An alternative to eating horse food

Some of the world's greatest inventions were discovered by accident. That is part of the wonderful serendipity of life. Sometimes serendipitous (is that a word?) events happen in the medical field, too. Such is the story of a new product originally designed for animal husbandry.

In 2004, executives of a company that manufactures nutritional products for animals noticed that their employees just did not get sick as often as employees of similarly sized companies. Their medical expenses were so low, in fact, that while other companies experienced rather severe increases in insurance premiums, their premiums increased by only 2 percent over the same time period. "Why are our workers so healthy?" they began asking. Could it be that the proprietary yeast culture the company manufactured to keep animals healthy was boosting the immune system of the handlers who came into contact with it?

The company commissioned a series of studies to find out. Employees at the yeast production facility volunteered to give blood samples for analysis. Then gender and age-matched employees at the non-production facility were used as controls. As expected, those who worked directly with the yeast culture, the company's flagship product, had increased natural killer (NK) cell activity, higher antioxidant activity, a better ratio of immune helper cells to suppressor cells, and lower levels of undesirable immune complexes.

They then embarked on a series of studies designed to determine the mechanism of action, mutagenicity, mitogenicity, toxicology and other parameters of human safety. They found that it is completely non-toxic and there are no known contraindications. Something I am particularly excited about is the potential for helping people with autoimmune disorders. In writing on the subject, one doctor noted that "There is great promise that via EpiCor's immunomodulator effect that the hyperreactivity experienced by an individual with (autoimmune disorders) may become moderated… The evidence points to Epi- Cor's ability to increase the efficiency of inherent immunomodulatory processes in the body." So we don't have the hard evidence on autoimmune disorders yet - but the promise is there. - Carol Simontacchi is the owner of

the Island Nutrition Center on Sanibel.

She can be reached at 472-4499 or on

the Web at www.islandnutritioncenter.

meta-ehealth.com.