Calcium: From “Magic Bullet” to Scapegoat—and Back to Science Once celebrated as the superstar solution for osteoporosis, calcium has recently fallen from grace. It’s now routinely criticized—or outright vilified—by both conventional and alternative health commentators. Vitamin C researcher Thomas E. Levy, MD, even titled a book Death by Calcium! So how did one of the most essential minerals in human physiology—and one that most Americans, especially the elderly, are deficient in—end up with such a bad reputation? How Calcium Lost Its Halo The calcium controversy began when it was promoted as a standalone “magic bullet” for osteoporosis. The logic was simple: Weak bones? Take more calcium. When that approach didn’t deliver the expected results, experts added vitamin D: Take calcium with vitamin D. This worked slightly better—but still not well enough. Why? Because calcium never works alone. Calcium Is a Team…

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH): Inevitable—or Preventable? By age 80, approximately 90% of men have an enlarged prostate, medically referred to as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In conventional medicine, BPH is now widely regarded as an almost inevitable consequence of aging. At Beyond Health, we don’t accept inevitability as destiny. Understanding BPH and Its Risks The prostate gland surrounds the urethra. As it enlarges, it can compress the urethral channel, leading to lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) that range from mildly annoying to severely debilitating. Common symptoms include: Weak or interrupted urine stream Difficulty starting or stopping urination A feeling of incomplete bladder emptying Dribbling Frequent urination, especially at night Urgency or sudden need to urinate Burning or pain during urination Over time, irritation and damage to the urethral lining can increase the risk of urinary tract infections. If left unaddressed, progre…

Vitamin C: The Molecule That Changed Everything Ever since it saved his life, Raymond Francis has regarded vitamin C—when it’s the right kind—as the most powerful and indispensable nutrient for human health. Long before Beyond Health existed, Raymond wasn’t planning for the future. In truth, he wasn’t sure he had one. He was gravely ill—near death—when he called his brother Bernie, who flew across the country expecting the worst. What Bernie found was alarming. Raymond was emaciated, barely conscious, and drifting in and out of awareness. What happened next would change everything. Bernie had brought a book he’d recently heard about: Anatomy of an Illness by Norman Cousins. Cousins is best known for using laughter to help reverse a supposedly incurable disease—but less well known is that high-dose vitamin C, administered intravenously, was a cornerstone of his recovery. Too weak and discouraged to laugh, Raymond was willing to try w…

Could SIBO Be Behind Your Digestive Symptoms? Are you bothered by abdominal bloating, gas, flatulence, belching, or an irritable bowel—constipation alternating with diarrhea, or perhaps predominantly one or the other? If so, you may be dealing with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), a now well-recognized but still frequently overlooked form of intestinal dysbiosis. What Is SIBO? You may already be familiar with one form of dysbiosis, in which yeast (such as Candida) or harmful bacteria overgrow in the intestines and crowd out beneficial organisms. SIBO is different. SIBO occurs specifically in the small intestine—the approximately 20-foot-long, tightly coiled digestive tube that connects the stomach to the colon. Under healthy conditions, the small intestine contains relatively few bacteria compared to the colon. When bacteria or other microorganisms that normally reside there begin to proliferate excessively, a pathological imbalance develops. This overgrowth i…

Our Mission: Going Beyond Health At Beyond Health, our mission is simple—and radical: To help people go beyond health. Going beyond health means going beyond what most people have been taught to accept as “normal.” Redefining What It Means to Be Healthy Most people consider themselves healthy if they are functional—able to get out of bed, go to work or school, take care of family responsibilities, and squeeze in some enjoyment along the way. They may struggle with allergies, digestive problems, headaches, fatigue, stubborn weight gain, skin or hair issues, or frequent aches and pains. Often, these concerns are “managed” with over-the-counter remedies, yet the person still considers themselves healthy. As time goes on, medications are added to manage more serious conditions—arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, heart disease, cognitive decline. We’ve known people taking multiple prescriptions who still describe themselves as healthy. Eventua…

. . . green tea is one of many sources of antioxidants  A study recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition followed almost 14,000 Japanese men and women aged 65 and older for three years and found that the more green tea they drank, the less disability they incurred. Those drinking 1-2 cups a day had a 10% lower risk of disability than those who drank less than a cup a day. Those who drank 3-4 cups a day had a 25% reduced risk, and those who drank 5 cups or more a day had a 33% reduced risk. Since previous studies had found green tea consumption associated with reduced risk of stroke, dementia, fracture and depression, all of which are associated with higher risk for disability, these results weren’t surprising. The primary reason green tea is so beneficial to health is that it contains high levels of antioxidant polyphenols. Our green tea contains 200 mg of these antioxidant polyphenols per cup compared with most green tea, which averages just 60 mg per cu…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis While most people will experience an occasional sleepless night, insomnia is a condition where lack of sleep is a regular occurrence characterized by an inability to either fall asleep or remain asleep during the night. Tens of millions of Americans do not get sufficient rest due to insomnia. According to the American Sleep Foundation, more than 40 percent of American adults are so sleepy during the day that it interferes with their daily activity. Falling asleep while driving causes about 100,000 auto-mobile accidents per year. Adequate sleep is critical to achieving optimal health because sleep is restorative. The body does many housekeeping chores while we sleep including repairs to the damage done during the day. Given the number of people suffering from insomnia and the negative effect it is having on our health and safety, it is useful to explore some of the causes and solutions for this problem. There are many potent…

Polyphenols: Nature’s Master Defenders for Cellular Health Polyphenols are powerful antioxidant compounds found in plant foods, and their benefits for human health are remarkably broad. As potent antioxidants and anti-inflammatories, polyphenols help protect against virtually every chronic disease by addressing its root drivers: oxidative stress, inflammation, immune imbalance, and cellular damage. Because modern diets are consistently low in polyphenols, we recommend strategic supplementation with one of our quercetin formulas—Quercetin Pro or Cell Repair Formula—to ensure adequate intake of these essential compounds. Tea: A Simple, Powerful Polyphenol Habit Another excellent way to increase your polyphenol intake is by making green or white tea a daily habit. Both green and white tea come from the same plant leaves, but white tea undergoes less processing, allowing it to retain: Higher polyphenol content Lower caffeine levels More calming L-theanine This ma…

Quercetin: One of Your Strongest Natural Defenses Against Heart Disease Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death by disease, and one of the most powerful natural compounds for protecting the heart is quercetin. Quercetin is a flavonoid—a type of antioxidant polyphenol—found naturally in fruits and vegetables. A growing body of research confirms that quercetin plays a significant role in preventing cardiovascular disease and supporting overall metabolic and immune health. Large population studies consistently show that diets high in quercetin are associated with a lower risk of heart disease. Beyond population data, mechanistic and clinical research reveals how quercetin works at the cellular and vascular level. Eight Ways Quercetin Protects the Cardiovascular System 1. Improves Cholesterol Balance Human studies show that quercetin supplementation: Lowers total cholesterol Lowers LDL (“bad”) cholesterol Raises HDL (“good”) chol…

Finding Calm Through Mental Imagery in an Anxiety-Filled World Mental imagery—the practice of allowing images or a subtle “felt sense” to arise from the subconscious—has been used across cultures and throughout human history as a way to access insight, wisdom, and healing. It has helped people solve problems, understand emotional patterns, and restore inner balance. I’d like to share a recent experience with mental imagery as an invitation for you to explore it yourself—especially in the context of our anxiety-laden COVID-19 world. It does take some time and patience to learn, but in my experience, the rewards can be profound. Entering the Inner Landscape To better understand a background feeling of anxiety that had been present since the start of the pandemic, I set a timer for 20 minutes and sat cross-legged on a cushion in my living room. With my eyes closed, I focused on my breath, allowing it to settle me into stillness and bring my awareness f…

Curcumin: A Powerful Ally for Heart Attack and Stroke Prevention If heart disease runs in your family—or if you’ve already been diagnosed—you’re likely living with the constant concern of a sudden heart attack or stroke. That concern is understandable. But it’s also important to know this: Heart attacks and strokes are largely preventable. Prevention requires attention and commitment, but the rewards are profound—and the consequences of inaction can be severe. One natural compound that deserves special attention for cardiovascular protection is curcumin, the primary active component in turmeric. Research shows curcumin supports heart health by addressing multiple major risk factors simultaneously, something no single drug can do. How Curcumin Protects the Cardiovascular System 1. High Blood Pressure Curcumin lowers blood pressure through multiple complementary mechanisms: Anti-inflammatory & antioxidant protectionReduces oxidative and inflamma…

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 1 in 10 U.S. adults experience depression. Of those, 1 in 4 encounter serious difficulties in functioning day-to-day. Depression is the most common mental health problem facing older adults. Those who suffer say it makes chronic disease conditions—such as arthritis, asthma, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity—feel much worse. To minimize the negative impact on quality of life, mental health experts generally recommend medication to treat depression. They say in some cases, like those of severe depression, it can save lives.Yet, the benefits of depression medication are often exaggerated. In fact, recent studies like the Antidepressant Drug Effects and Depression Severity published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) indicate that people with mild to moderate depression taking antidepressants don’t get any more relief from their symptoms than those taking a placebo! If that we…

You may have heard that overuse of antibiotics has created dangerous “superbugs” that no antibiotic drug can tame or about people losing hands, feet, legs and arms to these “flesh-eating” superbugs. Could you get attacked by one? It’s possible. But maintaining a strong immune system can keep you safe from harm. In 1947, just four years after penicillin was mass marketed, a common bacterium, found on the mucus membranes and skin of about 1/3 of the population, called Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) was found to be resistant to it. That is, someone got a staph infection, and a health practitioner gave them penicillin expecting it to make short work of the critter . . . but it didn’t. Oh-oh. Methicillin then became the antibiotic of choice. But an S. aureus was found to be resistant to methicillin in 1961. Oh-oh again. This time the resistant strains of S. aureus were called methicillin-resistant S. aureus, or MRSA. Vancomycin became the next antibiotic of choice; the first vancomyc…

With warmer weather, grilling fish and meat outside is a great way to enjoy the fresh air. But there’s a catch: high heat used in grilling reacts with proteins in the meat to form cancer-causing toxins called heterocyclic amines (HCAs). The longer these proteins are cooked, and the higher the temperature used, the more HCAs develop. This is one reason why people eating high meat diets get more cancer. If that’s not bad enough, fat dripping into fire produces another cancer-causing compound, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Smoke dense with PAHs gets into lungs and also coats the meat being cooked. Fortunately, you can greatly reduce HCAs and PAHs and the damage they do: Trim fat. This reduces the formation of PAHs as less fat drips into the fire. Use smaller, thinner cuts of meat to reduce cooking time. Flipping burgers once a minute versus only once reduced cooking time in one study by 1.8 minutes, and cut HCAs by more than 11-fold. Score thicker cuts of meat…

Protecting Your Lungs in the Age of COVID-19 COVID-19 primarily affects the respiratory tract, where it can become most dangerous in the lungs. In severe cases, lung tissue becomes so inflamed and congested that breathing may require mechanical ventilation—and even then, outcomes can be poor. For that reason alone, lung health deserves special attention. People with pre-existing lung conditions such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) face a higher risk of serious complications, including pneumonia. But even individuals without diagnosed lung disease are affected by another major risk factor: air pollution. Air Pollution and Respiratory Risk Research increasingly shows that air pollution weakens respiratory defenses and increases susceptibility to infection. According to Meredith McCormack, spokesperson for the American Lung Association and associate professor of pulmonary and critical care at Johns Hopkins University, quoted in the New York Times: “…

All mammals eat raw food. Unfortunately for us, humans have departed from what nature intended, and we are paying a heavy price for this foolishness. One of the most egregious assaults on the nutritional quality of our food is cooking. Heat damages nutrients, makes food more difficult to digest, and high heat even creates carcinogenic (cancer-causing) toxins.Cooked foods will not support healthy life in animals or humans. Accordingly, some researchers have suggested a diet of at least 50% raw foods. Others have suggested at least 80%. The long-lived Hunza people ate about 80% of their diet fresh and raw. What is the ideal percentage? Nobody really knows. It may be 100%.As I was researching the effects of food processing, I came across some shocking experiments. I found that a calf would die from its own mother’s milk, if that milk had been cooked (pasteurized). As a chemist, I knew that heat altered the chemical properties of food, but I had never considered that pasteurized cow’s milk…

A growing body of exciting new research supports the old adage, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper, especially the “dinner like a pauper” part. It seems that human physiology works best when we consume most of our calories early in the day and have a light meal at night. And if you’re trying to lose weight, two studies have shown that when the number of calories consumed, energy spent and sleeping times were kept constant, dieters who ate a big breakfast or lunch lost considerably more weight than those who saved their calories for a big dinner. A Spanish study recruited 420 overweight/obese men and women to follow a 1,400 calorie per day diet for 5 months. However half of the group ate their main meal before 3:00 p.m., while the other half ate theirs after 3:00 p.m.. Those eating early lost an average of 22 pounds; the late eaters lost an average of 17. In a second study, 93 overweight/obese women with metabolic syndrome (a constellation…

Our first article discussed the importance of selenium to immunity. Yet there is still another way in which selenium is required for optimal immune function. Selenium is needed by the thyroid gland, and optimal immunity depends on having a healthy thyroid. Hypothyroidism (an under-performing thyroid) impairs immune cells’ ability to respond to a threat. Hypothyroidism has become epidemic. According to Isaac Eliaz, MD, nearly 60 million Americans, mostly women, have thyroid issues; most often hypothyroidism. Many of these people are unaware they are hypothyroid, and this includes lots of people who have been assured by doctors that test results indicate that their thyroid function is normal. The standard thyroid test measures thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). It is assumed that if not enough thyroid hormone is being produced, TSH will start going up in an attempt to force the thyroid to produce more. But that’s not always the case. If your TSH test is normal and you still hav…