Are Muramyl Peptides the Magic Bullet in P...( BOULDER Colo. Dec. 11 /- Magazine...),Health

BOULDER, Colo., Dec. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Magazines like Time, Newsweek, and U.S. World and News are all buzzing about the latest health trend, probiotics. Researchers have found compelling evidence that these friendly bacteria are an important key to digestive and immune health, but Eastern Europeans have been savvy to the health benefits of probiotics, found in fermented foods such as yogurt, for centuries. While Western medicine is beginning to tout probiotic benefits, Russian scientists have been aware of these characteristics for decades, and took investigations further by deconstructing the friendly bacteria to study cell components.

In fact, Russian and Ukrainian researchers used special strains of probiotics as raw materials for high-powered immune-support supplements during the Cold War period up until the mid-1980s. Soviet Scientists, responding to directives from their government, found that cell pieces of specific strains of probiotics, or lactobacillus bacteria, had a powerful protective action against bio-warfare agents. The researchers also discovered the probiotic cell pieces helped protect cancer patients against the effects of radiation and chemotherapy, were safe, and had no side-effects.

The Russian scientists discovered one key to these results are muramyl peptides, part of the complex sugars that become available when probiotic cells are fractured in the "lysing" process, which digests the cell wall. Eastern European researchers have been using the lysing technique for several decades, but the laboratory technique is barely on biotech manufacturing radar in the U.S.

"Comparing a live probiotic and a lysed one, in terms of immune system support, is like comparing a match to a blowtorch," said Dr. Elin Ritchie of Taos, N.M. Dr. Ritchie has been using a lysed lactobacillus product, Del-Immune V, for the last five years in cases including colds and flu. Ritchie has also had success with cancer patients. "I have given the p
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