A recent Harris Poll commissioned by the Samueli Integrative Health Foundation found that 80% of the more than 2,000 representative adults surveyed in the U.S. say they intend to become more mindful about practicing self-care as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  It seems that COVID-19 has been a wake-up call for most Americans. For many years the medical-pharmaceutical establishment has cultivated an unhealthy dependency on doctors and their prescriptions or surgeries to get us well when we get sick.  What patients can do for themselves in terms of building health with good diet and healthy lifestyle is often minimized and even actively discouraged by doctors.  Thus, cancer patients are told it doesn’t matter what they eat—that they can eat sugar, and they’ll be fine as long as they get their chemotherapy or radiation.  Heart patients are told by their doctors to skip vitamins and rely instead on harmful medications.  But with COVID-19, w…

A few months ago, we wrote about the five supplements we felt were the most important supplements to be taking at this time to support immune health.  They are: A high-quality multivitamin, like our Beyond Health Multi.   Vitamin C (either powdered or in tablets), 6 grams a day or to bowel tolerance, in divided doses.  Enough Vitamin D3 to achieve a high-normal level on a 25(OH)D blood test. Beyond Health Cell Repair Formula or Beyond Health Quercetin Pro, 2-4 tablets daily. Zinc.  Under age 40, 25 mg per day from Beyond Health’s Multi.  If over 40, an additional 25 mg from Beyond Health’s Zinc Formula for a total of 50 mg per day.  Most health-minded people today are aware that a multi, vitamins C and D, and zinc are good for the immune system.  But quercetin? Some people haven’t even heard of it.  So what is quercetin (pronounced kwer’-si-tin)?  And why do we believe it&rs…

Since the publication of his best-selling book Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating, Jeffrey M. Smith has become a leading advocate for calling a halt to this potentially dangerous technology.  His organization, the Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT), has collected anecdotal reports from people who recovered from various health problems after they removed genetically modified (GM) foods from their diets on the advice of their doctors.  Some people felt better almost immediately, while with others it took up to 6 weeks to get the full benefit. More than 3,000 people have now reported 28 conditions getting better, including digestive problems, fatigue, obesity, overweight, brain fog, anxiety, depression, food, sensitivities, allergies, chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, autism, cancer, high blood pressure, and ADHD. Of course, it‘s likely that people who eliminate G…

Ever since it saved his life, Raymond Francis has considered vitamin C—if it’s the right kind—to be the most miraculous molecule you can put into your body. Years ago, before Beyond Health was a gleam in Raymond’s eye, he wasn’t thinking much about the future. The truth is, he wasn’t sure he even had a future. Near death, he called his brother Bernie, who flew across the country, fearing the worst, to be by his side. What Bernie found was shocking. Raymond looked like a skeleton and was in a semi-comatose state. However, the stars must have been aligned that day, because Bernie had brought with him a book he’d heard about: it was "Norman Cousin’s Anatomy of an Illness." Although Cousins is known primarily as the man who cured himself of a devastating “incurable” illness with laughter, the other therapy Cousins used for his miracle cure was megadoses of intravenous (injectable) vitamin C. Too weak and discouraged to do much lau…

By age 80, about 90% of men have an enlarged prostate, also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH. It’s now considered inevitable in most men. While BPH can be asymptomatic, when symptoms occur, they range from bothersome to life-threatening. LUTS (lower urinary tract symptoms) are produced when the prostate, which encircles the urethra, begins squeezing it, interfering with urinary function. Symptoms can include a weak, interrupted urine stream; a sense of incomplete bladder emptying; dribbling; difficulty starting or stopping urination; frequent urination, especially at night; a painful, burning sensation during urination; and sudden urgent needs to urinate. Damage to the urethral lining encourages urinary tract infections. BPH sometimes gets progressively worse, causing bladder stones, incontinence, pain during intercourse, impotence and even life-threatening conditions such as complete blockage of urine flow or irreversible bladder or kidney damage…

Calcium, once lauded as a superstar for preventing and curing osteoporosis, now seems to be a nutrient-non-grata among both conventional and alternative “experts.” Vitamin C researcher, Thomas E. Levy, has even entitled a book Death by Calcium! How did an important nutrient, in which most Americans especially the elderly are deficient, come to such a sorry pass? The calcium saga goes back several years to a time when it was anointed a “magic bullet” to solve the problem of osteoporosis. Need more bone? Just take lots of calcium! When that didn’t work as well as hoped, the experts said well you should probably take your calcium with vitamin D. This worked a little better, but was still less than ideal. In fact, calcium needs a whole “team” of nutrients for its absorption and proper utilization. Vitamins D and K (especially K2) and the mineral magnesium are star players on the team, but check the label on Beyond Health’s Bone Mineral Formul…

This is a good news/bad news story. First the good news. As reported by investigative journalist Lynne McTaggart, in The Optimist, there is a doctor in England, originally from India, named Joseph Chandy, who has become renowned over the past forty years for miraculously curing hundreds of patients of their depression, as well as multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue. In 2006, a BBC segment on him featured grateful patients whose lives had been turned around. Multiple sclerosis patients said they were able to get up out of the wheelchairs. Dr. Chandy’s miraculous treatment? Vitamin B12 injections. It seems that Dr. Chandy discovered early on one of the two causes of disease: nutrient deficiency. As Raymond Francis wrote back in 2003: Proper nutrition is the single most important factor in preventing and reversing depression. Consider that the inventor of the anti-anxiety drug Valium later discovered that B vitamins could produce exactly the same benefits as Valium, without side…

. . . 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…

. . . this silly article will scare some people into injuring their health Every so often the otherwise commendable Consumer Reports (CR) goes on an uncharacteristic rant about vitamins that is marked by ignorance, extreme bias, distortion of the facts and downright mean-spiritedness. In the new “Vitamins and Supplements, 10 Dangers That May Surprise You,” they’re at it again. The first “surprising danger” they cite is that “supplements are not risk-free.”  Well, no surprise there. Few things are completely risk free. The supplement industry has more than its share of charlatans and amateurs. But CR lumps everyone together, blaming all supplements it seems for the 6,300 supplement-related reports to the government’s Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) in the last 4 years, including 115 deaths. Now, although half the US population takes supplements, there hasn’t been a single death from vitamins in the last 27 years. Many of these adverse events and deaths have had to do with…

. . .  Stanford study claims no difference between conventional and organic – but don’t believe it! Do you fork over your hard-earned cash for organic versus conventional produce because you believe it’s healthier?  If so, you may have been dismayed by headlines announcing that a Stanford University review of almost 300 scientific studies found no difference between conventional and organic food in terms of either safety or nutrient value. Well, I’m here to tell you that there IS a difference: organic produce is higher in nutrients, much lower in toxins and well worth the added expense. The Stanford scientists’ findings are very much at odds with a growing consensus that pesticides in conventional agriculture are harmful, and that organic foods are far healthier. Even the President’s Cancer Panel, which is part of the National Cancer Institute, recommends eating organic food as one step to take in preventing cancer. Besides cancer, many other degenerative diseases, such as heart…

. . . but it’s just one more cost of doing business When GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) paid the government a record $3 billion last July in settlement of numerous violations of the False Claims Act (FCA), including concealing data on fatal cardiovascular side effects of their diabetes drug Avandia, it was just business as usual. In fact, Sidney M. Wolfe, MD, of Public Citizen, reports that on the heels of the huge pay-out’s announcement, GSK’s stock price rose to a near 52-week high. Investors knew that even billion-dollar fines are a drop in the bucket compared to the multi billion-dollar profits enjoyed by the drug industry. According to the US Department of Justice, the pharmaceutical industry is the biggest defrauder of the federal government under the FCA, as measured by the size of civil and criminal settlements reached yearly. Consumer advocate organization Public Citizen, which has been tracking fines paid by Big Pharma, found that the amounts of these fines have been escalating…

. . . there are problems with antibacterials, and regular soap protects you just as well Frequent hand washing is one good way for you and your kids to prevent winter colds and flu, but antibacterial soaps do nothing more than regular soaps to protect you, while antibacterial chemicals can raise havoc both in the human body and in our environment. According to a 2008 Environmental Working Group (EWG) report, both the American Medical Association and a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee, along with “dozens of academic researchers” concluded that antimicrobial soaps don’t work any better than plain soap and water at preventing the spread of infections. But while antibacterials, the most common and most studied being triclosan, don’t offer any additional protection, they do provide additional risk. Triclosan is known to be toxic to bacteria, algae and fish. I think you can be virtually certain it is also toxic to humans. Animal studies suggest that triclosan is…

There are dangerous chemicals lurking in your tap water. Chlorine, fluoride, nitrates, heavy metals, microorganisms, radiation—these and  thousands of other toxins come to us courtesy of our own government, landfill and agricultural runoff, industrial chemicals, nuclear disasters…to name a few. Now, one familiar toxin is making headlines across the country again. A new study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicates an alarming number of water taps contain the live bacterium Legionella pneumophila. Chemist Maura Donohue and colleagues at the EPA collected over 274 samples from 68 public and private water taps across the U.S. They found that nearly half of all taps—including kitchen and bathroom sinks, drinking fountains, and refrigerator dispensers— contained traces of L. pneumophila in at least one sample. Even worse, 11 of those contained the bacterium in multiple samples! What are my chances of getting Legionnaires’ disease? Legionella pneumophila…

The toll of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) on our nation is enormous and growing.Roughly 5 million American seniors age 65 and older are living with AD and that number climbs to around 16.5 million (about 1 in 3) for those 85 and older. Worse, Alzheimer’s cases are expected to more than triple by 2050. Alzheimer’s disease is a result of progressive brain cell death, causing memory loss and cognitive decline. While physically debilitating, an even bigger threat is the accumulated stress AD places on the finances, relationships, and independence of its victims and their families. New evidence also shows that women may be bearing the brunt of this debilitating condition. The burden of Alzheimer’s and its impact on women According to a new report released last month from the Alzheimer’s Association, AD takes a disproportionate toll on women more than men. In 2010, the Alzheimer’s Association partnered with Maria Shriver and The Shriver Report to conduct a groundbreaking poll explorin…

Seeing blood in your urine (doctors call it “hematuria”) can mean different things. Most often in women it’s due to a urinary tract infection. But it can also be caused by kidney stones, bladder stones, or, in men, a prostate infection. And, according to an article in the Johns Hopkins newsletter, Health After 50, 10% of those who report blood in their urine have bladder cancer. This is especially true after the age of 55. But doctors seem to be dragging their heels in referring women with hematuria to a urologist to be tested for bladder cancer compared with men. This was found in Great Britain in a study published in 2013 in the British Medical Journal.  In 2008, similar results were found here in the US. In the British study, 27% of the women reviewed had to see their doctor three or more times before being referred to a urologist compared with 11% of the men, even though clinical guidelines in England say patients with hematuria should be “referred urgently” to a urologist. I…

Vitamin D continues to impress as an important protective nutrient. Previous research linked this amazing nutrient to reduced risk of heart disease, bone fractures, depression, and more. Now, a research team at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has confirmed the important role vitamin D plays in helping women survive breast cancer. Vitamin D doubles a woman’s chances of surviving breast cancer Led by Professor Cedric F. Garland, the team analyzed five separate studies investigating the presence of the activated form of vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25(OH)D) in the blood. The research included data from 4,443 breast cancer patients who had their blood levels tested upon diagnosis and at periodic intervals over the following nine years. Then researchers compared women with high blood serum levels of 25(OH)D averaging 30 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) or more to those with low levels of 17 ng/ml or less, which is the current average for breast cance…

According to a recent article in the New York Times, each year more than half a million Americans get a metal mesh tube called a stent inserted into a clogged artery to push back arterial plaque, allowing for better blood flow. A stent can save your life during a heart attack, but it will not prevent a future attack. Yet nine out of ten patients who choose to have stents inserted believe that they do. And, despite the evidence, many cardiologists share this mistaken belief and recommend stents for patients with stable heart disease. In an editorial written for the American Heart Association journal, Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, Michael B. Rothberg, MD, MPH, of the Cleveland Clinic, explains that the belief that stents prevent heart attacks is based on an outmoded picture of coronary artery disease as the slow build-up of arterial plaque until it comes to completely block an artery. “Although the image of coronary arteries as kitchen pipes clogged with fat is sim…

Big Pharma has been padding their profits by selling drugs for “disease prevention.” For example, the very successful campaign to get everyone on a daily “baby aspirin” to prevent having a heart attack or a stroke. Taking a daily baby aspirin, which is ¼ the dose of a regular aspirin, is known as “low-dose aspirin therapy.” Although there is evidence that low-dose aspirin therapy can help prevent a second heart attack or stroke, major studies have confirmed that it does NOT prevent first heart attacks or strokes in people who have no history of heart disease, even when they are at high risk due to family history and other factors like having diabetes. What low-dose aspirin therapy does do is increase the risk of bleeding events by about 30%! Internal bleeding is serious business; you can die from it and thousands do yearly. Despite its cozy relationship with industry, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has had to bow to the evidence and recently denied a reques…