What is a microbiome?

Micro means small and Biome means a community of living beings. Together, the word Microbiome means a community of microorganisms that live in all regions of our body. This post focuses on the community of microbiome that resides in our guts, also known as Probiotics.

These probiotics which inhabit our digestive tract are commonly called the "good" bacteria. They play a significant role in digestion, immune function, brain health and the ageing process.

Health benefits of probiotics

1. Gut health

> Probiotics optimises gut function by restoring the natural balance of gut bacteria. This is especially important because when we fall sick, the bad microorganisms usually outnumber the good bacteria. 

> Prevents and treats diarrhoea eg. from food poisoning or antibiotics.

> Reduces symptoms of certain digestive disorders eg. IBS.

2. Immune system

> Protect against colds and flu (as 70-80% of our immune system are present in the gut).

> Prevent UTIs.

> Reduce severity of certain allergies and eczema.

3. Mind and brain

We usually hear the term Physical Health ~ we should do more exercise and be more physically active. Nowadays, the word Mental Health is the centre of attention. It comprises of 3 aspects: Psychological, Emotional and Social wellbeing. It affects how we think, feel and act. It also determines how we handle stress, relate to others and make healthy choices.

The National Health and Morbidity Survey reported some pretty scary statistics - the number of mental health cases among Malaysians above 16 years old has increased from 10.7% (1996), to 11.2% (2006), and 29.2% (2015). This means approximately 1 in 3 Malaysians had mental health problems in 2015.

Have you heard of the phrase "gut-wrenching experience" or have you ever suffer from the feeling of "butterflies in your stomach"? This is because our gut and brain are connected. The Gut-Brain Axis is a 2-way communication system between our gut (digestive system) and brain (central nervous system). It plays a significant role in our emotions and stress response. The enteric nervous system that regulates our gut is often called the body's Second Brain. It's like a mini-brain that lives in the intestines and helps manage digestion. This Second Brain also sends messages to the big brain; that's why the Gut-Brain Axis is so important. In other words, probiotics play a part in our mental health. 

Studies show that taking probiotics can:

> Improve your mood and reduce stress.

> Help with certain mental disorders like depression or anxiety.

4. Other health benefits

> Helps in weight loss as probiotics can help utilise the energy in our food.

> Keeps your heart healthy by maintaining healthier cholesterol levels.

> Promote oral health (reduction of gum disease and prevent caries).

Probiotics v. Prebiotics

Probiotics are food or supplement that contain live microorganisms.

Prebiotics are non digestible food components that selectively stimulate the growth or activity of probiotics.

In order to reach our intestines alive, the probiotics must be able to endure the harsh conditions in the stomach such as strong acid and digestive enzymes, which kill many microorganisms.  

Manufacturers overcome this problem by using special production processes and formulation to enhance the tolerance of probiotics to acidic conditions. Some bacterial strains have a naturally inbuilt level of tolerance to acidic conditions. In other words, it all depends on the type and manufacturing process of the probiotic you take.

Key traits of Lactoberry probiotics

The probiotics used in Lactoberry is multicoated with Oligosaccharides (food supply of probiotics) thus giving the probiotics more energy and enhanced potency. This coating increases the probiotic's tolerance against gastric acid and bile salt. Further, the probiotics also can stay in the GI tract for a longer time.

6 Ingredients & Benefits of Lactoberry

1. Bifidobacterium lactis

> Improves digestive conditions in the body eg. lactose intolerance and gluten toxicity as well as improves constipation by reducing gut-transit time.

> Assists digestion and utilisation of nutrients eg. sugar, fibre and macronutrients. It's also partially responsible for the absorption and utilisation of certain vitamins and minerals.

> As about 70% of probiotics are present in our gut, they have an immuno-modulating effects, especially for upper respiratory tract infections eg. common flu and cold.

2. Bifidobacterium longum

> Alleviates GI disorders eg. constipation and antibiotic associated diarrhoea.

> Immuno-modulation eg. improves symptoms of allergy and infections.

> Improvement and homeostasis of intestinal microenvironment. Studies have shown that with decreased micro-biodiversity, we are more prone to have diseases especially metabolic disorders like diabetes.

3. Isomalt

> Sugar substitute. Hence, Lactoberry can be ingested by diabetics.

> Prebiotics, therefore it's a food source for probiotics.

> Stimulates peristalsis, softens stools and alleviates constipation.

4. Berries

> Cranberry powder prevents UTIs due to it containing an abundance of phytonutrients A-type proanthocyanidins or condensed tannins. It prevents the E.Coli bacteria from attaching to the lining of the bladder and urinary tract.

> Raspberry powder, which has one of the richest sources of fibre amongst fruits and tannin content. It prevents constipation by increasing the bulk and letting the stools come out more easily, as well as benefits blood sugar control by improving insulin resistance.

> Blueberry powder is high in antioxidant flavonoids such as anthocyanin, which neutralises free radicals and enhances metabolic waste excretion.

Who needs it?

> Children, teenagers, adults and elderlies.

> Pregnant ladies.

> Patients after medical treatments.

Recommended consumption

> 1-2 sachets for daily maintenance before or after meals. To ensure the benefits of probiotics are reaped, it's important to take Lactoberry on a daily and on-going basis.

> Under special condition such as food poisoning or constipation, increase dosage as needed.

(Source: SH seminar, 22/7/2023)

How to Order? 

A box of 30 sachets of Lactoberry probiotics costs RM77 for Malaysian members.

Doing an annual blood test is an important way to keep track of your overall physical well-being. However, you may want to do it more often if you:

 

Immune system - do you believe that the stronger it is, the healthier you are?

The answer is No. In fact, the best immune system is one that is properly regulated.

Here is a 1-minute video that explains why.

Details here (exclusive for my consumers and business partners only): 

https://pingofhealthexclusive.blogspot.com/2023/08/ganoderma-on-allergies-and-autoimmune.html

Email: askfuiping@gmail.com with your questions. I will do my best to help.

 

Clairault Streiker

Testimony: Fever

Birch

How to order?

In November, 2023, Ms Chun-Ching Wu (Ginny Wu) presented 12 testimonies which illustrate how to effectively use Equivalent Target Lingzhi to help manage various health conditions. 

Despite covid-19 becoming endemic now, the war between humans and viruses will continue to rage on. Many researches show that the variant strains are highly transmissible, putting people who already have antibodies or have been vaccinated at risk of re-infection.

Strengthening immunity is the first line of defence against viruses. Immunity is closely related to what you eat. So you can get all of these if you have a well-balanced diet. Boosting the immune system is like making a regular deposit for the body, building up healthy capital so that when a virus invades, your body has the ability to defend itself against foreign invaders.

Here are 3 complements if you are not able to practice a healthy lifestyle (balanced diet, sufficient sleep, regular exercise, stress and emotion management) everyday..

(a) Lingzhi helps regulate immunity, boost metabolism and enhance liver functions. Yung Kien Immune is one of the safest choice I know for prevention and treatment of covid-19. Click here to find out what other benefits you can get from Lingzhi / Ganoderma. 

(b) Pollen is rich in vitamins and minerals needed to strengthen your immune system. Yung Kien Pollen contains about 200 different types of vitamins, minerals, enzymes etc., pretty much a one-stop warehouse for your micro-nutrients needs. Click here to find out what they are.

(c) Probiotics helps regulate intestinal flora, which enhances immunity. Lactoberry probiotics performs this function very well. Click here to find out what other benefits a quality probiotics can give you.

In March 2023, Ms Yu-Chi Cheng presented on how Lingzhi helps modulate and balance the 3 major systems in our body, namely the Immune system (免疫系统), Hormonal system (荷尔蒙系统) and Nervous system (神经系统).

Below are the credentials of this highly qualified lady, Ms Yu-Chi Cheng. 

Why emphasise on these 3 Systems? 

1) Any disorders in the 3 Systems will affect the overall functions of the body organs. The 3 Systems coordinate with each other so when 1 of them is imbalanced, then like a domino effect, the other 2 will become chaotic.

2) It is hard for the body to modulate and balance the 3 Systems. The mechanism of medicine in alleviating an illness is by way of suppressing over-reactions or boosting insufficient physical condition unilaterally. After taking medicine for a period of time, the side effects of medicine will start appearing and patients get weaker. 

3) By understanding how the 3 Systems work together, you will know how they affect your entire body. Then you can comprehend why taking Lingzhi regularly, and at a fixed dosage and fixed time everyday will help you maintain your health. This is proven by numerous scientific evidences which support the Chinese ancestors' saying i.e. Treat Different Diseases with the Same Treatment (异病同治). Reason being different diseases can be cured using the same Core Method (target root cause (根本) instead of symptomatic treatment (对症治疗)).

Ms Cheng then proceeded to explain in a clear and easy-to-understand manner each of the 3 Systems, what are the symptoms and what are the common diseases associated when there is excess or deficiency, over-reaction or repressed performance. She also used the analogy of an Iceberg - we are usually treated on the 10% of the problems that we can see. But the issues can only be fully resolved when we become aware of the 90% that is hidden. This was how she found a solution to her dry eyes problem.

She also highlights various professors' and experts' perspectives, wherein their scientific research results are published in Taiwan's Ganoderma Magazine, which demonstrates clearly that Lingzhi can be effectively used to handle diseases stemming from all the 3 Systems.

Finally she recommended the ideal combination of Lingzhi to take, regardless whether you want to maintain your health or trying to improve your health problems.

The complete post is published in my Private blog. This info is reserved exclusively for my Consumers and Business Partners only.

Why do some people still get Covid-19 (sometimes repeatedly) despite having already being vaccinated against it?

Most Malaysians have taken 3 jabs of Covid-19 vaccinations and some have even taken their 4th or 5th jab. But many of our friends are still being infected with Covid-19. 

Why? Some vaccinations will completely prevent you from getting the diseases (such as smallpox and measles) because those viruses don't mutate a lot. But there are some vaccines that have to be adjusted frequently because the viruses mutate frequently, such as the flu and SARS-CoV-2 viruses. These mutating sub variants outgrow the vaccines targeted at them. Hence, the aim of the vaccines is only to prevent hospitalisation and death, and reduce the severity of infection.

The dominant SARS-CoV-2 viral variant now seems to be Omicron BA.5 subvariant. However, the Omicron XBB subvariant seems to be driving an uptick in new cases in Malaysia and Singapore. In the USA, sub variants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are rapidly becoming the dominant SARS-CoV-2 viral strains, overtaking BA.5. They are believed to be better than BA.5 at evading immunity from vaccinations or previous infections.

A study published recently in the journal Nature Medicine found that Covid-19 patients who had reinfections are more likely to be diagnosed with long Covid and health complications. 

The researchers had analysed data from over 5 million patients in an electronic healthcare database. They found that patients who were reinfected with Covid-19 experienced:

• 2-time increase in the risk of death, long Covid and fatigue.
• 3-time increase in the risk of hospitalisation, heart problems and blood clotting.
• Increased risk of complications across all patients, regardless of vaccination, including complications of lung, heart, blood, diabetes, gastrointestinal, kidney, mental health, musculoskeletal and neurological disorders. These risks were most prevalent during the patients' active infections, and also lingered up to 6 months after infection.

(Source: Reinfected despite vaccination, Starhealth, 27 Nov 2022)

A Better Solution to Prevent Covid-19 Reinfections?

The best weapon is still your own Immune System. When you keep your immune soldiers strong, they are capable of fighting all types of infections, including Covid-19. 

A quick reminder, make these your daily habits:

• Get enough sleep
• Eat lots of whole plant foods
• Consume healthy fats
• Have more fermented foods
• Reduce sugar intake
• Exercise
• Drink enough fluids
• Reduce stress
• Include supplements.

Full article click here: 9 Ways to Boost your Immune System.

Finally, I recommend taking YKI Ganoderma, which is scientifically proven to:

(i) Prevent virus from invading into the body, by increasing immune system strength. The immune cells in the nose and throat area would kill the virus before they can enter further into the body.

(ii) Prevent virus spread and virus multiplication, if the virus managed to enter into the body.

Usage Recommendation

Maintenance: 1 sac morning + 1 sac night. This has the ability to strengthen immune cells' ability to combat the virus.

When infected with Covid-19: 1 sac every 2-4 hours (3-6 sac/day for best effect).

Take YKI when you start to feel symptoms e.g. blocked nose, runny nose, sore throat. If you neglect these symptoms and not take preventive actions, the disease will spread further. At such time, the dose must be increased to 3-6 sac/day. Recovery rate is fast as you can start to observe improvement in just 1-2 days.

Stage 1 - The growths are generally less than 1 cm.
Stage 2 - The growths are still localised. Doctors may not be able to detect them.
Stage 3 - The growths are more widespread.
Stage 4 - The cancer cells have already spread. Chemo may not be the best solution because the cancer cells have spread all over the body.

How Does Chemo Work

This article talks about the application of Shuang Hor products in addressing different kinds of diseases related to 3 main systems in our body - Immune system, Nervous system and Circulatory system.


1. Immune System 
- allergy, cancer, SLE, AIDs

(a) Immune-Regulatory Effect

Lingzhi has the ability to suppress over-active immune cells (which refers to T and B cells). The T and B cells start to act irregularly when the body is constantly under a lot of stress. They may randomly attack your platelets or blood vessels (causing stroke).

There's no medicine to treat auto-immune problems completely. Doctors can only control using steroid. No doubt steroids can suppress immunity, but there are a lot of side effects. And if the level of T and B cells are constantly low, it increases the risk of cancer.

Our body's most powerful anti-cancer cells are NKC and phagocytes. They patrol our body and swallow the cancer cells.

Young people have thousands of cancer cells in their body. These cells are unable to form into tumour because they are eaten by the NKC and phagocytes, which are active and functioning well. Those who succumb to cancer have low levels of NKC and phagocytes.

Some symptoms of poor immunity and thus face higher risks of cancer:
- White spots on the tongue or lining of mouth.
- Mouth ulcers that will not heal.
- Hardly have fever.

Old people have tens of thousands of cancer cells. One of the ways the body protects itself is to group all cancer cells together to form a tumour.
If size of tumour is less than 1 cm, it is undetectable.
If size of tumour is 3-4 cm, it can be detected. By then, it may be at stage 3, especially for colon cancer.

How Lingzhi works

For auto-immunity problems, Lingzhi suppresses the activity of T and B cells. At the same time, it boosts up the activity of NKC and phagocytes. YK2 works more effectively for those with auto-immune problem due to the higher content of triterpenoids.

Take at least 20 YK1 or 3 YK2 within an hour to suppress the activity of T cells.
If the auto-immunity problem is very severe, take the said dose 3-4 times / day.

(b) Anti-tumour Activity

Our WBC count start to deteriorate as we grow older. There is no medicine in the market that can boost up WBC. However, YK1 has the certification that it can do so.

Click on this link for more info on the types of certifications YK1 has been accredited with:
http://www.pingofhealth.com/2011/11/accreditation-and-endorsements-for.html

YK1 has the ability to activate the vitality of WBC and that's how it achieves anti-tumour ability. When the WBC kill the enemies (by engulfing and swallowing them), they also die at the same time. If you have sufficient and strong WBC, they can quickly eliminate the pathogens.

This explains why some people feel feverish after taking Lingzhi. People who don't get fever could mean their WBC are not working. Because one way to destroy the virus is by increasing the body temperature. Hence fever is a good sign as it means that the body is fighting against the invaders. Such people recover quickly from their illnesses. Relying on panadols and aspirins are not good solutions in the long-term because the WBC would forget how to work.

How to take Lingzhi

Stage 4 cancer = 2 boxes YK2/day for a higher chance of survival + 10-20 sachets Pollen + JH Soya (for patients who have no appetite or cannot eat).
Stage 3 cancer = 1-2 boxes YK2/day. Take for 3-4 months, many a times the cancer cells will disappear.
Stage 2 cancer = 1 box YK2 or 10 capsules YK2 + 10 capsules YK1 (budget constraint).

A suggested ratio is 1 YK2 to match with 1 sachet YK Pollen.

(c) Reduce Side Effects of Chemo

Experienced doctors will examine a patient to check if they are strong enough to undergo chemo. Patients feel very low in energy after chemo. There are many things they cannot eat.

Chemo patients and those who are exposed to a lot of radiation (e.g. using handphones excessively) should take more YK Pollen, as it has anti-radiation properties. A lot of cancer are caused by radiation, which creates free radicals in the body, which attack the stability of our body cells and cause massive cells death. YK Pollen can protect the cells from the attacks of free radicals.


2. Nervous System
- migraine, epilepsy, sleep disorder, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer

Such diseases are closely related to the brain. Our cells are in one of these 4 stages - healthy, dead, sick and ageing. Our body has a mechanism called Apoptosis. If this apoptosis process is working well, it has the ability to eliminate the cancerous, abnormal cells and regenerate new good cells. If we abuse our body through unhealthy lifestyle, sleeping late and having a lot of stress, this apoptosis mechanism will malfunction and kill its own good cells, including brain cells.

As the brain controls the nervous system, when we lose a lot of brain cells, we also start to lose control of our bodily functions. Some problems include memory loss, stiffness of joints, loss of speech and movement, endometriosis (the body does not eliminate the abnormal cells growing outside the uterus wall when apoptosis mechanism malfunctions) and PCOS.

How Lingzhi works

Lingzhi can maintain the balance and homeostasis of the apoptosis. Lingzhi can prevent the occurrence of diseases.

(a) Lingzhi has calming and relaxing effect on nervous system
When the body is in a calm and relaxed state, the apoptosis function would be more normal.

(b) Improve the condition of Alzheimer disease
There's no drug to treat this disease at the moment. They can only relieve the symptoms.

3. Circulatory System
- HBP, LBP, stroke, cardiac infarction (heart attack), arteriosclerosis (thickening and hardening of walls of artery)

Lingzhi has the ability to clear blockages, as well as regulate HBP and LBP. Some people found that 2 capsules Lingzhi + CEO Coffee work wonderfully on these circulatory problems.

Circulatory problems can also be caused by auto-immunity problem. The malfunctioning macrophage immune cells can trigger the over-growth of endothelial cells, leading to blockages of arteries.