February is Heart Month, and an absolutely critical nutrient for the heart and cardiovascular system is vitamin E. When experimental animals are deprived of vitamin E, they die of heart disease. The two principle roles vitamin E plays in heart health are as an antithrombin, preventing clots inside blood vessels, and as an antioxidant, preventing lipid peroxidation, or oxidation of fats. While vitamin C is our body’s major water-soluble antioxidant, vitamin E is its major fat-soluble antioxidant. Maintaining healthy arteries, free of plaque, is key to maintaining a healthy heart. Plaque forms when cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein or LDL), which is a type of fat, becomes oxidized. Vitamin E plays an essential role in protecting LDL from such oxidation. Cell membranes are composed primarily of fats. As we age our cell membranes tend to become stiffer, primarily due to oxidation. The blood cells themselves become thicker, which increases blood viscosity and impedes circulation…

In honor of Heart Health Month, here are 10 fairly easy things you can do today to support your heart’s health. EAT A RIPE PEACH A study done at Texas A&M found that phenolic compounds in stone fruits (peaches, plums and nectarines) have anti-obesity, anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic properties (diabetes is a risk factor for heart disease) and may also reduce the oxidation of LDL (the “bad” cholesterol). These compounds are also antioxidants. Fruits with the deepest colors, at peak ripeness, have the most antioxidants. EAT AN OUNCE OR TWO OF NUTS An analysis of data from almost 120,000 men and women followed up to 30 years found that those who ate the most nuts had the least risk of dying from several diseases, including heart disease. DRIZZLE SOME BALSAMIC VINEGAR ON YOUR SALAD Acetic acid in vinegar has been shown to normalize blood pressure in rats and to inhibit oxidation of cholesterol in humans. EAT BREAKFAST In various studie…

A credible scientist is worried about the high oxalic acid (aka oxalate) content in green drinks and vegetarian diets.  Should you be concerned?  Maybe. Oxalic acid is found in plant foods. It’s also produced by the body in the course of normal metabolism.  Pretty nasty stuff, it’s the most corrosive acid in the body, a pro-oxidant, and it can combine with most minerals and heavy metals to form oxalate crystals. The most well-known of these crystals are kidney stones, but, according to chemist William Shaw, PhD, formerly of the Centers for Disease Control, high levels of oxalate can form crystals just about anywhere in the body, including glands, heart and brain. Like tiny pieces of glass, these crystals cause tissue damage and inflammation and have been implicated in arthritis, fibromyalgia, interstitial cystitis and a painful condition in and around the vagina called vulvodynia. Fortunately the human body is well-equipped to dispose of oxalate. If you’re in go…

Natural food stores and even major grocery chains are now offering bottled teas. While healthier than many beverage alternatives, bottled teas can be high in fluoride from pesticides and the use of fluoridated tap water for brewing. Even an organic, Fair Trade tea in glass bottles, like Honest Tea, is pricey and contains sugar. Also, since they don’t specifically say their tea is brewed with pure water, we can probably assume they use regular tap water, most of which is chock full of toxins and not fit for human consumption. And if you’re drinking green tea for its health benefits, according to Tod Cooperman, President and Founder of ConsumerLab.com, an independent testing laboratory that acts as a watchdog to the supplement and nutraceutical industries, bottled teas aren’t a good bargain. The most potent health benefits in green and white tea lie in their antioxidant polyphenols, primarily a type of polyphenol called catechins. Most research has been done on a particularly po…

Could Magnesium Deficiency Be Affecting Your Health? Do you experience—or have you been diagnosed with—any of the following? Neurological & Mental Health ADD / ADHD Anxiety, irritability, nervousness Depression, apathy Confusion, difficulty concentrating, memory problems Insomnia or restless sleep Extreme sensitivity to noise or pain Autism Alzheimer’s disease Parkinson’s disease Muscles, Nerves & Movement Chronic muscle tension Muscle spasms, cramps, tics, or tremors (hands, legs, feet, face) Teeth grinding Tension or migraine headaches Clumsiness or poor coordination Chronic fatigue syndrome / fibromyalgia Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health Irregular or rapid heartbeat High blood pressure Blood clots Congestive heart failure Heart disease Insulin resistance, diabetes, hypoglycemia, metabolic syndrome Digestive & Immune Health Allergies or asthma Autoimmune disease Candida or yeast infections…

Green tea has been praised for its health-giving properties for more than 4,000 years. Whether you want to support your mind, bones, heart, probiotics in your intestines, glucose metabolism, immunity, detoxification, a healthy weight—or all of the above, green tea can help. But sometimes green tea can be toxic! We’ve told you before about a woman whose fluoride levels skyrocketed after habitually drinking a pitcher of tea daily. She developed severe bone pain that was reversed by a fluoride-free diet, but all her teeth had become so brittle they had to be extracted. Tea leaves accumulate more of the toxin fluoride than any other edible plant, and the fluoride content in tea has increased dramatically over the last couple of decades due primarily to fluoride-containing pesticides. The problem is compounded when fluoridated water is used to brew the tea. To minimize fluoride, buy organically grown tea and brew it in purified water. Tea plants also absorb lead more readily than o…

You may think she’s already beautiful, but wouldn’t you like to give your mom the experience of a soothing, relaxing, aromatic facial with an exquisite restorative moisturizer that will make her look years younger? A facial serum made with exotic botanical ingredients from all over the world that will not only nourish and replenish her skin, making her look radiant, but create an aromatherapy experience to enhance her mood and emotions as well? We have such a moisturizer, and it’s on sale in time for Mother’s Day! It’s l’huile de grace. French for “oil of grace,” l’huile de grace provides a profound experience of nourishing the senses and emotions while it nurtures, heals, protects and beautifies the skin. Beyond Health is thrilled to be one of a very few outlets for this hand-crafted beauty product that is in every way the complete opposite of the kind of mass-produced cosmetic made from synthetic, often petroleum-based, ingredients that can damage both skin and health. The t…

An absolutely critical nutrient for the heart and cardiovascular system is vitamin E. When experimental animals are deprived of vitamin E, they die of heart disease. The two principle roles vitamin E plays in heart health are as an antithrombin, preventing clots inside blood vessels, and as an antioxidant, preventing lipid peroxidation, or oxidation of fats. While vitamin C is our body’s major water-soluble antioxidant, vitamin E is its major fat-soluble antioxidant. Maintaining healthy arteries, free of plaque, is key to maintaining a healthy heart. Plaque forms when cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein or LDL), which is a type of fat, becomes oxidized. Vitamin E plays an essential role in protecting LDL from such oxidation. Cell membranes are composed primarily of fats. As we age our cell membranes tend to become stiffer, primarily due to oxidation. The blood cells themselves become thicker, which increases blood viscosity and impedes circulation. Vitamin E helps blood cell…

The major keys to supporting healthy blood sugar regulation are diet and exercise. Our primitive ancestors who were physically active and ate diets high in fiber and low in carbohydrates didn’t have to worry about blood-sugar problems. If we emulated them, neither would we. Refined sugar is the main dietary culprit. Many people think that they don’t eat much sugar because they don’t dip into the sugar bowl frequently. What they fail to appreciate is the enormous amount of sugar they get from desserts, baked goods and other treats, as well as from the 85 different forms of sugar found in processed foods, where sugar acts as a preservative, as well as to lure consumers with a sweet taste. Sugary soft drinks account for about 1/3 of sugar consumption in the US. Simply avoiding processed foods and soft drinks will go a long way towards eliminating added sugar in your diet and normalizing blood-sugar balance. If you must eat processed foods, check the label for the number of grams of…

Many different nutrients are involved in managing blood sugar. If you are deficient in even one, your blood sugar regulation will be impaired. This is why it’s so important to cover the basics by taking a good multivitamin, and getting the right fats (especially the essential fatty acids) and enough vitamin C and vitamin D, all of which are critical for healthy blood sugar regulation. Best of all would be our Ultimate Wellness Kit. If you have chronically high blood sugar, you are especially at risk for nutrient deficiencies in some of the very nutrients required for healthy blood sugar control. Even in controlled diabetes, blood sugar levels frequently spike to 160-170 mg/dL after meals. The body gets rid of high levels of sugar like these with excessive urination. This removes unwanted sugar, but also depletes the body of water-soluble vitamins and minerals (all the B vitamins, for example, which are so important in energy production). A seminal 1987 study found diabetics defici…

There’s a hefty price to pay for using antibiotics. They kill pathogens, but they also kill beneficial intestinal bacteria and allow harmful microbes to proliferate. Even one course of antibiotics can alter the unique community of microbes living in your intestines (your “biome”) and do permanent damage. Herbal antimicrobials may be a better choice, but even these have not been proved to be totally benign. But what if you need to take an antibiotic? Are you doomed to suffer the hundreds of diseases that have been associated with a deranged biome? Not if you take the right precautions. Many studies have shown that taking probiotics (beneficial bacteria) along with antibiotics helps to preserve your biome’s integrity. Antibiotics are prescribed to be taken once, twice, or three times daily. A probiotic product, such as Beyond Health’s Probiotic Formula, can be taken 2-3 hours after each antibiotic dose. It is critical that you choose an effective probiotic product—one that deliv…

February was Heart Health month, and we honored it by writing about two nutrients that are critical for a healthy heart, vitamin E and CoQ10. However no discussion of nutrients that benefit the heart would be complete without talking about our favorite vitamin, vitamin C. We’ve told you before about a theory advanced by one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, two-time Nobel laureate, chemist Linus Pauling. He hypothesized that heart disease may actually be a vitamin C deficiency disease. Pauling observed that animals don’t get heart attacks. Most animals (humans, apes, guinea pigs and fruit bats excepted) make their own vitamin C—out of blood sugar! According to Andrew W. Saul, PhD, most mammals make the human equivalent of more than 5,000 mg of vitamin C daily, and considerably more when under stress. Pauling also knew that one of vitamin C’s primary roles in the body is helping to build collagen, the basic material in connective tissue, including blood vessel wal…

The mighty mitochondria! You’ve heard us talk about them before. Mitochondria are the tiny power houses inside our cells that take glucose and fats from the blood and magically convert them into energy. The more mitochondria we have, the more fat we burn, and the more energy we have. If you’d like more energy, more mitochondria will help you get it. How to get more mitochondria? According to a report on work being done at the Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes (TRI) in Orlando, Florida, aerobic exercise stimulates your body to create more and better-functioning mitochondria. Without enough exercise, muscle atrophy accompanies aging. Starting around the age of thirty, muscle fibers shrink, while fat stores accumulate. Even if we maintain the same weight, we lose muscle-to-fat ratio. We also lose mitochondria, and those we have become less effective. This can lead to developing insulin resistance, making it even harder to manufacture energy, as well as…

Every summer we warn against using sunscreens. First, sunscreens contain toxic ingredients. Some are better than others, but we haven’t found a single one we’d want to use or recommend. Second, sunscreens are designed to block out the sun’s ultraviolet rays. This prevents sunburn, but it also blocks out many of the sun’s benefits. We’ve been sold a bill of goods on sunlight being dangerous. Sunlight is essential to our health and well-being. While too much sun can give you a sunburn, too much of anything can be harmful. Used intelligently, sunlight is nourishing and energizing. Our bodies convert the sun’s rays into vitamin D. Sunlight increases production of the “happy hormones” that prevent anxiety and depression, it enhances immunity, and increases the oxygen content in our blood. It helps to prevent and reverse cancer. Sunlight has even been shown to lower blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides, and to heal wounds and any number of skin diseases. So what is “intelli…

How you take your supplements and what you take them with can make a big difference in how your body absorbs and uses the nutrients they provide. At Beyond Health, our formulas are designed to combine nutrients in the most synergistic way so that they support rather than compete with each other. If you take too much of one nutrient it can suppress absorption of another—this is the case with zinc and copper. To prevent this, the two nutrients must be present in a balanced ratio. B vitamins work together, so they should almost always be taken together as a “team.” Also, most supplements should be taken with food. You can trust Beyond Health to provide balanced formulas, so, for the most part, all you have to do is follow the directions on the label. However, fat-soluble vitamins should always be taken with a good amount of fat in a meal for best absorption. The fat-soluble vitamins are A, D, E and K. Customers who’ve been trying to get their vitamin D levels up have sometimes re…

There isn’t a vitamin more important to your health than vitamin D. You need it to build and maintain strong bones. Your immune system is crippled without it. Vitamin D deficiency appears to raise the risk of almost every chronic disease, from cancer to diabetes to cardiovascular disease to age-related cognitive decline to auto-immune disease. Yet professor and nutrition researcher Peter Horvath at the University of Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions in Buffalo, New York, reports that during Buffalo’s winter months, nearly 50% of the population in Buffalo has insufficient levels of vitamin D, while 25% are outright deficient. “Every cell in your body,” he says, “is responsive to vitamin D. If you’re deficient, you won’t see the health effects for years and it could take months to get your levels back up.” Dr. Horvath is probably using the standard definition of vitamin D deficiency—a blood level of less than30 ng/mL (or 75 nmol/L). However other vitamin D e…

Most people who call us at Beyond Health believe, as we do, that supplementation has become essential (see this report if you need convincing). What they want to know is how to get the most bang for their supplement buck. “What supplements do I really need?” is a common question. Well, the first thing to consider is this: The most expensive supplement you can buy is the one that doesn’t work AND does you harm! Unfortunately, that’s what you get with a lot of the cheaper brands. If money is tight, it’s always better to take fewer high-quality supplements from a company you trust than to buy cheap, low-quality brands. Next, what do you want to accomplish? What you purchase should always be related to your health goals. Our three wellness kits address different health goals. The Basic Wellness Kit For those who are healthy and want to stay that way, our Basic Wellness Kit includes our multi, EFA (Essential Fatty Acid) Formula, and vitamin C. It costs about $2.50 a day. Everyo…

Omega-3s, Mood, and the Biochemistry of Depression Several years ago, Spanish researchers followed more than 12,000 European university graduates over a period of 6½ years, tracking diet and mental health outcomes. Their findings were striking: Diets high in trans fats increased depression risk by 50% Diets rich in fish oil were associated with a significantly lower risk of depression This wasn’t a subtle effect—and it points directly to the biochemical role of dietary fats in mental health. Why Omega-3 Deficiency Affects Mood Fish oil is a concentrated source of omega-3 fatty acids, particularly: EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) Deficiency in omega-3s has been linked to: Reduced stress resilience Increased anxiety and depression Hostility and aggression Impaired emotional regulation In one randomized controlled trial, medical students who supplemented with EPA/DHA experienced a 20% reduction in anxiety—despite being…