That's interesting that you say that - I did have a feeling of a "synergistic" action of these things - and they are mostly food products rather than supplements, which I was very happy about. My gut flora is far from healthy, though. I do make my own kefir, though the dairy doesn't totally agree with me. Of all dairy, it's the best digested for me, though. I did cultured veggies for awhile - both my own and store bought, but it was a giant, awful gas-fest every time, so I've backed off on those. I need to experiment with cabbage-free cultured vegetables, since it might have been the cabbage. I do take a few different probiotics, so far I like the one from Unicity, but I'm open to suggestions... I also take MH's LBB and sometimes a few aloe caps. I'm experimenting with a low to no-grain diet with a lot of raw foods as of very recently to see if that helps with digestion and better balance, since I know I've still got yeast. And still debating on that alkaline drink... :)

You say-

"But, why are they stuffed in a can for us to peel back? I have always wondered why they were packaged that way."

Because it's catfood!

yucko
maybe my hip is hurting 'cause all ya'll be pullin my leg or sumpin
grin wink

I have no idea if this is right, but I wonder if they are packaged that way because they were...at one time...used as rations during combat. Some rations are packaged just like that.

I always liked the little key to open them...very portable.

With good health gut flora and good systemic bacteria and enzymes we would not need the sardines as much...

This is just one thing your intestines will do for you with a good freindly complement of bacteria...

Intestinal Vitamin B synthesis
The fact that intestinal micro-organisms produce significant amounts of B vitamins is fully accepted and has been published in peer-reviewed international medical journals [2,3]. Intestinal bacterial B vitamin biosynthesis involves at least vitamin B1 (thiamine) [4], vitamin B2 (riboflavin) [5], vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) [6], vitamin B8 (biotin) [6, 7], vitamin B9 (folic acid) [8,9],and vitamin B12 (cobalamin) [1]. As a matter of fact, bacteria obtained from dairy and belonging to the genus Propionibacterium (also abundant in the human intestinal microflora) are extensively used for the biological production of cobalamin [10].

Concerning vitamin B8, also called biotin, “it has long been recognized that the normal microflora of the large intestine synthesize considerable amounts of biotin” [6]. In fact, several studies have shown that the colon is capable of absorbing free biotin and HM Said has shown, for the first time in 1998, the functional existence of a specialized carrier-mediated system for biotin uptake in colonic epithelial cells [7]. “In addition, the uptake process is shared by another water-soluble vitamin, pantothenic acid, (…) which is also synthesized by the normal microflora of the large intestine”, as biotin inhibited the uptake of vitamin B5 and vice versa [6].

The specialized vitamin B transporter has been cloned in the rabbit intestine by another team in 1999 [11] and named the sodium-dependent multivitamin transporter (SMVT). This transporter is also highly expressed in human enterocytes (cells found in the internal lining of the intestines) [11,12], where it serves to take up not only pantothenate and biotin, but also lipoate (the ion from lipoic acid) [11].

Half a century ago, vitamin B2 (also called riboflavin) was known to be synthesized by intestinal bacteria and the amount provided by this source appears to become significantly higher when adhering to a vegetarian diet [13]. Interestingly, as he did for other water-soluble vitamins B, HM Said demonstrated in 2000 “for the first time, the existence of a specialized carrier-mediated mechanism for riboflavin uptake in an in vitro cellular model of human colonocytes” (cells found in the lining of the colon) [5]. Once again in 2001, HM Said showed that a model of human-derived colonic epithelial cells possesses a specific carrier-mediated system for thiamine (vitamin B1) uptake [4]. “It is suggested that bacterially synthesized thiamine in the large intestine may contribute to thiamine nutrition of the host, especially towards (…) the local colonocytes” [4].

Certain bacterial species present in the rat colon are also capable of de novo synthesis of vitamin B9, better known as folic acid [8]. As clearly evidenced by the use of tritiated (marked with radioactive hydrogen) para-amino benzoic acid (3H PABA), the experimental “data provide direct evidence that some of the folate synthesized by the microflora in the rat large intestine is incorporated into the tissue folate of the host” [8].

More recently, the same methodology has been utilized with humans in order to determine whether folate synthesized by bacteria in the small intestine rather than in the colon is assimilated by the human host [9]. Indeed, the perfusion of tritiated PABA, a classic precursor substrate for the bacterial folate synthesis, led to the identification of bacterially synthesized (as marked) folates aspirated from in the small intestine. Subsequently, tritiated 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, a major metabolite of folate, was isolated from the human host urine, demonstrating that the human host did absorb and consequently metabolized these bacterially synthesized folates [9].

Coming back to cobalamin, it has been shown, already in 1980, that “at least two groups of organisms in the small bowel, Pseudomonas and Klebsiella sp., may synthesize significant amounts of the vitamin [B12]” [1]. Obviously, the two accepted dogma of vitamin B metabolism in the digestive tract don’t seem to correspond to reality: several compounds (vitamins B1, B2, B5, B8 and B9) supposedly absorbed by the small intestine may be assimilated by the colonocytes, while several compounds (vitamins B9 and B12) supposedly synthesized by colonic bacteria may actually be generated in the small intestine! Unfortunately, if we wanted to explain the high vitamin B12 blood levels by some colonic absorption, we must underline that absolutely nothing has been published about this and what seems true for other vitamins B would not be so for cobalamin.

Consequently, we should rather focus on the possibility that bacterially-produced vitamin B12 is absorbed in the small intestine, where most of the assimilation process of other B vitamins takes place. Two different specific proteins ensure the uptake of thiamine (vitamin B1) in the enterocytes of the proximal small intestine and are structurally close to a specific folic acid carrier [14]. Indeed, the intestinal folate (vitamin B9) absorption process occurs via a specialized mechanism that involves the reduced folate carrier (RFC) in the jejunum (the middle part of the small intestine) [15, 16]. We have already mentioned earlier the existence, in the proximal small intestinal enterocytes, of a sodium-dependent multivitamin transporter (SMVT) taking care of biotin (vitamin B8) and of pantothenic acid (vitamin B5). The involvement of a specialized carrier-mediated mechanism for pyridoxine (vitamin B6) by the intestinal epithelial cells has been demonstrated for the first time in 2003 [17]. Finally, a specialized carrier for niacin (vitamin B3) has been uncovered very recently, the article only being published in July 2005 [18].

In contrast to all the other B vitamins, cobalamin is not absorbed in the jejunum or in the proximal (first part of) ileum as they are, but only in the terminal ileum from a quite complex absorption process. This makes absorption very sensitive to diseases affecting specifically, or more frequently, this portion of the digestive tract such as Crohn’s disease.


http://www.yourhealthbase.com/vitamin_B12.html


All that and we are just, just scratching the surface...

If you have trouble locally, you can try online, though the very best sources can get quite pricey.