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A 10-Day Cleanse For Occasional Constipation

10-Day Cleanse 10-Day Cleanse: Have you or someone in your family been experiencing occasional constipation? Are you sick and tired of trying lots of ineffective treatments? If that sounds like you, then you’ll be happy you’ve found this post. By the end of it you’re going to recognize the causes of occasional constipation, what probiotics and enzymes are, and why they may help alleviate digestive troubles. You’ll also receive a simple 10 Day Guide on how to bio-cleanse for constipation using two specialized probiotic and enzyme supplements to help restore a healthy gut and hopefully alleviate the symptoms and frustrations associated with it. Why Do I Experience Occasional Constipation? Beyond specific medical reasons, typical factors that can lead to constipation include modern diets that are low in dietary fiber, high stress levels, lack of physical exercise, eating “on-the-run”, more sedentary jobs and the side effects caused by taking medicines are all common contributors. If those sound familiar and you might be thinking you’ve just described all my friends, it might not surprise you that… Constipation is one of the most common gastrointestinal (GI) problems, affecting about 42 million people in the United States! 1 (Source) Who is most likely to experience occasional constipation? Constipation is common among all ages and populations in the United States, yet certain people are more likely to become constipated, including: women, especially during pregnancy or after giving birth older adults people with lower incomes people who just had surgery people taking medicines to treat depression or to relieve pain from things such as a broken bone, a pulled tooth, or back pain You may have tried, like many people, to reach for an herbal or medicinal laxative to solve the problem. However, most laxatives tend to irritate the gut. They can also lead to dependency or further damage bowel function. What are Probiotics? In a nutshell, probiotics are good bacteria. “Probiotics are good bacteria that are either the same as or very similar to the bacteria that are already in your body. - In fact, there are a greater number of bacteria in your intestines than there are cells in your body.” as defined by the Mayo Clinic. 7 Types of ‘Friendly’ Bacteria Lactobacillus acidophilus Lactobacillus bulgariusLactobacillus plantarum Lactobacillus rhamnosus Streptococcus thermophilus Bifidobacterium bifidum Bifidobacterium lactis Historically, humans have consumed and ingested probiotics via fresh foods grown in healthy soil and by fermenting vegetables to keep them from spoiling. However, because of refrigeration and dangerous agricultural practices like soaking our foods with chlorine, our food now contains few probiotics. In fact, many foods today contain antibiotics that kill off good bacteria in our bodies! If you don’t have enough probiotics, the side effects can include: skin conditions, yeast issues, a weakened immune system and… digestive disorders such as constipation! Can’t I Just Eat My Way To Healthy? In theory….yes. At Master Supplements we wholeheartedly recommend a healthy diet, regular exercise and getting quality sleep as part of a healthy lifestyle. But, on top of the information above, we’re also human beings with careers and families and we also aware that changing habits can be tremendously difficult. Moreover thousands of people have turned to probiotics and enzymes to abate digestive issues and to supplement a healthy gut. So what’s the solution? We're glad you asked! How to Bio-Cleanse For Constipation The Science Bit: Today, we recognize the gastrointestinal tract as one of the most complex microbial ecosystems on earth. The inhabitants of the gut are called microflora and, within that ecosystem, there are 100 trillion living organisms! Thus, creating a healthy intestinal tract is all about promoting and maintaining a population of beneficial gut flora. Probiotic supplements are a way to ensure intake of high levels of probiotic strains of good bacteria get into your gut. The challenge, according to Dr. Sherrill Sellman, Naturopathic Doctor and best-selling author, is to find the right product that is truly effective, delivering live probiotic strains deep into the colon. In lieu of supplementation, a diet rich in whole foods, vegetables, and fiber will stimulate probiotic growth! Probiotic bacteria are an integral part of the digestive process and consume the same food that you and I eat. A healthy diet not only benefits you but also the probiotic bacteria that reside in your digestive tract! TruFlora® and Enzalase® 10-Day Cleanse combination: Unique among probiotic formulas is a formulation we call TruFlora. It combines three powerful probiotic strains and two fiber-digesting enzymes in a patented formula that can achieve what is called bio cleansing, keeping your intestinal tract in a more pristine, microbial state of affairs. TruFlora's three high-strength Lactobacillus strains colonize both food in the small intestine and waste contents in the colon. They also increase the population of beneficial bacteria as well as increasing muscle contractions along the colon that "gets things moving along"! To complete your Bio-cleanse for constipation, or any other digestive issues, we recommend combining TruFlora with our unique digestive enzyme formula called Enzalase. Enzalase contains 12 digestive enzymes that digest all major food types while simultaneously stimulating the growth of beneficial probiotic bacteria. Even more impressively, it helps to digest impacted matter in the crypts or folds of the colon which improves peristalsis. Lastly, and most critically, Enzalase and TruFlora are effective because our acid proof technology enables them to survive the stomach and arrive deep into the colon. 10 Day Program (With Money Back Guarantee) Take two TruFlora and two Enzalase capsules daily for your 10-Day Cleanse at bedtime with 8 oz. of water and, ideally, do not eat 2-3 hours beforehand. “I was totally amazed how quickly my intestinal tract got back on track! In all honesty, this is the best program ever for truly restoring a healthy gut.” – Dr. Sherrill Sellman

Anti-Aging: a Fresh Conceptual Understanding…

By: Roland Pankewich If you own a time machine, then this article is not for you. IF you obey the laws of physics like most of us, then you will really want to keep reading…. The concept of anti-aging is an interesting one because we cannot change our age chronologically no matter how much you alter your ID or lie on forms when asked. What you CAN do is change your age BIOLOGICALLY and I hope to be able to set the tone of understanding and give some strategies of how to do so! An easy way to understand biological age is how your body regulates itself in its operating system. From the time we are born until about 25yrs old, we are in a growth phase, and we accumulate resources. The term to describe this is “anabolic”. As we cross that age threshold, we begin to change our pattern of operation to an increased utilization of resources and as a result the body shifts into its “catabolic” opposite as the body begins its breakdown which takes place over decades so don’t worry that it’s all over after 25! The key when understanding anti-aging lies within this relationship. The decline of health and vitality DIRECTLY correlates with our body’s energy and adaptability. The steepness of this drop which we call the line of senescence is what determines how well we age and how efficient our immune system remains. If someone lacks energy and adaptability, they become compromised in terms of their health. This can mean that someone who is only 45 years old who is in a poor state of health can have a physical operating system like that of someone who is 54 years old. In this model, biological age is GREATER than chronological age. If the same person decides to take responsibility for their health and improves ALL aspects of their life that support health, they could conceivably change their internal operating system (via the enhancement of adaptability and more overall energy) and begin to operate like that of a 35-year-old biologically. THIS is the fundamental concept of anti-aging in a nutshell. The goal is to make the person; look, perform, and feel younger than they are. Another aspect of anti-aging isn’t just about appearance or performance but rather the QUALITY of our individual march of time. One who ages well and seems younger than they are will likely age without degenerative illness and the associated physical and mental decline. I personally think this is the most powerful aspect of the whole thing because we are all getting older by the second, but YOU have a say over HOW you age, which is perfectly summed up by Clint Eastwood’s famous saying when asked about his secret to living long and healthy; “Don’t let the old man (or woman) in!” At this point I hope you have a decent depiction of the concept of anti-aging armed with the knowledge that it is in your hands to a large degree. Now, as always, we must talk about where the gut fits in to all this. If we correlate poor gut function with unhealthy consequences, knowing that poor digestion, dysbiosis, leaky gut, and the associated patterns that unfold from this scenario, it is fair to assume the gut plays a very important role in everything to do with this process! As a body system, your gut, its degree of compromise, and how long one has been dealing with those symptoms are probably one of the strongest drivers of the aging process. We know that the microbiome is its own unique ecosystem and why this is important is that the more your microbiome becomes damaged and the further away it moves from its original makeup, the more we lose that adaptability because our bodies have lost coherence in a major body system that is able to negatively influence ALL other body systems via the different connection axes that the gut has within the body. Keeping your microbiome intact is a pillar of aging well and luckily all the educational content we put out as well as all the products we make as a company fit into this idea. When you do your research and/or get proper guidance, you can help your body regain the necessary energy and adaptability to age well and deal with life’s challenges. This is of course if all the boxes as follows are checked; eat well, sleep well, balance your work/rest ratios, be mindful of your environment, move your body, spend time with good people, always have a strong sense of purpose in your life, and never stop playing. When you take care of your physical body and your mental/emotional states, they will return the favor and allow you to keep vitality into your later years. Each one of us has a unique recipe for this but luckily the base ingredients are all the same!

Digestive Enzymes Before You Stuff Yourself

It's the time of year when our caloric intake usually exceeds our daily normal and our diet experiences some seasonal distress: Halloween – Parties and too much candy. Thanksgiving – Turkey and dressing and pumpkin pie, oh my! December Holidays– Multiple gatherings filled with rich foods. New Year’s Celebrations – Need we say more? In fact, how many times have you left a holiday party feeling like this? So, how do we make this marathon manageable? It’s All About Our Gut The uneasy feeling we get when we overeat has lots to do with messing up our gut, which is also known as our gastrointestinal tract, a big part of our digestive system. Our gut breaks down food into things our bodies can use. For example, the foods and liquids we consume are mostly fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. These need to be digested and broken down into smaller molecules that can be transported through the wall of the small intestines and absorbed into the blood stream. We routinely alter our gut’s ability to digest food during the normal course of a meal by: Drinking liquids just before, during, and after a meal dilutes our digestive juices Eating foods that are tough to digest (fats & proteins) slows things down Where do Digestive Enzymes Come From? With a balanced diet, we can obtain some important enzymes from the foods we eat. Here are some examples: Papayas – produce papain, a protease, which turns proteins into amino acids (you’ve probably heard of those) and peptides. Mangos – contain amylase, an enzyme that digests starch carbohydrates. Avocados – have lipase, which turns fat into multiple fatty acids (like omega-3) and glycerol. The Role of Digestive Enzymes That’s good to know, but it may be difficult to manage my diet to get the right amount of digestive enzymes. Another issue is that I cook my food at high heat, which can destroy the enzymes. So, what to do? Try Enzalase®, which contains twelve digestive plant enzymes formulated with patented EnzaStim™ to help you break down and digest food better. This helps you derive more nutrition and energy from the food you eat as well as providing relief from occasional gas and bloating. Sounds like an excellent way to get the right amount and balance of enzymes for added digestive support this holiday season!

Everything You Need to Know About Digestive Enzymes

Proper digestion is a byproduct of countless environmental and biological factors. And digestive enzymes play a huge role in your body’s natural digestive processes. You secrete enzymes from your mouth, pancreas, liver, and more! Each of these enzymes has a specific function and supports your natural digestive processes in some way. In this blog, we’re going to give you a basic primer on digestive enzymes before individually breaking down each of the enzymes included in every bottle of Enzalase (the same way they break down food in your guts). Let’s get started! What are digestive enzymes? Digestive enzymes are catalysts that speed up the digestion of protein, carbohydrates, fiber, and fats. Breaking these macronutrients into smaller pieces helps your body get more nutrients out of the food you eat, more efficiently process undigested food, and support gut health. Do digestive enzymes really work? Absolutely! Your body naturally produces enzymes like lipase, amylase, and protease as part of the digestive process. It secretes pancreatic enzymes, liver enzymes, and more as part of your digestive system. How do digestive enzymes work? Digestive enzymes cleave molecular bonds by targeting specific molecular structures to speed up the digestion. For example, invertase splits a disaccharide, sucrose, into its two constituent monosaccharide units (one glucose molecule, one fructose molecule). Invertase cannot break down any other molecule besides sucrose. Similarly, Lactase will only cleave a lactose molecule into glucose and galactose. Should I take a digestive enzyme? As we age, our bodies produce fewer pancreatic and digestive enzymes naturally. Supplementing your diet with a potent digestive enzyme can help combat occasional gas and bloating from food sensitivities or poor digestion. When should you take digestive enzymes? The typical recommendation is to take digestive enzymes either 30 minutes before a meal or within 30 minutes after. It takes your stomach between 60-90 minutes to process a meal before sending it into your digestive tract so there’s a short window of opportunity. Look for digestive enzyme supplements with some type of acid protection. Most enzyme activity occurs in the intestinal tract. Stomach acid denatures digestive enzymes, rendering them inactive and ineffective so it’s important to keep them protected. Can you take probiotics and digestive enzymes together? Absolutely! Because digestive enzymes digest super specific molecules, they don’t interfere with probiotic colonization. In fact, digestive enzymes can have a prebiotic effect by making the food you eat more available for probiotic bacteria. Probiotics eat the same food we do and can benefit from improved absorption too! What should I look for in a digestive enzyme supplement? Your first step should be to check the refrigerated section at your local market. Refrigeration helps enzyme supplements maintain homeostasis and prevents them from degrading over time. Next, read the label. Are the enzymes of human origin or from another species? While there are benefits to both, knowing what you’re about to put into your body benefits your digestive health outcomes. We recommend a multi-enzyme blend because, unless you’re on a special diet, most of us consume carbs, protein, fats, and fiber on a daily basis. The best digestive enzymes will be able to digest all four macronutrients to maximize absorption and nutrition. Speaking of high quality digestive enzyme supplements What are the 12 digestive enzymes in Enzalase? We break the 12 digestive enzymes in Enzalase down into 4 separate groups: Protein digesting enzymes Carbohydrate digesting enzymes Fat digesting enzymes Fiber digesting enzymes Click on any of the links above to read more about your desired enzyme group! If you have any other questions about enzymes, feel free to ask us in the comments or contact us directly. With that said, let's begin! Protein Digestive Enzymes Bromelain Protease Papain Protease Neutral Protease These three powerful protein-digesting enzymes are all plant source proteases. Protease is a general term for the entire class of protein-digesting enzymes. You may also know them as proteolytic enzymes. The numbers and letters following the name represent the activity of that enzyme present in each Enzalase® capsule. The weight of an enzyme in mg means nothing, only activity counts. Activity is the actual “work” that the enzymes are capable of doing, a milligram guarantee (mg) on a label is only a measure of weight, not activity. BROMELAIN – 200 GDU/capsule Bromelain comes from pineapple, both fruit and stems. It contains a mixture of proteolytic digestive enzymes, called cysteine proteases, that form peptides (short chains of amino acids) and amino acids from whole proteins. Bromelain has a long history of use as a digestive aid. Bromelain’s activity is expressed in Gelatin Dissolving Units (GDU). GDU is relatively strong in comparison to other protein digestion units so a low value is still significant. Bromelain also demonstrates systemic benefits when taken on an empty stomach. PAPAIN – 42,500 TU/capsule Papain is a mixture of proteolytic enzymes derived from unripe papaya fruit. These digestive enzymes effectively attack tough to digest proteins like beef steak, releasing peptides and amino acids. Papain is used as a meat tenderizer due to its rapid-acting proteolytic activity. It has been shown to be synergistic with bromelain because each attacks different peptide bonds to ensure that protein digestion goes to completion. The pioneering work of the late German physician Dr. Hans Nieper is worthy of review regarding the use of these enzymes for enhancing systemic health. Papain activity is expressed in either TU, tyrosine units, or PU, papain units. 1 TU is equal to 60 PU. Keep this in mind when comparing enzyme activities on a competitive product.s TU is a much larger unit. Enzalase® capsules contain 42,500 TU of papain activity which is equivalent to 2,550,000 PU. Papain is present in Enzalase® at a very potent activity level. NEUTRAL PROTEASE – 5,800 HUT/capsule A neutral protease is the third proteolytic enzyme that completes the protein digesting group for Enzalase®. It is derived from Aspergillus oryzae (also known as koji which is used in the production of sake). This protease functions optimally in a pH range around neutral (6.5-8.0). Protein digestion is therefore enhanced by this enzyme in the small intestine because it operates at a similar pH range to the small intestinal environment. Many enzyme supplements contain acid protease enzymes which function primarily in the stomach at a pH below 3.0. Enzalase® does not contain acid proteases since it is designed to function in the small intestine where backup digestive activity and cobiotic generation (for Lactobacillus stimulation) is needed. The neutral protease in Enzalase® is present at an activity of 5,800 hemoglobin units (HU)/capsule. Carbohydrate Digestive Enzymes Alpha-Amylase Glucoamylase Alpha-Galactosidase Lactase Invertase ALPHA AMYLASE – 5,000 SKB/capsule These digestive enzymes digest polysaccharides from starches that contain alpha-1,4-glycosidic bonds. There are other amylases, such as beta- and gamma-amylase, but alpha-amylase is the most important in food digestion. Alpha-amylase will digest a large variety of starches such as those from: Wheat Corn Potatoes Rice The end products of the digestion are mostly dextrins. Dextrins are linear glucose chains of varying length. Alpha-amylase also releases oligosaccharides, or short glucose chains, all the way down to maltose. Maltose is a disaccharide containing two glucose molecules. To get free glucose released, alpha-amylase needs help from glucoamylase. The extent to which dextrins are broken down into shorter chain oligosaccharides and maltose, which is the objective, depends on several factors: The amount of alpha-amylase present The type of starch The transit time in the small intestine The presence of any enzyme inhibiting compounds or hostile factors. The human body produces alpha-amylase in the mouth (via saliva) and in the pancreas. Pancreatic alpha-amylase is injected into the small intestine at the duodenum with the rest of your body’s natural pancreatic enzymes. Alpha-amylase production slows down with age, often dramatically. When undigested starch moves deep into the intestinal tract, digestive issues may arise. Starch stimulates many types of bacteria and yeast that can overgrow in the small intestine (frequently referred to as SIBO). The result is indigestion, cramping, excess gas, and other digestive problems shortly after eating. A multi-enzyme supplement with alpha-amylase can help prevent SIBO as can co-administration with a high potency probiotic. Enzalase® contains 5,000 SKB units of alpha-amylase activity/capsule. One SKB (Sandstedt Kneen Blish) unit liberates 1.0 grams of dextrin per hour. Therefore, one SKB unit will digest one gram of starch per hour under ideal conditions, so the 5,000 SKB units in Enzalase® should digest 5,000 grams (11 lbs) of starch per hour. That may appear to be overkill but it’s not, the key phrase in the above sentence is “under ideal conditions.” Shortly after a meal, the duodenum section of the human small intestine has anything but ideal conditions for any given enzyme. When the food mixture (chyme) moves from the stomach into the duodenum, it contains stomach acid, pepsin (a hostile enzyme to other enzymes), fat coatings that slow the action of digestive enzymes, fiber and foodborne enzyme inhibitors, anti-digestion factors (ADFs) we don’t understand yet, multiple enzymes from the pancreas and bile from the liver. Not a happy place for any single enzyme trying to excel at its job. At best, the conditions in the duodenum allow a number of different digestive enzymes to function simultaneously, albeit at some activity level less than what they demonstrate under ideal conditions in the laboratory. Therefore, we provide a healthy dose of alpha-amylase and reinforce its survival through the stomach with acid proof protection. GLUCOAMYLASE – 5 AG/capsule This is the enzyme that completes the digestion of starches started alpha-amylase. Glucoamylase, also called amyloglucosidase, works on dextrins at their non-reducing ends and releases free glucose. Glucoamylase helps pull alpha-amylase by preventing a buildup of dextrins that slow down alpha-amylase by feedback inhibition. Glucoamylase is used in the food industry to produce glucose from starch in such applications as alcohol production, fruit juice, and baking. It is an important augmenting enzyme in a high quality digestive enzyme supplement. Enzalase® contains 5 AG units of glucoamylase activity. AGs, or amyloglucosidase units, are relatively large units so a little goes a long way. Be wary of any enzyme supplement that contains alpha-amylase (may be listed incorrectly as amylase) and no glucoamylase! ALPHA GALACTOSIDASE – 165 GalU/capsule Alpha-galactosidase from Aspergillus niger catalyzes the hydrolysis (digestion) of sugars in the raffinose family. These include raffinose, melibiose, and stachyose. These are the gassy carbohydrates found in beans and peas and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cabbage. The human digestive system needs help in dealing with these carbohydrates or the person consuming them becomes bloated and gassy rather quickly. When these sugars make it into the colon undigested, an army of waiting bacteria, including Clostridia and Bacteroides species, produce gas. Separate from the embarrassing flatulence issues is the issue of the beneficial colon microflora becoming unbalanced. Beneficial probiotic bacteria, like Bifidobacteria, can potentially lose out to less desirable microbes when these gassy foods become a frequent addition to the diet. The final byproducts of raffinose digestion by alpha-galactosidase: Raffinose + alpha galactosidase > galactose + sucrose Melibiose + alpha galactosidase > galactose + glucose Stachyose + alpha galactosidase > galactose + sucrose These end product sugars are well assimilated in a healthy digestive tract and are generally non-gassy. Therefore, supplementing your diet with alpha-galactosidase can potentially confer health benefits along with social benefits! A tablet of alpha-galactosidase digestive enzymes typically contains 150 GalU of Galactosidase activity Units. Enzalase® capsules contain 165 GalU of alpha-galactosidase activity. This amount is quite effective and well tolerated. Formulations that contain > 165 GalU can cause stomach upset in some people. LACTASE – 1000 ALU/capsule Lactase, or beta-galactosidase, digests lactose (milk sugar). Lactase liberates galactose and glucose to be readily assimilated by the body. When lactose is not digested in the upper small intestine, it travels to the ileum and colon where gas-producing bacteria readily consume it. This condition is commonly referred to as lactose intolerance. People with lactose intolerance react negatively to dairy products and processed foods that contain lactose, bloating with excess gas and diarrhea are the common symptoms. Lactose intolerance is also called lactose malabsorption or maldigestion and results from low production of lactase in the brush border membrane of the mucosa of the small intestine. In plain English, a lactose intolerant person is not producing enough lactase. Lactase is produced at birth, decreases during childhood, and becomes low in adulthood. This is a normal sequence for humans and other mammals and is nature’s way of telling us we need less milk as we mature. Other types of lactose intolerance can be genetic. In general, 70-95% of the adults worldwide are lactose intolerant. Lactose maldigestion is defined as an increase in blood glucose concentration of fewer than 1.12 millimoles/liter or a breath hydrogen of > 20 ppm after ingestion of 50 grams of lactose. Most lactose intolerant people can consume a small amount of lactose without showing adverse symptoms. The tolerance level is about 10-12 grams of lactose or 200 ml of milk (about one 1 glass) but may be as low as 0.5 to 7 grams of lactose. See Scientific References for more information on this subject. The use of lactase as a dietary supplement to help offset the symptoms of lactose intolerance has gained popularity in the last 10 years. Lactase is currently sold as a stand-alone supplement and is also used to treat milk prior to consumption. The problem with using lactase as a dietary supplement has been its sensitivity to stomach acid (and pepsin) which destroy a significant amount of activity before it reaches the intestinal tract. In a 2002 study published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Science (Alavi et al, 5(3): 234-244, 2002) it was found that both Lactaid and Enzeco brands of lactase lost > 96% of their activity after exposure to pH 1.2 stomach acid for 2 hours. To compensate for this loss, high levels of lactase are used which makes it difficult to include other enzymes in these products. The answer is not to use an overage but to properly protect lipase and all digestive enzymes from stomach acid. Enzalase® contains 1000 ALU of lactase activity/capsule. One ALU (Acid Lactase Unit – FCC Method) is the quantity of enzyme that will liberate o-nitrophenol from o-nitrophenyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside at the rate of 1 micromole/min. at pH 4.5 at 37 C. To put this in more practical terms, 1000 ALU of lactase activity will digest > 80% of the lactose in 3 glasses of milk (36 ounces) in one hour. INVERTASE – 400 SU/capsule Invertase, also called sucrase, is the enzyme that splits sucrose (table sugar) into its component parts: fructose and glucose. The body produces invertase in the small intestine for this purpose but aging and disease often limit the amount produced. It is not desirable to have disaccharides like sucrose build up in the intestinal tract and various health problems have been associated with sucrose maldigestion, akin in some respects to lactose intolerance. Multi-enzyme supplements that include invertase may help prevent these problems. Enzalase® contains a booster dose of 400 Summer Units (SU) of invertase activity/capsule. Fat Digesting Enzyme Lipase LIPASE – 6,000 FIP Lipase Units/capsule This digestive enzyme is the keystone enzyme in Enzalase® because it enhances the activity of the other eleven enzymes. Lipase digests fats and oils that interfere with the activity of other enzymes. When fats and oils form a film around nutrients such as starches and proteins, which commonly happens in the stomach, the digestion rate of these nutrients decreases. Especially once they reach the duodenum if there is any shortage of pancreatic lipase. Try to visualize a protease enzyme like bromelain trying to digest a piece of pork chop that is covered with fat. Fat from the pork, fat from butter, fat from cooking oil, and fat from all the other fatty foods in the meal. With all that fat, it becomes difficult for bromelain to break down fat coated pork proteins. On a molecular level, fat blocks bromelain’s active site and reduces its activity. This layer of fat prevents bromelain from breaking down protein and this interference can be easily demonstrated in the lab. Add bromelain to some ground meat and water in a beaker and measure its rate of digestion. Now repeat the test but add a few grams of butter to a second beaker containing the same amount of meat and bromelain. The rate of protein digestion will be slower in the beaker containing the butter. Lipase is the enzyme that directly digests fats and oils and converts these triglycerides to fatty acids and glycerol that are then utilized for energy and metabolism. Problems arise when fats are not effectively digested Blood triglycerides go up, intestinal problems develop, and fat appears in the stools. As we age it’s common for all digestive enzymes to decrease by 1-2% per year and lipase is no exception. Therefore, it makes sense to add high lipase activity to a multi-enzyme supplement. Lipase is one of the more expensive digestive enzymes to produce so most supplement manufacturers neglect to add it at efficacious levels. Enzalase® has been formulated to contain 6,000 FIP units of lipase activity/capsule, the highest strength available in a nonprescription digestive enzyme supplement. 6,000 FIP units of lipase will digest about 28 grams, or one ounce, of olive oil in one hour at body temperature. This provides significant augmentation to the lipase produced by the body. For example, a 2,000 Calorie per day diet containing 30% of the calories as fat would contain 67 grams of fat. The amount of lipase in Enzalase® is sufficient to digest 42% of this amount of fat in one hour and more than 80% in two hours. From this it can be seen that products containing less than 1,000 FIP units of lipase activity per dose are simply not effective in supporting fat digestion. In addition, Enzalase® contains EnzaStim®. a unique fat emulsifier that can double the above digestion rate under conditions found in the duodenum. Fat digestion is dependent upon having fats emulsified (effectively micro-mixed with water) and EnzaStim® helps support the body’s fat emulsifying secretions. Fiber Digesting Enzymes Cellulase Hemicellulase Pectinase CELLULASE – 3,000 CU/capsule Cellulase digests cellulose, an insoluble fiber source. Cellulose is common in fruits, vegetables and grains. Cellulose, like starch, is a polymer of glucose molecules. These carbohydrate molecules are bonded together differently in cellulose and therefore require a different enzyme to split them – cellulase instead of alpha-amylase. The end result of digesting starch and cellulose is the same: glucose. The human body does not produce the enzyme cellulase. Therefore, virtually no digestion of cellulose occurs unless you ingest a dietary supplement containing this enzyme. Most multi-enzyme supplements do not contain cellulase. Those that do often contain a low, essentially nonfunctional, activity level. This is not the case with Enzalase®. Enzalase contains a significant 3,000 FCC cellulase units (CU) per capsule. We include cellulase because it releases prebiotics nutrition from complex fiber matrices present in whole foods. FCC stands for Food Chemical Codex and represents, for any enzyme, one of the most accepted standardized assay techniques. One FCC unit of cellulase activity or CU will produce a relative fluidity change (lower viscosity) of 1.0 in five minutes in a defined carboxymethyl cellulose substrate under conditions of the assay. This means that when a viscous solution of cellulose is treated with cellulase it thins out. HEMICELLULASE – 6,400 HCU/capsule Hemicellulase is another digestive enzyme that is not produced by the human body. This important enzyme digests non-cellulose polysaccharides found throughout the plant kingdom including many vegetables and grains. Hemicellulose carbohydrates are known to hinder the digestion and absorption of various nutrients and have only limited prebiotic potential. The action of the hemicellulase enzyme on hemicellulose carbohydrates is important to enhancing the prebiotic activity of the latter. This is an issue not commonly discussed regarding digestive enzyme supplements. Food grade guar gum, for example, becomes a more effective prebiotic if it is partially cracked by hemicellulase. Hemicellulase turns whole guar gum into partially hydrolyzed guar gum (PHGG). Other examples of hemicellulose carbohydrates that can be helped by partial cracking with hemicellulase are various galactomannoglucans, beta glucans, pentosans, and a whole catalog of hydrocolloid gums used in foods. Yes, ice cream and dairy desserts, especially ones loaded with gums like locust bean, acacia, and carrageenan, can get a prebiotic boost via partial digestion with hemicellulase. Enzalase® contains a potent activity level of hemicellulase at 6,400 HCU/capsule (Patent Pending). One FCC – HCU or HemiCellulase Unit produces a relative fluidity change of 1.0 in 5 minutes in a locust bean gum solution at 40 C and pH 4.5. PECTINASE – 25 Endo-PG U/capsule Pectinase is present in Enzalase® at 7,500 AJDU/capsule – Apple Juice Depectinizing Units. This is a potent level of a food grade enzyme rarely found in dietary enzyme supplements. Fruit pectins, like hemicellulose polysaccharides, are potential prebiotics provided they can be partially cracked to render them more bifidogenic (food source for Bifidobacteria). As a separate issue, plant cell wall pectins have been shown to form water-soluble complexes with various nutrients. These water complexes may limit the availability of fructooligosaccharide prebiotic nutrition from certain fruits. Thus, encouraging the in situ digestion of food pectins has dual prebiotic activation potential. When combined with cellulase and hemicellulase digestive enzymes, pectinase completes the critical triad of high potency fiber digesting enzymes present in Enzalase® making it totally unique among digestive enzyme supplements.. What else do I need to know about Enzalase? Enzalase® stands apart from other digestive enzyme supplements with this unique technology: The 12 enzymes in Enzalase® make it through the harsh acidity of the stomach fully active and get delivered deep into the intestinal tract where they go to work. The stated activity of each enzyme is guaranteed through the expiration date printed on the product’s label. All 12 enzymes are protected from stomach acid and pepsin by a food grade, carbohydrate from seaweed called sodium alginate. This acid-proof protection assures that the enzymes in Enzalase® will get delivered unharmed and fully active into the small intestine where they complement the body’s digestive enzymes. Sodium alginate adds a bonus benefit by holding most of the enzymes together in a gel as they move through the small intestine. Alginate slowly releases the digestive enzymes from the gel as it moves through your digestive system. This results in digestive support deep within the intestinal tract. Deep digestive support helps provide cobiotics that feed Lactobacillus probiotics in the ileum section of the small intestine. Our goal is to provide you with the information you want and need so you can continue to make the best decisions for your gut health.

Fitness Factor 1: Nutrition

By Roland Pankewich The world of nutritional science is an interesting place to be. For those who are fascinated by all the different permutations of diets and their intended uses; keto, paleo, vegan, carnivore, the list goes on. At the same time, given all those options and the inevitable emotional attachment to said frameworks, swimming in the world of nutrition can be similar to swimming in a piranha-infested pond. The challenge for industry professionals AND health warriors alike is separating fact from opinion. True science from anecdotal dogma. The reality of the situation I think we all must accept is there is NO “one-size-fits-all” approach after we agree that all humans need to obtain macronutrients (calories) from food along with micronutrients (cofactors) and that a healthy diet of these nutrients should be made up of whole foods. How we combine, concoct, and create what we eat MUST come down to what works best for a given individual and where they are in their health journey. I hope the value I can bring in today’s article is to help you understand just HOW to create that for a client or for yourself with some fundamental considerations and principles. Let’s dig in… I figured the best way to approach this was in guided steps that can be applied to ANY person under ANY situation of; need, desires, preferences, and/or restrictions. This way it allows you to plug in a framework that may be called for a given scenario while incorporating the principles you see here. It should be said that with this I am trying to be objective and while I personally do not align with extreme diets in a sustained manner, if a case can be made for an individual to do so, I try to proceed without dogma because we are all to varying degrees, biochemically unique. Step 1: WHEN you eat You might be surprised that I am starting my approach with WHEN rather than WHAT but there is strategy here. Two main things underpin this decision; When massively changing dietary habits, eating in a shorter time window is easier to adopt and sustain than changing all the regular items in one’s diet they are accustomed too. In the case of a diet for overall health, body composition, and metabolic enhancement, its easier to eat less when you simply allow yourself less time to eat (assuming willpower). Think about this, humans are the ONLY animals on this planet that give themselves right to eat round the clock! Grocery stores, shelf-stable foods, and refrigeration have given us perpetual harvest season with MOST of what we eat being full of calories and devoid of nutrition. Keeping our bodies hungry ( or hangry!) and in constant search for the nutrition (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber). We need to complete the dietary picture for our internal physiology to turn that food into energy and regulate bodily function. If you simply shorten the eating window from say 12-14hr down to 8hr, you increase your fasting time generously which not only prevents you from over-eating so easily, it also helps put your body back into a healthy catabolic mode which means all that energy that may be stored on the body in the form of adipose tissue can be burned and utilized rather than just sustaining itself and continuing to compromise one’s health. Excessive adipose tissue becomes a metabolically active organ with negative consequences for the body. A simple approach is to eat when the sun is up and shut it down when the sun goes down. Your gut will also appreciate the break from the constant barrage of food it has to thanklessly process for you day-in, day-out. Think about it, it was just the holidays, you all know what your guts had to deal with! Step 2: WHAT to eat Here is where we get down to the magic bullet everyone looks for! The foods that shrink belly fat, the foods that increase muscle mass, the foods that…have a really good marketing team behind them. This is the pin to pop that bubble for those who still hope for such things, they DON’T exist! There are however some incredibly nutritionally dense foods out there and the magic is when you eat them often, in appropriate quantities, with complimentary ingredients……good things happen. What someone eats is really about 2 considerations; What is best for THEM given their unique circumstances/goals. What do they actually enjoy eating. If you have ever tried to get someone to eat cruciferous vegetables who has hated vegetables their entire life, you might understand why point #2 exists. The full details on this topic are way to long for this paragraph but here is how I approach it in an abbreviated way; Start with whole food as close to nature as it can be purchased Select items that are as in-season as possible Select the highest quality items one is prepared to purchase (organic vs conventional) Rotate your proteins and produce on a regular basis Avoid foods with known allergens or that provoke sensitivities Avoid all processed foods with ingredients you cannot recognize If you start here, you will be well ahead of the game relative to most because you have some sort of foundation to work off of. Being adventurous is also a good thing as most people eat the same 8-13 foods every week and we need variety not only for interest but to complete a nutritional profile AND to feed our digestive bacteria which also eat EVERYTHING that you do. Step 3: HOW to eat Now this doesn’t imply I think you all don’t know how to eat. Instead, this is more of a reminder of all the things we were taught as kids that we forget in the name of convenience. Most people “task” themselves with eating as they do with picking up the dry cleaning. It becomes a to-do item jammed in the day at various times. We look at it as something to get done as quickly as possible to get to our next thing and then, habituate that. I use to eat a full meal between when one client finished their workout and the next was warming up on the treadmill as a personal trainer, and I wondered why I had gut issues when I was younger! The process of eating should be somewhat sacred because the job isn’t done when the plate is empty. That’s just act one. You then need to DIGEST IT! This is where a lot of people run into issues because life is so busy and they don’t eat mindfully. They are not cooking their food themselves. They eat alone watching something that may evoke an emotional response. All of which tells your body that digestion is not being prioritized. Meal time should be somewhat sacred. The act of making food, the process of mindful chewing and eating slowly. The opportunity to enjoy with others and share the experience. Finally, the chance to rest at the end of your meal allows your body to really complete the job. The ENTIRE REASON we eat is to produce ATP and cellular water so our body’s can sustain themselves, but look at ALL that goes into doing so and doing it well. Each person has a unique opportunity here to optimize the process of eating to their personal desires by giving MORE attention to it and slowing down while being more involved with the process. Whatever that looks like. The best diet not digested is worse than the worst diet completely digested. As you can see this topic is in many ways more nuanced that our monthly features last year because we are bringing in more of a human factor to the topics in a practical way. This topic has been the subject of thousands of books and will continue to do so as the industry comes up with new takes on old concepts. I will leave you with a final thought from Michael Pollan’s the Omnivore’s Dilemma as my final 2 cents takeaway; “Eat real food, mostly plants” that is all folks. See you next month for sleep fitness!

Fitness Factor 2: Understanding the Importance of Sleep

By Roland Pankewich Welcome to the 2nd installment in the fitness factor series for our 2023 focus. I hope you enjoyed last month’s deep dive into diet and ALL the nuances that can be involved with deciding upon how you want to relate to and construct your diet. You might be thinking that sleep doesn’t require the same approach and nuance as diet? On the surface, I could simply say; “Make sure you sleep well, and life will be good!” The end. That idea of “sleeping well” says so much more than what is obvious because sure we know that poor sleep and little sleep both make you feel awful. However, what does it truly mean to sleep well? How do we know we are doing so and how can we ensure that we will in a consistent manner? Now my friends, we can dive into the nuance of sleep. Just don’t put your blackout blindfolds on yet, I still have a lot to write! Sleep is the health and wellness king in my opinion. Nothing will have more of a deleterious effect on your body when you lack it, and nothing will make you feel more restored when you do it well. No dietary change, specialized supplements, or biohacking gadget will have a better impact on your overall wellness than consistent sleep. While all of this is true and I don’t think many would argue with me, why is it we as a society are sleeping less and in a more compromised manner than we ever have? The national average sleep duration in the US is about 7hr and 19min per night as of 2022 which JUST skirts into the minimum requirement for what is considered a good night’s sleep. The range suggested is between 7 and 9 hours per night with many people (children and young adults included) getting less than this. A very brilliant scientist named Dr. Matthew Walker who happens to be one of the world’s foremost experts on sleep has stated that sleep-loss and associated issues related to poor sleep comprise the biggest epidemic of the 21st century and will place a large challenge on public health systems as a result of the downstream consequences to the development of chronic illness. The issue with sleep for most people is we don’t understand sleep very well as individuals and even more, sleep research has only recently gained a lot of notoriety and popularity within the mainstream. Although encouraging, we need to be more responsible for our own health knowledge and more accountable for executing the behaviors that align us with staying healthy. Let’s examine what constitutes healthy sleep. Sleep is categorized into two major categories; REM and non-REM sleep. REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement and is an interesting phenomenon where the eyes move in various horizontal patterns while sleeping with the eyelids closed. REM sleep is also where the brain is most highly active and in the process the body is paralyzed so the body does not “act out” anything the sleeper may be experiencing during REM sleep due to its tie to dreaming. Interestingly, the failure to be paralyzed and the acting out of our dreams has been connected to the development of cognitive decline and health issues as an early warning sign. These 2 categories are then split into cycles where non-REM sleep has 4 stages of gradually deepening intensity which we cycle through in various time frames. After the deepest stage of this cycle, we experience a pulse of REM sleep and thus you have a complete sleep cycle which is approx. 90min long. Each stage of sleep also has specific brainwaves associated with it to show that even while we sleep, our brains are hard at work directing traffic for our physical, emotional, and psychological recovery and overall health. Taking roll call thus far, we know that we need to sleep and that we should sleep adhering to these sleep cycles BUT, we have not discussed HOW to sleep to ensure we are making all this work in our favor. The last aspect we must discuss is how to sleep and no, this is not just about lying down and closing your eyes. A good night’s sleep starts with how you wake up. What governs when the body should be active and when it should be resting is the circadian rhythm. This sleep/wake rhythm is controlled by how we relate to the emittance of light from the sun and how the sun moves through the sky as the day dawns until it closes. The specific light frequencies from the sun are actually absorbed via our eyes and travel to our brain where a specialized receptor maintains the appropriate time in our body clock. If we live in accordance with the rhythms of the day in an optimal fashion, we would: get morning sun in our eyes upon waking be outside or near a window during the middle of the day at some point to have peak light exposure gradually experience increasing darkness as the sun set go to sleep shortly after it was fully dark This would be wonderful but also very idealistic because modern humans do anything but this. Most of us: wake up and check our phones immediately rush in the morning and hopefully get sunlight on the way to work OR look at a computer screen in the morning spend most of the day inside under artificial lighting experience artificial “perpetual daytime” by turning lights on after the sun goes down (high efficiency bulbs) go to sleep in front of the tv or being on our phone at night in bed What message this sends to the body is that the natural circadian rhythm is not needed and that we must stay awake and rely upon stress hormones and stimulants to replace the natural energy we would have from quality sleep. Layer in late-day caffeine consumption, alcohol use (even 1 drink will compromise sleep), eating right before bed, lack of darkness in the room, improper temperature, and an old mattress and one could create the perfect storm in the evening for an awful sleep! The truth is many do this daily and wonder why they don’t feel rested in the morning or well in general! I told you it was far more complex than simply lying down and closing your eyes. The single best tool I could suggest anyone uses to maintain their natural lifestyle but still improve their sleep experience is to buy a good pair of blue-light blocking glasses. Not a cheap pair off amazon which likely don’t work, a true pair that cuts through ALL blue and some green light spectrum. Master Supplements has an affiliation with Hedron, and their glasses are amazing, and ALL my clients must own a pair as part of our working together because I believe they are that valuable. From a health perspective, sleep controls ALL the regenerative aspects of our bodies and especially our brains! Our brains need to regularly detoxify themselves from daily use, and this only happens in the deeper stages of sleep which are the ones that are most compromised when we neglect our circadian rhythm and allow our sleep cycles to get out of whack. Looking at other aspects of health tied to sleep will show you just how irreplaceable it is: all aspects of proper hormone release are tied to sleep the balance of our autonomic nervous system requires sleep emotional and psychological stability is tied to healthy sleep patterns metabolic function, immune system activity, and cellular recovery require sleep I could go on, but I think you get the picture. So, what can we do to help improve our sleep in a world that wants to keep us awake? If we make sleep our priority and honor it with all that was mentioned above, we are on the right track. I help clients construct a bedtime routine but also believe that the occasional night out, evening glass of wine, or late night is part of living and enjoying life. We shouldn’t get too caught up in perfect execution without allowance for compromise because that’s part of life. I truly hope you all found this personally valuable because there is SO much to consider when it comes to sleep but if we start with: consistent sleep/wake times blocking blue light in the evening (blue blocking glasses & appropriate lighting) darkness in the room temperature control quality sleep tools (mattress, pillows) management of caffeine, alcohol, and eating schedule appropriate supplementation to aid relaxation when needed ways to relax and manage the nervous system (meditation, deep breathing, music) We have a solid game plan that can be tweaked as needed or as desired to make it truly personalized to you and your own needs. Thank you as always and see you next month for respiratory fitness. You can start your breathing practice now and oh yeah, blackout blindfolds can go on now!

Fitness Factor 3: Respiration

By Roland Pankewich First there was food, then there was sleep. Now, we breathe. What a dramatic way to introduce the 3rd fitness factor for the month and the last aspect of the basis of our human existence; eat, sleep, breathe. Truth be told this topic was a little bit of an enigma for me when I started thinking about how to prepare for it. How can I do it justice without putting you all to sleep with talk of tidal volume and respiratory quotients? How can I write an article on the most autonomous thing we all innately do; breathe in and breathe out. To my pleasant surprise, one thing immediately stood out for me in learning about respiratory fitness; when done right, it just may be the absolute easiest thing one can do start NOW to improve their health and next to sleep might be the game changer we have all forgotten about. Ready, slow breath in and we shall continue. The importance of knowing specific details on the topic of respiration is NOT simply tied to things like oxygen saturation of the blood and lung function. Truth be told, if there are no obvious issues and symptoms that show someone has a degree of compromise with their anatomy, we can assume oxygen saturation are likely within normal ranges and gas exchange (oxygen in/carbon dioxide out) are not pathologically problematic. I am more concerned with connecting the dots to the bigger picture of health and focusing on the practical take aways in which encouraging you to prioritize breath-work will yield a better outcome tomorrow for your overall knowledge of the integrated function of the human body. For this reason, we will split this into 3 major categories of focus before we round out the practical takeaways. Doing so my hope is to not simply tell you that breathing is important for your health and tell you how to do it. As health-minded people we need to know WHY breathing positively affects your health in a multitude of ways which stimulate the interest to explore it further and hopefully the staying power to make it a regular tool in your personal health tool kit. Let’s start with the first aspects of improving your respiratory fitness is an essential piece to the health puzzle; Energy Metabolism and super charging your metabolic machinery. Energy is everything, without it nothing would survive. A phrase taken out of what could be a documentary on the universe that also rings true for the universe inside of us. Think about this for a second. We have approximately 32 TRILLION cells in our body, with each cell containing about 2000 mitochondria on average. My math tells me that is a big number and what do EACH of those little power houses need to function well? Oxygen. The fundamental reason we breath is so that oxygen can accept the final electron within the mitochondrial ATP production process so our food can be turned into energy and the byproducts of said metabolism (carbon dioxide & water) can be generated and processed appropriately. ALL disease is just a complex manifestation of an energy problem gone on too long. So, by saying this we can put the pieces together. To be healthy we need to have strong metabolic function (energy metabolism) To have strong energy metabolism we need to carry oxygen to our cells To carry oxygen to our cells we need to ensure we breathe well This last one is really a simple concept that has a lot attached to it to start with the practical aspects just yet. To get more of a clear picture we need to merge the first category of energy metabolism with the second category; Autonomic Nervous System Regulation. The autonomic nervous system is (in my opinion) one of the most important aspects of human physiology to understand when it comes to systemic health. Why you ask? Well, it’s simple, it plays the role of conductor of the behavior of every major organ in the body. It takes signals from the brain and sends them out to organs in a way that ideally is integrative and supportive of optimal health. It is separated into 2 mirrored systems; Sympathetic (fight, flight, flee) Parasympathetic (rest, recover, digest) As you can see the overall roles these systems seem to play are opposite, but the reality is that they are integrative in ALL that they do. We need some sympathetic involvement to help our body’s response to input stresses (raising blood pressure when we move from sitting to standing as to not faint) and we need the parasympathetic system to bring our blood pressure back to a healthy normal once we have adjusted to stress. If we look at respiration, each branch of the system has its involvement as follows; Breathing in: sympathetic influence which elevates heart rate and encourages the movement of oxygen-rich blood to be sent to our tissues. Breathing out: parasympathetic influence which slows heart rate and allows for a proper rate of exhalation of carbon dioxide to rebalance blood gas levels. This beautiful yin/yang dance is how we regulate breathing rhythm and maintain things like healthy energy metabolism. See the integration there. There is little consideration we must put forth, however, a small detail we could call a symptom of modern life. How often we do stay within this balance anymore? Any and all stresses push the body into predominance of sympathetic activation which has a cascade of downstream consequences. Increased heart rate Increase respiratory rates Lack of proper breathing mechanics Imbalanced blood O2/CO2 levels With the nervous system, sustainment means entrainment as the more we stay sympathetic the less seamlessly we can engage which balances it out and as a result our health suffers. If we become aware of this and try to do something about it we may do so in an intense way and try and force breathing to be deep and unnatural we may encounter one last issue that we may be ignorant of. By trying to help ourselves breathe deeply, we may be further compounding the problem unless we explore the last aspect of respiratory fitness, Gas Exchange This one is more of an understanding of some fundamentals of what NOT to do if you have been thinking you want to start entraining your respiration. We have all heard that to relax we must breathe deeply; we are even told to “take a breath” when we are agitated as some quick advice we give to people thinking it helps. If we say this to someone and have good intentions it might make them worse, how could this be? Well, it’s quite simple in biochemical essence. We are meant to breathe through our noses as this both warms and filters the air. It also regulates the volume of air flowing in and out which our bodies rely upon to regulate the ratio of oxygen to carbon dioxide in our blood. If we were to change this and say took a breath in through the nose and out through the mouth would something happen? On the surface it just looks like we wanted to force more air out. Well, what just happened was we took in a certain amount of oxygen through the nose and pushed out WAY more carbon dioxide through the mouth. This may not sound like a big deal or might even sound like a good thing but under the surface, your body has other ideas. How we release oxygen is determined by the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood. If we blow out all our CO2 via a large exhalation through the mouth, we have low blood CO2 and now our bodies will hold on to more oxygen. What else happens within the cascade? Our energy metabolism becomes compromised because we are NOT using that oxygen to make ATP, our bodies enter a fight or flight (sympathetic) state, and we feel even more stressed all because we wanted to follow the advice of taking “breathing deeply” without understanding HOW to do it or what may happen if we don’t do so properly. There is SO much more we could get into with breathing but luckily, we have the book the Thyroid Debacle with a chapter dedicated to this very topic, so I highly suggest you dive into that. To round this out I am going to share what I feel are key concepts that will help you start improving your respiratory fitness tomorrow. Clean the air in your spaceUse a HEPA filter in your home, vacuum regularly, throw away air fresheners, use cleaning products scene with essential oils, open your windows daily, and keep your HVAC system well maintained. This will keep the need for your nose to filter out as many airborne particles AND stop you from inhaling toxins that you can’t see! What use is working on breathing if you are breathing in crappy air?! Make a Point to Practice Mindful BreathingThe process of breathing in and out is autonomous and as such will happen if you think about it or not which is great for not passing out. However, if your current breathing rhythm is not ideal, changing it takes conscious work. That is why before learning how to modify your breathing you need to commit to the mental process of doing so or else like many other health practices it will be a fly-by-night thing. It must be a commitment to change that moves from a behavior into a habit so then no matter what you are doing, it will become more of your default way of breathing. You may find yourself watching a movie and involuntarily breathing through your diaphragm having never done that before! Check Your Respiratory FitnessMost people would be shocked to figure out how poorly their body oxygenated itself. Luckily you can get a sense of how long you can stretch a single breath, here’s how. Upon taking a small exhalation, take a normal inhalation through your nose and pinch it as you start a timer. Hold your breath until you get the FIRST inclination to breathe, not to where you are flailing to hold your breath as long as you can. Your goal should be 40sec or more which I found myself to be shy of the first time I tried it. If you are below 20sec you have some work to do. Begin you TrainingThis part is where I don’t have specific guidance for you because there isn’t one way to improve your respiratory fitness. What I can say is that there are some great starting points out there like; box breathing, meditation-style breathing, yoga, or possibly hiring a breath work coach if that is appropriate. What I can say is that when you are doing dedicated practice, first set your environment to where your nervous system is able to relax, ALWAYS breathing in and out through your nose, breathe with intention to breathe into your belly and diaphragm (not your chest), and when possible, extend the out breath long and slow. If you can get to the point where you are taking 6-10 breaths per minute, you’re making great progress. Breathe well my friends and see you all next month!

Fitness Factor 4: Emotional Fitness

By Roland Pankewich Up until now all of our factor focuses have been what I would consider tangible things; food, sleep, and breathing are all things you can influence by changing external habits and behaviors to get some aspect of measurable change. External feedback if you will. This month’s topic is somewhat of a departure as it is exploring the world, YOUR world internally. The world of emotions. When I say it’s a departure I don’t at all wish to imply that this topic is any less important to those who are in the world of health sciences. Although we cannot measure or verify an emotion outside of ourselves, I hope to convince you by the end of this article that if you are in the business of helping people get well, factoring in emotions is an essential piece of the puzzle because I personally have never met someone who was on their health journey that also didn’t have some emotional passengers along for the ride. This is going to be something of a release for me as this allows for the merging of physical and non-physical aspects of science which I believe our industry is pushing us towards in the name of TRULY returning to being holistically minded in thought and practice. Emotions as a topic itself is very complex and also very individualized. In this way it is very challenging for two people to verify that each of them experiences the same thing when they experience joy, or its polar opposite in sorrow. The likely reality is that we all have our own subjective aspects of experience when we are in said situations and the only way to ever truly be understood by another is to become very good at understanding ourselves in the emotional context. I believe that experiencing intense emotion is THE most beautiful part of the human experience and an important understanding in that is emotions are often polarized. To explain what I mean ask yourself how is it you know what happiness is? Your experience of happiness is an innate thing we ALL have as infants, yet at that time we don’t know what we are experiencing because its just our normal reality. Then things change. Ever see a baby go from being happy to wanting food? What happens, they shift their state to the opposite emotion to communicate that they are in distress and that something needs to be done to allow them to return to being happy once again. As we get older and our brains develop, our conscious awareness develops to be able to identify our emotional states via experience. We don’t need to verify when someone makes us mad because WE KNOW WHEN WE ARE MAD……sorry, I got lost in the emotion there but you get the point. Emotions are part of who we are as humans and they are very fluid in that things both inside of us and outside of us are able to influence their activation. Have you ever thought of emotions through the lens of our physiology? Western medicine over the last 100+ years has developed via the segmentation and specialization of these divided categories. We have the materialists and the non-materialists which we call mental health professionals. Here is where I am NOT going to skewer them because I believe that everyone who gets into the mental health profession really wants to be of service and help from a place of; interest, passion, or experience. Likely all three. The issue lies in the structure of the system and its lack of encouragement for cross-over collaboration in that a gastroenterologist and a psychologist likely don’t collaborate or cross paths unless it’s in a random social situation. Even then very few would understand that work a gastro could do within helping improve the innate health and function of the gut could help the psychologist’s client break through a level in their sessions because inflammation in the gut has been correlated to inflammation in the brain and when the brain doesn’t work well, what could that mean for our behavior? From a physiologic perspective, the limbic system which includes multiple centres coordinating their internal reception, analysis, and output of information which happens faster than we can comprehend is really what underpins the binary aspects of emotion or maybe even that is too reductionist. We do know that structure changes function so any issues within these centres of the brain will cause disruption to the ability of an individual to normally experience emotions. What if we can’t know about our client’s brains? What else can we look at to determine any kind of emotional distress. The two things I rely upon are using heart rate variability because no matter how good a façade someone puts up, the nervous system will always betray them. Secondly, I believe we have to work with THE PERSON. We as health professionals don’t have lab values as clients. We have people with stories, experiences, personalities, and emotional traumas. I believe you don’t need a mental health credential to simply listen to a client. Let them tell you their story and not only will you form a bond with this person, you will give them the opportunity to set themselves free because often times these individuals may be suffering in silence hoping to find someone who can accept them for who they are and what they have been through. You may also find that a lot of their life events happened just prior to their physiology becoming compromised so you have to ask; is it the chicken, or the egg? Did their compromised physical health cause their emotionally unstable state or was it the other way around which is what I believe the truth to be more often than not. If we address the person holistically, we take care of the body. We support ALL the interconnected pieces of the body so that it may learn to regain function as a whole and find its way back to health. We however shouldn’t stop there. We are layered beings and if we don’t address our mental, emotional, and spiritual health, holistic is nothing more than a buzz word in my opinion. This does not mean you need to become designated in all those professions, rather think collaboratively. Humans of different complimentary disciplines coming together and working as a team is a very powerful thing. You can learn to stay in your lane as a professional and trust that by working as a team you can help heal someone who can then go out into the world and help people as well. Maybe that is wishful thinking but we all as health professionals want to see humanity at its best and heathiest. There are MANY great resources out there for you to dive more deeply into emotional health and awareness. From of mind for me in Dr. Gabor Mate who has written multiple books on trauma such as “When the Body Says No”. Another great resource is “The Body Keeps Score” by Bessel van der Kolk for those who like a western-bias perspective. I also encourage you to explore the common themes of what comes out of the eastern disciplines like; TCM, Ayurveda, and Tibetan medicine. They all have one common theme in that emotional distress in the body creates imbalance in the physical tissues and that, when left to fester causes physical disharmony and illness. We as humans are extremely advanced biological technology and we are NOT given an instruction manual when born, rather we are given “this little thing we call life” to quote Prince. A big part of making it healthy is doing so across ALL spectrums. A healthy body and a healthy mind help to create an open heart. I want to thank you for letting me open mine to write these articles and for all the support as we examine these monthly key health factors. As always, I wish you the best and we will see you next month for another change of pace; physical fitness.

Fitness Factor 5: Environmental Fitness

By Roland Pankewich We have come to arguably my favorite topic in this series because I believe that environment contains both the lowest hanging fruit and also the areas that contribute to the BIGGEST overall shifts that are possible for someone on the health journey. There is an old saying that states; you cannot heal in the same environment in which you got sick. If you take that as a general statement then do an analysis of just how insidiously sick our day-to-day environments can be, I think you will understand the importance of this statement if you are one who is on their own personal health journey. Let’s dive in! I think of environment in 2 specific contexts; The one which you live in that surrounds you (external environment) The one which is within you (internal environment) There is a mutually exclusive relationship between these 2 in the sense that if you shift one, the other automatically has to change. For example, if your internal environment is NOT healthy (physically), there is a good chance your external environment is a match for that meaning that it is not optimized for your well being in a way which is priority. The opposite is also true. Let’s say you have read this article and it has inspired you to start becoming more aware of the things you can do to change your environment (an internal shift of awareness). You will probably take action and make changes to improve your external environment as a result. This is a wonderfully reciprocal thing! Changes within yield changes without! All that being said, to become aware of this, we need to know what an “optimal” environment should look like to know how far away we are from living within one. This is where we have to understand how far humanity has really moved away from optimal and how we have allowed some awful things to take up residence in our “normal” environment. We haven’t changed much genetically over the last 200,000 years but our external environment sure has. This, I feel, is the big disconnect. Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, human-kind has introduced somewhere north of 40,000 chemicals into the planet’s ecosystem. Factory farming, industrial manufacturing, air-borne pollution, man-made electromagnetic fields have all generated end products that are part of a normal house-hold. The food we eat, the water we drink, the light pollution and EMF frequencies we are bombarded with are foundational things we ingest everyday that contribute a certain toxic burden. In addition to this, the act of simply being hygienic or creating a home environment has an element of toxicity to it via the personal care products, household cleaning products, and even the furniture we use/sleep on ALL have the fingerprints of our toxic environmental manufacturing processes as it off gasses. Fighting against this process on a global scale is a tough one that is likely slow to shift because it is at a societal level. That being said change IS possible at the level of the individual, and when people of similar minds start to share info, we can quickly create a wave of change! The other good news is that these specific categories in life; food water air light/EMF personal care products household products non-physical toxins (TV, music, movies, thoughts) are ALL within our conscious control should we care to dedicate the necessary energy and effort to create the changes that better reflect our desires for improved health. This is where the internal environment starts to shift, and drives big changes within the external environment because let’s be honest, you can take all the high-quality supplements you want, if you don’t nail the basics of health, supplements don’t have a chance to move the needle that much. So, then the question becomes what does one do? Well, the exact details would require a series of separate articles but here is a point and shoot list of categories and action items which will help you start making changes tomorrow; Food When able, buy organic or adhere to the EWG working group’s list of the dirty dozen and the clean fifteen to reduce chemical pesticide burden with the food you eat. Eat wild caught fish and naturally raised meat, when possible, also. The closer to nature your food, the better and cleaner it likely is! Water Use a high-quality water filter such as a Berkey or an RO system for drinking water and a shower filter to help protect the skin microbiome. Tap water while safe contains many contaminants that add toxic burdens to our system simply by drinking it. Air Filter the indoor air with a HEPA style filter and upgrade your HVAC filter to the highest quality available. It’s a good idea to open your windows daily to let some fresh air circulate. Lights/EMF High-efficiency lights are great for the pocket book but awful for health and wellbeing. Looking for LEDs with the blue dominant spectrum removed or ones that mimic full spectrum light are more ideally suited to the human circadian rhythm, sleep habits, and energy levels overall. Consider turning your WIFI off at night also when its not needed Personal Care Products & household cleaners Everyday the average human is exposed to hundreds of chemicals via thigs they put on their skin (absorbs into the body) or what we use to keep our home environments free of dirt. Looking for more natural solutions which are free of common chemical irritants is a VERY underrated way to lower your toxic exposure. Non-Physical Toxins What you listen too, what you watch, how often you scroll, what you choose to think ALL coalesce to add to your health (if resonant with it) or take away (if they incite fear and general negativity). Be mindful of what you feed your subconscious mind. This underpins your reality. When we do this, and pair it with utilizing health-promoting supplements which help process toxins out of our system, we create a better dynamic balance of lowered toxic burden in our external environment ALONG WITH greater ability to process internally stored toxins. The same advice is always true, treat your internal body like the temple it is, but be mindful of the external environment you keep. To be truly healthy, it has to resonate with the one you desire inside. Thank you for reading as always and see you next month!

High Quality Probiotics - How We Guarantee It

High Quality Probiotics Since our products contain living microorganisms, good quality control yields high quality probiotics. Quality control ensures that the good bacteria inside your probiotic supplement arrive alive and arrive healthy enough to colonize your digestive tract. But how do you know that a product contains high quality probiotics? How can you verify that the bacteria inside will be alive and effective after purchase? What can you do to make sure you’re buying a high quality probiotic supplement? In this blog we’ll outline the manufacturing and packaging steps that Master Supplements takes to positively impact the future effectiveness of a probiotic supplement. In addition, we’ll explain why a good probiotic company should provide quality control analysis reports and data from independent laboratories to ensure the purity and potency of their supplements. The Importance of Probiotic Packaging Probiotic bacteria can survive and remain effective almost indefinitely when stored in a freezer and packaged correctly. Low-grade packaging leads to low-grade products. Probiotics are living bacteria that you don’t want to stimulate or destroy prior to reaching their destination. Your gut. That's why we created Totally Inert Packaging (TIP). TIP is our holistic approach to packaging probiotics for optimum survivability that starts on the packaging line at our production facility. We take these steps because it's important to minimize exposure to environmental variables outside your digestive system. Because probiotic bacteria are living organisms, they have the same requirements for life as you or I. Without food and water, probiotics cannot grow. Most probiotic bacteria have been freeze dried during production to keep them in metabolic stasis. As we introduce moisture and food, the once dehydrated probiotic bacteria wake up and begin reproducing or colonizing. You want the probiotic gut bacteria to grow and colonize in your gut, not on the shelf. Therefore, preventing the ingress of moisture and oxygen during storage is essential to ensure that your supplements remain potent through their expiration date. High Quality Probiotics Packaging After encapsulation, we pour our probiotic capsules into a glass bottle. We specifically use brown glass bottles for two reasons: They block UV light 2 They allow less external moisture contamination Probiotic bacteria are as sensitive to UV radiation as we are. Amber glass bottles block more UV light than clear, green, or blue glass bottles. Additionally, glass bottles have a lower moisture-vapor transmission rate. What this means is that water can more readily pass through a plastic packaging barrier and increase the relative humidity inside non-glass bottles. After filling the bottles with probiotic capsules, we add moisture and oxygen desiccant packets. These absorb water and atmosphere to maximize the effect of our next step. After adding the packets, we flush each bottle with pure nitrogen to ensure that the billions of bacteria inside each bottle remain stable and potent through expiration. Lastly, we a double seal the mouth of each bottle with another set of moisture and oxygen barriers before screwing on a plastic cap to finish. By creating the correct environment within the bottle and limiting their exposure, we fully guarantee that our supplements will remain stable and potent through expiration as long as they are stored properly. We recommend refrigeration because it protects probiotics in two ways - darkness protects the them from UV light and refrigeration keeps the bacteria stable by limiting their metabolism. If you can’t refrigerate, find a cool, dark place and use within 2 months. Broken down in a different way, we take a two-pronged approach to guaranteeing high quality probiotics from our warehouse all the way to your door. By focusing on the negative effects each environmental variable has on probiotics, we can guarantee potency through expiration. The Negative Effects of Moisture on Probiotics As freeze-dried organisms, rehydration initiates the earliest stages of growth for probiotic bacteria. Without water, bacteria cannot metabolize food. We need to introduce probiotic bacteria to water at some point but inside your refrigerator is not the time. When water is present inside the packaging, even in minuscule quantities, it can prematurely jumpstart the growth of probiotic bacteria. This leads to your supplement losing potency long before it’s ever reached your gut. Master Supplements takes extensive measures to keep our high quality probiotics dry including: Using glass to reduce moisture and vapor that can penetrate cheaper plastic bottles. Including moisture absorption packets inside the bottle. Including silica, a micro-nutrient, to reduce moisture. Using Rayon wadding instead of cotton to absorb excess water. Preventing Oxidation of Probiotics Some probiotics, like Lactobacillus acidophilus, need oxygen to grow. And some, like Bifidobacteria, do not. Either way, it is important to limit exposure to oxygen during manufacturing and storage because they’re present together. You have to protect one to protect the other. We do this by: Using a nitrogen flush to remove all excess oxygen prior to hermetically sealing the bottle. Including a desiccant packet for oxygen absorption. Using Vitamin C as a natural antioxidant. How Heat Effects Probiotic Potency While moisture and oxygen are the most detrimental to high quality probiotics, sustained exposure to heat can also negatively impact the overall health of probiotics. Introducing heat to active bacteria stimulates their growth exponentially and they consume all the available food inside the capsule. Once probiotics have started growing inside the bottle due to improper manufacturing processes, they begin this exact process. They rehydrate, consume all the nutrients designed to sustain their growth in your gut, and die off long before you’ve taken them. By taking the measures listed above, we greatly reduce the impact that heat plays on our probiotics. To study the effects heat has on our products, we ran an experiment. We placed a bottle of Theralac in a 100 degree F temperature controlled environment for 14 days. At the end of the experiment, cfu counts in Theralac remained above the 30 billion CFU guarantee. Because we go to such great lengths, exposing our bacteria to high temperatures for short periods of time doesn’t have the same impact as it might for other manufacturers that have less strict Quality Control processes. Additionally, we counteract any potential loss of viability from improper storage with extra bacteria. We blend our probiotics with overage in probiotic counts to guarantee that we can deliver the full listed potency throughout the entire two-year shelf life. We have been posting online, third-party lab test results verifying potency online since 2003. Certain probiotic strains are derived from soil and are spore forming strains, these are durable and stable cells that can show beneficial effects on humans. While minimizing their exposure to food, water, and heat matters, it’s not as important because they are sturdier organisms. The leading probiotic genera of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium are of human origin and need to be handled much more carefully. The Importance of Refrigerated Storage and Fast Shipping We keep our probiotic supplements frozen at -10°F at our Minnesota warehouse. Keeping them frozen up until the day they ship preserves viability and allows for temperature leniency during transit. We ship via USPS from our warehouse in Minnesota. Our supplements are generally delivered anywhere in the United States within 3 business days. Between our TIP packaging and our warehouse storage conditions, it is our conclusion that 2-3 days spent in transit isn't enough time to irreparably damage the probiotic organisms within our supplements. And we have independent, third party lab data to prove it. As long as you refrigerate our supplements upon arrival, they will meet or exceed the guaranteed potency through expiration! Speaking of labs... Lab Tested Probiotics to Ensure Potency, Activity, and Purity After packaging, we ship a portion of each lot for every product produced to an outside laboratory for independent verification of: Potency- to guarantee that the multi billion CFU we list on the bottle is inside every capsule. Activity- to prove the bacteria are alive and capable of growing healthy colonies. Purity- to make sure there are no pathogens or allergens present. Master Supplements does additional testing in our own microbiology lab so we can monitor the ongoing stability and viability of our powerful products ourselves. We believe in transparency, so we do something that no one else does, we post the third-party test results on our website for complete transparency! You can view this data at any time by visiting our Quality Control page and entering the lot number found near the UPC code on all of our product labels. If you don’t have a bottle of one of our products nearby, you can check out the quality control data for our most recent batch of Theralac! It’s in that same spirit of honesty that we provide individual strain designations (the little number following the strain name) and individual strain potencies for each probiotic strain we use. Many probiotic companies use propriety blends that leave off the strain designation and lump all the potency together. If you don’t know the exact strain or the amount of any given strain, you really don’t know what you are putting into your body. Master Supplements' belief in transparency, independent verification, and providing value by guaranteeing quality and results sets us apart from the competition. Our goal is to provide you with the information you want and need so you can continue to make the best decisions for your gut health.

How to Choose the Best Probiotic Supplement

Selecting a probiotic can seem like a challenge. Nobody wants to spend money on dead probiotics and identifying which one will be alive, never mind worrying about which will be more potent or will be more effective than the next, can be a difficult maze to navigate. With so many avenues and potential pitfalls, how are you supposed to determine which probiotic will work best for you? We've identified a few factors that can help you discover a probiotic that will best suits your needs. Whether you’re looking to combat occasional diarrhea or constipation, gas and bloating, or just to help improve your overall health and support your immune system, following these 6 steps will help you choose the best probiotic supplement for you and your family. Research the best probiotic strains The first step to choosing the right probiotic begins at home. Each probiotic strain functions uniquely within the confines of the digestive tract so it is important to know exactly what strains are in the product you're purchasing and how they might affect your body. This is true of any supplement but doubly so for probiotics. FDA regulations require probiotic all probiotic manufacturers to publish a list of strains on the supplement label. However, they do not require manufacturers to publish strain designations and designations matter. For example, most of us are familiar with Lactobacillus acidophilus because it's commonly found in yogurt but did you know that there are different types of Lactobacillus acidophilus? L. acidophilus alone contains strain designations LA-1, LA-5, DDS-1, LA-14, and, most famously, L. acidophilus NCFM. You can read more about L. acidophilus here. Beyond individual strain research, some additional questions you might consider: Are the bacteria listed on your supplement of human origin or are they soil based? Have any studies by peer reviewed journals evaluated the strains found in this product? What are the additives and other ingredients? Don't rely on pop culture talking heads to tell you what product is the best for you. Do your own research and make your own assessment of which product is going to provide the greatest benefit for you. If you have questions, don't be afraid to ask! Check the CFU (Colony Forming Units) Always check to see if the CFU listed on the bottle are guaranteed at date of manufacture or guaranteed through the product's expiration. Why does this matter? Because there's not much sense in buying a probiotic that's mostly dead before you use it. Additionally, be wary of "proprietary blends." If a product says it contains 30 billion total CFU of probiotic strains X, Y, and Z but doesn't list individual counts, you can't be sure how much of each you're ingesting. If you think a product is unconscionably cheap, it's usually because they put in large numbers of the least expensive and least effective probiotic available and supplement it with small quantities of the other bacteria listed. Regarding dosing, you should look for a probiotic that contains 10 billion or more CFU per serving. Probiotics Guide has an excellent breakdown on how many CFU might be right for you. Can your probiotic bypass stomach acid? It's well known that the stomach is a harsh environment that's largely inhospitable to bacteria. While digesting food, the pH of your stomach can drop as low as pH 1.0. That's 10 million times more acidic than water! In order for the probiotics to reach their final destination, they have to be able to bypass that acidic environment in order to reach your intestinal tract in tact so they can begin to colonize. Without protection, either in the form of a delayed release capsule or another method, 99 to 99.99999% of the bacteria you ingest will die before they ever reach the intestinal tract. Considering your G.I. Tract is home to 100 trillion bacteria, a few million isn't enough bacteria to make a lasting impression on your digestive system. To put it in perspective, let's say the probiotic you're looking at contains 300 billion CFU of probiotic bacteria but does not have any way to safely escort them through the stomach. After 90 minutes in this environment, only 3 billion CFU will make it through. And that's the best case scenario! Ensuring that the probiotics have safe passage through the stomach is more important than the listed CFU count. If you're torn between a 30 billion CFU probiotic with protection and a 300 billion CFU probiotic without, the 30 billion probiotic will actually deliver more bacteria to your digestive tract. Does it contain prebiotic nutrition? A good prebiotic will stimulate the growth of your probiotic exponentially. Food sources of prebiotics include chicory root, asparagus, garlic, leeks, and dandelion greens; however, it's not functional to include them inside a probiotic capsule. Many companies use FOS, which is shorthand for Fructooligosaccharides, a low weight fiber. It is naturally occurring in many fruits and vegetables but artificial sources are known to cause bloating when taken in excess, so be careful! In encapsulation, there are only a handful of prebiotics that function effectively in milligram doses. Inulin is commonly marketed as functional prebiotic nutrition in probiotic supplements but it is not effective at stimulating growth within the confines of an individual capsule. Living microorganisms found in yogurt and other cultured foods may help improve your body's bacterial environment inside and out. They're called probiotics, a name that means "for life." -- Harvard Health Check out the packaging! Ultraviolet light is harmful to many bacterial species so it's important to be sure that they're kept in a darkened environment to be sure that you're getting the healthiest bacteria possible. Additionally, check for oxygen and water absorption packets: the 3 things bacteria need to grow are water, food, and a sustained warm environment so it's important to limit their access to the above as much as possible. Moisture control is critical to the long term survival of probiotic supplements because, as freeze dried organisms, the first thing they need to propagate is a source of water. Plastic bottles will allow moisture and oxygen to seep inside so look for a supplement packaged in an opaque glass bottle. Is your probiotic kept refrigerated? This question can be both the easiest and hardest to determine. When shopping in a store, a quick trip to the refrigerated section will answer your question. If you find a probiotic supplement that it is not kept refrigerated or the label reads that the product doesn't need refrigeration, you can be certain that it's not going to be as potent as a product that is stored in a cold environment (except for soil-based and yeast-based probiotics). When shopping online, our only suggestion is to contact the company or third party reseller to learn more about their storage environment. If they refrigerate or freeze, then it's typically safe to order as any heat encountered during shipping will be brief and should not impact the viability of the product. Because the bacteria in a probiotic supplement are alive, refrigeration keeps the bacteria inside your product in stasis – the cold slows down the bacteria's natural metabolic processes which allows the product to retain its potency for a longer period of time. Our three probiotic formulas, Theralac®, TruBifido®, and TruFlora® adhere to these guidelines. We store every one of our probiotics in our Victoria, MN warehouse in freezers at or below -10°F (-23°C) to guarantee delivery of the freshest and highest quality probiotic available. Each bottle is made from amber glass and contains water and oxygen absorption packets. Thanks to our Totally Inert Packaging®, we don't include a cold pack during transit when you order online through us! Learn more about the impact of heat on probiotics here. Additionally, Theralac, TruBifido, and TruFlora list the strain and CFU counts of each probiotic species on the side of every bottle. We also offer the ability to check plate counts, tests for microbial purity, and a certificate of analysis, performed by an independent, third party laboratory, for every batch of probiotics we have ever produced. This enables you to be 100% certain that the product you receive is not only fresh and viable, but safe as well. Lastly, Theralac contains 7 different patents relating to prebiotic nutrition and Acid Proof® delivery. The prebiotic we include in every bottle of our is known as LactoStim® and we provide proof that not only does it improve the growth of our products exponentially, but when combined with our competitor's products, will improve their growth exponentially as well. Finally, our Acid Proof delivery system guarantees that the large majority of the probiotics contained in each capsule will safely reach their destination. This gives us the ability to provide fantastic value. Since we formulate each capsule over the listed amounts, the 30 billion CFU per capsule that we list is the quantity that is guaranteed through expiration. For example, one bottle of Theralac costs $47.95 and contains 30 capsules. Thanks to our Acid Proof delivery system, you spend $0.05 per billion CFU delivered throughout the life of a bottle. If you assume our best case scenario in our competitors products (which lack our delivery system), and assume you're paying $24.99 for a bottle with 30 capsules, each said to contain 100 billion CFU, for the 1 billion effective CFU in each capsule, you are paying $0.86 per billion CFU delivered (since 99% to 99.99% die in the stomach acid if there's no protection). So not only is Theralac the most potent probiotic, it is also one of the most cost effective probiotics as well! Because we go to such great lengths to protect and promote quality probiotic supplementation, not only are we 100% confident that we have the most effective, and most potent probiotics; but, for the reasons listed above, we believe that our probiotics are the most effective probiotic supplements available anywhere. Use the coupon code MSI16 to save 15% on your opening order!

How to Measure CFU - It's Good to know!

CFU - What is it? CFU (colony-forming units) is a unit of measurement used to estimate the number of viable bacterial colonies that form on a petri dish. How to measure CFU To measure the quantity of CFU for a given probiotic strain, we use MRS agar as the growth media (food source). The petri dishes, also known as plates, are incubated at body temperature (37 C) for 2-3 days or until visible colonies develop. Typically, a sample of a probiotic product is diluted multiple times in sterile buffer or peptone to achieve an estimated strength of 30-300 CFU per milliliter. One milliliter of this diluted sample is then pipetted into a sterile petri dish where liquid MRS agar is poured over the sample, mixed, and allowed to solidify before incubation. After incubation, the colony count is determined, multiplied by the dilution factor, and the total CFU per serving is reported. This process is called plating the sample or making a plate count. Video from How to Calculate CFU Are all CFU created equal? A CFU may represent one cell or several or more cells depending on the probiotic being evaluated. For example, a particular strain may form in short chains containing several cells, say 3 cells on average, and a single CFU would develop on a petri dish from 3 cells not one. In this case, the actual number of live cells represented would be approximately 3 times the CFU count. In another example, a particular strain of the probiotic, Bifidobacterium lactis, forms as both single cells and clumps of 2-5 cells producing measurable CFU from as few as one cell or as many as 5 cells. The determined number of CFU is partly a function of how a sample is prepared before analysis because samples mixed in a stomacher machine (simulates stomach motility) will usually test higher than samples shaken by hand. Are all colonies created equal? It is important to mention that it is not possible to differentiate different species or strains of probiotic bacteria from the appearance of their colonies. Probiotic colonies are usually round or disc shaped, 1-5 mm in diameter, and tan or cream colored on MRS agar. When a multi-species probiotic supplement gets plated, only the total CFU count can be obtained. That said, we have discovered that an approximate determination of Lactobacillus count to Bifidobacteria count can be made in a mixed sample be incubating duplicate sets of plates aerobically versus anaerobically. Because both the Lactobacilli and the Bifidobacteria grow anaerobically (without oxygen) while only the Lactobacilli grow aerobically (in the presence of oxygen), we can subtract the amount of Lactobacilli CFU grown aerobically from those grown anaerobically to determine Bifidobacteria CFU. Why is it so important to take billions of probiotic CFU per serving? There are about 100 trillion live microorganisms in the human intestinal tract. Most congregate in the lower ileum of the small intestine and the upper colon and many have not been identified or characterized. Some are beneficial, some are neutral, while others are outright harmful or potentially harmful. Candida yeast, for example, is present in most of us but is held back from becoming problematic by billions of bacterial competitors. When antibiotics arrive, the overall competition is reduced and the Candida cells morph into infective agents. Stifiling this nasty scenario and creating a positive balance between probiotics and other microorganisms takes billions of probiotic CFU per day. Furthermore, candida and antibiotics aren't the sole offenders: diet, activity level, and water intake can all influence the bacterial balance in your digestive tract for better or for worse. Why take a probiotic supplement? Taking a probiotic supplement can help restore balance and promote a beneficial environment for probiotic bacteria; but, eating a diet rich in fiber, drinking plenty of water, and exercising regularly will help promote a healthy digestive environment too. When combined with a healthy lifestyle, probiotics can do amazing things for you and your gut! Most available probiotic literature is filled with studies employing less than 10 billion CFU per day. Summarily, significant positive results have been hard to achieve in many of these studies. Good strains or not, this is simply not enough dosage to consistently effect positive results. The researchers behind these studies always write, “More research is needed”; however, in many of these cases, all that was needed was a higher dosage (specifically, a higher dosage delivered alive through stomach acid into the small intestine)! How much should I take? So what determines an appropriate dosage? First, you have to be sure that you're purchasing a product that protects the bacteria through the stomach. This is not an easy trick as stomach pH can be as low as pH 1.5 and residence time can range from 60-90 minutes which is long enough to kill most probiotic strains. If 99% of 300 billion CFU die in the stomach before reaching the intestinal tract, that 300 billion effectively becomes a 3 billion CFU dose. Consumers need to look for high strength probiotic products that can ensure live delivery through the stomach. What is high strength? 10 billion CFU/day is now accepted by industry leaders as the minimum effective dose but, in our experience, any dose between 10 – 40 billion CFU will work well. If you would like more information, or have any questions, Ask Us Anything! Randolph S. Porubcan, MScConsulting Biochemist

Probiotics Fiber Fitness

Probiotics, Fiber, Fitness Probiotics, fiber, fitness help you reap many rewards such as increased energy, controlled weight levels, stimulating blood flow, and even taking the edge off by reducing stress. However, a strenuous workout can sometimes result in the opposite. Digestive distress, fatigue, emotional, and physical stress can occur during training and, according to a study1, these may be related to gut function. That’s why it is essential to keep your digestive system running on all cylinders while living an active lifestyle. Your Tummy is No Dummy! Sure the tummy (gut) diligently performs its needed tasks of absorbing nutrients as well as eliminating waste (both critical for athletes and fitness buffs) but the human gut doesn’t get the recognition it deserves for its important interactions with the other systems of the body. So much of our immune system and our nervous system are closely imbedded into the soft lining of the GI tract. This means our immunity and our mental health are closely related to what happens in our gut. First Things First- Absorption and Elimination Having a healthy digestive tract means that you are absorbing micronutrients like vitamins and minerals that fuel your body. For example, amino acids, some of which the body doesn’t create that need to be absorbed from our diet, help support muscle growth. You need to maximize the good components of your diet but you also want to ensure that you are eliminating any waste. Probiotic and fiber supplements can complement a fiber rich, wholefood diet that supports both enhanced absorption and elimination. Probiotics and Immune Support Probiotics help support the body’s natural immune response. Certain strains do this in different ways but today we want to emphasize that your immune system is closely related to your gut. A good workout can stimulate the immune system but when the body is pushed to extremes, the physical stress can underscore your body’s immune response, leaving you susceptible. Eating right and supplementing with high-quality digestive products can ensure your immune system is fully supported. Conversations Between Your Brain and Gut There is a tsunami of scientific research indicating that the gut communicates with our brain in a number of fascinating ways. It does so through bidirectional signals through the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axes, the vagus nerve (which runs from the brainstem through the digestive tract), hormones, neuropeptides, and microbial molecules. The combination of these amazingly complex relationships is known as the Gut-Brain Axis (GBA). The main takeaway is that intense workouts can cause emotional and physical stress that deplete beneficial gut bacteria. Keep your gut (and brain) happy by eating the right foods and supporting your diet with probiotics and fiber supplements when needed. Importance of Diet When we eat food that is good for us, the number of good microbial colonies increase; we want more good food, and we feel and perform better. The opposite happens when we eat unhealthy food. As you might imagine, we eat and drink things that might not be perfectly suited for our bodies. Some, like overly-processed foods, added sugar, and excess fat, can cause changes in the number and types of microbes in our gut. This can result in gassiness, bloating, degradation of the soft lining of the intestinal tract, and lead to poor mental and physical performance. Once a good or bad cycle begins it can be difficult to stop! Getting into a good cycle One way to get into a good cycle of probiotics, fiber, fitness is to increase the number of beneficial microbes and feed them so they can do their job. A place to start is to use Theralac®, which is a multi-strain probiotic supplement designed to support immune health and digestive regularity. Once you have a good cycle going, you can reward the beneficial microbes by treating them with TruFiber®, a prebiotic fiber that helps the good bacteria proliferate, which can improve digestive regularity and contribute to better athletic performance. More Good News There is more good news: a Theralac and TruFiber regimen costs less than $2.30 per day – about ½ of a Starbuck’s habit (which probably isn’t that great for you, anyway ;-) ) 1 Exercise-induced stress behavior, gut-microbiota-brain axis and diet: a systematic review for athletes.

Probiotics and Fiber Fend Off Back-to-School Blues

Probiotics and fiber can help us when we a lot of time and energy to prepare our little ones for the school year. We have to adjust schedules, purchase supplies, navigate online school portals, sign-up for after school activities, organize carpools, and the list goes on and on! It’s easy to get caught up in the stress and unfortunately, it’s our bodies that pay the price. Effects of Stress Stress affects the gut and the gut is where bacteria and the immune system meet. All the various genera and species of bacteria mingle together to create our microbiome, which is like a fingerprint. Some bacteria are beneficial and create balance, others can tip the scales in a negative way, leading to digestive discomfort. A balanced gut not only keeps us digestively regular, but also supports mental health and proper immune function. When you think of going back to school, it is easy to understand the importance of having our brains and our immunity operating at maximum levels. Here are two things to keep in mind for yourself and your family, to ensure you are supporting proper microbial balance. Fiber Fuels Good Bacteria This study, published in the November 2016 edition of Cell, a leading, peer-reviewed Life Science journal, presents convincing evidence that, in the absence of fiber, the bacteria in our gut shift toward undesirable, non-pathogenic bacteria that degrade the protective mucosal lining of the intestinal tract. This leads to an imbalance in our microbiome which starts a downward domino effect in terms of optimal digestive, immune, and mental functions. The solution is simple: By consuming fibrous foods, you allow beneficial, fiber-degrading bacteria to thrive while also keeping the soft-lining healthy, allowing for proper nutrient absorption and waste elimination. Unfortunately, in school snacks and lunches or in quick on-the-go dinners, fiber-rich foods can be hard to come by. Most are laden with sugar and fat which support the growth of non-probiotic bacteria. A quick Google search can help you find options that are rich in fiber and by choosing these types of foods you will be giving the good bacteria in your gut the fuel they need to operate efficiently. Boost Your Fiber Intake with TruFiber® Fiber-rich foods are going to be the best solution but sometimes a little extra support makes all the difference. TruFiber is an easy to take soluble fiber that dissolves clear in water and has no taste. TruFiber is non-GMO, vegan, and gluten free and it's perfect for mixing into drinks and foods for an added fiber boost. The videos below showcase how easily TruFiber dissolves into water and some creative ways to integrate TruFiber into your diet! Add Probiotic Power We now know that fiber is a super fuel for beneficial bacteria; however, sometimes you may need to supplement your diet with a strong probiotic for extra bacterial support. Combining a probiotic supplement with a fiber-rich diet can help regain proper balance in the gut. Theralac® is a great all-around probiotic formulated to colonize the entire G.I. tract with a proven blend of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria strains. It is also available in an easy-to-take powder form called Granular Theralac®. Watch how easy is to incorporate this powerful probiotic powder into some fun food choices! By adding probiotics and fiber to our diet, we fortify our digestive, immune, and mental health! Combine that with hydration and rest and your whole family will be well on their way to a successful school year!

Probiotics; A Scientific Perspective

By: Roland Pankewich We are back for another month of education in the world of probiotics which if you have been following this series in 2024, we CLEARLY love talking about. Today we are going to examine the concept of a high-quality product in a way that might surprise some, because they are things that very few think of. We have bestowed the virtues of things like; strain designations, sodium alginate, and LactoStim® which I will briefly mention again but I want to open your eyes as the end consumer to considerations of supplements that ENSURE quality from start of manufacture, through delivery to the end user. Let’s get (even more) scientific but without needing to put on our propellor hats! When it comes to the idea of a high-quality product, in my opinion the foundation IS the product itself whether it’s an enzyme, a probiotic, an herbal, or nutrient based supplement. The better quality the base material, the better effect it is going to have within the body. I think we can all understand and agree upon that! The aspect that is very seldomly thought about when it comes to quality is essentially everything else that goes into maintaining the integrity of a high-quality product so that by the time it gets to the end user, it is still in its best state. I say this because as consumers, we assume a lot of things. For example, when you choose a bottle off the shelf, you have no idea how long it has sat in a super hot warehouse before it found its way to you. You have no idea if any degree of moisture has accumulated in the product over time. Do you think about things like plastics and the effect that might have on the integrity of the product inside? Lastly, how does the quality and potency of a product sustain over the course of its shelf-life before expiration? If you’re thinking these are questions for a company to answer well, you’re right! Any good company worth its name will factor these things in, but not everyone has the same standards when it comes to their products. It SHOULD be something you as a consumer start to think about because good products are not inexpensive and this sheds light on WHY that is the case and also (to me at least) gives confidence in knowing that Master Supplements/US Enzymes holds themselves to these standards when it comes to what they are providing you, the customer. On the functional side of the equation, we take the identity of our probiotics as DEEP as we can by using ONLY strain designated critters which allow us to know the “personality” of each strain and how it is known to present itself biochemically in the body. Its basically the difference of knowing each of your friends by name and their individual idiosyncrasies/personalities vs just looking at them as human #1, human #2…..etc. This is essentially what it’s like for probiotics when companies don’t differentiate as deeply. How we ensure these strain designated microbes have their best chance of survival and colonization, is by combining them with our LactoStim® prebiotic technology which helps wake them up by nourishing them to promote replication. This ensures they have the sustenance they need to proliferate and exert their beneficial effects within the gut. The next piece of the puzzle is the patented delivery system; sodium alginate. The purpose of this addition is to protect the fragile bacteria from being decimated within the harsh conditions of the upper digestive system because WHERE you want your probiotics to arrive, and release is in the latter part of the small intestine and the colon, where most of the bacteria in the body reside. If they aren’t protected, there is no saying how many bacteria die off during the journey and even more importantly, some of the most fragile strains are the most important to ensure they arrive alive! The other side of the equation which I will call the support side are in the details that our late founder Randy Porubcan combined together to create his concept of Totally Inert Packaging which I see as a framework that is liken to that of an iceberg. You just see the tip above the water, but the real mass is invisible below the surface. This is why the considerations we never think about are taken for granted until we are made aware of all that goes into this process. How we manage the integrity of our products is through many nuanced manufacturing and packaging steps. We consider and protect against ALL the variables to which exposure creates compromise; light, oxygen, moisture accumulation, and temperature. Let’s get into the details: We use colored glass bottles that are hermetically triple-sealed to keep the contents completely inert. The glass bottles block UV light and they allow less external moisture contamination than other bottle types. We add moisture and oxygen desiccant packets to each bottle and flush the bottles with nitrogen to push excess oxygen out. We store our probiotic supplements at negative 10 degrees in industrial freezers up until the day they ship. While moisture and oxygen are the most detrimental, sustained exposure to heat can reduce probiotic potency. Probiotics don’t spoil like a carton of milk and by taking the previously stated measures, we greatly reduce the impact that heat plays on our probiotics. Lastly, we blend our probiotics with significant bacterial overage to further ensure we deliver the full labeled potency throughout the entire two-year shelf life. It is this other side of the equation that allows us to not only put the highest quality ingredients in the container. It allows us to create the high-quality container itself by controlling all the variables that could induce compromise. This is how we as a company make a promise to provide you the best quality end product we can and we thank you for your support! It also helps that for those who find them, our products work, and they work fast. I hope you enjoyed being elucidated on these considerations in the world of supplements. It is just another piece of the puzzle that allows us to keep differentiating our identity within the industry and continuing to provide the best possible products for those who need them. See you next month.

Staying #HealthyAtHome

Changes in routine can throw off eating habits, exercise regiments, sleep schedules, and even our ever so important mental stability. Some of us, not all, but certainly many, are struggling to maintain a sense of normalcy in areas of our life that are often taken for granted. Being social, getting out, staying active, and purchasing the foods we want, are a few things that we are currently processing through a different lens. In this article we touch on popular “healthy at home” concepts and recommendations but, as a dietary supplement company that specializes in digestive health, we add our unique perspective from the world of probiotics, enzymes, and fiber. Diet and Nutrition Common #healthyathome guidance: avoiding processed food that is high in added sugar, sodium and saturated fats. Plan your meals and make sure they are well-balanced with whole foods. Stay hydrated! In addition, bolster your fiber intake with a fiber supplement like TruFiber to ensure digestive regularity. Fiber promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria in our microbiome. TruFiber is clear and taste-free and can be simply added to water or beverage of your choice to boost your daily fiber intake by 14% per serving! Exercise and Fitness Common #healthyathome guidance: stay active! Find online workout classes or try non-equipment exercises like push-ups, planks, sit-ups, and burpee’s to keep you moving. Spontaneous dance parties and simply household chores also work! A huge percentage of the energy that we exert throughout our lives is spent digesting food. Enzyme expert and mountaineer, Troy Aupperle, says: “I didn’t want to exert all that energy on digesting food when I had so many other things I wanted to use my energy on”. Enzymes are energy catalysts and can support overall health in many ways. You can take enzymes on an empty stomach to support systemic health, like proper circulation and respiratory function. You can also take them with food to aid the digestive process, allowing you more energy to break a sweat elsewhere. Try both methods with our proven 12 enzyme blend: Enzalase. Mental Health and Sanity Common #healthyathome guidance: stay calm, enjoy a hobby, mediate, practice yoga, and get plenty of sleep. Stay connected with others virtually or while practicing social distancing to avoid feelings of depression and isolation. Take time away from work, household duties, and children, to focus on YOU! Most people are unaware of the immense correlation between our mind and our gut. This is called the Gut/Brain Axis and is the topic of mounting scientific research. What happens in our gut affects our brain and vice versa. Stress and anxiety can release adrenaline that hurts the bacterial balance in your G.I. tract. Right now stress and anxiety are plentiful so a probiotics like Theralac can help ensure that your gut microbiome is colonized and balanced with good bacteria, keeping your gut and mind, calm and stress-free. Cleaning and Healthcare Common #healthyathome guidance: washing hands frequently and properly is #1! Keep your living space clean, clutter free, sanitize often and practice all social distancing recommendations. We are all doing our best to provide safe environments for ourselves and for our loved ones but even our best efforts may not be enough in the end, so consider supporting your immune health with a probiotic supplement. For an easy way to incorporate all of the probiotic, enzyme and fiber supplements we’ve mentioned, try the Master Supplements 45-Day Complete G.I. Health Program. This program, as well as the 30-Day Gut Reset, will be discounted all summer long and as always are backed with a 60-Day Money Back Guarantee if you don’t receive the results you are looking for. For additional #healthyathome recommendations and resources, visit the World Health Organization’s website.

The Differences: Theralac, TruFlora, and TruBifido

The prospect of evaluating every available probiotic, such as Theralac, and trying to figure out which one is best for you probably seems like a challenge right now, doesn't it? With so many options, how can you make a decision? If you've already read our blog on how to select the best probiotic, you're over halfway there! You know why acid proof delivery, prebiotic supplementation, and packaging are all important when selecting a supplement for your family. But, what do you do when you find two or three high quality probiotic supplements that have different ingredients? How do they compare to each other and what effects can they have? It may seem like a daunting decision. Fortunately for you, in this blog, we are going to break down the differences between our three probiotic supplements, explain the importance of targeted delivery, and teach you how our supplements support digestive and immune health throughout your G.I. tract! Theralac® Helps promote digestive and immune health May increase digestive comfort Complete intestinal coverage Theralac is our flagship probiotic supplement and has been our best seller for the last fifteen years. Because it contains both Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria probiotic species, Theralac is our most generally applicable product. Lactobacillus species prefer the small intestinal environment whereas Bifidobacteria prefer to inhabit the colon, meaning Theralac provides support throughout your digestive tract. All our probiotic species are lactic-acid producing. This is immediately evident with Lactobacillus species because they share the same prefix. However, Bifidobacteria produce lactic acid too! The lactic acid produced by probiotics is similar to the D- lactic acid that builds up in your muscles when you exercise. However, in the intestinal environment, probiotics primarily produce L+ lactic acid which has a host of beneficial effects like creating an environment which promotes the growth of beneficial microorganisms. When synergistic Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria strains are combined, they work together to support healthy structure and function throughout your gut. TruBifido® Helps promote digestive comfort and regularity Supports immune system Colon-specific formula TruBifido, the newest member of the Master Supplements line, contains the same Bifidobacteria species found in Theralac. However, we wanted a probiotic focused solely on colon wellness. Since Lactobacillus typically do not grow in the large intestine, we designed TruBifido by taking our Theralac recipe and replacing the Lactobacillus with 3 compatible and synergistic strains of Bifidobacteria that help maintain a healthy large intestine. Additionally, we paired our already powerful acid proof delivery system with delayed release capsules to provide an additional layer of protection while the probiotics are in transit. Once TruBifido's probiotics arrive in the colon alive, they immediately proliferate and begin the process of colonizing the soft lining of your large intestine. Once established, Bifidobacteria support regularity, immune health, and digestive comfort. TruFlora® Helps promote healthy digestion Probiotic cleansing action Supports immune system TruFlora stands apart from Theralac and TruBifido because it does not contain any Bifidobacteria. Instead, TruFlora utilizes two strains of Lactobacilli, Bacillus coagulans, and two digestive enzymes, hemicellulase and betaglucanase, to foster a healthy environment within your small intestine. The three bacterial species in TruFlora produce large quantities of lactic acid leading to a biocleansing of the small intestine. The enzymes aid your body in digesting any residual, undigested waste. Together, the enzymes and probiotics in TruFlora work together to help purge undesireable, non-pathogenic yeast, bacteria, and waste from the small intestine which encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria! There is one caveat: Lactobacillus plantarum multiplies aggressively and can inhibit the growth of some species of Bifidobacteria. With that in mind, we recommend separating TruFlora from our other probiotic supplements by a minimum of 3 hours. Using Theralac, TruFlora, and TruBifido Together As big proponents of probiotic rotation, we believe the more beneficial strains you can deliver to your digestive tract, the more beneficial effects you will see. But, after looking at the limited number of strains in each of our products, you may be wondering, “Well, why don’t you just put 10-15 strains in one capsule instead?” First, not all strains are compatible. While each of the strains can provide beneficial effects, sometimes strains don’t get along and will inhibit each other’s growth in your digestive tract, thus reducing the potential efficacy of both probiotics. Like we said before, this is most noticeable in our product line with Lactobacillus plantarum and the various species of Bifidobacteria. Secondly, some probiotic bacteria of the same species will compete for the same space. If you include 10 unique species of Lactobacillus and 4 of those strains want to colonize the same region of the small intestine, you reduce their potential efficacy as well. Rotation works because all probiotics are transient colonizers -- regardless of the probiotic species, what you provide via capsule will depart within 8 weeks of dosing depending on the strain. Similarly, the stool is composed of up to 50% bacterial biomass meaning that space is consistently being made for probiotic and non-probiotic microorganisms to colonize. By rotating probiotics, you can help reinforce the numerous regions of your digestive tract with the beneficial organisms which help you maintain comfort, wellness, and regularity. We created the 30 day gut reset program to best utilize our products to promote a healthy digestive tract inside throughout and it's as easy as 1, 2, 3! Start by taking one capsule per day of TruFlora for 10 days. This cleanses the small intestine and creates a beneficial environment for probiotic growth. For the following 10 days, take 1 capsule of TruBifido daily to fortify the colon with large quantities of Bifidobacteria. Once both regions of your G.I. tract have been prepared, take Theralac once daily for the final 10 days to restore the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria throughout your digestive tract. Save 15% on your first order when you use the coupon code MSI16 at checkout!

The Under-Appreciated Role of Digestion

Think about something for a second. How often do YOU place conscious thought on the process of your digestion or how well-functioning your digestive system is? If you’re like most people, the likelihood is that you assume; food eaten = food digested. My belief, especially these days is that this concept is likely an incorrect assumption with insidiously detrimental consequences as a result. Digestion itself is truly an amazing process. This interconnected process of how food is broken down in the specific organs of the body in a specific sequence is designed to maximize the; ability to absorb as much of what we eat for the one goal of supplying energy to build new cells and sustain your health. The unfortunate part when it comes to gut health is that we emphasize the microbiome (which is wonderful), but we don’t place the same emphasis on digestion and the nuance of its processes. I think just as we want healthy microbiomes for all, we should want…correction, NEED healthy digestion for the opportunity to have that healthy microbiome we covet so much. Let’s dive in! Digestion starts not when we swallow our food, but rather when we actually see or more so smell what we are about to eat. This is called the cephalic phase of digestion. This prepares our body in a multitude of subconscious ways to upregulate digestive function so all the organs of digestion make their requisite secretions. This is so that we can break down the complex molecules that we eat (proteins, carbs, fats), into simple molecules our body can absorb (amino acids, fatty acids, glucose). This process is very much hormone and nervous system dependent because the gut requires vagus nerve signalling for the sequenced digestive process as well as hormone signalling within the Enteric Nervous System (ENS) which regulates the amount of secretion required to break down the chosen food. Think about that for a second, no matter what you eat, your body will always make the appropriate chemical soup of digestive secretions to break it down! Well, only if you’re in a state that is primed for digestion... The vast majority of people ask their bodies to perform a parasympathetic process (digestion) when it a sympathetically dominant state (activity or stress). These variables unfortunately end up working against each other when it comes to optimizing the digestive process, and we NEED to know that process intricately in order to best support it when we or a client experiences disturbances or issues that need to be remedied. The Digestive Cascade After you see and smell the food, its all about chewing. Proper chewing exposes maximal surface area so that carb-digesting enzymes (salivary amylase) in your saliva can start to break long sugar chains into smaller ones. Chewing also helps prepare the next step when food is swallowed in the stomach. Stomach action is all about protein digestion which requires HCL which helps to denature protein providing the pH is at an appropriately low level. This low pH also activates pepsin which is a protein splitting enzyme that starts to unfold proteins for further digestive action. After food leaves the stomach, the drop in pH then stimulates the release of enzymes from the pancreas and bile from the gallbladder. This is a very critical step because it’s the last large molecule action prior to the food being absorbed within the small intestine. The pH has to be neutralized from the stomach so that the enzymes and bile can appropriately work on further breaking things down into smaller and smaller units of macronutrients. The last step is the “brush border” or the epithelial barrier where absorption takes place. The final action here is that proteins are made into tiny peptides and amino acids. Carbs are made into glucose and small sugar units. Fats are packed into chylomicrons and sent to circulate in the lymphatic system. This is each step in a perfect world…..sadly we do not live in a perfect world and in many cases there are many people out there who have issues with some or ALL of this process. This is where intervention is needed on a microscale to support what is not working with digestive enzymes, HCL, and whatever else may be warranted. On the macroscale we must ask, where did this process go wrong and how can we help things systemically? This is of course unique to each individual person but the reality of the situation is that we do NOT talk about digestion enough nor place emphasis on making it a focus. When you improve digestive function, ALL things in the body receive some benefit. The other thing to think about is how much of a role does compromised digestion play in the genesis of dysbiosis, leaky gut, and the like? Well come next month, we will be exploring that topic in depth so stay tuned!

Through the Ages: Thriving in Your 20s and 30s

Welcome to the first installment of our three-part series, Through the Ages, where we explore how health and wellness needs evolve throughout life. At Master Supplements, we believe that proactive care at every stage is the key to longevity and vitality. While many refer to the later years as the “golden years,” we argue that our 20s and 30s are the true peak — the time when energy, performance, and resilience are ideally at their highest. But staying at your best during these years doesn’t happen by accident. Let’s dive into how to support your body proactively so you can age well and feel your best long term. Biological vs. Chronological Aging There are two types of aging: chronological (your actual age in years) and biological (how well your body is functioning). While we can't control time, we can influence biological aging through daily choices. Some individuals in their 30s perform and feel like they're still in their 20s, while others in their 20s already experience signs of early decline. What creates this difference? A combination of consistent habits across a few key wellness categories. Below are three common lifestyle patterns we observe and how supplement strategies can support each one. Category 1: The Proactive Wellness Enthusiast These individuals prioritize health in every area — from food and hydration to personal care and sleep. They choose high-quality, nutrient-dense foods, minimize toxin exposure, and manage stress consistently. Their lifestyle helps reduce overall burden on the body and supports energy balance. Supplement considerations: Digestive enzymes and probiotics may help maintain gut health.* Prebiotic fiber supports a balanced microbiome and regular digestion.* Micronutrient formulas can help fill potential dietary gaps when recommended by a healthcare provider. For occasional stress or tension, ingredients like L-theanine (as in SunTheanine®) or adaptogenic blends (like SunBalance™) may help support a calm and focused mind.* Category 2: The Active Lifestyle Advocate (Weekend Warriors) This group thrives on movement — whether it’s gym workouts, competitive sports, or long hikes. Regular physical activity can support cardiovascular health, strength, and mood. However, overtraining, or inconsistent recovery can take a toll. Supplement considerations: Digestive support (e.g., HCl or enzymes) may be useful to help the body efficiently break down and absorb nutrients.* Systemic enzymes can support the body’s natural recovery processes following physical activity.* Hydration and electrolyte balance are essential, especially during periods of intense exertion. Category 3: The Accelerated Aging Pattern This group may overlook early signs of imbalance — low energy, digestive discomfort, or feeling "off" — until they become harder to ignore. These individuals might benefit from a more responsive approach to wellness, focusing on restoration and lifestyle shifts. Supplement considerations: A balanced probiotic can help support the gut microbiome and digestive comfort.* Targeted enzyme blends like Sulforaxym™ and Immunoxym™ may help support overall wellness and the body’s natural resilience when integrated into a comprehensive health routine.* Reestablishing consistent sleep, movement, and nutrition habits is foundational. Reclaiming Your Health in Your 20s and 30s These decades can set the foundation for long-term well-being — but only if we treat them with the respect they deserve. While aging is inevitable, how we age is heavily influenced by our daily choices. Proactive care for digestion, immunity, and stress management is critical. Supplements are not a replacement for healthy living but can be helpful tools when used mindfully and in combination with good habits. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before starting any new supplement routine, especially if you have health conditions or are taking medications. Stay tuned for the next part of our Through the Ages trilogy, where we’ll explore how health needs shift in the 40s and 50s — and how to navigate that stage with strength and clarity. *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Through the Ages: Thriving in Your 40s and 50s

By Roland Pankewich Welcome to Part 2 of our “Through the Ages” health series, where we explore how to optimize wellness at every life stage. This month, we’re diving into the 40s and 50s: decades that offer an incredible opportunity to take control of your long-term health. Recognizing the Shift: From Resilience to Awareness In your 20s and 30s, it’s easy to overlook just how good you feel—until that baseline shifts. As someone entering this next chapter myself, I can relate to the changes that seem to happen almost overnight. But just because the body may be shifting doesn’t mean we’re destined for decline. In fact, with the right lifestyle, nutrition, and support, your 40s and 50s can be some of your most vibrant years. The Wake-Up Call of Middle Age These decades often mark a turning point. Many people have worked through the intensity of self-discovery and are now more in tune with who they are and what legacy they want to leave. Unfortunately, this time also tends to reveal underlying health issues. Subtle symptoms—previously brushed off—often become more persistent. It’s during this phase that people may receive their first diagnosis of a chronic or degenerative condition and wonder, “How did I get here?” Understanding “Dis-Ease” vs. Disease The word “disease” is often used broadly, but I prefer to break it down: dis-ease—a state where the body is no longer operating in balance or ease. Chronic stress—whether physical, chemical, or emotional—can disrupt the body’s natural healing ability, leading to more serious conditions over time. Many common health challenges have similar root causes: Nutritional and oxygen deficiencies Toxic overload from the environment Chronic inflammation or infections Unresolved injuries or trauma Emotional stress and lifestyle habits Electromagnetic and chemical exposure When these factors stack up, symptoms start to surface. The key is not just to name the issue—but to understand what’s driving it underneath. The Good News: It’s Not Too Late One of the most empowering truths about this phase of life is that it’s not too late to make a difference. With intentional effort, most people still have enough energy reserves and vitality to turn their health around. Here’s what to focus on: 1. Support Your Gut Health Healthy digestion and a balanced microbiome are essential for nutrient absorption and immune function. 2. Prioritize Detoxification Help your body process and eliminate toxins through proper hydration, liver support, and adequate fiber intake. 3. Focus on Recovery As we age, recovery takes longer—but it’s more important than ever. Give your body the rest and nutrients it needs to repair. 4. Use Supplements Wisely Consider targeted supplementation based on your current health needs—especially where symptoms may be appearing. 5. Practice Preventive Wellness Make time for regular checkups, move your body daily, and prioritize mental and emotional well-being. A Shift in Perspective: Maintenance vs. Optimization Think of your body like a classic car—it needs more care, not less, the older it gets. You wouldn’t expect an old engine to run at full throttle without extra attention. The same goes for your body. These years are about smart maintenance, recovery, and fortification. Coming Next: The Final Act—Health in the 60s and Beyond We’re almost to the final chapter of our trilogy. Next month, we’ll explore strategies for staying resilient, vital, and vibrant in your 60s and beyond. In the meantime, take a moment to reflect: What small shift can you make this week to support your future health?

Through the Decades, Part 3: 60’s & Up– Reclaiming the Golden Years

Welcome to the final part of our trilogy, Through the Ages, where we’ve journeyed through the physical, emotional, and biological phases of health across the decades. We began with the 20’s and 30’s—those vibrant years when most feel invincible—before shifting into the 40’s and 50’s, where early warning signs of dysfunction and chronic stress begin to surface. Now, we arrive at the 60’s and beyond, often referred to as the "golden years"—a term that, sadly, doesn’t always reflect the day-to-day experience of many individuals in this phase of life. A Quick Recap: From Prime to Prevention In our earlier entries, we explored how modern life has accelerated the timeline of health decline. Stress, poor nutrition, sedentary lifestyles, environmental toxins, and emotional strain are no longer issues that wait until middle age—they're showing up earlier than ever. By the time we reach our 60s, many are managing complex health situations. According to the National Council on Aging, 93% of individuals aged 60 and up have at least one chronic condition, and 80% have two or more. That’s a staggering reality—and a call to action for both individuals and practitioners alike. Understanding Chronic Conditions: More Than a Diagnosis So, what exactly is chronic disease? From a functional perspective, chronic disease can be viewed as the body’s way of operating when it has exhausted its ability to compensate. It’s the result of long-term energy deficits, unrelenting stress, and environmental or lifestyle imbalances. Essentially, the body adapts to survive in an environment that no longer supports health. The medical world often labels these patterns as diseases, but this labeling can inadvertently reinforce the condition as a permanent identity, rather than a solvable challenge. It’s important to understand: every chronic condition has a unique root cause journey—no two cases are the same. However, many share similar themes: Chronic inflammation Nutritional deficiencies Poor detoxification Lack of restorative sleep Sedentary habits Emotional stress Environmental burden Unfortunately, many people begin seeking solutions only after these issues have compounded over years. The Path Forward: Foundations First So what can be done—either as a healthcare professional or someone navigating this chapter of life? The solution isn’t a one-size-fits-all protocol. Instead, we must take a holistic, person-centered approach. Start by restoring the body’s foundations to give it the best shot at recovery and resilience. Here are some key pillars to focus on: Nutrient-dense foods: Real, whole, anti-inflammatory meals Filtered water: Hydration free from contaminants Consistent movement: Appropriate for one’s condition and ability Circadian rhythm: Sleep and sunlight are crucial for cellular repair Emotional wellness: Stress management, connection, purpose Supportive relationships & lifestyle habits These may sound simple—but they are profoundly effective when applied consistently. Targeted Support: The Role of Dietary Supplements Beyond lifestyle, targeted supplementation can play an important role in supporting the body’s healthy structure and function. Once you’ve established a healthy baseline with the aforementioned lifestyle considerations, the strategic use of supplements can support the body in regaining balance by: Replenishing depleted nutrients* Supporting detox pathways* Enhancing mitochondrial function (cellular energy production)* Supporting a healthy inflammatory response* Aiding digestion and gut repair* Supporting brain, cardiovascular, immune, and joint health* As clinicians, supplements become powerful tools—not to mask symptoms—but to support the body’s own capacity to heal. Redefining the Golden Years The final message of this trilogy is one of empowerment and possibility. While chronic illness can feel overwhelming, there is a path forward—often by shifting how we think about health. Instead of chasing symptoms, let’s focus on restoring vitality, supporting the body’s terrain, and creating an environment where healing is possible. By doing this, we can reclaim the golden years—not as a decline, but as a time of wisdom, clarity, and yes, even renewal. Final Thoughts Thank you for coming along on this journey Through the Ages. Whether you’re a health professional or someone looking to take back control of your well-being, remember: it’s never too late to change your trajectory. *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Our products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Travel Tummy - How to Avoid It

Travel Tummy can be experienced when we get away from the same-old-same-old. We spend time and money putting together trips so we can experience different locations, time zones, foods, beverages, sights, sounds, and smells. Oh, and sometimes travel-related stress, and a lack of sleep. Because of those things, sometimes our stomachs don’t cooperate and, occasionally, our travel experience can be made less enjoyable. With that in mind, here are some thoughts from our Master Supplements Team that can help you avoid Travel Tummy: Your Digestive Tract is Like Your Lawn Your digestive tract is colonized by trillions of bacteria – some “good” and some “bad." Maintaining a balance between them is like keeping your lawn healthy. Some of us use “weed and feed” to help the good grass and reduce the bad weeds. Yet, as hard as we may try, sometimes our lawns can get away from us and a couple of weeds can take over in a short period of time. The same holds true with the bacteria throughout your G.I. tract. Good Bacteria Two of the most common types of good bacteria (also known as probiotics) are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Each type plays a role in supporting regularity, immunity, and the absorption of vital nutrients which keep us healthy and feeling great. Bad Bacteria We also have small amounts of bad bacteria that, when out of balance, can “take over”, especially when we eat something questionable. When bad bacteria take over, the results can be discomforting and may spell disaster when travelling. What can you do to reduce the risk of getting Travel Tummy? Take Probiotics Before Your Trip Taking probiotics before your trip can bolster up the good bacteria in your gut and prepare you for your travels. Take Theralac® each day for two weeks prior to your trip. Theralac contains 30 billion Colony Forming Units (CFU) of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria probiotic cultures for complete intestinal coverage. The strains synergize and work together to promote digestive health, wellness, and regularity. We also have Granular Theralac® for kids. Now, you are ready to travel! Take Probiotics During Your Trip Feel a case of Travel Tummy coming on? Probiotic use during your trip will ensure digestive support. Try TruFlora®. It pairs 15 billion CFU of probiotic bacteria with 2 digestive enzymes to help your body purge undesirable, non-pathogenic microorganisms, yeast, and waste from your digestive tract. The probiotics and enzymes work together to cleanse your digestive tract, leaving you with increased energy to continue your travels. Take Enzymes During Your Trip Of course, sometimes we over-indulge. When that happens, we suggest taking Enzalase®. Enzalase contains twelve different enzymes which aid your body in breaking down carbohydrates, fiber, proteins, and fats, helping you and your good bacteria derive more nutrition from the food you (over)eat as well as providing relief from gas and bloating. What To Do When You Return Take Theralac® for two weeks when you return to help recolonize and rebalance your good bacteria. That, and a little extra sleep, will ensure support during and after your vacation! If you have any questions about this topic, or something else: Ask Us Anything!

What Does Dietary Fiber Do for Your Body?

Dietary fiber helps you get what your body needs from your diet. You probably pay close attention to the nutritional content of the foods you eat; you know-- vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, saturated fat, sodium, etc. One of the things that can get neglected is your fiber intake. I know what you are thinking, “Isn’t fiber just for old people?” Well, fiber, or dietary fiber as it’s known, is for everybody. Before telling you why, here’s some information on what fiber is, and its two types. The Two Types of Dietary Fiber Both types of fiber, soluble and insoluble, are important for digestion, health, and disease prevention. And, of course, they encourage effective elimination. Soluble Fiber Benefits Soluble fiber grabs water found in your gastrointestinal tract, becomes a gel, and slows digestion. Soluble fiber can be found in grains, nuts, beans, and some fruits and vegetables. Special forms of soluble fiber, called prebiotics, serve as food for probiotics and helps them colonize. Insoluble Fiber Benefits Insoluble fiber increases the bulk of your stool and appears to assist food passage through your digestive system. What is the Recommended Daily Fiber Intake The American Heart Association suggests that we should get between 25 to 30 grams of fiber from food each day. It is estimated that adults in the US average only 15 grams per day which needs to be supplemented to reduce the “fiber gap.” The Best Soluble Fiber Supplement If you have a fiber gap, some of it can be made up by using our TruFiber® supplement. One scoop of TruFiber contains 3.6 grams of soluble fiber. It’s tasteless, smooth, dissolves clear, and contains no gluten, dairy, nuts, or soy—and is vegan and Non-GMO. It also contains bifidogenic enzymes. Prebiotic Supplements Bifidogenic enzymes break down dietary fiber into smaller molecules which are prebiotic food for, and promote the growth of, bifidobacteria in the intestinal tract. Bifidogenic enzymes create oligosaccharides which include derivatives of cellulose, starch, fructans, and galactans. The "No Gas" Fiber Supplement You maybe have noticed you get “gassy” when you consume soluble fiber. That rarely happens with TruFiber: The fiber contained in TruFiber (partially hydrolyzed guar gum or PHGG for short) is sized so that probiotics and other “non-gassy” bacteria (Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species) can eat it effectively. Gas producing bacteria do not utilize Trufiber and, thus, they become less competitive with the non-gassy probiotics. TruFiber enhances the prebiotic activity of dietary fiber! You can take it daily for maximum effect or twice weekly for maintenance. When you feel that you have a fiber gap, try TruFiber and let us know how it works for you. If you have any questions about dietary fiber, or any of our other products, Ask Us Anything!

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