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Archive for the ‘probiotics and behavior’ Category

Whole Foods in Torrance

Posted by adianutrition on January 18, 2012

So last Christmas, I was talking to Jonathan (Wen’s son) and I asked him what he wanted from Santa. He said he loved to play video games, but he kept losing the cord for his PS3, so could he get a couple of extras. I think Jonathan is a great kid so I got him a couple.

Yesterday I figured out why. Wen takes the cord from the PS3 when she leaves home every morning in an (unsuccessful) attempt to limit video game playing. And Jonathan is going to do something amazing with his life, because that kid’s a visionary.

That’s a great story. However, only part of it is true. Wen does bring in the cord every morning. I assume Jonathan has spares, I just don’t know it for a fact (but I do know that I sit within 4 feet of Wen and I have to work with her – draw your own conclusions).

Our probiotics experiment succeeded yesterday. Wen drank three stick packs of probiotics. Two of the Sport in the morning and one in the afternoon. Today, she’s all better. We need to get that in Science magazine.

Today, April is up at Whole Foods in Torrance. She’ll be up there from 10am to 2pm. She’ll be working the Whole Foods areas the rest of this week and in to this weekend. I’ll post more about her locations tomorrow.

My friend Carl sent me a link to this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Dt75MVtqw&ob=av2e

Carl knows just slightly less than I do about 80s music. This is a video from 1988 and it has everything that made the 80s the peak of American music. This isn’t a music video, it’s art. There are mullets, roosters, people dressed in white, berets and random birds blinking slowly. You’re welcome.

Today’s article is here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577164732944974356.html

I’m posting this because it’s from the Wall Street Journal. A paper not known for discussing new ideas in medicine. I think it’s a good sign of how mainstream the probiotics movement has become.

The article doesn’t have anything earthshaking, but it does discuss an experiment with baby rats. Scientists irritated the stomachs of newborn rats. The irritation healed, but the animals were more depressed and anxious than the rats whose stomachs weren’t irritated, and they gave up more quickly in a swimming test (drowning).

Additionally, there’s a nerve that runs from the stomach to the brain called the Vagus nerve, which is probably an important nerve, but it makes me feel dirty whenever I type it.

Anyway, if you stimulate someone’s Vagus, it reduces the symptoms of epilepsy. And I’ll just leave it at that.

Posted in bacteria, probiotic, probiotic chews, probiotic powder, Probiotic tasting, probiotics and behavior, probiotics and depression, Whole Foods | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Chinese New Year

Posted by adianutrition on January 10, 2012

Yesterday I felt like the Adia team was firing on all cylinders. April was in the office, Jay stopped by for a couple of hours, Wen was so busy she was yelling at me.

In fact, when I came to the office, I asked her to do something, and she went completely silent. Then she slowly pushed her chair back, put her phone down, dropped her pencil and slowly turned to face me.

“It is time for you to do. And not to say”. She said in a quiet, threatening tone.

“What does that mean?”, I asked.

“Stop asking me to do things, and start helping me.”

So, of course, I stopped what I was doing and started helping her. She gave me a list of 4 things to do (half her work), all of which I banged out in about 5 minutes.

Ok, that’s not entirely true. She did give me a list, and as I was leaving for the day, I realized that I had only completed one task from her list and none from mine.

Back to the story. Adia was firing on all cylinders. We were printing reports, we were updating websites, picking pictures, strategizing. We got work done. A lot of work done.

Yet, as I was talking to Jenny on the way home, she asked me what I felt the best about accomplishing today, and I realized I couldn’t name one specific thing I did. Except the blog. I did write the blog. But I write the blog every day, so it doesn’t count.

Today, I have a new list from Wen, and I’m going to write it on my hand and not wash until it’s done. Maybe I was distracted by the National Championship Football Game. Last year, Jay and I watched it at the Q. It was a really exciting ending. This year I watched it at home with my kids, and it was the worst game in history.

If I can remember, I’ll post the list when I’m done.

On to the news. I have two great stories for today. Here’s the link to the first one:

http://www.sciencecodex.com/read/bacteria_in_the_gut_of_autistic_children_different_from_nonautistic_children-84082

This is interesting, because it continues research done with autistic children and bacteria. The article doesn’t go into causes or treatment, but it does show evidence that the intestinal bacteria in autistic children is different from the bacteria in non-autistic children.

The scientists behind the study also discuss the link between digestive issues and autism as well, which is an element I’ve never heard of. But this link is interesting, and I’m curious to see what the next steps are.

 

The second story is not so nice. Here’s the link:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/01/invincible-tb-india/

India is now reporting 12 cases of Tuberculosis that is completely drug resistant. It is untreatable. The sad part of this story, is that the 12 cases are reported just in one hospital. Most of the hospitals in the city and the rest of the country don’t have the facilities to identify the drug resistant strain, which makes it more likely infected patients will infect other patients.

In 2009, TB killed 1.7 million people worldwide. Treatment typically requires 6 months of pill combinations which must be taken after the symptoms go away. Patients stop taking drugs once they feel better, which then leads to Multi drug resistant TB.

The challenge in India is that patients simply don’t get good medical care. The CID (Center for Infectious Diseases) studied 4 patients. All four saw doctors, and three got multiple partial courses of the wrong antibiotics. The private care physician market in India is unregulated, and a study showed that only 5 of 106 private practitioners prescribed the right medication for a patient with MDR TB (Multiple Drug Resistant). The majority of the prescriptions were inappropriate and would only amplify resistance, converting MDR TB into TDR (Totally Drug Resistant) TB.

Said another way, the majority of the doctors killed their patients.

None of the TDR patients have been cured, and they have recently started dying. One patient with active TB can infect up to 15 others, and that’s how it spreads.

One form of TB was identified in 2006, and in five years it spread to 69 countries around the world.

This is a huge, sad issue. I’ll keep you informed as I hear things.

Posted in bacteria, bacteria and autism, probiotic, probiotic powder, probiotics and behavior, probiotics and children, probiotics and health, probiotics and illness, TB | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Lemon lime, flesh eating bacteria and the Catholic Church

Posted by adianutrition on December 21, 2011

 

Here’s a picture of Wen with a stick of Balanced Berry right in front of the machine that packs it into sticks. See the hair net? She’s still wearing it. She thinks that hairnet brings the sexy (I agree. I’m still wearing mine, and people are staring).

We watched the manufacturing process for a while, and there really isn’t that much to it. The foil wrapper is cut into six pieces, it’s sealed at the bottom and along the side. It’s filled with powder, then it’s sealed at the top.  All of that happens automatically. The sealed packets are then put onto a short conveyor belt that rises about three feet into the air, and deposits them into a tray.

Finally, the first humans get involved. They pick up the packets, weigh them, then put them into a box. When they fill the box, they seal it, then start again. In the case of the Berry, this happened 980 times. I watched this, then started having flashbacks.

I grew up on the north side of Chicago, and when I went back home during the Christmas break, I would work to make money to pay for my plane ticket back, books, etc. I would call an employment agency, and they would find me some job for the three week period. One holiday season, I got sent to an ink factory. It was the same kind of thing. The ink container was put onto a belt. It was filled, sealed and then someone put it into a box and put tape on it. My job was to put the empty ink container on the conveyor belt. For 8 hours. I felt like I had mastered the nuances of the job after about 45 minutes, and I was ready to lose my mind after 2 hours. After the first day, I was chatting with the guy whose job it was to put the containers into boxes. He said he liked the job, it was a little boring, but he had been there for 22 years.

Tragically, after three days, I was fired in front of the whole company. I had called in sick, mainly, because I was sick, and the manager had a staff meeting where he said part time workers weren’t allowed to call in sick, and to finish my day and don’t come back. I left immediately. I don’t think my spot was too hard to fill. It reminded me of the people doing this job. I know it’s drudgery, but it is so important to us and we really appreciate it.

The Berry is all done, the Lemon Lime is all done (Yahoo!!!) and our warehouse space is ready to go! They’re working on the fluffy green tea, and with any luck, by late this afternoon, we should have progress on that as well.

This production process has been very frustrating. Last Wednesday, I was sitting in my gym clothes ready to train with Gina when I checked my email and everything literally fell apart. I changed back, ran up, had a quick conversation with Gina, then spent the rest of the day on the phone. And it’s been going like that since Wednesday.

Sure enough, while I’m typing this, the packers call and there’s another problem with the green tea.

Ok, on to the news:

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/20/9588670-boys-survival-from-flesh-eating-bacteria-deemed-a-miracle-by-his-family-and-the-pope

This is the most insane news story I have ever linked to. And I’ve set the bar pretty high.

A 6-year-old kid is playing basketball at the Boys and Girls Club. He hits his mouth on the base of the basket, and gets flesh-eating bacteria which almost kills him.

His family starts praying to ask a 17th century Native American convert to Catholicism to intercede for him. The boy gets sicker and sicker. The parents are pulled in to say goodbye. The son gets better and is now well, but with some horrific scarring.

The Pope then sends over a doctor and a nun to verify this as a miracle, which they do, and the Pope has now made the native american a saint.

You have to read the article. It’s awesome.

In other news, the guy who invented the bird flu which can kill everyone is finally starting to get some mainstream press. I’d like to point out we were all over this months ago. Weeks ago.

This our 100th post. Thanks for reading, and have a great holiday.

 

Posted in bacteria, contagion, probiotic, probiotic powder, probiotics and behavior, probiotics and children, probiotics and health | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Operation Earring

Posted by adianutrition on October 17, 2011

On Sunday morning, operation Earring achieved its goal. The earring was retrieved and all the crazy accessories were removed from the bathroom. That was really all I needed to know. I didn’t need the specifics, and I certainly didn’t need to see the earring. I was nestled safely in my warm blanket of denial until Sunday night. When April came over and just RIPPED IT AWAY.

We had a tasting at Lululemon last night, which went terrific. Our new Adia rep, Julie Siegal was there. We had great traffic, and we were able to share the power of probiotics with many of the customers. It was great to have Julie there with Jenny and April, and we are so excited to have her on board. She’s got great, positive energy, and she fits right in. She also has some connections with health food retailers in the area.

Jenny and Julie handled the early part of the day, and April handled the afternoon. April came over to drop some things off when the day was over, and asked Jenny about her earring.

Then she asked Jenny if she could see the earring. Then she asked Jenny to hold the earring, and she asked Jenny about the specifics of how the earring was retrieved. And it was all gross. No one needs to hear that. Ever.

Then she took the picture and now I’m scarred for life. Then April told my daughter that one day those earrings will be hers. My daughter ran screaming out of the room and refused to sleep. So, thanks for that.

Amy was up at Zumbathon on Saturday. We had a good showing, and we got our product in front of a lot of Zumbathoners.

This week Ape and Jenny are with Body by Elke. Which is interesting, because that’s where I got my body.

Ape is at Fokus in CDM from 4 to 7 on Thursday. On Friday, she’s at the tennis club at the Newport Beach Country Club. I also hear that an Optimum Orange cloud is about to descend on Boston this week, so keep your ears open.

Today’s article is on the link between Celiac disease and bacteria:

http://www.celiac.com/articles/22701/1/Normal-Flora-Bacteria-Able-to-Cleave-Gluten/Page1.html

We have a close family friend who has Celiac disease, and going gluten free has changed his life. Scientists may have found a link between bacteria in the digestive tract and the development of celiac disease. There is also a link between decreased mouth saliva and celiac.

The next step in this research is measure the bacteria in the mouths of people with celiac disease to determine those bacterial links as well.

Have a great week everyone!

Posted in bacteria, Celiac disease, probiotic, probiotic chews, probiotic experiment, probiotic powder, Probiotic tasting, probiotics and behavior, probiotics and health, probiotics and illness | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Adia tasting day at home, and a trip to the ER

Posted by adianutrition on October 12, 2011

My wife and April threw a fall boutique yesterday. They invited several friends, hired a babysitter and had everyone who sells product interact with each other. This is a picture of my daughter’s room after it ended. My daughter blamed Jay’s daughter for the mess, and my guess would be Jay’s daughter did the same.

The event went incredibly well. In fact, yesterday was our single best sales day in the history of the company. We did as much in one day as we did in our best week so far. And the price we paid was my wife having to clean up this room. Let’s do this every week!!

When I drove my son home after soccer practice, there were still a couple of people at my house. As I walked into the door, they ran past me looking kind of embarrassed, and quickly disappeared, which is unusual. I had showered, so it wasn’t me.

Then my wife came to the door with a look I have only seen three times. Once she was pregnant, and twice she had wrecked the car. So this look was going to cost me money.

‘Did you get my text’, she asked.

‘No, I left my phone here’, I responded.

‘Ok, well, I was taking my vitamins, and I thought I would just pour them from the jar into my mouth. I swallowed, but a couple of them felt hard. So I just kept going. And I realized when I was done, that I had swallowed my diamond earrings, so I need to go to the emergency room because it feels like they’re still stuck in my throat. Can you take care of the kids?’

And off she went. To the emergency room to get the diamonds out of her throat. She got back home close to 9pm, and it turns out that what she felt in her throat was the damage to her esophagus, and the diamonds were safely in her stomach on their way to the exit, assisted by PROBIOTICS!!!

Now, I can’t always say this, but today, I know that I am going to have a much better day than my wife. Also, I’m never kissing her ears again.

On to the news. The blog has been silent for a couple of days. I was in Boston this weekend, and on Sunday, Nicole called to tell me she was moving to Dallas. So we have a new field office in Texas!

Also, I had the chance to meet Brooke and Erika Snyder who are just starting the revolution in Boston. They were/are amazing, and I am so excited to have them on board. They Erika is involved in Cross-Fit, which you need to check out. I’m seeing my trainer, Gina, today, and I’m going to start training for it. It looks amazing.

No news today, but tomorrow we’ll return to our regularly scheduled article.

Posted in bacteria, probiotic, probiotic and weight loss, probiotic powder, Probiotic tasting, probiotics and behavior, water | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Happy Labor Day!!! (and anniversary)

Posted by adianutrition on September 2, 2011

This is kind of an art picture. I based it on the following painting by Rene Magritte: 

Pretty close, right? Except my picture is better because it has probiotics in it (obviously).

He also painted this, which still makes no sense to me:

He was a very talented artist, but he clearly needed some probiotics.

We have a corporate policy against interoffice dating. We figured, since we’re all so stuffed with good bacteria, any kind of bumping into each other could cause an explosion. Or something.

However, two anonymous (Jay and April) members of the Adia Nutrition team are celebrating their wedding anniversary today. Happy Anniversary to them!! Those of you who took the under, you lose.

I’m not going to say how long they’ve been married (10 years), but I will say that Jay has survived an experience which has tested many marriages – spending time with me. Not that I’m a bad influence, let’s just say I’m ‘filled with bad bacteria’.

On to news in the world of bacteria.

I’m attaching an article that discussed more of the link between probiotics and behavior. This is a topic we’ve covered a couple of times on this blog, but I like the way this one is written.

It addresses a couple of phrases, like ‘Gut feelings’ or ‘Having some guts’. Those are metaphors, but they reflect an unconscious link between how you feel inside, versus how you behave.

There’s a lot of discussion about the vagus nerve, and what happens when you cut it. I find all discussions about the vagus nerve to be strangely erotic.

The rest of the article is the same, you can skip over pretty much everything until the third paragraph from the end.

Here’s the quote that I can’t stop reading:

“Doctors have already managed to treat people with gut infections by giving them ‘fecal transplants’”

I think I know what that is, but I’m terrified to Google it.

If I had a gut infection, and the doctor treated me with a ‘fecal transplant’, I wouldn’t be nervous about the surgery, I would be utterly terrified trying to explain it to my wife.

So here’s the link:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/08/29/from-guts-to-brains-%E2%80%93-eating-probiotic-bacteria-changes-behaviour-in-mice/

Have a great labor day. If you’re going to drink, take some probiotics before you go to sleep.

Posted in bacteria, depression, probiotic, probiotic experiment, probiotic powder, probiotic research, probiotics and alcohol, probiotics and behavior, probiotics and health, probiotics and illness | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

 
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