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The Keys to Vibrant Health: Digestion and Immunity

Synopsis: All about your intestinal tract – your small and large intestines, the important role of beneficial bacteria in your elaborate digestive system, exactly what immunity is and how the lacto fermented extracts in the amazing product known as Seigen promote vibrant health.

Vital Role of Your Intestines

All of us eat food in order to obtain the nutrients that produce and feed the blood that flows to each and every cell of our body. The process, from the time food enters our mouth until its nutrients are converted into blood and cells, is called digestion and absorption.

The workings within the intestinal tract are extremely complex and precise. There is no carelessness or wastefulness about the stomach, the intestines, or any of the other organs within your body. They all carry out their elaborate functions in much the manner of superbly managed little chemical factories.

The intestines in particular, play a vital role. Nutrients are broken down in the mouth and small intestine, pass through the intestinal wall, and are metabolized by the liver, where they are converted into building material for blood and cells.

If even a small amount of foreign matter is mixed in with nutrients absorbed from the small intestine, or if the small intestine itself is not working properly, then the production of healthy blood and cells will become impossible. For this reason it has long been said that the intestines are the foundation of good health, and almost all health issues begin with malfunctioning processes within the intestinal tract.

Beneficial Bacteria – Superheroes of the Intestines

When a person is healthy, nutrients are absorbed from the small intestine in an ideal form. This is very important from the standpoint of producing good blood and cells. Responsible for maintaining the integrity of the intestinal interior is, in fact, a group of microorganisms – beneficial intestinal bacteria.

There are more than one hundred different kinds of bacteria living inside the intestines, numbering over one hundred trillion individual organisms, and collectively they are often referred to as the intestinal flora.

The intestinal flora can roughly be divided into non beneficial bacteria, which have detrimental effects on humans, and beneficial bacteria, which counteract the contrary ones. Some non beneficial bacteria will putrefy nutrients entering the intestines.

Beneficial bacteria include lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, which effectively counteract the non beneficial effects of harmful bacteria so they don't multiply enough to dominate the intestinal interior.

Beneficial bacteria may be thought of as superhero champions, vigilant, constantly on guard to prevent the wrong bacteria from running rampant inside the intestines. Consequently it is important to increase the number of these beneficial bacteria.

The Large Intestine – Important Key to Health

Rapid progress has been made in the study of intestinal flora, and recently it has been discovered that the large intestine is the site of an extremely important process.

The more than one hundred trillion bacteria living inside the intestines are for the most part distributed from the lower end of the small intestine on into the large intestine. The sugars, vegetable and grain fibers and proteins from meat and other foods that are not absorbed in the small intestine are turned into fecal material in the large intestine and passed out of the body. But while in the large intestine these waste materials serve as food for the bacteria living there.

The proper or improper functioning of the large intestine (colon) will, to a large degree, determine whether one's health will be optimized. Chronic constipation can provide an atmosphere in which non benefical bacteria proliferate, putrefaction occurs, and toxins are released into the bloodstream. Any person who wants to remain healthy must take great care to eat sufficient vegetables, fruits and fibrous foods to keep the large intestine (colon) clean and functioning.

Let's look at the large intestine more closely. Fibrous sugars entering the large intestine are broken down by the dominant intestinal bacteria, called bacteroides, to form simple sugars which are consumed by bifidobacteria. Then, the bifidobacteria multiply, producing organic acids, butyric, propionic, acetic and lactic acid.

These acids suppress the growth of harmful bacteria that cause putrefaction. They also perform other defensive functions such as forming a thick protective layer over the mucus lining of the large intestine so that harmful bacteria entering or generated within the colon won't readily make it into the bloodstream.

Proteins are broken down into amino acids (the basic structural building units of proteins) in the small intestine, where they are absorbed, move to the liver and become raw material for reproducing cells. The remaining unabsorbed protein becomes food for putrefying bacteria in the large intestine.

As the number of putrefying bacteria increases, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and other toxins are produced and at some stage of proliferation they can become the cause of various illnesses.

Hence maintaining healthy bacteria in the large intestine in a properly functional state is an important key to maintenance of good health.

Lactobacillus Fermented Extracts

Humans are naturally provided with an elaborate defense system known as the immune system, which protects against constant invasion by harmful microorganisms.

Germs are everywhere in the air, water, earth and environment in which we live. They are unrelenting in their attempt to enter your body and multiply, while your immune system puts up a heroic struggle to prevent them from imposing damage.

Increasing the number of lactic acid bacteria in your intestines is one good way to increase the strength and effectiveness of your immune system. Therefore you might assume that swallowing a bunch of lactic acid bacteria will put you on the road to health, right?

Well, not exactly. Lactic acid bacteria are easily destroyed by acids, so no matter how many you swallow, nearly all of them will be destroyed before they make it to the intestines.

However, thanks to the work of bacteriologists, it has been discovered that the fermented extracts metabolized by lactic acid bacteria have the ability to strengthen the immune system. Because such fermented extracts are not living bacteria, they remain unaffected by stomach acid.

Available for many years in Japan, and now in the United States, Seigen is manufactured soymilk extracts fermented by lactic acid bacteria and yeast. In simple terms, the manufacturing procedure is as follows.

First, different kinds of beneficial bacteria are selected from the vast number of lactobacilli and yeast and raised together in a co-culture. The advantage of the co-culture method is that the different kinds of bacteria strengthen each other during growth, resulting in much stronger bacteria. This in turn means the lactobacillus fermented extracts secreted by them will be more powerful.

Years of culture experimentation have shown that lactobacillus fermented extracts work to substantially increase the number of beneficial or good bacteria, while suppressing the number of harmful bacteria inside the intestinal tract.

Proper diet is of course important for maintaining a healthy body. And daily use of lactobacillus fermented extracts is also a good bit of practical wisdom.