Immune System Function

CHD-FA: Benefits for Gut Health, Candida, and Immune Optimisation- (reduces the risk of serious illness)

  1. Digestive System and Digestive Function
  2. What is CHD-FA
  3. Prebiotics, Probiotics, and Fermented Foods
  4. CHD-FA Detox Effects
  5. People who benefit from taking Bettamed
  6. Bettamed Capsule Ingredients
  7. Bettamed Capsule side-effects
  8. COVID – Infection, Prevention and Control Guide

The benefit of a properly functioning immune system is improved well-being, skin condition, resistance to common infections and the ability to suppress allergic reactions. Mostly it tips the odds in your favour!

Your Immune System and Digestive System have an important link

Your immune system is a complex defense system. The main part of which is your gastrointestinal tract, which is the largest barrier between you and the outside world.

1. The Digestive System and Digestive Function

Researchers are now saying that up to 90% of all diseases can be traced in some way back to the gut and health of the microbiome.

The importance of this cannot be overstated.

Indigestion and digestive issues, sometimes referred to as food intolerances may include: bloating, discomfort after eating certain foods (usually simple carbohydrates like pasta, bread, cakes, pies etc) and sugar.

Poor diet, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication (including antacids) changes the composition and function of a person’s gut microbiota, or “gut bacteria.” The trillions of bacteria in the human gut affect our health are adversely affected by: sugar, alcohol, artificial colourants, preservatives and lack of food diversity, especially fruit and vegetable.

Digestive Function & its link to Immune Function

The gastrointestinal tract is like an internal skin. It also contains the largest number of immune cells of your entire body, constituting approximately 80% of your immune system.

Altogether, your immune system functions as an amazing team, working to keep you healthy, safe, and alive.

2. What is Bettamed CHD-FA

Carbohydrate-Derived Fulvic Acid (our pure patented CHD-FA™) is a proven anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant agent whilst also assisting with nutritional uptake by up to 500%.

 Boost Your Immune System and Microbiome Gut Health. Take the Right Action to get Immune Health Results Fast.


Hailed the “holy grail of good health”, by doctors and physicians, Fulvic Acid helps nourish the digestive tract and boosts the ability of “good bacteria” to repopulate and form a healthy “microbiome”.

Carbohydrate derived fulvic acid with its ability to transport oxygen, nutrients and minerals, are beneficial for treating a wide range of conditions. An interesting CHD-FA fact is that we are accustomed to it already due to its presence in plant-sourced foods.

Bettamed “Cleanse & Recover” capsules and liquid, is a blended formula that consists of CHD-FA, Vitamin A, Vitamin, C, Zinc and Selenium. It is scientifically formulated in the correct concentrations for proper Immune Function. This makes it a valuable support after surgery, chemotherapy, having a baby, or healing an open wound, including bedsores and leg ulcers.

CHD-FA Benefits

CHD-FA is beneficial for the following:

  • Candida and other Resistant Yeast infections
  • Gut health and stomach lining healing
  • Skin conditions like Eczema, Itchy Rashes & Acne
  • Shingles
  • Nail and toenail infections
  • Bed Sores and Leg Ulcers
  • Piles
  • Cold Sores
  • Tinea (Jock Itch) & Athletes Foot

CHD-FA has superb anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties that work naturally to restore skin health by shifting the stomach environment and modulating the immune system.

Researchers consider Bettamed’s CHD-FA – pure plant sourced fulvic acid to be: “the Ultimate Nutrient Booster, because of the “Supernutrition Effect”. Besides providing raw nutrients to your Immune Cells; minerals & antioxidants are transported and absorbed much more effectively.”- Dr Josh Axe.

Bettamed “Cleanse & Recover” can be found in capsule (and liquid) form. Its unique ability to easily pass through cellular membranes, allows it to be absorbed and chelation allows it to boost the assimilation of other nutrients and supplements.

Bettamed CHD-FA  can be taken in small doses and still create vast improvements in the ratio of bacteria living in the gut, which stimulates the immune system to help defend the body against viruses, like COVID, reduce autoimmune stress and calm inflammation.

Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are types of inflammatory bowel disease that can occur in different parts of the digestive system. The inflammation results in pain, intense diarrhoea, bloating, bleeding, lethargy, weakness, weight loss, and malnutrition. It can even advance into the underlying layers of the bowel, which can lead to lethal complications.

A mucus-covered tissue called the epithelium lines your digestive system. It acts to defend your gut from potentially dangerous toxins and micro-organisms. Individuals with inflammatory issues in their digestive systems lose this healthy mucus-covered barrier, and when stimulated, the epithelial cells begin to secrete interleukin 8 and other proteins that cause inflammation.

CHD-FA disrupts the release of interleukins and thereby reduces inflammation in the gut.

3. Prebiotics, Probiotics, and Fermented Foods

CHD-FA is a supplement that can support gut health even if you do not have candidiasis. Is it a probiotic? Well, no. CHD-FA isn’t a probiotic, but it can help to support the health of your digestive system through its anti-inflammatory and antifungal effects.

Regardless of whether Probiotics have been taken, missing gut microbes will cause digestion issues. There is strong evidence that the stomach is able to regenerate its own flora over a period of 30-60 days, and that stomach flora prefer Probiotic foods way above supplements.

The missing piece is that gut flora won’t reseed if the stomach lining is “leaky” and inflamed.

Bettamed “Cleanse & Recover” capsules (or liquid) can be used to repair the “leaky” stomach lining. Bettameds patented organic CHD-FA active ingredient has been shown to act naturally as an anti-inflammatory agent on par with diclofenac. This makes it imperative as a first step to the reseeding process with Probiotic foods.

Research has shown that Probiotic foods:

  • don’t reseed as vigorously when the stomach lining is still inflamed and (therefore) “leaky”.
  • allow for poor microbe diversity and incomplete regeneration of the gut flora which creates skin & health issues months after illness.

4. Bettamed Detox Effects

 Here are a few of the benefits of Bettamed “Cleanse & Recover” capsules (or liquid) with CHD-FA:

  • It kills yeasts, including Candida Albicans
  • Studies have shown its potency to be similar to prescription anti-fungals. Peter Warn, Euprotec UK.
  • It helps to regulate the acidity in your stomach and gut, by healing the stomach lining with its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties.
  • It boosts your immune system. Prof J Snyman, Univ. of Pretoria.
  • CHD-FA is known to work synergistically through chelation with both natural ingredients and medications.
  • CHD-FA is a multi-faceted molecule with distinct anti-bacterial abilities against resistant infections like Staph and E Coli which strengthens a healing approach for overall immune health and healing. Prof. David Perlin, USA.

Bettamed is not only hugely beneficial for digestion and improving energy, but also for lower free-radical damage. It binds-to-and-breaks-down toxins and metals that enter the body through medications and pollutants.

CHD-FA uses the lymphatic system to remove and toxins from the body- as waste .

5. People who benefit from taking Bettamed® :

  • People with chronic or acute diseases and conditions like, TB, Diabetes, Eczema Asthma, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Sinus Infections, which stresses the immune system, diminishing it’s capacity to deal with infection and allergies.
  • People on chronic medication (which interferes with nutrient absorption and energy levels),
  • Mothers’ who are breastfeeding,
  • Children with poor immune systems,
  • Athletes in training,
  • People with recurring viral sores (like cold sores),
  • People with allergies (especially itchy skin or prone to rashes),
  • People with acne prone skin,
  • People with recurring fungal infections (like Candida),
  • People recuperating from illness and operations,
  • People with slow healing wounds and burns,
  • Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and radiation.

Bettamed® Capsules

A Super Supplement to Boost Immune System Function

Bettamed has pioneered the use of CHD-FA in South Africa, since 2006. The combined work of: Research Scientists, in the UK and at the University of Pretoria; our chief Biochemist and our doctorate Pharmacist has produced the best Fulvic Acid product in South Africa.

Bettamed capsules (and liquid), are a source of:

  • the best mix of vitamins and a balanced variety of micro-nutrients,
  • to increase digestive health and optimal nutrient absorption
  • so that you can enjoy optimal health, strong healing ability and your best appearance.

6. Bettamed® Capsules Ingredients

  • CHD-FA –(our pure plant-sourced Fulvic Acid)
  •  CHD-FA encapsulates and removes infection from the bloodstreamas waste.
  • Zinc
  • Vitamin A
  • Vitamin C
  • Selenium
  • This formula is specifically designed to interfere with virus cell entry and cell multiplication.
  • The evidence found in the literature shows that deficiency of one or more of these three elements (Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Selenium) compromises the immune response, making an individual more vulnerable to viral infections and to a more severe disease outcome.
  • Your body is able to function at a higher level, because it is not doing battle against germs on its own.

Zinc

Zinc is an essential nutrient for everyone, and it’s a powerful antioxidant known to boost immunity. It has even been described as the “gatekeeper of immune function.”

You can find zinc in plant foods, such as wheat germ, beans, legumes, nutritional yeast, oats, nuts, and seeds. However, plant-based diets are often high in phytates (found in cereal grains and corn), which can inhibit the absorption of zinc from other foods and ultimately increase your daily requirements.

Zinc also improves the absorption of Vitamin A. Vitamin A plays an important role in the maintenance of the Immune System, is essential for vision, cell formation and the integrity of the body’s mucus membranes. Vitamin A plays a role in the heath of many organs including: heart, lungs and kidneys.

CHD-Fulvic Acid which is unmatched as an anti-oxidant, taken together with Zinc & Selenium– combine as great healers. Fulvic Acid increases Zinc absorption by up to 500%, which advances Immune Function, heals acne and calms inflammation related to eczema and shingles.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is used by your body for wound healing, repairing, and maintaining the health of your bones and teeth, and plays a role in helping your body absorb iron.

It plays a role in your body’s production of collagen, carnitine (which helps your body turn fat into energy), and catecholamines (hormones made by your adrenal glands).

Vitamin C also helps regenerate vitamin E from its oxidized form. In turn Vitamin E is an important immune booster- strengthening the activity and functioning of immune cells, and warding off infection.

Vitamin C also boosts your body’s ability to absorb iron from the foods you eat, and plays a role in detoxification, as it helps neutralize and eliminate a range of toxins from your body.

One of the most famous forerunners of high dose vitamin C treatment for colds and other disease was Linus Carl Pauling (1901-1994), a physical chemist and peace activist who won two Nobel Prizes; one in chemistry in 1954, followed by a Nobel Peace Prize in 1962.

The New Scientist magazine ranked him as one of the 20 greatest scientists to ever live.

7. Bettamed Capsule side-effects

CHD-FA can cause a softer stool than usual. Individuals experiencing Candida “Cleanse” or die-off symptoms, may experience symptoms similar to a detox diet. People wanting to avoid “die-off” symptoms will prefer CHD-FA.

CHD-FA has a much higher safety profile and an even higher Therapeutic Index than Caprylic Acid.

 

Side-Effect

Safety Profile

Reported issues

Caprylic Acid CHD-FA

Bettamed “Cleanse & Recover”

Nausea Yes Very rare
Diarrhoea Yes Rare
Heartburn Yes
Vomiting Yes
Bloating & Stomach Pain Yes Safe for use

Helpful for these issues

Low Blood Pressure Yes Safe for use
Not to be taken with: COQ10, Highblood Pressure meds, Anti-inflammatories

eg. Cataflam, Nurofen & Asprin

Yes Safe for use
Not to be taken if Breastfeeding Yes Safe for use
Not to be taken if you have liver issues Yes Safe for use
Not to be taken if you have IBS, SIBO, Crohns or any other inflammatory stomach issues Yes Safe for use

Helpful for these issues

8. COVID – Infection, Prevention and Control

  • COVID treatment at home
  • COVID treatment to prevent hospitalisation
  • Products that help you protect your living spaces and loved ones!
  • PRACTICAL AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND COVID ADVICE

    What if a family member tests positive for COVID?

    How do I protect myself against Infection?

    How do I treat COVID at home?

    How do I reduce the risk of hospitalisation?

    What have we’ve learned about COVID so far?

    DOSAGE ADVICE – Help with COVID

    Bettamed has been involved with Immune and Wound Product Development for the past decade and a half.

     How do I protect myself against Infection?

    Dr. Roger Seheult, who is multi-disciplinary board-certified in Internal Medicine, Sleep Medicine, Critical Care Medicine and Pulmonary Diseases (lung diseases), maintains that, because the COVID virus mutates every two weeks, controlled trials will not keep pace; and will not produce a permanent cure for the disease.

    His reasoning is that: We should therefore look to systems that we already know and trust– in order to help us deal with COVID and other viruses”!

    •  Dr Roger Seheult, who has in-depth  experience of working on the frontline of the COVID pandemic, and is the co-founder of Medcram , has both practical and thoughtfully determined information based on solid  Scientific Data, as well as, how Natural Remedies can:
    • boost our immune systems, and
    • reduce the risk of hospitalisation

    We should learn from hard-won insights and the subsequent:

    • Biologically plausible strategies rooted in early medicine
    • that are low-risk, high-reward treatment modalities,
    • that have practical applications, and
    • link to our present understanding of human biology.

     How do I treat COVID at home?

    What can I do to take care of myself or a loved one is diagnosed with COVID?

    He maintains that prevention and treatment amount to the same thing as a way of tipping the scales in-favour-of-you!

    Understanding Key Aspects of Immune Function is key to optimising your Immune system in order to prevent and treat infection.

    The body relies on a 3 key mechanisms to defend itself against pathogens, including:

    • Vitamin D
    • Fever,
    • Sleep, and

     

    Prevention and treatment should therefore include:

    1.Supplementation Strategies

    DOSAGE ADVICE – Help with COVID and flu this Winter

    Read more here:  https://www.bettamed.com/viral-infections/

    Bettamed® Capsules Ingredients include:

    • CHD-FA –(our pure plant-sourced Fulvic Acid)
    • Zinc
    • Vitamin A
    • Vitamin C
    • Selenium
    • This formula is specifically designed to interfere with virus cell entry and cell multiplication.
    • The evidence found in the literature shows that deficiency of one or more of these three elements (Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Selenium) compromises the immune response, making an individual more vulnerable to viral infections and to a worse disease outocme.

    CHD-FA encapsulates and removes infection from the bloodstreamas waste.

    CHD-FA (our pure Fulvic Acid)- was granted a patent 2 years ago for our work to help avert a drug-resistant flu epidemic in Indonesia. The product is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial that augments the assimilation of other medications.

    In 2005 and 2006 Bettamed’s CHD-FA (our pure patented Fulvic Acid) was tested at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA against Avian Flu, H5N1, X31, Pr8 and a recombinant Vietnamese strain of influenza.

    The conclusion of the test report stated that: `CHD-FA inactivates all strains of influenza virus tested. The results from this report, coupled with existing data relating to the antiviral activity of CHD-FA against many strains of HIV, Vaccinia and the SARS virus, further demonstrate the broad spectrum anti-viral nature of CHD-FA’. 

    Specific testing of CHD-FA against COVID viruses is currently being done in the USA; and the same result can be assumed- from this early testing.

    Vitamin D

    Dr. Seheult describes some interesting associations between COVID risks, outcomes, and Vitamin D status.

    Vitamin D is a steroid hormone that serves as a major regulator of immune function and plays a particularly important role in preventing respiratory tract infections. It activates the innate immune system, which elicits an early antiviral response. Vitamin D inhibits the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which can play a role in a cytokine storm.

    Genetically low plasma vitamin D levels are associated with higher mortality from respiratory infections, and three variants of the vitamin D receptor are associated with a higher risk of respiratory tract infections in both adults and children.

    Since ultraviolet light is required for vitamin D synthesis in the skin, reduced exposure to the sun or having dark-coloured skin impairs vitamin D production.

    Approximately 70 percent of people living in modern society have vitamin D insufficiency and approximately 30 percent have a deficiency.

    Evidence suggests that the recommendations for vitamin D intake are too low.

    The Endocrinological Society is saying that the upper limits that you can take without supervision is 4000 international units a day.

    If you’ve been supplementing with vitamin D all along and you come down with COVID, continue to supplement with vitamin D.

    There is evidence out of India in the SHADE study where they gave 50,000 units orally daily for seven days, and then ramped it back down to a regular dose of approximately 4000-5000 units (international units).

    At the endpoint, there was an increased clearance of the virus; there were decreased inflammatory markers.

    Note: Not everybody can take 50,000 units or even supplemental vitamin D. There are some conditions, like sarcoid, where this would not be the best thing to do so.

    At the Mayo Clinic they looked at over 20,000 patients who supplemented anywhere between 0 up to 55,000 units daily; and there was only one person that had hypercalcemia from vitamin D toxicity in 20,000 patients. They conclude that it’s probably the safest fat-soluble vitamin there is.

    2. Heat Therapy

    Fever is the body’s attempt to make itself inhospitable to invaders.

    Although high fevers can be harmful. But hindering the body’s natural protective response can be detrimental as well.

    Dr. Seheult describes an example during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic where attempting to suppress fevers proved harmful. Influenza patients in army hospitals treated with aspirin to reduce fever tended to have worse outcomes than patients in other treatment facilities where aspirin was not given.

    (It is interesting to note that SARS-CoV-2 elicits a diminished fever response due to its suppression of the innate immune system).

    Raising core body temperature may be analogous to having a fever and helps activate the body’s interferon response.

    Dr. Wagner-Jauregg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1927, and according to an article that was published in 2013, simple immersion of the individual in a hot bath or placing him in a sauna was one of the means by which this was done.

    Dr Seheult looks to the example of Dr. Julius Wagner-Jauregg, who was an Austrian psychiatrist and noted that his patients with neurosyphilis got better when they had a fever. He then went ahead and infected them with malaria –which produces high fevers, on purpose- and essentially cured them of their neurosyphilis.

    We suspect a lot of these techniques were forgotten because the very next year- after Dr. Wagner-Jauregg won his Nobel Prize, in 1928, penicillin was discovered- which opened up a completely new door of therapeutics.

    What you want to do is you want to heat up the body comfortably, so by making sure you’ve got a cold towel on your head or neck, so that your head is not warming up in temperature, just the body. Do that for about 20 minutes and then a very quick cool down at the end, and allow that to stimulate the part of the immune system that is suppressed in COVID.

     3.The Importance of Sleep

    Sleep is essential for immune health, and fragmented or insufficient sleep can have profound impacts on viral immunity.

    One important strategy that Dr. Seheult identifies to achieve high-quality sleep begins early in the day, with exposure to bright light – a means of setting the body’s circadian rhythm and ensuring the body is prepared for sleep later. Other strategies include reducing light exposure at night (especially blue light from screens) and decreasing stimuli that might keep us awake (like television).

    Dr Seheult maintains that sleep is very important, especially now that we’re talking about people getting vaccinations.

    Sleep bolsters the immune response to vaccinations.

    There’s good data that goes back many years in terms of the flu vaccine, that if you are getting at least seven hours of sleep prior to vaccination, the antibody response and the immune response is much more robust and better after vaccination– and that also goes along with trying, again, to prevent yourself from getting the infection.

    There was a study of students, where they purposely put rhinovirus into the nasopharynx in their noses. Those that had a good night’s sleep from previously when they interviewed them, had much less chance of getting a cold and getting the virus than those that had not.

    So sleep is very, very important.

    It’s particularly the hours of sleep early in the night, associated with slow-wave sleep. The hours of sleep before midnight are probably worth more by the hour than those after midnight.

    By the way, the slow-wave sleep trial is also associated with growth hormone secretion, which is really, really important in terms of longevity!!

    Data on COVID-19 Disease Progression

    What have we learned so far?

    A paper published in The Lancet in mid-February 2020, showed that from infection to symptoms is an incubation period of about five days. 

    After symptoms develop, there are about seven days where symptoms progress, and if it leads to hospitalization, that’s when it’s going to occur – at about the seventh day.

    About 20 percent of those patients will go on to need hospitalization, in the intensive care unit, and potentially even death. But, 80 percent of those patients who develop symptoms will actually get better on their own, and the reason why they get better on their own in the early phase is because of their innate-not adaptive- immune system.

    It’s becoming increasingly clear in the early part of the infection — that part of the infection where the patient is at home and he’s having mild symptoms — that the part of the immune system that’s really responsible for taking care of this is the innate immune system, and unfortunately this portion of the immune system, the innate immune system, gets weaker with age. And the particular cell types that are involved with the innate immune system are the monocytes and the natural killer cells, and one of the primary out products, if you will, of the innate immune system is the interferon response. It’s very important that this molecule interferon does exactly what it’s named to do and that is to interfere with viral infections.

    What we’re finding out is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is interfering with the body’s interferon, and that’s why it’s allowed to progress through that seven-day period of time and progress even to the point of needing hospitalization.

    A paper published in March in the Asian Pacific Journal of Allergy and Immunology, confirmed that with the first SARS virus and also MERS and other coronaviruses- that the innate immune system response is a critical factor for disease outcome.

    Another paper published by Dr. Gough, bore out these predictions. Dr Gough reviewed the data from SARS and MERS studies, which suggest that the patients most susceptible to severe disease are those that cannot mount an effective early antiviral immune response.  In summary, where the interferon response is delayed – patients had higher viral loads and severe disease.

    Two other papers published in the prestigious journal, Science, also indicate that the interferon response is very, very important. They found that in patients with mutations in their ability to mount an interferon response, there was essentially no interferon, and these patients had severe cases of COVID.

    In other words, if we look at patients that did not have any mutations and had good interferon response- we see patients with more mild infection.