Spirulina (Arthrospira platensis)

Spirulina Benefits
Spirulina is a simple one-celled microscopic blue-green algae with the scientific name Arthrospira platensis. Under a microscope, spirulina appears as long, thin, blue-green spiral threads. The odor and taste of spirulina is similar to seaweed. Spirulina can be found in many freshwater environments, including ponds, lakes, and rivers. It thrives best under pesticide-free conditions with plenty of sunlight and moderate temperature levels, but it is also highly adaptable, surviving even in extreme conditions. More than 25,000 species of algae live everywhere - in water, in soils, on rocks, on plants. They range in size from a single cell to giant kelp over 150 feet long. Macroalgae are large like seaweeds. Microalgae are microscopic. Ocean microalgae, called phytoplankton, are the base of the ocean food web. Spirulina is often deemed the most nutritionally complete of all food supplements, containing a rich supply of many important nutrients, including protein, complex carbohydrates, iron, and vitamins A, K, and B complex. It also has a high supply of carotenoids such as beta carotene and yellow xanthophylls which have antioxidant properties. It is also rich in chlorophyll, fatty and nucleic acids, and lipids. Thus, spirulina has countless uses as a supplement for maintaining good health and for preventing diseases. Spirulina is the richest beta carotene food, with a full spectrum of ten mixed carotenoids. About half are orange carotenes: alpha, beta and gamma and half are yellow xanthophylls. They work synergistically at different sites in our body to enhance antioxidant protection. Twenty years of research proves eating beta carotene rich fruits and vegetables gives us real anti-cancer protection.

Synthetic beta carotene has not always shown these benefits. Research in Israel showed natural beta carotene from algae was far more effective. Natural is better assimilated and contains the key 9-cis isomer, lacking in synthetic. As suspected, natural carotenoids in algae and vegetables have the most antioxidant and anti-cancer power. Spirulina is an ideal anti-aging food; concentrated nutrient value, easily digested and loaded with antioxidants. Beta carotene is good for healthy eyes and vision. Spirulina beta carotene is ten times more concentrated than carrots. Iron is essential to build a strong system, yet is the most common mineral deficiency. Spirulina is rich in iron, magnesium and trace minerals, and is easier to absorb than iron supplements. Spirulina is the highest source of B-12, essential for healthy nerves and tissue, especially for vegetarians. Healthy Dieting with Spirulina About 60% of spirulinas dry weight is protein, which is essential for growth and cell regeneration. It is a good replacement for fatty and cholesterol-rich meat and dairy products in ones diet. Every 10 grams of spirulina can supply up to 70% of the minimum daily requirements for iron, and about three to four times of minimum daily requirements for vitamins A (in the form of beta carotene), B complex, D,and K. By itself, it does not contain vitamin C, but it helps maintain this vitamins potency. Spirulina is rich in gamma-linolenic acid or GLA, a compound found in breast milk that helps develop healthier babies. Moreover, with its high digestibility, spirulina has been proven to fight malnutrition in impoverished communities by helping the body absorb nutrients when it has lost its ability to absorb normal forms of food. Another health benefit of spirulina is that it stimulates beneficial flora like lactobacillus and bifidobacteria in your digestive tract to promote healthy digestion and proper bowel function. It acts as a natural cleanser by eliminating mercury and other deadly toxins commonly ingested by the body. Spirulina also increases stamina and immunity levels in athletes, and its high protein content helps build muscle mass. At the same time, it can curb hunger that may develop during the most demanding training routines. Thus, it indirectly acts as an effective way to maintain an athletes ideal body weight. The Disease Fighter As well as beta carotene, Spirulina contains other nutrients such as iron, manganese, zinc, copper, selenium, and chromium. These nutrients help fight free radicals, cell-damaging molecules absorbed by the body through pollution, poor diet, injury, or stress. By removing free radicals, the nutrients help

the immune system fight cancer and cellular degeneration. In some findings, spirulina has helped reduce oral cancer tumors in laboratory rats, and may thus provide a big medical breakthrough in cancer treatment. Spirulinas ability to reduce the bad cholesterol LDL in the body helps prevent the onset of cardiovascular diseases, such as hardening of the arteries and strokes. It also helps lower blood pressure. While not clinically proven, spirulina may also protect against allergic reactions and liver infection. Research confirms Spirulina promotes digestion and bowel function. It suppresses bad bacteria like e-coli and Candida yeast and stimulates beneficial flora like lactobacillus and bifidobacteria. Healthy flora is the foundation of good health and it increases absorption of nutrients from the foods we eat, and helps protect against infection. Spirulina builds healthy lactobacillus, aiding assimilation and elimination and relieving constipation. Removing Toxins In 1994, a Russian Patent was awarded for spirulina as a medical food to reduce allergic reactions from radiation sickness. 270 Children of Chernobyl consuming 5 grams a day for 45 days (donated by Earthrise Farms), lowered radionucleides by 50%, and normalized allergic sensitivities. Today we are subject to an onslaught of toxic chemicals in our air, water, food and drugs. Our bodies need to continually eliminate these accumulated toxins. Spirulina has a completely unique combination of phytonutrients - including chlorophyll, phycocyanin and polysaccharides, that can help cleanse our bodies. How to Take Spirulina Spirulina is now commercially available in tablet or powder form. Some health tonics contain spirulina as part of their ingredients. A simple daily regimen for spirulina involves taking a 500 mg tablet four to six times daily. Sources for these forms of spirulina are normally laboratory-grown. Harvesting spirulina from more natural settings has posed a challenge because of possible contamination from toxic substances that cannot be removed from the product. Hopefully, more eco-friendly and safer ways to cultivate the algae can eventually be developed and perfected.

Benefits of Spirulina

Is there any danger of Spirulina?

There are many benefits of Spirulina, as it contains a high concentration of therapeutic nutrients, more so than most other herbal supplements. Some of the many nutrients this blue-green algae contains include a large percentage of digestible protein, Vitamin B-12, beta carotene, iron and gamma-linoleic acid (GLA), an essential fatty acid. Due to this content Spirulina offers many health benefits, as outlined below:

Benefits of Spirulina
1. With ten times more beta carotene than carrots, spirulina is an excellent source of disease fighting antioxidants. 2. An excellent source of vegetable protein with all of the amino acids to build muscle. 3. Spirulina contains a high concentration of B Vitamins, important for maintaining cardiovascular health as well as breaking down carbs and lipids. 4. One of the few sources of GLA, Spirulina is a powerful anti-inflammatory that can benefit arthritis sufferers as well as prevent heart disease among other benefits.

Is there any danger of Spirulina?

When taken in recommended dosages (less than 50 grams/day), it is considered to be relatively safe with few side effects. As with many other supplements, the danger of Spirulina exists when taking an exceedingly large dose. This is due to the algae's high nucleic acid content, which leads to increased uric acid. This could cause kidney problems. Another possible danger of Spirulina is impaired liver function, which could occur with high dosages of minerals and vitamins. However, it remains a very popular supplement, especially in Japan, where users tout the many health benefits of Spirulina.

Spirulina - Friend or Foe?

With its unique blend of so many important nutrients, Spirulina may provide a number of

therapeutic benefits, although clinical studies are rare. Critics point to the potential for kidney or liver problems, but this danger of Spirulina most likely occurs only with excessive dosages. The same can be said for Vitamin C and a host of other supplements. If you are thinking about supplementing Spirulina, make sure you consult your physician and always adhere to recommended dosages to avoid adverse reactions.

Spirulina Health Benefits The State of Spirulina Research: The serious scientific research on the nutritional benefits of spirulina began in the 1960s, when the French firm Sosa Texcoco was investigating it prior to opening their spirulina harvesting plant at Lake Texcoco in Mexico. During the 1970s, many scientists were hopeful that that spirulinas exceptionally high protein content would make it a candidate to feed people in the protein-starved third world. But spirulina research since the 1970s has focused more on its disease-fightingand-prevention potential than its starvation-prevention potential. While there have been only a handful of spirulina studies conducted on humans, its test tube and animal study results are certainly interesting and might one day merit a look from pharmaceutical companies. Many medical and educational institutions are looking at spirulina, and following its progress on their websites: Oregon State University reports on a 2005 study headed by The University of South Floridas Paula Bickford, PhD. Dr. Bickford and her colleagues at James A. Haley Veterans Hospital and the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that, following induced strokes, rats which had been given diets supplemented with spirulina showed brains lesions 75% smaller than those of control group rats. The rats fed spirulina also recovered mobility to a greater extent. The Health Information Center at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles references a second study by Dr. Bickfords team in which the brains of aged rats fed spirulina supplements maintained their neuron function much better, and showed far less free radical damage than those of rats fed cucumbers. Bickfords research is significant because it indicates that spirulina may be helpful in warding off the free radical damage related to aging diseases like Parkinsons and Huntingtons Disease. Kansas State Universitys International Food Safety Network has published a 2005 article

from the Decca, India Herald reporting that Spirulina is approved by both the FDA and the World Health Organization for use as a health food, and mentions it as a source of five essential amino acids which the human body cannot manufacture. The article also refers to spirulinas high mineral content, in particular the amount of iron it contains, its abilities to reduce gastro enteric distress by promoting the growth of intestinal bacteria, and to help prevent gastro enteric infection; and its cholesterol-reducing effects. The abstract of a 2002 study by the Department of Animal Sciences at Indias University of Hyderabad from the US National Institutes of Healths research data publication site, also cited by the University of Maryland Medical Center, explains the process by which spirulina is able to inhibit the elevated levels of Cycloxygenase-2 associated with inflammation and cancer. A second 2002 study (pdf) at Havanas Ozone International Center showed that phycocyanin from spirulina acted as an anti-inflammatory in protecting live mice which had been injected with arthritis-inducing Zymosan. The mice showed no cartilage damage and an inhibited inflammatory response after receiving spirulina for eight days following their Zymosan injections. The animal nutritionals maker Pharma Chemie of Syracuse, NY has since gone on to patent a compound containing phycocyanin, which gives spirulina its blue-green color, as an anti-inflammatory for use in animals. The UMM site also goes on to mention a Kerala, India study of eighty-seven human subjects in which 45% of those exhibiting oral cancer lesions caused from chewing tobacco experienced complete regression of their symptoms after receiving one gram of spirulina fusiformus daily for twelve months. The NYU Medical Center Hospital for Joint Diseases has, on its Center for Children website, a review of some of the research and claims made concerning the health benefits of spirulina. The NYU site mentions that spirulina has shown preliminary promise as in fighting HIV; and its potential against HIV and other viruses was demonstrated in a 1998 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School study. The NYU site also references other numerous but preliminary test tube, animal and human studies which suggest that spirulina might help lower cholesterol and reduce hypertension; prevent cancer; strengthen the livers defense against toxins; and alleviate allergic reactions. Spirulinas effectiveness in fighting allergies was shown in 2005 UC Davis research in which thirty-six rhinitis sufferers were treated with spirulina supplementation, and those who took two grams daily experienced a significant reduction in their allergic symptoms. That research followed a 2000 UC Davis study which showed that when incubated spirulina dilutions, cultured human mononuclear blood cells, including macrophages and lymphocytes, are able to mount a stronger immune response. But the NYU site clearly states that Spirulina has not been proven effective in treating any medical condition and that its use has yet to be well-documented. And both the National

Institute of Health and the U.S. National Medical Library, on their Medline Plus site, graded the existing research on spirulina in August of 2006. Their findings were that there was unclear scientific evidence to support the claims of spirulinas use in treating diabetes, high cholesterol, and oral cancers. Proponents of spirulinas health benefits certainly have reason for optimism, but it seems clear that many more human studies, on much greater numbers of subjects, will be necessary if spirulinas potential is to receive mainstream recognition. Pure Whole Spirulina Whole, Air dried Spirulina This is what my supplier told me After reading about a French spirulina micro farm and the way they process the harvested product, I was so impressed that I contacted several spirulina producers until I found one who is processing it the way they do it on that French spirulina micro farm: harvested spirulina is reduced to a thick paste, then pressed through a machine similar to a noodle maker or meat mincer, to make either long round noodles (like spaghetti) or very wide ribbon noodles. These noodles are then placed on trays and in a large dryer with fan forced heated air circulation. In the driers it stays for a maximum of seven hours and the maximum temperature of the circulated air is 60 degrees Celsius (spirulina harvested from desert locations reaching surface temperatures of 62 degrees Celsius came out of dormination upon contact with water). The moisture contents is reduced to 5 7%. Then the chips are crushed/milled to customers specifications. This is how spirulina is processed anywhere else: The harvested spirulina is reduced to a thick paste, then it goes to a rotary atomizer to mill it into the smallest particles possible. The very fine paste is then heated to about 60 degrees Celsius and sprayed into a drying chamber. The air inlet temperature is 120 140 degrees Celsius; the air outlet temperature is about 85 degrees Celsius. The drying takes six to eight seconds. (The air temperature must be so high and the spirulina powder must be so fine, because the powder must dry up while falling from the top of the drying chamber to the floor.) The powder is then bulk packed, or it goes for tableting, or granulated for capsuling the powder is too fine to be filled into capsules. The granulation involves mixing it with a binder and going through a machine similar to an instant coffee granulator. Only then these granules can be filled into capsules.

So, if you buy encapsulated spray died spirulina, dont believe that you are getting pure spirulina. Whole, Air dried Spirulina What makes this whole (or raw) spirulina nutritionally superior to spray dried spirulina? Every cell of spirulina entering the rotary atomizer is crushed and the filament exposed to very hot air. Everybody knows that if the skin of an apple is not cut and the apple is stored in atmospheric temperatures, it will keep all its nutritional values for months and months. If you will chop it up, you have to dry it for future use, but the nutritional value is reduced proportionally to the temperature used for drying. The higher the temperature the greater loss of nutrients. Though I havent tried it, I have a feeling if you would mix whole, raw spirulina with water and gave it the right growing conditions, it would start growing again it is live food just like all raw fruits and vegetables and everybody knows that raw foods are the healthiest. All clinical trials are made with whole spirulina, not with spray dried spirulina. Whole, raw spirulina is also much easier to mix with water, juices, or other foods. And because the cell walls are not damaged, the odour and taste are not as pungent as spirulina that was finely milled in the atomizer. (It wasnt long before Ive noticed the superiority of whole spirulina over the spirulina Ive been distributing since 1995. The most noticeable difference is a less pungent taste and odour and much easier mixing of the powder. It is also a lot more effective in neutralizing the onions and garlic breath.) The users benefits of tableting and encapsulating raw spirulina without any additives are self evident certainty of getting a 100% pure product. Because the chips can be milled to granules of the right size, there is no need to re-granulate it, thus you have encapsulated pure spirulina powder. I dont know who discovered it, but when the chips are milled to certain grain size, and compressed in a special tableting machine, under very high pressure the protein and carbohydrates will act as glue and bind the powder together. This is not possible with spray-dried spirulina the heat during spray drying changes the physical properties of spirulina (you cant do with a boiled egg, what you can do with a raw egg). Organically Grown Spirulina I expect many spirulina aficionados will want to know the source of my raw spirulina and whether it is certified organic. I will not reveal the source of my raw spirulina. It is a relatively small site and just about all of the spirulina goes to Europe. US definition of an organically grown product differs to European Economic Community definition, thus Hawaiian certified organic spirulina cannot be sold in EEC as such it doesnt meet the EECs criteria for

classifying it as organic. So, for my supplier there is no worthwhile reason to have his production site certified by US authorities as organic. Some customers are concerned about the levels of heavy metals and harmful bacteria in spirulina from some sources. These days practically all Spirulina is grown in medium unusually free of contamination by other organisms, and so it is one of the cleanest, most naturally sterile foods. Even the best laboratory would find it nigh impossible to notice a difference between certified organic and no certified Spirulina. Certified Organic is a very effective marketing ploy, but it needs not to be a factor in anybodys choice of a brand. Very stringent levels of contaminants were set ages ago and Australian & New Zealand Food Authority tests every imported lot for them. So, you can be certain that if you buy ANY spirulina brand in Australia, you wont have to worry about any contaminants it will be as good as certified organic. Not one brand of Spirulina has ever been even suspected of adverse health effects, or causing complications with the use of any medication. Even the closure of Sosa Texcoca in 1994 was not caused by chemical contamination and toxicity of the product it had above limit counts of insect fragment and foreign plant materials. Claims, that if the Spirulina is not Certified Organic it is slowly poisoning you, are ridiculous, outlandish, and slanderous. Slander campaigns have the notoriety of backfiring. In the end, even fact-based claims of the slander initiators are disbelieved.

Alice, What is spirulina? I found some websites that say it's the best thing in terms of nutrition, but I haven't found a source I really trust.

Dear Reader, Spirulina is a common type of blue-green algae that grows in warm fresh water. Many people tout the nutritional and curative properties of spirulina, and it has been consumed for centuries by many cultures throughout the world. As a nutritional supplement, spirulina usually comes in the form of pills or powders. It is a source of protein,carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Eating five grams of spirulina provides about 230 percent of the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) of vitamin A and beta carotene, 150 percent of the RDAs of vitamin D and vitamin B12, and 125 percent of the RDA of vitamin K. It's also a rich source of carotenoids, copper, vitamin E, iron, manganese, selenium, and zinc, and studies show that taking spirulina in moderation is not harmful.

Some people believe spirulina may help boost the immune system, prevent allergic reactions, combat certain viruses, lower cholesterol, protect the liver, fight cancer, and even aid in weight loss. So far, studies on animals or in test tubes demonstrate some effectiveness in some of these areas. However, there isn't enough evidence from research with humans to be able to make firm conclusions about its health benefits. Some people experience side effects or allergic reactions from consistently taking spirulina (at least one gram daily). These may include headache, flushing of the face, sweating, difficulty concentrating, and nausea. The Food and Drug Administration does not strictly regulate herbs and nutritional supplements the way it does prescription medications; there is no guarantee of the potency, purity, or safety of products such as spirulina. In fact, there may be a risk of contamination by other potentially harmful microorganisms or heavy metals, e.g., mercury. Since there are potential health risks involved, it's a good idea to speak with a health care provider before taking spirulina.