. . . exercise is like an essential nutrient that we must have to be healthy Let’s face it. Even when the stress of the holidays ends, stress continues to be a major aspect of modern life at any time of the year, and those who learn to deal with stress effectively enjoy a huge advantage. Developing resilience and stress-resistance, although no small feat, is possible by taking a pro-active approach to cultivating physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. A program of regular exercise is central to such an approach. Unfortunately, committing to regular exercise is challenging, and only a minority sticks with it over time. Maybe looking at the ways that exercise promotes stress-resistance will strengthen your resolve to begin a program of regular exercise or stick with one you’ve already begun. According to Timothy Church, exercise researcher and professor of preventive medicine at Louisiana State University, when you exercise, your nervous system makes a shift from the…

Have you ever won a stare-down with a tray of Christmas cookies?  You’ve probably heard that people gain an average of five to ten pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years. The good news is that the real average is more like one to two pounds. The bad news is that most of that weight is never lost. And people who are already overweight tend to gain pounds faster than normal-weight individuals do. Whether you are following the Beyond Health lifestyle to lose weight, or to get well and stay well, the next few months may challenge your resolve like no other time of year. The holiday season—for many now stretching from Halloween to the Superbowl—is a marathon of festive celebrations with friends and family that attempt to bring cheer to what might otherwise be a cold and gloomy time of year. The Challenge of Cheer It’s always harder to maintain your diet when you leave your house, but during the holidays, there is a whole lot of leaving the house. And the ten…

. . . Canadian flu expert raises questions about flu vaccines Every year at about this time I start warning people about flu shots. From all I’ve read in scientific journals about flu and flu vaccines, I’m convinced flu shots are both ineffective and dangerous, and that they increase your chances of getting the flu or other infections. You can read more in my previous articles “Vaccinations” and “Flu Shots – Ineffective and Dangerous.” Now a new study from a Canadian influenza expert indicates that flu shots actually do improve your chances of getting the flu! Dr. Danuta Skowronski and her research team at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control observed that Canadians who got flu shots during the winter of 2008-2009 seemed to be more likely to become infected with the pandemic H1N1 virus than those who didn’t. This observation was followed up by five studies in different locations which came to the same conclusion. However it was thought at the time that it might have be…

. . . cancer preventers or giotrogens? Kale is one of a class of vegetables called “crucifers” or “cruciferous vegetables,” and they’re among the most nutritious vegetables around. They possess unique compounds that appear capable of preventing cancer through various mechanisms, helping to eliminate excess and harmful forms of estrogen from the body, supporting detoxification, and even killing H. pylori (the bacteria that cause ulcers and may lead to stomach cancer). But these very same compounds may also interfere with thyroid function and are known as goitrogens (meaning that they can interfere with the function of the thyroid gland, which, in an extreme case, will produce a goiter). Are cruciferous vegetables safe to eat? First, what vegetables are we talking about? Besides kale, the cruciferous vegetables include arugula, beet greens, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, broccoli sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, cress, horseradish, kohlrabi, mustard greens,…

. . . 96% of extra virgin olive oils tested were adulterated with cheap, inferior oils When I’m invited out for the holidays, one of my favorite gifts for my host or hostess is a bottle of Beyond Health Olive Oil. I’m extremely proud of our olive oil. Not only has it won taste tests, but our olive oil is uniquely healthy. You see, unlike most olive oils on the market, it’s the real deal. That's why a study at the University of California found our olive oil to have the highest antioxidant content of any oil tested. The same study ranked Whole Food's olive oil near the bottom. Made the traditional way with care on a family-owned estate, Beyond Health olive oil is unrefined and unadulterated with inferior oils. It’s what you might expect any high-quality olive oil to be. But here is what the consumer is up against. A 1996 study by the FDA found that 96% of the extra virgin olive oils tested had been adulterated with cheap, inferior oils. This means that 96% of the “quality” olive o…

. . . give yourself the nutritional support you need to succeed! What’s your #1 resolution for 2013? Chances are it’s got something to do with health. Even if your resolutions don’t concern health, you’ve got to have enough energy and vitality to achieve them. Of course it’s important to eat well, exercise, and minimize toxins and stress, but if you’ve been struggling along without a high-quality supplement program, give yourself a break and at the very least try out our Basic Wellness Kit. We’ll even give you a discount to help you get started. My bet is you’ll begin to feel more vital and energetic by the end of the month, and your life will become just that much easier and more enjoyable. I’ll never forget a report we got from a man whose aging mother had become bedridden and totally dependent on others to take care of her. After a month or so on just our multi, she was up and about again, telling her relatives to go home, she didn’t need their help anymore. For best re…

. . . do it for the joy of moving! Remember what recess felt like when you were young? That moment when we were finally allowed to run free on the playground? The body hungers for movement just as much as it hungers for food and thirsts for water. We hunger for movement because it is a need -- as essential as any nutrient. Yet after a certain age we begin to think of exercise as a chore – as something we’re supposed to do because it’s good for us. What a set-up for hating it and for good intentions that come to naught! The only way I’ve found to stick with a program of regular exercise is to find something I enjoy doing. Because of my busy schedule, it’s got to be something that doesn’t take up much time and that I can do at home. For me, rebounding fits that bill. Fifteen minutes in the morning wakes me up for the day, and another fifteen minutes at the end of my work day releases any accumulated tension. What’s rebounding? Simply bouncing or jogging up and down on a speci…

. . . low-qualilty supplements just don't cut it A recent survey by the National Center for Health Statistics found alarming and widespread nutrient deficiency even among people taking supplements and eating fortified foods!! Assessing nutrient intake from food, fortification and supplements combined, researchers found that the percentage of individuals aged 2 years and over falling 20% below the Recommended Daily Requirements (which are already too low for optimal health) was: 70% for vitamin D 60% for vitamin E 45% for magnesium 38% for calcium 34% for vitamin A 25% for vitamin C Smaller percentages fell below in the B vitamins, zinc, iron, copper, potassium and selenium. Although more Americans are taking multivitamins than ever before (about 40% of the population, and about 80% of these on a daily basis) most people take junk vitamins bought at drugstores and large discount stores. Fortification is helping to supply nutrients, but only cheap and ineffective form…

. . . fatigue and exercise intolerance found common with statins Although most labels on statin drugs list fatigue as a possible side effect, they give the impression that it’s rare. However a new double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine has found that both decreased energy and fatigue with exertion are significantly greater in those who take statins. The strength of this effect correlated with the degree of cholesterol reduction, and was greater in women than in men. The effects also correlated with reduced physical activity and exercise intolerance. More than 1,000 adults (men over the age of twenty, and women past menopause) were given either 20 mg Zocor or 40 mg Pravachol daily or a placebo for 6 months. People with heart disease or diabetes were excluded, but all subjects had LDL levels from 115 to 190 mg/dL. They were asked to rate their “energy level” and “fatigue with exertion” on a 5-point scale at the beginning and at the end…

. . . vitamin D beats depression year-round It’s not just in the winter that sufficient vitamin D beats the blues. Large amounts of vitamin D are found in areas in the brain (the hippocampus, amygdala and cerebellum) involved in emotion and cognition, so a deficiency could be expected to impact both emotional and cognitive function. A 2006 study in older adults found that it did just that. Those with vitamin D levels below 20 ng/DL were 11 times more likely to be depressed, and they also suffered from more cognitive impairments. This past June, Dr. Sonal Pathak, an endocrinologist, reported successfully treating three chronically depressed women, all on antidepressant medications, with high dose vitamin D. She had previously observed that many of her patients with depression were also deficient in vitamin D, and that when she corrected the deficiency, they “unanimously experienced an improvement in mood and energy.” So she decided to do a small formal study in hopes of winning fi…

. . . correcting a vitamin D deficiency may lift your winter depression Newsclips readers already know that vitamin D is crucial to immunity and helps to prevent winter colds and the flu. You may also know that vitamin D deficiencies contribute to cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, neurological disease and many other health problems. But can vitamin D ward off winter blues? Also called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), the winter blues can make you feel lethargic, fatigued, unmotivated and depressed. You can crave carbohydrates and want to sleep all day. Clinical experience and preliminary scientific investigation have found that low levels of vitamin D correlate with a higher incidence of SAD, and that when patients with SAD and low blood levels supplement with vitamin D, their depressive symptoms improve. Since SAD is associated with lack of sunlight, our main source of vitamin D, and since vitamin D levels decline in the winter months, it is reasonable to…

. . . is vitamin D deficiency the primary cause of winter colds and flu? Some vitamin D experts believe vitamin D deficiency may be the root cause of winter colds and flu. They point out that we get far less sunlight in the winter (our skin makes vitamin D from UV rays from the sun), and that although vitamin D can be stored in the body for long periods of time, most people don’t make enough during the summer months to last through the winter. The result is that low blood levels of vitamin D are almost universal during the winter months, coinciding with the flu season. While we need all the vitamins and minerals to build a healthy immune system, and some in particular (vitamins A, C, E, and many of the B vitamins, in addition to zinc and selenium), there is evidence that vitamin D is critical to immune function. A 2012 study in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology showed that vitamin D levels are lowest in those of us over sixty (the ability to convert the sun’s rays into vitamin…

. . . yet another assault on our food system Over the holidays, the Food and Drug Administration took a major step toward approving the first genetically-engineered (GE) fish, a salmon designed to over-produce growth hormone so that it becomes twice as big as normal salmon. This monstrosity has been nicknamed “frankenfish.” Only a massive protest from the public (that means us!) can block approval. Salmon used to be one of the healthiest foods on the planet, but not anymore. As a large fatty fish high on the food chain, salmon concentrates toxins which have proliferated in our oceans in its fatty tissues. While wild salmon is still an acceptable food in small quantities, farmed salmon is not. A 2004 study in the journal Science that analyzed salmon from all over the world found that farmed salmon contained substantially more toxins than wild-caught. These factory-farmed fish are fed a toxic diet and given growth hormones and antibiotics. Because they develop an unappetizing whit…

. . . beautiful skin comes from within Are you trying to cultivate a leathery, coarse look in your complexion? How about more and deeper wrinkles? Discoloration? And sagging skin? Well then, ramp up your glycemic index with lots of sugar, fruit juice, sodas and refined carbohydrates! You’ll also want to load up on fatty meats, especially cooked at high temperatures, along with full-fat dairy products and plenty of processed foods! What all of these will do is to increase glycation in your body, a process that encourages aging, chronic disease and an early death. But of course, most importantly, it can make you look just terrible! When you glycate something, you combine it with sugar. Proteins can become glycated and so can fats. In cooking, this is called caramelization or browning; in chemistry it's called a Maillard reaction. In the body, glycation damages body proteins, producing something called Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs). How does this affect the skin? AGEs…

. . . if a low-quality multi can make a difference, imagine what our multi could do! It always seems to make headlines when a multivitamin performs below expectations. There are, of course, lots of reasons why conventional multis might do this (I’ll get to that later), but two recent studies that failed to make headlines validated the benefit of taking even a conventional multi. Both doubled-blind, placebo-controlled (the gold-standard in science), the first found that taking a daily multi lowered cancer rates by 8% in male doctors; in the second, a daily multi helped older women improve their cognitive abilities. In the cancer study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), more than 14,000 male doctors over the age of 50 were given either a conventional multivitamin or a placebo, and their health was tracked for an average of 11 years. Risk for overall cancers was 8% lower in the group taking a multi, a statistically significant result.…

. . . ageless good looks comes from nurturing your skin Of course beautiful skin starts from within, but we can all benefit from helping nature along with a luxurious facial. It’s time once again to take advantage of our yearly Valentine's Day special on L’huile de Grace: an all-natural essential oil-based facial serum for both men and women that nourishes and protects skin like nothing else. Get some for the ones you love, and of course that includes yourself! L’huile de Grace (“the oil of grace”) is pure, raw nutrition for your skin, devoid of any harmful chemicals – a truly unique skin care product unlike anything you’ve ever used, designed to make you feel and look your radiant best. This rich facial oil uses herbs and essential oils renowned for healing and nourishing the skin while uplifting the spirit. Frankincense, for example, considered the holy anointing oil in the Middle East, was valued more than gold in ancient times for all-purpose healing and for stimulating an…

Question: I am taking St. John’s Wort for depression.  Are there any downsides to doing this?  M.P. — Delray Beach, FL Answer: St. John’s Wort has been well studied and it is effective in treating depression.  Regarding downsides, the one you should be most concerned with, especially living in Florida, is it makes your skin more sensitive to the sun.  So be careful of getting more than a little sun.  It is also not good to take this herb with prescription drugs as it can interfere with their metabolism and make them even more toxic. Your best bet is to stop being depressed by getting on a good diet, getting off of sugar, taking our Basic Wellness Kit, getting adequate sunlight, and exercising.  This will take care of most depression.  Be sure to read my article on depression at www.beyondhealth.com.…

Question: I heard you talk about thermography.  Could you tell me more about this, how it works, and how good it is?  N.F. — Kentfield, CA Answer: Thermography is a safe and effectivealternative to cancer-causing mammography.  It is a way of measuring the temperature of the breast and of detecting changes in temperature as a tumor begins to receive its own blood supply.  A cancerous tumor will be warmer than the surrounding tissue and will stand out when the temperature of the breast is measured.  Thermography appears to be a far more accurate way of detecting tumors and at a much earlier stage. According to the National Cancer Institute, in 95 percent of cases, a tumor found by mammography or physical examination is already eight years old and has had ample opportunity to metastasize.  Thermography, on the other hand, can find tumors two to three years before any other means of detection.  In addition, thermography can differentiate between a cancerous tumor and fibrocystic g…