REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® Newsby Raymond Francis"Never doubt the power of small groups to change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, Anthropologist 1901 – 1978 The future of our nation as a world leader is at risk. This threat comes not from hostile countries or from organized terrorists; it comes from us. By making uninformed choices regarding our health, both our physical and mental health is deteriorating. A sick and mentally incompetent America cannot continue to supply the kind of political, economic, and technological world leadership that has been such a boon to mankind for more than half a century. The solution to this problem is to teach people how to maintain health. Health education, using cutting-edge technology, will put the responsibility for health where it belongs—with the individual. Pick a city, and it is almost a sure bet that the area's largest private employer is the hospitals, medical centers, doctors, and diagnostic laborato…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Cancer is an out-of-control epidemic now affecting almost one out of every two Americans in their lifetime. One American dies of cancer every minute and the problem is growing worse. The startling 20 percent increase in breast cancer between 1998 and 1999 among women ages 45 to 64 gives us all a new sense of urgency for finding the cause. A massive search is on and no stone should be left unturned. Unfortunately, one very big stone is being ignored—our modern healthcare system. Across the nation, higher rates of breast cancer have been observed in affluent communities. Obviously, affluent, bettereducated people get more medical and dental care. Although the connection isn't certain, there is a strong correlation, which should be investigated. A 1998 review by scientists at the Northern California Cancer Center revealed that breast cancer appeared to be related to lifestyle and demographic factors. Affluence is key for breas…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Modern living has created a problem the human body was never designed to handle—exposure to excessive amounts of environmental toxins, especially heavy-metal and oil-soluble toxins. Toxicity is one of our leading causes of disease, and the overall chemical load to which we are now exposed is unprecedented in human history. Toxic chemicals are bioaccumulating in our tissues faster than we can get rid of them, creating an unprecedented epidemic of chronic disease. Since our bodies were not designed to deal with the amount and variety of toxins we are accumulating—saunas to the rescue. Heat causes toxins to be released by cells, and hyperthermic (sweat) treatments have been used by cultures around the world for millennia (American Indians used sweat lodges). Hyperthermic practices are known to reduce levels of organic toxins such as pesticides and PCBs, as well as heavy metals like lead and mercury. Our bodies were designed a…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis The average American breathes in about two heaping tablespoons of airborne particles each day. The smallest of these particles can lodge deep in the lungs where they remain and cause serious problems. Now there are shocking new findings regarding such particles. In mid-May, Canadian researchers reported in the journal Science that fine airborne particles can cause genetic mutations that are passed on to future generations. Most of these fine particles emanate from industrial plants, power plants, incinerators, and diesel-burning vehicles. In 1999, a study in Los Angeles indicated that 71 percent of the cancer risk from air contaminants came from diesel emissions; now we know why. The fine particles from these emissions cause DNA damage, and such damage is the first step in the development of cancer. The researchers said they didn’t know if it was the particles themselves or toxic chemicals carried by the particl…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Governments around the world are concerned by the catastrophic threat posed by the avian flu virus. Avian flu transmits from birds to humans, but not yet from humans-to-humans. However, virologists expect the virus to eventually mutate and pass among humans. Predicted is a catastrophe that could kill a billion people and turn some cities into ghost towns, causing worldwide disruptions of travel, trade, and food supplies. Unfortunately, our government’s response to this challenge is to spend seven billion dollars stockpiling worthless antibiotics and flu vaccine. The city of London is already acquiring extra morgue space to house the victims of this expected epidemic. Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s School of Public Health said, “I think we would see outcomes that would be virtually impossible to imagine.” Avian flu is killing about half the people it…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Why is educational performance so bad? One reason is American children are getting dumber. SAT scores have been declining for decades. In response, our educational establishment has progressively lowered standards and dumbed down achievement tests to avoid embarrassment, but the scores continue to drop anyway. Despite the fact that we are spending more money than ever before on education, numerous studies show a decline in cognitive ability—our ability to think and reason. For a country whose prosperity is founded on superior technology, these are ominous trends. Why are these things happening and what can we do about them? As our children continue to suffer problems with intelligence, learning, poor academic performance, behavior, violence, and suicide, some insights are being provided by the National Children’s Study into the causes of these problems. The study identified a number of common environmental chemicals that ca…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Spirit is the most powerful force in existence, yet few of us are using this power to heal. A woman once asked Thomas Edison, “What is electricity?’’ Edison replied, “Madame, electricity is. Use it.” The same can be said for spirit. It is, and we should use it—even if we don’t fully understand it. Fortunately, spirit is just as easy to use as electricity, and with it, spontaneous remission of disease is achievable. Most of us are familiar with the terms “body, mind and spirit.” In practice, however, our attention is mostly on the body, some on the mind and little if any on the spirit—hence we fail to take full advantage of the most powerful force in the universe. For most of human history, medicine and spirit were inseparable. Yet conventional allopathic medicine pays no attention to the body/spirit connection and fails to see the body as an energy system. In actuality, spirit is all there is, and if we are not actively…

Everything you need to know about how to handle stress better and enjoy the holidays. The holidays are a time of stress in most American lives, from the child stressed over gifts from Santa to the adult worried about their ability to provide the looked forward to gifts. The additional costs of food, time off from work and additional stress from families getting together all take an added toll at this time of year. Every year Beyond Health publishes a few articles on the topic. This year we are dedicating this whole issue of the Beyond Health E-Magazine to getting through the holidays in a stress-free and healthy manor. Take the time to think about what causes you stress at this time of year before reading this issue and you will hopefully find an article or a couple of paragraphs speaking directly to you. Finally, don’t forget that a poor diet adds to both physical and mental stress in many ways, from elevated blood sugars, to excitotoxins keeping you awake and you…

. . . 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…

. . . do eat the peel, but skip the seeds If you’re going to start eating an apple a day, which apple should you pick? In one Canadian study Red Delicious led the pack in number of antioxidants, but many varieties better known in the US weren’t included. Really, all apples are recommended, as long as they’re fresh, unwaxed and organic. Supermarket apples are often years old! So, as always, it’s best to buy your apples from the friendly farmer at your local Farmer’s Market. Apples in the northern hemisphere are best from late summer until early winter. Many of the ancient supermarket apples are waxed. Put them in attractive baskets to decorate your home if you wish, but by all means don’t eat them! Many of the healthy, antioxidant polyphenols in apples are formed in response to pests as a natural pesticide, so organic apples will have far more. Plus you won’t be getting the synthetic pesticides as well as fungicides and insecticides that bathe the poor non-organic apple. Hav…

. . . But most of us can't get raw almonds anymore! Most food-calorie charts list an ounce of almonds as 165-170 calories. But a new, and more accurate, way of measuring calories has found that almonds provide only 129 calories per ounce, about 24% less. Published last August in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, this study used a way of measuring calories that takes into account the rigid structure of cell membranes in almonds that apparently locks in some fats and keep them from being digested. This same factor may mean that other nuts and plant foods are lower in effective calories than we’ve assumed. Last year, the same lab found that pistachios provide 6% fewer calories than had been thought. The problem with almonds, however, is that it’s far healthier to eat them raw, since heat damages their essential fatty acids. But it’s become impossible for most of us to get raw almonds. Most US almonds are grown in California. In 2007, the Almond Board of California (ABC)…

. . . but have Monsanto et al. gone too far this time? A rider to a resolution that will fund the federal government through September 30 – critics call it the “Monsanto Protection Act” – is too much for even mainstream media like the New York Times and Bloomberg to stomach. This rider prevents federal courts from putting a stop to the sale and planting of genetically engineered (GE) food crops that the courts themselves have deemed possibly dangerous to public health while the USDA performs an environmental impact report. How could such a thing happen despite an avalanche of letters and emails from a public that opposed this rider? Well, as the Alliance for Natural Health points out, it has something to do with the nearly $90 million Monsanto and the agricultural industry contributed to political campaigns between 2011 and 2012. Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), who introduced the rider, alone received $243,000 from agribiz PACs in 2010. Food Democracy Now! reports that the rider is…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis A pandemic of chronic and degenerative disease is sweeping our country—diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, Alzheimer’s are all out of control. Even our children are sick, so sick that they are not expected to live as long as their parents and average life expectancy is expected to decrease. The largest single cause of this human tragedy is—malnutrition. In the best-fed country in the world, malnutrition is our leading cause of disease. Given the reality of today’s nutritionally- depleted foods, one of our biggest fallacies is the myth that you can get all the nutrients you need by eating a so called “balanced diet.” Foods no longer contain what we need for good health. Depleted soils, resulting from intensive farming, the use of artificial fertilizers, and poor crop rotation practices plus premature harvesting, long transit times to market, processing and other factors, have dramatically re…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Several years ago our nation mourned the loss of former president Ronald Reagan. Reagan died of a tragic disease called Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s progressively damages brain cells leading to impaired memory, thinking, and behavior. A tragic, costly, and growing disease among our elderly, Alzheimer’s is now affecting younger people in their 30s, 40s and 50s. It is time to think about how to prevent and mitigate Alzheimer’s. In my book Never Be Sick Again, I related how Dr. Morton Walker questioned members of a long-lived native population about dementia. These healthy people typically lived well into their hundreds; yet they didn’t know what dementia was. They had never experienced anything like dementia and did not have a word in their language to describe it. These people lived almost a half century longer than we do, yet we are told that Alzheimer’s is a disease of aging and the price we must pay for living so long. Alz…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Summer is here, the secret sauce recipes are out of the vault, and the neighbors think your house is on fire -- it's barbecue time! Oh, it tastes so good, but it's so bad for us. Here's the bottom line: Man was not intended to eat cooked foods. The hotter we cook food, the more nutrients are lost, and the more carcinogenic chemicals are produced. Grilling and blackening food literally converts some of the food to carcinogens, creating a real cancer-causing nightmare. If we go back to nature and see what is natural - cooking is not natural. Homo sapiens are the only creatures that cook their food. How this foolish practice began no one knows, but the act of cooking produces fundamental changes in the food. Cooked food is chemically different from raw food. And, like all the other creatures on earth, raw food is what we were designed to eat. Since not all of the essential nutrients necessary for good health have been disco…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Disease is a choice. And there is only one disease, malfunctioning cells. Cells will malfunction for only two reasons- they are not getting everything they need (deficiency) and/or they are getting something they do not need (toxicity). The Breakfast of Chumps manages to be both nutrient deficient and toxic and is a sure-fire pathway to disease. We all have been brought up with the myth that a healthy way to start the day is with a breakfast cereal. They come in a convenient box, are easy to prepare and are time efficient. Oh, if only they were good for us. Far from a "breakfast of champions," these products are the breakfast of chumps. Almost all breakfast cereals are second rate sources of nutrition, made from refined grains and loaded with toxic sugars, hydrogenated oils, and artificial vitamins, colors, flavors and preservatives. Providing both deficiency and toxicity, these products cause disease. Amazingly, some ce…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Following is a synopsis of the speech I presented at the New Millennium Conference in Egypt on the afternoon of January 1, 2000. As I was speaking, I could see the Great Pyramid through the window. What a fitting place it was to ponder the next 1000 years of human history, and to project the evolution of health and medicine in the coming centuries. I was reminded that it was in Egypt where man first created a great state, devised institutions to rule a widespread geographical area, organized the governmental machinery to administer large groups of people, and planned and executed the first epicscale projects. It was an awesome experience talking about the next millennium, while in direct view of 5000 years of human history. The millennium is a convenient way for us to measure what we call "time," but beyond that the millennium has no importance; it is an arbitrary human construct, with no meaning of its own. However, this…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Fluoridation is a vast medical experiment, and we have all been guinea pigs. Unfortunately, the public is still unaware that this experiment has been a colossal failure. In January of 1995, I warned against the health hazards of fluoride in one of my newspaper columns. A month later, I devoted an entire radio show to the subject. Today, four years later, there are even more people exposed to fluoride, and the health damage continues unabated. Why do you suppose this is happening? Let's consider fluoride for a moment... Fluoride is one of the most toxic chemicals in our environment. Did you know that? It is more toxic than lead and only slightly less toxic than arsenic, according to the Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products handbook. Fluoride accumulates in the body over time, and has been shown to damage teeth, bones, kidneys, muscles, nerves, the brain and immune function. It also causes genetic damage. So how much fl…