Ask Dr. Jackson
Doctor, Inventor is Pioneer in Prebiotics
On the side of your colon’s good guys — the good bacteria that resides there — is retired gastroenterologist Dr. Frank W. Jackson of Mechanicsburg. As the maker of a supplement called Prebiotin, Jackson is gaining international prominence. And as the founder of Jackson Siegelbaum Gastroenterology, a Camp Hill-based practice where he worked for 38 years before passing the baton to his son and partners, he wrote more than 1,000 pages of health content for a website that has attracted more than 7 million hits a year.
Amazing! The Gut and the Brain, Working Together
The gut makes a wide variety of chemicals or hormones that get into the blood and then exert a reaction or function in the brain. Also, research is discovering that that when the gut bacteria are of the right type, as early as in the newly born animal (these experiments were done on mice), then the brain function of the mice who had a better quality of bugs in their gut, were smarter than those who did not.
What We Eat Can Make a Big Change in Our Health
We always thought that it was solely your stomach that gave you the sense of hunger that makes us eat and the sense of fullness or satiety. Yes, this is true, but now we know it is only part of the story. The stomach and lower gut makes certain hormones. A hormone is a substance made in one part of the body, that when it gets into the blood, it has an influence on certain centers of the brain in the case of these appetite hormones. When we go without food, we get a certain hormone that creates a sensation of hunger in the brain. Likewise, other hormones are made that when there is food in the gut, give the brain a sense of fullness or satiety.
In His Own Words: About Dr. Frank W. Jackson
So, medical credibility is what we stand for. I spent 38 years in the practice of gastroenterology. I know that I have advised or treated thousands of patients. Now, with this new endeavor, I see an opportunity to bring current, evidence-based dietary knowledge to a great many more in the public sector.
Surviving The Holidays with Prebiotin™
Here is what we now know about our appetite and the feelings of hunger before we eat and the fullness we experience afterward. There are hormone substances made within the wall of our digestive track. At certain times they are released into the blood stream and carried to the brain.
