Category: Depression

The Healing Benefits of Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca is a versatile medicinal plant. It has the potential to treat PTSD, depression, anxiety, addiction and cancer. Here are the different benefits of Ayahuasca. Read it and it will surely interest you.

See: Video’s on how to brew your own Ayahuasca in a few simple steps, further down in this Article

Ayahuasca’s Medical Benefits

Although some want to try Ayahuasca for a different experience, say, transformation, others simply want healing. Yes, some patients who are not satisfied with their PTSD or depression medications turn to Ayahuasca. Others with terminal diseases like cancer also try it in hopes of improving their condition.

If you want to learn more about the wonders of Ayahuasca in the medicine field, read more on how efficient it is in treating depression, PTSD and cancer.

Ayahuasca cures depression The medicine reduces depression in the individual within two to three hours of ingestion. Quite similar to pharmaceutical antidepressants, this medicine seems to change concentrations of serotonin, the mood-boosting neurotransmitter in the brain. Another way it alleviates depression is by the action of its active ingredient DMT, the psychoactive chemical known to induce spiritual revelations and experiences.

Individuals with depression who turn to Ayahuasca find solace and solution in the substance. One of them is Kira Salak. Her experience is terrifying and enlightening.

Just like the other ayahuasca users, Salak saw visions. She found herself in a tunnel of fire. She heard wailing and saw men begging her to help them. Others tried to scare her that she will never get out of the tunnel, but she was fierce and strong enough to answer back that she’s not scared. At the end of the tunnel, she saw three thrones with shadowy figures. The devil was sitting in the middle, warning her that darkness will never end and that she can never escape to which she replied with I can.

Salak woke up and felt lighter and at peace. She saw the shaman welcoming her back and the following day everything was changed. I discovered the impossible: The severe depression that had ruled my life since childhood had miraculously vanished, Salak confessed.

Ayahuasca cured Salak’s depression and the experience made her feel lighter and free.

Ayahuasca cures cancer A number of Ayahuasca users who went to Peru returned home feeling revitalized. Some others tried Ayahuasca somewhere else and still get the same benefits of healing. Among them are Donald M. Topping, a former professor in Hawaii who was diagnosed with colon cancer and Margaret De Wys a writer who survived breast cancer. Donald and Margaret took Ayahuasca ceremonies in different places, but they experience the same cure. Both are now cancer free. They are just two of the growing number of individuals who claim Ayahuasca’s healing.

A Brazilian study conducted by Eduardo Schenberg, of the University of Sao Paulo, learned that Ayahuasca has the potential to treat cancer. There is enough available evidence that Ayahuasca’s active principles, especially DMT and harmine, have positive effects on some cell cultures used to study cancer, and in biochemical processes important in cancer treatment, both in vitro and in vivo, Schenberg wrote. Therefore, the few available reports of people benefiting from Ayahuasca in their cancer treatment experiences should be taken seriously, and the hypothesis presented here, fully testable by rigorous scientific experimentation, helps to understand the available cases and pave the way for new experiments.

Ayahuasca cures PTSD Some war veterans and soldiers who developed PTSD turned to Ayahuasca for relief. Some claim that the medicines they took failed to improve their condition, that’s why they travel to the jungle of Amazon for a new treatment and their trip was not in vain because they return home with a new perspective in life, lesser baggage and cleaner slate. The medicinal vine helps them clear their mind from suicidal thoughts, pain, and bitter experiences that were holding them back.

Ayahuasca helps PTSD patients conquer their trauma by activating their subconscious brain. It then reprograms the brain by reorganizing and neutralizing environmental triggers and symptoms. It also brings the traumatic experience to the conscious mind for processing and integration to one’s life with deeper meaning without replaying the emotional intensity that used to come with it. That’s why PTSD patients develop new and better perspective on the things that once haunted them.

Ayahuasca’s Health & Healing Benefits

Aside from treating PSTD, depression and cancer, Ayahuasca offers health and healing benefits with its transforming effects. It does not only strengthen one’s body, but it also reconditions the mind and spirit. Learn about Ayahuasca’s health and healing benefits in the following passages.

Expands Consciousness

Ayahuasca helps in expanding and deepening the known experiences along with one’s consciousness capacity. As a result, it benefits the individuals who consciously look out for exploring relationships, life and spiritual fulfillment. The Ayahuasca process lets one gain a better insight into the mental understanding of their life and reveals a deep understanding of their situations. The overall experience not only makes it hard to avoid the realities of your life but also opens the perceptions, increases awareness and lets one meet their thought process completely. At a psychological level, the brew enhances the feelings and perceptions, making an individual’s thinking, reaction, self-reflection and beliefs even more intense and vivid.

Among the individuals who enjoy this Ayahuasca benefit is Russ Binicki. Russ is a former soldier who survived the Vietnam War. His experience was quite traumatic. Three of his closest friends were killed in the battle and he was involved in several plane crashes due to mechanical failure. When he returned home he engaged in drinking, smoking pot and fights. He puts himself in danger as coping mechanism of the high intensity experiences he had in Vietnam.

He was in denial of his PTSD condition and anger related issues. He often gets angry easily. He gets angry when he drives,
while on duty, at home or even in public. His rage problems were terrible that he described his anger tendencies from zero to warp speed in a heartbeat. He also gets angry when his daughters are late on their agreed curfew.ayahuasca benefits

Russ’ condition led him to Ayahuasca. He travelled to Peru to try it and his life was changed. He learned more about himself, was able to understand his behavior and eventually admitted that he has anger problems. His Ayahuasca experience opened his mind to the things that kept on haunting him. It gave him the strength to confront those terrible thoughts it in a different perspective.

According to Russ, his anger issues were due to guilt. He was devastated after losing three of his closes friends in the battle. He felt bad for making it alive and yet seeing his comrades in the battlefield lifeless. He also learned that his being strict about the curfew was also due to his experience in Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, when one gets late, it means he is in trouble. This thought is engraved in his mind. So when his daughters show up late, he easily gets angry. The anger was due to fears because paranoia struck him.

The Ayahuasca experienced enabled Russ to learn about himself and understand his behavior, which he thought was just normal. He enrolled in a PTSD program when he returned home.

Ayahuasca Self-Healing Benefits

Ayahuasca is often called as a healer due to the inner processes facilitated by it, that eventually leads to the initiation of psychosomatic and spiritual shifts in individual, physical changes, changes in habits as well as a release of addictive patterns. The experience inspires the users and helps them to work towards bringing a change to their lives, allowing a genuine transformation and self-healing to happen. The self healing comes from the deeper look into the ideas, realities, ideologies or beliefs as Ayahuasca is potentially powerful in supporting the knowledge about oneself. But, Ayahuasca is not an external force that intervenes and solves a problem inside a person without their own intentional contribution. The thing that makes it work on bringing a transformation is one’s own determination, motivation and intention.

Kirby Surprise shared one personal encounter with Ayahuasca that showcased the medicinal plants self-healing benefits.

One man had a major depression during graduate school while maintaining two jobs and raising a family. His depression was like a plague that kept him from joy and light. He struggled with work and his family. He even resorted to a medical professional for help. He took different anti-depressant medications and finally Zoloft. He was advised to maintain the drug for the rest of his life. However, it took a toll on his health and marriage life. He can’t sleep well and sex was difficult which affected his self-esteem. He tried talk therapy and other western medicine, but he still felt that something was missing. He was not whole.

It affected his mood and attitude towards his wife and work. Until he decided to confront his depression from within and heal himself. He studied shamanism and medical plants and went on to an Ayahuasca conference. He learned that UDV members use it and that studies showed that regular Ayahuasca drinkers were less depressed but more social and organized instead. There were no physical or mental side effects to long-term use. One of the deciding factors that convinced him to try Ayahuasca was the people he met at the conference. They admitted to be long-term drinkers of the Ayahuasca tea and for him, they were some of the most grounded, kind, sane and healthy people he met in his life.

He decided to try Ayahuasca despite his wife’s lack of support and he experienced something unimaginable and unexplainable. He saw lights, colors and visions. The images were beautiful and intense, it made him cry. Then the lessons came in, he realized that he was losing awareness of his body and felt the weight of how he treated his wife in the past years while he struggled with depression. The experience was sacred, painful and beautiful. He realized that he was so cold and angry. The Ayahuasca experience made him alive again, he can feel again and it filled him with gratitude and love. He wept and started sobbing, which awakened his wife who told him that he was hallucinating, but he told her that he was aware of what he was feeling. For the first time in years, he woke up filled with joy and gratitude. He started to appreciate his wife, family and work. What was on the verge of being torn down was restored. He is alive again and he is whole.

This story is a concrete manifestation of Ayahuasca’s power to heal one’s self.

Ayahuasca Spiritual Teaching Benefit

When it comes to spiritual aspirations, the Ayahuasca experience plays a major role of a spontaneous teacher. Without any claims to a specific phenomenological status about the source of the teachings, an Ayahuasca practitioner is able to have strong insights, revelations and a sense of getting guided. It is particularly helpful to bring a subject that you want to learn or understand into the ceremony. Ayahuasca will help open up those neuro-pathways to make learning easier. Aside from learning new ideas or skills, Ayahuasca may pave the way for a meaningful and deep divine experience.

Ayahuasca is popular in improving spiritual health. In fact, some religion ceremonies use this and refer to it as the vine of the soul. According to Sita, an Ayahuasca user, the experience affected her physically, emotionally and spiritually. It shifted her perspectives and perceptions giving her the most challenging experience and divine bliss. She considered it spiritual because her quest for it is to find meaning and surrender. Her experience revealed sources of creations and made her realize that there is someone out there with supreme power. Others may call it God, Allah or Buddha, but one thing is certain for her, there is a powerful force behind everything, which can’t be known.

Some Ayahuasca users felt that they died and live again. Some felt the divinity, others claimed to see God. Ayahuasca helps them understand humanity, find a connection, and feel the great power behind everything. For Ayahuasca users, the experience was something unimaginable and unexplainable. It altered their views about the sacredness of life and their purpose.

One study revealed that Ayahuasca can indeed improve one’s spirituality. One study found out that Ayahuasca users have high scores in Spiritual Orientation Inventory. They excel in all nine components which include transcendent dimension, meaning and purpose in life, mission in life, sacredness of life, material values, altruism, idealism, awareness of the tragic and fruits of spirituality. The score remains high even after the second assessment, which suggests that the use of Ayahuasca improves one’s spiritual health.

Helps Identify the Totality of Life (Transformation & Rebirth)

The vivid, intense or sometimes confused and chaotic visions associated with Ayahuasca serve to show a person the totality of one’s life, including the conscious and subconscious mind, behaviors, emotional reactions as well as their effects on their relationships. Sometimes, the visions often work as a factor of cleansing, allowing a person to process the visual imprints and the impact of TV, mass media, Internet and several other blockages of psychosomatic and emotional nature. The meditation-like visions can be anything ranging from simple reflections of a person’s life and situations that must be solved or healed to the visions of animal and plant spirits as well as astral entities working on the body and soul quite similar to a doctor. This eventually leads to one getting a complete picture of the elements of their life, relationships and difficulties as well as gain a better comprehension of the world. A lot of people take Ayahuasca for its realistic or vivid hallucinations and to gain an insight into the world’s and brain’s mysteries.

Martijn Schirp, one Ayahuasca user revealed that the Ayahuasca session turned him to be a believer. He saw visions that filled him with fear and loneliness. It was a pure hell. It hit him hard. He remembered seeing the interview of psychiatrist and psychonaut Stan Grof, where he admitted that he experienced to be a different kind of animals and a plant in one instant. Martijn did not believe him but to his surprise he experienced it. He felt like he was a haunted animal and the experience was so vivid and real. He saw the connection in the world, from the air he breathes, the food he eats, and trees and rivers that give life. When he came to his senses, he felt the pangs of pain at how humans abused the natural resources. He was disappointed that people failed to see the spirit of the mountains, trees and animals. He was broken hearted that the humans’ greed consumes the natural resources that money can’t buy.

The Ayahuasca experience raised his awareness and transformed his relationship with nature. He is now more sympathetic to the natural world.

Ayahuasca Increases Efficiency Benefit

The usual physical benefits associated with Ayahuasca are pretty astonishing. One of the core functions of the brew is the cleaning of the body and crossed energy straightening. This implies that at a physical and energetic level, it makes the body operate with as little impediments as possible. It makes your body perform everything more efficiently. This means either minimal is required for the maintenance of the status quo or higher benefits are extracted from the same input. It increases the energy levels and minimizes the need for sleep. During the ceremonies and during the dieta, one finds their energy levels all over the place.

Moreover, since the use of Ayahuasca is life changing it affects one’s efficiency. As it helps one come to his senses, discover his failures and learn from it, accept his mistakes and shortcomings, it also filled the emptiness with gratitude and love. When one feels good, happy and satisfied with himself, it resonates in his works and relationships. It produces a better person and worker. Thus, making one more efficient in everything he does.

For those who felt stuck with their lives that they can no longer give their best to their work or family, Ayahuasca can help you regain your wholeness for a more efficient you.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that Ayahuasca offers many benefits, be it in the medical field or health and healing. But is Ayahuasca legal? You’ll be disappointed because, in the U.S., this psychedelic medicine’s legal status remains questionable. Brews made with DMT containing plants are illegal in the country as it is categorized as Schedule I drug.

However, due to religious freedom in the U.S., there are legal Ayahuasca ceremonies. UDV members are allowed to practice Ayahuasca ceremonies because this medicinal plant is sacred for them. It is a sacrament that helps them heighten their spiritual understanding and perception. Furthermore, it brings the practitioners closer to God and enables them to experience divinity.

If you want to experience the benefits of Ayahuasca, you may try the UDV Ayahuasca ceremony or book a ticket to the jungle of Amazon. Try Ayahuasca to experience its amazing benefits. You will surely be surprised to find a better version of you.

How to brew your own Ayahuasca in a few simple steps

Ayahuasca, one of the most potent healing drinks known to man, is easier to concoct than one might guess. By pulling together mimosa bark and caapi resin, you can boil together and create this intense psychedelic.

We do not condone illegal activity of any kind so it is important that you find out if it is legal before you make the concoction.

The process is quite simple. Boil water, vinegar and the mimosa bark three times over the course of about 9 hours, straining and reusing the bark each time.  Once you have a concentrated liquid, add the caapi resin and melt it down until the drink is ready.

See Video’s below; the Making of Ayahuasca

 

 

Here is a step-by-step video demonstration of the creation of Ayahuasca

There are multiple ways to extract the DMT needed for the Ayahuasca brew.  Here is another example of a way to produce the drink

Keep in mind, this is one of the most powerful psychedelics known to man.  It has intense healing properties and is intended for ritualistic, healing endeavors.  It is often suggested that you use this substance only in the guidance of someone familiar with the ritual as it can be many, many hours of psychedelia.

You can also visit a shamanistic retreat and experience the entire situation under controlled guidance. This is suggested for people using Ayahuasca for the first time.  It is stressed that this is not a recreational drug, but a medicine to use with respect.

 

Admin Cymantra April 2017

Side Effects of the Information Age

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Demagogues or rabble rousers have always had a leg up in the political arena. If you can whip up a frenzy of prejudice and ignorance and raise the specter of looming threats or conspiratorial “elites”, while not being particularly beholden to facts, you’ll get a big chunk of the population on your side. And in an age where our daily lives are overwhelmed by an incessant glut of information, demagogues have more power than ever. Amazing accessibility of most information has devalued facts, blurring lines between experts and demagogues. Getting away with untruths may be easier than ever.

Is there an actual information overload now? It’s not just the incessant texting, emailing, Facebook-checking and the hundreds of channels on TV with nothing on. As psychology professor Daniel Levitin points out:

“In 1976, there were 9,000 products in the average grocery store, and now it’s ballooned to 40,000 products. And yet most of us can get almost all our shopping done in just 150 items, so you’re having to ignore tens of thousands of times every time you go shopping.”

Even the store is overloading us. Levitin proposes that in the last 10 years we’ve created more information than in all the human history that preceded it.

“I’ve read estimates there were 30 Exabyte’s of information 10 years ago and today, there’s 300 Exabyte’s of information,” says Levitin.

On top of all this information and choices, Earl Miller, an MIT neuroscientist, notes that our brains were actually not even “wired” to multitask.

“When people think they’re multitasking, they’re actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly. And every time they do, there’s a cognitive cost in doing so,” explains Miller.

In fact, multitasking was found to increase the production of cortisol, a stress hormone, as well as adrenaline, which can overstimulate the brain and cause “mental fog”.

As we go around in our mental fog, why would we even listen to experts like Levitin and Miller? In the information overload age, a layman is empowered as much as a so-called “expert”. Let’s say you come across a Neil DeGrasse Tyson article. If you don’t like something about it, and especially if you don’t understand it, you are free to leave a comment under his Facebook article about just how wrong you think he is. You have the power to immediately set this “expert” straight. Doesn’t matter that you don’t have a degree in astrophysics. Your emotional reaction to his “facts” is all that matters here.

What may be happening is what social and political analyst (and another “expert”) Professor Tom Nichols termed “the death of expertise”.

“I fear we are witnessing the “death of expertise”: a Google-fueled, Wikipedia-based, blog-sodden collapse of any division between professionals and laymen, students and teachers, knowers and wonderers – in other words, between those of any achievement in an area and those with none at all. By this, I do not mean the death of actual expertise, the knowledge of specific things that sets some people apart from others in various areas. There will always be doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other specialists in various fields. Rather, what I fear has died is any acknowledgement of expertise as anything that should alter our thoughts or change the way we live,” writes Nichols.

Even doctors are no longer as much of an authority as people go online to diagnose themselves, resulting in the rise of cyberchondria. Just because you can find some symptoms in a search engine doesn’t mean you have that disease or that you know better how to treat it than a doctor. Still many of us do this every time we get a weird sensation.

Sticking to what we already think we know is also much easier. It doesn’t take a scientist to tell us we like to be right. Once we get an idea in our head, facts to the contrary aren’t necessarily going to make much difference.

Recent research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, describes studies where when participants were confronted with facts that went against their views, they were likely to reframe their views as matter of opinion and personal morality (to which they had every right). On the other hand, once the presented facts were in line with their own thinking, they stated that their opinions were fact-based and didn’t invoke morality quite as much.

The researchers concluded that people’s belief systems include an aspect of “unfalsifiability” which they employ for defensive and offensive purposes. The defensive function serves to support their worldviews and a sense of identity, while anyone who ventured into the comments section of most Facebook posts could figure out what the offensive purpose is all about.

Further research by Dartmouth scientists revealed the implications of the “backfire effect”. The effect described a phenomenon whereby “corrections actually increase misperceptions.” Basically, when hearing two sides of an argument, people tend to side with the one they already agree with, corrective evidence notwithstanding. The researchers saw this related to the process by which people “bolster their preexisting views”. Especially if they have to argue their opinion vigorously (let’s say, in an internet flame war), their original opinion might become even more entrenched and extreme, facts be damned.

Of course, there’s also the Dunning-Kruger effect, whereby “low-ability” (aka not very smart people) don’t have the ability to know they are not smart and actually double down on their sense of superiority. On the flip side of that, smart people may actually underestimate their abilities. So the less intelligent get louder and the more intelligent keep to themselves.

Still, no matter how many psychology studies say this or that, none of it matters if you are disinclined to believe them. With too many facts and studies, it’s easier to stay in the mental fog. And that’s the space where demagogues operate. From the Ancient Greek warmongering leader Cleon to Hitler to Joseph McCarthy, a rabble rouser prays on the people who value beliefs more than facts. To produce desired actions from the crowd, they invoke the age-old tactic of invoking fear. Scare enough people that everything is wrong and you are the only one who can protect them, and you might find yourself in a leadership position.

“What is really fascinating when we look at the brain research around fear is that our brains proxy anything that feels unfamiliar, incoherent or inaccessible as being unsafe,” says Harvard psychologist Susan David.

Immigrants, foreign countries, people with different skin color or sexual orientation have certainly become the fearsome “unfamiliar” in the mouths of many a demagogue, some of them still in the running for the job of the leader of the free world.

Fear of the unfamiliar works especially well when confronted with an incessant barrage of information. The devil you know is your devil. You know how to live with him.

Fear is also more interesting to the news. How many of us would really tune in to watch how everything around the world is actually working out? But give us a story about a new threat and most of us would not change the channel.

Is there a solution to where we find ourselves? Can we get a grip on the information deluge? How do we make sure that someone will not come to lead us right into another world war or some totalitarian regime as demagogues often do? There may be little we can do. As history shows, the rise of demagogues is often predicated on a certain number of factors which are all in play in the modern world. This may be a something we’d just have to ride out. And vote out.

by Paul Ratner September 11, 2016

Magnesium deficiency, the signs and the remedy

magnesium-deficiency-effects

 

Signs of magnesium deficiency are everywhere in the United States and Canada, if you know what to look for. Unfortunately, the symptoms are so incredibly common that they constantly slip under the radar! Hardly anyone, especially doctors, notice that the ailments we suffer from on a daily basis are actually magnesium deficiency symptoms… and we’re all paying for it.
Just about every single person you come into contact with – especially those with a health problem, but even those with only minor complaints – are suffering in some way from this nationwide deficiency. Including you!

What Exactly Is Magnesium?

Magnesium is life. It is the 4th most abundant mineral in the body, right next to sulfur (which is JUST as important).

Along with being a mineral, magnesium is also an electrolyte. “Sports drinks” (aka sugar-filled scams) claim to contain electrolytes such as magnesium, potassium, and sodium because we sweat away these important nutrients during exercise, and their deficiency is what leads to the common problems athletes face, such as muscle cramping! But believe me – electrolytes (especially magnesium) do so much more than treat and prevent muscle cramps.

First off, electrolytes are what allow us to be living, electrical beings. They are responsible for all electrical activity (and thus brain conductivity) in the body. Without electrolytes like magnesium, muscles can’t fire, your heart cannot beat, and your brain doesn’t receive any signals. We need magnesium to stay alive, point blank. As soon as we don’t have enough of it, we start to lose the energy and conductivity that keeps us going. Technically, as soon as we become deficient, we slowly begin to die, getting more aches and pains day by day, feeling worse year after year. I can’t stress it enough… signs of magnesium deficiency are everywhere, if you just look.

Magnesium is a cofactor in over three hundred reactions in the body, necessary for transmission of nerve impulses, temperature regulations, detoxification in the liver, and formation of bones and teeth. However, magnesium shows its true power in cardiovascular health. The Weston A. Price foundation writes, “Magnesium alone can fulfill the role of many common cardiac medications: magnesium inhibits blood clots (like aspirin), thins the blood (like Coumadin), blocks calcium uptake (like calcium channel-blocking durgs such as Procardia) and relaxes blood vessels (like ACE inhibitors such as Vasotec) (Pelton, 2001).”

Nearly EVERYONE has signs of magnesium deficiency but we don’t realize it…

Symptoms include:

  • Constipation
  • High blood pressure (Hypertension)
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Insomnia
  • Behavioral disturbances
  • Lethargy
  • Impaired memory/thinking
  • Seizures
  • Fatigue
  • Sleep disturbances
  • Pain
  • Muscle cramps
  • Chronic back pain
  • Headaches
  • Migraines
  • Muscular pain
  • Tendonitis
  • Anger
  • Aggression
  • ADHD
  • Brain fog
  • Tension
  • Anxiety disorders such as OCD

“Similarly, patients with diagnoses of depression, epilepsy, diabetes mellitus, tremor, Parkinsonism, arrhythmias, circulatory disturbances (stroke, cardiac infarction, arteriosclerosis), hypertension, migraine, cluster headache, cramps, neuro-vegetative disorders, abdominal pain, osteoporosis, asthma, stress dependent disorders, tinnitus, ataxia, confusion, preeclampsia, weakness, might also be consequences of the magnesium deficiency syndrome.”

Amazingly, the article referenced above even mentions neuro-vegetative disorders as a possible result of magnesium deficiency. This would include comas. Stress hormone production requires high levels of magnesium and stressful experiences can immediately lead to complete depletion of magnesium stores; could this be a contributing factor to why we see comas after traumatic accidents/injuries? As I mentioned above, magnesium is an electrolyte responsible for brain signals and conductivity. Without magnesium, people in comas may not be able to come to and resume conductivity. Many people with diabetes also fall into diabetic comas. Diabetes is listed as another possible consequence of magnesium deficiency. Could this be a factor in diabetic comas as well? Something to think about and research further!

symptoms-of-magnesium-deficiency

Cravings

Do you crave chocolate? Why, when people are stressed out, do they go for chocolate? Chocolate is one of the highest food sources of magnesium.

Magnesium is associated with so many disorders that Dr. Carolyn Dean of the Nutritional Magnesium Association has devoted an entire book to discussing how she has treated thousands of patients for a wide array of diseases, with magnesium as the primary component. Her book, The Magnesium Miracle, is a must-read if you have any of the magnesium deficiency symptoms above, or any health problems in general – as there is likely a magnesium component to everything. Check out 50 Studies Suggest That Magnesium Deficiency Is Killing Us.

 

Why Don’t Doctors Find Magnesium Deficiencies In Tests?

Unfortunately, conventional medicine has not woken up to the amount of research that has been done on magnesium deficiency.

One of the reasons Western Medicine is so off base with magnesium is how they test it: with blood tests.

Blood tests do not yield ANY information about magnesium… why? Because the body controls the levels of blood magnesium very tightly. If the magnesium in the blood drops just a little bit, you’re going to have a heart attack. It’s that sample. So to prevent this, the body will rob all of its cells, tissues, and bones of magnesium in order to keep the blood levels constant. If you do a blood test for magnesium, the cells could be completely empty while your blood levels remain constant.

What’s worse is that magnesium is not even in your blood. 99% of the magnesium in the body is stored in the cells that get robbed, while a mere 1% of your body’s total magnesium is in the blood. These tests are a complete waste of time, and they’re not educating doctors to this reality.

“A serum test for magnesium is actually worse than ineffective, because a test result that is within normal limits lends a false sense of security about the status of the mineral in the body. It also explains why doctors don’t recognize magnesium deficiency; they assume serum magnesium levels are an accurate measure of all the magnesium in the body.” – Dr. Carolyn Dean, The Magnesium Miracle.

 

Why Are We So Deficient?

Here’s the short(ish) version: Number one, we’re being poisoned by our food. Number two, we’re increasingly stressed out. We’re running our engines on high to keep up with life and it’s draining us. Stress hormone production requires high levels of magnesium and stressful experiences lead to depletion of magnesium stores. Number three, we’re eating more sugar than ever. For every molecule of sugar we consume, our bodies use 54 molecules of magnesium to process it. Fourth, low levels in the soil and modern farming techniques deplete stores of magnesium. And lastly, magnesium is depleted by many pharmaceutical drugs and estrogen compounds such as oral contraceptives, antibiotics, cortisone, prednisone, and blood pressure medications (“Drug-induced nutrient depletion handbook,” Pelton, 2001). Diuretics in coffee and tea (caffeine) also raise excretion levels. Oh and by the way – flouride competes for absorption with magnesium!

Nowadays, nearly everyone is magnesium deficient – no test needed. Refined/processed foods are stripped of their mineral, vitamin, and fiber content. These are anti-nutrient foods because they actually steal magnesium in order to be metabolized. When consumed, they demand that we supplement with magnesium or we are destined to break down eventually due to severe deficiency. Like I said, sugar is the worst offender. Every single molecule of sugar you consume drags over 50 times the amount of magnesium out of your body.

Well, what if you eat a healthy diet? Processed products are not the only foods that are devoid of magnesium. In general, magnesium has been depleted from topsoil, diminishing dietary intake across the board while our need for magnesium has increased, due to the high levels of toxic exposure we come across in our daily lives (air, water, plastics, chemicals, the list goes on!). The soil is depleted of magnesium because of the pesticides that are sprayed on all conventionally grown plants and worldwide pollution that affects even the cleanest fields. Pesticides also kill those beneficial bacteria/fungi that are necessary in order for plants to convert soil nutrients into plant nutrients usable by humans.

 

Are You A Cannabis User?

Cannabis has so many positive effects in terms of treating diseases such as epilepsy, cancer, and more (read 1, 2, 3 and cureyourowncancer.org). Trust me, I’ll be the first to tell you I’m all for it – it’s a safe and effective herb with countless therapeutic benefits that the government has been hiding for years. The only way they want you using it is if they’ve patented one of its’ chemical compounds and can sell it to you for a profit.

However, we should also look at what happens to our body on a cellular level if we use cannabis on a daily basis. Would you take parasite cleansing herbs every day for the rest of your life, or even every few days? Probably not. You’d take them when you’re sick or during a monthly cleanse, or else you’d develop some side effects from overuse. We need to remember that cannabis is a powerful herbal medicine and should be treated in such a way.

It turns out that using marijuana tends to deplete the body’s stores of magnesium, with the result that the person feels more on-edge after coming down from the high.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t safe in moderation. It means that over time, if used consistently without proper balance via magnesium replenishment, it can and will cause magnesium deficiency.

 

The Best Ways To Get Magnesium

1. Eat magnesium rich foods grown on organic soil.mag-2Bcollage

2. Take ionic magnesium drops. This is my new favorite method, which I’ve learned from The Magnesium Miracle.

3. Apply magnesium oil to your skin! This is the second best way to raise your levels.

4. Soak in Epsom salt baths. This will provide not only magnesium, but sulfur for your liver as well.

Additional References (not linked in the article)

Oxford Journals – Magnesium Basics: http://ckj.oxfordjournals.org/content/5/Suppl_1/i3.full

Dr. Carolyn Dean, MD: http://drcarolyndean.com/magnesium_miracle/

Source: http://collective-evolution.com

 

by ORGANIC OLIVIA

 

What Fasting Does For Your Brain

fasting
I chose to include ‘Big Pharma’ in the title because that’s exactly what it is. There have been countless examples of the manipulation of published research at the hands of pharmaceutical companies in recent years. This is why Harvard Professor of Medicine Arnold Symour Relman told the world that the medical profession has been bought by the pharmaceutical industry. It’s why Dr. Richard Horton, Editor in Chief of The Lancet, recently stated that much of the scientific literature published today is simply untrue. It’s why Dr. Marcia Angell, former Editor in Chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, said that the “pharmaceutical industry likes to depict itself as a research-based industry, as the source of innovative drugs. Nothing could be further from the truth.” And it’s why John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, published an article titled “Why Most Published Research Findings Are Falsewhich subsequently became the most widely accessed article in the history of the Public Library of Science (PLoS).I also chose to mention ‘Big Pharma’ because of Dr. Mattson’s comments towards the end of the video.

“Why is it that the normal diet is three meals a day plus snacks? It isn’t that it’s the healthiest eating pattern, now that’s my opinion but I think there is a lot of evidence to support that. There are a lot of pressures to have that eating pattern, there’s a lot of money involved. The food industry — are they going to make money from skipping breakfast like I did today? No, they’re going to lose money. If people fast, the food industry loses money. What about the pharmaceutical industries? What if people do some intermittent fasting, exercise periodically and are very healthy, is the pharmaceutical industry going to make any money on healthy people?” 

Main Points Of The Lecture Above & The Science To Go With It

Mark and his team have published several papers that discuss how fasting twice a week could significantly lower the risk of developing both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

“Dietary changes have long been known to have an effect on the brain. Children who suffer from epileptic seizures have fewer of them when placed on caloric restriction or fasts. It is believed that fasting helps kick-start protective measures that help counteract the overexcited signals that epileptic brains often exhibit. (Some children with epilepsy have also benefited from a specific high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.) Normal brains, when overfed, can experience another kind of uncontrolled excitation, impairing the brain’s function, Mattson and another researcher reported in January in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience.”(source)

Basically, when you take a look at caloric restriction studies, many of them show a prolonged lifespan as well as an increased ability to fight chronic disease.

“Calorie restriction (CR) extends life span and retards age-related chronic diseases in a variety of species, including rats, mice, fish, flies, worms, and yeast. The mechanism or mechanisms through which this occurs are unclear.”

The quote above is from a review of the literature that is more than 10 years old. The work presented here is now showing some of these mechanisms that were previously unclear.

Fasting does good things for the brain, and this is evident by all of the beneficial neurochemical changes that happen in the brain when we fast. It also improves cognitive function, increases neurotrophic factors, increases stress resistance, and reduces inflammation.

Fasting is a challenge to your brain, and your brain responds to that challenge by adapting stress response pathways which help your brain cope with stress and risk for disease. The same changes that occur in the brain during fasting mimic the changes that occur with regular exercise. They both increase the production of protein in the brain (neurotrophic factors), which in turn promotes the growth of neurons, the connection between neurons, and the strength of synapses.

“Challenges to your brain, whether it’s intermittent fasting [or] vigorous exercise . . . is cognitive challenges. When this happens neuro-circuits are activated, levels of neurotrophic factors increase, that promotes the growth of neurons [and] the formation and strengthening of synapses. . . .” 

Fasting can also stimulate the production of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus. He also mentions ketones (an energy source for neurons), and how fasting stimulates the production of ketones and that it may also increase the number of mitochondria in neurons. Fasting also increases the number of mitochondria in nerve cells; this comes as a result of the neurons adapting to the stress of fasting (by producing more mitochondria).

By increasing the number of mitochondria in the neurons, the ability for nerons to form and maintain the connections between each other also increases, thereby improving learning and memory ability.

“Intermittent fasting enhances the ability of nerve cells to repair DNA.” 

He also goes into the evolutionary aspect of this theory – how our ancestors adapted and were built for going long periods of time without food.

A study published in the June 5 issue of Cell Stem Cell by researchers from the University of Southern California showed that cycles of prolonged fasting protect against immune system damage and, moreover, induce immune system regeneration. They concluded that fasting shifts stem cells from a dormant state to a state of self-renewal. It triggers stem cell based regeneration of an organ or system. (source)

Human clinical trials were conducted using patients who were receiving chemotherapy. For long periods of time, patients did not eat, which significantly lowered their white blood cell counts. In mice, fasting cycles “flipped a regenerative switch, changing the signaling pathways for hematopoietic stem cells, which are responsible for the generation of blood and immune systems.”

This means that fasting kills off old and damaged immune cells, and when the body rebounds it uses stem cells to create brand new, completely healthy cells.

“We could not predict that prolonged fasting would have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem cell-based regeneration of the hematopoietic system. . . . When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged.  What we started noticing in both our human work and animal work is that the white blood cell count goes down with prolonged fasting. Then when you re-feed, the blood cells come back. ” – Valter Longo, corresponding author (source)

A scientific review of multiple scientific studies regarding fasting was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2007. It examined a multitude of both human and animal studies and determined that fasting is an effective way to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. It also showed significant potential in treating diabetes. (source)

Before You Fast

Before you fast, make sure you do your research. Personally, I’ve been fasting for years, so it is something that comes easy for me.

One recommended way of doing it — which was tested by the BBC’s Michael Mosley in order to reverse his diabetes, high cholesterol, and other problems that were associated with his obesity — is what is known as the “5:2 Diet.” On the 5:2 plan, you cut your food down to one-fourth of your normal daily calories on fasting days (about 600 calories for men and about 500 for women), while consuming plenty of water and tea. On the other five days of the week, you can eat normally.

image

Another way to do it, as mentioned above, is to restrict your food intake between the hours of 11am and 7pm daily, while not eating during the hours outside of that time.

Bottom line, how you think about you’re diet is, in my opinion, one of the most, if not the most important part of staying healthy. How you think about what you are putting in your body is important, and I believe this will eventually be firmly established in the untainted, unbiased, uninfluenced medical literature of the future.

Below is a video of Dr. Joseph Mercola explaining the benefits of intermittent fasting. Here is a great article by him that explains how he believes intermittent fasting can help you live a healthier life.

 

Related : The Benefits of Fasting for 16 Hours

 

Arjun Walia

Health Benefits Of Spirulina

Health Benefits Of Spirulina

The health benefits of spirulina are undeniable. Spirulina is hailed as a superfood that promotes body and brain health. This blue-green “miracle” algae grows naturally in oceans and salty lakes in subtropical climates.

The health benefits of spirulina are undeniable. Spirulina is hailed as a superfood that promotes body and brain health.  This blue-green “miracle” algae grows naturally in oceans and salty lakes in subtropical climates.

Abundant Nutrients For The Body

Spirulina is rich in nutrients, some of which aren’t found in the average daily vitamin. According to the FDA, the health benefits of Spirulina include significant amounts of calcium, niacin, potassium, magnesium, B vitamins and iron.  Spirulina is a great source of B-complex vitamins, beta-carotene, vitamin E, manganese, zinc, copper, iron, selenium, and antioxidants.  It also has essential amino acids (compounds that are the building blocks of proteins).  In fact, protein makes up about 60 to 70 percent of Spirulina’s dry weight.

An Antioxidant Powerhouse

One of the health benefits of Spirulina comes from its antioxidant properties. Spirulina protects our cells by warding off inflammation and other diseases in the body.  Spirulina has been shown to positively reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering “the bad” LDL cholesterol and triglycerides in the body while promoting HDL “the good” cholesterol.  In higher doses, spirulina could reduce blood pressure.

It’s Full Of Protein

Anemia is a fairly common ailment which can lead to fatigue due to a reduction in hemoglobin or red blood cells in the blood.  When one’s diet is supplemented with spirulina, it has been documented that hemoglobin content of red blood cells increases.

Spirulina has 4 grams of protein in a single tablespoon making it a more concentrated source of protein than red meat and only 20 calories.  With a high concentration of bio-available iron, it is excellent during pregnancy and for those with anemia as it will not cause constipation.  The health benefits of Spirulina are compounding in the body as the proteins and nutrients are bioavailable and easily absorbed.

Detox The Body

The health benefits of Spirulina include its ability to detoxify the body. It is great for cleansing the body of heavy metals by binding to them and removing them from the body.  Evidence suggests that it can bind to radioactive isotopes and may be useful for radioactivity exposure or radiation therapy.  A combination of zinc and Spirulina may help the body clear arsenic of people whose drinking water has unusually high levels, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH).

Prevent What Ails You

Many people promote Spirulina as a treatment for a range of metabolism and heart health issues, including weight loss, diabetes, and high cholesterol, according to the NIH.  The health benefits of Spirulina help a range of eclectic health problems, including premenstrual symptoms and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), according to the NIH.  People also recommend Spirulina as an aid for various mental and emotional disorders, including anxiety, stress, depression and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

It’s Nontoxic

Toxicological studies of the effects of spirulina consumption on humans and animals, including feeding as much as 800 mg/kg, and replacing up to 60% of protein intake with spirulina, have shown no toxic effects.  Fertility, teratogenicity, peri- and postnatal, and multigenerational studies on animals also have found no adverse effects from spirulina consumption.

Doctors consider Spirulina to be safe in general, especially in light of its long history as a food.  Spirulina may become contaminated with toxic metals, harmful bacteria, and microcystins — toxins produced from some algae —if it is grown in unsafe conditions.  Be sure to buy Spirulina from a trusted source and always buy organic when possible.

Get Some Today

Spirulina is available in tablet, flake and powder form.  Adding a tablespoon a day to your fresh green juice or to 8 ounces of water will kill the sugar/carb cravings you have and keep you full for hours.  For those that want to reap the benefits of this powerhouse but can’t hack the flavor, capsules are a great way to go as spirulina has a very strong taste.  A little experimentation will help you find the way you will most enjoy adding Spirulina to your diet.  Here is a recipe to try:

Spirulina Chips

INGREDIENTS

  • 6 potatoes, thinly sliced
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 2 tablespoons spirulina
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 3 tablespoons Bragg’s Liquid Aminos

METHOD

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  2. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper. Place potatoes on the parchment paper and toast in the oven for 10 minutes.
  3. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes.
  4. Mix all spices thoroughly in a bowl. Sprinkle spices over potatoes.
  5. Place back in the oven and bake until crisp, about 30 minutes.
  6. Store in an air-tight container.

By Stephanie Weeks June 2016

Conditions You Can Treat With Cannabidiol (CBD)

Cannabidiol is just one of the many cannabinoids found in marijuana, however, it is probably the most medically advanced substance in the world. Here’s what CBD can help treatment with…

Conditions You Can Treat With Cannabidiol (CBD)

There are more than 500 cannabinoids currently known to humanity and 1 of them is cannabidiol. It is easily the most interesting of all right next to THC as CBD has a ton of medicinal uses.

Thus, it is slowly becoming a global healing agent, but unlike “modern” drugs it has no negative side effects and can also help treat a number of conditions – some of which are extremely serious ones.

1. Cannabidiol VS Cancer

CBD has been proven to have antineoplastic properties which inhibit cancerous development and tumor growth. The stimulation of apoptotic pathways throughout the body forces the immune system to effectively destroy cancer cells.

2. Cannabidiol VS Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is an awful condition which is caused by the body’s own immune system attacking nerve endings. That results in  constant pain throughout the entire day.

However, marijuana is very well know for its pain relieving properties. More specifically, CBD has been found to relieve that exact same pain caused by multiple sclerosis.

Rough statistics show that up to 30% of multiple sclerosis patients in Europe puff weed to ease the symptoms of MS.

3. Cannabidiol VS Epilepsy

This battle is probably what CBD is most famous for currently and we all know who the winner is. There is still much to learn about the way cannabidiol works to stop seizures, but one thing’s for sure – the effects are there and no one can deny their power.

The countless success stories around the Internet of people treating their children’s epilepsy with medical marijuana (like this one) prove just how good of a medicine this plant is.

In the story mentioned above, we have a 9 year old girl with severe epileptic episodes in her earlier years going to 30 or more in a day and some days even more than 100.

However, since here mother started her on cannabis oil treatment, her daughter hasn’t had a single seizure in more than 18 months.

The sad part is that even though the results are too obvious to be true, hospitals are still denying medical marijuana renewals, because of the lack of scientific evidence of marijuana being a safe treatment option.

What a joke. Where’s the scientific evidence that any of the drugs you buy at your local pharmacy are a safe treatment option? There is none, because they aren’t.

They all do more damage than heal and if the same rule was applied to them as is to cannabis, there will be no pharmacies left.

4. Cannabidiol VS Depression

That lame state of mind we’ve all been at one point in our lives should be fought with the mind itself, however, throwing in some CBD in the mix won’t hurt at all.

According to this study, cannabidiol induces anti-depressant effects in mice. THC was also found to have these same anti-depressant properties which is why marijuana is a first choice for anyone feeling blue.

5. Cannabidiol VS Diabetes

CBD has been recently found to significantly reduce the incidence of diabetes in mice. This study showed that with the percentage lowered from 86% for non-treated mice to 30% in mice treated with cannabidiol.

This data proves that CBD can in fact inhibit and delay the destructive insulitis and inflammatory cytokine production.

6. Cannabidiol VS Schizophrenia

Recent research suggested that CBD is also an effective and at the same time safe treatment for patients suffering from schizophrenia – who isn’t right?

Cannabidiol has anxiolytic and anti-psychotic properties that help people with schizophrenia as well as another similar mind condition, namely bipolar disorder.

It has also been found to help negate some of the more unwanted effects of THC such as paranoia and anxiety. In my opinion, those are caused by the puffer’s mind frame right before they smoke.

7. Cannabidiol VS Cardiovascular Disease

Aside from the aforementioned serious conditions that CBD can help with, it can also help with the number 1 cause of death nowadays – cardiovascular disease.

According to this study, the same effects that cannabidiol exerts which help prevent diabetes are also responsible for its positive effects on cardiovascular disease.

CBD attenuated myocardial dysfunction, cardiac fibrosis, oxidative stress, inflammation, cell death, and interrelated signaling pathways.

Summary

Believe it or not, there are even more conditions that CBD can help with (probably even cure on its own), but a lot more research is needed to know.

However, since it acts on the endocannabinoid system in our bodies, which is located everywhere, it’s pretty logical to assume that it can help with almost anything.

The good thing is that CBD at least can be obtained legally much more easily than marijuana as a whole. That is due to the fact that it does not cause a high like THC.

But despite that fact, the decades of being demonized by the “health organizations” around the world have caused immense damage to the plant’s “image” including its underlying cannabinoids.

So, it will take time before marijuana and its substances become a (legal) major part of the medical industry, but once this happens, we will be surely looking at the medical revolution of the millennium.

Admin – February 2, 2016

3 Videos Show What Happens When Cannabis Ravages Cancer Cells

THC has been found to destroy cells that have become cancerous. Here is video proof in action.

After the Washington Post released an article in 1974 that stated THC, “slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by as much as 36%,” the world was remarkedly quiet about it.  It took years, until after the advent of the internet and dissemination of information for the world to buy in.  Also, video footage of the cells in action helps drive the point home: certain strains of THC can kill cancer cells and let normal cells live in peace.  In 1998, a new study, by Madrid Complutense stated that ”THC can cause cancer cells to die, and unlike chemotherapy the THC kills nothing but the cancer cells, leaving the brain of course completely unharmed.”

It is believed that the Delta 9 THC eradicates cancer cells because when it binds and enters the cell membrade, it causes the production of a type of waxy fat called ceramide.  This ceramide cause hydrolysis in the myelin sheath, destroying the cell.

These three videos are a great example, and even some direct footage, of the THC molecule binding to cells and slaying the cancerous ones.

Contribution By Minds.com

Probiotics: Everything You Need to Know

probiotics

Did you know that the bacteria in your body outnumber your body’s cells 10 to 1?

It’s true, and most of them reside in your gut.

But there really is no need to panic, most bacteria are quite harmless.

Having the right bacteria in there has even been linked to numerous health benefits (1).

This includes weight loss, improved digestion, enhanced immune function, better skin and a reduced risk of many diseases (2).

This leads us to the topic at hand, probiotics.

Probiotics are foods or supplements that contain these friendly bacteria, and are supposed to help colonize our guts with health-boosting microorganisms.

The importance of this can not be overstated.

Taking care of your gut, and the friendly bacteria that reside there, may be one of the single most important things you can do for your health.

What Are Probiotics?

According to the official definition, probiotics are “live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host” (3).

Probiotics are usually bacteria, but there is also a type of yeast that can function as a probiotic.

You can get probiotics from supplements, as well as foods that are prepared by bacterial fermentation.

Probiotic foods include yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, tempeh, kimchi and others.

Probiotics should not be confused with prebiotics (note the “e”), which are dietary fibers that help feed the friendly bacteria that are already in the gut (4).

There are actually dozens of different probiotic bacteria that have been shown to have health benefits.

The most common groups include Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Then there are many different species within each group, and each species has many strains.

Interestingly, different probiotics seem to work for different health conditions. Therefore, choosing the right type (or types) of probiotic is essential.

Many probiotic supplements combine different species together in the same supplement. These are known as broad-spectrum probiotics, or multi-probiotics.

Keep in mind that this is a new but rapidly expanding area of research.

Although the evidence is promising, it is not conclusively proven that probiotics help with all the health conditions mentioned in this article (5).

Bottom Line: Probiotics are live microorganisms that cause health benefits when consumed in adequate amounts. There are many different types, and you can get them from foods or supplements.

The Importance of Microorganisms in The Gut

The complex community of microorganisms in your gut is called the gut flora (6).

Your gut actually contains hundreds of different types of microorganisms, with some numbers going as high as 1000.

This includes bacteria, yeasts and viruses. The great majority is bacteria.

Most of the gut flora is found in the colon, or large intestine, the last part of the digestive tract.

The metabolic activities of the gut flora actually resemble those of an organ. For this reason, some scientists refer to the gut flora as the “forgotten organ” (7).

The gut flora actually performs many functions that are important for health. It manufactures vitamins, including vitamin K and some of the B vitamins (8).

It also turns fibers into short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, propionate and acetate, which feed the gut wall and perform many metabolic functions (9, 10).

They also stimulate the immune system, and regulate the integrity of the gut. This can help prevent unwanted substances from “leaking” into the body and provoking an immune response (11, 12, 13, 14).

However, not all organisms in the gut are friendly. Some are good, others are bad.

The gut flora is actually highly sensitive to modern insults, and studies show that an “unbalanced” gut flora is linked to numerous diseases (15, 16).

This includes obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, colorectal cancer, Alzheimer’s, depression and many, many more (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23).

Probiotics (and prebiotic fibers) can help correct this balance, making sure that our “forgotten organ” is functioning optimally (24).

Bottom Line: Your gut flora consists of hundreds of different types of microorganisms. Probiotics help your gut flora perform optimally.

Probiotics and Digestive Health

Probiotics have been studied most in regard to digestive health (25).

The strongest evidence has to do with antibiotic-associated diarrhea.

When people take antibiotics, especially for long periods of time, they often suffer from diarrhea for a long time after the infection has been eradicated.

This is because the antibiotics kill many of the natural bacteria in the gut, which shifts the balance and allows the “bad” bacteria to thrive.

Dozens of studies have provided strong evidence that probiotic supplements can help cure antibiotic-associated diarrhea (26, 27, 28).

Probiotics have also been shown to be beneficial against irritable bowel syndrome, a very common digestive disorder. They can help reduce gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea and other symptoms (29, 30, 31).

Some studies also show that probiotics may be beneficial against inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (32).

Probiotics may also be useful against Helicobacter pylori infections, the main driver of ulcers and stomach cancer (33, 34, 35, 36).

If you currently have digestive problems that you can’t seem to get rid of, then perhaps a probiotic supplement is something you should consider.

Bottom Line: Probiotics have been shown to be effective against various digestive problems. This includes antibiotic-associated diarrhea and irritable bowel syndrome.

Probiotics and Weight Loss

Obese individuals have different gut bacteria than lean people (37, 38).

Animal studies have also shown that fecal transplants from lean animals can make obese animals lose weight (39, 40).

For this reason, many scientists now believe that our gut bacteria are important in determining body fatness (41, 42).

Although this needs to be studied a lot more, some probiotic strains have been shown to help with fat loss (43).

The most impressive study on this was published in 2013. It was a study of 210 individuals with central obesity (lots of belly fat).

In this study, taking the probiotic Lactobacillus gasseri caused people to lose 8.5% of their belly fat mass over a period of 12 weeks (44).

When they stopped taking the probiotic, they gained the belly fat back within 4 weeks.

There is also some evidence that Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium lactis can help with weight loss and obesity prevention (45).

However, this needs to be studied more before any recommendations can be made.

There are also some animal studies showing that other probiotic strains could even lead to weight gain, not loss (46).

Bottom Line: There is some evidence that the probiotic Lactobacillus gasseri can help people lose belly fat. This needs to be studied a lot more.

Other Health Benefits of Probiotics

Getting into all the incredible benefits of probiotics is beyond the scope of this article.

However, there are a few that are definitely worth highlighting here:

  • Inflammation: Probiotics have been shown to reduce systemic inflammation, a leading driver of many diseases (47).
  • Depression and anxiety: The probiotic strains Lactobacillus helveticus and Bifidobacterium longum have been shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression in people with clinical depression (48, 49).
  • Blood cholesterol: Several probiotics have been shown to lower total and LDL cholesterol levels (50, 51).
  • Blood pressure: Probiotics have also been shown to cause modest reductions in blood pressure (52, 53).
  • Immune function: Several different probiotic strains can enhance immune function and lead to reduced risk of infections, including the common cold (54, 55).
  • Skin health: There is some evidence that probiotics can be useful for acne, rosacea and eczema, as well as other skin disorders (56, 57, 58, 59).

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Probiotics have been studied, and shown to be beneficial, for a wide range of other health problems.

Bottom Line: Probiotics have been shown to have numerous health benefits. They may reduce depression and anxiety, improve heart health and enhance immune function, to name a few.

Are There Any Side Effects?

Probiotics are generally well tolerated and considered safe for most people.

However, in the first few days, you may experience side effects related to digestion. This includes gas and mild abdominal discomfort (60).

After this initial adaptation period is over, your digestion should be better than it was before.

Probiotics can be dangerous, and even lead to infections, in people with compromised immune systems. This includes people with HIV, AIDS and several other health conditions (61).

If you have a medical condition, definitely consult with your doctor before taking a probiotic supplement.

Bottom Line: Probiotic supplements may cause digestive symptoms, but this should subside within a few days. They may be dangerous for people with certain medical conditions.

What Are The Best Probiotic Supplements?

There are hundreds of different probiotic supplements available.

If you have a health problem and you want to try a probiotic for that purpose, then it is very important that you choose the right strain.

I recommend looking around on Amazon at the different options available. There you can see which strains the supplements contain.

Make sure to buy probiotics from a reputable manufacturer. Dietary supplements are not regulated, so many of these products may not contain what the labels say they do.

According to one study, it is best to take probiotics either right before, or with, a meal that contains some fat (62).

Beyond that, make sure to follow the instructions on the packaging. Keep in mind that some products need to be refrigerated.

Take Home Message

Maintaining a healthy gut goes way beyond just taking a probiotic supplement.

What you do from day to day is just as important.

All sorts of lifestyle factors, especially the foods you eat, have been shown to affect the gut bacteria (63).

Living a healthy lifestyle, getting good sleep, and eating real food with lots of fiber is the key.

In many cases, probiotic foods and supplement can be helpful as well.

I recently started taking a probiotic supplement myself (this one here).

It has significantly improved my digestion, and I feel that my energy levels and thinking have improved as well.

I now consider probiotics to be an essential component of my own personal health strategy.

Contributor – Kris Gunnars