The Herbal Insider

Since Dr. Oz started a craze for Raspberry Ketones, NOW has looked into this with the idea of introducing a product to meet our customers demands. As always, NOW conducts an exhaustive investigation for any new product with many people and departments involved. Our Technical team does a literature review including product claims, toxicology and much more. Our QA team creates specs, talks to vendors and investigates details to make sure the product will be safe and efficacious. Our QC team is next involved with more research and pre-testing of ingredients and method development to make sure we can test for actives. Later, our Purchasing team is involved and eventually a product is bought, re-tested, manufactured, tested again and sold.
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YOU MAY WANT TO HANG ON TO THIS ONE.

Cinnamon and Honey:
Honey is the only food on the planet that will not spoil or rot. It will do what some call turning to sugar. In reality honey is always honey.. However, when left in a cool dark place for a long time it will do what I rather call “crystallizing” . When this happens I loosen the lid, boil some water, and sit the honey container in the hot water,turn off the heat and let it liquefy. It is then as good as it ever was. Never boil honey or put it in a microwave. To do so will kill the enzymes in the honey.
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I usually get my free range chickens whole from local farmers many of which are Amish. I stock up my freezer in the summer and fall because they are grown in the pasture and they will not survive during the winter. Pasture raised chickens look and taste different than what you get in a supermarket. They will cost more but they are will worth it. Read more… »

by Susun S. Weed

For thousands of years knowledge of the herbs and wild plants that could increase fertility were the secrets of the village wise women. But after the holocaust against European Wise Women (the “burning times”) and the virtual extermination of Native American medicine women, this knowledge virtually disappeared. In fact, many people erroneously believe that “primitive people” had no means of controlling the likelihood of pregnancy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Read more… »

Far too many people have become dependent on over the counter cough syrups, hot medicinal drinks, and capsules designed to supposedly fight the common cold.

If you walk by the cold remedy section of your local pharmacy, you will discover shelves groaning from the weight of a myriad of rainbow colored bottles of modern-day snake oil that promises to relieve every cold symptom known to man.

Many of them are formulated to make us drowsy when taken before we go to bed, and some will help us doze a bit through the night but really do little to prevent a cold from running it’s methodical, diabolical course. Often users mistake the drug induced snooze as the remedy fighting the cold, but unfortunately it’s a smoke screen that only serves to hide the symptoms for a short time.
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If you suffer from Type II Diabetes, like 23 million Americans, you may believe what your health care provider tells you, that Type II diabetes is impossible to cure and needs vast amounts of medicinal treatment to control it. They may also blame your parents and grandparents for passing on poor genes. Yet, these facts couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only is Type 2 diabetes a preventable condition, it can even been cured with the simplest herbal treatments which are readily available along with a proper diet.
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Common medicinal herbs and their uses. Throughout the centuries the plants that grow around us have been used in one way or another. Mostly for food but in other cases as cures for our ailments. Today if we do not feel too well we will go to the doctor, tell him of our ailments and he will prescribe the appropriate drug. Read more… »

There are several ways prescription drugs may be making us all sicker—whether through illnesses brought on because these medicines deplete critical nutrients in our body, or because we’re unwittingly consuming pharmaceuticals in the municipal water we drink. Read more… »

What’s New In the World of Health Care for 2010
The Answer May Surprise You!

Dr. Linda Miller, Holistic Chiropractor, Anaheim, California – It’s strange how what seems to be “new” or “advanced”, can sometimes really be old fashioned – and what used to be considered “old”, or “folksy” can really be more advanced. Here’s what we’re talking about.
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Elizabeth J Baldwin says “Forget the Viagra for men, where the heck is something to boost a woman’s libido?”

After enjoying a healthy sex drive since the onset of puberty I suddenly had little or none. This did not make my husband happy, and it made me even more unhappy. After consulting with my doctor, trying various over-the-counter remedies, and generally pursuing any avenue that promised even a slight renewal of my sex drive I stumbled on a combination that works for me. Read more… »

With the approach of autumn, we welcome that slight chill in the air after the relentless heat of the summer. We look forward to the brilliant colors of the changing leaves, the final harvest of the fruit trees and digging out our favorite sweater. Cooler temperatures and shortening days also signal the start of flu season and the time to prepare is now. Read more… »

When I first read the claim that a papaya leaf dried and put in hot water makes a tea that can treat, slow down, or prevent cancer, I was highly skeptical. Having lost my mother, Julia Ruffin Robertson, to cancer when she was only 55, just at the point where she was becoming recognized for her work as both an artist and art historian (and certainly not because she had done anything to “deserve” cancer), my first thought was, “How dare this person make this claim”. My mother had lived the life of a saint; always two steps behind my father, holding him up and accompanying him to Africa because he wanted to be a missionary, only to succumb to cancer just at the most rewarding time of her life. So to me, the idea that a simple papaya leaf tea could perhaps have added years to her life was not anything to be taken lightly.

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Nutritional and Herbal ways to beat the blues

“…St. John’s wort can have a…beneficial effect on depression.”

Depression can be a response to stressful events, hormonal imbalances, biochemical abnormalities, or other causes. Mild depression which passes quickly may not require any diagnosis or treatment. From nutrients to herbs, there are many mood-lifting alternatives. But keep in mind that there’s a world of difference between an occasional funk and clinical depression—a physician, psychiatrist, or other health professional should be consulted for persistent or serious cases of depression.

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Energizing Vitamins, Minerals, and Herbs

If you are “tired of being tired,” you’re not alone —fatigue is one of the most common complaints heard at a doctor’s office. Fatigue can have a wide variety of causes: from poor diet, lack of sleep or exercise, and obesity, to side effects from certain medications or a sign of drug/alcohol abuse. And that’s not all. A feeling of tiredness could also indicate anemia, infection, hormone imbalance, low thyroid or adrenal function, depression, mental or physical stress, or other serious conditions.

The dietary changes and supplements discussed in the following sections can provide an occasional “oomph” to your life, but fatigue that persists for more than a few days, is associated with pain or discomfort for which the cause is unknown, or has unusual symptoms, should be addressed with your physician.

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Reading, ‘Riting & Ritalin?

Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was a rare condition 50 years ago. Today, it is extremely common, affecting an estimated 5-20% of all children in the United States. Previously known by a number of different names (including hyperactivity, hyperkinesis, and minimal brain dysfunction), ADHD is characterized by learning disabilities, short attention span, easy distractibility, impulsive behavior, hyperactivity, and lack of coordination. Although children with ADHD are not mentally retarded, they often do poorly in school and have difficulty making friends.

Conventional medicine has discovered that methylphenidate (Ritalin, a chemical related to the amphetamines) is often effective for children with ADHD. For reasons that are not understood, stimulants like Ritalin produce a paradoxical response in these children: slowing them down and helping them concentrate, rather than speeding them up.

Unfortunately Ritalin has many side effects and does not address the cause of ADHD, it merely suppresses the symptoms. Nevertheless, both teachers and parents sometimes look at Ritalin as a quick fix, or as the simplest way to deal with a complicated problem. Indeed, in some parts of the United States, as many as 6% of grade-school children are on this drug.

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Germ Warfare
“…shore up your immune defenses with a good diet, plenty of rest, and immune-boosting supplements.”

The common cold is actually caused by one of 200 different viruses which all produce similar symptoms: sore throat, runny nose, congestion, watery eyes, cough, and general aches and pains. Influenza (the flu) causes many of the same symptoms and is also caused by a virus. Colds and flu can be spread person-to-person by coughing or sneezing. Infection can also be spread by touching a virus-contaminated object (like a doorknob, phone, or shaking hands with an infected person) and then touching your eyes or nose.

Surprisingly, whether or not a person comes down with a cold or flu is related less to exposure to a virus and more to the strength of the immune system. Now is the time to shore up your immune defenses with a good diet, plenty of rest, and immune-boosting supplements. In a recent Email received from Robyn Landis, author of Herbal Defense, she said she is now into her 8th winter without a serious cold. Her book will tell you how you can do the same.

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Re-printed from:  MotherEarthNews Online

Returning to our medicinal roots
By James A. Duke, Ph.D.

At a time when the entire Western world is looking forward–to a new year, a new century, a new millennium–I’d like to challenge this nation’s physicians and pharmacists to do just the opposite: look back. It’s my belief that the future of medicine is rooted in the past, before chemists undertook to synthesize synthetic silver bullets for all that ails, and before pharmaceutical companies hitched our collective health to what has become for them a multibillion-dollar wagon.
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