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THE MIRACLE OF BROWN
SEAWEED EXTRACT
Mike: Many of you
reading this may have
heard about some of the
benefits of plants from
the ocean
and, in particular,
brown seaweed. You may
have seen some of the
recent news stories
about the specific
constituents of brown
seaweed helping get rid
of excess body fat, or
you may have read about
them
helping to eliminate
radiation poisoning from
the body, or perhaps
even about some of the
anti-cancer
effects of various
seaweeds. Many of you
are probably also
familiar with the
greatly enhanced
longevity
of the Japanese people,
who probably eat more
seaweed than any other
culture in the world.
Today we’re going to be
talking about one
specific type of
seaweed, brown seaweed,
and the extract
form available in a
product called Modifilan,
and we’re going to be
talking to Sergei Zimin,
owner of
Pacific Standard
Distributors Inc., which
currently produces and
sells Modifilan. So
thanks for joining
me today, Sergei.
Sergei: Thank you for
making this happen.
Mike: How long has your
company been producing
this product, and where
does your brown seaweed
actually come from? Is
it ocean grown or farm
grown?
Sergei: The raw material
we make our extract from
comes from Russian
waters; it’s actually a
far
eastern part of Russia,
off the Asiatic part of
the Siberian continent,
near the Kuril Islands
between
Japan and Kamchatka.
People may also know
these islands by their
controversial political
geography,
which makes Japan claim
this territory as their
own northern territories
while Russia—which
actually
took those islands after
the Second World
War—claims them as well.
Our kombu—the common
name of this variety of
brown seaweed—is not
farmed, and it’s not the
type
of sea plant that is
planted or gathered.
It’s in the middle of
the ocean, about 600
miles away from the
closest commercial port.
The island around which
we get this particular
raw material is called
Urup.
Mike: How do you harvest
this? Is this off of a
boat, or do you have
divers?
Sergei: A boat is
involved, but it’s a
little tugboat from
which we gather bunches
of leaves hand-cut by
divers and tow them to
shore. The kombu leaves
are huge. It’s the
largest possible type of
Laminaria
found in a natural
habitat.
In order to make our
product extract, you
have to have a very
large, elephant-type of
leaf so you have
lots of the gooey inside
parts to squeeze out.
It’s like aloe vera.
When you cut it in half,
you can even
see some of the
polysaccharide—that
gooey substance inside
the leaf.
So the divers cut them
in shallow waters,
probably not more than
15 meters deep—which is
what, like
45 feet deep—usually no
deeper. They put several
leaves in a bunch, tie
them with a rope, and
the little
boat brings them
onshore. We gather raw
material for our product
twice a year. The good
thing about collecting
this way—when we do it
by hand—is that when you
cut it with a
knife, you come to the
same spot next year and
the plant will have
mushroomed. You’ll see
four leaves
growing from exactly the
spot where you got only
one before. But if you
do it by dragging—like
they
do it in the northeast
states, Ireland or
Japan—you have to look
for these plants
somewhere else. It’s
not going to be sitting
in the same spot. It’s
not going to be in the
same bay.
So in our case, when we
harvested our first
batch back in 1997, we
didn’t have enough
funds, force,
and money to hire any
dragger or troller to
get it. So we had to use
divers. It turned out to
be the best
investment in our
business, because later,
we were told that the
way we do it helps our
business actually
stay in business. We’re
not afraid of losing the
raw material because the
more product we cut, the
more
raw material we can
expect to see next year
if we come to the same
spot.
But this particular
kelp, Laminaria, is
something only we can
harvest in this
particular quarter. And
the way we do it is very
sensible in all aspects,
including the business
aspect where simply, the
more
product you harvest, the
more raw material you
can expect to see next
season. It comes from
territories
close to the islands,
but it’s quite remote
from the continent.
Mike: Sounds like a very
ecologically sustainable
system of harvesting.
Sergei: Yes, it’s a
clean place. That is
actually one of the
questions retail
customers ask when they
find
out about our product:
“How far is the source
of your seaweed from
Chernobyl?” Because it’s
one of
the very few places that
people generally know
about in the ex-Soviet
Union, you know? But
it’s on
the totally opposite
side of the planet—a
good ten thousand miles
away from that place,
and it’s 600
miles—at least—away from
the first public sewer
system.
Mike: Yeah—Chernobyl is
in Western Russia.
Sergei: That’s exactly
the point. Chernobyl is
in the Ukraine, which is
in the western part;
it’s actually
in Europe. So we are
talking about islands
that are in the far
eastern part of Russia.
You can’t get any
further. It’s still
called Siberia, but
Russians call it the
“Far East.” This is
where I’m from. I was
born
and brought up on
Sakhalin Island, which
is the regional capital.
My partner and I are
both from this
region. That’s how
business started: I have
known of this product
for about 20 years.
Mike: So after you
harvest these leaves,
you squeeze them to get
the juice, dehydrate the
juice, and
that’s the extract?
Sergei: It’s a little
bit more complicated
than that. We don’t just
squeeze it, but it’s not
a chemical
process. After we pull
them to shore, we have
to instantly dry them so
they don’t rot, so we
put them on
a wooden fence to dry
out—it’s a very fast
process, especially if
you do it in the sun and
the wind, which is a
constant factor on those
shores. And then we put
the dried seaweed in
little rolls and
transport
them to the mainland,
where the initial
processing takes place.
We put a very small
amount of water in to
bring them back to life,
which is a very fast
process. They
absorb an enormous
amount of water, but at
the same time, we have
to use just enough to
make the
leaves juicy again. So
we skin them, and the
outer part of the
Laminaria leaves goes
into something
that looks like a big
meat grinder.
We don’t throw away the
skin part of kombu
leaves, we grind it into
something that looks
like a paste.
What is left behind of
those leaves after we
skin them is very thin,
but you can touch it.
It’s a small
layer, a very thin layer
of gel, the inside part
of the kombu leaves. We
don’t put that layer
through the
grinder; we cut it into
chunks. That paste we
get after we put the
outer parts through the
grinder; the
paste gets mixed with
those chunks of the
inner part of the kombu
leaves, and it’s
squeezed through
cheesecloth-like.
We throw away what stays
in the net, because this
is actually the harsh
part of the seaweed that
humans cannot digest.
The only creatures that
actually can eat seaweed
and fully digest it,
process
it, and turn it into
something are the sea
urchins and abalone.
These are the only
creatures that can
munch on seaweed and
work it through
completely, fiber-wise.
Anyway, that disposal
part goes away,
and the batch of gooey
substance that was
squeezed from the cloth
goes into a cold vacuum
blower—
it’s actually called a
drying chamber—where
it’s a low temperature,
and we can turn this big
chunk of
glue into something that
dehydrates and starts to
look like a big boulder.
It’s like a big rock. So
we have
to physically crack it
into smaller chips and
put it in a big,
commercial coffee
grinder. This is the
final
step. We turn these
chunks of rock into a
powder, and this is what
Modifilan is.
Basically, we can’t say
that this is a juice of
seaweed, because first
of all it’s dried; it’s
in a powder form.
By its nature, we can
call it an extract, but
at the same time it’s
more mechanical
extraction, a coldwater-
processing product made
by natural means. We
don’t break anything; we
don’t take anything
out or add anything in
terms of mineral content
or composition. We
simply make seaweed
mineral
qualities available.
Mike: What about the
heat? Is there ever any
heat processing?
Sergei: No. There is no
boiling or heating. It’s
a little bit above room
temperature when the
leaves
gets squeezed, just
because of the mechanics
of the process, but the
drying process is in a
true colddehydration
chamber.
Mike: So this probably
explains, why your
product has such a
potent taste and smell.
I have some of
your product, and I’ve
been using it for a
while. Sergei: It makes
a big difference, yes?
We do not kill enzymes.
Mike: That was one of my
questions.
Sergei: We do not kill
the living part, which
is actually responsible
for mineral transfer
right after
you put it in your
mouth. Sometimes you
definitely taste the
difference, and natural
eaters will love
the flavor and smell of
Modifilan powder. But
for some people how it
tastes comes as a
surprise. If you
open up the capsules and
put them under your
tongue, they bite you!
That action actually
shows that it’s a very
alive food. Another
thing is if you mix it
with water, and just
put it at room
temperature for a day or
so, it will get rotten
very fast. It eats
itself up like crazy.
The
so-called quantum
properties of our
product—which is the
speed of
polysaccharides, you
know—is
very high.
There are dead foods.
There are live foods,
and then there are
super-live foods. And I
truly suspect that
we belong to the third
category. If you put a
good, fresh cut of meat
out and see what happens
to it the
next day, it’s the same
thing with Modifilan.
You can actually turn
this into paste.
If you mix it with water
and keep it in the
refrigerator, it’s fine.
But if you leave it at
room temperature or
at a warm temperature,
it really gets rotten
very fast, which, again,
proves that it’s a very
alive substance.
Mike: And for those
consumers,
too—especially in
America—who may not be
consumers of a lot of
seafood or sea
vegetables, they may
find the taste a little
surprising at first, as
I did. But
intellectually I
know that that’s what I
want, because it tells
me the potency of this
is very real, and that
it doesn’t have
a lot of filler just to
make it taste better.
Besides, it’s not like
you’re chewing on it,
you’re just swallowing
some capsules.
Sergei: Yes, you’re
right, there is no
filler. We are a small
company,
administration-wise, and
our
product has been made
for 10 years now. We
don’t use any fillers,
no rice powder. Many
manufacturers
of food supplements do
it by default, because
they don’t want to clean
their machinery often,
and they
want their powders to go
into capsules easily.
With our product, you
really have to stand
next to the
encapsulator and do a
cleanup regularly. We
don’t use any fillers or
preservatives. All you
see in the
capsule is just the
extract itself,
straight.
And again, the powder
itself has a very
interesting and unique
taste. For a natural
eater, it’s very
pleasant. Before I
started to make this
product, the way I used
it was a tablespoon of
powder mixed into
a glass of lemon-honey
water. Just squeeze half
of a lemon in a glass of
water, put a teaspoon of
honey
in there, and put a
tablespoon of Modifilan,
and you shake it
together because that’s
the best way to
mix powder in, and you
drink it. Very few
people can do that
because of its very
strong taste, so the
capsules are the best
way to get it,
especially for somebody
who is looking to get
extra benefit from our
product and needing to
take more
of it. Eating six or
eight capsules a day is
very healthy—it equals a
good level tablespoon of
powder. The
vast majority of people
will have a very
difficult time consuming
that much powder daily,
so capsules
are a good way to get
it.
Mike: Yes, absolutely.
How many pounds of brown
seaweed does it take to
make one pound of
your product?
Sergei: It depends on
the size. The larger the
size of the kombu, the
less per kilo. But for
about 40
pounds of raw seaweed,
only one pound of our
powder comes out. So
it’s a 40 to 1
extraction ratio.
With U-FN it’s about a
150 to 1, because we
have to use a lot of
seaweed to come up with
a single kilo
of U-FN. It’s an
expensive product, too.
Mike: Do you sell these
products in powder form
or only capsules?
Sergei: Only capsules.
The powder form is
available to those who
buy it as ingredients
for their products,
because most of our
business is in
manufacturing the
substance itself. Most
of our product is sold
in
private label situations
where people call it
different names and sell
it in different
situations, marketing
through different
channels. So they just
sell it as-is, or
sometimes they mix it
with good ingredients
like probiotics or good
enzymes. But yes, the
product is available in
powder, but it’s not
offered for
retail. Our
distributors, the ones
who sell Modifilan in
retail, they don’t have
powder.
Uses for brown seaweed
extract
Mike: Now let’s talk
about some of the uses
of your product—I’ve
researched from many
reliable
sources that the levels
of iodine needed in the
human body are much
higher than what Western
medicine currently
recommends.
Sergei: Ten times
higher.
Mike: In fact, iodine is
used in breast tissue;
it’s used in prostate
gland tissue. I think
this is
important to note that
the rates of breast
cancer in Japan, for
example, are
significantly lower than
they are in the United
States. This is mostly
thought to be due to the
consumption of two
things:
seaweed and green tea.
Sergei: Yes, iodine and
antioxidants. The first
thing that happens to a
woman when she develops
an
iodine deficiency is a
problem with her
reproductive organs:
breast deformation,
calcification. The
tissue that is supposed
to be penetrated by
iodine turns into a
calcified, sandy looking
thing. This is
what shows up on the
mammogram, and that’s
the whole story. So
again, iodine deficiency
is not about
lack of iodine in the
thyroid only, but it’s
about the results of
that.
Mike: Absolutely. I
think that’s very
important to note,
because people will tend
to think that iodine
is only for the thyroid,
but it’s actually
useful. The next thing
that I wanted to mention
is that most
people—not only in
Western society but also
around the world—live in
a state of chronic
mineral
deficiency. This is not
only the macro-minerals
like selenium, which is
related to neurological
function;
zinc, which is related
to immune function and
healing; and calcium,
which controls heart
function,
neurological function
and brain chemistry; but
also the trace minerals.
Brown seaweed has all of
the 72 different trace
minerals typically
lacking in the bodies of
Western
consumers. I cannot
overemphasize the
importance of getting
trace minerals into your
body, and this
looks like a great way
to do it. It’s certainly
not the only way, but
this is an excellent
way.
Sergei: It’s an
interesting thing that
in our product—although
it’s made of seaweed,
which sometimes
just resembles a shade
of minerals—you can find
some of those trace
minerals that you find
in seaweed
under the detection
limit. In our product,
you can actually detect
those.
Speaking of selenium,
manganese, and the
vitamin B group, in
Modifilan they are
presented over
the detection limit.
Yes, you call them trace
minerals, but in
Modifilan they test in
higher volume.
They are still all
together. They come to
you not in a
multivitamin pill, where
you put different
crystallized minerals
and vitamins in one
batch, but in a natural
shape and form in higher
volume
than in regular seaweed.
Mike: Yes, that’s a
great point. This is
really a whole plant
solution. These are not
isolated components
that are being combined
in an artificial way.
This is right out of the
ocean. It’s also
important to note
that our blood mimics
the mineral composition
of ocean water.
Sergei: Yes, actually
our lymph does. Human
lymph and ocean water
have the same chemical
mineral
composition. Not many
people know that,
actually. The juice of
seaweed and human lymph
are the
same—if you cut your
finger, and the blood
dries out, there is a
little yellowish crystal
left behind: a
scab. If you cut
seaweed, it will yield
exactly the same
substance on the top
when it dries on the
leaf.
In Japan, wounded
soldiers were given
juice of seaweed when
they didn’t have enough
blood i just to
keep them alive for
several hours before
blood would arrive.
Before they were
fermenting seaweed
there, they put it in
clay or stone jars with
ocean salt to break down
the fibers, then they
ate it. Or they
just chewed on that and
spit it out or sucked on
the seaweed leaf. In
Korea, they’re doing a
better job
still because they put
seaweed in kimchi, where
by means of fermentation
they kill that fiber
that we remove. But for
everybody else, seaweed
became a commodity, and
it started to sell on
the market a
good fifty years ago.
Everybody makes sure
that they eat the whole
thing when they buy it.
Mike: That seems like a
really good way to
release the nutrients,
through fermentation.
Sergei: Yeah, and it
becomes more active, but
at the same time it
becomes soft, like gum,
so you can
work through that broken
cellulose. The fermented
foods are great, and if
somebody has the luxury
of
having time and the
place to ferment their
foods, the Kombu seaweed
is one of the best
substances you
can ferment and eat.
Eating Modifilan is
probably the same as
chewing on seaweed and
spitting out the fibers.
It doesn’t
look very good, but it’s
how people in, say, the
Mediterranean were
eating grapes up until
recently.
They just chewed on the
grape. They suck on the
juice and then spit the
thing out. In Morocco,
where
they have oranges
growing in the streets,
they just bite the
fruit, chew it, and spit
it out. The whole
thing about eating
fruits, vegetables and
especially roots, which
are full of indigestible
fibers, in the
cultures of people who
grow them or were
exposed to them by
natural default is they
didn’t necessarily
eat the whole thing.
They just chewed on
those things. The same
thing is true in Japan:
they fermented
it or they sucked on it.
Mike: Yeah. Well, that
makes sense. All they
really need are the
nutrients, not all the
cellulose.
Can you talk about the
reasons people buy your
product? What are they
saying is their reason?
Because
your product has so many
different uses.
Sergei: Let’s talk about
results which is what
they get out of this
product. Reasons are a
different
thing. It’s all
different what they see
in it, but people
usually get the same
thing out of it. You get
more energy in your day,
regularity in your
bathroom trips, and
improvement in your
skin, hair and
nail conditions. These
are the basic, little
things that people see
when they use this
product for at
least three to five
weeks. If somebody is
interested in having
results beyond these
obvious, simple
things, if somebody is
looking for our product
with certain ideas in
mind, usually it applies
to their
understanding of mineral
potency. In our product
at the best possible
level and availability
are mineral
forms of seaweed. It’s
thyroid support,
endocrine system
rehabilitation, and
everything that applies
to
that. There are numerous
health conditions
that—simply based on
endocrine inefficiency
and thyroid
inactivity—inhibit
regular body functions.
So to answer your
question directly,
people who look for this
product, people who want
to buy this
product with certain
health issues in mind,
are the ones who know
about mineral iodine as
the only
food for thyroid,
everything else comes
secondary. When you make
your thyroid wake up
again and
regulate all the little
glands around your body,
including the pancreas,
gall bladder, kidneys,
adrenals,
even the liver,
everything will come to
you naturally if you
simply feed your thyroid
with this. By its
nature, the thyroid is
fed by iodine. And we’re
talking about iodine in
ionic form, not liquid
from
a brown bottle. One that
comes out of the soil
with your water or in
the plants you eat in
your diet; in
the sea water—which we
can’t gulp much of
anyway—and in the
seafood, in fish, and in
shellfish. But
the largest,
molecule-wise, ionic
form of iodine you can
find is in seaweed.
Again, to eat seaweed
itself
is not the way to get
the iodine delivered;
you can’t get that much
seaweed into your system
because
it’s full of cellulose.
So, the main result
people are looking for
is relief from
thyroid-related issues,
and also the detox
quality of alginates,
which people have known
of for a long time.
Origins of Modifilan
Sergei: Modifilan was
created in the late ‘60s
in the Soviet Union at a
time when alginates were
already
researched and studied.
Sodium
alginates—chemical
extracts from
seaweed—were widely
known and
used for detox purposes,
but it was all IV
application, where the
sodium alginates were
mixed with this
liquid and put directly
into the vein. It was
very complicated, there
were side effects, it
had to be done
in a true hospital
setting, and it was
expensive.
The whole idea with
Modifilan was to deliver
all the mineral
qualities—including
alginates, which
was the mineral they
were after—in a
concentrated juice of
seaweed. They simply
made alginates
available by eliminating
an obstacle in the
body—the cellulose. So
that was actually the
whole idea of
Modifilan. It was made
in the Soviet Union for
many years, but in very
small quantities. It was
not very
well known or available
to most of the
public—mostly just
people involved in
situations where they
had
a certain degree of
environmental exposure
to toxicity, ionic
radiation, and
contamination.
After Chernobyl in 1986,
it was first made in a
larger quantity. About
three tons of Modifilan
was
produced, all at once,
after Chernobyl blew up.
That was the first
time—and the last time,
actually—that
Modifilan was produced
in the Soviet Union in
that quantity. Then the
Soviet Union went apart,
and
even Chernobyl became a
good case study for
Modifilan in terms of
its applications beyond
alginates
only. Unfortunately, the
Soviet Union disbanded,
and all of this
information became
unwanted and too
complicated, and the
product was too
expensive to make at the
very beginning in
Russia.
Mike: As I understand,
there were some very
positive results in
helping people eliminate
radiation,
and even the chemical
detoxification of this
plant is documented in
other contexts as well.
Sergei: Actually, more
than 2,000 people were
taking Modifilan on a
daily basis for about
two months
under the supervision of
doctors. These were the
guys who were
re-excavating the whole
area around
Chernobyl and changing
the sewage system out.
Two thousand people in a
very geographically
enclosed
situation were eating
about two tablespoons
per day, so it was
actually a good case
study for the product.
There was something in
this product that
medical doctors didn’t
know about, because
again, the only
use that Modifilan was
known for was the detox
qualities of alginates.
But the people who
started
to take this product in
a very unhealthy
situation developed an
interesting reaction to
this product’s
use, even when they had
pre-existing health
conditions. Most of
those people working
around the
Chernobyl area were
reserve-drafted people,
ex-military men age 25
to 45. Most of those
guys—
especially if you’re
talking about those
older than 40—had quite
a few unhealthy things
in their lives.
Using Modifilan by
default on that many
people at the same time,
people who were sleeping
together,
eating the same food and
all, that was a good
thing for the research.
Mike: One of the things
that really attracted me
to this product is the
fact that so many
Westerners
have literally hundreds
of toxic synthetic
chemicals in their
bodies. You can not live
in society today—
at least not in the
United States—without
being exposed to all of
these different
chemicals that become
embedded in your heart,
your kidneys, liver,
brain and many other
organs. One of the
things that was
really exciting to me
about your product was
that I’ve read a lot of
very reliable research
talking about
the ability of sea
vegetables to not only
protect us from these
toxic chemicals, but in
some sense to help
us detoxify those
chemicals as well. Can
you speak to that in any
way?
Sergei: Yes, I can. Many
of our professional
customers are licensed
medical professionals,
true MDs
or NMDs, who use this
product for
detoxification
qualities. Being an
absolutely natural
product,
Modifilan is a very good
alternative to
biochemical chelation
protocols. Sometimes you
have to spend
a lot of money to be
very strict about your
diet and supplement
yourself with many
minerals, because
to chelate using
chemically formulated
protocols means you
deplete your own mineral
spectrum.
Speaking of the side
effects of biochemical
chelation protocols,
Modifilan is a winner
when detoxing,
because the detox or
healing crisis effect is
very mild. So yes, if
you use our product in a
situation where
one is contaminated,
like off-chart PPM
levels of mercury, lead,
uranium or
strontium—especially
those metals that do not
belong to the
nutritional table of
metals—using this
product for about three
to four months, in a
quantity of six capsules
a day for an
average-size body, will
make people clean.
A good proof of this
would be to do the same
thing for three or four
months after you start
using our
product. Usually it
takes about six to eight
bottles of product used
over a period of three
to four months
to start to see a
difference. A hair or
urine test will give a
great truth in terms of
numbers, but the
main difference people
will see is in how they
feel. When they start to
take this product, in
about three
to five weeks—which
seems to be an average
introduction period for
people with health
conditions,
especially if there is
toxicity involved—they
will go through a detox
stage that never lasts
longer than
a week, and it’s very
mild. It doesn’t happen
to everybody, every time
that they take this
product, but
people will be aware of
some of that effect. If
it’s heavy metal
contamination, you can
count on this
product to do a very
good job with a very
modest level of detox
symptoms.
The
anti-cancer connection
Mike: Is there anything
you can talk about, or
are there any supporting
studies about this
seaweed
stopping tumor growth,
or anything you can
share?
Sergei: There are many
studies on mineral
qualities of seaweed as
the source of
anticancerous agents,
especially an element
called fucoidan.
Since our product offers
everything seaweed has
in the most potent and
bioavailable digestible
form,
whatever your readers
can find on the quite
extensive range of
health benefits of
seaweed, will be in
Modifilan. I cannot go
into the subject deeper
than that, but I can say
one thing: Whatever you
see or
read about brown
seaweed, expect our
product to deliver this
at the best level in
terms of its potency,
volume, and
bioavailablity.
If you’re talking about
fucoidan itself, it’s
evaporated oligomineral
that has been very well
known for
a long time. It’s been
researched, studied, and
described widely, and
there are even some
fucoidan
products available now
in food supplement form.
Mostly these are
multi-level marketing
efforts.
In our product, we have
this element—this
mineral—by default and
by natural occurrence;
it’s not an
extract that we have to
put in. It’s in
absolute, synergetic,
natural combination with
other elements like
iodine, protein,
selenium, manganese,
magnesium, and all the
things that make a food
a food. It’s very
modest in terms of its
volume if you do a
simple chemical test for
how much of that is in
Modifilan,
but the way it comes in
Modifilan is absolutely
natural.
So yes, our product can
be successfully used to
prevent, control, and
fight problems involving
health
conditions. We are
definitely not turning
this product into a
medicine. Many of our
clients are
licensed medical
professionals who find
this product useful in
their practice as a
tool, or they send
their patients to buy
this product in certain
situations. That makes
us very firm believers
in what we
do and make here.
Modifilan is our basic
product, but we also
make a product called
U-FN. It’s another
product made
from exactly the same
type of extraction
process as Modifilan,
with some additional
potassium and
calcium to stabilize and
enhance one particular
mineral element in the
kombu—it’s the fucoidan
in
a bioavailable form, a
type you can eat which
still delivers. If we go
back to your question
about the
possible help people
with cancer can get from
our product, they may
expect Modifilan to help
them in
this situation, but it
is not a product that
simply delivers more of
fucoidan mineral
qualities.
With everything else,
Modifilan is a better
product. For detox, for
thyroid support in terms
of mineral
iodine content,
Modifilan is a better
product to use, but U-FN
is a product that needs
to be looked at
by those who are looking
for fucoidan. Mike:
Fucoidan is not
technically a
mineral—isn’t it
man-made?
Sergei: No. It’s
actually a created
substance, yes.
Mike: We would call it a
phytonutrient.
Sergei: Evaporated
oligomineral is what
they actually call it.
If you do a detection of
fucoidan in our
product, there is some
in it.
Burning body fat with
fucoxanthin
Mike: People are excited
about the research
showing that brown
seaweed contains a
certain nutrient
named fucoxanthin which
burns fat. Now, you talk
about something that’s
interesting to Western
consumers, burning fat
is a big concern.
Sergei: That’s the big
hype in your world.
Mike: Yes, there’s a lot
of interest in it. I’ve
covered a lot of dietary
products, and the
impression that
most people get is not
true—that they can just
continue eating all
their unhealthy foods,
following an
unhealthy lifestyle, and
thinking that one
certain supplement is
going to magically make
them look
thin or athletic. That’s
simply not the case.
Sergei: Especially if
they will talk about a
particular pigment found
in brown seaweed, which
I think
soon they’re going to
sell in an extracted
form. It looks like this
particular pigment—which
was
mentioned in these
studies—is going to be
sold in Costco in a
bottle, an inexpensive
one, and it will
say, “This burns fat.
Read the papers.”
My take is that I think
they approached it from
the wrong angle. I think
that brown seaweed’s
effectiveness in a
weight loss situation is
all about making your
metabolic speed higher
through feeding
your thyroid with
mineral iodine, which
the endocrine system
benefits from. You will
seem to process
calories faster and take
up energy in a better,
faster, more beneficial,
and natural way.
I’m in total
disagreement with the
piece that appeared in
Time magazine about it.
Everybody called
here after that went
out. I love it, but at
the same time I feel
shame because soon
people will go
overboard with this. It
will take maybe a few
weeks, maybe a few
months, but then the
magic thing,
fucoxanthin, maybe mixed
with some drinks, mixed
with some vitamins or
foods will start
appearing
in the food supplements
section. But it has
nothing to do with the
true benefit of seaweed
which I
think is making the
endocrine system perform
better, and as a result,
increasing metabolic
speed. Mike: Well, I
agree completely,
Sergei, and I think that
for anyone to talk about
losing weight while
they are simultaneously
suffering from
malnutrition and mineral
deficiencies is
ridiculous. What people
need to do first to lose
weight is start
nourishing their bodies,
not with more calories,
but with more
real food and
high-density food like
the whole plant with all
of the nutrients in
synergy.
There is certainly a
danger that what may
happen with this news is
exactly what happened
with the
hoodia gordonii—it’s
being hyped up as a
major weight loss aid,
but 80 percent of the
raw material now
being purchased by
supplement manufacturers
is actually counterfeit.
The problem is there’s
so much
demand for it.
Sergei: The first time I
heard the word hoodia,
you know what happened?
It’s probably going to
be a
new thing for you,
because you don’t know
Russian, right?
Mike: Ah, no.
Sergei: “Hoodoi” means
thin in Russian. The
first time I heard the
product called “hoodia,”
it made
a certain click in my
head. “Hoodoi” means
thin; “hoodet,” the verb
itself, means to lose
weight. So
when I heard the word
and I started to sense
all this very strong
marketing effort behind
it, it was
double trouble in my
head—the name itself,
and the way they sold
it.
Mike: Well, but you
know, if this
information does catch
hold, you could find
yourself swept up in a
whirlwind, actually,
whether you want to be
or not, where brown
seaweed is actually
being discredited
because people will try
some other counterfeit
version of it.
Sergei: No, they simply
will just buy brown
seaweed, and they’ll go
to the Whole Foods—which
I
love; it’s where I buy
my food—they will find
out that brown seaweed
is a kelp and that kelp
is a kombu.
They’ll go to the whole
foods and buy kombu in a
powder, a very thin,
very fine looking powder
that
looks okay to our eye.
But ask our colon how it
looks and feels to this
part of the body. It’s
like a piece of shrapnel
going down,
scratching everything
off on its way. So
people will simply buy
Kombu, they’ll start to
eat more of that
compared to what they
did before if they ate
any, and they will
develop diarrhea. They
will develop
constipation. They will
have an excessive amount
of iodine in their gut,
because the sludge in
the lower
part of the GI tract
will never get processed
properly because it’s
non-soluble fiber.
Expect this to be one of
the major problems for
those who jump on the
idea of eating kombu in
larger quantities. China
put it in print today.
Time magazine had it
delivered into the
mailboxes of
millions of people
around the world. I see
people this weekend
reading this material on
the Internet
or in newspapers or in
magazines, then they’ll
go to Whole Foods stores
and ask if they have
brown
seaweed. They’ll say,
“Yes, of course. There
it is.” A few bucks a
kilo or whatever, and
they’ll start to eat it
by the teaspoon or
tablespoon, God forbid,
and you see what will
happen one week after
that—a
very, very serious
problem.
Mike: Just to clarify,
too, the difference
between that raw product
and your product is that
the nonextracted
product has all of that
undigestible cellulose,
correct?
Sergei: Yes. Our product
is a fully soluble
substance. It’s a
soluble fiber. It does
not produce any sludge;
you can’t find any sand
in there when you mix it
with water.
Brown seaweed for muscle
building
Mike: Okay. I’ve got one
more question for you.
This one concerns the
people who are involved
in
strength training or
body building.
Myostatins are
substances that inhibit
the signal that turns
off
muscle growth. So the
theory is—and this is
all just theory at this
point, I don’t know that
there’s any
research on it—if you
take myostatins and
you’re working out, then
you will grow muscles
larger than
normal because the
signals are being
controlled by the
myostatins.
There are, in fact, some
nutritional supplements
in the body building
community that are
focused on
these myostatins to
control or regulate
muscle growth. It’s my
understanding that the
polysaccharides
in brown seaweed also
contain some amount of
this. Are you familiar
with that or is that
something
you’ve looked at?
Sergei: No, but I
sometimes say Modifilan
is good for natural
doping, because, again,
it’s a means of
feeding your thyroid and
controlling your
adrenals. You simply
have more energy, you
are truly awake,
and you have more power.
It’s as simple as that.
If somebody exercises
regularly and they take
our product, they
sit-up, push-up, pull-up
more than if
they’re not eating this
product. But to answer
your question, no. I
didn’t know about
anything of that
particular nature in our
product. So I can’t say
that we had any
detection of this in
Modifilan, in our
works, or in the sales
efforts of those who
offer this product to
the bodybuilding
community. I suspect
that using our product
will be a helpful thing
to do, because those who
find the muscle growth
in
active exercise balance
will just be stronger.
They will pump more
iron.
It’s simple. You will
run longer distances,
and you will catch your
breath faster, but only
ones who truly
exercise regularly can
see this. A healthy
eater, when they start
to eat our product, they
won’t see any of
that detox effect—it’s
only energy, regularity,
things like that.
Sometimes it’s just a
few days after you
start Modifilan that you
start to feel that.
Mike: Well, to summarize
some of the benefits
we’re talking about:
endocrine function,
immune
function, the adrenals
and thyroid, also part
of the endocrine system.
Any other benefits?
Sergei: The simple
things are hair, nails,
skin, energy throughout
the day,
gastrointestinal
problems
of a lighter type. When
people have acid reflux,
eating our product helps
a lot with digestion
patterns.
It regulates appetite,
too. People who eat our
product, eat less.
Eating our product makes
you feel that
particular limit. Let’s
say you’re eating your
breakfast, you feel that
line where you’re
satisfied with your
food, when you feel
full, faster and more
clearly when you take
Modifilan. It’s an
interesting effect.
Mike: Yeah, I completely
second that. I think
that part of that may be
the reduction of
cravings, also,
through the
mineralization.
Sergei: Probably so, but
I was told some weird
things like hormonal
happiness, hormonal
being full,
which adults lack. With
a kid, when the little
guy doesn’t want to eat
any more porridge, he’ll
twist his
head and spit it out
where we adults will
usually eat whatever is
left on our plate.
The same thing applies
with the lion. It
catches the cow, munches
it, and eats like crazy,
then at one
point, boom: He just
flips on his side. Then,
if another cow comes
over and licks his nose,
he will not
even pay attention. It’s
the same thing with
hormonal happiness. So
doctors know that there
is a strong
connection between how
people feel themselves
mentally and endocrines.
That is why sometimes
taking our product
brings, what people
call, a sensation of
wellness. It’s one of
the things that we can
proudly announce. I know
that it will fall into
the category of medical
claims but
knowing this product
myself very well and
having it given away for
a long time until we
made it our
business, makes me very
proud of saying it
beyond the reason of now
it’s being sold because
we make it.
We are a very small
company—two men, two
products—but we’ve been
doing this for ten
years. We
are not new. You said it
right, in certain
alternative circles
we’re known very well.
Many natural doctors
know our product, and
most of this is sold
under the traditional,
regional trade name.
Dieticians,
holistic chiropractors,
kinesiologists, and all
these kinds of “weird”
doctors sell it.
We passed a clinical
study for type 2
diabetes with one of our
private label customers.
It’s a medical
clinic in Seattle that
sells under a different
name, but for type 2
hemoglobin HbA1c,
hemoglobin
serum test, 100 percent
success. It lowers
serum, and it makes
people with type 2
diabetes go off their
medication in about
three to five weeks.
Type 1 will take less
insulin; let’s say one
shot instead of three
shots of insulin daily
when they take
Modifilan. People who
eat this product for
about three to five
weeks and have been on
centroid or hormones for
20 years, they can get
off those too.
Mike: I never would have
thought of using this
product for diabetes.
That’s really
interesting to know,
and perhaps we can
explore that further in
another interview.
Thanks for joining us
today, Sergei.
Sergei: It’s been a
pleasure.
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