Within every living flower, plant and seed there is a complex factory fast at work. The goods manufactured have one basic goal in mind - to ensure survival. In this way, human beings are quite similar to the inhabitants of the botanical world. But, when we think of ourselves, we tend to focus on the external characteristics or feelings and thoughts that we experience. Rarely do we contemplate the broad array of natural substances that travel through the bloodstream, reside in organs and otherwise populate the inner metropolis that is our physiology. That specific type of curiosity is almost exclusively the domain of physicians and scientists.

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The holidays are rapidly approaching. It’s officially crunch time for shopping for those special gifts for beloved family, friends and mates. In the coming weeks, I’m going to share some health promoting gift ideas that I’ll personally be giving out. I want to start by telling you a little bit about my mother’s recent birthday. Selecting a gift for her is always a challenge because she absolutely refuses to offer any suggestions about what she might enjoy. Her feeling is that she has doesn’t need any more “stuff”. So typically we’ll give my parents concert or theater tickets or a gift certificate for a new and interesting restaurant. But this year, my wife and I came up with a different type of present. We wanted to choose something that we knew Mom would genuinely enjoy and, more importantly, actually use. In addition, we’re always looking for innovative ways to improve the health of those we love. By combining these two goals, we were able to find the perfect birthday gift - something that would keep on giving for an entire year. Read more »

You can’t always trust news headlines. I found two recent examples of this on a national cable network and a highly regarded medical site. On the cable news station, one headline touted a story about a woman who was supposedly arrested for “cutting in line” at a discount store. Now that’s an attention grabber! If there’s an actual law against line-cutting, then I was surrounded by hoards of criminals when I recently attended a U2 concert. The truth in this instance is that the person involved also engaged in other inappropriate activities which played a role in her arrest. The second item that caught my eye had to do with a supposed “artificial” sweetener that could lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Which one could it be? Nutrasweet? Splenda? SweetN’ Low? Imagine my surprise when I discovered that oligofructose (OFS) was classified as a synthetic sweetener! That’s news to me, because it is in fact derived from natural sources. Read more »

I’ve discussed the importance of probiotics in the past. Probiotics are friendly bacteria that primarily inhabit the digestive system. They play a role in everything from helping to break down food to improving immune function, and even supporting healthy mood. Eating cultured and fermented foods and supplementing with probiotic supplements is one way to increase the number of these desirable microbes. But there’s another strategy that can support the growth and population of these intestinal helpers - by eating and supplementing with prebiotics.
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