BEINGnBALANCE
A happy mind is a healthy body
In 2004, I learned firsthand that it’s hard to be mentally balanced when the body’s ecology is out of balance. Anxiety and depression began to evaporate when my inner environment was rebalanced with a few probiotic supplements and by avoiding certain foods and adding others. I was then able to do the psychotherapeutic work that helps me live a happier, more fulfilling life.
Below is a document about the dietary changes I made. It explains how I followed this nutritional blue-print; where I found supplements and super foods; and recounts the changes to my mental and physical health that occurred. I’m glad to share it with anyone who has made their way to this web page.
Regaining one’s health takes intention, attention and time, but with supportive counselors and a nurturing lifestyle I achieved a more balanced state of consciousness and a state of grace I wouldn’t have thought possible if it hadn’t happened for me. I am not saying this is something that must be done to improve your life, but I am saying it helped dozens of people with whom it has been shared. If you have ever been curious about the positive effects of probiotics, I encourage you to read on.––MR
BEINGnBALANCE
probiotic support for wellbeing
BEINGnBALANCE is the name I trademarked in 2004 for a probiotic nutritional approach to balance the inner human environment called the microbiome—the entourage of trillions of bacteria, molds, mildews, funguses and viruses that live in or upon the human body and functions like an organ regulating other embodied systems. BnB is an integration of maybe a dozen nutritional concepts—an interactive protocol of superfoods, probiotic supplements, vitamins, minerals, fresh organic food, rest and exercise.
The purpose of this document is to share my personal experience and understanding—what I ate and how I benefited. It is not an analytical explanation of the precise science of how it all works (there are multiple phenotypes and endotypes), but there is a basic scientific principal to understand first. As Stephen Harrod Buhner explains:
“Biological processes are the consequence of a dynamic, interactive, nonlinear network in which all parts play an equally important role. The system itself cannot exist, could not have come into being, without subunits that self-organized. And the removal of too many of the subunits from a mistaken belief that they are unimportant will result in the loss of self-organization and emergent behaviors. In ecosystem studies, this is known as a trophic cascade. It occurs when too many parts of the ecosystem are destroyed and the nonlinear, self-organized ecosystem begins to collapse. The entire system and all its parts are cooperative, not competitive. They make up one system. They are whole.“
Researchers are just beginning to chart the human microbiome, its functions, and intricate metabolizations. Here’s a link to an 11-minute U-Tube video by a scientist who provides a more scientific rather than my anecdotal perspective: Go to Dr. Amy Proal.
It’s become obvious to researchers that science will never figure out the gazillions of interactions going on between trillions of microorganisms in our bodies—for heaven’s sake, they can swap genes with glee—but fortunate for us, they don’t have to. In the most simple terms, the BnB concept is this: make the aerobic bacteria in your gut happy and you’ll be happier, too. What continues to amaze me is how such simple changes produced such lasting positive results for my bodymind over time. Health problems that had not been resolved successfully by conventional medicine disappeared, never to return.
As a psychotherapist, I believe I have an ethical responsibility to let you know which of the dozens of different modalities helped me most during my twenty-year search for psycho-emotional stability and physical health. I learned without a balanced intestinal microbial system, it is more difficult to find healthy balance for the rest of my bodymind and other aspects of life.
It’s not the content our lives that causes dysfunction, but how we deal with it. It is the inability to handle the anxiety that stressful events evoke that causes confusion and pain. After attaining better microbial balance, resilience increases, confusion and reactivity diminish, physical ailments abate and often vanish allowing the relational process of psychotherapy to go forward more successfully, so you can learn to regulate your emotions. You can respond to life’s travails as opposed to react.
Please understand: BEINGnBALANCE is not a silver bullet, but that said, it is certainly more difficult to achieve psycho-emotional health if one’s microbiome is off kilter. The mind does not exist independent of the body. If the body is out of balance, so is the mind.
If you wish to try just some of this protocol, please understand that it is the integration of the various components that may make BnB work so well. Without proceeding through the five simple stages with their various supplements and dietary suggestions, you may not experience all the improvements to your health that I did. On the other hand, a some improvement is better than none. So even if you choose to make one or two of the following changes to your daily habits, over time you will receive some benefit. You may also wish to read a book which came out in 2019 called The Psychobiotic Revolution. Check my reading list for more information. Society is finally catching up to this emerging science.
how it works
The BEINGnBALANCE Approach is based on the theory that in the same way the living system of Earth’s environment can go out of balance, so can human body ecology. It is a paradigm that sees a human being as a relational organic system rather than an elaborate machine the way conventional medicine seems to see us.
Conventional medicine says, “This part is broken. Let’s replace it and put the unit back on the road.” It sees symptoms of imbalance as diseases. For example, “This toe has fungus on it. Let’s blast it with steroids and kill the fungus.” Then, the imbalanced microbial environment which allowed fungus to grow in the first place is made even more imbalanced. The fungus is indeed killed, but its children come back with a vengeance in a few months or years, or another symptom, perhaps more serious, pops up somewhere else in the increasingly off-kilter system. BEINGnBALANCE says, “This toe has fungus growing on it. Let’s rebalance the small intestine which will rebalance the entire organism and with appropriate nutrition the body can rid itself of a fungal overgrowth which will not return.”
The conventional health care model is making many of us sicker. But why are so many of us off balance in the first place?
If a person wasn’t breastfed as a baby, she may not have achieved intestinal microbial balance in the cradle. But even if an infant received life-giving bacteria in mother’s milk, over the decades toxic chemicals that pollute water, air and food; depleted soils that grow nutrient-poor vegetables; genetically-modified grains that produce excess natural pesticides or six times the normal gluten; overuse of antibiotics and steroids; tobacco, alcohol, refined sugar and wheat, homogenized pasteurized dairy or other poor dietary habits stress the body’s microbiological system reducing critical colonies of aerobic bacteria.
Combine this situation with sudden trauma like an auto accident, or the chronic anxiety of life in modern society with its divorces and high stress jobs, the body’s chemistry goes off balance contributing to an overgrowth of anaerobic bacteria, mold and fungus in the small intestines. It functions poorly having become a damaged, plaque-encrusted haven for a restricted range of microbes instead of the clean, resilient, food-processing factory it was designed to be. Factory employees—aerobic bacteria whose job it is to extract nutrients from digested food, then feed us through hair-like villi lining the intestines—are dangerously diminished. Layers of fungus, mold and mildew and fecal plaque build up which suffocate the villous lining. Malnutrition results.
Without a healthy small intestine with well functioning Peyer’s patches—the sensitive warning system that tells a person what is good or bad to eat—the body cannot naturally avoid toxic substances; get the nutrition it needs to replace damaged, mutated or dying cells with healthy ones; or maintain healthy endocrine and immune systems. Extraordinary Health magazine reported that the GI tract holds approximately 80 percent of the body’s immune cells.
So, without a healthy gut, toxicity spreads from head to toe. The microbiome is taken over by viruses, anaerobic bacteria, mold, mildew and fungus, not only potentially impacting the organs and subsystems of the body, but mind and emotion as well. Added waste from these overgrown living populations poisons our system, too.
Like the Earth, where human waste pollutes the air, rivers, oceans, soil, and even the polar ice caps, excess waste from an overpopulation of intestinal anaerobic microorganisms affects the entire body. Consider the implications to emotional health of the fact that each neuron of the brain and nervous system is covered in a protective sheath of fat cells, and fat cells are where excess toxic waste is stored!
While this imbalance may be mild for some, it has been implicated in intestinal disorders from bloating and gas, to irritable bowel syndrome and diverticulitis, to life-threatening diseases such as Crohn’s. While genetic factors are at play, genes do not dictate that a person will become ill, but combine predisposition with emotional distress with an imbalanced microbiome one’s health tips toward disease.
Many illnesses not as obviously connected to the intestinal tract are reportedly impacted by this imbalance as well, such as diabetes, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, arthritis, osteoporosis, thyroid dysfunction and autoimmune disorders such as chronic fatigue and mononucleosis. Mental imbalance like anxiety disorders, depression and bipolarity can be triggered, too.
Everyone is unique, but some of the more common warning signs of intestinal imbalance include: joint and muscle pain; cramped muscles; hyper-extension and cartilage disorders; inflammation disorders; shaking or tinnitus; high blood pressure; high cholesterol; craving for alcohol or chocolate; overweight or under weight; recurring bacterial, viral or fungal infections; frequent colds, headaches and sinusitis; constipation; lower back pain; fuzzy thinking, depression, anxiety, paranoia, irritability, poor coping ability; bleeding gums, loose or yellow teeth; dark circles under eyes; insomnia; vision and hearing loss; swollen abdomen or lymph glands; itching, rashes and hives; acid reflux and bad breath; the inability to flush heavy metals or grow healthy hair, skin and nails. Food, chemical or pet allergies are often present. Based on personal experience and observation, it is my opinion that a poorly functioning small intestine is likely an exacerbating factor to most physical and mental disorders.
Disproving the “germ theory” hypothesis, the planet is a vast microbial ecosystem—ninety-nine percent of the life on Earth cannot be seen by the naked eye. Some of these microbes built their own habitats—intricate ecosystems we recognize as plants, insects and mammals. Over millions of years, the cells of the human body evolved from ancestral viruses to bacteria into a complex environmental system, a mega-cooperation of billions of bacteria and trillions of viruses. At the most, only one in hundred genes in the bodymind are human—the other 99 percent are microbial.
In one thimbleful of seawater taken from the middle of the ocean where humans once thought there was no life, researchers have learned that there exists, in a dynamic ecological system, over 40,000 genetically distinct varieties of bacteria and over 400,000 distinct viruses!
So imagine the complex system of microbial relationships that make up what we refer to as the human body! We’ve believed the illusion that “I am an individual,” instead of understanding, “I am a symbiogenetic microbial community” with all its mind-boggling implications for health.
Once these environmental relationships go out of balance, any number of neurological, immune or endocrine system-related disorders may be triggered. When the environment is rebalanced, I’ve seen natural healing occur without having received a diagnosis, treating a symptom, or replacing a broken part.
All the fresh produce or nutritional supplements in the world can’t help a person regain their health if their intestines can’t extract the nutrients she needs to replace unhealthy cells with healthy ones. Once the microbiome is balanced and the small intestines have healed, better health naturally ensues if fresh, clean nutritional supplies are available. Living systems naturally gravitate toward integrity, wholeness and health!
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BEINGnBALANCE is a four-stage approach to wellness that combines probiotic supplements, nutrition, mild exercise and rest for people who wish to take personal responsibility for their health.
- In the first stage, a probiotic supplement (live lactobacillus) reduces overgrown anaerobic colonies.
- In the second stage, another probiotic supplement (live homeostatic soil organisms) cleans out plaque. i.e. hardened fecal matter.
- In the third, the intestines are re-inhabited with supportive aerobic bacteria.
- In the fourth stage, a better functioning villous lining is re-grown aided by super foods, nutritional supplements, organic whole food.
I’ve seen that the first three interconnected stages last four to six months, while the fifth stage (growing a new villous lining) takes approximately two years depending on one’s age and degree of damage. A person in her twenties may heal completely in under a year. A person past her fifties may take three.
Success in the long fifth stage is achieved through maintenance-level ingestion of live cultures, superfoods, and basic good health practices—plenty of rest, mild daily exercise, and a fresh nutritious diet. But the wonderful thing is that while stable good health is achieved in one to three years, BnB practitioners start feeling better in just a few days, an improvement that continues to grow as time goes on!
Good health is not something that is here one day and gone the next. Most conditions that drive people to healers were building over many years. Only when the crisis point is reached do we realize something’s wrong, e.g. heart attacks don’t happen to healthy hearts. Conversely, good health is not instantaneously regained by taking a bottle of pills for a couple weeks. The immune system that allowed a virus or bacteria to cascade out of control—creating, for example, pneumonia—had been compromised for years, struggling along with few supplies with which to do its job.
Chronically-stressed immune systems have a hard time protecting the body from invaders. Research suggests that an overworked, exhausted immune system, and inflamed and enlarged intestinal stomata without the protective shield of body flora simply cannot adequately function. Many of us may suffer from mild leaky gut syndrome—slowly being poisoned by wastes leaking into the wrong places. It is theorized by researchers that many female sexual organ cancers may be a direct result of intestinal imbalance.
It takes many months with the BnB approach to get substantial healing of the lining. It is slow I hypothesize because unhealthy fibrin and globulin mingled in the tissues are a source of inflammation that flares up in various organs. The body must dissolve this material, carry it away, and rejuvenate the epithelial tissue of the lining. Only then can aerobic micro-flora successfully colonize and become self-generating. By restoring the microbiological balance of the internal microbiotic system, the immune system rests and regains its ability function better.
Every individual comes to the table with different set of health issues, history, genetic predisposition, personality, psycho-emotional responses, external environmental stressors and support system, so there is simply no one-size-fits-all solution for intestinal dysbiosis. However, for everyone, it is important to pay attention to identifying chronic allergic reactions to dietary choices and to make more successful ones.
For example, many, if not most, people have been reacting to refined wheat flour or peanuts for decades, but never connected the dots. Now is the chance to become self aware and self correct. In attempting to rebalance the system, it helps to be conscious of reactivity and try to reduce or eliminate the agent that instigated the reaction. The culprits are the more obvious “whites”—refined wheat, refined salt, refined sugar and homogenized dairy—but many people are reactive to shellfish, coco, beer, wine, corn, and nightshades like potatoes and tomatoes. It’s up to you to figure out what works and doesn’t work for you.
A damaged villous lining layered with plaque and choked and penetrated by fungus is very sensitive to substances considered to be food in our culture which should be avoided as much as possible to minimize further insult. Perhaps as many as one-third of all Americans have a Celiac-like condition which is actually a wheat allergy. How much we can heal depends on many factors and is ultimately unknown, but the body moves toward greater health when dietary insults are reduced, aerobic microorganisms are allowed to thrive and inflammation throughout the body recedes.
As a system balances, a healthier one rejects substances we once thought we could get by with eating. With a more discriminating gastro-intestinal system and repaired nervous system, instead of being anesthetized by brain chemicals to the impact of toxic insults, we more fully feel the effects of what we eat.
I learned to pay attention to emotional or physical responses that arose as detoxification and rebuilding moved forward. When I had a bout of diarrhea after eating hot grease, I realized it wasn’t the fault of the supplements. The good bugs were saying to each other, “This is poison. Let’s move it out of here fast.” Or if I felt panicky after drinking a latte, I realized that was Nature’s way of rejecting acid-producing homogenized dairy. The amazing thing is that with a re-balanced intestinal tract, I no longer desired most of the unhealthy things I used to crave. Occasionally I remember that I no longer eat chocolate every day. I don’t want it, because the entities in my gut that did are now at appropriate levels.
As my aerobic bacterial colonies grew, certain cravings that weren’t mine in the first place disappeared—they apparently were the desires of the anaerobic microbes. Choosing life-supporting food became second nature. Without struggle, slowly but surely as my inner ecology changed, I changed my diet to get the nutrition my body needed to replace cells with healthier ones. What tasted good on one day did not the next. Eventually, I wanted more of the fresh organic food oxygen-using bacteria need to optimize their health, thereby optimizing mine.
Again, what I call “me” is an environmental system of interconnected life forms—not a machine with replaceable parts. It is important to note that sometimes a damaged intestine is not capable of digesting the most nutritious foods at first. The off-balanced system rejects raw vegetables. It took me awhile to be able to eat as much raw food as I can today without suffering from indigestion.
Like most things in life, BEINGnBALANCE was not a linear upward movement, but one in which peaks and valleys are traversed to reach higher and higher plateaus of improved health as damaged cells are replaced with new ones. Old wounds and symptoms all over my body acted up as healing that could not occur without sufficient nutritional supplies went forward. “Healing crises” occurred as the bodymind regained confidence in its ability to heal and sent the immune system after enemies it hadn’t engaged in battle without the supplies it was now receiving from a better functioning intestine. This means that some chronic symptoms got worse before they got better. But then they were gone forever.
The difference between a flare up of symptoms due to intestinal dysfunction and a healing crisis on the BEINGnBALANCE Approach is that the problem disappears—actual healing occurs instead of temporary mitigation of symptoms or remissions as seen in conventional medicine. For example, since I was a teen, I had a chronic gum infection that flared up a half dozen or so times a year. Shortly after starting BnB, I had a big healing crisis. Boy, did my gums get sore! But now the infection is completely gone. My gums have been infection free for fifteen years.
Note: if you or your doctor deems it necessary to take antibiotics or steroids, you may wish to consider stopping probiotics during the protocol and starting up again after the struggle has past. Taking antibiotics with probiotics may be a waste of good bugs.
Further, please realize that progress toward microbial balance will be set back by most conventional medicine interventions, and after returning to BEINGnBALANCE another healing crisis will occur when your body feels it is time to get rid of the issue forever and a battle ensues (which conventional medicine calls a “symptom”). You may wish to explore working with a homeopath or a naturopath as their remedies are usually more in alignment with BeingNBalance rather than solely working with conventional allopathic practitioners.
BEINGnBALANCE is a philosophy that points toward a more nurturing way of relating to the body. I no longer view eating as simply gratification of culinary desires or even nutritional needs, but see myself as the steward of a living system caring for the health of trillions of tiny beings that in return invigorate me with good health and emotional stability.
Tips for success
BEINGnBALANCE is a paradigm shift in how Americans think about health and wellbeing, so please read this document several times or more! There is a lot of information herein and human perception is a funny thing—we have a tendency to not see what we don’t already know, so important concepts may be missed until the third or fourth read.
Some folks ask about “cleanses.” I avoid these protocols as they disturb internal microbial balance, potentially making matters worse. They may kill the living cultures of the probiotic supplements that are gently detoxifying your system, or cause stress or shock creating an acid-producing state.
It’s a good idea to try any protocol by itself to be able to easily distinguish its effects from the effects of other protocols or supplements. And there is the possibility of causing a vicious cycle. For example, using cortisone on a rash may reduce the symptom in the short term, but it will exacerbate a microbiotic imbalance that is causing the rash in the first place. Once I was in balance I had little need for any medicines, protocols or supplements other than basic good nutrition and maintenance-level live cultures.
When I do very rarely “catch” something, it is a much milder version than what is “going around” and has a shorter duration. If I wish to take something to reduce symptoms, I rely on Boiron homeopathic medicine, such as Sinusalia for a runny nose, or Roxalia for a sore throat. Homeopathic remedies are side-effect free; do not interfere with BnB; and are quite effective if you use high-quality brands like Hylands or Boiron. I have also supported my system with Oscillococcinum by Boiron which helps prevent viral over growths. If you have been exposed to a virus, it reportedly helps to keep from manifesting symptoms. Ever since I started using it in 2014, I have “caught” nothing even though I work in public mental health.
Another perspective shift is giving the immune system a rest when it is not being called into action in response to an external attack. Routinely taking massive doses of Vitamin C or other “immune boosters” stresses and over activates the system unnecessarily depleting resources. I do take Vitamin C, because the human body does not create it itself, but only a minimum amount. I also take minimum amounts of Vitamins D, E, A, B-100, calcium, selenium and zinc supplements to make sure I’m getting enough of these critical resources. It is conceivable that you could get all the vitamins and minerals you need from your diet, but that would require closer and more constant monitoring than I can fit into my schedule. You may wish to consult with a naturopath to help you devise a supportive protocol of vitamins and minerals.
I’d also like to make a pitch for qigong (pronounced chee gung), its subset taiqi quan (pronounced tay chee kwan) or yoga. These forms of exercise involve learning how to breathe—something a lot of us don’t do very well. With BEINGnBALANCE, we are trying to increase populations of oxygen-using bacteria, so the more effectively we breathe, it follows that we may be more successful at getting these friendly bacteria to thrive. Also, there are movements specifically designed to exercise the area that contains the small intestines. I’m guessing this helps move toxins out and liveliness in. Thirdly, all three are meditative and relaxing which reduces anxiety, a real killer.
BEINGnBALANCE is very much about balancing human bodymind—yoga, qigong and taiqi quan are great ways to help do that. Wonderfully, all are doable by almost everyone. You don’t have to twist your body into a pretzel to gain benefit. The last thing I want is to stress myself out. Lymphatic fluid, unlike blood that has a heart to pump it around the body, cannot flow without movement, so usually walk for twenty minutes daily. Massage is another wonderful way to get things moving while you are just lying there.
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The last thing to think about before getting started is your state of mind. In the 1770s when the first Australian hospitals were built, a steady stream of aboriginals showed up suffering from malnutrition. These individuals were not starving for lack of food, but had been terrified by a ritual called “the bone pointing curse” received for a crime or insult of which they had been accused. Many died from malnutrition caused by fear.
At first, patients were fed juices and soups into a stomach tube for ease of digestion, but many continued to die. When treatment was changed to intravenous nutrition, they lived. The difference is that intravenous feeding bypasses the absorption process in the small intestine. These people’s fear of impending death stopped the small intestine from absorbing the juices and soups introduced to their stomach—the power of negative thinking controlled whether they lived or died.
This extreme example highlights that a stressed-out unhappy bodymind has a reduced ability to absorb the nutrition it needs to heal the intestinal lining, thrive or, in extreme cases, even survive. You may wish to consider counseling to help ferret out subconscious psycho-emotional reactivity that can trap you in ill health by blocking interventions to rebalance your system, or by creating resistance to treatment in the first place. If a person does not believe subconsciously that she deserves health and happiness, she is unlikely to achieve it.
Supplement and superfood schedule
Below is a monthly outline of my protocol. Following this outline is a list of descriptions of how I took the supplements with the specific brand names I used for the first four months. Those not available in my local health food store were easily located on the Internet. Note: The numbers in this schedule correspond to the numbers of the descriptions of products that follow the list. Also note: I began this protocol in 2004. It is entirely likely some of these specific brands no longer exist. To do BeingNBalance, do not replace #2. All probiotics are not created equal and I found ThreeLac exceptional.
Beginning in Month #1
1. High-grade unrefined sea salt
substituted for refined salt
2. Fungus eating lactobacillus
daily four months, then as desired
3. Fat-metabolizing enzymes
daily first four months—optional
4. Liquid oxygen drops
daily first four months—optional
5. Quercitin
daily—optional, but recommended
6. Milk thistle
use if experiencing detox symptoms
Beginning in Month #2 add
7. Homeostatic soil organisms
daily, starting 2nd month for one to two years, then occasionally forever
Beginning in Month #3 add
8. High-count acidophilus-plus caps
daily, start in 3rd month, for six months, then as desired forever
9. Organic unrefined coconut oil, avocado, red palm oil or ghee
daily, start in the 3rd month for six months, then occasionally forever
10. Cod liver oil
Daily, start in the 3rd month for six months, then occasionally forever
11. Chlorella, wheat or barley grass juice
daily, start in the 3rd month for six months, then occasionally forever
12. Organic raw butter
if you can find it, substitute for homogenized butter or margarine
13. Stevia
substitute for white sugar forever
14. Highly-absorbable calcium
daily forever
15. Glycine, an amino acid
use when unable to sleep
Feel free to substitute other brand names for most of the products below, but please note: Threelac is unique and only available under its labels. There is now a FiveLac out, but I’ve tried it and didn’t feel it worked as well. Again, all probiotic supplements are not created equal. SBX is my favorite form of homeostatic soil organisms. Sadly, it is not currently imported into the US from Israel.
Supplements and Superfoods I used
1. Celtic Sea Salt (fine or course) —
Human systems need salt and minerals, but common table salt lacks most trace minerals because the refining process removes them. Salt has an amazing ability to bind. Consequently, refined salt attracts and removes minerals from the human body, but unrefined sea salt does not. Recent research suggests that most salt-related health problems are caused by refined salt’s mineral binding capabilities, not salt per se. In order to make salt white like the refined salt we are used to, many brands of sea salt are washed losing valuable minerals. We use grey sea salt in place of refined salt making sure we eat no more than a quarter teaspoon a day for critical mineral nutrients. We do not cook with salt as that alters the chemical composition of it and the food, but add it to our dishes at the table.
Sel Gris De Guerande is completely unrefined and harvested using traditional Celtic methods retaining the minerals our bodies require.Some folks say that sea salt from ancient seas of Tibet or Utah is a good idea due to the pollution of today’s oceans. Today, we use RealSalt available almost every grocery. You will find many good brands of unrefined sea salt at your health food or grocery store.
2. Nature’s Turn ThreeLac—
This is a probiotic supplement designed by Japanese researchers over two decades ago in response to the westernizing of the Japanese diet. It quickly reduces fungal overgrowth (like Candida) without severe dietary restrictions, so that there is literally room in your gut to grow the good aerobic bacteria you need to be able to obtain nutrition from the food you eat. It provides more oxygen to your system. The base is lemon-flavored powdered milk which feeds three kinds of living lactobacilli like found in yogurt.
Usage is entirely up to you, but one a day for four months has been successful for many people. This equals two sixty-packet boxes of ThreeLac. After four months, the developers recommend terminating usage for, at least, one week.
For the rest of my life, I’ll eat a packet after indulging in sweets or processed foods to help my body resist resurgence of intestinal fungus. I still eat several packets a week to maintain microbiological balance in today’s imbalanced world.
It is this supplement that most obviously impacted my mental health in a positive way very quickly. Reportedly, an overgrowth of candida yeast releases toxins that affect mental and emotional states. Ethanol and acetaldehyde are two of the main byproducts of Candida Albicans’ metabolism and both are neurotoxins. All I know for sure is that depression, brain fog, and anxiety lifted almost immediately as I began ingesting Threelac.
If you decide to consume more than one packet a day, take all daily packets together directly before eating with a few ounces of water.
Send in all the soldiers at once! A small amount of water is good, but drinking large amounts with your Threelac meal is not recommended. Also, avoid coffee or alcohol with this meal as these kill bacilli. The idea is to cover the lactobacillus with food to protect it from stomach acid, thereby giving the little guys a chance to make it into the intestines alive and kicking—one reason eating yogurt doesn’t help as much.
You may choose breakfast, lunch or dinner as your delivery meal. An Internet search for Nature’s Turn Threelac will locate different sources on-line ranging in price from $45.00 to $65 per box. On E-bay or other sites you may get bulk deals for less.
Currently, as of 2020 I switched to Visbiome, a refrigerated compendium of good bugs that includes those found in ThreeLac and those found in SBX. Visbiome was developed to repair the microbiome after surgery.
3. Lipase Formula—
Lipase is an enzyme that metabolizes fat (lipids). Candida has a shell that this supplement softens assisting Threelac in its work, but this is completely optional. According to the manufacturers of ThreeLac, lipase improves its action by up to 35 percent. Take one or two in the morning until bottle of 180 caps runs out. It helps to metabolize fat so fat cells do not outlive their usefulness becoming storehouses for toxics and toxins. I discontinued using it after the first four months, so as to not inhibit my body from producing the lipase enzyme on its own.
4. Life Support Oxygen Elements Plus—
A clear tasteless liquid that enhances oxygen in the bloodstream supporting the lives of aerobic (oxygen-using) bacteria. Four to six drops in alkaline water when taking live cultures like Threelac, SBX or acidophilus is recommended by the Threelac manufacturers. This can be bought wherever you find Threelac, because it boosts its effectiveness. There are also other manufacturers of similar products.
Please note: Oxygen Elements is a powerful cleanser, so you may experience detoxification symptoms such as mild diarrhea or constipation, gas, head or leg ache, or lethargy when first using—this is good! I only used this product in the first four months though there are many folks who have used it for many years and swear by its energizing effects. Again, this is optional support for the ThreeLac.
5. Quercitin— Quercitin can be used to help mitigate the effects of detoxification and increase oxygenation. It’s a popular bioflavonoid that helps the body reduce inflammation and helps metabolize foods that provoke allergic reactions such as homogenized dairy and white flour.
Back in the early nineties when I suffered from chronic sinusitis, my naturopath prescribed a daily dose of quercitin. I have not had a sinus infection since, and I continue to eat one capsule almost every day. My reaction to allergens reduced significantly by using quercitin, almost disappeared after starting BEINGnBALANCE. There are many brands of quercitin available at the grocery or health food store.
6. Milk Thistle
Milk thistle, a naturopathic remedy for the liver, assists in detoxification. 100 capsules, 500 mg (80%) silimarianum. One to three per day depending on the severity of detoxification symptoms, e.g. head or leg aches or diarrhea. You can find many brands at your local grocery or health food store. Since 1991, I have used milk thistle whenever I was exposed to a toxic like house paint or other solvent just as a precaution to protect my liver function. Anyone who is concerned about his or her liver function may be helped by daily use of milk thistle.
7. SBX with Soil-based Micro-Organisms (90 capsules, 700 mg each) —
Homeostatic soil organisms are helpful soil bacteria that humans once consumed daily in fresh vegetables. Unfortunately, these organisms have been killed off by modern agribusiness practices. These happy bugs reportedly restore iron levels; optimize nutrient assimilation and cellular anti-oxidant levels; and boost immune function by stimulating the body’s production of antibodies and 16 natural anti-viral interferons. They support detoxification by burrowing into plaque on intestinal walls helping to dislodge it, and help heal intestinal lining by engulfing yeasts, molds and putrefactive bacteria reducing bowel toxicity allowing essential bacillus to thrive. They also help balance intestinal pH and produce vital hormones, vitamins and enzymes.
We began eating these little guys approximately one month after starting with the Threelac. Note: Keep eating Threelac, but eat these too. After the Threelac soldiers have decimated the enemy, these are the engineers who rebuild the infrastructure of the liberated territory. Dosage is entirely up to you, but a successful regime has been one about twenty minutes before any or all meals during the first six months. After the first six months, just eat one at bedtime. If you cannot remember the twenty minute rule, just do what I did and take one at bedtime for the entire protocol.
These guys are really thirsty, so if you find yourself becoming constipated at first, it is probably due to not drinking enough water.
Less fragile than acidophilus, homeostatic soil organisms may be taken with food or without. The de-plaqueing benefits to the intestine will be more pronounced when taken on an empty stomach. On the other hand, dietary nutrient assimilation will be greater when taken with food. I still take one SBX several times a week upon retiring for maintenance. When I run out, I’ll try to find a replacement with similar ingredients. These days, I feel I can use all the help I can get balancing viral pathogens.
NOTE: this product is not currently available, so I use Visbiome which has both lactobacillus and soil organisms.
8. Garden Flora: L.Acidophilus, B.Longum, B.Fifidum, B.Infantis, FOS
This is one of the highest count L. Acidophilus-plus mixtures I found to replenish the aerobic bacteria in the intestines. As long as the brand you choose are high-count refrigerated capsules, it should work just fine. You may take these on an empty stomach or take one or two in the same way you would Threelac, i.e. right before eating so as to put them at the bottom of your stomach giving them a chance to make it to your intestines. I preferred right before I went to bed so my stomach isn’t in a “let’s eat” acid-making mode.
These are the permanent settlers who occupy the territory after the war with the fungus, mold and anaerobic bacteria is over. I ate two a day after approximately two months into the Threelac regimen, though some folks consume up to six. Be sure to drink plenty of water and keep refrigerated. You can find this or another brand at your local health food store or on line.
9. Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
This highly nutritious fat can be eaten by the spoonful right out of the bottle, or melted at low temperature for easier swallowing. One to two tablespoons a day helps heal the intestines. High in beneficial lauric acid, its purpose is to replace the contaminated fats surrounding neurons throughout the body for that feeling of contentment and to help mitigate neurological disorders. No trans or hydrogenated fat, cholesterol, or hexane. Different brands are available at your local health food store, some much more palatable than others. There are also other wonderful oils out there, but trying to boost your intake of Omega 3 as opposed to Omega 6 is a good idea. Americans generally get too much Omega 6 and nowhere near enough Omega 3.
10. Cod Liver Oil
Yes, just like grandma used to take! After one month your intestines will be able to absorb nutrition more readily. You may wish to add one or more tablespoon a day of this highly nutritious superfood—I was amazed at the energy it provides! It is high in Omega 3 fatty acids nutritionists recommend.
Without a source of good fats, the body will not give up its toxic fat reserves. When your body trusts you will provide the amount and kind of fat it needs, it will begin to drop the excess reserves it has been hoarding. Since good fats are a critical element in a healthy diet, at least four tablespoons (or more) of uncooked oils are recommended daily starting about a month into the protocol. Your local health food store will have at least one brand of oil. Gel caps are an alternative for those of us who find it hard to ingest its fresher, more potent, liquid form.
11. Sun Power Chlorella or Dr. Hagiwara’s Green Magma
Salad in a bottle! An easy way to boost your daily greens. Superfoods like the seaweed chlorella, give the body the supplies it needs to rebuild the villous lining faster and better. You can find this or another brand of chlorella in the refrigerated section at your local health food store. Two grams one to three times a day is recommended during the rebuilding phase between meals, either at least 20 minutes before eating, or two hours after a meal.
Wheat grass juice is another highly nutritious green food available fresh squeezed at your local health food store. Another way to get wheat grass juice is to buy it frozen from online sources and defrost it as needed.
I love Dr. Hagiwara’s Green Magma, a powdered barley grass juice. It’s made from organic barley grass and brown rice, is easy to mix and tastes good. I personally do not enjoy drinking wheat grass juice, but find Green Magma yummy. Best of all, it doesn’t have to be refrigerated, so I can keep it on my desk at work for a quick nutritious afternoon pick-me-up.
12. Skysweet Stevia (50 one gram packets) —
Skysweet is a brand of stevia rebaudiana, an Amazonian plant whose extracts are converted to a calorie-free sweetener. Guaranteed to tickle the tongue of any sweet lover without the undesirable effects of sugar. Raw (uncooked) wild honey with its abundance of living enzymes is another excellent sweetener. However, if you are using more than a teaspoon a day, consider the possibility of sugar addiction. You can find stevia and/or raw wild honey at your local health food store or on line. I use both to avoid using more than one teaspoon of honey a day.
14. Calcium—
BEINGnBALANCE boils down to not being mineral deficient. Since most of the human body’s mineral content is calcium, I used a daily calcium supplement. While I used to eat coral calcium, I decided I couldn’t justify wrecking coral reefs. You can find a good brand of calcium-magnesium-zinc at your local health food store. NOTE: Since I live in the dark Pacific Northwest, I also take a high dose (5000 units) of Vitamin D3 which one normally gets from exposure to the sun in places south of here, to help absorb calcium and mitigate depression. Now I use a multivitamin from Vital Nutrients for supplemental minerals, and eat toasted sesame seeds high in digestible calcium.
14. Organic Raw Butter—
Homogenized dairy has been implicated in a host of diseases resulting from plaque build-up in arteries due to the tiny size of fractionalized milk molecules that can slice and scar the circulatory system. Unprocessed dairy products, however, are an excellent source of good fat and lactobacillus necessary for healthy intestinal environment. You may wish to buy fresh raw cream from a farm near you and make your own.
Please note that the FDA in cahoots with corporate agribusiness is trying to wipe out raw dairy in the misguided belief that pasteurized homogenized dairy has less “bad” bacteria. First, there are very few bad bacteria. Second, those that are bad in large numbers are regulated by good bacteria. Third, the pathogenic bacterial counts of pasteurized homogenized dairy are worse than raw. The good side to pasteurized homogenized milk is that it can sit on a shelf longer, but that doesn’t mean I want to drink it.
15. Glycine—
Communication between neurons in the brain depends upon transfer of electrical impulses known as “action potentials.” Electrical and chemical synapses link neurons. The action potential flows passively across electrical synapses, but the majority are chemicals called neurotransmitters. Some chemicals like glutamate stimulate the receiving neuron and others like glycine inhibit it. I used glycine—an inexpensive amino acid supplement available at most health food stores—to help me fall asleep. I experienced no side effects in the twenty years I used it. When I was anxious, I took one capsule before going to bed. It just slowed down monkey mind allowing me to drift off to slumberland. Nowadays, I rarely use sleep aids. When I do, I use homeopathic Sedalia by Boiron because it has no biochemical action or side effects.
Dietary thoughts
MOST IMPORTANT: Please be gentle with yourself, and try not to stress over your diet. Eat what you eat, drink what you drink, and make healthier choices when you find yourself naturally moving toward more nutritious fresh organic whole foods.
Changing your diet is not mandatory to achieve some benefit from probiotic supplements. And vice versa: taking probiotic supplements is not mandatory to achieve some benefit from changing your diet. The simplest dietary change you can make to realize an improvement is to avoid eating Elmer’s Glue—refined white flour and homogenized dairy, particularly in combination. Think twice before you eat pizza, a grilled cheese sandwich on white bread, cookies and milk, Fruit Loops, macaroni and cheese…
I discovered that avoiding “fractionalized” processed products and eating a simple diet of fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables with fresh organic meat or fish yields the healthiest results over the long term. A permanent switch to alkaline-producing food combinations makes sense for anyone concerned about improving his or her health.
Here’s something you probably don’t know: humans need salt, sweet and fat everyday.
We’ve heard that we should avoid salt, sweets and fat. Not true! The important distinction is that we need good salt, good sweet and good fat. Research reports that the five “signal” dietary elements—water, protein, salt, sugar, and fat—give a green light to the microbial life to thrive and, further, these elements trigger secretions from the Peyer’s Patches to provide a beneficial alkaline environment. Everyday, we make sure we get these five signal elements daily by eating small amounts of organic meat, fish or eggs, unrefined sea salt, fresh raw fruit and vegetables, and uncooked oils or butter.
I avoid refined salt because it reportedly strips the body of minerals. Most nutritionists agree it is advisable to avoid high-glycemic refined sugars like agave nectar or corn syrup and homogenized or cooked oils, all of which feed mold, mildew and fungus.
Eat fruit by itself because it putrefies easily in the digestive system. If eaten with slower digesting protein, fruit is not digested before it rots in the gut creating a highly-acidic condition.
Some form of animal protein is essential. There are no true carnivores or herbivores on Earth. All animals eat both plant and animal food. Imagine a cow grazing in a field. It eats everything in the grass—tiny frogs, lizards, bird’s eggs, etc. Can you imagine a cow spitting out a caterpillar? Many animals derive their animal nutrients from bacteria. Without any animal food, we risk nerve damage from B12 deficiency. Freshly grilled organic meat, fowl and fish are better choices than over-cooked dead flesh like lunch meats.
Unheated oils are critical to good nutrition, and weight loss. The body won’t let go of its old dirty stored fat unless it is convinced you will give it the fresh clean fat daily. Fresh salads with lemon juice, sea salt, herb and oil dressings, lightly steamed vegetables with a drizzle of sesame oil or fresh soups with olive oil added upon serving fill the bill nicely.
Avoiding refined wheat, homogenized dairy, alcohol, and, frankly, any heavily processed food quickly became desirable. There are strange indigestible proteins in hybridized foods (like bananas, soy or corn), and refined sugars (high fructose corn syrup and other mono-saccharides) interfere with brain function.
Also, genetically modified grains have pesticide-producing properties spliced into their genes and modern wheat has six times the gluten it had 50 years ago. No one knows the effects of eating grain with pesticide-producing genes, but personally, I’d rather be safe than sorry. Now, I rarely eat grain products and can feel the negative effects of white flour for at least four days in my gut.
As an intermittent faster, I eat two meals a day. Most folks are protein starved because they live on carbs which turn into insulin, the hormone which tells your cells not to let go of fat and to stash more of it. For dinner, the first meal of my day, I generally try to have organic meat with steamed or sautéd vegetables. Soups and stews with root vegetables are nice during the winter.
For a snack a couple hours after dinner, toasted nuts or fruits gratify my sweet tooth. A couple tablespoons of olive oil drizzled onto salad with avocado or in soup after serving help with good fats. I consume all I want of raw organic butter (read: alive with microbial organisms).
The goal is to become a self-generator of friendly aerobic bacteria. They create improved respiratory efficiency. Their sugar management skill brings hypoglycemia under control and restores fat regulation improving nerve and brain functions. Their ability to transmute and deliver minerals in the correct ratios and amounts regenerates endocrine organs and improves brain function. It takes about 40 different molecules in the correct ratios for us to function properly. Aerobic bacteria are responsible for capturing these molecules from what we swallow OR by manufacturing them from other molecules, e.g. you can flood your system with calcium but none of it will fix in the collagen structure of your bones without the right amount of magnesium, but good bugs do it automatically for you.
The main dietary blunder of human history started thousands of years ago. Simple carbs including all isolated sugars, such as alcohol, rapidly fermenting grains and legumes when eaten together create a severely acidic intestinal environment—think: pasta and red wine. Becoming a self-generator of these friendly bacteria is best achieved by avoiding carbs and processed foods and eating a fresh raw diet supplemented by superfoods.
As a general rule, organic produce is a better choice than produce with pesticide residues grown in soils fertilized with synthetic chemicals. However, any fresh produce or meat will do more good than any processed packaged food. In other words, I choose fresh non-organic food over processed organic.
Final note: One of the nice things about BnB is that skin becomes healthier, so make-up and skin creams are no longer needed as beauty aids. What you put on your skin is absorbed into your body, so if you wouldn’t put it in your mouth, do you want it on your skin? Coconut oil and aloe gel are both edible and nutritious. Aloe is a dermal sunscreen and healing balm. I use it on my face and coconut oil or organic lard on the rest of my body.
In 2006, after two years of BEINGnBALANCE, I compiled the changes in I noticed in my body and mind. Now, in 2020, the improvement to my health has been maintained.
1. My teeth and eyes lost that yellowish look.
2. My gums used to be very sensitive. They bled, became irritated and pulled away from my teeth whenever I experienced stressful events. While it still happened occasionally, they are much healthier. In 2009, I replaced the old mercury fillings in my teeth with nontoxic amalgams, now my gums are completely healed.
3. My skin is no longer dry and flaky in some places, and oily and flaky in others, and blemishes have completely vanished. As a teen, I even had psoriasis. Now, I’ve given up body and hand creams as unnecessary.
4. I no longer suffer from chronic low-grade constipation.
5. I no longer feel I need coffee in the morning or chocolate in the afternoon, because my energy level has increased so much. Now, I usually drink a cup of half-caf coffee in the morning because of ceremonial aspects. The physical sensation of craving that haunted most of my life has greatly reduced, which eliminated alcohol consumption without as much effort.
6. I’m able to keep going several hours longer each day without caffeine because my energy and desire to live has increased.
7. No more problems with fuzzy thinking. At 69, my consciousness is clearer than when I was 49 and I’m able to focus for longer periods of time.
8. Acid reflux symptoms greatly reduced. Using a supplement sold by Vital Nutrients called Betaine HC1, Pepsin, Gentian Root Extract eliminated the problem for me.
9. Gassy intestinal cramping episodes and diarrhea, that used to occur weekly, are entirely gone.
10. Fibromyalgia–a sharp stabbing pain in the muscle of my upper left arm–vanished, as well as chronic pain in my right hip joint and left knee.
11. Chronically-tight painful shoulder muscles relaxed. I’m more relaxed overall and the occasional shakes disappeared completely.
12. All my joints and muscles are more flexible and carpal tunnel-like pains in my wrists disappeared. I’m able to do positions in yoga I couldn’t even consider twenty-five years ago. I also feel physically stronger. It took over a year, but swelling in my ankles and feet dissipated. Now, I can see swelling is directly related to when I offend my body by eating white flour or homogenized dairy.
15. Depression, anxiety and panic episodes have reduced markedly. Reactivity has substantially diminished. I’m more capable of being in the moment and, therefore, more capable of appropriate to the moment response.
16. I’m more interactive, empathic and caring. Conversely, I don’t worry as much what others think about me. Most important, fear levels radically dropped. Before BnB, being around others made me anxious—the uneasiness produced by human proximity has markedly reduced.
17. A weekly tendency to break out in rash and hives in response to anxiety has vanished. Now it takes an incredibly stressful event to provoke a reaction.
18. My reactivity to dairy has diminished markedly. I now enjoy raw organic dairy without becoming a mucous factory—my chronic sinusitis is gone. I no longer wake up in the night choking from post-nasal drip.
19. Usually, I sleep peacefully all through the night, almost every night instead of a few nights a week. Now, I rarely get up to go to the bathroom in the night. Monkey mind has calmed. I don’t lie in bed angrily staring at the inside of my eyelids.
19. Chronically-itchy eyelashes healed. Apparently, I am no longer allergic to kitty dander. I also do not react to being bitten by mosquitoes or fleas as before.
20. Hot flashes—the bane of menopause—disappeared.
21. My hearing, sense of smell and eyesight improved noticeably. The chronic buzzing tinnitus in my ears faded dramatically.
22. My fingernails have grown longer than ever before—they never grew beyond the end of finger without breaking off. My hair is also much healthier and longer. Interestingly, scars and cysts are disappearing.
23. A simple sense of wellbeing characterizes most of my days.
24. I used to catch many of the colds and flus that went through town. Now instead of getting sick four to twelve times a year since I was a teen, I have not been ill since 2014.
25. In 2017, a cancer was removed from my exceptionally healthy liver. If I had not been working so diligently on my health for the previous 15 years, this tumor would have most likely metastasized. I was told that with a cancer that large, I had a 100 percent chance of having colon and lung cancer. Try as they might, the docs could find nothing. I believe that while BEINGnBALANCE could not reverse a cancer that had already been growing for perhaps five or ten years, it helped me maintain the exceptional health that allowed me to contain it and aided in post surgical recovery. Today at age 69, two and a half years cancer free, I am healthier than ever.
***
Important note!
After four years of following the basic BnB protocol, I had a “crisis” during which my backbone right behind my heart hurt tremendously. It hurt so badly, I couldn’t stand up and had to stay home from work. Intuition told me it was a BEINGnBALANCE healing crisis and in retrospect, I’m convinced it was. I used to have a stiff stoop right there in my backbone, and now I don’t! My brother and father have a slight hump (read: genetic predisposition) that I had and now it’s GONE! I can breathe better and I stand straighter. I have a fuller range of movement. I can only guess that perhaps the cells of my disks and other connective tissue has replaced themselves with stronger cells due to access to nutrition it didn’t have before I began the probiotic lifestyle, and a stronger straighter backbone resulted.
It’s important to understand that as your immune system decides to take on healing different weaknesses, symptoms or wounds in your bodymind, it proceeds from the top down and the outside in. Homeopaths also noticed this tendency of the body in its healing process. So, for example, a rash on your neck will heal before a rash on your thigh, and a cyst on your abdomen will heal before a cyst on your ovary.
When I came down with the usual pantheon of childhood illnesses, it was the practice in the fifties to prescribe horse-sized pills of penicillin. Nowadays, pediatricians know antibiotics will not aid in curing virus-induced measles or chicken pox, but way back then, I was heavily dosed. These dosages probably would have wiped out much of the beneficial bacteria in my intestines. Fortunately, I had my appendix from which to reboot the bacteria, but dangerously my family had a swimming pool in our back yard kept “clean” with chlorine. Kids who grow up in highly-chlorinated pools may suffer as a result of the antibacterial chemicals, so I cannot say for sure how I ended up so off balance. Not having been breast fed was likely a risk factor, too. Babies get beneficial bacteria directly from Mom while breast feeding.
What I do know is I spent my life struggling with mediocre emotional and physical health. Chronic bacterial infections tortured my sinuses and kidneys, and food reactions and alcohol addictions dulled my days, I trudged from moment to moment, practitioner to practitioner seeking relief. Over the years, I had all but turned my back on conventional medicine and relied more and more on complementary forms. It wasn’t until I turned down the offer of another antibiotic and opted for Sinusalia, quercitin and Vitamin C to combat the infection did things start to turn around. But when I began eating and supplementing probiotically in spring of 2004, my health improved dramatically over several years.
If you hear only one thing from my story, it is this: probiotic supplements are not silver bullets and BEINGnBALANCE is not about supplements. In the same way a house is not about bricks but about the mason building it, BnB is about your dedication to the craft of rebuilding your body. It is a gradual renewal process that moves from stage to stage; so continue to read this document carefully to move into the next stage when you’ve completed one. Success at one stage builds on the success of a previous stage.
Final Note
As Mae West famously said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly” and this is certainly true with BEINGnBALANCE. It’s not productive to upset yourself trying to change all at once. Even if, for example, all you do is reduce drinking alcohol to every other day instead of every day and eat probiotics on the alcohol-free day, you will likely notice some improvement to your health over the long run.
END
Legal disclaimer:
BEINGnBALANCE is not a prescription. Nothing in this information is meant to replace your doctor’s advice and has not been reviewed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This information not a prescription nor is it intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. My sole intent is to share my personal experience with others interested in probiotic diets and supplements.
Copyright 2005, Morgan Randall MA LMHC
Updated 2/21
