As we discussed last week, the first goal is the sequencing of 1000 organisms that will provide a benchmark against which further sequence data can be compared. The densest population of microbes in the human body lies in our gastrointestinal tract—the port of entry of our food and sustenance, but also the port of entry for toxins and pathogens.

We will focus initially on the GI tract microbiome looking at some of the organisms selected as part of the reference genome.

The Gastrointestinal Microbiome

Of the roughly 1000 microbes that represent the Reference Genome, approximately 307 different types of bacteria are from the GI tract—approximately. These numbers are constantly changing as newly discovered organisms are added and mischaracterized ones are deleted.

Of the 307 gut bacterial microbes there are 78 different Genus, with the rest representing different species and subspecies (strains). In other words, the 307 count contain 78 Genus and 129 species and sub species.

Notice the fact that many of the genus are unfamiliar to the commercial world: Alistipes, Bacillus, Bacteroides, Bdellovibrio, Bifidobacterium, Clostridium, Escherichia, Eubacterium, Fusobacterium, Kingella, Klebsiella, Lactobacillus, Malassezia, Methanobrewibacter, Mycoplasm, Neisseria, Oxalobacter, Pediococcus, Parvimones, Streptococcus, Veillonella and Yobenella.

In the Bacillus genus (a familiar genus but the following species of Bacillus are not) there are only 2 species now in the GI collection to be sequenced—alcalophilus and halodurans, whereas in the Bacteroides genus there are 32 different species and subspecies within the Reference Genome.

In the Bifidobacterium genus there are 12 species and subspecies (many familiar)—with species names such a B. adolescentis, B. angulatum, B. bifidum, B. breve, B. gallicum and B. longum, and subspecies (strains) like B. longum infantis CCUGS52386 and B. longum infantis ATCC 55813.

Other interesting numbers—the Bacteroides genus has 32 species and subspecies represented in the gut, Clostridium has 30, Escherichia has 4, Eubacterium has 12, Fusobacterium has 15, Klebsiella has 1 and Lactobacillus has 20.

Of the twenty Lactobacillus species, the following are some of the organisms (listed with their strain designations)—L. acidophilus ATCC 4796, L. brevis DSM 20054, L. hilgardii ATCC 8290, L. helveticus DSM 20075, L. plantarum ATCC 14917, L. paracasei ATCC 25302, L. reuteri CF48-3A and L. rhamnosis LMS 2-1.

The Lactobacillus genus has species in other sites—in fact, 39 other Lactobacillus species in the collection reside in other body microbiomes. Even though we are focusing on the gut in this email, I will list a few of them—L. casei (Airways), L. coleohominis DSM 14060 (Urogenital tract), L. crispatus CTV-05 (Urogenital tract), L. fermentum 28-3-CHN (Urogenital tract), L. jensenii 27-2-CHN (Urogenital tract), L. salivarius ATCC 11741 (Oral), L. johnsonii ATCC 33200 (Blood).

Each organism is listed in the HMP catalog under the following categories: Organism Name, Body Site, HMP Project Status, Finishing Goal, Gene Count, Sequence Center, Strain Repository. Here is a small sampling:

Bifidobacterium adolescentis L2-32—HMP Project Status-Complete; Genebank ID- AAYD000000000; Gene Count-2499; Body Site- GI Tract; Finishing Goal-High Quality Draft; Strain Repository-DSMZ; Sequencing Center- Washington University.

Bifidobacterium longum infantis CCUG52486— HMP Project Status-Complete; Genebank ID- ABOO000000000; Gene Count-2178; Body Site- GI Tract; Finishing Goal-High Quality Draft; Strain Repository-CCUG; Sequencing Center- Broad Institute.

Clostridium difficile NAP08— HMP Project Status-Draft; Gene Count-7349; Body Site- GI Tract Finishing Goal-High Quality Draft; Strain Repository-BEI HM-89; Sequencing Center-BCM-HGSC.

Lactobacillus hilgardii ATCC 8290— HMP Project Status-Complete; Genebank ID- ACGP000000000; Gene Count-2876; Body Site- GI Tract Finishing Goal-High Quality Draft; Strain Repository-ATCC 8290; Sequencing Center-BCM-HGSC.

Lactobacillus helveticus DSM 20075— HMP Project Status-Draft; Genebank ID- ACLM000000000; Gene Count-2154; Body Site- GI Tract Finishing Goal-High Quality Draft; Strain Repository-DSM 13335; Sequencing Center-BCM-HGSC.

Lactobacillus plantarum ATCC 14917— HMP Project Status-Complete; Genebank ID- ACGZ000000000; Gene Count-3314; Body Site- GI Tract Finishing Goal-High Quality Draft; Strain Repository-ATCC 14917; Sequencing Center-BCM-HGSC.

Lactobacillus reuteri CF48-3A—HMP Project Status-Complete; Genebank ID- ACHG000000000; Gene Count-2241; Body Site- GI Tract Finishing Goal-High Quality Draft; Strain Repository-BEI HM-102; Sequencing BCM-HGSC.

As you can see there are different strain repositories that the bacteria come from. There are a number of accredited microbial repositories in the world, all dedicated to the maintenance of accurate taxonomy and nomenclature, accurate sequencing and safe keeping of the microbial mother cultures in their care. The repository with the largest bacterial collection in the world is ATCC, located in Virginia. DSM -The German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures is locate in Braunschweig, Germany, and CCUG – Culture Collection University of Goteborg, in Sweden. Next to organism is the universal strain designation—the repository plus a number, representing their official scientific name down to the strain level. These repositories are the gold standard, accurately typing and properly naming each organism. That is why we can call them reference organisms. What must happen in the commercial probiotic world is to have organism typed by one of these repositories.

Notice the gene count of each of the above organisms. Most are around 2500 genes, but look at plantarum at 3300 and C. diff. at 7349. With bacteria each gene represents the ability to transcribe a one particular protein. This means that Clostridium difficile NAP08 can produce roughly three times more different kinds of proteins than the others listed here. Also realize that this isn’t even “a tip” from the tip of the iceberg of bugs in the gut. The HMP scientists are predicting that the collection of microbe in our human microbiome can produce 2 and ½ more proteins than our total human cells can. Isn’t it becoming clear how important this research is to our understandings of the workings of our human body in health and disease?

Next week we will go further into the current research regarding the sequencing of the different organisms, their protein producing abilities (their metabolic byproducts), and how these interact with our body’s pathways for good and for bad. I will be sharing with you my interviews with key researchers in the HMP.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

We really appreciate your feedback in regards to your use of the Therapeutic Foods. As you know we have put a few of your clinical pearls under the Clinical Notes Tab in our shopping cart. If you haven’t seen some of these notes, check them out—just log in, click on the Product tab, select a product and click on the bottle once and there you will find the Clinical Notes Tab.

Here is an email from John Adams MD- Sedona, AZ.

Great newsletter Sean!! Just great! Keep up the good work. And say hello to your fellow Rock Star Uber Doctor Klinghardt. I am reviewing his ART III DVDs and heard your reply to him regarding your Chromium with Beet.

BTW, I have a patient, a Psychologist who was in the Men That Stare AT Goats, the real one, who is chronically ill. He has a chronic opiate dependent pain syndrome of his bones. His cholesterol and subfractions were abnl high, as was his blood sugar. After 90 days on your chromium, his labs tests are all normal, prompting a freak out by his OPMD ( Old Paradigm MD). He is doing quite well thanks to you. Cool eh??

Best to you and your wife. john adams md sedona, az

Of course, we would only make your thoughts public with your request.

The Last Quiz Answer: The Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) is one of the largest deer species. The Red Deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor and parts of western and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being the only species of deer to inhabit Africa.

Normal healthy intestinal bacteria, like Bifidobacterium and Bacteroides, influence immune responses and protect against the development of inflammatory diseases. A Sydney-based research team describe in Nature 461, 1282-1286 (29 October 2009) how the combination of good bacteria in the gut and a whole food diet with lots of fiber enhance the production of SCFAs which join with certain immune system proteins to down regulate inflammation.

Dear Friends,

There is a profound movement, a shift of knowledge that is occuring all over the world. Even as the citizens of the world are experiencing the worst of illnesses, even as governments, corporations and foundations pour billions into a competitive rush for patented medications, an evolution of awareness is growing.

A wonderful phenomenon is taking place right in front of us—a critical sea change is occuring—a new (yet at the same time thousands of years old) perspective, a new way of looking at the practice of medicine, of conceptualizing our human body’s relationship to the world, in health and in disease, is emerging. The Human Microbiome Project Roadmap, that I will outline in this email, serves as an example of the new paradigm’s emergence. Interestingly enough, the public response to the swine flu vaccination, that I will end this email with, in the Green Facts Section, serves as a second example.

The Human Microbiome Project Roadmap:

The first component of the HMP Roadmap is the sequencing of 1000 microbes to serve as a reference genome (we described this in last week’s email) to facilitate the second component of the Roadmap— the phylogenetic and functional analysis of the metagenomic sequences produced from human body sites of approximately 250 individuals.

As mentioned last week, four institutions have been selected for the genomic sequencing—The Broad Institute (of MIT and Harvard), Washington University, Baylor College of Medicine-Human Genome Sequencing Center (BCM-HGSC), and the J. Craig Venter Institute. Of these, Baylor and Washington University have been selected to accomplish the metagenomic analysis of the 250 individuals.

Approximately 250 males and females (18 to 40 years of age, in good health status) from two geographic locations in the US will be selected for a core sampling. The collection of clinical specimens will be from multiple body sites to serve as sources of measurement of the core microbiomes associated with the oral cavity, skin, nasal cavity, gastrointestinal tract and vagina.

Let’s read together the form which illuminates the HMP’s worldview—the Consent Form given to prospective participants entitled, The Human Microbiome Project (HMP): Core Microbiome Sampling Protocol A.

You are invited to take part in a research study. Please read this information and feel free to ask any questions before you agree to take part.

Our bodies carry around trillions of microbes—bacteria, viruses, and other tiny living things. These microbes live in many places on and inside our bodies, such as the skin, mouth, nose, gut, and (in women) vagina. While we still don’t know how they do it, many of these microbes help keep us healthy, while others contribute to disease. Similarly, changes in our health can affect our microbes. So can things like where we live or work, our age, ancestry, health status, and diet—and probably many other things we don’t know about yet.

People and microbes both have nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), the material that contains genetic instructions. The microbes genetic material affects how they live with each other and how they act in our bodies. Our own genetic material also affects how we react to our microbes. All of the different kinds of microbes that live on us and in us, taken together, are called the human microbiome.

The document goes on to describe how, if they qualify as a healthy individual, that in the first part of the HMP they will collect samples from their different body microbiome sites in order to study the genetic material of their microbes. They will also take a blood sample to determine their own human genotype. That way the HMP will be able to study the genetic material of both their human cells and their microbes. This information will become the HMP’s core resource. Let’s continue to read:

This core resource will form the foundation for the second part of the HMP, in which new samples from different people—some who are healthy and some who have certain diseases—will be collected and studied. By comparing the microbes in these two sets of samples with the microbes in the core resource, and by doing experiments to see how the microbes interact with each and with their human hosts, researchers will begin to understand more about the complicated relationships between microbes and many diseases. Many researchers in universities, hospitals, non-profit groups, companies, and government laboratories around the world will use the resource we develop.

So how does the foregoing represent a budding paradigm shift that is occuring in the world of medicine?

The very consideration, and yes, acknowledgement, that our metabolic health is governed in part by the contingent of microbial genomes that reside on us and in us as we walk through life—our microbiome—is a paradigm shift in how we’ve perceived our body’s ultimate functioning, and opens the door not only to new therapies and journeys towards maintaining health, but also welcomes us into a new relationship with the life that resides outside our human cells.

The second part of the sea change that is washing over us has not so much to do with what we research but how we research. It represents a new spirit of openness, of gathering data and making it available for all who are interested. This is the very MO of the Human Genome Project, as they make even the individual subjects of their research aware that the data will not only be public but that this is the very means by which the project goals will be achieved—by allowing all to participate in advancing the research. Worldwide collaboration is the key word here and a key value we all need to embrace.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

In this week’s Clinical Note we will go over the three products on the left in the picture below. On the far left, by itself there is the freeze dried organic garlic and to its right are two of our patented products—Chromium with Beet and Fructo Borate Complex.

Fructo Borate Complex is the result of our collaboration with Eastern European scientists and American manufacturers. You might ask how does a synthesized calcium fructoborate qualify as a therapeutic food—good question? In the food chain boron is always found bound to carbohydrate. Whether it is in pears or prunes boron is tightly bound to a fruit sugar. Our supplemental boron is the first such boron to be available and through its Eastern European studies shows great potential as a powerful therapeutic nutrient. Click on its name to see its benefits. Also at the bottome of the bullets on benefits page is a link to a great monograph on this product, including references.

How to use and remember: Supports bone, joint and hormone health. We have seen its support in improving bone density, reducing arthritic pain and swelling, and increase steroid hormone levels in the blood—including Vitamin D levels. We have also had practitioners express its usefullness in opening up the breathing. Boron has been called the master mineral because it participates in so many governing metabolic functions.

Chromium with Beet is an organically bonded trivalent chromium with the nucleotides from brewers yeast as its ligands. The bonded chromium molecule is a very small allowing it to be water soluble and extremely bioavailable, which accounts for its effectiveness in lowering blood sugar levels. The red beet root add a healing touch to the liver, supporting phase II liver detox capacity. Take one BID.

How to use and remember: This product has been bench trialed against chromium picolinates and chromium polynicotinates and has been shown to be approximately three times more effective in lowering blood sugar levels.

Organic Freeze Dried Garlic is a wonderful broad spectrum antimicrobial against bacteria such as Salmonella, Staph, and Borrelia; against virus such as Herpes, against protozoa such as Crypto and Giardia and against yeast such as Candida. Yet it doesn’t harm lactic acid probiotic organisms.

How to use and remember: Many people suffer from co-infections that leave their bodies vulnerable to the pandemics of our time, such as Lyme Disease and Swine Flu. Additionally, it has been pointed out by infectious disease experts that individual with a high co-infection load are at greater risk of complications from receiving immunizations. Garlic reduced the co-fection load.

The Last Quiz Answer: Conservation biologists based in four countries gather for an emergency meeting in Vientiane, Lao PDR to address the peril of extinction facing one of the world’s most enigmatic mammals— the Saola. IT WAS DICOVERED TO WORLD SCIENCE ONLY IN 1992, can you believe that? Plus, it is not a little animal—about the size of a desert antelope. They have rarely been seen or photgraphed and have proved difficult to keep alive in captivity.

We have reached the tipping point, and the swine flu response clearly shows that a paradigm shift is occurring in the US citizenry, because of the fact that 50% of the population is choosing not to have the vaccination for H1N1, even in the face of the massive media campaign to do so. This clip of Joe Mercola’s interview with Barbara Loe Fisher, Founder of the National Vaccine Information Center, is a must view.