According to a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, approximately 10 percent of Americans are taking antidepressant medications.This means that over 31 million Americans are gobbling Prozac, Zoloft, Norpramin, Luvox, Paxil, and other antidepressant psychiatric drugs like M & M's. This drug use accounts for billions of dollars in pharmaceutical sales annually. Yet according to a landmark study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association say that antidepressant medications work - as well as placebos and not more. In other words, people in depression studies who are given sugar pills instead of antidepressant drugs do as well as the group who gets the drugs. Before you ask yourself whether you should simply take a Tic Tac instead of a Paxil, there is more disheartening news about these drugs. Many Americans are taking antidepressant medications instead of changing their own behavior or life circumstances. According to Maryland medical doctor Ronal…

The U.S. government is encouraging farmers to dump ash leftover from burning coal into their fields. The government sees this as a way to dispose of these toxic wastes. As usual, the government is not looking out for our health. According to the Wall Street Journal, about 130 million tons of ash and sludge are produced each year from burning coal, enough to fill one million railcars. This ash contains toxins such as arsenic, mercury, lead and other heavy metals. When used for farming, these metals will get into our food and poison us. Lead stays in soil for hundreds of years and accumulates in green produce. The results of such misguided policy, dumping toxic waste onto our food supply, will be even more disease and more cancer than we have now. This is just one more reason to purchase organic foods exclusively.…

ConsumerLab, in their latest testing of ginseng supplements, has found that five out of eleven ginseng supplements were contaminated with lead and/or pesticides. Ginseng has often been promoted for increasing vitality, and studies indicate that certain preparations may help prevent colds and flu or keep blood sugar levels down in people with diabetes. A range of other uses have also been suggested. But all is not well in the world of ginseng. Tod Cooperman, M.D., President of ConsumerLab.com said, "Consumers need to be wary of the quality of ginseng supplements … there is enormous variation in the amount of ginsenosides—key ginseng compounds— in marketed supplements." Consumers need to be aware of these problems, and unfortunately, problems with quality are not limited to ginseng. This is why BHN has always cautioned readers not to purchase supplements unless they are certain of the quality.…

Women who don’t breastfeed are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. A study in the September issue of the American Journal of Medicine concluded that mothers who did not breastfeed their children have significantly higher rates, twice the risk, of type 2 diabetes later in life than mothers who breastfed. This study is just one more argument for breastfeeding. Another problem is when women are not breastfeeding; they are feeding inappropriate food to the infant, causing obesity in the children. A recent study in American Journal of Medicine concluded that mothers who did not breastfeed their children have significantly higher rates, twice the risk, of type 2 diabetes later in life than mothers who breastfed. This study is just one more argument for breastfeeding. Another problem is when women are not breastfeeding; they are feeding inappropriate food to the infant, causing obesity in the children. A recent study in Nutrition & Dietetics found that mothers were feeding infan…

Share and Enjoy: . . . eat a healthy diet, and don't worry about phytosterols Phytosterols, also called plant sterols, are plant fats that are the counterpart of sterols found in animals, including humans. The most important animal sterol is cholesterol. Due to a similar, but slightly different, chemical structure, plant sterols compete with cholesterol for absorption in the intestine. Thus, they reduce the amount of cholesterol absorbed from the diet. They also appear to reduce cholesterol levels in other ways. Phytosterols do a lot more than lower cholesterol levels. They reduce inflammation, improve immunity, and control blood sugar in diabetes, among other things. So it's highly beneficial to include a lot of them in your diet. However, if you're eating a healthy diet -- 10-12 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, mostly raw, along with plenty of nuts, seeds, legumes, and healthy oils from avocados, flax oil, olive oil, coconut oil and Udo's Choice -- you will b…

Share and Enjoy: . . . BPA alternatives found to also have estrogenic effects 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 He…

. . . they’re drinking sugar-laden beverages instead Like everyone else, children need water.  For one thing, the immune system functions best when well-hydrated. Mild dehydration in children can also cause constipation and behavior changes, for example acting tired, dizzy or slow to respond. Most kids do get enough; the problem is they’re getting it in the form of fruit juice, soft drinks, energy drinks and sports drinks – all high in sugar, and most containing additional toxins as well. Sweetened drink consumption is on the rise. Soft drinks are the single largest contributor of calorie intake in the US today. About 50% of the added sugars in our diets come from sodas, sports and energy drinks, coffee beverages and fruit juice. A recent article in Pediatrics noted that energy and sports drinks are being heavily marketed to children; that energy drinks are inappropriate because they contain stimulants; and that sugary sports drinks should be avoided because they contribute to…

. . .  and most Americans get less than half the recommended amount  It seems like every day scientists discover more ways in which eating whole, unprocessed food prevents disease. For example researchers at the University of Illinois recently found that when they fed the fiber pectin (found in whole fruit, especially apples, citrus and plums) to mice, it greatly increased the mice’s ability to respond to an immune challenge. In other studies, getting adequate dietary fiber has been shown to lower cholesterol as well as the risk of heart disease, diabetes, diverticulosis and obesity, and to protect against cancer through a variety of mechanisms, including providing food for beneficial bacteria in the gut. In one study, women who increased their fiber intake to 30-35 grams a day and maintained it for a year reported 60% less constipation and 30% less heartburn. Yet the modern diet minimizes whole foods that provide fiber – fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, beans and legumes…

Everything you need to know about how to handle stress better and enjoy the holidays. The holidays are a time of stress in most American lives, from the child stressed over gifts from Santa to the adult worried about their ability to provide the looked forward to gifts. The additional costs of food, time off from work and additional stress from families getting together all take an added toll at this time of year. Every year Beyond Health publishes a few articles on the topic. This year we are dedicating this whole issue of the Beyond Health E-Magazine to getting through the holidays in a stress-free and healthy manor. Take the time to think about what causes you stress at this time of year before reading this issue and you will hopefully find an article or a couple of paragraphs speaking directly to you. Finally, don’t forget that a poor diet adds to both physical and mental stress in many ways, from elevated blood sugars, to excitotoxins keeping you awake and you…

Here’s another reason to unglue yourself from that computer and move your butt—prolonged sitting can lead to deadly blood clots! Although blood clots generally don’t become problematic until after the age of forty, a case report on a 32-year-old man is a cautionary tale. This relatively young man spent a good part of his life sitting at a computer terminal, both during the day at work and at home at night—all told about 12 hours most days and sometimes 18 hours a day. He would typically sit anywhere from 4½-6 hours at a time without getting up. One fine day he blacked out and found himself in the hospital with a potentially life-threatening venous thromboembolism (VTE). Fortunately he was given clot-busting drugs in time and survived. According to the American Heart Association, a VTE is a blood clot related to two life-threatening conditions: (1) deep vein thrombosis (DVT): a clot in a deep vein, usually in the leg; and (2) a pulmonary embolism (PE): a DVT clot that breaks…