Archives for July 2015

You hear stuff about the gut microbiome all the time, and probiotics have been a rage for even longer. Then someone comes along and applies new science and technology to do something really revolutionary in terms of mega-high dose for a short regimen that’s actually designed to get to your colon quickly. That would be my biomedical engineering buddy Karl Seddon, in the UK, who developed Elixa Probiotic. Here’s the posting history on it and you can see many testimonials of great things at all of them:

• The New Science of Probiotics
• More Crazy Probiotics Stuff
• FODMAP Prebiotic Arms Dealing, Probiotic Mercenaries, and Uganda

Now, just like with most everything your mileage may vary, but I can say that the vast majority of reported results have been very positive and that I can’t recall any negative, only no effect noticed. Here’s the most recent testimonial, from Pam.

Thank you for your post mentioning Elixa probiotic. I have suffered from chronic diarrhea for over a year and endured a series of “cures” including colonoscopy, antibiotics, anti-fungals, restrictive diets, various probiotic and prebiotic concoctions… I elected to give Elixa a try and took two 6 day rounds back-to-back… on day 11…..”normalcy” returned…..spectacular…… I have not yet experimented with resistant starch but it is “on my list” thanks to your info,… love “free-the-animal”….!!

You can try it yourself by clicking here and placing an order.

Update: Amongst other anecdotes in comments, here’s one with some particular authority behind it, from Jake.

Have done two rounds.

Karl and I have communicated a fair bit over this product and his professionalism is second to none.

I know degrees don’t = expertise, but I’ve got an MSc in Sports Nutrition, and I personally am a sub-elite athlete and coach elite and Olympic athletes every day so have a decent idea of what it looks like when the human body does or does not work…

…and this stuff is the real deal!!!!

There, I said it.

It was November of 2007 where I titled a post Fuck Obama and His Stupid Bitch, that by now, has been read a few hundreds of thousands of times. I’ve had innumerable occasions to reiterate. But I’m a sucker for redemption, even careful, party-political measured ones.

I’ve been blogging this shit from time-to-time since 2005; and finally, Mr. President, AKA Choom Master, gets on board at the end of his 2nd term and calls it “mistakes” and “doing something stupid”—which of course is the usual standard political lying excused by people who feel empowered in getting a 1/300 millionth say in their own affairs at a curtained social masturbation chamber, AKA voting booth.

These are like a minute each, all you time-crunched people who spend hours reading blogs.

Now, I have many quibbles, but I’ll just quote my post to Facebook once I saw the second video.

I’ve got to salute the man and I’ll just go ahead and call him Mr. President as a show of respect for once. This is an act of statesmanship. Sure, I could quibble, in that he’s doing this near end of term, where hundreds of thousands have entered incarceration and hundreds of thousands endured it over the last seven years.

And, it’s not “mistakes” and “stupid things.” The stupid law is a mistake. But it’s something, not nothing, and babies ought never be tossed out with bath water.

Well I’ll be dammed. The choom master is going to go down in history as the President that turned the insanity of the Nixonian War on Drugs around.

Golf clap.

And so there you have it.

It’s the most important political thing on the radar. Currently, there are millions of people in prison who harmed no one. Millions of families have been destroyed to the delight of Christian Conservative Republicans who also delight in the idea that people who don’t believe in their sky doG will get eternal torture in some fantasy Hell.

So while stupid knows no bounds and hell hath no material furry at all, there are hundreds of thousands unjustly sitting in a hell of Christian Conservative making, and families have been devastated for decades.

In 1979, when I graduated high school in June of that year and moved with my parents to the Portland, OR area, then drove across country diagonally to Chattanooga, TN in August to begin college at the Born-Again Christian enclave of Tennessee Temple University, everything I owned needed fit easily into the back of the 1974 Mazda RX-3 wagon I’d bought from my dad for $1,000 worth of work in his painting company. I didn’t even have to put the rear seats down.

How did I possibly survive with no collection of assets? Perhaps, not being weighed down, I focussed on other things; like: observing the world around me, asking questions, discovering the joy of Very Bad Things-so-called, and even engaging in some study now and then to collect grade assets…and maybe, with nothing better to do than thrive by working in fast-food joints and auto-parts stores, paid the lion’s share of the cost of acquiring a college diploma-asset. Eventually.

That stint lasted only a freshman year, and when I returned to Troutdale, OR that late spring, not only did all my assets still fit in the back, but there was room for the stuff of two other guys from the same Born-Again church, sharing the ride and drive.

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One could do a lot worse for a life theme song. You Learn.

I recommend getting your heart trampled on, to anyone
I recommend walking around naked in your living room
Swallow it down (what a jagged little pill)
It feels so good (swimming in your stomach)
Wait until the dust settles

You live you learn
You love you learn
You cry you learn
You lose you learn
You bleed you learn
You scream you learn

I recommend biting off more then you can chew to anyone
I certainly do

I recommend sticking your foot in your mouth at any time
Feel free
Throw it down (the caution blocks you from the wind)
Hold it up (to the rays)
You wait and see when the smoke clears

You live you learn
You love you learn
You cry you learn
You lose you learn
You bleed you learn
You scream you learn

Wear it out (the way a three-year-old would do)
Melt it down (you’re gonna have to eventually anyway)
The fire trucks are coming up around the bend

You live you learn
You love you learn
You cry you learn
You lose you learn
You bleed you learn
You scream you learn

You grieve you learn
You choke you learn
You laugh you learn
You choose you learn
You pray you learn
You ask you learn
You live you learn

An intimate live version.

See ya. Still biting off more than I can chew, regularly.

It’s a tough sell anymore

Comfy and convenience are double-edged swords, because I can get to any of two Walmarts, a Costco, and a Home Depot within an hour—the only negative feedback being lots of miles of dirt roads with trucks kicking up dust, potholes, and washboard.

I suppose the big difference for me is that I don’t use any of them to fill a line of pantries and box freezers—or fill a house with stuff I don’t need (everything I need fits in the back of my car). To me, this is about challenging myself to live more minimally, see how it goes, figure out management, and end up embracing it as the better, more humane way to live…for me. So in that way, I’m simply reporting on my experiences as I endeavor to learn. It’s been just over 5 weeks, now. I’ve learned a lot.

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