About Jo Panyko

 I suffered for many years with autoimmune conditions and debilitating chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), which we now know are conditions tied to gut health. Going on a gluten-free diet was only part of my healing process. Repairing my gut by eating more nutritious foods, revamping my lifestyle, and taking probiotics helped to calm my immune system and allow for healing. I truly believe that without probiotics I would not be able to do the things I do today, and that is why I am driven to help others understand them.

I know that you are looking for information and guidance about probiotics, so I created this online resource of PowerOfProbiotics.com to help you find your answers!

Unlike other websites and blogs that give general wellness information about this topic, my goal is to make this the first unique site to:  

• Be written by a functional medicine nutritionist, so you can see the bigger health picture of why it's important to integrate beneficial bacteria and yeasts, and foods that support them, into your daily food plan in many ways for health preservation (and how to do it). My clients and I have had some of the same struggles you may be dealing with now, so I understand how hard this can be.
• Base the information is on scientific studies from scientific journals, unless otherwise noted. Peer-reviewed, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled human studies are the best, but sometimes they are not available. Understanding how the study design impacts the results helps determine how applicable the results may be.
  
• Give you strain-specific information, when available, about each of the major species that are found in related foods, drinks and supplements. (You’ll see why that is very important!)
• Help you make better choices so you can be healthier
  

Please leave me comments along the way, and let others know about it!

One of my passions in life is health, and more specifically, nutrition. I had an early introduction to it. My Dad was ahead of his time when I was growing up. He did fasting, we didn't eat junk food, and we had organic vegetable gardens so big that he had to rototill it with a tractor. We canned the produce from our harvests. Of course, at the time, I hated it because all of my friends had sodas and chips...

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After having a career as an engineer, having children and suffering from the major autoimmune and chronic fatigue health challenges, I realized I had to re-connect with my passion for nutrition. I went back to school and received my certification as a Master Nutrition Therapist and furthered my nutrition education with courses in functional medicine. Functional medicine "is an individualized approach to patient care that focuses on restoring balance to the dysfunctional systems by strengthening the fundamental physiologic process that underlie them, and by adjusting the environmental inputs that nurture or impair them" (Cleveland Clinic). To me, functional medicine is finding out what the mechanisms are that caused the problems and using strategies to correct those mechanisms.

Even though my brain works like an engineer’s (very ‘left-brained’), believe it or not, I can even get philosophical about nutrition. I think healthy food really should be a person’s “medicine”. Food itself satisfies a basic human need, but nutritious food does more.

Eating nutritious food is part of living a healthy lifestyle and taking care of myself. I view it as health preservation. To me, living a healthy lifestyle involves every aspect of my being: physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual. So if I exercise regularly, solve Soduko puzzles routinely, are active in my community and deeply spiritual of some sort, but I feed my body junk and try to take supplements (even probiotic supplements!) to compensate for that, then I’m not completely taking care of myself or making the best use of my time and money.

Sometimes we can’t get all of the nutrients we as unique individuals need, and that’s where supplements can help us. Sometimes some of the foods that are supposed to be good for us don’t agree with us, and supplements can help us there, too. But nutritious food, including probiotic foods and drinks, should be one of the main components of our foundation of physical health.

Why PowerOfProbiotics.com?

I appreciate all of the work other sites have done to spread the word about probiotics and help people improve their lives, but there is a lot of misleading information by well-intended folks. PowerOfProbiotics.com was born from the need for probiotics information without an agenda, written by someone who has the right kind of healthcare experience and who has done the research. You will find scientific information presented in a user-friendly format that is used by my family, my nutrition clients, healthcare practitioners and readers like you.

Some topics and more in-depth information are reserved for my newsletters, speaking engagements and for upcoming trainings, but I'm always updating this site to provide knowledge you can use.

I’ve tried to weave some of my real-life stories in with the technical information. My Mom and Dad would be proud, I think. I have a pretty big organic vegetable garden, but not big enough for a rototiller on a tractor! I have some berry and herb gardens and fruit trees. I jar or dry the harvest of the garden and fruits from the trees in my ‘spare’ time. Funny how I came full-circle.

Nearly all of the pictures on the site were taken by me, so you get a glimpse of my life and how I incorporate probiotics into it, even for my dogs!

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Legally, I can't provide any answers to specific health questions on this site. You can learn more about nutrition therapy and schedule nutrition therapy consultations with me by visiting my nutrition therapy practice page, Chrysalis Nutrition and Health, or contact me here.

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Disclaimer: Please note: By law, I cannot provide any personalized recommendations for your specific health concern on this site. The information contained in this site is educational in nature and is not intended as diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure for any physical or mental disease, nor is it intended as a substitute for regular medical care. Consult with your doctor regarding any health or medical concerns you may have.

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Looking for some quality professional supplements, including probiotics? Check out my online dispensary, as I will be doing reviews of some of these products in the future. Click on the Fullscript picture. (Note: If you were a former Wellevate customer, please switch to Fullscript for a better customer experience. Thanks!)

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