The topic of breastfeeding and infant formula has been on my mind lately. Perhaps it’s because a colleague and friend recently had a baby. My brother-in-law and his wife are also expecting. With all of the contradictory information out there about prenatal nutrition, I wonder how they and other parents-to-be decide on what’s best for the babies. Thankfully, it seems that at least one area of prenatal care isn’t widely contested – breastfeeding. If a mother is healthy and capable of providing adequate breast milk, it is generally considered the optimal source of nourishment. But much like infant formula, the quality of breast milk is largely dependent upon what ingredients it contains. This is why what a mother eats and supplements with during pregnancy and while breastfeeding is vitally important. My Healthy Monday tip of the week is for expectant mothers to discuss essential fatty acid supplementation with their physicians.
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The quality of modern health care is frequently in the news. Health care professionals, insurance companies and politicians all have their own ideas about how patients can better be served for less money. There’s all this talk about reforming health care and yet very few of the “deal makers” actually consult patients like you and me. Am I right? Well, I for one have a strong sense about what I’d like to see change. On the top of my list is the need for a greater variety of treatment options. There are some obstacles to that but, surprisingly, the most significant among them have nothing to do with money. My Healthy Monday tip of the week is to educate your doctor about the value of alternative and complementary remedies. Read more »

The way you perceive things can dramatically influence the results you find. I think many people accept this concept as true to some extent. But how many of us actually keep this philosophy in mind when applying it in practical terms? For example – when psychiatrists throughout the world prescribe a medication for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) or clinical depression, most patients are inclined to believe that it will relieve their symptoms. However, would the same mindset hold true if a physician “prescribed” eating more fish or supplementing with fish oil for the same conditions? Setting aside the relative efficacy of the respective treatments, it’s important to understand that the way you think about any given therapy is likely to affect the outcome – for better or for worse. Read more »

Natural remedies often differ from synthetic medications with respect to how quickly they provide symptomatic relief. For instance, if you take an aspirin to relieve muscle soreness, you’d expect to notice a reduction in pain in short order. However if you opt for a natural pain reliever such as curcumin or fish oil, the effects tend to manifest themselves more slowly and are, therefore, more appropriate for chronic inflammatory conditions. This doesn’t mean that the holistic options are less effective or powerful. It simply illustrates that many of them work like slower acting medications including many antidepressants. Furthermore, some dietary strategies and nutritional supplements do, in fact, work on the spot. Read more »

What’s good for the individual is good for society. That adage may not always be true, but it often is with regard to health care. But even if you accept this principle, you still have to establish the meaning of the word “good” in the realm of medicine and nutrition. This past week on Twitter I discovered several examples of “good” advice from a varied group of health experts. Some of the recommendations presented may very well surprise you. Read more »

In this week’s edition of Twitter Thursday I’m going to focus on practical ways to avoid some common pitfalls of 21st century living. Our expert line-up today includes a few familiar faces, such as Dr. Michael Eades, author of The 6 Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle and Rick McGuire, one of the most informative and prolific health figures on Twitter. But there are also some new contributors in the bullpen: Dr. Soram Khalsa, a founding member of the American Holistic Medical Association; Joy McCarthy, an influential nutritionist from Toronto, Canada and last, but not least, some words of wisdom from Neatorama – one of the more enjoyable and entertaining sites on the worldwide web. Read more »

The term “alternative medicine” can be somewhat misleading. If you combine it with the word “complementary”, as in “alternative and complementary medicine”, the meaning becomes considerably more accurate. But even that string of words doesn’t fully convey the essence of holistic healing. The missing link can be summed up in three syllables: pre-ven-tive. It doesn’t sound very snappy, but the phrase “alternative, complementary and preventive medicine” does a fine job of encompassing what natural healing is all about. Read more »

There’s a poignant scene in the film The Shawshank Redemption where an old prisoner is set free into a world that hardly resembles the one he left behind. Automobiles whiz past him as he tries to cross the street. His parole appointed job is at a fast paced market unlike any small town grocery store from his youth. It seems the whole world got in a great big hurry while he was away and he doesn’t like one bit. The speed of modern life is ever increasing. It’s hard to say how exactly this trend started. But it’s safe to say that at this point it’s driven primarily by consumer demand. A large enough segment of the population wants products and services that bring convenience home and streamline the many details that make up daily living. Read more »

One of most common problems that writers have is a nagging inability to self edit. It may seem odd, but it’s much easier for many scribes to write articles, novels or screenplays that are too long rather than too short. When I compose my daily column, I find that I generally have an over abundance of information to share. Therefore, I need to carefully pick and choose among my source information. But even so, I still end up with blog entries that tend to be lengthier than desired. This is especially problematic because I very much want to provide clear and concise resources on this site. One possible solution I’m currently toying with is the use of occasional lists. Instead of writing columns that are comprised of densely constructed paragraphs, I’ll simply select 5 noteworthy studies or topics and briefly describe their relevance as I see it. Read more »

One of the hardest “sells” in natural medicine is demonstrating that there can be substantive differences between products that seem similar. Many years ago a skeptical customer was discussing a supplement with an employee at a health food store. At that time, I was a consultant who assisted the owner of that establishment to choose which lines and products to stock. I overheard the conversation and decided to try to help out. The position of the customer was that all echinacea products should be comparably priced. His view was that they all came from the same plant, the same soil, the same planet and therefore should reflect that in their price point. My first approach was to provide details about the specific differences between the brands he was considering – variable concentrations of active ingredients, flower vs. root extracts, the scientific research conducted on certain products, etc. I was unable to sway him with that data. So I tried a different tactic. I asked, “Is it reasonable to pay the same amount for a brand new BMW as you would a used Honda Civic?” “Of course not”, he scoffed. I continued, “Why not? They’re both made with similar materials. They both have four tires and a steering wheel. You can use both cars to get to where you want to go.” Read more »

The medicinal portions of plants and trees can come from bark, flowers, leaves and even the rhizomes or roots. There’s a sort of pragmatic beauty in nature. Many of the therapeutic components of plants are parts that humans typically don’t eat. After all, how many of us have snacked on the inner bark of a French maritime pine tree or ordered a fillet of salmon with a side of wilted ginkgo or gotu kola leaves? There are however certain exceptions to this rule. Green tea and turmeric are perhaps two of the highest profile examples of this phenomenon.
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A few weeks ago, a reader named Vicky left me a comment that has stuck with me ever since. She wondered if there was a way for me to help poor people who don’t have Internet access or the resources necessary to implement much of the information I present on this site. Specifically, the post she was referring had to do with the Novel H1N1 Swine Flu virus. As I typed my response, I realized that even something as basic as a multivitamin was out reach for some of the most vulnerable populations in the world. It is at that point that I remembered the name of a charity that I have seen in natural health magazines and trade journals. The two words that came back to me were: Vitamin Angels. Read more »

News reports about the so called Novel H1N1 Swine Flu continue to roll in from around the world. On a daily basis, governmental agencies and medical specialists offer the best information they currently have about how to contain the spread of this pandemic. There’s no question that it’s important to keep up to date on the breaking news. But more and more, it appears that acting on a personal level is one the best options we have. I’m referring, specifically, to measures that we can each take to keep ourselves well. Staying healthy contributes to a grassroots effort to help minimize the impact of this virus. This is a way of applying the “think globally, act locally” philosophy to this worldwide health matter. Read more »