Balancing the Microbiome as a Path to Optimal Resilience

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

I’m good. How are you? Thanks for having me.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

No problem. I understand you’re in lovely Minnesota.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Northern Minnesota. I have to say it like that, Minnesota and toast and boat.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

Sounds good. So yeah I’d love maybe just take a little bit through your background and how you got involved in the microbiome and the immune system. How’d that become of yours?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Okay, well, I’m a naturopathic doctor and way back when I first got interested in this maybe over 20 years ago now, my dad actually had a heart attack out of nowhere. And so I thought, when I was watching all of the interventions and everything that went on for him, I thought I wonder if there’s a way to work with this before it gets this bad. And I think because of how I was raised I didn’t really think there was, but I thought, well just check it out in case. And I looked online. At the time, Google didn’t even exist yet, but I was doing a search engine, I think Yahoo and I put in “natural medicine” and up came, at that point, I was a biology major already in undergrad and environmental studies and up came naturopathic medicine. 

And in my head, I thought that sounds kind of hokey. But then I looked at the curriculum, you know, and it’s like truly medical school. And so then the rest is kind of history. I thought it was really fascinating. And my principles really as a naturopath are to find and treat the cause of illness, treat the whole person, that the body can heal itself if we give it what it needs and get out of the way, right so that it can do its work. And doing first, do no harm for us, is lowest intervention therapeutics. So we try to find a way to work with the body and support the body so that it can it can heal on of its own accord. So that’s kind of a snapshot of what my medical training. And then working in my own practice, when I was introduced to working with the microbiome, it was such a turning point for me in my clinical practice, watching people’s health change, especially pediatric patients is where I started using this product line, Bio-Botanical Research’s product line because it’s a liquid. 

It’s easy access for pediatric and sensitive patients. And I just, I watched this little girl, it was so, you know as a clinician, we have those light bulbs where you have an experience that’s so dramatic watching a patient’s health shift that you never forget those moments, right? And so that happened for me using this product line. And over time, I started to understand the mechanism. Why has she had the experience that she did with healing? And really the importance of working with the microbiome in order to achieve that level of healing. 

And so I met Dr. Fresco and it was like meeting a rockstar for me because I had seen such amazing things in my practice and I was like, “Oh, Dr. Fresco, if you ever need anybody to talk about your product line, let me know.” You know, and so this is eight years ago and she had me work some conferences and eventually I took the, I closed my practice to become the director of clinical education for this company. And really it’s become such a strong passion for me to get this product line in the hands of other practitioners so that they can have the same experience that I did clinically. We’re all looking for those tools, right? As clinicians, as consumers, we all want to find tools that work, that are effective, that are gentle, that are helpful. And that’s what this product line is for me, or was for me and my clinical practice and continues to be for me in my family. And so that’s how I landed here.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

Okay awesome. Maybe for the viewers, if you want to give a little bit of a a 30,000 feet view of the importance of the microbiome that would be helpful and then I’ll ask you some questions on that.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Okay, so the microbiome, you’ve probably already talked about what it is, right, but it’s a collection of the microorganisms and their DNA that live in any location on the body. So the microbiome, we have a microbiome in the gut, the mouth, the skin, the ears, the genitourinary tract, so the vaginal microflora or microbiome is a little bit different from the gut which is different from the skin. So they’re all a little bit different, but it’s a good, we all have that microbiome, and what we need in that microbiome to stay healthy is balance. So we need this balance between gram-negative, gram-positive bacteria, fungal elements, virus, mold, all of those things typic, parasites, we can live with a lot of those different things on us and still feel good. And so making sure that we tip the balance in terms of having the beneficial microorganisms in the body. And do you want me to talk a little bit about immune system specifically? I know that’s kind of the topic, but do you want me to talk about the interaction there as well?

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

I think that’s yeah, let’s go down that road for sure.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Okay, okay. So this is so fascinating to me, right? I mean, we all, when I was in school, my teacher, one of my gastro teachers said gastrointestinal or gastroenterology class, the teacher said, “It’s all in the gut. It’s all in the gut.” And for me, I was like why? We have a brain and we have lungs and we have a heart. Why is it all in the gut? You know, I didn’t quite, I still didn’t get it until I got out and got into practice. But just to sort of set the stage for people listening is that we have up to 85% of our immune system that resides in the gut. And the immune system is responsible for keeping us healthy. I think that’s, everybody’s kind of aware, we need a good immune system to stay healthy, right, from infection. 

But the reality is that our immune system also helps us with tissue repair, right? So if we’re looking at aging in terms of collagen in the skin, so our immune system as well, it’s also important for, the immune system, for governing inflammation in the body. So if our immune system gets this sort of low level chronic poking by something, right, that’s irritating and prickling it, then we can end up with low levels of inflammation that then will advance the aging of our tissue over time. And so our immune system is responsible for so much in the body and our microbiome interacts directly with the immune system in a number of different ways. So we have the microbiome priming the immune system right directly in the gut. So I like to think about it in this way. 

So if we get a virus in our sinuses and we get post-nasal drip and we swallow some of that, that’s by design, right? I know we’re supposed to blow our nose, but you can make a case that some of that needs to go down into the gut because as it travels through your gut, it interacts with the bacteria there and the bacteria will partially send off an alarm. And also our cells called dendritic cells, which are part of our immune system, will sample that as it goes through it, sampling those little bits of viral DNA or material and it takes it inside the body to our lymph nodes, which are part of our immune system, where we sort of prepare for battle. And so our body will pull that in to the mesenteric lymph nodes and our immune system, T-cell regulation, all of these deep, this deep immunology piece of it, they all start to prep for a potential battle, but they don’t do anything. 

They don’t deploy unless our immune system succumbs or we start to actually get sick from that virus. So say we inhale some of that virus and we get it in our lungs or up in our sinuses and we start to get an infection, then we actually have signaling molecules that will say to those lymph nodes in the gut, which is fascinating, amazing, right, this beautiful design, we need to deploy the artillery. And then our body, our mesenteric lymph nodes, will release all of those immune mediators that were produced as a response to what came through our gastrointestinal tract. And then when you get on top of, it’s like this, right, we take care of it, ideally, we don’t even have much in the way of symptoms. Our body just gets on top of the microorganism that’s creating the infectious problem. 

And so that’s more likely to happen if you have a healthy microbiome and a healthy gut lining. If you get dysbiosis in the gastrointestinal tract, the microorganisms don’t communicate as well with our immune system, the beneficials, there’s damage to the lining of the gastrointestinal tract, those dendritic cells read what’s going on in the gut, we get inflamed, we’ll get overproduction of mediators that are very inflammatory. And the problem with chronic inflammation and the immune system is that if you have chronic inflammation and bacteria that produce metabolites in the gut that produce toxicity, well toxicity and low grade inflammation in the body, which this is definitely for me when I was in medical practice was a light bulb that went of like, oh, it’s not just heavy metals in the soil or petrochemicals that we breathe in from exhaust, it’s also, what are we producing inside our body, right? 

And so that toxic load, it’s called endogenous, right, internally produced toxic load, that’s something that we can easily address when we balance the microbiome. So all of this, the immune system’s so intimately linked there and it can’t really do it’s work well if we’re inflamed because it’s trying to read too many different signals at once. So if we’re inflamed, the immune system’s responding here and there. And I think about it, like typically we would expect the microbiome to send up signaling like a flare, we have an issue over here, when we get exposure to a pathogen. 

But if you have flares going up all over the body, then the immune system can’t read and respond to that flare. So if we can keep inflammation down, then that flare can be responded to immediately. If you have elevated inflammation, by the time that flare gets bigger and bigger and bigger, it’s basically like a house on fire instead, right? And so then when the immune system comes in, you have this significantly larger and more dramatic inflammatory response in order to get on top of that harmful microorganism or the infection, right? So it’s really interesting, all of it. I know, I went on, I waxed on for a long time there.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

I think that our viewers may have. So how does one know that one has inflammation? Like, what would be the, like are we all having inflammation?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

That’s a great question, right. So we all have some level of inflammation all the time and we need it. Right, we need some inflammation again for tissue repair and for, I mean responding to pathogen or to illnesses all of that. But if you have chronically elevated inflammation, then the way that I think about it, I think first shows up as fatigue, insomnia, mood swings, headaches, joint pain fibromyalgia, you know, all, sort of, a lot of the things that we’ve sort of gotten used to culturally I think as, “Oh, we’re just aging” or, “I should expect to feel this way as I get older.” And there’s really no evidence for long-term or long ago that we had the same sort of condition going on where most of us feeling a little, “Oh, I’m tired” or, “I’m under the weather”, or, “I’m not sleeping well”. These are all that you could have chronic inflammation going on.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

So you’re saying that in the past this wasn’t necessarily a part of aging?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Right, archeological evidence is that there was no joint tissue degeneration for aged people, that that’s really more a response to a chronic inflammatory response through a lifetime, right that cartilage degeneration or joint degeneration in the joint, there, is more a response to our lifestyle and modern way of living, that archeological time showed those joints totally intact, which is really fascinating to me. It doesn’t have to be that way, right?

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

Before we get into the Bio-Botanical products, which I want to talk about, so anyway, generally people have thought about dealing with the microbiome by taking probiotics perhaps, you know avoiding antibiotics. But I think Bio-Botanicals takes a different approach from my understanding. It’s a different way of looking at how to deal with that microbiome and make it more healthier. But is it really, is it an issue of the type of bacteria and diversity or is it the leaky barrier or all these, what is really, what does an inflamed microbiome look like?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

So low diversity is one of the, that can be a problem, right? So that means not having a lot of different microorganisms there to exist. So it’s called metogenomic genomic richness. It’s basically the robustness is the word that’s used for sheer different species of microorganisms in the gut. And what the research has shown is that the more robust our microbiome is, the healthier people are overall. So that’s one thing. The second thing is that in the advent of elevated carbohydrates, high stress and antibiotic use, that we’ve had overgrowth of some of the more pathogenic microorganisms or organisms that we coexist with typically will overgrow to the point where they’re creating a problem. 

So the two I think that are most well-known are gram-negative bacteria and then fungal, like candida, so yeast organisms as well. Both of them generate chronic inflammation. That then damages the gut and causes leaky gut. So there are a number of different mechanisms. There’s the LPS, lipopolysaccharides, is generated by gram-negative bacteria. That is inflammatory to the lining of the gut and then it will cross into the bloodstream. And LPS is so toxic that just injections of just nanograms of it will induce septic shock symptoms in a person. So it’s very, very toxic. It has to be cleared by the liver. And it will circulate through the bloodstream. What doesn’t get cleared by the liver circulates through the bloodstream. It will cause damage to the blood brain barrier. 

So it can cause, that’s where we can see that sort of mood swings or fatigue or brain fog that can come along with dysbiosis, right? And so if those gram-negative bacteria start to overgrow, that can be a real problem. If the fungal elements like candida or other fungal, or yeast species start to overgrow, that stimulates sort of a different pathway of inflammation. There are multiple inflammatory pathways right in the body. And so it’s sort of a multiple, it’s leaky gut, it’s production of pro-inflammatory mediators, it’s damage to the blood-brain barrier. It becomes a cascade that becomes a feed forward cycle. So all of those things. When you reestablish with beneficial microorganisms then it reestablishes that balance, helps heal the lining of the gut and then the gut is protected. If we have a healthy gut, we don’t get the leakage of lipopolysaccharides across the gut lining. We don’t get the same level of inflammation systemically in a number of different ways if we have that healthy balance in the microbiome.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

Okay, and what type of testing can patients do to find out the health of their microbiome?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

So stool testing is pretty popular and there are a number of different stool tests. I’m not an expert. I found myself often using Biocidin as a diagnostic tool because it’s so broad spectrum that I would do an intake with a patient, run testing, food sensitivities, maybe stool testing, typically I would run like inflammation markers and some maybe some cardiovascular health markers, some basic testing, and then while we’re waiting for all of that to come back, I would treat the microbiome. And if they’re feeling better, then I know that the microbiome is playing a role. And if they don’t respond to the Biocidin, then to me, it’s, and that’s infrequent, but if they don’t, it says to me, this person’s microbiome is in good shape and we’re good to go. And so we would just move forward, then evaluate testing and develop a therapeutic plan based on how the test results came back. 

So that’s the first thing is that I used Biocidin in that way in my practice. Right now, I think the gold standard is becoming this full genome sequencing of a stool test where they look for all of the different microorganisms. Every test has its limits. You know the full genome sequencing isn’t gonna tell like the mechanical function of the gut, do you have good hydrochloric acid, pancreatic enzymes? Are you absorbing your fat? All of that stuff. But it will detect anything that’s in your stool. So you don’t miss, like if you do culture, you miss certain things. You’ll miss all of the anaerobes ’cause as soon as they hit the air, the oxygen, they won’t grow anymore. So you’re missing a whole area if you do just culture. So there are all these different reasons. But there are ways to combine them, and they are clinically used to evaluate. No problem.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

So sorry. I’ll have to pause that.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Yeah no problem.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

I’m just gonna turn my phone off.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

So there are ways to evaluate mechanical functions clinically as well. So that’s what I found myself doing was more of like a clinical evaluation than actual testing a lot of the time.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

So maybe let’s talk about the Biocidin product and what makes a difference and if you could just kind of tell us a bit about it? Also, if we can talk about the oral microbiome and dental side as well that would be great.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Okay that’s great. So one thing to think about in terms of the microbiome is that most microorganisms also produce biofilm. Biofilm, it’s called an extracellular matrix. I think of it like an invisibility cloak. It’s sort of their way of hiding from our immune system, hiding from antibiotics, hiding from anti-microbials. And it allows them basically a shield that they can do all of their, they can receive nutrients, food, but they cannot be touched, right? And so that happens. I think the easiest to identify biofilm in our body is plaque on our teeth. So it’s that fuzzy teeth feeling. That’s a biofilm. But that happens in 80% of chronic infectious illnesses, biofilms are playing a role. And the reason it’s a problem is that if you don’t address what’s behind a biofilm it can become a source of recurrent infection. And it looks like people who will take an antibiotic, use an anti-microbial, feel better and then they come off of it and then they feel worse again. 

After two weeks, a month, two months, they’re getting a recurrence of their illness. And that happens because the biofilms release or recede the infectious area. And the mouth, just like you can get all these inflammatory metabolites produced in the gut, you can also have those produced in the mouth, right? And so that’s, microbial shift disease is what it’s called. And the blood circulation is so close to the periodontal pocket that it is a large concern for cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s diseases, all of those. 

Even if you have dental work, you’ll get transient septicemia, right, where you have this transient increase in the bacteria in the bloodstream. Our immune system typically gets on top of it. But even people with cardiovascular disease, they’ll see biofilms in the coronary arteries often times where they hold up in the actual lining of the artery wall and they’re creating an inflammatory response there. And it contributes then to the closing or that occlusion of the artery. So interesting, right? So it is really important also to pay attention to what’s in the mouth. And we know, so this is gross and fascinating, right, is that we have around 700 different species of microorganisms that live in the mouth. 

The average mean for a person is about 300, close to 300, 296. And we have 10 to the eighth microorganisms in a milliliter of saliva and we swallow a liter of saliva a day. So you think about the number of microorganisms that we’re swallowing and then the really clear connection to gut health, to lung health, to sinuses all of that. So address it, one of the things I love about Biocidin is that it’s a liquid. You’re working with the mouth as well, automatically, there’s no way around it, right? So you’re addressing balance in the microbiome as well of the mouth.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

What are the products? The products are not antibiotics per say right, and they’re not probiotics? What exactly are they?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

So Biocidin is a tincture and it’s a glyceride tincture so it’s sweet. I describe the flavor like sweet pizza. It’s a combination of 17 herbs or botanicals and essential oils. So there are four essential oils and then 13 herbal extracts. And it’s, this is my favorite thing, like I’m so sort of reverent about what botanicals bring to the table because they have multiple activities. So you might, for example, milk thistle, which is pretty well known for supporting liver health, right? So we think of that as a liver health herb. It’s also an antioxidant. It’s also immune supportive. It’s also an anti-microbial. So what happens when you create a formula like Biocidin, when you understand and know the botanicals is that you start to get these layered effects, right? So we have, we have not only this ability to have anti-microbial activity, which it does, Biocidin has anti-microbial activity, but we also have this ability to break up biofilms. And if you think about the efficacy when you, then you break up that biofilm, now you have access to all of those microorganisms, and of course the antimicrobial effect is gonna be stronger. 

So you see a synergy when you start to layer formulas like this. In addition to that, the Biocidin is immunomodulatory. So it helps modify immune system behavior in a good way, right, in a healthy way? And it also is anti-inflammatory right? So a lot of the herbs are anti-inflammatory and multiple mechanisms. The herbs themselves are anti-inflammatory, but also when you create balance, you address all of those those pro-inflammatory conditions that we were just talking about, right? So if you can help reduce or diminish the gram-negative growth, the growth of the gram-negative bacteria in the gut, then you’re also reducing inflammation that way. You’re helping to balance and restore immune function. And balance is really where it’s at, right? So it’s not like, you alluded to that. 

We need some inflammation, but we also want to keep it in check. So it’s really finding that balance and botanicals are really such a beautiful way of doing that. And so the Biocidin is that, a tincture of botanicals that have, some of the research has been actually published on this botanical formula. And some of it is pilot research, but we have a really extensive amount of research and it’s fun as a scientist to work for a company that’s willing to put some money into understanding the mechanisms and really proving that the product works.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

Yeah, I’d love to talk about some of that research. Can you take us through like some studies that have been done?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Sure, absolutely. So we have two published research. One is a human clinical trial, which is the gold standard right, in the industry. And so that is immune system modulation and that’s our throat spray. So the Biocidin throat spray is Biocidin plus some alcohol to help with dispersion to the back of the oral pharynx. So it’s three pumps, three times a day. And in our research, it caused a 66% increase in what’s called secretary IgA, which is one of the immune marker, or it’s an immunoglobulin that helps to tag any pathogen, so meaning a bacteria or virus, so that the immune system identifies it and kills it. So really important, right where our immune system meets the outside world. 

So that was exciting for us to see and immune modulating and that we’ve also had reports, this isn’t research, but reports from doctors before and after testing showing if people have elevated IgA in their gastrointestinal tract, that’s often a response to overgrowth of microorganisms in the gut and we’ll see that also come down. And again, when you’re working with products that support healthy balance, they become more adaptogenic right, where they work with the body to help restore balance. And that’s one of the cool things is that we’re able to see both of those things. The other published research was on Borrelia, which is the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. And we were able to show in vitro, so in a petri dish, it caused 97% cell death in 10 minutes with either spirochete, round body form, the cell deficient form or the biofilm form, which is really remarkable because doxycycline for example, in Eva Sapi’s work ’cause 20%, yeah I think it’s 20, might be 10%, so look this up if you want to know, don’t quote me on this, but a certain percentage, a significant percentage of them will turn into the round body form, which can be a cause of persistent infection. 

That didn’t happen with the Biocidin. We didn’t create that pleomorphic shift. Not only that, but it killed the round body form also. So very exciting and I will say, in Northern Minnesota, just even this spring, one of my dogs has had like 15 year ticks, the other ones had about 10, and this is such a powerful tool for me for acute exposures. And that’s really what drove me to talk to Dr. Fresco is that this to me that lipsomal Biocidin, so we have that Biocidin in a form that is a liposome, which means it will go directly from the mouth into the bloodstream, access blood, lymphatics, maybe central nervous system. And our research showed better intracellular penetration, 74% better intracellular penetration with the liposomal form. And being able to watch that work from a clinical perspective, it’s really remarkable. To me, it’s always in my first aid kit. I’m never out of that one, right, because it’s so, topically or orally, it’s just so easy to get it where you want it to go and so broad spectrum.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

Is there any concern about taking it too much? Can it cause like too much change in the flora or does it just put you back into harmony?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

It’s a really good question. So two things, one is that it’s been around for over 30 years and we’ve never had a reported adverse response to long-term use of the product and just to put our money where our mouth is, right, we are doing research. We just finished pilot research with Sun Genomics, which does a full genome sequencing and we were able to evaluate, what we’re looking at is what happens to the beneficial microorganisms when you expose it to Biocidin for two months. 

And we actually saw an increase in probiotic abundance using the Biocidin. And so quite the opposite of where you might see a unilateral wipe out using an antibiotic or even a high dose like oregano oil or if you’re using some, excuse me, botanicals at high dose can be harmful right, to the microorganisms, the balance of microorganisms. That didn’t happen with Biocidin. And we saw an actual increase in akkermansia muciniphila, which is a keystone, it’s called a keystone species.

It’s a placeholder for other probiotic microorganisms to proliferate. And so it becomes a, that metogenomic richness that we talked about earlier, Akkermansia’s one of the main ways to help produce metagenomic richness. So we were not expecting that to see Akkermansia come up. So you can imagine our whole research team was sort of doing the happy dance when we saw Akkermansia come up. And clinically, that’s what I saw. I saw people improve where we didn’t have to pound them with probiotics afterwards. I think it’s wise to use probiotics. I think there’s nothing wrong with that, but I think the Biocidin on its own from what we’re looking at with research, and we’re replicating that right now in IRB, which means that it will be publishable research and it’s more formal research done by an independent facility, we’re looking to replicate that so that we can publish it and we can actually be more forceful about any kind of claims on it. So you’ll hear me in this conversation talking a lot about my experience with the product. Really the only place that we make claims as a company is on our published research. Everything else is just our experience.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

Can you tell us about the throat spray and I believe there’s also a Denticidin product, is there not?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Yes, there is, there is. So the Biocidin is also in the toothpaste. And I love the Biocidin toothpaste. It’s called Dentalcidin. It’s an easy place, it’s not another supplement to take, right, but it’s an easy place to start to restore balance in the microbiome. So that’s an easy go-to. It has the biocide in it and then it’s a natural toothpaste base. So once you know what Biocidin is, we have seven products that contain Biocidin and then you pretty much just pick which one you want based on where you’re trying to get in the body, right, what you’re trying to do. And then in addition to the toothpaste, there’s an oral rinse. And that oral rinse has the liposomal form of the Biocidin in it. Again, liposomes mean a deeper tissue effect. So if you have a history of periodontal disease, cavitations, root canals, you would be more well-directed to reach for the, you can use them both together, they’re designed to use together, but the liposomal one would be more likely to have a deeper activity than just the toothpaste. So you can start there easily.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

Right, okay, that makes a lot of sense. You were mentioning the, has there been any type of studies looking at lab testing to see if there’s, has there been any type of lab testing? I know we can’t test LPS, but zonulin perhaps, look at leaky gut to see if there’s improvement in that with the product?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

So you can look at LPS antibodies and that tends to rise and fall before actual serum levels of LPS does. We haven’t researched that, but we just started, we have our first people starting, in that same study, we’re evaluating LPS antibodies, IgA, IgG, so two different antibodies against LPS. We’re also looking at two different inflammatory markers, or three actually. We’re looking at interleukin six, high sensitivity CRP, these are both markers for chronic inflammation. And then we’re evaluating thromboxane as well. And thromboxane is kind of a downstream metabolite of that lipopolysaccharides, LPS, and it has a really strong connection to cardiovascular disease and aging. And so we’re really excited to see what happens. 

We did do preliminary or pilot research with that marker and saw some really stunning actually results for people. In this research, organic acid testing, you know that, through Great Plains, we also combined the thromboxane, we did that with liposomal Biocidin, Olivirex and G.I. Detox. And we looked at mold toxins, the organic acid testing, glyphosate levels and the thromboxane. And we’re just still in the phase of trying to evaluate the data, but we were able to see markers really shift. So thromboxane, which is that inflammatory one, but also really cool is that we had one fellow who in 60 days lost 60 pounds on that protocol. And it was inflammation, it was a weight that was the result of inflammation, right? 

So inflammation affects insulin resistance and blood sugar, so blood sugar regulation, and this guy, I mean, inflammation-based weight, I don’t know, do you see this in your clinical practice as well? I mean when you reduce inflammation, then weight tends to, especially for men I think at least in my clinical experience, their weight will just, it’ll just fall off. And I saw that actually in my husband as well. When he took out his inflammatory foods, just like that he dropped 40 pounds. Like oh my gosh, you know, it’s just amazing when you reduce inflammation, what happens for people? You know, in terms of balance, like we were talking about balancing the microbiome but really regulating inflammation in the body is what allows us to restore balance ourselves, right, allows our chemistry to come back into balance. So it’s pretty amazing.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

That’s so awesome. Is there anything you’d want to just send off with to like to let our viewers know? Like what’s the main message they should take back?

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Let’s see, that’s a great question. Now I feel like I have an opportunity. Let’s see. Main message, the first thing is not to or to give lower intervention therapeutics a try rather than leaning fully on things that were, I think really culturally we think, maybe Colgate and over the counter medications and all of these are gonna have a stronger effect, which is not necessarily true right. And so changing the way that we think about our health so that we are giving the body the support that it needs and working with harmonizing. And that’s what botanicals really offer. And being able to, I mean they’ve been for millennia, right, we’ve been working with these botanicals for millennia. 

So giving it a shot, you know, learning more about botanicals, even if it’s just starting with a tea right, but starting to incorporate some of that, the beauty that the Earth provides for us and trying to separate a little bit from, I think it’s really in our face all the time, all of the pharmaceutical commercials. And I know pharmaceuticals have a place, an inappropriate place. I just think that people could really benefit as well from the support of botanicals. So I’m not badmouthing that, but just trying to encourage people to give it a shot. And too, the other thing is, you know, pay attention to your lifestyle also. 

So making sure you’re getting enough sleep, that you’re connecting with your loved ones, that you’re staying away from toxic foods and high carbohydrate diets, and really focusing on supporting ourselves. So botanicals are only one aspect of a healthy lifestyle and making sure, I think it’s easy to forget those things. It’s sure easier to reach for a pill or a supplement even than it is to make sure that you turn off your your social media by nine or 10:00 p.m., right, and get to bed. Like that’s harder, trying to keep some high carbohydrates out of your diet or making sure that you’re working on your relationships. You know, that all of that stuff is harder, but just equally or even more important than anything that you could take.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

Thank you. I mean I’ve used the product myself and I like really the philosophy that if not, you’re right, it’s a mind shift to not go and try to like think that a pharmaceutical based treatment is the answer. And I think you’re right. It’s more about bringing balance. And I think a lot of treatments are about going in there and killing the bad stuff or replacing. I think this is a totally different approach. So hats off to Bio-Botanicals for creating this product. It’s great.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Yeah, it’s a fun place to work and it really changes my experience as a practitioner. It’s so rewarding to watch people come into their own and to heal.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

So where can they go to learn more? Distributor here in Canada. So we will put that in the notes for everyone to find out how to order from Canada but, yeah for the US people, biocidin.com.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Yes, yep, exactly. And that’s b-i-o-c-i-d-i-n, yeah.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

Okay, perfect. Thank you so much.

Jocelyn Strand, N.D.

Thank you Dr. Goel.

Sanjeev Goel, MD, FCFP (PC), CAFCI

Okay, take care.