METHYLCOBALAMIN, B-12, SLOWS BRAIN SHRINKAGE & RESTORES YOUR CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS

George Hoyt Whipple discovered B-12 in 1934.  So knowledge of this nutritional compound is well known and well-studied.  B-12 is water soluble, plays a key role in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, and basically interacts with the bacteria in your body to produce energy, described here:

Vitamin B₁₂, also called cobalamin, is a water-soluble vitamin that has a key role in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system via the synthesis of myelin (myelinogenesis),^[1][2] and the formation of red blood cells. It is one of eight B vitamins. It is involved in the metabolism of every cell of the human body, especially affecting DNA synthesis, fatty acid and amino acidmetabolism.^[3] No fungi, plants, or animals (including humans) are capable of producing vitamin B₁₂. Only bacteria and archaea have the enzymes needed for its synthesis. Some substantial sources of B₁₂ include animal products (shellfish, meat), fortified foods, and dietary supplements.^[4][5] B₁₂ is the largest and most structurally complicated vitamin and is produced industrially only through bacterial fermentation. This B₁₂ is used for fortified foods and supplements. It has also been produced synthetically via vitamin B₁₂total synthesis.

Yeah, the synthetic version of B-12, called cyanocobalamin, actually has cyanide in it.  You may want to steer clear of that one.  Methylcobabalmin is the preferred for of B-12.

Sardi published an article back on September 11, 2013, titled "The Incredible Shrinking (Mushy) Vitamin B-12 Deficient Brain."  It will alert you to the serious problems that result from a B-12 deficiency, and I say this as a guy who takes a supplement daily (with a B-12 dose of 320mcg; that exceeds a maintenance dose by 5000%.  I wonder what a therapeutic dose is).  His article starts with a citation to the Tufts University study on how a mild deficiency of B-12 speeds dementia.  Yikes.  In terms of numbers, what is a deficiency of B-12?  

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the brain of a 76-year-old patient with dementia. The brain has shrunk, and the ventricles, the fluid-filled spaces (dark brown) at the center of the brain, have become enlarged. Photo: BSIP/Photoresearchers Inc.

It's elusive.  According to the B-12 website (yes, there's a website dedicated just to vitamin B-12), he states that it is 7ug, whatever that is.  But there is a summary to the article, and that's here:

The daily requirement according to DGE: 3 µg.  

The daily requirement is not actually the necessary amount!

Current studies recommend an intake of 7-10 µg.
During stress, illness and pregnancy, a higher intake is required.
Vegans should take supplements. 

Okay, so it looks like you want to be maintaining, meaning taking on a daily basis, 3 µg.  So anything less than that, you risk becoming deficient and moving toward mild dementia.  So don't start down that road.  It's a lot easier to remember to take the methylcobalamin, B-12, than to try to rebuild the brain.  

Investigators at Tufts University display striking images of the human brain when it is deficient in vitamin B-12.  Brain scans show fluid-filled spaces as the center of a shrinking B-12 deficient brain—literally holes in the brain. 

The report starts

Being even mildly deficient in vitamin B-12 may put older adults at a greater risk for accelerated cognitive decline, an observational study from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts suggests.  

Still, no numbers on how to measure "Being even mildly deficient . . . ."  

BENEFITS OF B-12, METHYLCOBALAMIN

BENEFIT #1:  Delays and significantly slows the shrinkage of the brain.  Methylcobalamin, B-12 produces stunning benefits on the brain, on the heart, on the spine, and the muscles and nerves that run all through your body.  It slows brain shrinkage by 7 times of what is normal.  This should be a daily regimen for life.   

A prior study showed that high-dose B vitamins (800 mcg folic acid, 20mgs vitamin B6, 500 mcgs of B-12) slows the rate of shrinkage in the human brain, and more demonstrably (by 7 times) shrinkage of grey matter in the brain.

So here I've listed some of the benefits of B-12: Methyllcobalamin, B-12, Betaine Hydrochloride, and Benfotiamine.  But what causes brain shrinkage in the first place?  Is there a way to prevent shrinkage or avoid it altogether?  First, I would stay away from foods drain the B-12 stores from your body, things like coffee, alcohol, digestive disorders, pernicious anemia, injuries, and worst of all, stress.  Stress is a killer, especially chronic stress.  B-12 helps fight off the damaging effects of stress on the brain.  

BENEFIT #2:  B-12 revitalizes and restores brain, heart, and spinal energy.  Few things do all three.

BENEFIT #3:  B-12 restores your circadian rhythms.  You will get the best sleep of your life.  Nothing compares.  Plus, given all the other benefits of how it rebuilds the brain, spine, heart, blood vessels, tell me, what's not to like.  If your sleep is better, just think how less irritable you'll be the next day.  I got the best sleep I'd head in decades.   

Effects of vitamin B12 on performance and circadian rhythm in normal subjects.  Neuropsychopharmacology, 1996.

This preliminary study investigates effects of methyl- and cyanocobalamin on circadian rhythms, well-being, alertness, and concentration in healthy subjects. Six women (mean age 35 years) and 14 men (mean age 37 years) were randomly assigned to treatment for 14 days with 3 mg cyano-(CB12) or methylcobalamin (MB12) after 9 days of pre-treatment observation. Levels in the CB12 group increased rapidly in the first, then slowly in the second treatment week, whereas increase in the MB12 group was linear. Urinary aMT6s excretion was reduced by both forms of vitamin B12 over 24 hours with a significant decrease between 0700-1100 hours, whereas urinary excretion of potassium was significantly increased between 0700-1100 hours. Activity from 2300-0700 hours increased significantly under both forms of vitamin B12. Sleep time was significantly reduced under MB12 intake. In this group the change in the visual analogue scales items "sleep quality," "concentration," and "feeling refreshed" between pretreatment and the first week of treatment showed significant correlations with vitamin B12 plasma levels. Cortisol excretion and temperature were not affected by either medication. We conclude that vitamin B12 exerts a direct influence on melatonin. Only MB12 has a positive psychotropic alerting effect with a distribution of the sleep-wake cycle toward sleep reduction.

WHAT B12 DEFICIENCY LOOKS LIKE

You already know what it looks like: fatigue because your circadian rhythms are ruined; poor appetite because you're eating fast food and coffee because you're trying to compensate for the deleterious disruption of your circadian rhythms.  Get the B-12.  Depression and numbness and tingling in the hands and or feet all for the same reason: disruption of your circadian rhythms that are built on your body's ability to coordinate its nerve and muscle and hormone functions properly.  You don't want to let these conditions go unanswered.  Get the B-12.  Take it throughout the day.  Take it daily.  It's at this point that most medical articles will say "so speak to your doctor promptly about treatment," but I would say, hey, your doctor doesn't know much about nutrition and even less about nutritional supplements, so instead of speaking with your doctor, consult the valuable articles and books by Bill Sardi.  

CAUSES OF B-12 DEFICIENCY
Bill Sardi points to two causes of B-12 deficiency: lack of absorption and H. Pylori bacterium.  The latter shuts down stomach acid and the former   

Lack of absorption of dietary and supplemental vitamin B-12 due to progressive inability to produce stomach acid is cited as a growing concern.  Therefore, it may be that widespread H. Pylori infection, which is prevalents in more than half of the US population, could be a parallel facto as H. Pylori shuts down production of stomach acid or hydrochloric acid. 

Lack of absorption is a serious problem for oldsters.  We might eat right but we're just not absorbing the nutrition that we need from a healthy diet.  

The academy estimates that between 10 percent and 30 percent of people older than 50 produce too little stomach acid to release B12 from its carrier protein in foods, and as the years advance, the percentage of low-acid producers rises.

Diabetics are at an added risk.

Another concern is that most often used anti-diabetic drug, metformin, depletes the body of vitamin B-12.  Metformin use has been associated with decliningmental function.

REMEDY THE DEFICIENCY

1.  Eat lean animal meats to get B-12 from food. 

Animal proteins, such as lean meats, poultry and eggs, are good sources of vitamin B-12. Because older adults may have a hard time absorbing vitamin B-12 from food, the USDAʼs 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that people over age 50 incorporate foods fortified with B-12 or supplements in their diets.

2.  Supplement with Betaine Hydrochloride to replenish stomach acid so that you can digest the foods above and get the needed B-12.  

The group studied did eat meats, so one of the reasons for them being deficient is due to low stomach acid at age 75 and above.  To remedy the problem of low stomach acid, then you'll need to supplement with Betaine Hydrochloride.  For low stomach acid, Sardi recommends the following:  

1) Follow an anti-H Pylori regimen;

2) Supplement your diet with zinc which is needed to make hydrochloric acid in the stomach. [I never heard of this before];

3) Take Betaine Hydrochloride with meals to provide supplemental acid source. 

SUPPLEMENTS TO REMEDY NERVE & MUSCLE FATIGUE, A TIRED HEART, A TIRED BRAIN, AND A TIRED SPINE

Methylcobalamin
 

If you're not getting enough B12 from the meats and eggs in your diet, supplement with this hydrochloric acid to help break down those proteins and other nutrients, like B-12

Betaine Hydrochloride.  


Mind Boosters: A Guide to Natural Supplements That Enhance Your Mind, Memory, and Mood, Ray Sahelian, 2000.  

COFFEE: DON'T WORRY ABOUT CANCER; WORRY ABOUT IT DEPLETING B1, THIAMINE

Well, don't expect to learn of the real value of food or their nutritional compounds from non-profits.  Starbucks, and other sellers inside California, has been ordered to post a warning that their coffee contains carcinogens.  Oh, brother.  This is terrible.  Whether coffee contains carcinogens or not is not why this is a terrible regulation.  What's terrible is that the customer may find a message on his cup that reads similar to the cigarette warning of:  

SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING:

Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy

What's dumb about it is that the warning itself is subliminal.  It's a message that the consumer inhales with each bite, sip, puff puff, or what have you.

Further, the compound that has been designated a carcinogen is acrylamide, a chemical used in the roasting process.  And the article does not go into what kinds of cancers what might get with acrylamide.  So there are no details.  

Thursday, March 29, 2018 07:53PM

LOS ANGELES (KABC) --

A judge ruled that Starbucks and other coffee sellers in California must provide a cancer warning on their products for customers.

A nonprofit group sued several companies that sell coffee, including Starbucks, coffee distributors and retailers in 2010.

The lawsuit claimed those companies violated state law, which requires them to warn consumers about chemicals in the roasting process that may cause cancer. One of those chemicals is acrylamide, which is a carcinogen.

Attorneys for about 90 companies said the chemical is present in the process, but that it's at harmless levels and is outweighed by the benefits of drinking a cup of coffee.

The ruling came despite eased concerns in recent years about the possible dangers of coffee, with some studies finding health benefits. In 2016, the International Agency for Research on Cancer--the cancer agency of the World Health Organization--moved coffee off its "possible carcinogen" list.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Coffee is a mixed bag nutritionally speaking.  It is a mild mineral chelator.  That can be good if someone already has cancer and they're trying to reduce absorption to more heavy minerals, like iron, mercury, and calcium.  Coffee is good for your vision.  So it has a couple of benefits.  But if someone is an addictive drinker of coffee, like I was, it can deplete B vitamins to the point that you'll actually feel tired.  That's not good.  But again this only after a week or two of steady coffee drinking of 3 to 4 cups a day, depending on your current B vitamin status.  You may already be deficient in B vitamins adn then drinking coffee on a regular basis, well, then it's not good for you.  So it's not so much that the coffee is bad; it's that your body requires daily sustained amounts of B vitamins.  Get it?  Good.  Read Bill Sardi on this.  

The problem of thiamin deficiency may be traced to another daily practice, the consumption of coffee, tea or beer. Many millions of people consume coffee or tea at the same time they take their morning multivitamin. What's the problem with tea or coffee? They contain tannins (bitter parts) that alter vitamin B1 and render it useless. Sulfite preservatives, as found in wine, are another antagonist to B1. Alcohol also interferes with B1 absorption. In fact, about 30-80% of alcohol users have low circulating levels of B1. The lesson here is not to take vitamin B1 pills with coffee, tea or alcohol. 

Forget about cancer.  This is what you really have to worry about from your addicting consumption of coffee.  A cup or two per day may not be that bad, but be sure that you're taking B1 away from your coffee consumption.  

A policeman is flagged down by a 32-year-old woman at a park in Joliet, Illinois who says she can't remember who she is or how she got there. She is later found to be a mother of four children living in Jackson, Michigan. Her name is Amber. She has not recovered memory of her earlier life or what triggered her amnesia. Doctors are at a loss to know what caused this case of "global amnesia."

Marie is college educated, with a father who is a physician and mother who is a nurse, and she can't find anyone who can tell her why she is experiencing severe nausea and vomiting early in her first pregnancy. No one seems to know. Folk remedies are sought. Despite being the most common torment of pregnancy, the cause of morning sickness remains a mystery. Or is it?

Jim, a rock sculptor living near Ontario, California, looks like Indiana Jones in the movie Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Prop him up on a bar stool drinking down some brew and he would fit into any beer commercial. He is manly but has an unmanly and embarrassing problem. All of a sudden he can't seem to control his bowels. He is running to the bathroom all the time. His doctor says it is irritable bowel syndrome, a now common condition that forces sufferers to be closely tethered to bathrooms. A drug is prescribed that slows down gastric transit time but induces sleepiness, and can't be taken while driving. But what is the cause of his problem?

Jackie is out of work and living in Santa Fe, New Mexico and suffering with relentless pain that has been diagnosed as fibromyalgia. Doctors don't seem to have an answer as to what causes this problem. Inexplicably, a number of people with fibromyalgia report having the same problem as Jim the rock sculptor (above), irritable bowel. Are the two conditions linked in any way? An estimated 5 million Americans have fibromyalgia, some of them children.

Robert, an award-winning journalist, wakes up one morning with a slight weakness in his left leg. Then he begins to lose his ability to speak. He has to say "yes" or "no" by shifting his eyes. Doctors offer an experimental drug. For unexplained reasons, doctors delay treatment until Robert loses feeling throughout his body and is now permanently confined to a wheelchair. Doctors say Robert had a bout of Guillain Barré syndrome that never went into remission as most other cases do. Again, doctors have no idea of the cause of this progressive loss of nervous system control, some believing it is triggered by a virus.

Steve, age 35, had been suffering heart palpitations for years and finally was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, a quivering heart muscle in the top chambers of the heart. Surgery and medication began to slowly help Steve regain his energy. Steve wonders if his children will inherit his problem. Despite successful treatment, neither surgery nor medication addresses the still unknown cause of atrial fibrillation. Millions of Americans, mostly men, face this same problem. Treatment consists of prescribing blood thinners to prevent a blood clot in the heart being thrown into the lungs or brain and controlled destruction of the heart muscle (ablation) itself. But what is its cause?

Martin, at age 56, first noticed could not keep up with his 70-year old brother in law when out hunting. He began to experience shortness of breath, fatigue, swelling in his ankles and a persistent cough. The diagnosis: heart failure. The cure: the implantation of a device in his chest that helps his heart pump blood. The device is credited with saving his life. More commonly heart failure is treated with a battery of drugs. But a recent study shows the drugs are of negligible value. 

LYCOPENE IS THE MOST POTENT FREE RADICAL QUENCHER OF ALL CAROTENOIDS

Tomatoes are delicious and refreshing when fresh-picked or chopped and mixed into a salsa.  And we hear how good they are for your health.  And they are.  But sometimes we find ourselves disappointed when we buy them fresh where they seem to lack all the rich taste and nutritional value.  And that is true.  That's not just folklore or rumor.  If you can find a delicious, vine-ripened tomato, those tend to be the most flavorful.  But the truth is that the tomatoes found inside a can of tomato sauce is actually more flavorful with a higher concentration of Lycopene.   

It's the Lycopene that gives tomatoes their health benefits.  Lycopene is one of 600 or more carotenoids.  Carotenoids accumulate in the skin where their protective compounds go to work.  I use the word protective because these carotenoids protect your skin from UV rays, working in this way as an anti-wrinkle food and anti-aging food.  What's not to like?  

But the health benefits of Lycopene don't end there.  According to NCBI, Lycopene is the most potent of all carotenoid free radicals.  

Lycopene, the most potent singlet oxygen quencher of all carotenoids, is a possible treatment option for male infertility because of its antioxidant properties. 

A singlet oxygen quencher is an antioxidant that destroys single oxygen free radicals.  

Dietary carotenoids seem to participate in the prevention of photooxidative stress by accumulating as antioxidants in the skin.  

Lycopene is the most potent of all carotenoids.  In fact, carotenoids have more powerful antioxidant activity than vitamin E.  

Carotenoids are known to be powerful O₂ (¹Δ_g) quenchers,⁽⁶⁾ and their activities are much higher than that of α-tocopherol and other biological antioxidants.

When the two are combined, Lycopene with vitamin E, they are a powerful compound for reducing erythema.

Stahl, et al ⁽³⁹⁾ found that combination of a relatively low dose of total carotenoids (25 mg/day) and vitamin E (RRR-α-tocopherol; 335 mg/day) significantly diminished the erythema (redness of the skin) on dorsal skin induced by illumination with UV light after 8 weeks.  

Eat your tomatoes and your watermelon and your red apples.  Not only is Lycopene good for your skin, it has terrific affects on your overall fertility, while enhancing your immunity.  Incorporate this food in your diet. 

other beneficial effects via nonoxidative mechanisms in the testis, such as gap junction communication, modulation of gene expression, regulation of the cell cycle and immunoenhancement. 

To achieve these results, however, one must take 4-8mgs per day for 4 to 12 months.  Fine.  You want these health benefits?  Great.  Take Lycopene on a daily basis for a full year and voila!

Okay, so reports on how much lycopene one should get on a daily basis varies.  The above NCBI article cites 4-8mgs per day.  But this Telegraph article says that one needs closer to 22mgs per day.  

One serving of cooked tomatoes a day, and several servings of fresh tomatoes a week. You should ideally eat 22 mg of lycopene a day; there are 27 mgs in two tablespoons of tomato purée. On a gram-for-gram basis, cherry tomatoes contain more lycopene than large tomatoes.

So far no mention of how many milligrams are found in an average-sized tomato.  

How should I eat them?

Here, canned is better than fresh. Lycopene is better absorbed when it is consumed in processed products, such as baked beans and tinned tomatoes, rather than as whole tomatoes. Choose tomato-based pasta sauces rather than creamy ones. Organic tomato ketchup is particularly good, and tomatoes are a fine excuse for a Bloody Mary.  

That surprised me.  You get more Lycopene in processed products. 

Tomato-based foods offer the highest concentrations of lycopene, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. Because carotenoids are fat-soluble nutrients, cooking tomatoes with oil or eating cooked tomatoes with small amounts of fat increases the amount of lycopene that your body can absorb. Tomato sauces, pastes, soups and juices contain more lycopene than the fresh vegetable. One cup of canned tomato paste provides 75 mg of lycopene, compared to 5 mg[s] in one cup of raw tomatoes, the Linus Pauling Institute notes. Watermelon, pink, grapefruit, guava, apricots and papaya contain lycopene. These nutritious foods also provide vitamin C, potassium, folate and other antioxidant pigments.

That should be the final word on tomatoes and lycopene.  You get more Lycopene in processed foods. The one citation above even pointed to ketchup.  I used to think that Ronald Reagan was crazy when he and his commission cited ketchup as a vegetable, but apparently it has enough nutrients in it to have some protective effect against aging, illness, and a more youthful look.  

This was interesting.  If you consume too much carotenoids, they will deposit in your skin and turn your skin yellow, red, or orange.  I once consumed too much carrot juice one night and woke the next with orange arm pits.  Literally.  I freaked out and went to the Emergency Room the afternoon of the next day where the doctor asked if I had consumed any carrot juice.  Guilty as charged.  The best way to get the right amount is not really through supplementation but through food.  Your body will select the amount of Lycopene it needs and discard the rest.  

BUILD STRONGER, MORE USEFUL BODIES THROUGH STRENGTH TRAINING

FOR THEIR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE, THE PEOPLE PERISH

This was a decent presentation, meaning that it took a complex topic and made it comprehensible. It did fail, however, to answer how to balance gut microbes so that you restore your body and your health returns to a more normal state.  Dr. Sears' Zone Diet focused on balancing hormones.  His diet plan definitely does that, for sure.  And as a target, balancing hormones is a good one.  But maybe balancing the whole body is not as easily as we think since certain organs and organ systems, due to their size and volume, play a larger role in health maintenance than others.  The gut is large system.  In fact, the gut starts at your mouth.  Never heard that before.  

The gut (gastrointestinal tract) is the long tube that starts at the mouth and ends at the back passage (anus).  

The key is to know how to repair and remedy a leaky gut. A leaky gut is exactly what it sounds like--it means your gut is porous with all kinds of bacteria spilling out gradually perhaps into other compartments of your body.  That's a large area, so let's be specific.  A leaky gut refers mainly to the small intestine.  You may not even feel any specific pain other than a tire or weak stomach. Or it may show up in the form of dry or flaky skin. It may show up in the form of bruises or scarring.  

CAUSES OF LEAKY GUT  
The list is long.  One thing that tops the causes of a leaky gut is a poor diet.  What does that mean?  We're all guilty of that.  Even if one follows the best diet, we're always tinkering with so as to accommodate our preferences, little cravings, and must-haves.  Eating all vegetables is not good enough.  Prebiotics are perhaps the best foods to eat to restore the gut.  See this list:

Low-fat diets that never satisfy and only induce more food craving instead of a varietal diet rich in prebiotics like mushrooms, pickles, sauerkraut, miso soup, bran, oats, barley that populate our gut with bacteria that produces lean, non-diabetic humans.

At another site, Sardi points out how unhealthy bacteria, the kind that causes your intestines to leak, produces inflammation at the back of your eyes and is responsible for macular degeneration.  Healthy gut bacteria inhibits invasive blood vessels that destroy vision.  

Healthy gut bacteria inhibit inflammation.  Unhealthy gut bacteria generates low-grade inflammation that is characteristic of accelerated ageing.

Fermented foods like pickles, sauerkraut, miso soup, apple pectin, beta glucans (barley), resveratrol and other foods are recommended to restore and maintain healthy gut bacteria.

Unhealthy gut bacteria increase intestinal permeability and allow undigested proteins to enter the blood circulation, sparking allergic and autoimmune reactions.  [EMBO Molecular Medicine Oct 11, 2016]

This explains how fermented and prebiotic foods listed above spare your vision, spare your gut health, spare your immune system.  And how the Biblical saying of "For their lack of knowledge, the people perish" is no small statement.  The gut and its healthy and unhealthy bacteria is a complex topic.  Though the solutions have already been discovered.  We know what works--prebiotics.  Dairy prebiotics may not be the best.  On probiotics versus prebiotics, this might be helpful.  



Probiotics are “good” bacteria that help keep your digestive system healthy by controlling growth of harmful bacteria. Prebiotics are carbohydrates that cannot be digested by the human body. They are food for probiotics. The primary benefit of probiotics and prebiotics appears to be helping you maintain a healthy digestive system.

One of the best sources of probiotics is yogurt. It has good bacteria like lactobacillus or bifidobacteria. Look for “live or active cultures” on the label to be sure your favorite brand of yogurt is a rich source of probiotics. Other good food sources are sauerkraut, miso soup, fermented, soft cheeses (like Gouda), and even sourdough bread. The common feature of all these foods is fermentation, a process that produces probiotics.

There is nothing in particular about probiotics or prebiotics that will give you energy. However, one of the best probiotic-rich foods, yogurt, is an excellent source of lean protein and calcium. Prebiotic foods are a great source of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that give you the energy you need to get through the day. Prebiotic-rich foods include whole grains, onions, bananas, garlic, honey, and artichokes.

SERIOUS PROBLEMS FROM A LEAKY GUT  

One of the problems with diagnosing conditions and knowing what you're working with is that the symptoms show up in distal points and start as something else.  Bill Sardi points this out elegantly

Some autoimmune conditions start as something else. Take, for example, Lyme disease. An infection (Borrelia burgdorferi) may or may not result from a tick bite. Such an infection may or may not be quelled by antibiotics. If people are low in zinc, the medication is less likely to be effective. If they are low in critical nutrients and/or have an imbalance in gut bacteria, they be more prone to autoimmune reactions.  So, seemingly out of nowhere, an infection from a tick bite mysteriously becomes an unremitting chronic problem. That effect is reported more frequently among those who are zinc-deficient. Tick bites and the infections have been around throughout human history. The new element may be zinc deficiency made worse by a craving for sugar that is too often satisfied with high fructose corn syrup. 

So in addition to those fermented probiotics, like miso soup, sauerkraut, mushrooms, and others, you need to be on zinc.  The best form of Zinc is OptiZinc.  Bill Sardi explains that high-fructose corn syrup depletes zinc.  We really need to be careful of the sweeteners we're consuming.  

Zinc is crucial for proper function of the immune system (and so much more). Zinc deficiency is rampant in the American population. Anyone who doesn’t get enough zinc or can’t use it properly is prone to autoimmune reactions. It is possible to get enough zinc in the diet, but it takes adequate selenium to release the zinc from its binding protein. And you should know that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) depletes zinc. Given the high consumption of HFCS in the US, the increasing incidence of autoimmune disorders is not surprising. 

So there's that.

BEWARE OF HOSPITALIZED ANTIOBIOTICS
I write this because my mother died from hospital antibiotics.  The hospital protocol killed her.  Due to a weakness, she was taken to the Emergency Room where after a series of useless tests the ER doctor assigned her a room--you guessed it--for more tests.  Once they learned of her full insurance coverage, the hospital protocol is to treat anyone coming in as an ATM from which to perform cash withdrawls.  Once she was hospitalized, the doctors put her on an IV of Zosyn.  It was slow-drip biological trauma, slowly and effectively destroying any of her remaining good bacteria, leaving her system open to stress and weakness.  And true to the intentions of that restorative protocol [burning sarcasm], ten days later she was dead.  The best place for your loved ones to be IS OUT OF THE HOSPITAL.  Don't just sign their life over to aloof and fully-licensed professionals.  Instead, provide your loved ones with the protocol that Bill Sardi offers up above:

Low-fat diets that never satisfy and only induce more food craving instead of a varietal diet rich in prebiotics like mushrooms, pickles, sauerkraut, miso soup, bran, oats, barley that populate our gut with bacteria that produces lean, non-diabetic humans. 

Find ways to deliver these in delicious, life-affirming dishes.