Responding to the Soviet tragedy at Chernobyl, scientists found a remarkable plant medicine from brown seaweed that would grab onto heavy metals and radioactive minerals while protecting the thyroid metabolism and the GI track. This will be a major source of assistance to those facing health challenges from the Fukushima disaster ogoing in Japan, even seven or more years since

This page contains several different articles about the effectiveness of this extract from Kombu seaweed that is known as Modifilan. 

Introduction to Modifilan

Modifilan is a natural dietary supplement extracted from the richest type of brown seaweed—Laminaria japonica.  This unique nutritional product is comprised of all the important organic elements found in seaweed.

Radioactive contamination has been known to be very dangerous to human health for over a century. and the healing qualities of seaweed had been known for even longer  The Russian government sought to find a powerful remedy for radiation poisoning among the heroic first responders at Chernobyl.                .

After trying various algae, one type gave the best scientific data.  The synergetic combination of ionic iodine, laminarin, alginates, and selenium in Laminaria japonica had the strongest effect compared to all other types of kelp.  It was the perfect group of elements, present in a single natural source.

A patented process of physical extraction and low-temperature evaporation removes the seaweed’s outer fiber and extracts only the inner water-soluble part of the Laminaria leaf.  This enhances the availability of the minerals, vitamins, and polysaccharides for easier digestion and better results.  Forty pounds of raw seaweed are needed for the production of only one pound of Modifilan.  In essence, Modifilan is the dried juice of seaweed.

The major difference between Modifilan and all other seaweed products on the market is its bio-availability.  Even the most recognized kelp and algae nutritional supplements are generally variations of dry, ground seaweed, and nothing else.  In its original form, seaweed is not optimally digestible.  Thick, heavy fibers of seaweed turn into a harsh, sandy substance when they are dried and ground.  Mix any other type of seaweed product with water and you will see that it does not dissolve entirely, but rather makes a sludge which never gets digested.  When Modifilan is mixed with water or juice, it develops into a light, suspended gel.  The extract fully dissolves, and this is the best indication of a product’s bio-availability.

• Organic Iodine feeds the thyroid gland, which controls metabolism and promotes maturation of the nervous system.  It is also the main natural disinfection agent in our body.  Every 15 minutes, all of our blood goes through that small organ.

• Laminarin is a polysaccharide that is helpful in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.  It helps to balance coagulation of blood.

• Alginate is a natural absorbent of radioactive elements, heavy metals, and free radicals.  It has the unique ability of binding heavy metals and radioactive elements to its own molecules.  Because the Alginate fiber can’t be broken down by bile or saliva nor absorbed absorbed by the body, it is excreted from the body, together with the heavy metals and radioactive substances.

Removing the heavy outer fibers of the seaweed makes the sold extract easier to use for us as a supplemental capsule or powder..

This extract was little known in the Soviet Union for several decades due to its very specific field of application.  The first time it was successfully used in volume was after the Chernobyl nuclear plant catastrophe in 1989.  When used for detoxification and thyroid gland rehabilitation, Modifilan helped thousands of nuclear plant workers and people in the area who were affected by the explosion.  A large group of doctors was assigned to observe the health conditions of those who took Modifilan for almost a year.  The results exceeded all expectations.

Since then, rigorous scientific and clinical studies in the USSR have revealed many other benefits of this product.  The latest research on brown seaweed in Japan has confirmed the presence of Fucoidan.  This organic element promotes apoptosis (self-destruction of cancer) and helps to eliminate harmful cells naturally.  Modifilan has 4 percent of Fucoidan by volume in natural shape—as much as raw kelp itself.

In the mid-90s, Modifilan received certification from the Russian Ministry of Health as the leading non-medicinal prophylactic product.  But manufacturing it in Russia’s new free market economy became too costly, because the rising prices of raw, non-farmed Laminaria made it impossible to extract Modifilan according to the patented technology.

Today, while the raw seaweed is still harvested in its natural habitat, the finished product is processed in America.

Benefits of Modifilan

By Leonid Gordin, M.D.

Modifilan is a concentrated extract of the brown seaweed Laminaria japonica.  This seaweed is gathered in the clean waters of the southwestern Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Tasmania.  Forty pounds of raw Laminaria japonica is needed to make just one pound of Modifilan.  This unique patented technology “semi-digests” the tough outer layer of seaweed fibers to expose, concentrate, and make much more bioavailable the macro- and micronutrient-dense central vein of the Laminaria.

Although the nutritional and medicinal powers of seaweeds have been known for thousands of years, the scientific basis of their health benefits has been established only recently.

• One of the most impressive aspects of Modifilan that sets it apart from other types of seaweed products is its very high content of soluble polysaccharides like Fucoidan, laminarin, and alginate.  Fucoidan is particularly rich in simple sugars as glucuronic acid, mannose, and fucose that give Laminaria its distinctive taste.

The ongoing research into Fucoidan has conclusively demonstrated its ability to induce cancer cell apoptosis (programmed cell death) in leukemia, stomach, and colon cancer cells.  This biological data supports epidemiological observations that Laminaria is an important factor contributing to the relatively low breast cancer rates reported in Japan.

The technology involved in processing Laminaria japonica preserves and concentrates this vulnerable thermolabile substance, thus making Modifilan one of the richest sources of cancer-fighting Fucoidan.

Laminarin

Another polysaccharide in Modifilan that may have anti-cancer properties is Laminarin.  It is known that tumor formation and growth require a highly charged extra-cellular matrix.  Solid tumors provoke ongoing high-level fibrin leakage from surrounding capillaries.  This fibrin clot gets invaded by various cells that are recruited by solid tumors, including fibroblasts and endothelial cells.  The former cells lay down a heavily charged matrix throughout the tumor, and the latter cells participate in tumor angiogenesis (vascularization).

Angiogenesis is a prerequisite for tumor expansion and metastasis.  It has been shown that laminarin sulfate inhibits the binding of basic fibroblast growth factor (BFGF) to an extra-cellular matrix, leading to inhibition of fibrin clot invasion by tumor-recruited fibroblasts and endothelial cells.  This suggests a novel approach to tumor therapy based on blocking angiogenesis.

• Cancer metastasis involves the tumor cell adhesion to host tissue basement membranes, followed by tissue invasion.  Fucoidan interferes with cancer cells’ metastasis by inhibiting the physical interaction between tumor cells and basement membranes, as well as suppressing the proteolytic cascade of plasminogen activation.

Interaction and organization of cells and tissue in general, and tumor and host cells in particular, may be mediated by the interactions between cell membrane polysaccharides and the corresponding protein receptor.  Fucoidan, a sulfated fucopolysaccharide, inhibits the adhesion process (cell-to-cell interaction) by blocking lectin-like adhesion molecules (glycoproteins) on cell surfaces and thus interfering with tumor cell colonization (metastasis).

Another mechanism of antiproliferative (anti-tumor) properties of Fucoidan was shown in vitro and in vivo on a cell line derived from a human bronchopulmonary carcinoma (a particularly chemo-resistant tumor).  Fucoidan exerted antiproliferative activity, with a block observed in the G1 phase of the cell cycle.

It has also been demonstrated that Fucoidan acts as a so-called activator of the reticulo-endothelial system, specifically as an enhancer of phagocytosis.  This suggests another aspect of antitumor activity of Fucoidan related to the activation of macrophage-mediated tumor cell killing.

Non-polysaccharide fractions from Laminaria

There are also non-polysaccharide fractions from Laminaria that have been found to have significant cancer-preventative anti-mutagenic (anti-DNA damage) activity against typical genotoxic substances.

Another promising use of the sulfated polysaccharides Fucoidan and laminarin is in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease.  Several mechanisms are involved:  the inhibition of smooth muscle cell proliferation (monoclonal hyperplasia), which is an important step in atherogeneses;  as well as activation of enzymes involved in the beta-oxidation of fatty acids, which can be useful in the prevention and treatment of hyperlipedemia.  Laminarin has been shown to have a hypotensive effect.  It also exhibits 30 percent of the anticoagulant activity of heparin.

All of these properties of sulfated polysaccharides make Modifilan clinically applicable in the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, atherosclerosis, cancerogenesis, and cancer metastasis.

• Another extremely important area of Modifilan application is in environmental medicine.  The polysaccharide laminarin has been shown in four animal species (mice, guinea pigs, dogs, and monkeys) to prevent acute radiation sickness and death (about LD90) when administered within 24 hours after radiation exposure.  This research suggests that the brown seaweed Laminaria can be clinically useful in the treatment and prevention of the adverse effects of ionizing radiation.

The non-digestible polysaccharide alginate that comprises 50 percent of Modifilan’s total dry weight has the unique ability of binding heavy metals and radioactive substances to its own molecules.  Because the alginate is non-digestible, it is excreted from the body together with toxic compounds.  This is particularly important for cadmium and mercury, as these metals are found at dangerously high levels in air, water, and food.

Alginate can also remove isotopes that have previously been absorbed by the human body from the environment.  Even small amounts of radioactive pollution will expose surrounding cells to harmful radioactive emission.

A percentage of Strontium molecules stored in the bone structure (or any other toxic substance stored in the tissue) is constantly released and traveling in the blood stream.  Since the blood feeds the saliva and bile, part of the released strontium or other toxic metal ends up in the large intestine.  Most of the liquid in the large intestine is reabsorbed by the body, including the radioactive isotopes and heavy metals which are redeposited back into the tissue.  Alginate can break this process, because toxic substances are bound to the alginate molecules and released from the body with feces.  Alginate binds to all heavy metals, including lead, mercury, cadmium, cobalt, copper, and radium.

Modifilan should be consumed over at least a four-month period to expedite removal of toxic substances stored in the body.

Another interesting potential application of Modifilan as one of the best sources of Fucoidan is for inflammatory conditions of the alimentary tract.

The inflammation process involves elevated synthesis of the proinflammotory mediators like adhesion molecules, white cell infiltration of gastrointestinal mucosa, and altered mucosal integrity.  Therapeutic use of heparin has produced clinical remission in the majority of patients with inflammatory bowel disorder.  One of the mechanisms involved is restoration of the fibroblast growth factor activity that stimulates repair of the epithelium.  Since Fucoidan shares many properties with heparin, including cell surfact activity, similar therapeutic benefit can be expected through the use of Fucoidan.

Another mechanism of the beneficial effect of heparin, heparan sulphate, and potentially Fucoidan is their mucosal-protective properties as glycosaminoglycans.  Gastrointestinal inflammation may cause alteration in the protective mucosal layer of glycosalminoglycans, and may cause substances like heparin and Fucoidan to become “conditionally essential” nutrients suitable for oral administration, because they can be absorbed across the GI mucosa.

About Seaweed

By Irene Yaychuk-Arabei, PhD, MH, RNC

There are several hundred species of seaweed.  Only a handful of these—kelp, nori, moss, and dulse—are familiar to North Americans.  Seaweeds are nonpoisonous, although not always palatable.  We assume that people living close to the sea (such as Japanese, Scandinavians, or Irish) consume seaweeds.  They are not the only ones, however.

Several decades ago, Dr. Weston Price, a dentist, found that natives of the high Andes carried a small bag attached to the neck.  In it was

a greenish-brown substance, a quantity of which was consumed everyday.  The substance was seaweed obtained from coastal Indians.  In spite of the difficulty in obtaining such seaweed, these extraordinarily healthy dwellers of the high Andes would not do without it.

The sea contains in solution every element necessary to maintain healthy life.  Thus, seaweeds are considered the most nutritious plants on earth.  Their nutritive values greatly exceed those found in other food sources — and are in an organic form that humans can readily utilize.  Seaweeds are especially rich in calcium and iodine.  They also suppliy chromium (essential for glucose utilization), zinc (for collagen strength and healthy skin), iron, potassium, copper, sulphur, silver, tin, zirconium, phosphorous, and silicon (crucial to skin elasticity), magnesium, manganese, boron, bromides, and other trace minerals necessary for health.

The most important nutrient provided by kelp is iodine.  This is particularly crucial for inland, iodine-poor soil, such as that found in the Great Lakes area of North America and in central Europe.  The amount of iodine in sea plants exceeds that found in inland plants by as much as 20,000 percent.  Kelp iodine facilitates the passage of nutrients into the mitochondria (small components of cells).  It also helps to nourish the thyroid gland and maintain good thyroxin balance.

Improved Metabolism

Thyroid function directly affects body metabolism.  Native Hawaiians tend to be stocky and overweight, yet they experience little heart disease or other health problems.  They attribute this to lima lip, their native kelp.  Both Norwegians and traditional Japanese are healthy people who are also great consumers of sea vegetation.

Often obesity and sub-clinical iodine deficiencies are related.  That may be why some reducing diets encourage the use of algae.  Calories in sea vegetables are also negligible, and fat content is only from one to eight per cent.  Bladderwrack is often used in “slimming tea” formulas.

A smoothly functioning thyroid also helps to balance estrogen levels.  The dietary factor most often associated with breast cancer is the amount and quality of fat intake;  however, seaweed may have a protective role in that regard.

The Japanese have a very low incidence of breast cancer.  However, migrant Japanese in Hawaii (who ate less then one fifth of the seaweed eaten by the Japanese living in Japan) had a significantly higher incidence of breast cancer.  According to the Ebers Papyrus, ancient Egyptians gave seaweed to patients with breast cancer.

Beneficial Intestinal Flora

Nutrients in sea vegetation appear to help cleanse the colon and improve digestion and absorption.  A study of fecal flora in the Japanese diet versus the Western diet showed significant differences in the numbers of beneficial aerobic (oxygen-loving) organisms in fecal flora.  This is believed to be due to the antibiotic activity of seaweed that destroys harmful anaerobic bacteria.

Seaweed provides organic chlorine compounds that are important in the manufacture of hydrochloric acid in the stomach.  The mucilage in seaweeds is soothing to the intestinal tract and promotes peristalsis.  The gels in sea vegetables are nutritious and provide roughage as well.  Vitamins A, D, and C found in seaweed help to rebuild the mucous membranes of the intestinal tract.

A 1946 Philippine Medical Journal reported the use of seaweed as an anti-helmintic, or destroyer of intestinal worms.  During the war, anti-helmintic medication was unavailable, so powdered sea vegetation was used.  It proved itself to be 73 percent effective, and non-toxic as well.

Antioxidant Activity

Antioxidants keep our cells young, protect us from cancer, and act as a preservative to keep fats from becoming rancid.  Lipids from porphrya were analyzed and tested for antioxygenic activity.  It was found that components of this seaweed have antioxidant activities similar to butylated hydroxytoluene, (BHT), a preservative used in vegetable oils.  Another protector against cancer is the trace element selenium.  Many seaweeds, notably porpyra, contain significant levels of selenium.

Pollution Antidote

Seaweed is noted for its ability to bind heavy metals and radioactive pollutants.  Dr. Yukio Tanaka of the Gastrointestinal Research Lab at McGill University demonstrated that kelp may inhibit the absorption of lead, cadmium, and radioactive strontium (one of the most hazardous pollutants).

80 to 90 percent of radioisotopes of Strontium 90 could be removed from the intestinal tract in the presence of seaweed.  Sodium alginates actually chelate the remaining amount out of the bone structure.  So much Strontium 90 has been released by nuclear explosions, power plants, and nuclear weapons facilities that it is believed that every person has detectable levels in their bone tissue.  Many cancers are attributable to this contamination.

Alginates Research

Scientific studies relating to alginates found in Modifilan have been published in the articles summarized here.

Biochem Mol Biol Int 1996 Jul;39(4):789-95.  Development of a metallothionein-based heavy metal biosorbent.  Pazirandeh M.  Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA

The potential utility of a recombinant E. coli expressing the Neurospora crassa metallothionein gene (NCP) as a heavy metal biosorbent was investigated.  It was shown that the NCP was capable of efficiently removing low levels of several metals (including cadmium, lead, and mercury) from solutions.  The reusability of the NCP was demonstrated through five cycles of metal binding, stripping with dilute acid, and regeneration of the binding sites with out any adverse effect on the metal binding activity.  The NCP was successfully encapsulated in alginate and acrylamide without any inhibitory effect on its metal uptake activity.  Furthermore, the metal uptake activity of the NCP was shown to be metabolism-independent and resistant to solvents and other compounds (e.g. polyaromatic hydrocarbons) which are often present along with heavy metals in waste waters, thereby creating the potential for non-viable, encapsulated cells to be used.

Radiats Biol Radioecol 1996 May-Jun;36(3):427-33  The effect of algisorb on the level of the accumulation of zirconium, ruthenium, iodine and cesium radioactive isotopes in the body of rats.  .  Ivannikov AT, Altukhova GA, Parfenova IM, Popov BA

The absorption effect of Algisorbum has been studied in rats following single and multiple intragastric administration.  Algisorbum doses of 250-2000 mg/kg decrease the absorption of 106Ru and 95Zr by 50 percent, that of 137Cs by 15 percent and have no effect on 131I absorption.  Application of a complex of agents to protect the body from nuclear fission products is discussed.

Lebensm Unters Forsch 1992 Nov;195(5):455-8.  Application of polyuronides for removing heavy metals from vegetable oils.  III.  Application of alginic acid, pectic and pectinic acids for demetalization of hydrogenated sunflower oil.  Ivanov K, Popova M, Denev P, Kratchanov C.  Hochschule fur Lebensmittelindustrie, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Laboratory experiments have been carried out for the removal of heavy metals from hydrogenated vegetable oils using hydrated polyuronides (degree of swelling from 4 to 12.8 ml/g) such as alginic acid, pectic, and pectinic acids.  The effect of the type of polyuronide, degree of esterification, and oil treatment on the degree of demetalization has been studied.  It has been shown that with increase in the degree of esterification of the polyuronide, the efficiency of demetalization decreases.  The second and third treatment of the hydrogenated oil with pectinic acid resulted in a high degree of heavy metal removal.  The possibility of efficient demetalization of hydrogenated oils by treatment with water solutions of pectinic acids has also been demonstrated.