What is Diabetes?Decades ago, type 2 diabetes used to be called "sugar diabetes." There was a reason for this. Eating sugar causes diabetes. Too bad we have moved away from that accurate description of this disease. However, sugar causes another form of diabetes—diabetes of the brain. We call it Alzheimer’s disease. Diabetes is the condition where your body’s response to insulin is weakened, and sugar is no longer adequately transported into cells. Insulin resistance is the result of constantly assaulting your body with the dangerous toxin known as sugar. Excessive sugar, especially fructose, and grain consumption are the driving factors behind insulin resistance. Grains, even whole grains, will flood the body with too much sugar and cause insulin resistance. Insulin resistance contributes massively to inflammation, and inflammation will damage and degenerate your brain.Your brain is almost totally dependent on sugar to make the energy it needs to function. Constantly assaulting t…

OverviewWhy Beyond Health Olive Oil? For those who have asked this question, the answer lies in Beyond Health’s mission: To improve the health of the American people by supplying cutting-edge health education and carefully researched, world class, health supporting products. Toward this end, Beyond Health searches for the highest-quality products and makes them available to the public—all in one place. This is a unique and valuable service, and selecting healthy olive oil is just one example of that service. The health benefits of olive oil are well established, which is why I recommend it. The challenge is to find real olive oil. The world is awash in phony food products. For example, new genetic tests indicate that 77 percent of the fish sold in the U.S. as red snapper consists of other illegally mislabeled species. The problems with olive oil are far worse. A 1996 study by the FDA found that 96 percent of the extra virgin oils they tested had been adulterated with cheap, i…

. . . many are contaminated and/or rancidMost fish and fish oil today are just too toxic to be beneficial. In addition, many fish oils on the market are rancid (oxidized). Omega 3 fats are extremely perishable, and great care and extra expense are needed to provide a fish oil product free of rancidity.Our seas and oceans are increasingly contaminated, and these contaminants find their way into many fish oil supplements. Several years ago, a report by the American Chemical Society found increasingly high levels of flame retardants, as well as pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in several brands of cod liver oil.It pays to be selective when choosing a fish oil supplement. You can trust Beyond Health to supply clean fish oil supplements. Our Fish Oil Formula is purified of contaminants and handled carefully so as to protect them from rancidity.Also, often overlooked, fish oil can also oxidize after it is ingested. Anyone taking fish oil should also be taking vitamin E to…

. . . a misleading new study from CanadaAmericans keep getting fatter. In the past 15 years adult obesity has approximately doubled in 17 states according to a survey sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Twenty years ago, not one state had an obesity rate of more than 15%. Now, only Colorado, with 19.8% obese, has an obesity rate of less than 20%. In twelve states, the obesity rate is above 30%.As obesity becomes more normal, it's become more socially acceptable and less cause for concern. In the same way that many people consider themselves healthy even though they're taking several different medications, the overweight and even the obese now tend to see themselves as fundamentally healthy. A new study from Canada feeds this misperception.Published last August in Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, this study used a new rating system called the Edmonton Obesity Staging System (EOSS) to categorize the obese. It puts them into five categories according to the prese…

Can supplementary calcium cause a heart attack? At one time the main question we got about calcium was from women who weren’t sure they were getting enough to prevent osteoporosis. Today, both men and women wonder if taking supplementary calcium is going to give them a heart attack or get into their brains or other soft tissues.Taking calcium in Beyond Health’s Bone Support will NOT do these things, and here’s why.First, although calcium supplements have been called into question, calcium in food has never been shown to be a problem. The calcium in our supplements is identical to the calcium found in food.This is not true of most calcium supplements!We use only organic calcium, while calcium found in most supplements is usually inorganic. Our calcium is reacted with organic acids in such a way that the resulting molecules are identical to calcium found in food – organic calcium. The body doesn’t know how to handle the inorganic form, and it can easily be deposited where it shouldn…

. . . 96% of extra virgin olive oils tested were adulterated with cheap, inferior oilsWhen I’m invited out for the holidays, one of my favorite gifts for my host or hostess is a bottle of Beyond Health Olive Oil. I’m extremely proud of our olive oil. Not only has it won taste tests, but our olive oil is uniquely healthy. You see, unlike most olive oils on the market, it’s the real deal. That's why a study at the University of California found our olive oil to have the highest antioxidant content of any oil tested. The same study ranked Whole Food's olive oil near the bottom.How it's madeMade the traditional way with care on a family-owned estate, Beyond Health olive oil is unrefined and unadulterated with inferior oils. It’s what you might expect any high-quality olive oil to be. But here is what the consumer is up against. A 1996 study by the FDA found that 96% of the extra virgin olive oils tested had been adulterated with cheap, inferior oils. This means that 96% of the “qualit…

. . . the mind is far more powerful than most of us appreciateCan thoughts prolong life? Absolutely! In a 2002 study that followed more than 600 people for 23 years, researchers at Yale University found that having a positive attitude toward aging extended average lifespan for more than 7 years. This makes thoughts and expectations more powerful in extending life than other factors such as low blood pressure, low cholesterol, maintaining a healthy weight and regular exercise!It’s not that other factors aren’t important, but the mind is far more powerful than most of us appreciate. Every thought and every feeling has biochemical repercussions, some good and some bad. Not surprisingly, positive thoughts and emotions like joy, compassion, optimism, love, gratitude and a sense of purpose bolster both immunity and general health, while negative thoughts and feelings, like anger, envy, apathy, gloom and resentment do the opposite.But how can you maintain a positive and hopeful expectati…

. . . correcting a vitamin D deficiency may lift your winter depressionNewsclips readers already know that vitamin D is crucial to immunity and helps to prevent winter colds and the flu. You may also know that vitamin D deficiencies contribute to cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, neurological disease and many other health problems.But can vitamin D ward off winter blues?Also called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), the winter blues can make you feel lethargic, fatigued, unmotivated and depressed. You can crave carbohydrates and want to sleep all day.Clinical experience and preliminary scientific investigation have found that low levels of vitamin D correlate with a higher incidence of SAD, and that when patients with SAD and low blood levels supplement with vitamin D, their depressive symptoms improve.Since SAD is associated with lack of sunlight, our main source of vitamin D, and since vitamin D levels decline in the winter months, it is reasonable to hypothesize that vi…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® Newsby Raymond FrancisOverviewCholesterol does not cause heart disease. The French have the highest average cholesterol in Europe, around 250, but the lowest incidence of heart disease and half the heart attacks we have here in the U.S. In Crete, the home of the healthy Mediterranean diet, a 10-year study failed to find a single heart attack despite average cholesterol levels well over 200. There are as many heart attacks in people with cholesterol levels over 300 as those whose levels are under 200. Half of all heart attacks occur in people with normal cholesterol levels.Lowering cholesterol does not improve health outcomes. In those cases where cholesterol lowering drugs called statins appear to have had a beneficial effect, it is because they act as weak anti-inflammatories, and inflammation does cause heart disease. But there are much safer and more effective ways of addressing inflammation than using dangerous statin drugs.  Why then are more tha…

Introduction:The antibacterial triclosan has become ubiquitous in our environment, showing up in tap water, breast milk and in the body fluids of ¾ of those tested in the US. Initially used to prevent bacterial infections in hospitals, it’s now found in soaps, toothpastes, kitchen utensils, toys, bedding and anywhere else that manufacturers believe it will bolster the price of their products. Already shown to be an endocrine disrupter that prevents thyroid hormone from functioning normally, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that triclosan hinders muscle contractions at the cellular level by impairing the flow of calcium into and out of the cells.Experimentation:A series of experiments in this and other studies have exposed mice, fish, minnows and human cardiac and skeletal muscle tissue to concentrations of triclosan similar to what the average person is exposed to daily. Results were similar throughout: muscles failed to contract pr…

. . . you betcha!When Raymond Francis’ book Never Be Fat Again was published in 2007, it was the first weight loss book we know of to treat toxins as a significant cause of obesity. The connection between chemical toxins and weight gain had already been reported in the scientific literature but was still unknown to most of us. In 2006, Dr. Bruce Blumberg of the University of California at Irvine coined the term “obesogen” after discovering that a chemical used in wood preservatives could cause pregnant mice to have fat baby mice – effects which persisted throughout their lives. Obesogens are chemicals that alter metabolism in favor of fat accumulation or impact hunger leading to overeating.In a report for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy published this past July, Kathleen Schuler, MPH, reviewed recent research confirming the obesogenic nature of four common chemicals:Bisphenol A (BPA): Found in polycarbonate plastic (the kind of plastic used in large water bottles an…

Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, has a grim prognosis for our future: “Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise . . . [As antibiotics lose their effectiveness a] post-antibiotic era means, in effect, an end to modern medicine as we know it. Things as common as strep throat or a child’s scratched knee could once again kill. Some sophisticated interventions, like hip replacements, organ transplants, cancer chemotherapy, and care of preterm infants, would become far more difficult or even too dangerous to undertake.”Well, we aren’t as gloomy about a post-antibiotic era. For all the good they’ve done, antibiotics as we’ve known them have done a whole lot of damage to almost everyone’s intestinal probiotic population, harming immunity and paving the way for all kinds of disease. We need different kinds of antibiotics that don’t indiscriminately kill good and helpful microbes along with the bad, and that the bad bugs won’t build resistance to. Fortunately,…

More and more consumers have become worried about Bisphenol A, a hormone-disrupting chemical found in food packaging and cash register and credit card receipts. However, many products labeled "BPA-Free" contain alternatives that may not be any safer.BPA is a dangerous toxin, and almost all Americans have detectable levels in their bodies. Hormones work at very small dose levels. Amounts of BPA that are too small to detect by standard analytical methods may still cause damaging biological effects. Hundreds of studies have linked BPA with cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, low thyroid, reproductive issues and more. BPA exposure is especially risky during pregnancy and in early childhood. As a result, certain BPA applications have been banned by various state and local governments in the US, and businesses have begun offering BPA-free alternatives.But a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives last year found that of 455 plastic products tested, both BPA-containing and…

Product Overview Acetyl-L-carnitine maintains and improves brain function. It energizes and rejuvenates brain cells. It's been called "brain superfuel!" It improves learning ability, reaction time, accuracy, mental performance, verbal fluency, attention, memory, and even your mood! It facilitates repair of brain cells damaged by poor nutrition, stress, toxins and trauma. Many people report less confusion, brain fog, enhanced alertness and focus, and feeling mentally sharper within hours of taking it. It slows the rate of deterioration in Alzheimer's disease and significantly improves mental functioning in those who suffer from this illness. A host of scientific studies have shown that acetyl-l-carnitine prevents age-related cognitive decline through various mechanisms at dosages of 1-3 grams a day. A meta-analysis of 21 studies found a cumulative effect, suggesting that long-term use may provide the greatest benefit.Complimentary Supplements Because it's naturally found in th…

IntroductionLet’s face it. Even when the stress of the holidays end, stress continues to be a major aspect of modern life at any time of the year, and those who learn to deal with stress effectively enjoy a huge advantage. Developing resilience and stress-resistance, although no small feat, is possible by taking a pro-active approach to cultivating physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.A program of regular exercise is central to such an approach. Unfortunately, committing to regular exercise is challenging, and only a minority sticks with it over time. Maybe looking at the ways that exercise promotes stress-resistance will strengthen your resolve to begin a program of regular exercise or stick with one you’ve already begun.According to Timothy Church, exercise researcher and professor of preventive medicine at Louisiana State University, when you exercise, your nervous system makes a shift from the sympathetic mode (the stressful mode) to the parasympathetic mode (the restf…

“Hello all...I will be answering your questions regarding health and supplements. Please feel free to send any questions you may have to questions@beyondhealth.com. Over the upcoming months, I will try to answer as many of these as possible.”  Question: I am taking St. John’s Wort for depression. Are there any downsides to doing this?M.P. — Delray Beach, FLAnswer: St. John’s Wort has been well studied and it is effective in treating depression. Regarding downsides, the one you should be most concerned with, especially living in Florida, is it makes your skin more sensitive to the sun. So be careful of getting more than a little sun. It is also not good to take this herb with prescription drugs as it can interfere with their metabolism and make them even more toxic.Your best bet is to stop being depressed by getting on a good diet, getting off of sugar, taking our Basic Wellness Kit, getting adequate sunlight, and exercising. This will take care of most depression. Be…

Proposition 37, the initiative to label GMOs in processed food which will appear on the ballot in California on November 6th, has revealed which food companies are for and against labeling. . . . a pretty sound tip-off on who is using GM ingredients in their products! Many of the companies making large financial contributions to the Monsanto-led campaign against labeling are the usual suspects, but some may come as a surprise:Odwalla KashiNaked (juice company)SilkR.W. KnudsenHorizon OrganicCascadian FarmsSanta Cruz OrganicWell, not too surprising if you know that Odwalla is now owned by Coca Cola; Kashi by Kellogg; Naked by Pepsi; Horizon Organic and Silk by Dean, Cascadian Farms by General Mills, and R.W. Knudsen and Santa Cruz Organic by Smucker’s. Many “natural” brands have been snapped up by huge food conglomerates; what that has meant to the integrity of the brand is anyone’s guess, but it doesn’t bode well.Because money donated to support or defeat a proposition in…

. . . if a low-quality multi can make a difference, imagine what our multi could do!It always seems to make headlines when a multivitamin performs below expectations. There are, of course, lots of reasons why conventional multis might do this (I’ll get to that later), but two recent studies that failed to make headlines validated the benefit of taking even a conventional multi. Both doubled-blind, placebo-controlled (the gold-standard in science), the first found that taking a daily multi lowered cancer rates by 8% in male doctors; in the second, a daily multi helped older women improve their cognitive abilities.In the cancer study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), more than 14,000 male doctors over the age of 50 were given either a conventional multivitamin or a placebo, and their health was tracked for an average of 11 years. Risk for overall cancers was 8% lower in the group taking a multi, a statistically significant result.In the memor…