I gave up sitting at my desk over a year ago, and now I stand all day. There are many more reasons why sitting is not recommended than this article goes into.

• For one, the amount of pressure on the discs of the low back while sitting is almost three times that of standing.
• Another one is that sitting immobilizes the hips leading to a breakdown of the bio-mechanics of the pelvis and low back.
• In the Blue Zone study, people who lived into their hundreds were not sedentary. Constant movement was a part of their life.
• This concept of standing while you work has spawned ideas like the “treadmill desk” design.

What we’ve learned from the Blue Zone study and other research data, is that we as humans must be constantly moving throughout the day and avoiding long periods of sitting. Study after study re-affirms this.

If we sit for an hour, we should exercise for an hour. If we sit for 3 hours, we should exercise for 3 hours. Of course this starts to become impossible for many people very quickly, so how do we get around this?

Stand, instead of sit. More devices are being developed to help people accomplish this goal. The treadmill desk above is one such device. Others are being developed.

Get creative. Surprise yourself. Movement is life.

Watch the short 2-minute trailer here:

Visit our website to enjoy the full-length video (about 33 minutes):

http://ATimeForTransformation.com

For balancing the ecosystem of the intestinal tract and the body, I recommend doing the Candida Plan. If you have blood sugar imbalances, you should address these also at the same time.

If you get tired, irritable, sleepy, or moody when you go too long without food, you most likely have a low blood sugar issue (hypoglycemia).

Hypoglycemia can affect the following:

• estrogen
• progesterone
• testosterone
• and thyroid hormones
• suppress the immune system
• cause adrenal fatigue
• sugar cravings
• promote inflammation
• cause various disturbances in the nervous system
• such as anxiety
• depression
• nervousness
• brain fog, etc.

Many people will have both hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia/insulin resistance (tired after meals) during the day. This protocol helps with both.

Blood Sugar Balance Protocol

You’ll need to eat at least a small handful of food every 45-60 minutes (60 minutes usually works). That can be 1/3 of a celery stick or carrot, ¼ of an apple, ½ of an avocado, a rice cake, a meal, some veggies, etc., to keep your blood sugar balanced.

Keep snacks handy at all times

It is very important that you follow this strictly, as almost doesn’t work. Anyone with problems handling fruit, should stick to celery, meats, avocado, etc., for snacks. Celery is very easy to prepare and carry with you.

Plan your day around having enough snacks with you at all times. As an example – if you eat breakfast at 8am, then snack at 9, 10, 11; lunch at 12; snack at 1, 2, 3, 4; dinner at 5; snack at 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; bedtime. Have a snack as soon as you get up, then go about getting ready for your day and making breakfast.

It is important to do this for at least 4 months. Additionally, it’s important to start the day with protein and have protein at every meal. Visit my website for meal planning tips and healthy recipes.

If you have questions about the Blood Sugar Balance Protocol, click here to contact me through my website.

All bacteria in a balanced system benefit the system. Create the balance and you also create the safeguards against anything that shouldn’t be there. Destroy that balance and you’ll see health start to slip away as the ecosystem starts to collapse into chaos.

As you’ll see below, Bacillus subtilis has been associated with food poisoning, disease conditions, and has been tested for biological applications as a biolgical agent.

Bacillus subtilis is the basis for many antibiotics due to its strong antibacterial function. This antibacterial function will create imbalance within the body by destroying bacteria. It also has a strong antifungal effect and is the basis for antifungal medications, but these, as we know, create other imbalances.

You’ll see below this list of B. subtilis-based antibiotics some more information on B. subtilis. It’s not a risk-free choice. Whatever your decision, make it an informed choice.

B. subtilis does produce an extracellular toxin known as subtilisin. Although subtilisin has very low toxigenic properties (Gill, 1982), this proteinaceous compound is capable of causing allergic reactions in individuals who are repeatedly exposed to it (Edberg, 1991). Sensitization of workers to subtilisin may be a problem in fermentation facilities where exposure to high concentration of this compound may occur. Exposure limits to subtilisin are regulated by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) (29 CFR 1900, et seq.)Biotechnology Program Under Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)

Bacillus subtilis Final Risk Assessment

III. HAZARD ASSESSMENT

A. Human Health Hazards

1. Colonization

B. subtilis is widely distributed throughout the environment, particularly in soil, air, and decomposing plant residue. It has shown a capacity to grow over a wide range of temperatures including that of the human body (Claus and Berkeley, 1986). However, B. subtilis does not appear to have any specialized attachment mechanisms typically found in organisms capable of colonizing humans (Edberg, 1991). Given its ubiquity in nature and the environmental conditions under which it is capable of surviving, B. subtilis could be expected to temporarily inhabit the skin and gastrointestinal tract of humans, but it is doubtful that this organism would colonize other sites in the human body (Edberg, 1991).

2. Gene Transfer

The transfer of gene sequences between strains of B. subtilis has been demonstrated when the strains were grown together in soil (Graham and Istock, 1979). In addition, Klier et al. (1983) demonstrated the ability of B. subtilis and B. thuringiensis to exchange high frequency transfer plasmids. Other studies have shown that B. subtilis has the ability to express and secrete toxins or components of the toxins that were acquired from other microorganisms through such transfers of genetic material. B. subtilis expressed subunits of toxins from Bordatella pertussis (Saris et al., 1990a, 1990b), as well as subunits of diphtheria toxin (Hemila et al., 1989) and pneumolysin A pneumococcal toxin (Taira et al., 1989). Although B. subtilis does not appear to possess indigenous virulence factor genes, it is theoretically possible that it may acquire such genes from other bacteria, particularly from closely related bacteria within the genus.

3. Toxin Production

A review of the literature by Edberg (1991) failed to reveal the production of toxins by B. subtilis. Although it has been associated with outbreaks of food poisoning (Gilbert et al., 1981 and Kramer et al., 1982 as cited by Logan, 1988), the exact nature of its involvement has not been established. B. subtilis, like other closely related species in the genus, B. licheniformis, B. pumulis, and B. megaterium, have been shown to be capable of producing lecithinase, an enzyme which disrupts membranes of mammalian cells. However, there has not been any correlation between lecithinase production and human disease in B. subtilis.

4. Measure of the Degree of Virulence

B. subtilis appears to have a low degree of virulence to humans. It does not produce significant quantities of extracellular enzymes or possess other virulence factors that would predispose it to cause infection (Edberg, 1991). There are a number of reports where B. subtilis has been isolated from human infections. Earlier literature contains references to infections caused by B. subtilis. However, as previously stated,the term B. subtilis was synonymous for any aerobic sporeforming bacilli, and quite possibly, many of these infections were associated with B. cereus. In a recent British review article, Logan (1988) cites more recent cases of B. subtilis infections in which identification of the bacterium appeared reliable. Infections include a case of endocarditis in a drug abuse patient; fatal pneumonia and bacteremia in three leukemic patients; septicemia in a patient with breast cancer; and infection of a necrotic axillary tumor in another breast cancer patient. Isolation of B. subtilis was also made from surgical wound-drainage sites, from a subphrenic abscess from a breast prosthesis, and from two ventriculo-atrial shunt infections (as cited by Logan, 1988).

Reviews of Bacillus infections from several major hospitals suggest that B. subtilis is an organism with low virulence. Idhe and Armstrong (1973) reported that Bacillus infections were encountered only twelve times over a 6-1/2 year period. Species identification of these Bacillus infections was not made. In another hospital study over a 6-yr. period, only two of the 24 cases of bacteremia caused by Bacillus (of a total of 1,038 cases) were due to B. subtilis (as cited by Edberg, 1991). Many of these patients were immunocompromised or had long term indwelling foreign bodies such as a Hickman catheter.

B. subtilis has also been implicated in several cases of food poisoning (Gilbert et al., 1981 and Kramer et al., 1982 as cited by Logan, 1988).

As previously mentioned, B. subtilis produces a number of enzymes, including subtilisin, for use in laundry detergent products. There have been a number of cases of allergic or hypersensitivity reactions, including dermatitis and respiratory distress after the use of these laundry products (Norris et al., 1981).

5. Conclusions

B. subtilis is not a human pathogen, nor is it toxigenic like some other members of the genus. The virulence characteristics of the microorganism are low. According to Edberg (1991) either the number of microorganisms challenging the individual must be very high or the immune status of the individual very low in order for infection with B. subtilis to occur.

B. Environmental Hazards

3. Hazards to Other Microorganisms

B. subtilis has been shown to produce a wide variety of antibacterial and antifungal compounds (Katz and Demain, 1977; Korzybski et al., 1978). It produces novel antibiotics such as difficidin and oxydifficidin that have activity against a wide spectrum of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria (Zimmerman et al., 1987) as well as more common antibiotics such as bacitracin, bacillin, and bacillomycin B (Parry et al., 1983). The use of B. subtilis as a biocontrol agent of fungal plant pathogens is being investigated because of the effects of antifungal compounds on Monilinia fructicola (McKeen et al., 1986), Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus (Kimura and Hirano, 1988), and Rhizoctonia (Loeffler et al., 1986).

Although B. subtilis produces a variety of antibiotic compounds in culture media, the importance of antibiotic production in the environment is unknown (Alexander, 1977).

B. subtilisis not a frank human pathogen, but has on several occasions been isolated from human infections. Infections attributed to B. subtilis include bacteremia, endocarditis, pneumonia, and septicemia. However, these infections were found in patients in compromised immune states. There must be immunosuppression of the host followed by inoculation in high numbers before infection with B. subtilis canoccur. There also have been several reported cases of food poisoning attributed to large numbers of B. subtilis contaminated food. B. subtilis does not produce significant quantities of extracellular enzymes or other factors that would predispose it to cause infection. Unlike several other species in the genus, B. subtilis is not consider toxigenic. B. subtilis does produce the extracellular enzyme subtilisin that has been reported to cause allergic or hypersensitivity reactions in individuals repeatedly exposed to it.

In conclusion, the use of B. subtilis in fermentation facilities for the production of enzymes or specialty chemicals has low risk. Although not completely innocuous, the industrial use of B. subtilis presents low risk of adverse effects to human health or the environment.

Fungal arthritis

Marta L Cuellar, Luis H Silveira, Luis R Espinoza

Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 1992

Why This Article Matters

“There is never a lack of research or information available about the pervasiveness of fungal infections in our society today. There is however, a lack of awareness that this is an ongoing problem in society at all ages, as this research article demonstrates. Fungal infections can cause arthritis of any joint in the body. When treated properly, fungal arthritis cases improve and disappear. The use of antibiotics continues to be the primary cause of this problem, followed by, or in conjunction with steroid use. The best approach is to avoid these problems by avoiding use of these medications whenever possible.” – Dr. Jeff McCombs, DC

Excerpted from the research article:

Although healthy subjects may host fungal diseases, various predisposing factors that depress the immune system have been implicated in most patients developing fungal infections or fungal arthritis, or both. Alcoholism, cirrhosis, diabetes, tuberculosis, cancer, prematurity, treatment with corticosteroids, cytotoxic drugs, prolonged use of intravenous antibiotics, intravenous drug abuse, granulocytopenia, and marrow hyperplasia are among the predisposing factors. Neonates are the first group of patients in whom haematogenously originated Candida arthritis can occur. The illness is a hospital acquired disease of sick children with underlying diseases such as the respiratory distress syndrome, and gastrointestinal defects. C albicans, which is responsible for more than 80% of the reported cases, and C tropicalis are the species responsible for this disease. Arthritis is usually present with accompanying metaphysial osteomyelitis. Bone infection might originate from the infected synovium or via the metaphysical vessels. Polyarthritis occurs in most patients and the knee is the joint most often affected. Arthritis originated by haematogenous dissemination beyond the neonatal period is usually a complication of disseminated candidiasis in patients with serious underlying disorders or intravenous drug abusers. C albicans is again the causative organism in about 80% of cases, and C tropicalis is responsible for most of the remaining cases. Two distinct clinical presentations can be observed: (a) acute onset of constitutional and synovial symptoms (about two thirds of patients), with the aetiological diagnosis established within the first week, and (b) indolent presentation, with mild systemic and arthritic symptoms, and delay in the diagnosis for months or years.

View this article in the Candida Library and download the Full Text PDF

Lookup the definition of Arthritis in the Glossary

See the Latest Articles in the Candida Library

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You Might Also Be Interested In:

FAQ.  I’m pregnant. Is this a good time to be on Dr. McCombs’ Candida Plan?

Candida Library: Studies on pregnancy and sauna bathing

A. We have had great success with the Candida Plan over the past 19 years with correcting the imbalances of fungal Candida. There are situations that can create a re-occurrence of fungal Candida. These include:

• the use of antibiotics
• eating antibiotic-laden foods
• chemotherapy
• long-term use of steroids and hormone replacement medicines
• diabetes
• surgeries
• immunosuppression
• malnutrition

See Also:

What are some of the signs and symptoms that I might be experiencing Candida?

How often should I repeat the Candida Plan?

After The Plan: The Maintenance Program & Tune-Up Program