For Maggie Tipton, capsulized protein beverages like Profect® are positioned alongside bodybuilding supplements on the shelf in her local health food store.  Although Protica Research, the company behind Profect would wish otherwise, it is unlikely she would consider Profect as a serious, life-saving product. However, more and more hospitals and medical centers across the country are taking it very seriously. 

Maggie has been a resident in a care home for more than a dozen years. Physically, she seems as fit as you might expect an 89-year-old to be.  The truth is, she is becoming increasingly frail as her worsening dementia prevents her from understanding why she feels the way she does.  More often than not these days she needs assistance in walking the 50 steps from her bedroom to the TV lounge.  At mealtimes she finds her appetite is not what it was, and the care staff and resident nursing team only recognized the pattern after several days.  They became used to the fact that Maggie had to be coaxed to eat, but because of the rotating shifts and heavy workloads imposed on staffers at her care home, her miniscule food consumption had gone largely unnoticed.  The normal response to such a situation in this particular care home, and in many around the country, is to start monitoring liquid and food consumption by means of a tally chart completed at the end of each shift.  Although this is a practical step, it suffers from being imprecise -- a single staff member may be responsible for up to twenty residents, oftentimes leading to erroneous reporting.

Also, providing a dementia patient with conventional food to fend off malnutrition does not take into consideration the need for protein.  The elderly with weak constitutions, faulty dentures and dodgy digestive systems will generally choose bland, easily ingested foods in preference to protein-rich foods that are oftentimes harder to eat.  Even the American Heart Association’s safe recommendation of 6 ounces of cooked meat per day may be difficult to achieve, especially as portions are rarely served so accurately in a care-home kitchen.

How much better it would be for the care staff to report that Maggie had exactly 75 grams of protein through the day?  They could achieve this so easily by ensuring she takes the contents of three small, vial-shaped capsules manufactured by Protica.  The capsules are called Profect, and each dose of this undersized, ready-to-drink beverage holds only 2.7 fluid ounces -- about one third of a cup – yet it boasts 25g of protein and the complete range of water-soluble vitamins.

Maggie’s is only one of the many medical applications for Actinase®, the proprietary protein inside Profect.  In fact, Profect is regularly used for a host of special medical needs, including cancer, burn, bariatric, immunodeficiency, Kwashiorkor (protein malnutrition), stress due to illness or infection, and the list goes on. So many diseases, intolerances and allergies are caused or exacerbated by a poor diet, and the healthcare community knows that protein is oftentimes a cornerstone of the solution.

More and more patients and professionals are turning to capsulized foods -- dense nutrition in a compact liquid form -- as part of an overall treatment or diet plan. Profect is the first product to be marketed as a capsulized food. Andy why shouldn’t it? It delivers more protein per ounce than any other beverage on the market. But its high concentration of protein and compact size are not the only features garnering attention from healthcare professionals and patients; it also tastes good. “It’s not gritty. Profect is the best tasting protein product, and I have tried them all”, according to Vickie Linke, a bariatric patient in Toledo, Ohio.

While taste reigns supreme to patients, efficacy is the concern of healthcare professionals. “We have nearly 160 beds in our renal care facility, and protein absorption is a critical challenge for our patients. Where other protein products have failed, Profect has succeeded in increasing their albumin [protein] levels”, says Tara Reed of the Renal Care Group in Montgomery, Alabama.

The science behind Profect is as intriguing as its vial-shaped packaging. Profect contains all the essential amino acids and 100% heat-stable, short-chain peptide proteins.  Peptides are known to influence disease recovery, although their full function is not totally understood. However they are a normal product of food digestion and are more easily absorbed by flawed digestive systems, delivering energy and tissue growth. 

Many serious conditions require careful monitoring of protein intake.  Severe burns patients, for example, will suffer rapid muscle protein breakdown, known as catabolism.  The body tries to stabilize itself automatically but, as a consequence, the lean body mass (LBM) may reduce dramatically unless an alternate, easily available protein source is present.   Our LBM is our total tissue mass (organs and muscles), so it is easy to imagine why controlling this downward spiral is critical.  Higher than normal protein intake for severe burns patients is essential, but the correct balance is vital as over-dosing on protein can cause a build-up of urea and ammonia. This can trigger nausea and vomiting, which can then reverse any benefit brought by the additional protein. For this reason, it is essential that the patient and the nursing staff have a consistent method of assessing protein input accurately.  The precise protein dose in products like Profect delivers that necessary consistency.

Similarly, recovery from renal failure demands careful monitoring of protein intake.  Treatment and recuperation require that the blood urea nitrogen (BUN) level and serum creatinine level are normalized.  Both urea and creatinine are by-products of protein digestion and, as with Maggie, these patients will respond well to a supplement that is easy to consume.

The ability to deliver significant quantities of protein in a small liquid volume makes Profect a near godsend for conditions where appetites are jaded or completely absent.  Almost one-fourth of cancer patients can be diagnosed as anorexic, the condition where loss of appetite causes dramatic weight loss.  If unchecked, anorexia leads to a condition called cachexia where muscle mass is lost and the resulting progressive weakness can lead to premature death.  Encouraging studies using tissue-building proteins like Profect in nutrition therapy has improved the condition of these patients.  It may not cure their cancer, but it will improve the quality of their lives by relieving nutrition impact symptoms and reducing the possibility of secondary infections.

In the case of cancers, the disease may be responsible for rendering the digestive system deficient in its ability to properly convert food.  Patients with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract are particularly at risk of malabsorbing nutrients even if they appear to be eating a balanced diet.  However there are millions of us who have mistreated our digestive systems throughout our lives.  Some doctors estimate that 90% of all illnesses can be attributed to poor diet, or a faulty digestive process.  When you consider the poisons we allow into our bodies -- alcohol, chocolate, saturated fat, salt and caffeine – coupled with ample amounts of stress, there is little question that our gastro-intestinal tracts may eventually falter and have a reduced ability to properly break down proteins.

Jim Duffy, President of Protica Research, sees Profect as a large step forward in the field of protein technologies.  Duffy says, “We developed Profect to quickly fortify the body with the proteins and vitamins missing from meals or snacks, particularly those high in carbohydrates or fats. Our customer base transcends the stereotypical weightlifter and includes all age groups, irrespective of lifestyle, health status, and transformation goals.”

Perhaps we shouldn’t wait until we are 89 years old, like Maggie Tipton, to take a controlling interest in the significant role protein plays in our diets and in our well-being. 

About Protica

Founded in 2001, Protica, Inc. is a nutritional research firm with offices in Lafayette Hill and Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Protica manufactures capsulized foods, including Profect, a compact, hypoallergenic, ready-to-drink protein beverage containing zero carbohydrates and zero fat. Information on Protica is available at http://www.protica.com 

You can also learn about Profect at http://www.profect.com 

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