A STORY FROM A CENTURY AGO THAT EXPLAINS THE FUTURE
OF OUR WELL-BEING
Dear Valued Customer,
The most important lessons aren't always found in university halls or advanced laboratories. Sometimes, they come from forgotten stories, hidden in documents from another era.
Today, I want to share one of these stories with you, a family story that has deeply shaped my own path. It takes us back to 1908, in a small town in Umbria, Italy, where my grandfather, Dr. Carlo Ruggiero, was a country doctor.
Umbria, Italy (early 1900)
In the midst of a measles epidemic, my grandfather made an extraordinary and counterintuitive observation. He noticed that the children he had vaccinated against smallpox also seemed to be protected from measles, a seemingly unrelated disease. In an era when science was obsessed with "specificity" — one germ, one disease, one cure — this insight was ignored and remained a solitary observation in scientific literature.
Yet, Dr. Carlo Ruggiero had grasped a fundamental principle that modern medicine would only discover a century later: heterologous immunity.
What is Heterologous Immunity?
This concept tells us that a vaccine or a specific treatment doesn't just act on its specific target; it can also "train" the entire innate immune system. In the case of smallpox, the vaccine stimulated the body's general defenses, making them more ready to fight a wide range of pathogens, including the measles virus. My grandfather's 1908 intuition is now the basis for a new, exciting branch of medicine.
This holistic approach to immunity is not a new idea. Another pioneering doctor, Dr. William Coley, a contemporary of my grandfather, made a similar observation in the field of oncology. He noticed that cancer patients who developed a bacterial infection would sometimes experience tumor regression, suggesting that a systemic activation of the immune system could be a powerful weapon against cancer.
Dr. William Coley (1862-1936)
From History to the Future of Wellness: The Holistic Approach of Bravo
Today, I feel that my work with Bravo is a kind of ideal continuation of my grandfather’s work. The wisdom of these pioneers resonates deeply with my approach. I believe that health isn't a matter of a single ingredient or a specific solution, but a holistic approach that supports the body as a whole.
Bravo products, with their extraordinary combination of probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics, don't target a single problem. Instead, they "retrain" the entire microbiome ecosystem. Just as the smallpox vaccine "trained" the immune system to respond to different threats, Bravo works to rebalance our entire gut microbiome, a system that — as science has now widely proven — influences our overall well-being, from mental health to immune support.
This is the most important lesson from my grandfather's story. We must look beyond simple symptoms and support the body as a whole. Because a well-balanced and "trained" system is our best defense.
I am proud to carry this approach forward with a product line that honors the wisdom of the past and looks toward the future.
Yours truly,
Dr. Marco Ruggiero
