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Latimer King and welcome to the mother's market radio show, dedicated to the torbay and goodness of the human condition. On today's show, there's been a lot of discussion about probiotics, and we're lucky enough to have one of the foremost experts on how probiotics can help your digestion and overall health, plus later, we'll tell you what's going on around town and what's new at mother's market. But first up, Dr. Jason Mitchell is a board-certified naturopathic doctor and member of the American naturopathic medical association, as well as a member of the certified natural health professionals. Dr. Michel has spent the last 15 years of his professional career developing over 200 industry leading dietary supplements before starting Roblin and his family of companies, he was most recently the chief science officer and one of the managing executives for country life vitamins, a supplement manufacturer, located in the Long Island area of New York State for over 40 years. And we welcome him to the mother's market radio show, Dr. Michelle, how are you?

I'm doing great, thanks.

Nice to have you here. That's space to be here.

Why don't you fill our audience a little bit on your mission and your work before we get to the show's topic... Absolutely, one of the things is that when I was with Country Life vitamins, it's a really special company, they're amazing, they do a lot of really wonderful things, but at about four and a half years ago, something inspired me to make a change, and it's not necessarily one of the happiest inspirational points, in fact, it was a time of disease in my life, actually about four and a half years ago, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, and it was a disease that took me a little bit by surprise at age 40, it just wasn't something I was expecting to do. And in my life, I thought, I think I... Well, I think I take care of myself, but what it showed me was that how valuable of a role the digestive system really plays, it's not that I didn't know that, or I didn't at least understand that, but when it happens to you, when something changes, you realize that this environment is so delicate and so important to on that you really... You gotta take care of it a lot better than we do, if you look at the way we eat and the way we live in the society, it's not a surprise that we have levels of illness that we do, and so when this happened, it inspired me to do something different in it. I turn my attention to the digestive system, 'cause I believe that if you can truly landscape that environment properly and take care of it properly, you can live an amazing, better quality of life without a shot over data, so for that, I turned my attention, my heart and everything to starting the company problem with my business partner, who was also the author of probiotics for Dummies, his name is Dr. Shaker challis, a gastroenterologist, and he and I have a mission, and the mission is to promote gut health and wellness. It was definitely not some profiteering mission because probiotics are hot category, I was really inspired by an event that takes place, I think sometimes when you're in life and things bad happened, they can inspire some of the most amazing things to come, and so I feel blessed to have found a way to see that mission through, so... Pretty excited.

The better one?

Absolutely for you.

Well, I'm glad you're... You're absolutely, yeah, been in remission for three and a half years and really excited to see where... What we can do to improve other people's lives? You know, my products didn't cure me, I hate to misrepresent or anybody to ever think that that's the case, but probiotics are such a crucial part of the plan on laying a good healthy digestive system in place, so... Well, let's talk about that then. So probiotics, why are they so important? What are they? admire the or, they're really important because they are truly living organisms and they participate with you. I really liken it to compare it to pets, we have dogs and cats in our homes, and sometimes we even read the ingredients on pet food better than we read the food that we... Ingredients on the food, we put in our own bodies, but pets, they bring a sense of love and a company met in our lives. Well, we have living organisms that are like pets as well, that live inside of us every day, and without them we can't survive and without us, they can't survive, but what's really interesting is when you look at dogs and cats, they rely on you for food, water, a safe place to live and love and support... Well, the bacteria that live inside your digestive system, they rely on you for the same four things, they rely on you for a safe place to live, food, water and love and support, and I know that sounds weird, the love and support part. But there is a gut brain connection. It's been talked about for decades.

So the reality is, as these bacteria are not just simply some inert vitamin or something that has value like a vitamin C or something, or be vitamin, but it's actually a living organism that doesn't absorb in your body, it participates with you to keep you healthy, and so... My question, anybody was, how well are you feeding your pets, and that'll tell you how healthy that environment truly is, if we're eating a lot of processed refined foods, that's what they're getting is their end... Their end food games. So for us, the better quality foods that we produce for them, the better they're gonna be in, the more balance you're gonna be... Diet is everything.

So just to kind of go off the path a little bit, when you thought you were doing so well, you were only 40 years old and all of a sudden this happened to you, is there a marker or something to find out, can we say because they're a test that we can take the same.

Cross and colitis is such a disease with so many... I guess you could say they understand the pathology of the disease, they really truly don't understand the origins of why it takes place, but one of the things that I truly believe is that stress in our lives can produce such negative consequences, and with that, you know the phrase is tied up in knots, and a gut feeling, these are not figures of speech, they are truly an expression of how you feel or what you experience, like when you say, I'm tied up in knots, it's something that you're describing any time someone's been tied up, but not it's 'cause they're stressed, now you've just affected the environment of where they live... Remember I said you have to give them a safe place to live. Well, if their environments all tied up, it's like an earthquake to them, it's not a safe place, things like IBS or table Bill syndrome, often times have an emotional connection to them, in fact, stress can bring them on... I believe in my life, corporately, I was working so hard in a career and creating so much stress in my life that honestly, that's where I ended up, and I'm not saying that I'm... What was me, it's just an experience that if I had paid a little better attention, I would have recognized that IBS had said in many years earlier, and I didn't realize that I wasn't paying attention. I was the typical ignorant guy that had the information, or at least some, but I wasn't able to... I wasn't paying attention, and so now I'm dedicating my life to help people, show them away so they can pay attention.

Well, I think, again, we all have a wake-up call, and so good for you for teaching us about all of this... Let me ask you, should we take a probiotic every day... How does it work?

Absolutely.

A lot of people think that because they're not having any symptoms... Yeah, but they shouldn't do something about it, I've talked to so many people over years and they say, Wait, I was perfectly healthy till I was 30, 40, 50, whatever the age is, and I'm like, No, you weren't... You just didn't have any symptoms, and the absence of a symptom does not mean that you're... Well, it just simply means that your body is doing the best I can to keep up, once you have symptoms, now your body is beginning to give up, and that's a pretty detrimental place because your body is its own best doctor, so supplements aren't supposed to heal you they're supposed to support your body in hopes that your body can heal itself, and that's really what the goal is, and so when you look at this, not a time you're getting symptoms, your body is giving up, why should we take a probiotic every day? Well, first of all, because of the type of diet that we have in this country, unfortunately, we're eating a lot of processed refined foods, there's a great movie out there that's a documentary called that Sugar film, if you wanna see something in a really in your face way on how damaging an addictive and toxic something as simple as sugar can be, you'll understand why we're so toxic and realize that 80% of the food on a grocery store shelf is actually has added sugar. Roughly about 20% doesn't, which is a real big... It's not a big surprise really to the people that are making the food, but to all of us consumers, anything in a box of CAN and a freezer back, so when you look at diet, then you contrast that or complex that with prescription medications, things like antibiotics that I'm not against antibiotics, I'm just against how they're being used, I think improperly, sometimes people aren't taking them correctly or they're taking them for things they shouldn't be taking them for, and there's a lot of different things, then there's other medications and then we have lifestyle issues, like alcohol abuse, smoking, things of that nature, that come into play, and so when we look at this and pilot all on together, and we have foods that have preservatives and all kinds of... It's not a big shocker. If we really get down to it, that there is a lot of this bacteria being killed off or destroyed and the system is becoming out of balance, and so balance is key, and we have to maintain this balance in order to maintain true health and wellness, 'cause everything starts in the gut, if you don't absorb the nutrients that you eat, well, then the nutrients from the food that you eat, and quite honestly, I don't know how much or how healthy you should think you should be, we need to focus on better balance.

So using a probiotic every day can help to instill or can keep balancing what the cool thing about them is that there's not really some problem or side effect of taking a probiotic every day, in fact, it's a really good thing. So you're not doing any harm. There's virtually no known drug interactions or anything of that nature to a probiotic because it's something that you need their bacteria, they're really super important. But the more balanced you are, the better your system will operate and the more you'll make use of the food you eat, so... Pretty important. And that's great. Are there different kinds of probiotics, I... Oh yeah, probiotics are broken into families, just like all of us, we have people that are French in Spanish and English, and we have people from doing well, there's different types of families of bacteria, and they all kinda have different jobs. They're pretty cool actually. You have a lactic acid bacteria that kind of reside predominantly in the small intestines, but they're a little transient to, and then you have things called bifida bacterium that will rely more on the colon and large intestines, but they're a little transient as well, and so you got all kinds of different families and strains of bacteria, and they all kinda have different jobs, kind of like a community or a village here takes a village, that's a phrase that everybody has to do their part for the village to operate well, all these wonderful bacteria work in concert, now they fight a little too, but they work in concert for the most part, to defend you against bad things, to help you digest your foods and to help support the immune function of the body, the digestive, and just to stay in good wellness and health.

Excellent.

Well, when is the best time to take a probiotic?

Well, you know, there's a lot of different ideas, some people to take it with food, with hot food in the morning, and you know what I've narrowed it down to is the bottom line is simply take one and then we can get down to refining how you take them and what you take. But if it would just take one... And here's the cool thing, I own a probiotics company, and it might be odd for me to say this, but there's not one probiotic on the shelf that's a bad idea, they're all good products and they're all amazing products, now it's just to what degree and how well we can refine how effective the product really is, and that's what we specialized on, but when to take it, the best time is at bed time, this is when your digestive system is that it's... I guess you could say it's most restful state, there are some functions that are happening at that time, but this is when you are not really set up for digestion, you're not... Your body is at rest and it's a cleansing period, and it's a waste removal and processing and repair period, you're really not supposed to eat at this time, and what's really neat is that is the best time you'll get the most out of the bacteria when you do that at least that's my opinion. In many microbiologists that I work with on a regular basis, one of which Dr. Mark brought neck, these are things and opinions that I think are a little subjective, but there are some good science to the fact... We know when is the best time.

Wow, it's fascinating. This is really interesting, and again, because of your background and what you've gone through to get all of that research, it must be interesting for you to be going through this as well.

Absolutely, we have to take a quick break. But more in just a minute. And this is what Dr. Jason Mitchell about probiotics. Stay with. This will be re.

And welcome back to the mother's market radio show. And we wanna remind you that if you've missed any portion of today's show, you can find us on iTunes by searching mother's market or download the show from our website, mother's market dot com, click the link for radio and listen to the past shows. Plus download our Healthy Recipes and money savings coupons, all available at mother's market dot com. And now back to our interview with Jason Mitchell, and we're talking about probiotics, it's really interesting, Jason, you have a personal connection here... Yes.

Well, it is better, the probiotics from the refrigerator or the shelf stable... Okay, well, I'll go back to what I said a little bit ago. There's not a bad one. And so if someone's trying to really decide in there, and they're having a lot of issues with, 'cause there's hundreds of them on the shelf in any given health food store, and so especially mother's market or anywhere, they're gonna have hundreds. But to be honest, the ones in the refrigerator for the most part, there used to be a history where many decades ago, when my family had their health food stores, there were dairy cultures and things of that nature. And that's why they needed to be in the refrigerator. But the ones that have now progressed and evolved into powder in a two-piece capsule and put into the refrigerator, it's really just a matter of convenience, that's where we're keeping them, and in a storage condition keeping the refrigerator can prolong them. But to be honest, most of them are perfectly fine at a very ambient condition, one of the things that we focused on was convenience... What's better? refrigerated or shelf stable? They're both amazing. And shelf stable is something that offers you the convenience that when you take it home, you can put it on your night stand and give you that reminder that taking it at bedtime is the best time to do it, and you don't have to worry about it being in a refrigerator, the biggest issue with probiotics is that you need to keep them away from moisture-laden environments, things that are heavy and moisture, it's one of the reason why all the problem products are in Wister cards because I wanna make sure to protect every single capsule just because you have them in a cap and you screw the cap down on the bottle, doesn't mean that moisture doesn't get in well exposed, every one of my capsules are enclosed, so that's one good suggestion, but additionally, you wanna make sure that the temperature deviations don't happen drastically, you don't want them to come from a super cold refrigerator and then go out to a super warm car and then back to a super cold refrigerator because that deviation up and down will likely do more damage than if you actually just had them constantly at a little bit warmer than what would be in a refrigerator, but in all truth, shelf stable probiotics somewhere around 72 degrees Fahrenheit, health constant, keep it in a cool dry place. In your house, it's wonderful, it's easy, and it offers you the convenience to travel to... You can keep it with you. What is there a certain age? We should start taking probiotic, look at it this way, but the two-piece capsule products, which are what our products are, I say when they're old enough to swallow a capsule, they're old enough to take my product, there's not... But I think children should be taking them, especially when you look at the rise and number of C-section births, prophylactic antibiotics used at birth and all these different things, you know, women are amazing, they offer that first seed as the child pass through the vaginal canal for that baby to set up all of that wonderful bacteria in the gut, if they are unfortunately held from that by C-section in both my children, both my boys were born C-section medically necessary. And so they're gonna need a probiotic supplement far greater than, let's say someone that went natural child birth, but then antibiotics complicated. I would say that as early as you're willing to give them to them, you're gonna be doing a really good thing for them 'cause it's gonna help maintain balance, and there's all sorts of great powdered forms for infants, there's Cowles, there's a jar you um DOL is... That's really good for kids. That's the one that I give my son, and then there's country lives, baby Doppler, that's a powder for infants, there's just a lot of really good products out there that do a really good job, and you know what, and thank you for bringing that up because you don't really even think about that, that he... That birth canal part of it, and then... Versus the C-section. But you know what, we just don't. And then with everything going on with our kids these days with learning disabilities or what... I mean, whatever, that's a whole other subject, but whatever it is, it's just the amount of probiotics or just the vitamins that our kids need to be taking... Well, actually check this out. And I mentioned Dr. Mark Brene, someone who is the architect of the patent that covers our products, he wrote a book called The probiotic solution, and in that book outlines elements of probiotics and their application and autism, in fact, he's authored, I think, multiple patents on the use of probiotics and autism because it showed that there is truly a gut brain connection, so knowing when you talk about learning disabilities and things of that nature, there is that gut brain connection and all you have to do is feed a child something that's not the right food full of sugar and you'll see their attitude change immediately, it's not a prolonged thing, it's immediate, and so you understand how closely related that is, we are what we eat and we act like... What were you too... And on that note too, can you expand a little bit about where can we find... And you're talking about supplements, but what about... We're talking about sugars and processed food, what kind of foods that we can sign providing you can find them in some really good quality... Yogurt, I say good quality and a little bit of Chester because honestly, when you go into a grocery store, even some of the best well-intended health food stores, a, they do have yogurts and those things are out there, but unfortunately they're designed for pleasure, not really for function, but I would say a really good way to do it is actually make some homemade Keefer, that's a really, really good way. And also participating with food in your diet that would be fermented foods, things like Kim chi sour crowd, and then having some homemade keepers as well, I think it'd be a really, really good strategy to kinda implement as well, and I think that would play a really strong role, and there's one... There's a product out there, I love it, it's called the Perfect Pickler, and it's this little glass jar device that makes it easy for you to actually make some homemade fermented foods, and I think it's a really good idea. I met this, the lady who owns it at a trade show, and I gotta be honest, and I just was so impressed with it, I thought I wanted to buy it and give it away all my sales people so that they would have the ability to go home and make fermented foods. I just loved it, so...

Okay, perfect. Pickler, that's good.

And me, So soup, and there's lots of different things where you can get bacteria in organisms that are good for the gut.

Thank you.

So how do we choose the correct probiotics... We know the one thing you wanna do is there's two main criteria you wanna focus on potency and delivery system. When we're looking at potency is the first shot. Potency is something that unfortunately what has happened in our industry is that it's very typical American thinking is, if a little is good, more is better, so I'm really out of balance, I need to take a lot more in the bacteria... Well, to be honest, it's not about how much you take, in fact, it has very little to do with how much you take, it has so much more to do with how much of the bacteria that you do consume that actually survives, because if it doesn't survive, it's not gonna do as much good for you as it could alive, even dead bacteria though has value in the body and actually some really amazing benefits for immune health and digestion, but if they're alive, they can actually do so much more.

And so when you're looking at that, when you see these products that are 50, 80, 100, 200 billion... I don't wanna reduce this to an economic discussion, but the fact is, is like if you go into the produce, all you pay by the pound for fruits and vegetables, well, when it comes to a probiotic, you pay by the billion... And if you're taking a product that is 100 or 200 billion and if there isn't the proper delivery system in play, most of that's gonna die only so that you get a small amount, and I know most people are not gonna go buy 100 bananas. Hoping that one makes it home.

Right, so when we look at this, we wanna look at what is the right dose, so when we looked at the research and looked at organizations like the International probiotic Association places, just looking at what is the right dosing for a human... 'cause in the absence of any true perfect guidelines, which I think there's a lot of subjective opinion that can be imposed here, we found that somewhere between two and 20 billion is the right dose, and that somewhere right about 10 billion is the average for most humans to take on a daily basis. Well, that being said though, you need to deliver that 10 million properly, we didn't play the game on dosing, we focused all of our research and all of our time, our products are backed by three clinical studies in a patent to make sure that they can overcome obstacles like stomach acid and bile, and they're hydrating and nourishing and ability to make their way to the intestines and overcoming those obstacles are really, really super important, and so potency and delivery system play a really powerful role in making a good decision, but don't be fooled into thinking that just simply taking more as the goal, 'cause that's not true at all, in fact, taking something that's backed by sound science and making sure that the bacteria can survive and... How would you know?

How would I know? Okay, so it's really interesting when you look at the research, there are obstacles like stomach acid, for example, stomach acid actually is very damaging to these organisms because stomach acid is designed to help us digest our food, but also helps with protecting us from organisms entering the body, so it would make a lot of sense that when bacteria good or bad tries to enter, it's gonna have a pretty amazing wall to climb to come over that well, even bacteria that is considered a lactic acid bacteria or acid-friendly, they have a resistance of up to a certain pH and stomach acids of pH 15, so you've gotta figure out a way to get through that and survive these organisms. Well, that's a little bit a easier said than done, some people claim that their systems are perfect, their systems out there like delayed release capsules and Terri coding and pearls and all these different systems, and they all work to a certain degree, but the idea is to maximize the benefit, but not introduce things like tallit or chemicals or modified gums or farm-raised animal parts and things of that nature, to actually overcome these systems, using an all natural system is the best way. We use an all-natural seaweed extract, it's not a sodium Elgin Tor or caging, and it's an all-natural seaweed extract that has actually was shown in the research that we did to actually perform better than nine of the top selling competitors we compared it to, so we know that an all natural system that's free of gluten, gmos, wheat, soy dairy, that you can literally do this all naturally if you just take the time, in fact, you know, that was one of the three clinical studies we did was on stomach acid survival, and that was just one of the pieces. Our delivery system is based on three steps, so... Well, it's nice that you have that background that I also been... That research in that study, there are hundreds of probiotics on the shelf a day, and so what makes problem so different and so special, the main thing is, is that we did not focus for the rat race for the highest billion count, we focused on what is the right amount, instead of trying to play into the hand of the average American saying that a little is good, more is better, to be competitive, we said we are going to spend our time delivering the right dose and making sure that they survive, but at the same time, helping to spend much, much time needed for education, much like this radio show, lectures that I do on a regular basis to make sure people can truly understand the value of probiotics and how they work, but what makes us primarily different is that we use that seaweed extract to overcome the stomach acid, and then we actually hydrate and feed the bacteria very effectively. No, it's interesting, when the bacteria are asleep, I call them asleep when they're dehydrated in a capsule, they're asleep, and when they get moisture for the first time, they wake up, and if you've ever been so thirsty that you drink too much and got a stomach ache, you'll understand what I'm saying here is that they'll want to drink so fast that the bacteria themselves like is what they call it, or break... Well, we figured this out, and you know we did, we basically gave him an all-natural Gatorade, we gave him some electrolytes like a living organism needs to hydrate, and we found that we were able to achieve a greater level of survival, in fact, within without... We found 75% survival compared to one in the clinic in the second clinical study that was done, so it was quite amazing that just by doing something so simple and all natural, but it's covered under the patent that's been filed in it. And so it's really special, it's really just kind of me, and then we equip the bacteria to be resistant to some environmental challenges too that we all face, and so this 3D system, as we call it, it's called Mac truck 3D. We were able to achieve a really good way to survive the bacteria, and the end result is consumers are coming back to us on a regular basis saying, No, I've taken probiotics for a time... This is the first time it's really working, but why... I don't understand why is that? And so I've taken ones that are 100 million year, 10 million works better, why I don't understand, and so it's really a fun conversation to have with them, that's nice that they're... Oh, go ahead.

Yeah, no, just to share... Just to be able to share that it's not really about the numbers, and it's about being thoughtful, it's about looking at these organisms and treating them with the dignity as if they were truly alive sitting next to us, but instead being inside of us and they play a valuable role in our survival. Let's treat him with the respect they deserve and do something special to make sure they survive, and that's what we did, like the petite are pets. They travel around with you all the time, but they don't complain much right now, so how long until you feel the effects of these probiotics... Everybody's different, and some people have... Their system is relatively well balanced, but obviously when people are having challenges like motility... I can give you an example, there was a supplement specialist in Texas that I was speaking with, and she had mentioned to me she go and I've had a lifelong challenge with a bowel disorder to where I only go to the bathroom a couple of times a week, and it's not for the lack of trying. And I've tried every probiotic, but as soon as I tried your colon support, I was going to the bathroom on a regular basis, but not an accelerated fashion, like a lax... I just felt normal. How long should someone know...

Well, you know, everybody's gonna be different, and it depends on things... The one area that I think most people notice though, is when they become more regular and begin to see that things are happening more efficiently from a motility standpoint or movements, you know, my grandmother always just to say If I had an attitude problem, she says, You need to go have a VM because you know, you need to release some... Release the demons, I guess you could say. Or whatever, you know, she was kind of funny, but going to the bathroom, when people go to the bathroom on a regular basis, they're genuinely a much happier... The quality of life goes up when things happen the way they're supposed to, when someone's constipated, they're not happy, and so those are areas where I can say most people are actually are gonna notice, but you don't notice your immune system getting stronger, except in hindsight, saying, Man I feel better this season, or you're not really gonna notice as many of the things that they do, but I can tell you that you'll begin to notice in hindsight saying, Man, this is actually working better, but mostly in the area of digestion and motility, you'll begin to notice things, but it can happen in time frames that are variant to each person... Right, within a couple of weeks, usually. It depends, depends. Well, I like that on this note, thank you, I love all your analogies too, and you're saying, Well, good luck to you, thanks so much for your time, doctor, and thinks you're a great advice and we really appreciate your knowledge, and I look forward to having you on again, in the mean time, get more information on your website, it's problem dot com, T-O-U-L-I. and by the way, that's a spelling. Look forward to your next visit.

Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

Thanks for listening to the mother's market radio show, and for shopping at mother's market, the advice and informational content does not necessarily represent the views of mother's market and kitchen, mother's consulting your health professional for your personal medical condition...