Bios Life Complete Mechanism 1

Bios Life Complete Mechanism 1: Bile Acid Sequestration by soluble fiber.

Fat from our meal is being digested in our intestinal system using bile and bile acids. Bile is being elaborated by the liver. It contains bile acids, cholesterol, lecithin, and bile pigments, which are all synthesized by the liver cells. The bile is secreted into the bile duct that leads directly into the digestive tract. About 250 ml to 1500 ml of bile is secreted per day into the digestive tract. In the periods between meals, bile is diverted into the gall bladder. The gallbladder concentrates bile by removal of salt and water from the stored bile, resulting in a 5 to 20-fold concentration of the bile acids. Bile acids in the intestinal tract emulsify lipids, thereby increasing the surface area available to fat digesting enzymes, called lipases. After their function, bile acids are actively recycled by re-absorption in the terminal part of the small intestine. A small fraction of bile acids escapes absorption, and is excreted. The returning bile acids are avidly taken up by the liver and are rapidly re-secreted during the course of digestion.

The primary bile acid is cholic acid, which is synthesized in the liver using cholesterol as a building block. Therefore the cholesterol pool that is available in the body is being utilized to synthesize bile. Since most bile is re-absorbed and re-utilized, the total amount of cholesterol is not changed due to the bile synthesis. In other words, if it would be possible to prevent the re-absorption of bile acids into the blood stream from the intestinal tract, a mechanism to lower cholesterol in the body would have been identified. This is exactly what soluble fiber accomplishes in our body.

Fiber is referred to as a mixture of polysaccharides that is present in almost all vegetables and fruits in our diet. Fiber is present in the cells and skins of fruits and vegetables. It is also a part of the park of trees. There are two kinds of fiber: soluble and insoluble fiber. The soluble fraction of the fiber is known to have the cholesterol lowering effect. Examples are soluble fibers are guar gum, pectin, and beta-glucans. When the dissolved fibers reach the intestinal tract they start to gel, because of the acidic environment of the stomach. The gel is known to trap the bile acids in the intestinal tract, preventing them from being reabsorbed. When the gel matrix is being excreted from the intestines, the bile acids go along with it. Since bile acids are made from cholesterol, removal of bile acids from the body will reduce the total level of cholesterol.

Not every fiber mixture is equally effective in lowering cholesterol. Bios Life Complete comprises of a unique fiber mixture, combined with calcium carbonate that has premium bile acid sequestration properties. This combination is patented under the US patents 4,883,788 and 4,824,672. These patents describe and protect the invention of combining soluble fiber with calcium carbonate. The calcium carbonate generates carbon dioxide when it reaches the acids in the stomach. This bubbling of CO2 promotes the dissolving and dispersion of the soluble fiber in the intestinal tract. This makes the gel matrix larger and faster formed, so that bile acid sequestration is more effective than by other fiber mixtures. BiosLifeTM Complete includes a combination of different soluble fibers, namely guar gum, gum Arabic, locust bean gum, pectin, and oat fiber.

The American Heart Association recognizes the importance of soluble fiber as well. This institute has advised that every adult should consume at least 30 grams of fiber day. Sadly, the average American Diet only contains about 12 grams of fiber.

The cholesterol lowering potential of soluble fiber has been proven many times in peer-reviewed publications. [1-11] Unicity has performed several clinical studies with the fiber mixture of BiosLifeTM Complete itself. In 2002 a clinical study with BiosLifeTM 2 was performed by Dennis Sprecher of the Cleveland Clinic. [8] One hundred and nineteen patients received either BiosLifeTM 2 or placebo. Fasting lipid (cholesterol), glucose, and homocysteine concentrations, and body mass index (BMI) were obtained at baseline and weeks 4 and 8. The group using BiosLifeTM 2 showed a reduction of 7.1% in LDL cholesterol after 4 weeks, which was maintained at 8 weeks with a reduction of 7.9 %. Placebo patients had a slight increase in LDL-C values over the same period resulting in a 10.3% difference between groups. Interestingly, two other parameters that are being used to assess the risk for heart disease, apoprotein B and homocysteine were also positively influenced. The total amounts of LDL reduction in this study are reduced somewhat since all subject participating in this trial had first followed a low-fat diet for several weeks. The company has also performed other clinical studies with BiosLifeTM 2, including a study in the Philippines and two studies in type-2 diabetics.