REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Why Beyond Health Olive Oil? For those who have asked this question, the answer lies in Beyond Health’s mission: To improve the health of the American people by supplying cutting-edge health education and carefully researched, world class, health-supporting products. Toward this end, Beyond Health searches for the highest-quality products and makes them available to the public—all in one place. This is a unique and valuable service, and selecting healthy olive oil is just one example of that service. The health benefits of olive oil are well established, which is why I recommend it. The challenge is to find real olive oil. The world is awash in phony food products. For example, new genetic tests indicate that 77 percent of the fish sold in the U.S. as red snapper consists of other illegally mislabeled species. The problems with olive oil are far worse. A 1996 study by the FDA found that 96 percent of the extra virgin oils t…

. . . an epidemic of misdiagnosesSally Pacholok was a recent nursing grad when she diagnosed her own vitamin B12 deficiency and pernicious anemia. For the next 25 years she couldn't believe her ears when doctors around her continued to misdiagnose debilitating conditions which failed to improve because they were in fact symptoms of B12 deficiency. Finally, she and her husband, Jeffrey Stuart, wrote Could it Be B12? An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses to raise awareness of this problem among health providers and consumers alike.Symptoms of vitamin B12 range from the subtle to the disabling and include pain, numbness and tingling in the extremities, weakness and fatigue, imbalance, confusion, agitation, cognitive problems like memory loss and diminished mental acuity, dementia, insomnia, anxiety, depression, tremors and incontinence. Unfortunately, Pacholok notes, medications are given to suppress these symptoms, masking the deficiency. If caught early, symptoms of B12 deficiency can b…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Consider this: The human body is 70 percent water. To maintain health, we must get adequate water every day. Tragically, there is not much water available in America that is fit to drink. Clean water is one of our body’s most important needs. Yet according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control tens-ofmillions of Americans are drinking water that violates the EPA’s contamination standards. Regretfully, it’s far worse than that! Any water containing chlorine or fluoride is unfit to drink. In other words, most of the water in the country! Chlorine is added to water to kill bacteria, but it kills and injures your cells as well. While toxic, chlorine at least does something of value. Fluoride does only harm; it is an exceedingly dangerous toxin that is having catastrophic effects on both physical and mental health. These healthdestroying toxins must be removed from your water. In a more rational society, they would not be ther…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Russell L. Blaylock, M.D. Excitotoxin and excitotoxicity are words most people have never heard before. Among neuroscientists, excitotoxicity is something that is connected with virtually everything bad that can happen to the brain—strokes, brain injury, brain tumors, severe hypoglycemia, multiple sclerosis, asphyxia, heavy metal poisoning and most of the neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease). Excitotoxicity is considered to be the central mechanism for all these disorders of the brain. So, what is excitotoxicity? Brain cells communicate mostly by way of special chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. By secreting small amounts of these special chemicals, brain cells can “excite” nearby brain cells, thereby sending signals. A Frightening Discovery Dozens of these communicating neurotransmitter chemicals have been identified. Until fairly recently, we thought these chemical messengers wer…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by William Grant, Ph.D. Humans evolved with the sun. That is obvious from the variation of skin pigmentation depending on ancestral roots: skin is very dark in the tropical plains regions of Africa, brown in the tropical forests, becoming paler with increasing latitude in Europe. The evolution of human skin pigmentation was a balancing act between the health benefits and the risks of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation. UV light produces vitamin D, which has many health benefits, including enhancing immunity. On the other hand, it also produces free radicals involved in skin aging and skin cancer, destroys folate and vitamin A, and damages immunity. As long as people lived in their ancestral homelands and spent plenty of time out of doors, they produced enough vitamin D for optimal health. The only exception to the requirement of sufficient UV light for vitamin D production was for those living near the poles, who obtained their vitamin D fro…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis The problem of bioaccumulated toxins is reaching crisis proportions. Thousands of chemicals permeate our everyday life and we are bioaccumulating unprecedented amounts of them. Recent medical and scientific studies are showing disturbing correlations between chronic low-level exposure to synthetic chemicals and diseases such as allergies, asthma, autoimmune diseases, birth defects, developmental problems, cancer, and a host of other problems. Medical doctors are mystified by the growing list of undiagnosable problems being caused by toxic accumulation. Too often the medical response to such problems is prescription medications that only add to the toxic load. Fortunately, we can minimize these toxins through education and common sense. We must learn how to stop bringing toxins into our homes, to rid ourselves of toxins we have already introduced, and to help our bodies detoxify. We accumulate toxins from air, water and food…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Chronic fatigue, chemical sensitivity and fibromyalgia syndromes (CFS/MCS/FM)—I had all of these at the same time and more. The 36 medical specialists I went to could not help me, and two came so close to killing me that death was a virtual certainty. With life hanging by a thread, I used my knowledge of biochemistry to save my life, and then to learn how to get well and stay well. Amazingly, more than two decades after my healing, people suffering from these multi-system diseases are still unable to obtain the help they need. They suffer needlessly even though the biology of these syndromes is sufficiently well understood to reverse them. Unfortunately, our physicians are hopelessly behind the science, and patients must learn to help themselves. Physicians believe there are thousands of diseases. This results in a system so complex and baffling, they don’t even try to identify and correc…

. . . made the traditional Italian wayIf you've ever had the privilege of tasting traditional Italian balsamic vinegar, you know that its rich, layered complexity and intensity is universes away from the pale imitations commonly available in the US.Traditional Italian balsamic vinegar comes from a specific region in Northern Italy known for its sweet grapes. These grapes are picked at the peak of ripeness and crushed to make a juice which then undergoes a lengthy and exacting process of double fermentation (first to alcohol and then to vinegar) and aging and reduction in a series of wooden barrels made of a variety of different woods - oak, chestnut, mulberry, ash, cherry, juniper and other fruitwoods, each of which imparts its particular flavor to the vinegar. Balsamics can be aged over a hundred years, and small bottles are sometimes sold for more than $150.Contrast this to what's packaged in fancy bottles and commonly sold in the U.S. as balsamic vinegar: conventional grape juice mi…

... from weight loss to cancer preventionWhether you want to lose a few pounds, prevent or reverse diabetes, protect your bones, reduce blood pressure and heart disease risk, or boost your immunity and fight cancer, balsamic vinegar can help.Weight Loss and Blood Sugar RegulationJapanese researchers found that giving 1 or 2 tablespoons of vinegar to obese subjects for 12 weeks significantly reduced body weight, visceral fat, BMI, waist circumference and triglyceride levels. Researchers at Arizona State University found that people who took a tablespoon of vinegar with lunch and dinner lost an average of two pounds over 4 weeks. Vinegar helps with weight loss by keeping blood sugar levels from spiking and improving insulin resistance, which also helps prevent, reverse or manage diabetes. In fact, the Arizona researchers noted that vinegar may be as effective as the medications acarbose and metformin (glucophage) in controlling blood sugar.Mineral Absorption and Bone HealthVinegar helps…

. . . more victories in the fight against toxic fluoride Fluoridation is one of the greatest frauds of the 20th century. It is neither safe nor effective - scores of studies show it actually damages teeth. Fluoride is an extremely dangerous toxin that lowers IQ and increases your risk of getting osteoporosis, thyroid diseases, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and many other diseases, including cancer. Yet about 70 percent of our public drinking water is poisoned with this toxic chemical. Fortunately, more and more localities are "just saying no" to fluoride. Last April, Albuquerque, New Mexico, ended fluoridation for its 500,000 residents. In July, Santa Fe, New Mexico also ended fluoridation. Shortly afterwards, Ontario, Canada, struck down fluoridation for its population. Santa Fe's city council concluded that fluoridation is an outdated practice, a waste of money, and unsafe. A statement from the Mayor asserted, "If we don't think the [Centers for Disease Control…

. . . good for business; bad for kids Pediatric vaccines are big business. Valued at $14 billion in 2010, the industry is expected to generate $24.3 billion in 2017. Keep in mind that this is only one portion of the enormous profits being generated by the vaccine industry as a whole, and you will understand why vaccines are being pushed on the American public like yesterday’s junk bonds. Vaccines are great for business, but are they good for our children? There is a simple answer to that: no. Two articles on the Beyond Health website, one by Dr. Russell Blaylock and the other by myself, go into more detail, but fundamentally, our children are being bombarded with more and more vaccines, and these are having a devastating effect on their health, particularly on the immune system and the brain. A German website, impfshaden.info (its counterpart in the US is vaccineinjury.info) has been conducting an informal survey comparing the health of vaccinated to unvaccinated children.…

. . . flu shots are ineffective and dangerous I’m not a doctor and can’t advise you not to get a flu shot, but I am a scientist, and after studying this subject in depth, I’ve concluded that flu shots are a fraud. They’re not effective and can do serious harm. A hundred and forty-nine different kinds of adverse reactions to vaccines have been reported to the government Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). These include seizures, anaphylaxis, onset of autoimmune illness, and death. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Vaccines cause permanent damage to everyone who is subjected to them. Vaccines over stimulate the immune system, causing excessive inflammation and, paradoxically, overall immune suppression. They also trigger brain inflammation, leading to short term and long term brain damage. Renowned immunologist, Dr. H. Hugh Fudenberg found that adults who took flu shots five years in a row increased their risk of Alzheimer’s Disease by 1,000%. M…

. . . with an infrared sauna Toxins are often responsible for common complaints like lack of energy, achy joints, brain fog, nausea, headaches, poor immunity, allergies, vision problems, and PMS – complaints that can foreshadow more serious illnesses. Scientists estimate that everyone alive today carries within their bodies at least 700 chemical contaminants. Doris J. Rapp, MD, past president of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine and author of Our Toxic World: A Wake Up Call, warned, “Everybody in this country needs to be detoxified because we’ve all become ‘toxic dumpsites.’” There are only two causes of disease:  nutrient deficiency and toxicity.  So it just makes sense to detox. The best way I’ve found is with an infrared sauna. Water-soluble toxins pass through the body relatively easily, but fat-soluble chemicals can persist and accumulate in our tissues for decades, doing more and more damage year after year. It’s difficult to get these fat-soluble toxins…

. . .  while green tea reduces risk of flu in children by more than 40% Here’s a story the media seems to have conveniently missed: case histories of 261 children who were diagnosed with flu between 1996 and 2006 were reviewed to see if flu shots prevented hospitalizations. Not only did the flu shots fail to prevent hospitalizations, they apparently caused them: having a flu shot tripled a child’s risk of being hospitalized! The risk was significantly higher for children with asthma.  The problem is that vaccinations damage immunity and can even do permanent brain damage. Meanwhile, a study of 2,050 Japanese schoolchildren found that those who drank at least one cup of green tea 6 days a week during a particularly bad flu season reduced their risk of getting the flu by 40%. Those who consumed 3-5 cups a day had a 46% lower risk.  Other studies have confirmed the immune-enhancing and antiviral potency of green tea among adults. This was the first among children. In this Japanes…

. . . can hair loss that often accompanies aging be prevented? Normal hair loss occurs daily as individual strands reach the end of their life cycle, die and show up on your brush or in your shower drain. If your hair starts coming out in clumps, it’s time to see your health practitioner to find out why. A more gradual increase in hair loss can accompany aging in both men and women; for about 2/3 of all men and 2/5 of women, genetic factors combine with aging to cause significant, noticeable hair loss. The men develop “patterned baldness.” Baldness is rare in the women; commonly their hair thins out uniformly over the entire scalp, and individual strands become finer. This can start as early as a woman’s twenties, but usually doesn’t become evident until her forties. Can it be prevented? Even reversed? While you can’t change your genes, if you give them different signals, they will behave differently. Nutrition and toxins will always have an effect on how genes express; many p…

. . .  especially coconut oil   As everyone is all too aware, Americans continue to get fatter and fatter despite our national obsession with low-fat diets and diet foods. Heavy people are particularly fearful of fat. Yet eating more fat can actually help in an effort to lose excess weight. Fats provide satiety, so even though fat is high in calories, you may wind up eating fewer calories overall. Fats also help to stabilize blood sugar. As fat consumption has decreased in the American diet, carbohydrate consumption has gone up, especially sugar and other refined carbohydrates. Perhaps the leading cause of obesity and overweight is blood-sugar disregulation caused by excessive and refined carbohydrate consumption. Sources for healthy fats include real olive oil, fish and fish oils, flax oil, Udo’s choice, ghee (clarified butter), nuts, seeds, avocados, and coconut oil. Coconut oil in particular helps to maintain a healthy weight and lose excess fat. In fact in 2002…

. . .  It outperforms all of the major blood pressure-lowering drugs In a blood pressure reading like 120/80, which is not good to exceed, the first number is systolic blood pressure (SBP). It is taken when the heart contracts to pump blood out into the body. The second number is diastolic blood pressure (DBP), taken between beats when the heart relaxes. A 2003 review in the British Medical Journal found that you can expect roughly the same results from any of the 5 major categories of blood pressure-lowering drugs: a 9-point average reduction in SBP and a 5.5-point average reduction in DBP. But what if a drug came along that lowered SBP by an average of 16-17 points, and DBP by 8-12 points? Well, you don't need a drug to do this. These results are typical in studies using 100-120 mg a day of CoQ10. While most of these studies were small, and a larger, multicenter study has been recommended to validate the results, they certainly are impressive. Exactly why CoQ10 lowers…

. . .  Used by traditional Japanese beauties For at least a thousand years, Japanese women have known a secret for keeping their skin wrinkle-free and firm as they age: it’s a combination of drinking green tea and bathing in green tea! These days a great deal of scientific research is being done to learn why green tea is so very good for skin. One answer is its antioxidant effect. Newsclip readers know that antioxidants are crucial for staying youthful as we age. One antioxidant in particular, glutathione, diminishes with age. Unfortunately it’s the most important antioxidant made in the body, and it’s difficult to replace with oral supplements. What we can do, however, is take glutathione precursors in oral supplement form (See Thiodox) to encourage its production. We can also eat lots of antioxidant-containing fresh fruits and vegetables and take an array of antioxidant supplements, including green tea and white tea (white tea is a more antioxidant-rich form of green tea), to b…