Floraphage for Digestive Health
The human digestive tract contains trillions of microorganisms that constantly compete for space and nutrients. This system can be highly susceptible to attacks from harmful bacteria, which can result in digestive discomfort and a weakened immune system. It is therefore important for beneficial bacteria to outperform these harmful bacteria so that proper intestinal balance and overall good health can be achieved. Unfortunately the opposite can sometimes occur, in which aggressive strains of harmful bacteria outgrow and consume more resources than the beneficial bacteria. This phenomenon can be associated with poor health, abdominal discomfort, and bacterial infections. To combat these intestinal imbalances and their damaging effects, Floraphage has been developed to support the restoration and maintenance of the highly sensitive digestive ecosystem.
Why Floraphage?
Floraphage was designed to support the proliferation of beneficial bacteria throughout the gastrointestinal tract in order to promote optimal digestive and immune health. Floraphage was tested in conjunction with four popular probiotic supplements to determine its ability to increase the potency or growth of each respective product. The average increase in CFU activity, which is the measurement of probiotic bacteria growth, for the four products was 2400% versus control (growth without the use of Floraphage). Floraphage is an excellent product to take in conjunction with a probiotic to maximize the benefits of supplemented beneficial bacteria. It is also helpful for those who do not take probiotics in order to maximize indigenous bacteria growth.
*Floraphage and Beneficial Bacteria
Floraphage was able to increase the growth rate of supplemented probiotics by an average of 24x compared to control.*
*Each product was grown in a nutrient-rich broth to mimic normal digestive conditions, until each products bacteria reached a specified value using optical density (OD). OD measures the amount of light that is able to scatter through a mixture, and was simply used to verify that the bacteria for each product had started to divide (grow). Once each product reached an OD of .2 (that simply indicated that the bacteria were growing and no longer dormant), a one milliliter sampling of each product was grown with Floraphage and without (control). Each of the four tested products showed improvement when grown with Floraphage. 1 Jarro-Dophilus EPS is a registered trademark of Jarrow Formulas, Inc. and has no affiliation with Arthur Andrew Medical. 2 Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics is a registered trademark of Essential Formulas, Inc. and has no affiliation with Arthur Andrew Medical. 3 PB 8 is a registered trademark of Nutrition Now, Inc. and has no affiliation with Arthur Andrew Medical.
What is Floraphage?
Floraphage is a bacteriophage (or phage), which is a microscopic protein that can target and destroy one particular type of bacteria. Floraphage is selectively anti-microbial, specifically attaching to only harmful bacteria. Once a phage has attached itself, these “bad” bacteria essentially burst open, releasing more phage and nutrients, known as prebiotics, for our good bacteria to feed on. Floraphage can only attach itself to harmful bacteria, and can never enter or harm good bacteria or human cells.
Phages are everywhere, in our food, in the water we drink, on and in our bodies, and pretty much anywhere else imaginable. They are actually the most abundant naturally occurring organisms on earth. Phages have been safely used for over 90 years in the food supply and as a therapy for antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. Floraphage is the first dietary supplement formula to utilize these amazing microscopic proteins.
How Does Floraphage Work?
Floraphage specifically targets bad bacteria and destroys their cell wall, releasing nutrients that provide good bacteria with the food and space that are needed for substantial growth in the digestive tract. In doing so, Floraphage reverses the growth pattern of certain bad bacteria and allows good bacteria to proliferate in their place.
Since Floraphage forces the release of nutrients from bad bacteria, it inherently acts as a two-phase super-prebiotic. During the first phase, Floraphage selectively attacks certain bacteria, creating space along the intestinal wall. The second phase occurs organically when these bacteria burst open and release prebiotic nutrients. Prebiotics help beneficial bacteria grow faster than harmful bacteria. More specifically, prebiotics are natural sources of nutrients that provide benefit by stimulating the growth and activity of good bacteria in the digestive tract. Prebiotic supplements have historically been made up of some type of fiber or sugar, which have been known to lead to gas and bloating. Floraphage is not comprised of fiber or sugars, so the potential for digestive distress is eliminated while providing its super-prebiotic benefits.
How Safe is Floraphage?
Floraphage represents a tiny fraction of the total phages contained in the body, as the gut is a natural habitat for bacteria and phages. Floraphage does not contain genetic elements that are harmful to humans. Furthermore, Floraphage is not constructed in a manner that would enable it to negatively impact any beneficial bacteria. Therefore, Floraphage presents no harm to the natural microbial flora of the intestine. In addition, Floraphage has GRAS status with the FDA.
Benefits of Floraphage Include:
- Increases the potency of any probiotic
- Does not cause digestive discomfort
- Selective anti-microbial properties
- Can be taken alone or in combination with a probiotic
- Starts working immediately
*Floraphage and Harmful Bacteria.
Lab tests indicated that when harmful bacterial cells were allowed to grow for 10 hours in the absence of Floraphage, the bacterial cell growth gradually increased over the 10-hour incubation period. This is illustrated below with the green growth curve increasing over the 10-hour incubation period. However, when these same bad bacteria were incubated along with Floraphage, the bad bacterial cell growth began to decrease after 60 minutes and continued to gradually decrease over the 10-hour incubation period (yellow growth curve). These results indicate that Florphage is effective at preventing the further growth of these harmful bacterial cells.
