Page 14 - Spring2009
P. 14
Letters
take the advice very seriously. How- static soil organisms? What soil do they the dung had to be eaten while warm
ever, over the past year, I have become come from? How are they processed? and fresh. It did not work if eaten cold.
increasingly concerned about advising Are homeostatic soil organisms from They had no idea why it worked, but
people to take probiotics that contain one soil region different than another said the remedy came down from their
soil-based organisms, namely Bacillus region, state, country, etc? How do we forefathers.
subtilis. know there are no harmful bacteria, When the Germans examined the
Soil organisms (SO) are spore form- fungi, or other organisms that could warm dung, they found it to be teeming
ers, so they make good competitors cause long term infection? How do we with a microorganism that came to be
for yeast, fungus and other pathogens. know homeostatic soil organisms are called Bacillus subtilis, a microbe that
This is why so many people taking soil any better than regular probiotics or consumed harmful organisms in the
organisms will initially experience very any other natural treatment with more gut, particularly the virulent strain that
favorable results. However, according research backing findings? How are was causing dysentery in the German
to certain critics, the fact that these homeostatic soil organisms sold by one troops. The medical personnel then
spores are extremely difficult to kill company different than the ones sold by began producing B. subtilis on a large
is a potential source of problems; they another?” scale for the soldiers and the dysentery
survive sterilants, disinfectants, accel- It concerns me that soil organisms problem was solved.
eration forces, heat, pressure, radiation may have the capacity to become patho- It could be said that B. subtilis
and many antibiotics. Strong antibiot- genic in human beings! And from what was the basis for the first commercial
ics, such as Vancomycin, can suppress I gather, it may well be that the very probiotic because for many years after
certain spores. Spores are so persistent people who need them the most (those the war, cultures of B. subtilis were sold
in the intestines that another round of with the most compromised immune worldwide—in the U. S., for example,
germination may occur after the drug is systems), are exactly the ones who could they were sold under the brand name
stopped. Soil organisms can also adapt be hurt the most by this pathogenic bac- Bacti-Subtil—as a remedy for dys-
loose genetic material and incorporate it teria. entery and other intestinal problems.
into their cellular structure, the ramifica- Alana Sugar, CN The product began losing favor in the
tions of which are yet unknown. Various Alexandria, Virginia late 1950s and 1960s with the advent
soil organisms can also produce harmful of synthetic antibiotics. The product
peptides, affecting hemoglobin in the The use of B. subtilis in medicine is still widely used today in Germany,
blood. It’s important to keep in mind has an interesting history. B. subtilis France and Israel, where scientists have
that virtually all antibiotic drugs were became part of medical usage due to discovered that the organism not only
initially developed from soil organisms research by German military doc- kills pathogens in the gut but supports
and as antibiotics become more potent, tors during the World War II German the human immune defense by activat-
they cause more damage to the host, not campaign in North Africa, who were ing at least three specific antibodies,
just in the immediate gut environment, seeking a treatment for uncontrollable IgM, IgG and IgA. Cultures of B. subtilis
but systematically as well. dysentery in the German troops. The also release compounds that kill can-
As I dug deeper, I came across the military’s medical team noted that when cer cells. It was marketed throughout
site of Dr. Ray Sahelian, MD, an integra- the Arabs got dysentery, they began America and Europe from 1946 as an
tive medical doctor who believes it is not following a horse or camel until it had immunostimulatory aid in the treatment
proven safe to take these probiotics. He dropped its dung. Then they would eat of gut and urinary tract diseases such
says, “There is no explanation made as the warm droppings! This practice ef- as Rotavirus and Shigella, but declined
to the composition of the homeostatic fectively eliminated the dysentery. When in popularity after the introduction of
soil organisms. What are these homeo- questioned, the Arabs told them that cheap consumer antibiotics despite
12 Wise Traditions SPRING 2009