For My Tummy

IBS Probiotic Align - This Is Not Good

Last week, on Wednesday August 22, 2007, I opened the 7-day pack of Align ™ for my last two weeks of reviewing the patented probiotic product. On that day I also ordered the next month of Align ™ from their web site. The day of the week was Wednesday. While I have a note of the order and the date and the confirmation code, I do not remember what time it was, though I think it was on the East Coast during the day.

In any case, there were two days left in the work week to ship out the Align ™ probiotic that I take for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). That did not happen, as I learned today with some dismay. Here is the actual email I received, with some editing to remove identifying details.

Reply
P&G to Contacts list Show original Message text
from P&G eStore Support hide details 3:00 pm (15 minutes ago) [that’s 3:00 p.m. EST]
to personlinks@gmail.com
date Aug 27, 2007 3:00 PM
subject Your Align Order Confirmation
mailed-by softcoin.com

Dear Customer,

We wanted to let you know that we just shipped your Align order number# 865697

The shipment went out via USPS and should arrive within one to two weeks.

If we can be of further service, please let us know. Customer Service can be reached by email at support@softcoin.com or by toll-free phone at 1-800-451-8904.

Thank you for purchasing Align.

Order 865697 Summary

To be shipped to:
The credit card name
The street address
The apt. number
The city and state
The phone number

Item: Align 28-Day Supply
Qty: 1

For additional order details, please log into your Align E-store account and click on ‘Account History’ then ‘Order Details’.

Thanks again for ordering from Align.

Reading this:

For additional order details, please log into your Align E-store account and click on ‘Account History’ then ‘Order Details’.

I logged in and viewed my order on their web site. All that was there was the amount of the purchase, my address, which I happen to remember, and the date and confirmation number for the order.

No tracking code, nothing that tells me when the Align ™ order will arrive, other than the alarming “one to two weeks” and the news that it was shipped USPS. Apparently shipping was not USPS Priority Mail, which comes in two days across country from Heather’s Products.

I am alarmed. Because of the delay in processing my order, five days out of 14 have been lost. If the order takes two weeks to reach me, I will have been out of Align ™ probiotic for between four and five days. Since, as I’ve noted before on this blog, missing a dose makes a noticeable difference, that is a dilemma. Much of the benefit of taking Align ™ for my Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) may be gone; much of the original discomfort in starting Align may return. Do I wait out the time until Align ™ arrives, or do I shift back to my supply of the NSI 15-35 probiotic, or do I try another probiotic marketed for IBS, though perhaps not as well researched as Align ™?

A call to customer service reveals the following information:

• There is no other faster way to ship Align ™, even if the order is placed by telephone.
• In other words, all orders go out by USPS First Class Mail.
• US Mail, unlike FedEx or UPS, works on Saturdays and delivers on Saturdays
• The shipping point (warehouse, I guess) is in southern Ohio, clear of the flooding.

That information reduces my sense of panic; this is an illustration of what I said a few days ago about Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and repression-sensitization. (Yes, I know “represser” is misspelled; it should be “repressor.”) I wasn’t worried about the order being fulfilled when I sent it last Wednesday, because there was still plenty of time left. I “repressed” any worry. Then I got the notice five days later that the fulfillment people for Align ™ were only now getting around to sending out the order. I immediately “sensitized;” taking care of this / blogging about it shifted to the highest priority.

So as not simply to rant, I would like to offer several recommendations in the distribution of Align ™:

• Provide several possibilities for online and telephone ordering, such as
  1. shipping alternatives
  • standard
  • express, with tracking number
  2. purchase alternatives
  • online and telephone from website
  • in stores
• Provide for standing orders on a repeat basis, although a monthly, rather than 28-day, supply would be essential for this to be workable in many budgets.
• Create an adequate supply chain before marketing to create demand!

The last, of course, is a “change the past” request, which is unfair–or a “bring on the future really quickly” request, which might be doable.

======================
PS Just called my local CVS Pharmacy. The pharmacist there says that the name and description of Align ™ Probiotic rings a bell, that another pharmacist was just asking about it, but he doesn’t have it; he’ll call me back when he knows more. He did call back; four other pharmacists in the chain don’t know any more than he does; they have no product information, and no sources. He’s going to read this blog to find out about Align ™.

Thanks to this particular CVS pharmacist, and the others I have known, who are really as great as their ads.
======================

Did you know that my compensation for writing so much about Align ™ is a two-months free supply, and the ability to offer readers a promotional code for a $5 discount on the $29.99 price of an online order (shipping is free). To get the code, please write a comment to any article on this blog, and request the code. I’ll send you an email with the code, and will ordinarily publish your comment and my response, without the promo code.

So, do you have any thoughts on this post, or others? An experience with Align ™?

August 27th, 2007 Posted by tummyblogger | Probiotics, general, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Align | 22 comments

IBS and the Three Nervous Systems

The Second Brain
There is an actual physical finding in Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), that indicates that IBS is not “all in the head.” All in the nerves, maybe, but not all in the head.

The Three Nervous Systembs
To begin with, we need to understand that our bodies have three nervous systems:

1. CNS - The Central Nervous System
2. PNS - The Peripheral Nervous System
3. ENS - The Enteric Nervous System, or the “second brain”

The CNS - Central Nervous System - consists of the brain and spinal column.
The PNS - Peripheral Nervous System - consists of the very long nerves that run along our arms and legs to our hands and feet.
The ENS - Enteric Nervous System - is the nerve tissue that lines our gut = the viscera = (mostly) small and large intestine.

And Serotonin
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that plays an active role in the activity of neurons in the brain (CNS) and in the gut (ENS) . This activity, to simplify it all, either speeds impulses along the nerve pathways, or (as lack of activity) slows down nerve impulses.

Motility and Serotonin
What do you suppose that would do for motility–the ability of the gut to move its contents along easily, nicely, and calmly to the desired end. That’s right. The role of serotonin and the balanced action of serotonin affects both the speed of thought and the motility of the gut.

“Chemical Imbalance”
Depression is the major chemical imbalance in the brain that reflects an unbalanced serotonin activity. Not exactly similarly, just in somewhat the same fashion, IBS (IBS-C and IBS-D) are in part the result of a “chemical imbalance” of the Enteric Nervous System (ENS), the nerves that operate your gut, which rely on serotonin to transmit signals from one nerve ending to the next.

Balancing Serotonin
That’s why a gastroenterologist (gut doctor) may prescribe a tricyclic antidepressant, not because she or he is treating your head or thinks you are depressed. It is, rather, because he or she wants to give your Enteric Nervous System (ENS) more serotonin to work with for a better-balanced ENS.

August 27th, 2007 Posted by tummyblogger | Medical, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS-C, IBS-D, Digesting Information, IBS Symptoms | no comments