Fulvic Acid

Ross Pelton, RPh, PhD, CCN
June 5, 2017

Fulvic acid is a metabolite that is created by soil bacteria during the decomposition of organic plant matter. It is critical to life; without fulvic acid, life would not exist. Recently it was reported that fulvic acid is a postbiotic metabolite that present in Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics®. The purpose of this article is to explain the critical role fulvic acids play in regulating the health of plants, animals and humans.

For millions of years before plants, animals and humans began to evolve, bacteria were the primary life form on earth. When plant life began to appear on earth, bacteria developed a Win/Win symbiotic relationship with them. Bacteria “discovered” that if they digest, decompose and recycle organic plant material, the plant nutrients could be a great source of food and energy for them. For this to be a Win/Win relationship, the bacteria had to provide a benefit to plant life. They did this by creating a postbiotic™ metabolite called fulvic acid. Fulvic acid is the major transport agent that delivers minerals and other nutrients to plants.

We are just beginning to understand that fulvic acid is as critical to life as oxygen and water. Fulvic acid’s unique molecular structure gives it capabilities in regulating health that exceed all other known compounds.

Master Mineral Transport:  Fulvic acids are relatively small, water-soluble molecules that easily pass through cellular membranes. Each molecule of fulvic acid contains an unusually high (44%-49%) amount of highly bioavailable oxygen. These multiple oxygen sites enable fulvic acids to bind with minerals and easily transport them into the cells of plants. In fact, because fulvic acid can transport many times its own weight in minerals and other nutrients, it dramatically increases nutrient delivery into cells.

Supercharged Electrolyte: Fulvic acid is one of the most powerful natural electrolytes in all of nature. Electrolytes are substances that produce an electric current when they dissolve in water. Fulvic acid’s multiple binding sites enables it to both donate and receive electrons. This enables fulvic acid to deliver energy to cells and it also regulates and regenerates electrical energy in cells. Hence, fulvic acid plays a key role in maintaining proper electrical balance within cells.

Sick Soils: These days the fulvic acid content in our agricultural lands is drastically depleted. There are two reasons for this crisis. Far less fulvic acid is produced because pesticides and herbicides (glyphosate) kill the soil bacteria which are required to produce it. Also, commercial agriculture relies on artificial fertilizers instead of adhering to the centuries old process of recycling organic matter back into the soil. As a result, there has been a dramatic reduction in the nutritional content of the commercial food supply over the past 60-80 years.

Years ago, two-time Nobel Prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling said, “You can trace every disease, and every ailment to a mineral deficiency.” The continual decline in soil fulvic acid content is a contributor to nutrient deficiencies and today’s crisis of chronic degenerative diseases.

Detoxification: Fulvic acid’s unique molecular structure also enables it to be a strong chelator of toxins. Hence, once it has delivered nutrients into cells, it can bind with toxins and transport them out of cells.

Antioxidant: Fulvic acid molecules contain an extremely high number of sites that can neutralize free radicals which makes it one of nature’s most powerful antioxidants.

Fulvic Acid in Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics®: At a recent scientific meeting, Dr. Muneaki Takahata announced that fulvic acid is present in Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics®. This makes sense because the multi-year fermentation process used in the production of Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics® is similar to the natural processes that occur in nature. Fulvic acid is produced by bacteria when they break down and recycle organic plant matter in the soil.

The fulvic acid present in Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics® functions in two ways. Because of its nature as a weak acid, fulvic acid helps to establish and maintain the optimal acid/base balance which is critical for nutrient absorption from the GI tract. The second and more important factor is that fulvic acid dramatically increases the transport and delivery of nutrients that are required for energy production into cells, which increases energy reserves and delays the onset of fatigue.

The graphic below shows how fulvic acid is capable of chelating or binding to minerals and transport them into cells. Enhancing mineral transport and nutrient availability to cells helps explain the remarkable benefits derived from Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics® in the following clinical trials.

1. Mouse Swimming Endurance Test: 4-week old mice were divided into two groups. One group of mice was given Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics for several weeks while the other group served as placebo controls. During the final tests, the mice that received the probiotics were able to swim twice.
2. Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics Increase Bone Density: 157 men & women ages 20-60 took Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics daily for up to two years
   Results:
   Women: +32% bone mineral content; +12% bone density
   Men: +22% bone mineral content; +18% bone density
3. The influences on VO2max on athletes taking Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics (OM-X): 6 male long distance runners consumed Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics daily for 3 weeks.
   Results:
   – 8.4% increase in hemoglobin
   – Increase in VO2 max
   – Improved cardiac output

Only Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics® Deliver Postbiotic™ Metabolites