REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Malnutrition is the number one health problem in America. While it may seem incredible, there is a compelling need to teach everyone how to make better nutritional choices. The vast majority of Americans underestimate the degree to which almost all of us are malnourished. Few appear to appreciate the vast difference that better nutrition could make in their lives. Quite simply, we are what we eat. If you build a house out of low quality materials, you will end up with a poorly constructed house. That house will not age well. The same is true of your body. Abundant amounts of high quality nutrients are essential to build a healthy body and to maintain it, free of disease. Babies and children need extra amounts of nutrients because they are building rather than just maintaining their bodies. After fifteen years of researching health and disease, it is abundantly clear to me that malnutrition is the leading cause of disease…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis In September of '97, the self-serving bureaucrats at the Centers for Disease Control announced that there have been "broad gains in the nation's health." They were able to say this with a straight face because there has been a reduction in our excessively high infant mortality, and therefore average life expectancy is up. Unfortunately, the medical establishment is just spreading misconceptions. How can we address our health problems if we think everything is just fine and getting better? Here is the truth: The nation's health is in a long-term decline. Seventy-five percent of our population now has a diagnosable chronic disease. Sixty-four percent currently take medications, and it's getting worse every year. Yet, get this! According to a recent survey, two-thirds of us think we are in "excellent" or "good" health. Talk about misconceptions! Ninety percent of people over age 65 have a chronic disease, and twenty-five perce…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis ObamaCare has been passed and signed into law. While healthcare reform is desperately needed, is this the reform we need? The existing drugs-and-surgery approach to healthcare is a failure; it keeps people sick and costs high. ObamaCare traps us into this failed system and makes change even more difficult. This is not the reform we need, and it comes at a huge cost not only in dollars but in more government intrusion into our lives, loss of freedom and serious constitutional questions. ObamaCare is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, hoping it will keep us from sinking! Disease-care costs are out of control. Rapidly increasing and economically unsustainable, these costs threaten to bankrupt our governments and businesses. The unfunded liability for Medicare and Social Security alone is well over $100 trillion. There is no way this money can be paid without crippling taxation and confiscation of wealth (a…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Our children need our protection. As more people come to the realization that vaccinations are dangerous and ineffective, those who “look after our health” are becoming desperate and turning to the police power of the government to force vaccinations on the public. Most of you may be familiar with the recent TV images of people being forced, virtually at gunpoint, to vaccinate their children in New Jersey. In truth, under existing law, no one can force you to have a vaccination, but that may change if we are foolish enough to let it happen. New Jersey may be on the way to becoming the first state to make childhood vaccination a legal requirement. Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children would become criminals subject to arrest and imprisonment. Then there is the spectacle of the New York pediatrician, Dr. Mark Nesselson, who conspired with families to get their children into school without being vaccinated. Dr. Nes…

. . . which is better? As you may know, we carry Kyolic AGE, so we’re often asked this question. The answer is that both forms of garlic are fantastic sources of health-promoting compounds; both are high in organosulfur compounds that do wonderful things in your body. Although the compounds are somewhat different in each, both AGE and raw garlic have abundant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and help your body to detoxify and to prevent and possibly reverse the same wide range of health problems. In addition to the cardiovascular and neurological benefits described above, garlic, whether raw or aged, has immune boosting and antibiotic abilities and is active against worms, fungi (including candida albicans), bacteria (including helicobacter pylori), viruses, allergies and cancer. It helps build energy, endurance and the ability to withstand stress. Because it is anti-inflammatory, and because all chronic disease has an inflammatory component, it is useful in all chron…

. . . how peaches, plums and nectarines can keep us healthy Fresh, juicy, sweet and colorful . . . the “stone fruits”: peaches, plums and nectarines are one of my favorite things about summer. And scientists at Texas A&M have found that these delicious fruits possess certain compounds that work in different and synergistic ways to thwart heart disease, obesity and diabetes – together known as “metabolic syndrome.” A study presented at the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting last summer showed that four groups of phenolic compounds found in stone fruits – anthocyanins, chlorogenic acids, quercetin derivatives and catechins – have anti-obesity, anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic properties and may also reduce the oxidation of LDL (the “bad” cholesterol). (Cholesterol alone isn’t harmful; but when it is oxidized it leads to atherosclerosis and heart disease.) Each of the fruits has similar healthful compounds, but in differing proportions. The researchers recommended…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News By Raymond Francis Vitamin C is one of the most important molecules you can put into your body. Unfortunately, modern living has increased our need for vitamin C so that most of us are deficient and need to supplement. Tragically, most people are taking the wrong vitamin C. A number of manufacturers produce vitamin C with varying degrees of purity, and as you will see, purity is critical. Most of the vitamin C on the market is not what you should be taking. Most of us don’t think about the fact that supplement manufacturers can purchase vitamins in a range of different chemical forms and degrees of purity. The correct chemical forms, the forms that the body actually uses, coupled with the highest purity will give you the best results. Vitamins that are less pure and/or in incorrect forms may give you few or no results at all. Some vitamins are even known to have negative effects. The correct chemical forms cost more to manufacture and numerou…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News By Raymond Francis Most people who think they’re healthy are actually slowly declining toward serious health problems that, when they finally arrive, will seem to have come without warning. Most of us consider it normal to get sick several times a year, to use up our sick leave at work, or to occasionally miss a favorite gathering or activity because we’re feeling “a little under the weather.” This may be normal, but it isn’t how it’s supposed to be. The body’s natural state is homeostasis, where all systems are balanced and running smoothly. When in homeostasis, you can’t get sick, not even a cold. When properly supported, the body knows exactly how to maintain this healthy state. Ignore its basic needs for too long, however, and your body will let you know that it is not amused! You might be tapped on the shoulder with a little sniffle, a headache, indigestion, a cough, or some aches and pains. (We have drugstore aisles full of pills to…

. . . a month of gluttony encourages weight gain years later in Swedish study Thanksgiving can be the start of one long holiday eating binge that doesn’t end until the New Year. There seems to be an instinctive tendency to become less active and eat more mid-winter. Yielding to this urge as well as to all the goodies that surround us, we say, “Oh well, I may put on a few pounds during the holidays, but I’ll lose them once the holidays are over.” But pounds gained during the holidays may be harder to lose than we anticipate. A 2010 Swedish study found apparent long-term metabolic changes from a month of over-eating combined with lack of exercise. A group of healthy twenty-somethings of normal weight were asked to limit their physical activity to 5,000 steps per day (monitored by a pedometer) and substantially overeat (they ate about 70% more than usual, with an emphasis on fast food) for 4 weeks while a similar group continued eating and exercising as they normally would. The o…

by Raymond Francis Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) save energy and money. An Energy Star qualified CFL uses at least 2/3 less energy than a regular light bulb (called an incandescent) and lasts up to 10 times longer. It will save you about $30 in energy costs over its lifetime. And CFLs offer significant benefits for the environment. If every American home replaced just one incandescent with an Energy Star CFL, it would reduce greenhouse gases as much as taking nearly 800,000 cars off the road. It all sounds wonderful. You can benefit the environment and your own pocketbook at the same time, and what could be simpler than screwing in a light bulb! But using CFLs responsibly isn’t always so simple, and consumers aren’t getting the message that learning how to properly use and dispose of CFLs is crucial. Inside every CFL, there is an average of 4 mg of the deadly neurotoxin mercury. If the bulb is broken, either in your home, on its way to the garbage dump, or at the d…

. . . freshly squeezed morning orange juice? It’s so passe´! A new study from Harvard has confirmed what Raymond Francis has been saying for years – moderate consumption of whole fruit is good; fruit juice, on the other hand, floods your bloodstream with too much sugar, which has damaging effects. The Harvard researchers analyzed diet data from three mammoth studies that followed more than 180,000 nurses and other health professionals for about twenty years to look for correlations between fruit consumption and type 2 diabetes risk. It probably won’t surprise Newsclips readers to hear they found fruit consumption significantly associated with a lowered risk for developing type 2 diabetes, and fruit juice consumption associated with a higher risk. Interestingly, they found certain fruits a lot more beneficial than others in reducing diabetes risk, independent of their glycemic index. Of the ten fruits included in the study, blueberries were far and away the top performers, low…

by Raymond Francis Headlines are screaming, “Don’t Waste Your Money on Multivitamins.” The drug companies are at it again, and if you like propaganda and misinformation, you will love the latest nonsense coming out of the disease industry. Drug companies are waging a worldwide effort to discredit vitamins and to make them less available to the general public. In many places, including Europe, they are succeeding. Laws have been passed to limit access to vitamins. Their latest attack is a study, funded by Big Pharma, published in the December 2013 Annals of Internal Medicine. This study concluded that multivitamins are a waste of money and that they do nothing to prevent disease. Several recent studies have found that multivitamins do nothing to boost the average American’s health, offering few if any benefits. An estimated half of all Americans take vitamin and mineral supplements, and multivitamins amount to about half of all vitamin sales. The so-called experts behind this rese…

The holiday season brings a plethora of good things - spending time with family you haven’t seen in a while, seeing the utter happiness on your kids’ faces when they see the first snowfall or open a present, a chance to refocus your spiritual life, and so on. But, inevitably, this season does bring with it one negative thing - STRESS. Now, many of us handle stress well in our day-to-day lives, but as we all know, the holiday season is anything but day-to-day. Cooking huge meals, dealing with the hustle and bustle of busy stores and battling coldweather issues are just a few of the situations that throw us off our routine and create stress this time of year. Stress is harmful to our bodies and to our immune system - and we all know how important our immune system is! Stress can contribute to all six of the pathways that lead to sickness, so it is vital to counteract it. And it’s not something that you can just deal with - you must alleviate it before it has a chance to have neg…

When the American Medical Association (AMA) was founded in 1846, one might imagine it was to further the science of medicine. In fact, the real reasons had a lot more to do with economics. In 1844, the first medical association in the United States was founded; it was the American Institute of Homeopathy. At the time, homeopathy was extremely popular in both the US and Great Britain (still popular in England; the British royalty have been treated by homeopaths since 1830). When two years later the AMA was established, one of its stated goals was to curb the growth of homeopathy. Although its ostensible intent was to expose and eliminate “unscientific” health practices and thereby “protect the consumer,” it was well known to early members of the AMA that its real aim was to destroy competition from homeopaths, naturopaths, and herbalists who were successfully treating patients. With wealthy backers like Andrew Carnegie, the AMA accomplished its objective of marginalizing what came…

Question:  I have a stomach ulcer and have been diagnosed with an H. pylori infection. My doctor wants to put me on antibiotics. Is there an alternative treatment for H. pylori? B. D. – Patternson, NJ Answer: Yes. Any infection is an indication that immunity is weak, and has probably been weak for some time. An alternative approach would be to strengthen the immune system while eating a bland diet to avoid irritating the ulcer; taking herbs that heal mucous membranes, like licorice, aloe vera extract, slippery elm and/or marshmallow root extract; taking glutamine to rebuild the stomach lining; and using herbal antimicrobials like olive leaf or oregano oil and oregano capsules in place of antibiotics. For information on using oregano oil therapeutically, see Dr. Cass Ingram’s The Cure is in the Cupboard. Coconut oil is also very good for killing H. pylori. See Coconut Cures, by Bruce Fife, for how to use coconut oil therapeutically. Any of my books will describe the holistic li…

Question:  For years the Food and Drug Administration has maintained that the antibacterial triclosan is safe. Now they’re backtracking and asking manufacturers that include triclosan in their products to prove it is safe and effective. What is your opinion of triclosan? – Internet Answer: Triclosan is a chlorinated aromatic compound that kills bacteria by breaking open their cell walls. Evidence from animal and test-tube studies has established that triclosan interferes with normal biochemistry and is not safe for human use. It inhibits fatty acid synthesis. It has been shown to be an endocrine disrupter that impairs thyroid function and alters estrogen levels. A series of experiments reported last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences tracked the effects of triclosan on mice, fish, minnows and human cardiac and skeletal muscle. These experiments found triclosan hindered muscle contractions at the cellular level by impairing the flow of calcium into and out…

. . . and best ways you can get more in your diet to improve brain function Fish oil has been creating a lot of buzz in the news lately. This time, it’s not another rigged scientific study, or ruthless attack by the news media. Instead, it’s one more real-life success story documenting the significant health benefits of fish oil. This latest “miracle” comes out of Palm Desert, California. Sixteen-year-old Grant Virgin suffered significant injuries following a hit-and-run accident. Including a torn aorta, skull fractures, traumatic brain injury (TBI), compound bone fractures, and spinal fractures. Doctors offered little hope as young Grant fell into a coma. In fact, they told parents John and JJ Virgin that Grant would likely die from his injuries. While doctors resigned themselves to losing Grant—and advised the Virgins to do the same—John and JJ instead chose to fight for their son’s life. Eventually Grant’s body would stabilize as he spent the first several weeks on a…

In Never Be Sick Again, Raymond Francis refers to a healthy, 131-year-old man named Jose Maria Roa, living in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador. When asked if he’d ever been sick, Roa said well, yes, he’d had a few colds. A few colds in 131 years! Contrast Mr. Roa to the average person living today, who gets a few colds every year, and you begin to see how far we’ve come from healthy living. But some of us aren’t getting colds anymore. Nor do we fear Ebola. And we’re not poisoning ourselves with flu shots either. How do we do it? By keeping our immunity strong! The immune system is designed to recognize and clear pathogens from the body before they cause disease. If you give your body the nutrients it needs, protect it from toxins, get enough exercise and sleep, and minimize stress, you enable your immune system to work the way nature intended. One vitamin you must have in sufficient quantities for proper immune function is vitamin D. Vitamin D is critical to many immune func…