Dear Friends,

Well here we are again my good friends—another year’s ending, waiting for the dawn of 2012.  It’s a time for reflection, thanksgiving, and hopefulness.

Dohrea and I thank you for your business and friendship. We send you warm hugs, wishes, and prayers for much health and happiness in this coming New Year.

We’re very excited about the new research on foods that are therapeutic. We are working together with such wonderful scientists and farmers from the wilds of Alaska and will bring aboard in 2012 some exquisite products. But that is not all, we have expanded our relationships everywhere as we believe that it is the power of the community that will heal our globe.

Over the past several weeks we have focused on answers to the question— What makes Food Therapeutic? We will be continuing with this very fruitful inquiry in the coming months, for in fact, our new products come forth from such machinations.  We won’t get too far into it today for it’s a vacation week, but—somebody stop me—here’s a few thoughts for you to ponder over.

Two weeks ago we began this query by defining the emerging field of Nutrigenomics. Nutritional genomics adds amazing power to the prospect of using foods as medicine. Many phytonutrients activate transcription factors (cytoplasmic messenger molecules) which in turn cause the up-regulation or down-regulation of whole suites of genes in our body cells.

For example, NF-kappa B is a transcription molecule that when activated by specific phytonutrients goes to the cell’s nuclear membrane causing specific genes to transcribe for pro-inflammatory cytocine and chemokines—TNF alpha, IL-1, 4, 6, 8, 10, etc.—causing gross inflammation throughout the body.  Blueberry’s catechins, cinnamon’s cinnamic aldehyde, tumeric’s curcuminoids, rosehip’s, pomegranate’s and raspberry’s ellagic acid and garlic’s allicin all downregulate NF-kappa B—reducing inflammation throughout the body.

As we have said and we all know, reducing the fires of inflammation in the body is a major healing strategy for today’s chronic disease patterns because many are mediated by inflammation.

Additionally, as we mentioned last week, these wonderful forementioned berries and spices up-regulate the powerful transcription factor NRF2 which functions as a protective transcription factor. It causes the genes to transcribe (produce) anti-inflammatory and antioxidant enzymes like glutatione-s transferase, hemoxygenase, quinone reductase, and many many others.  It is a one-two punch with these wonderful phytonutrients for knocking out inflammation and facilitating good health.

We mentioned also last week the Blue Zones, areas of the world where people achieve old age (well into their 90s and even over 100) all the while maintaining their strength, and abilities to work and to think!  The diseases of age—CVD, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, overweight and obesity hadn’t brought them down.

Maintaining strength and lean body mass is a challenge as we age.  Skeletal muscle mass and strength generally peak between 20 to 35 years of age.  From then on, 3 to 8% of muscle mass may be lost per decade, a loss rate that accelerates after the age of 60.  The same can be said for bone loss, with as much as 30% of the bone mass being lost by the age of 80.  But it doesn’t have to be that way on both these counts of sarcopenia and osteopenia.  With food one can turn-on lean muscle building metabolism and turn-off excess fat storage—improving the lean body mass ratio and with bone we can improve the bone density profile—all through the food’s manipulation of gene expression.  Let’s talk about this next week, especially after our big food binging Holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year.  Phytonutrients and Nutrigenomics can come to the rescue.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

Last week we talked about a healthy morning drink with a rainbow of colorful phytonutrients—blueberry, pomegranate, cranberry, tart cherry, pineapple, chlorella, the cruciferous sprouts of watercress, kale, broccoli, daikon and red radish, mustard and cabbage sprouts.  This I accomplish with one tbl spoon of the Beta Glucan Synbiotic Formula, one tsp of the Number 7 Systemic Booster, four capsules of Organic Chlorella, two capsules of Wild Blueberry Daily, four capsules of Crucerfous Sprouts Complez.  All of this is taken in a tall glass of spring water.

Based on the osteropenia I would add 2 capsules of the Fructo Borate Complex daily.  And, for the sarcopenia, I would initiate the consumption of Energy Sustain Complex.  The chia in this product is fabulous source of fiber, omega threes, complex proteins, and energy. More on these things next week.

The Last Quiz Answer:

This beautiful creature is a Husky, perhaps a Siberian Husky.  The Siberian Huskies were bred by the Chukchi of Northeastern Asia to pull heavy loads long distances through difficult conditions.  The dogs were imported into Alaska during the Nome Gold Rush to work as sled dogs.

There are many mixtures that are called huskies—there are Siberian Huskies, Alaskan Huskies, Greenland Huskies, McKenzie River Huskies, etc.  The Mackenzie River Husky is usually rangy, deep chested and long legged, built for heavy lifting in single file through deep snow.  Some are bred with St. Bernards, stag hounds and Newfoundlands.  Reminds me of The Call of the Wild by Jack London—a must read for animal lovers.

This beautiful husky is wishing you a Happy New Year! (Do click on this loveable link)

I can’t think of a better and more appropriate way to end 2011 and welcome the New Year than this quote from Food Democracy Now: On December 4th 2011 farmers and activists from across the country joined the Occupy Wall Street Farmers March for ‘a celebration of community power to regain control over the most basic element to human well-being:  Food.’ The Farmers March began at La Plaza Cultural Community Gardens where urban and rural farmers addressed an excited crowd about the growing problems in our industrial food system and the promise offered by solutions based in organic, sustainable and community based food and agricultural production. This was followed by a 3-mile march from the East Village to Zuccotti Park, the birthplace of the Occupy Wall Street movement. This is what happens when farmers join with their urban allies- Together we are unstoppable!  Please join the movement and spread the word!

Dear Friends,

We continue our discussion from last week with the question:  What makes food therapeutic? Make sure to look at Clinical Notes for easy to create protocols, lots of colorful foods, and reduced inflamation in the body.

A healthy food provides ligands that turn on disease fighting genes and turn off those that cause disease.

What is a ligand?  A ligand is a molecule that binds to proteins involved in “turning on” certain genes and “turning off” others.

Transcription molecules are the protein molecules that reside in the cytoplasm of all body cells that when activated by certain ligands transit the cytosol (watery part of the cell) to the cell’s nuclear membrane and set into motion a cascade of molecular events that turn on certain suites of genes into enzyme/protein production.

For example, NF-kappa B is a transcription molecule that when activiated by a ligand goes to the nucleas causing specific genes within the genome to open up and transcribe for pro-inflammatory cytocine and chemokines.  Cytocine and chemokines are messenger molecules that tell the immune system to increase its activity thus causing more inflammation in the body—thus increasing oxidative stress.

When activated, the transcription molecule NRF2 functions as a protective transcription factor. It reduces OS (oxidative stress) by causing the DNA to open up genes that result in the production of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant enzymes like glutatione-s transferase, hemoxygenase, quinone reductase, and many many others.  We will get into this much more in the coming weeks.

What these examples tell us is that we must bring into our daily diet a rainbow of plants based foods.  As you consistantly do so, you will turn on the anti-inflammatory genes and turn off the pro-inflammatory genes.  One of the unifying factors for longevity, as described in the Blue Zones (see the Green Facts below) is a plant based diet with lots of color.  When we think about typical restaurant food in America, we certainly don’t easily find a rainbow menu.  The consequences are all to obvious: look at the diabetes, cancer, heart disease, neurological disease, obesity—pandemic in our country—all inflammatory mediated diseases.  Bringing in lots of fresh fruits and vegetables is key strategy to reversing our chronic inflamed state, and bring health back into our bodies.

Next week we will dive deeper into this very important subject, which when fully integrated into our lives and the lives of your patients, will create miracles. Good food translates into therapeutic food.

Have a wonderful Christmas and Hanukkah. Much love from us to you.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

Based on the above, let’s take a look at my regime this morning upon rising before my run.  I put a heaping tablespoon of Beta Glucan Synbiotic Formula and a heaping teaspoon of the Number 7 Systemic Booster in a large glass of purified water.  Using this as my chaser I downed 4 tablets of our Organic Chlorella, 4 capsules of the Cruciferous Sprouts Complex, two capsules of the Wild blueberry Daily, and four capsules of the new Ultra Minerals—down the hatch.  And, then I went for my run.

Now let’s look at what went into my body.  There was a rainbow of phytonutrients from blueberry, pomegranate, cranberry, tart cherry, pineapple, chlorella, the cruciferous sprouts (watercress, kale, broccoli, daikon and red radish, mustard and cabbage sprouts )—turning on NRF2 and turning off NF-kB, not to mention the robust free radical scavenging activity of the polyphenols, and other antioxidants present in these plant based materials.

And, then there were the probiotic organisms that are in the Beta Glucan Synbiotic and the Number 7.  They too turn on banks of positive genes that we will talk about at another time.  Of course, I could have choosen the High ORAC Synbiotic (say one capsule) and the Cranberry Pomegranate (again one capsule) as my morning probiotic of choice intake.  In that case, I would have gotten both the American and Bulgarian collection of probiotic organisms just as I did with my selection of the Beta Glucan Synbiotic and the No. 7,  but I would have brought in more wild blueberry extract, billberry extract, grape and grapeseed extract, raspberry and raspberry seed extract, cranberry, tart cherry, prune and pomegranate extract.  Not bad.  So many choices!

The Last Quiz Answer:

The Cape Buffalo is big— 4 to 6 feet at the shoulders, 11 feet long, males can weigh around 1500 pounds.

Cape Buffaloes are said to have killed more big game hunters than any other animal in Africa.  They are one of Africa’s most dangerous animals. They’re impressive.

Hunters and lions are their only enemies.  Here is an amazing footage of a battle between Buffalo and Lion in Kruger National Park, South Africa.

Are you familiar with The Blue Zones? Blue Zones are geographical locations around the world where people live the longest.  They are Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, California; Nicoya, Costa Rica; and Ikaria, Greece.  What is their secret? What is the optimal formula for longevity?  Dan Buettner, teamed up with National Geogrpahic and hired the world’s best longevity researchers to identify pockets around the world where people lived measurably better and longer. This resulted in his authoring the book, The Blue Zones:  Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lved the longest. Enjoy this TED Talk by Buettner on what they learned.

Dear Friends,

We are going into Epigentics and how it is applied to food. Our topic is called Nutrigenomics. Be sure to read clinical notes.  But before that:

I have some food for thought for you (pardon the pun).  Are you ready?  Here it is … this is your Zen Koan,

What makes food therapeutic?

It’s kind of a profound question, don’t you think?  If you think about it for just a few minutes, food is important for our sustenance but it is much more:  What is food?  What is life?  What is health? What is therapeutic?  What part does food play as therapy in our practice of medicine? What does our culture think about food? How do other cultures around the world think of food? Lets explore.

Over the rest of this month I will focus our Forward Thinking newsletters on answering this question—What Makes Food Therapeutic.  And, I would love to share your reflections as well.  After all, you are the medical health professionals and practitioners. So call or write to me!! Your voice is important.

I’m a baby boomer, that puts me somewhat over the age of 60, and there are a lot of us in this catagory.  We are facing the so called “diseases of aging”—heart disease, diabetes, cancer, cognitive dysfunction, arthritis, osteoporosis, excess weight gain, metabolic syndrome, reduced muscle tone, fatique, lack of libido, and the list goes on.  The eternal question is do we have to die with one of these lingering, chronic disease conditions?  And, the answer is, we don’t.  One of the keys is to bring, on a regular basis, powerful health building foods into our diet.

The science of nutrition as defined by the American Medical Association is the science of food; the nutrients and the substances therein; their action, interaction, and balance in relation to health and disease; and the process by which the organism (e.g., human body) ingests, digests, absorbs, transports, utilizers, and excretes food substances.

Sounds pretty good, but the problem is most mainstream medical practitioners never had to take a course in clinical nutrition during their medical school training, and even if they did, the focus would primarily have been on the six classes of nutrients in food—carbohydrates, lipids (fats and oils), proteins, vitamins, minerals and water.

These essential nutrients are assigned three functional categories:  (1) those that primarily provide energy; (2) those that are important for growth and development (and later maintenance); and (3) those that keep body functions running smoothly. (Perspectives in Nutrition, Eighth Edition 2009).

The frustration of the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, cognitive dysfunction, the unrelenting blight of heart disease and cancer—the rise in the catagory of chronic illness across all age groups (not just the aging!) has driven the medical profession to look deeper into the issue of food as medicine.  And, with the typing of the human genome and the realization that genes are turned on and off by factors outside of the DNA itself, we have developed a whole new field of study called Epigenetics.  Epigentics applied to food is called Nutrigenomics.

Nutrigenomics is the study of how food affects gene expression.  The University of California at Davis has created a department of medicine that focuses on nutritional genomics—the Center of Excellence for Nutritioal Genomics.

The Center has now begun translating the results of nearly seven years of research, training and education on diet-genome interaction into tangible benefits that can prevent disease and improve human and animal health and wellness.

The link between food and health is well documented but people still struggle to find the right balance between energy intake and energy expenditure. Whether its malnutrition or over-consumption, people are looking for disease preventing and health promoting foods that match their lifestyles, cultures and genetics. Nutritional genomics is a systems approach to understanding the relationship between diet and health and will ensure that everyone benefits from the genomic revolution.

Over the rest of this month we will focus on Nutrigenomics and how it adds exciting new possibilities for the elimination of these chronic diseases and exciting new applications in the use of food as medicine—helping us to understand more fully what makes food therapeutic.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

From an nutrigenomic vantage point the Therapeutic Foods really stand out, and we will get into this more fully in the weeks to come.  But just to wet you appetites, I offer a couple of our Therpeutic Foods for thought—the Wild Blueberry and the Cruciferous Sprouts.

The Wild Blueberry, besides being a powerful antioxidant that can douse free radicals even and especially in the brain, also turn down gene transcription for proinflammatory cytokines and chemocines.  It does this by inhibiting the expression of NF kappa B in the cytoplasm of all cells.  NF kappa B is what is called a transcription molecule that initiates the inflammatory cytokines production.  Chronic inflammation, as we know, is causative in all of the major chronic diseases.

The Cruciferous Sprouts activate the transcription factor NRF2 which results in the induction of many cytoprotective proteins such as glutathione s transferase (catalyzes the conjugation of GSH with endogenous and xenobiotic free radicals), heme oxygenase (protects against sepsis, hypertension, athlerosclerosis, acute lung injury, kidney injury and pain), quinone reductase (catalyzes the reduction and detoxification of highly reactive quinones) and many other what are called phase 2 enzymes that are used by the liver cells for phase 2 liver detox.

Take one a day of the Wild Blueberry Daily or the Wild Blueberry Extract and take one teaspoon or four capsules a day of the Cruciferous Sprout Complex.

The Last Quiz Answer:

The starfish is not really a fish at all, but is an echino-derm, closely related to sea urhins and sand dollars. Their new common name is sand star.

There are 2,000 species of sea stars.  The five armed variety we see here is the most common.  But, there are species with 10, 20 and even 40 arms.

They house most of their vital organs in their arms, and a few species can grow an entirely new sea star just from a portion of a severed limb.

Most have the ability to consume prey outside their bodies.  Using tiny, suction-cupped feet, they pry open clams, and their sack-like cardiac stomach, emerges from their mouth and oozes inside the shell enveloping the clam’s soft body, digesting it, and finally withdrawing back into its own body. (from National Geographic.com)

I’ve been introducing you over the past couple of newsletters (Nov. 23rd and Nov. 30th) to individuals (Marsha Coleman Adebayo- an influential whistle blower on corporate crimes against humanity and Van Jones- a powerful activist for sustainable energy ) who are those brave, right-on souls that are out there speaking, acting and writing books to correct a world wide human system that has gone very wrong.  In today’s referal I take you to an individual who understands the heart of the beast—Wall Street, the games being played, the flow of money and the banking dilema worldwide. Nomi Prins is one of the clearest thinkers I have heard regarding the charade called Wall Street.  She has just come out with a new book:  Black Tuesday. In this link she in being interviewed about her book(s) and Wall Street.  She’s worth getting to know.

Dear Friends,

Last week we talked about The One Straw Revolution in agriculture founded by Masanobu Fukouka.  Mr. Fukouka’s goal was to create a food producing environment that diverged as little as possible from a natural one.  His garden had the structure of a natural forest and as the forest ecology took hold, he found he could work less and harvest more.  In fact, he demonstrated that his method could produce as much tonage as industrialized farming methods—without poison, expense, and the destruction of soil. Masanobu’s method is spreading in India, Thailand, the Philippines and other places in the developing world as a remedy to the environmental and human disaster called the Green Revolution (industrialized agriculture).

The link above to the One Straw Revolution is different than the one I gave you last week. Remember my description of our denuded condo vegetable garden?  Well, I went to our local organic nursery this past Sunday and bought some seeds of crimson clover, common vetch, and rye cereal, and sowed them into our plot with a little compost dusted on top.  I’ll take a picture when it will nicely manifest a winter cover crop.  I am taking my One Straw Revolution medicine seriously.

For my weekly grocery shopping this past week I went to our local Whole Foods.  In selecting eggs I picked a new company to me, whose cartoon read, Pasture Verde: Organic, Pasture-Raised, 12 Large Grade A Eggs. Sounded good, and the eggs looked very organic.  But the difference between them and the labeled Free Range eggs that I normally bought is huge.

Upon opening the cartoon when I got home, I found a little 4 by 6 flier that was entitled, Vital Farms News—Introducing: Our Vital Farmers.

At Vital Farms, we work with small family farms in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Georgia to produce the highest quality pasture-raised organic eggs. To meet our standards, our farmers must have a sincere love for the animals with whom they are working. Their pasture land must be USDA Certified Organic, with a minimum of three years of no chemical input. Hens must be USDA Certified, and never given antibiotics or growth hormones. Supplemental feed must be Certified Organic and vegetarian, and hens must be moved on to fresh pasture regularly.

Our girls [cute—they call their chickens "our girls" and "our ladies"] spend their days outdoors in fresh air, grazing native grasses in small flocks. Regular rotation onto fresh pasture protects our land from over grazing, and provides the birds a change of scenery and loads of exercise. We are obligated to let our ladies exhibit natural behaviors and have a bit of choice about how they spend their days. Salad and exercise make for happy, healthy hens and great eggs!

In pasture, the chickens basically live outside, they have a small indoor area that they can use when they need it.  The farmers have gone back to an older way of getting food which is more built around the way the animal naturally behaves and not about the way we want it to behave—similiar to the Fukouka One Straw Way, only with chickens.  They claim the chickens are happier (makes sense), and that they produce a better product. This proved to be true, reminding me of the eggs we used to get on my grandma’s farm.

Nice business model.  There needs to be farms like this all over the country.  Looks like a billion dollar corporation like Whole Foods is on the right side of this one.  Corporate power and small organic farmers working together to grow the organic offering.  Good job, I think.  What do you think?

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell
BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

So, what came first- the chicken or the egg?  OK, let’s not get into that, but one thing we do know is that chickens raised in a more natural way on organic varied pastures, where they consume bugs, worms, varieties of grasses, grain and seeds, produce richer, yellower, tastier, more nutritious eggs.

I underlined organic because without a soil rich in minerals, microorganisms, worms, bugs, and decaying plant material, the chicken can eat all they want and not be really fed.  Because of our faulty agricultural methods we have systematically destroyed our soil, depleting mineral content, etc.—we talked about this.  Until we have generations of organically cared for lands that are loaded with nutrients, we need to supplement.

Hence, this is the reason we are so excited about our Ultra Mineral, Mesozoic Vegetate minerals.  They are plant derived minerals that come from an ancient tropical forest humus.  They come from a soil bursting in life giving minerals for the whole phylogenetic tree of life to thrive on—and they did.  And, we can too today.

Enjoy, 1 to 4 a day of these powerful minerals.

The Last Quiz Answer:

The Snowy Owl, Bubo scandiacus, was first classified in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist who developed binomial nomenclature to classify and organise plants and animals.

The name scandiacus is a Latinized word referring to Scandinavia, as the owl was observed first by Linnaeus in Northern Europe—Scandinavia.  It is called by many names:  the Ghost Owl, the Terror of the North, the Tundra Owl (it is the official bird of Quebec)—Harry Potter had a pet snowy owl named Hedwig.

The Snowy Owl is a large bird with a body length of over two feet and a wing span of nearly six feet.  They can live up to 35 years.  Here are two northern owls on the hunt.

Mobilize The Earth:  A call from the Earth Day Network to save the date- April 22, 2012. With close to 500 million commitments to date, join EDN, and our partners to reach One Billion Actions in time for Earth Day 2012.  We will take all those acts of environmental service and sacrifice that people, orgnaizations and corporations have performed on behalf of the planet and present this accomplishment as a referendum to world leaders. Take Action>Become an Activist>Call to Action>Earth Day 2012-The 42nd Anniversary.