The Use of Biocidin for Chronic Illness

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

It is exciting.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Welcome, Dr. Jocelyn. I’m so happy to have you here today with us.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Thanks so much for having me. I’m very happy to be here.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Let’s dive right in. Tell me about when you started using Biocidin initially.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Okay, I’d love to tell you about that. So the very first time I used Biocidin was on a pediatric patient. I’ll get to myself in just a second. So I learned about Biocidin from Genova Diagnostics working with a pediatric patient that had, and I didn’t know at the time they had mold exposure, had chronic tick-borne illnesses as well as dysbiosis, gastrointestinal dysbiosis. And I think as clinicians, we understand all of those things will go hand in hand, right.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

They do.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Yeah, it’s amazing, right?. So this little girl, her experience was so remarkable using a Biocidin liquid that it caught my attention. We all have those moments, I think, as clinicians we’re like: Oh my goodness, there’s something here, right, that I need to look into more deeply. And she had a life-threatening response to food. She would have IgE, so an anaphylactic-mediated response in her lungs when she ate food. And they couldn’t identify a food trigger that they hadn’t already taken out. She had a ton of IgE mediated food sensitivities. But when we tested her stool, she had dysbiosis. And when we treated the dysbiosis, she did a 180 with her health. She still has some health stuff, but her mom credits that therapeutic with saving her life because she would have full-blown asthma attacks, hospitalizations regularly, prednisone, IV prednisone. 

So she was a very, very complex patient, and the kind of patient that were most scared of as clinicians really. I’m gonna prescribe something and she’s gonna react to it. But of course, because I saw it work for her, then I had to try it myself, naturally. So in my head, I’m like: Oh, I have this long history of Candida in my gut, on my skin. And so I thought I’m gonna go after the Candida with the Biocidin liquid. And what happened for me when I took it is that I had a full-blown mold toxicity recurrence from mold toxicity that had occurred years before. Years before, I’d had a mold exposure. 

And I had a very specific constellation of symptoms that were, again, like that histamine mediated: really itchy legs and neurological symptoms and the whole… You know, you can’t mistake it once you have it, right. And so when I started taking Biocidin, I had all of those rise and then fall again over the course of about three or four days. And it was just a fascinating thing for me. What was really happening is that I wasn’t adequately supporting myself, right. And true to form, I ramped way too quickly, you know, with the product. And so I had gone straight to max dosing. But it was really educational for me as a clinician to see the effect. And it really stimulated thought for me on how is this product working. And what I now think was happening is that I was mobilizing those mycotoxins from tissue and from biofilms that were holed up in my body and my gut and my sinuses and my ears, all of that, right. And so it was a really powerful experience for me. And it really paved the way for me with my mycotoxin patients as well.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

It’s a very powerful experience for sure. And it’s a testament to how powerful the product is. You can use just a little bit and a little goes a long way. And then as the patient gets used to it and you have to finesse the dosage and increase it slowly. But boy, have I ever seen patients really, really responsive to Biocidin.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

It is amazing. And it’s such a benefit to be able to titrate, right, especially with those complex people with complex illness, chronic illnesses, so Lyme. Those patients are very sensitive as a general rule: mycotoxin patients, all of those. And so having a tool like this that you can ramp slowly, it can be very helpful to get people on and to be able to keep them on and maintain and comply. I don’t really like that word ’cause it means like I’m telling somebody what to do and they’re not doing it. But it’s just a word in the industry, right. They can’t stick with the protocol if they’re so uncomfortable or flaring from it, right. So it’s nice to have that ability to titrate.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Yes, I had a patient, this is back in 2014, before the liposomal was available, I believe. And she came in with a diagnosis of Lyme disease. And she had severe joint pain. She was in her early 40s at the time, walking with a cane, and I mean, very, very sick. And I wanted to get more diagnostics on her. And while I was getting more diagnostics, I decided to have her start with Biocidin because she was having issues in her gut, of course. And we’ll talk more about this as well, how dysbiosis contributes to toxicity, which then contributes to inflammation and joint pain all those symptoms patients are familiar with. And so I thought: Well, let’s start with her gut here. And I did. And I didn’t see her for about three months. And she comes in and she’s healed.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Oh, my gosh.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Wow, all she had was Biocidin. And I also gave her Olivirex, Biotonic, and I had a whole detox protocol for her with binders and support for the organs of elimination. But it was amazing to me.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

It’s so remarkable when you see that happen.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Oh yeah, the cane was gone. She was hiking. She was running again as if this never happened to her.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

And it’s why we go into this, right. It’s because we wanna help people heal in that way. You know, I said this to you earlier, but this is why I’m in the position that I am as the Director of Education for this company is because I want every clinician to have this as a tool in their pocket. I want to get the word out to patients and practitioners alike about the efficacy. And then the fun geeky side of me gets to study and research and understand why what we see happen does happen. And what was her diagnosis or what was going on for her? Do you know the underlying?

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

She had a diagnosis of Lyme disease and Bartonella. She had dysbiosis. I forget which was a potential autoimmune trigger. I forget which one.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Klebsiella?

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

It might’ve been Klebsiella, yeah.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

There are so many.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

It was Klebsiella actually.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

It’s like I’m reading your mind.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

You are. Yeah, so I wanted to start with the dysbiosis and detoxification.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

It’s some of the beauty of working, I think, with botanicals in general. The research that we’ve done with Biocidin is that it is very broad acting. So we may be, like I said before, going after Candida in my own body. That’s in my head what I was treating. But I ended up working with my mold toxicity as well which by the way was still creating symptoms for me. And the clearance of those mycotoxins then, all of my histamine-mediated symptoms resolved after that. So gratefully, I could drink wine again. No, that was like the least of my worries actually, but you know what I mean? I couldn’t touch anything fermented for a long time because of the histamine. My body couldn’t tolerate histamine. 

So it was an amazing thing to clear that and have it healed. But it is that broad-acting nature of Biocidin and botanicals in general. I love the fact that botanicals… And when it says that I have a reverence for botanicals, it’s because the more you learn about them, the more beautiful it is that you think… An example would be milk thistle, which is in Biocidin. We think of milk thistle as hepatoprotective, right? So this helps heal, protects the liver and heal the liver. But it’s also antioxidant and it’s also anti-microbial and it’s also anti-inflammatory. So it has multiple layers, effects. So not only does it work to help balance the microbiome, but then it also supports host immunity and activity. 

Oh, it’s immune supportive as well, right. And so it’s this beautiful synergy that works with the body. And then you think about adding… There are 17 botanicals in Biocidin, and they all have different activities, a lot of overlapping activity. And it’s not a case of one plus one equals two. It becomes much more powerful than that. And I think the easiest way to think about it is that if we have biofilms in the body, which are a source of antibiotic resistance or antimicrobial resistance, you can use anti-microbials all you want or antibiotics all you want, but you’re not gonna kill all of the microorganisms or restore balance the way that you could if you address the biofilms. So when you include botanicals that break down biofilms with anti-microbials, it’s a much more powerful and longer lasting effect. So it’s just a very cool… You know, obviously, I’m biased, and I’m geeky. It’s so much fun to understand more about why, what makes it so remarkable, you know, as a clinical tool.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Yeah, let’s stop and tell our listeners a little bit about biofilm. So it’s a carbohydrate-rich matrix that all microbes: bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, they produce and it’s like they create a house, a community for themselves, a protective matrix that they all live inside. And it’s a way to subdue our immune response. And not only that, but unless we use substances that break up the biofilm, the bugs can become resistant to anti-microbial action, whether it’s herbs or antibiotics that we use. Tell us more about biofilm and Biocidin’s activity against it.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Okay. So biofilms, I think the easiest biofilm to identify for the average person is the fuzzy teeth at the end of the day. That’s a biofilm, right? Or like if you go swimming in a lake and the rocks are slippery, that’s a biofilm, right. And so it is exactly what you said. It’s a mechanism that protects those microorganisms. And it’s often not just a single microorganism, but multiple microorganisms underneath that biofilm. And a couple of things happen there. They are much higher in what’s called the efflux pump. The efflux pump is one of the mechanisms, just one of several mechanisms identified for antibiotic resistance. But it also pumps out lipopolysaccharides, which are an inflammatory mediator. 

So it increases inflammation. And it also is part of the quorum sensing which is the establishment of the biofilm itself. If you can’t address those things, it becomes very difficult to get sort of a longer lasting therapeutic. There are botanicals in Biocidin, many botanicals also that aren’t in Biocidin that act at all of the different phases of biofilm creation. So it starts with quorum sensing, right. And quorum sensing is just like: We’re gonna have a party, so I’m hanging out. I’m fine by myself, or like my chickens, I could use those, right, they don’t like to hang out one by themselves because they’re vulnerable, right. 

So you get in a group. And then basically, the mediators, or the signaling molecules that they’re releasing, say to the adjacent microorganisms: We got enough of us here. Let’s create this matrix that you’re talking about, the extracellular matrix. But the problem for us is that that matrix houses… It’s very, very sticky and it houses all sorts of things. Mycotoxins is just one of them, right, and that was my experience. When we broke down biofilms in my body, I had this mobilization that I didn’t support adequately of mycotoxins. But also, every other toxin that comes floating past that biofilm could stick to it. 

They’re so sticky that they’re actually used, one of the beneficial uses of biofilms is that they’re used for bioremediation. So they’ll put ’em in a toxic waste site or where oil is spilled in the ocean, and they will actually consume, they absorb and consume the toxins. The same thing happens when it’s in our body, right. It hangs on to that. And not just toxins from the outside world, but the toxins that are being produced by those microorganisms that are underneath the biofilm as well: oxalates, other metabolites, right, salicylates. Everything that can irritate or annoy our immune system, it gets stuck in that biofilm. 

And I think for me as a practitioner, it’s the reason now, and, you know, a lot of hindsight is 2020, right. It’s that a lot of my patients did so much better on detoxification protocols in general when I included anti-microbial therapeutics with the detoxification. And I didn’t understand until more recently why. Why is that happening? You know, it’s part of your anecdotal: Oh, let’s look at this. This looks different. Why don’t I include it? So it’s just so fascinating, you know. And I think the other thing about biofilms, like in the mouth, they could become a source of refractory or receding pathogens, right. So if you don’t address them, then you can keep that population underneath. The biofilm will break away and recreate dysbiosis, so that unbalanced or growth of the bad guys in the gut.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Right, so tell us about Dentalcidin. I love that product too.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Okay, so Dentalcidin was actually made in response to the desire to work in the oral cavity on dysbiosis and biofilms. And we have some really exciting pilot research with that product. So the toothpaste we have is a Biocidin liquid. It’s 20% Biocidin and then a natural toothpaste base. It has other nutrients for healing the gums as well. But the oral cavity is really important to address for a number of reasons. The first is that just oral health in general carries… So 75% of the population over 30 has either gingival, so the gums will get inflamed, or even more progressed would be periodontal disease, periodontitis. 

And that happens when there’s inflammation down between the tooth and the gum. Basically what happens is that the gingiva gets inflamed. So the gums get inflamed. The immune system comes in and fires away at those biofilms, but it cannot penetrate them. And then it becomes like collateral damage, right, so that all of the gum tissue in the surrounding area starts to get inflamed and damaged. And you end up with developing a periodontal pocket at that point. And so, that then is associated with things like cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, joint pain, pregnancy outcomes that are poor, all sorts actually of gynecological or pregnancy-related conditions. It’s really fascinating. I mean, I get so… I mean, it’s all like a rabbit hole I could go down. Every one of these topics.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

It’s a huge overlooked piece. I think of how close the jaw is to the brain. And the inflammatory cytokines, the toxins, the biotoxins that are created by the infections can cross the blood-brain barrier through the olfactory nerve or down through the organs via the vagus nerve. And so, there’s this entire freeway of transportation that not only the infections but the inflammatory cytokines can use via our nervous system.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

You’re talking about it exactly how I think about it too, which is that sort of two main things, right. We have the inflammation that’s produced by that that becomes systemic, damages the blood-brain barrier and central nervous system tissue. But there’s also translocation of the actual pathogen. So you can actually get those microorganisms into the bloodstream. And they’re found in lots of cardiovascular plaque. I think it’s actually the one study that I read, it was in every cardiovascular plaque sample. 

There were microorganisms that were creating a biofilm in the coronary artery. I haven’t done extensive research to know that it’s every time. But in this one piece of research that I read, it was the case. And we know that that will result also in inflammation and all of the downstream effects of that. The other thing about what’s happening in the mouth is that, so we have seven over 700 microorganisms that grow in the mouth. We swallow a liter of saliva a day. And in every milliliter, there’s 10 to the eighth microorganisms.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Down they go.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Yes, down it goes right in. So if you have dysbiosis in your mouth, then it results in dysbiosis in the gut too, and there’s medical research showing that, and also the lungs, right. So the lungs are most closely associated with what’s growing in the mouth as well.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

The same with the sinuses. I’m often finding a correlation between the infections in people’s sinuses as in the gut as well.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

It’s so fascinating. So fascinating.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Can we nebulize small amounts of Biocidin? Have you tried that? Or do you think that would too harsh?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

There are practitioners who have done that. We cannot make a recommendation on it as a company. So it’s something that we’ve had reports on, and we’ve had mixed response when talking about it, but we never had a reported adverse response to using it in that way. And I used it that way. About a year and three or four months ago, I came down with very, very COVID-like symptoms after I’d traveled to New York and then LA for conferences and before we knew what it was. And that was my go-to for… It was the only thing that sort of soothes my pulmonary tissue. But again, that’s not a claim by the company. And I hope that everybody here can hear me talking as a clinician and know that the company itself would probably have a different company line from what I’m saying on some of this stuff. And I’ll tell you where we have research and that’s where we can make claims. And I’ll then talk about my clinical experience with the product as well.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Sounds good. Can we just like take a left turn for a minute? I’d like to hear about the research. If you can tell us where Bio-Botanical Research has the research, and then we can go from there.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Launch from there. Okay, so we have two pieces of published research. One is a human clinical trial: a single-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. And that’s on the Biocidin throat spray, and actually the Biocidin liquid as well. But the throat spray outcome was significantly better than the liquid at increasing IgA, so immune mediated activity in the oral pharynx after a single dose, which was three pumps of the Biocidin throat spray. So IgA went up 66% in one hour, so 60 minutes after administration.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Wow, wow. Was it the Biotonic as well or just with the Biocidin itself?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Just the Biocidin throat spray.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

That’s amazing.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Isn’t that remarkable? So that was on college athletes. And they are typically used for anything related to IgA because they are suppressed in IgA as a general rule because they’re working out so hard. So they get IgA suppression, and that results in upper respiratory infections more often. And so for sports teams, that’s like the end of the world. “We can’t miss any training days and games, you know.” So they’re used often in that research for IgA. And they also looked at another antibiotic or antimicrobial peptide, which didn’t change, which was alpha defensin. But anyway, so IgA went up dramatically. Again, it explains why we all see what we do. You know, when we’re traveling, we all carry this with us. And it’s obviously very timely right now as we’re opening back up as a country. It’s to be able to support that. The cool thing is because it’s botanical, it’s adaptogenic. So we also see people with elevated IgA in their stool will often come down. And that’s, I think, the result of restoring balance in the microbiome and so the immune system can relax, right, and it stops having to produce so much in the way of antibodies.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

For our audience, will you define for them what adaptogenic herbs are?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Yes, I sure will. So an adaptogen… This is, again, one of the most beautiful things about botanicals, right, is that our bodies have been interacting with these botanicals for thousands of years. And our body knows what the signaling means, right? And so, an adaptogen works with the body to restore function. And if function is too high, it will help to lower it. And if it’s too low, it will help to increase it. And so there’s some really beautiful allies in the herbal community that are adaptogens. And the Biotonic, which you’ve mentioned a few times, is a really nice formula blend of adaptogenic herbs as well. There are quite a few adaptogenic herbs in Biocidin, but I think more of the Biotonic as our adaptogen in our line.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Great, thank you. And then, you say there’s another piece of research.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Yes, there’s more research. So the other published research is on Borrelia. So that took one year. And each of the parameters, they ran three times over the course of a year. It’s in vitro. And so I don’t know if you’re familiar with Eva Sapi’s work. But she looked in in vitro at doxycycline and the response of Borrelia spyrochetes to exposure to doxycycline. And it created a pleomorphic shift it’s called where the shape or the I guess, the type of form. Or its form changed, right. It changed from spirochete into what’s called a round body form. Spirochete is like a little spiral, single cell. The round body becomes sort of like almost like a spore, you know, where it hangs out in the body until the time is right to reinoculate the tissue. And then, like biofilms, it can become a source of chronic infection. 

I’m setting the stage here. I know I’m not talking about the research in particular. But what Dr. Sapi showed is that I think it was either 10 or 20. So I can’t remember which one, but a significant percentage of the spirochetes shifted to the round body form when they were supposed to doxycycline which makes sense, right. Because they’re trying to preserve their lives, right. But that pleomorphic shift did not happen when it was exposed to Biocidin. And the other thing that happened is that Biocidin killed the spirochete. So 97% cell death in 10 minutes when exposed to Biocidin and at physiological doses, right. So it was one in 50. So it’s a dose that we can achieve in vivo, in the human body if we dose at the correct level, right. So what we saw was it killed a spirochete round body and biofilm forms, all of them.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

It’s really important for our listeners to know, because it’s very often that people don’t need antibiotics for tick-borne illness when it’s been a chronic disease. And I’ve seen Biocidin help people a lot. I mean, a lot.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

It’s really remarkable, you know, as a clinician. And really in all honesty, watching this product and how it worked with people not just chronic, but also acute tick-borne illnesses in my practice is what really, really stimulated me to start working for this company. Because I thought… I live in Northern Minnesota. We are endemically like one of the highest areas in the country for tick-borne illnesses. So I have watched children and adult patients with… So here’s the conundrum, right, or the dilemma that we have as clinicians, and also as a person with a tick-borne illness exposure is that we don’t even know what we’ve been exposed to. We can’t test it. So if you get an embedded tick, you don’t even know. Is this Borrelia? Is it Bartonella? Is it Babesia? Is it mycoplasma?

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

It’s usually all of them?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Yeah, exactly. What is it, right? And so, this is such a broad acting product. So without fail, every human, and I’m not supposed to say this, but dog also, right. I have two dogs. And I mean, one of our dogs is a Gordon Setter. And he like goes sweeping for ticks. Like, we cannot keep ticks off of him. And he tested negative for Borrelia. And there’s like, no chance, no chance that he hasn’t had exposure. He’s had probably 50 embedded deer ticks in his life. And so, the odds are zero that he hasn’t had exposure. But he’s 10 and he’s doing great. And what I’ve seen, and, again, not a claim by the company, but this is just what I have witnessed because we haven’t done clinical research with our product. 

So just so that everybody knows, this was all in vitro. It was in a test tube, right, the research was. But what I witnessed in my own practice was almost immediate response to the use of the Biocidin. Liquid also, even though that’s only under duress when I don’t have the liposomal where I’ve used the liquid. Because the liposomal form, you get better penetration and topical use on the actual tick area and the erythema, like the red circle, that bull’s eye lesion. And then also oral dosing. And I like how you included Olivirex as well, because that’s also what I would do because you don’t know. Again, we don’t know. It’s like, we wanna pull out all the stops, right, to prevent long-term illness if we can for the patient. And so, that’s been really remarkable. In every one of my patients, it was a recommendation to have the liposomal Biocidin in their medicine cabinet or their first aid kit, right, in case they get exposure.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

And would you double it up with oral doxycycline and oral Zithromax for the month?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Well, I might, if I had prescriptive rights in Minnesota. But as a naturopathic doctor in Minnesota, I do not have prescriptive rights. And it’s probably in a way, you know, the reason that I lean so heavily on Biocidin and learned its efficacy in my patient population is because I had no pharmaceutical alternative. I mean, I had doctors I could work with. But, you know, I found myself not needing that.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

That’s great, yeah, yeah.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

That’s kind of a long question, but the other things that we looked at in that research. So the research showed 97% cell death in 10 minutes. It also showed this disruption of that efflux pump that I was talking about, right, so that pump that microorganisms use for antibiotic and antimicrobial resistance and is produced in large quantities in biofilms. So we were able to disrupt that. That’s important because the killing dose of ceftriaxone in this research, which ceftriaxone is an antibiotic that’s pretty commonly used for chronic Lyme disease patients. So it went down to 1/8 its normal killing dose when it was used alongside Biocidin.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Oh, really? Can you send me that research? That’s really funny because we do use Rocephin. And so, to bring that down, to bring the dosage down.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Right, so the effective killing dose diminished by a really significant number, which is great news, right, if it works like that. And you can let us know. Actually it would be great. Maybe we could do some research together.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Let’s do it. Absolutely, let’s do it.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

We do case studies. So we can absolutely support you in doing the case studies.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

That would be great. Our clinic has been involved with research in the past actually with the cell danger response with Dr. Robert Naviaux.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Oh my gosh, how exciting.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Yeah, very very exciting. So more research, yeah.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

So the other information that we got from that research is that the liposomal form, which so for the audience, so liposome is a chemical structure that allows direct tissue penetration from the mouth, or wherever you put it on the skin, right, across the cell membrane. And that allows access to the bloodstream and to the lymphatics and also to the central nervous system. And so that’s why the liposomal form is so extremely important for, or vital really, for treating systemic. If you’re after a systemic therapeutic, then that one is the one you’re gonna wanna reach for is that liposomal form.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

And if you’re not looking for systemic, if you’re looking for mainly gut treatment, would you use?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Just the liquid.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Just the liquid.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Um-hmm, yeah, and we were able to see in that research that there was a 75% better intracellular penetration with the Biocidin, liposomal Biocidin. And as you know, that’s important because all viruses are intracellular, right. And Borrelia is intracellular, right. And so mycoplasma, Babesia, chlamydia which chlamydia I think is like: Oh my gosh, stigmatized, right, as sexually transmitted.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Oh. I lost you there for a sec.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Oh, excuse me.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

That’s okay.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Where did I end?

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

That chlamydia is thought of only as a sexually transmitted disease.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Okay.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Oh, lost you again. Jocelyn? Oh, lost you again.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Can you hear me now?

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Uh-huh, we’ll have the team edit.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Okay.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Let me just look at the time, okay.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

So yeah, I’m sorry. I forgot to tell you that at the beginning. I live on 10 acres in the middle of nowhere. And so I have a satellite. So anyway, so I’ll hop back into wherever I was at there. So just switched satellites, and now we should be good to go.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Okay, great.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Okay, so we know as clinicians now that chlamydia is much more common and commonly transmitted than we used to realize, and that a lot of people have had exposure to it. It’s another sort of opportunistic pathogen. So there are so many of those. And if you’re working with something that’s systemic, then you would want the liposomal form for that reason.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Right, so people who have tick-borne illness typically also have mold and mycotoxin illness. And they have a variety of other infections. It’s usually not just… If they end up in my clinic, it’s not just that they have Lyme. It’s that they have chronic Lyme due to the fact that they have many other chronic infections. They have a high environmental toxin load. And so they’ve got a lot of immune dysfunction going on. And so, I love Biocidin because of its broad spectrum properties, where it will actually go for killing a multitude of infections. I also wanna talk to you about the immune system and toxicity, the toxicity that the infections can create in our microbiome. Tell us about that.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Okay. Toxicity but mycotoxins also and Borrelia, all of these things we’re talking about are immunotoxic, meaning that they actually are toxic to the immune system. And what results from that is sort of a split, right. We can end up being immune suppressed in some areas, and then inflamed or hyperreactive in other areas. And it’s such a strange dichotomy as a clinician to see. And what this looks like is people who catch every cold or flu that comes by. They have difficulty kicking it. Cancer can be a result of those high toxin load as well as the immune system alters, or as the toxins alter the immune system’s ability to get on top of and to, I guess, identify and eliminate any kind of cancer cells that are roaming around the body, which, you know, that happens all the time for all of us anyway, right. 

So we depend upon a healthy immune system to stay healthy in that way as well. And then the swing, the pendulum on the other side as well, is that we will end up more inflamed. And I kind of spoke to that a little bit earlier with my own experience, right, where I had this histamine mediated, so that’s an allergic type hyperreactivity in the immune system that’s also a result of exposure to, in my case, mycotoxins. But toxins of all kinds can be causing this dysregulation of the immune system that results in inflammation. And then the other piece sort of mediated by a different part of the immune system is autoimmune tendencies, right. 

So we think of rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, psoriatic arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis. All of these autoimmune conditions are the result of an immune system that’s out of balance, right. And so, as functional medicine or naturopathic doctors, our goal is to support healthy function so that the body can do its own work, restore that function so that it finds balance again on its own.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

So I witness this every day in my patients. On one arm, they’ve got a hyperactive immune system and on the other arm a weakened immune system. Meaning in this patient population, I don’t see many people with cancer at all, but mostly with complex chronic illness: chronic tick-borne illness, chronic mycotoxin illness and environmental toxicants. They have hyperactivity in their immune system. They’ve got mast cell activation syndrome and autoimmune conditions. So there’s hyperactivity in the immune system. And at the same time, they’re not able to mount the appropriate response to kill off the infections that are roaming their system.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Thanks for the work you’re doing. I mean, people really need you and practitioners who are willing to work with patients like that. And, you know, to me it’s so moving. And at the end, if you want, I’ll share my story about my husband as well, ’cause he has MS, and his experience with all of this. So it’s been really remarkable with him as well, so.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

I would love to hear that.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

It’s life altering for the patients that get to work with people like you. So thanks for the work you’re doing.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Thank you so much. So they have hyperactivity and underactivity going on simultaneously. And the research does show that environmental toxicants as well as toxicants that the bugs in our microbiome or the rest of our system create can cause this immune misfiring, this immune dysregulation. So tell us about Biocidin and how it helps to regulate the immune system.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Okay, so I think we are all familiar with toxicants from the outside world, right. So I think of air pollution and water pollution and Roundup, and all of the things that we constantly get exposure to: plastics and petrochemicals and heavy metals and all of that stuff that is coming at us all the time from the outside world. And I think that’s really where the focus has been. But as you spoke to in the medical research, metabolic endotoxemia, right, is endotoxins or toxins that are produced in our own body. And especially when our immune system gets out of balance, we can get overgrowth of those microorganisms in the gut that are pathogenic. 

There are certain conditions like SIBO where we’ll end up producing more lipopolysaccharides, which is a long-term, LPS, for a very very toxic molecule that is released by some of the bacteria that grow in the gut. And it’s so important that it’s, I think what I’ve found as a clinician just anecdotally or accidentally, right, is that, I think I might’ve said this already, but it made such a difference in my detoxification protocols when I included an antimicrobial therapeutic alongside of it. And, again, I didn’t really understand at the time what I was doing necessarily. I just started to see that in the patients where I included that. And now what we understand is that those biofilms hanging onto toxins, the metabolites, those toxic metabolites that are produced by imbalances in the gastrointestinal tract, if you don’t address those, you’re missing a whole area of toxic exposure in the body. And what’s interesting is that it all goes right from the gut to the liver, right. Everything that’s existing there goes to the liver. The liver basically does these life saving measures of removing it from our bloodstream. 

Because if it didn’t, just nanograms of LPS actually create symptoms of septic shock. So it’s really important. But when the liver clears it, it creates inflammation in the immune cells of the liver. And then our hepatocytes are those cells that are responsible for detoxification become the collateral damage. And so we can’t detoxify as well. And then that becomes a feed-forward cycle where we’re not releasing enough bile and we’re not detoxifying well enough. And so, we don’t kill the microorganisms in the gut with bile salts. And so this is the gut-liver axis, which was a new concept for me a few months ago when I was reading an article. There’s some really great research out there right now. But it becomes this feed-forward cycle where then the microorganisms overgrow in the gut, and then you produce more LPS, and then it damages the liver more. If you don’t address it, it becomes an obstacle to healing.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Thank you for that. Can you talk about the different Bio-Botanical Research products and 

how they fit in with killing off infections and balancing the immune system and as well as detox?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Yes, so we can’t make any claims on killing infection. But what I can say is that, what we can easily say is we have pilot research showing that Biocidin restores balance in the gastrointestinal tract. So a couple of reasons that that’s important is that it brings down those microorganisms that are responsible for producing those toxic metabolites. And it also restores the probiotics in the gut, which is new for us. This is new pilot research, super exciting. And we’re actually replicating this in publishable form with an IRB-approved study through Pacific Skin Institute in California.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Can you say that again about the probiotics?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Yes, so it increased Akkermansia muciniphila which is a keystone species in the gut. And it’s an obligate anaerobe. So it’s very difficult to get into a probiotic form or a capsule because it dies as soon as it’s exposed to oxygen, right.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

I’ve been seeing a lot of people who are low in that one.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

In Akkermansia?

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Yes.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

So this is so exciting.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

This is very exciting.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

And so Akkermansia increases what’s called metagenomic richness, which means that it’s a placeholder for other beneficial microorganisms to help increase the diversity of the microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract. So not only does it kind of bring down the bad guys, but in our pilot research, it actually increased what we’re calling probiotic abundance. And this was our biggest question. This is the single biggest question we get at the booth, right, at conferences. “What about the good guys?” Or when I’m speaking, “What about the beneficials? “Does it kill the probiotics?” And there are practitioners who assume because it has antimicrobial effects that it just wipes out everything. And that is not the case. 

So very, very exciting for us to see that research. We were able to see, you know, Faecalibacterium, which is another really important one for reducing systemic inflammation. We were able to see that comum too. So it’s very exciting for us. And our research team is very happy about what we’ve seen. And it also will bear, you can probably attest to it too, is I don’t see that same… You know, a lot of people, if they’re on things that wipe out their gut entirely, after we’re done with that, then we have to rebuild. It’s like you wipe it out. And then you have all this work ahead of you to reestablish health in the gut. I never had that issue with patients on Biocidin when I was working with them. And so now again, I understand why that’s the case.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Yeah, I haven’t had that issue either. I think that’s really important to be able to explain to doctors and patients because it is a question. “Well, if I’m wiping out the pathogenic bacteria, “how can I not be wiping out the beneficial bacteria? “And why is it that these herbs are not acting the same way “as antibiotics in the non-beneficial way?”

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Right, right. And we don’t necessarily understand the mechanism. I mean, I think if I was gonna take a stab at it, there are two things. One is that these botanicals, they are producing these antimicrobials as a way to survive themselves. So it’s not just coincidental that oregano is antimicrobial. It’s what keeps oregano healthy too, right. And what that means is that they also need beneficial microflora. And so, they’ve evolved or been created, whatever your belief systems are, to support beneficials on their surface of their leaves, but not the pathogens, right. And so that’s one thing. The other thing is that when you suppress the pathogen, then it leaves space, right, for the beneficials to grow. 

So that might be part of the reason why we saw that come up too. But I mean, I just kind of find myself sitting back firmly into the paradigm of we’ve been around these plants for a long time. Like, there’s an innate wisdom here. We’ve been using them for millennia as therapeutics. And I think that it’s easy to get into a place where we think they’re not as powerful as pharmaceuticals. But once you start to see their activity, I think what I have found clinically is that they’re gentle and effective. And it’s such a remarkable tool to have for that reason. I would say it’s a little bit more in the way of feminine in terms of its activity. It’s like: Here’s some support for you so that you can heal yourself instead of kind of going in with a machete, right, or like a blow torch. Does that make sense?

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Right, and yet it’s very powerful.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Yes, like we are.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Just like us.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Here’s hoping.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Right. Well, thank you so much, Jocelyn. Is there anything else you’d like to share with our viewers today?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Gosh, I think that kind of the way I just rounded it out is really the most important piece for me is just understanding. I mean, I think that I’ll leave it with this. I think this kind of medicine, the time has come for this kind of medicine where we are providing that support and in a way that works with the human body, and that takes into account the well-being of the botanicals, the earth, the body, all of it, the ecology in general of the human body. And it’s so related to the ecology of the planet. And, you know, so I just feel really so grateful to be a part of a company that holds that sort of as a core belief or a core value, that the healing power of nature and those botanicals.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Thank you for doing what you do.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Yes, you’re welcome.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

And thank you for being so in touch with the herbs from the holistic, from the naturopathic point of view, and from the research point of view. That’s so needed, bridging those worlds together.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Thank you, that’s my goal.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

I love it. Thank you for doing this.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Thank you so much. It’s been really such a pleasure to speak with you.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Such a pleasure to speak with you. Thank you.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Thank you.