The Story Behind GIVE Can Change Your Everyday Life
In recent years, various research environments have established that life in the gut is crucial to life as a whole. The researcher who concluded this already in 1967 is the man behind GIVE.
The Bacteria’s Best Friend
On February 15, 1967, Tore Midtvedt published the article “The Physiological Significance of Gut Flora.” In that article, he declared his friendship with bacteria, and throughout the rest of his life, he has seen what they mean for us.
Tore has researched gut bacteria for over 60 years and discovered early on that bacteria can “communicate” with our genes. Later, it became known that disturbances and imbalances in gut flora are a growing problem. Tore Midtvedt is a specialist in medical microbiology and a professor emeritus at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Over 60 years of research have shown more and more signs that bacteria and our genes “talk together” and that disturbances and imbalances in gut flora can impact a variety of diseases and symptoms.
Old Digestive Problems
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The idea that health issues can stem from digestion can be traced back to ancient Egypt about 5000 years ago, and the idea was later developed further by the Greeks.
The First Descriptions of Bacterial Flora
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Already in the mid-1800s, the bacterial flora of the gut was first described in medical research.
The Importance of the Gut for Our Health
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In the early 1900s, the Nobel Prize-winning Russian physiologist Ilja Metchnikoff researched how lactic acid bacteria are connected to human health.
Knowledge Continues to Grow
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Throughout the 1960s, knowledge about gut bacteria flora continued to expand. Tore, who began studying microbial ecology in the 1960s, was part of these research environments – and in 1967, he published the article “The Physiological Significance of Gut Flora.”
An Outbreak and a Breakthrough
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In the mid-1990s, Tore was contacted by a colleague from Haukeland Hospital. Tore’s colleague had several patients with severe and recurrent antibiotic-associated colitis (Clostridioides difficile colitis). Based on his knowledge from research on germ-free animals and familiarity with similar successful treatments, Tore advised his colleague to find a healthy person who could donate feces to the sick patients. Tore’s colleague followed the advice, and the patients were helped. This was the first documented fecal transplant in Norway. Today, the method is recognized. In the mid-1990s, there was a diarrhea outbreak in Bergen. A colleague’s family member called Tore in desperation for advice. Tore’s advice: find a healthy person to donate stool and insert it rectally. The advice was based on his experiences with animals, which had shown great success and also worked for humans. Today, this method is recognized as an accepted treatment for patients with intestinal diseases.
Continuing to Cultivate the Brown Gold
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Tore continued to cultivate fecal donations through the 2000s, using it for further research.
The Path to a Product for the General Public
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Around 2015, Tore realized the importance of developing a product consisting of gut bacteria that produced important signaling substances. Therefore, Tore developed a product that only contains signaling substances from gut microbes, and GIVE thus contains no live microbes. This allows the product to be stored at room temperature and be accessible to most people.
Good Health Starts with a Healthy Gut
In recent years, much research has shown that a balanced gut is crucial for our health. The bacterial flora in the gut affects our well-being both physically and mentally. GIVE can help give you a healthy gut and good health.
