It’s been 12 years since Raymond Francis published his groundbreaking book, Never Be Sick Again (NBSA). At this point hundreds of thousands of dog-eared copies of this best seller are being used as trusted references for getting well and staying well. To incorporate all the new information that’s come out in the past decade, it was time for a revised edition. But Raymond wanted to create a new book with a more practical emphasis. The Great American Health Hoax will be available early in 2015. Like NBSA, it indicts the American “disease-care” system that focuses on alleviating symptoms at the expense of supporting the body’s inherent self-healing capacities. And, like NBSA, the new book presents a solution to the problem: Raymond’s one disease-two causes-six pathways model. But The Great American Health Hoax adds the equivalent of an automobile’s maintenance manual. Several “maintenance items” are introduced—health parameters we need to monitor. If they deviate too far f…

Bruce Ames, PhD, is one of our nation’s most distinguished scientists. Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Nutrition and Metabolism Center at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, Dr. Ames leads a group of researchers dedicated to the study of how poor nutrition leads to the degenerative diseases associated with aging, with their attendant astronomical costs to our nation. Ames has developed a theory, which he calls his Triage Theory, to explain much of the chronic disease common today in the modern industrialized countries. Whereas gross deficiencies in vitamins and minerals are rare in affluent nations, modest deficiencies are common. Ames reports that most of the world’s population, including in the US, is moderately deficient in one or more of the 30 or so essential vitamins and minerals. Because the damage done by moderate vitamin and mineral deficiencies is insidious, says Ames, it…

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…

In the past twenty years, we've been heartened to see a growing interest in health as more and more people realize they don't need to have allergies or get frequent colds every winter; to be fatigued or have digestive issues; and that they can even reverse serious illnesses without drugs. They're jumping on the health bandwagon, and we're happy to provide them with accurate, science-based information as well as premium health-supporting products. Raymond has written four additional books to address significant health challenges of our time. Never Be Fat Again provides a deep understanding of and a solution to the national epidemic of obesity. Never Fear Cancer Again teaches you how to prevent or “turn off” the process leading to this dreaded disease. Never Feel Old Again argues that you don't need to fall victim to chronic disease as you age, and shows how to make every year of your life a healthy, productive, enjoyable one. Finally, The Great American Health Hoax updates Never Be…

Raymond Francis' expertise in supplements developed on two levels. As a chemist, he networked with leaders in the industry and began to understand how a good supplement should be made. On another level, he was his own guinea pig, learning by trial and error. He was extremely chemically sensitive at the time, and poorly formulated supplements could have devastating effects, causing health setbacks lasting days and weeks at a time. He knew that although he was an extreme example, such supplements could have subtle negative effects on anyone. Lesson number one became crystal clear: supplements made with cheap, synthetic chemicals, with low biological activity in the body were the most expensive supplements anyone could buy! Not only were they only marginally effective for their intended use; their unintended and harmful side effects on body chemistry made them worse than worthless. The only supplements capable of helping people get well and stay well were made from natural ingredient…

High blood pressure is known as a silent killer. You can have it for years without getting any symptoms until you experience a fatal heart attack. But there is another silent killer: kidney disease. Given the many priorities already on your plate, you probably haven’t given much thought to your kidneys. But since March 10 has been named World Kidney Day (and March, National Kidney Month), we’d like to draw your attention to kidney health if only for a couple of minutes. According to the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), more than 26 million Americans have kidney disease, and most of them don’t know it. By the time you experience clear symptoms, your kidneys may already be shot necessitating dialysis for the rest of your life . . . which may not be that long. Kidney disease is the 9th leading cause of death in the US. Even before symptoms of kidney disease are evident, the disease significantly raises your risk of heart attack, stroke, osteoporosis and anemia. A simple urine or…

Drugs reduce pain by poisoning enzymes or blocking pain receptors in the body, but they do nothing to address its cause(s). In fact, drugs usually make the underlying situation worse and create additional undesirable outcomes called “side effects.” A holistic approach uses natural pain suppressants with only beneficial effects on the body while it mobilizes and supports the body to heal itself of underlying causes. Structural issues should be treated with physical therapy and other types of bodywork. But tissue injury and inflammation causing pain are best addressed with healthy lifestyle, excellent overall nutrition, and specific nutrients that stimulate the body’s own repair mechanisms, reduce inflammation and build tissue integrity. Numerous studies show that vitamin C and the bioflavonoid quercetin do all three, creating a powerful intervention when used together. For maximum benefit, use our uniquely pure and potent vitamin C and our quercetin fortified with additional tiss…

Nutrition experts at Tufts University say the average American consumes about 30 teaspoons of “added sugar” (that is, sugar not found naturally in food) a day. That’s a heck of a lot if you believe, as we do, that refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup are deadly metabolic poisons, and just 2 teaspoons of them throws your body into biochemical chaos for several hours. Or that honey and other natural sweeteners aren’t a whole lot better and should be used sparingly. Although the sugar industry keeps trying to convince the government and consumers that any form of sugar is safe in any amount, they’re fighting a losing battle. The science saying otherwise has become so overwhelming that even the conservative American Heart Association now agrees that added sugar is implicated in obesity, high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease and stroke. They recommend no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar per day for women and 9 for men. Last year, government Dietary Guidelin…

After decades and billions of dollars spent on Alzheimer’s research with nothing much to show for it in the way of effective prevention or treatment, a UCLA researcher has broken through to produce some amazing results with a game-changing treatment program. And, wouldn’t you know it, his program has a lot in common with the Beyond Health Lifestyle! Dale E. Bredeson MD, Director of Neurodegenerative Disease Research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Founding President/CEO of the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, CA, had studied Alzheimer’s for years. He saw that although many individual lifestyle factors, herbs and supplements led to minor improvements, a more comprehensive approach was needed. His program, called MEND (Metabolic Enhancement for NeuroDegeneration), is an individualized approach covering 36 different factors that can be involved in developing cognitive impairment and ultimately Alzheimer’s. The great news is that this approach halted a…

Sitting Kills, Moving Heals is the title of a book by exercise physiologist Dr. Joan Vernikos. Her argument—one that has been confirmed by other scientists in a new field called “inactivity physiology” is not that sitting is necessarily bad for us; just that we spend far too much time doing it. The real problem is inactivity. Or put another way, it’s the absence of moving against gravity in a variety of ways throughout the day. Moving in opposition to gravity stimulates certain cell functions we need to be healthy, and we need to move frequently throughout the day. An hour at the gym after work won’t cut it. Dr. Vernikos became an expert on the physiological effects of gravity while working with NASA, where she observed the health-damaging effects of weightlessness on astronauts. Living in a gravity-free environment, she says, accelerates the aging process by about ten times. Changes in muscle and bone and other detrimental physiological changes that ordinarily occur in one ye…

It’s Heart Month at Beyond Health. We recently wrote about magnesium and the heart—that magnesium is essential for a healthy heart, and that magnesium deficiency is often the real cause of cardiovascular problems such as high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, and even heart attacks. Unfortunately magnesium deficiency is epidemic today! It has been estimated that 3/4 of the US population doesn’t consume the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for magnesium. So 75% of us may not even be getting enough magnesium in our diets to prevent severe deficiency disease, let alone achieve optimal health. But add to that the many factors that prevent full utilization of the magnesium we consume (see article below) and you’ve got a real problem that affects almost everyone. But how can you tell if you’re deficient? The blood test most doctors will give you won’t tell you very much.  The body does everything it can to keep blood levels consistent, and will keep pulling magnesium out…

Although hand sanitizers and other antiviral cleaning products are disappearing from supermarket shelves, you may already have all the products you need to combat COVID-19, and they’re non-toxic and cheaper. Much of the information here is taken from a recent article in Consumer Reports. COVID-19 is enveloped in a coating that allows it to merge with our body cells and infect them.  If you can disrupt this coating, you can deactivate the virus.  Fortunately, this is pretty easy to do. Soap and water do this job very well. The friction from scrubbing a surface with soap and water can break the virus’s protective coating. The operative word here is “scrub.”  Don’t just wipe the surface lightly; bear down as if you’re removing dirt or something sticky.  Leave the rag you’ve used in a bowl of soapy water for a while to destroy any remaining virus particles.  (A note of interest, if the virus makes its way inside your body, vitamin D…

When Dr. John J. Cannell was a psychiatrist working at a state prison hospital, unlike fellow doctors he gave his patients nutritional supplements to help them achieve better mental health.  Among these supplements were relatively large doses of vitamin D.  When a virulent influenza epidemic hit the hospital, every ward fell prey to the disease … except his ward, which remained disease free! This was one of many experiences with vitamin D that motivated Dr. Cannell to found the Vitamin D Council, a nonprofit educational organization that promotes vitamin D research and publicizes the widespread vitamin D deficiencies in our world population that have been implicated in all kinds of disease, including arthritis, cancer, heart disease, depression, diabetes, inflammation, musculoskeletal disorders, neurological problems, women's health issues, and weak immunity.  One reason the Coronavirus is ripping through the world’s population so ferociously is that coll…

The good news about COVID-19 is that we can defeat this virus!  We’re learning more all the time about how to avoid contact with it, but even if the virus should find its way into our bodies, we can fortify our immune systems with nutrients comprising a mighty internal armoring system. Combining vitamin C, vitamin D, quercetin and zinc with a good diet and a high-quality multivitamin-mineral offers powerful protection against any virus that comes our way.   Ignored, minimized and invalidated by major media, building and maintaining a strong immune system is our only real defense against COVID-19. Focusing only on avoidance and waiting like sitting ducks for a vaccine to save us is dis-empowering and strips us of potent tools that are at our disposal—nutrients that have been shown in numerous studies and clinical situations to ramp up immune defenses in an extremely effective way. It’s not that easy for a virus to take hold in the body. Should it gain entry, it must first att…

As we arm ourselves for our battle with COVID-19, we must not forget zinc.  This is especially true for those over the age of 40, and the need increases with increasing age. According to the US Department of Agriculture, 73% of Americans are deficient in zinc, and deficiency is especially found in older people—even those who report taking zinc supplements.  Zinc is one of the foundation nutrients needed for building a strong immune system. Even a small deficiency can significantly impair immune function. Research over the past twenty years has shown that having adequate zinc reserves in cells inhibits replication of the coronavirus family of viruses, of which COVID-19 is a member. If a virus can’t replicate (reproduce itself), it can quickly and easily be eradicated by the immune system.  Zinc has also been shown to restore vigor to immune cells and to reduce excess inflammation. Controlling excess inflammation is extremely important in COVID-19 infections b…

Government policies that throttle natural medicine are causing real harm right now by hampering our ability to take control of our own health during this pandemic. — Alliance for Natural Health “Some physicians would stand by and see their patient die rather than use ascorbic acid [vitamin C] because in their finite minds it exists only as a vitamin.” — F. R. Klenner, MD We invite you to add your voice to that of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) in speaking out about the harm being done by our government’s single-minded focus on finding a pharmaceutical treatment for the COVID-19 virus while restricting what supplement manufacturers may say about the potentially life-saving abilities of vitamins and minerals supplements. Current law makes it illegal for manufacturers to claim that their supplements can help to prevent or treat disease even when good science backs up these claims.  Bedazzled by Big Pharma’s money and power, our government’s position inflates…

As we envision a healthy future for ourselves, our children, and our planet this month, let’s take a look at cell phones. Although more than 90% of the US population now owns one, cell phones have never been proven safe.  In fact, evidence for their ability to harm continues to accumulate. Although it’s too late to put the genie back in the bottle—we’ve become too dependent on our cell phones to give them up—both adults and especially children must limit cell phone use if we want a healthy future. Nutritionist Anne Louise Gittleman has pointed out that the kind of electromagnetic radiation cell phones emit causes subliminal stress that raises blood pressure and cortisol (a stress hormone) levels, alters blood sugar regulation, lowers thyroid hormone output and can interfere with getting a good night’s sleep. Cell phones also affect fertility and have been linked in children with behavioral disorders, learning difficulties and depression. Of particular concern have been…

You can feel the excitement in our office. This is the product we’ve all been waiting for! We’re getting super-charged with energy, losing weight if we need to, and feeling better than ever due to our amazing new meal and snack replacement, Berry Meal Blast!  The Solution to the Need for Grab-and-Go Healthy Meals There’s been a crying need for a meal replacement product that’s quick and easy to prepare, tastes great, contains no questionable artificial ingredients, and infuses your day with spectacular nutrition. Well, Beyond Health exists to solve such problems, and for months now our product engineers have been hard at work to create a product that exceeds our high standards for effectiveness, safety and value in every detail, to maximize your health. Berry Meal Blast is finally here! A vegan superfood powder made from berries and other nutrition-packed foods, healing herbs, high-quality vitamins and minerals, and state-of-the-art RNA technology, Berry Meal B…