. . .  drugs just aren't cutting it. The poor drug industry has been hard put to come up with a drug for hypertension that doesn't significantly reduce quality of life with side effects like dizziness, nausea, arrhythmias and sexual problems, and in addition contribute over time to chronic disease. The new angiotensin receptor blockers were recently linked in The Lancet Oncology with developing prostate, breast and lung cancers. It's also been hard for them to come up with drugs that do the job. In a 2008 Canadian Family Physician, Richard Nahas, MD, CCFP, says only about 1/3 of those taking hypertension meds achieve optimal blood pressure control. Therefore it's not surprising, although refreshing, to see some serious attention being paid in medical journals to non-drug therapies. Recently, in The Journal of Clinical Hypertension, two MDs discussed the value of the low-sodium DASH diet (see my article on the DASH diet for a description), exercise, weight reduction, moderate a…

. . . few foods beat the beet for nutrition! Beets are a wonderful vegetable that we should all try to include frequently in our diets. High in glutamine, an amino acid that feeds and strengthens the intestinal lining, beets also contain a number of compounds that make them a tonic for both the liver and gallbladder and promote the activity of various antioxidant enzymes. The effect beets have on the liver is especially helpful to women since the liver metabolizes female hormones; many hormone problems are solved when the liver is detoxified and strengthened. Recent studies have also found beet juice boosts stamina and endurance during exercise, at least partly because it widens blood vessels (increasing blood flow and lowering blood pressure) and enables muscles to work more efficiently. In addition, beets are thought to fight cancer, help stabilize blood sugar and protect the heart. Normally, beets (both roots and greens) can be added to vegetable juice combinations, and shredd…

. . .  for elegant dining during the holidays or any other time of year! Whether 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. But what you’ll love our balsamic for during this holiday season (or at any time of year) is its rich, complex taste that complements just about any fruit or vegetable. Here are just a few of the many ways balsamic can turn ordinary fruits and vegetables into something extraordinary and memorable: *Spoon balsamic vinegar over baked pears, or fresh strawberries or peaches. *Add to steamed vegetables in place of butter and salt. *Combine tomato wedges with strawberries, fresh basil and balsamic vinegar. *Blanch spinach, drain and shock in ice water. Squeeze dry, chop and toss with toasted pine nuts, raisins, olive oil and a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar. Add capers if you like. An especially winnin…

February was Heart Health month, and we honored it by writing about two nutrients that are critical for a healthy heart, vitamin E and CoQ10. However no discussion of nutrients that benefit the heart would be complete without talking about our favorite vitamin, vitamin C. We’ve told you before about a theory advanced by one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, two-time Nobel laureate, chemist Linus Pauling. He hypothesized that heart disease may actually be a vitamin C deficiency disease. Pauling observed that animals don’t get heart attacks. Most animals (humans, apes, guinea pigs and fruit bats excepted) make their own vitamin C—out of blood sugar! According to Andrew W. Saul, PhD, most mammals make the human equivalent of more than 5,000 mg of vitamin C daily, and considerably more when under stress. Pauling also knew that one of vitamin C’s primary roles in the body is helping to build collagen, the basic material in connective tissue, including blood vessel wal…

Every summer we warn against using sunscreens. First, sunscreens contain toxic ingredients. Some are better than others, but we haven’t found a single one we’d want to use or recommend. Second, sunscreens are designed to block out the sun’s ultraviolet rays. This prevents sunburn, but it also blocks out many of the sun’s benefits. We’ve been sold a bill of goods on sunlight being dangerous. Sunlight is essential to our health and well-being. While too much sun can give you a sunburn, too much of anything can be harmful. Used intelligently, sunlight is nourishing and energizing. Our bodies convert the sun’s rays into vitamin D. Sunlight increases production of the “happy hormones” that prevent anxiety and depression, it enhances immunity, and increases the oxygen content in our blood. It helps to prevent and reverse cancer. Sunlight has even been shown to lower blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides, and to heal wounds and any number of skin diseases. So what is “intelli…

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…

Excessive amounts of salt in the diet damages healthy bacteria living in our intestines and leads to high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and fatigue.But we need some salt. If you perspire, whether it's from exercising, using a sauna, or living in a hot climate, you can lose too much sodium and other minerals in your sweat causing serious consequences, even death. People with weak adrenals often don’t retain enough salt leading to excessively low blood pressure, so they need extra salt.According to Mark Kurlansky, author of Salt: A World History, humans began to include salt in their diets once crops were cultivated and grains introduced. Salt mobilizes enzymes that help to digest grains and balance their acidity with alkalinizing minerals. (Unless it’s conventional salt, stripped of its natural minerals, in which case it will only increase the acidifying effect of eating grains. More about that later.)The problem is most people are getting too much salt, and it’s…

Our bodies are designed to maintain us at a weight that is perfect for us (although perhaps not perfect by fashion model standards) by telling us when we’re hungry, what we’re hungry for, and when we’ve had enough. But while some people just naturally eat this way, many of us have become desensitized to our body’s signals and need to relearn Intuitive Eating (IE).In the past twenty years, IE has been the subject of many of scientific studies. They’ve found that rejecting diets, being supported to love and accept ourselves as we are and learning to trust our own intuition when it comes to food choices lead to substantial gains in emotional well-being and quality of life. IE also greatly reduces risks for compulsive eating, binge eating and other eating disorders, and it’s been linked to lower weight, lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels independent of weight loss, and increased glycemic control in type 2 diabetes. For those who are re-learning IE, Dr. Steven C. Straus, MD, sugge…

Years ago we heard an intriguing story. A frail, elderly gentleman in India, bent over with age, left his village to wander into the woods to die. Several years later he returned, vigorous, upright and tanned from the sun, claiming he had been rejuvenated by communing with the rocks, the trees, and the mountain streams.This story came out of Asia’s ancient tradition of nature therapy recently revived in Japan under the name of shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing.” Forest bathing is immersing yourself in a forest environment. This means leaving your cell phone and daily concerns behind and spending several hours deep in the woods, walking on trails or sitting with no other purpose than to experience your surroundings through all five senses: smelling the woodsy air; feeling the ground beneath your feet or the bark of a tree or the texture of a leaf; tasting a blackberry or wild mint; listening to bird calls and the sound of the wind rustling through the trees; and taking in the varied si…

For years, Beyond Health has recommended limiting fruit consumption to two pieces of fruit per day and avoiding fruit juice altogether. Although fresh fruit is a good source of nutrients, it’s also high in sugar, and sugar, even from healthy sources, can be detrimental if you get too much of it. Although a diet high in fruits and vegetables is often recommended for lowering blood pressure, studies have found that high fruit consumption is not associated with lowered blood pressure and can even cause elevations in blood pressure. How would eating fruit lead to higher blood pressure? It’s the sugar in the fruit that’s the problem. Fruit contains two kinds of sugar—50% glucose and 50% fructose. And they each impact blood pressure. High fructose corn syrup is also composed primarily of glucose and fructose—42% glucose and 55% fructose. Under normal, healthy circumstances, if you eat a piece of fruit, the glucose will cause sugar levels in your blood to rise so…