A friend of ours recently took an over-the-counter medication for intestinal gas. The results were amazing, and not in a good way. Although she got minor relief, it was followed by a splitting headache, and that night she had horrible, violent nightmares. While we were still musing about the power of what we ingest to affect the body-mind, we noticed the cover of the new issue of The Intelligent Optimist. It announcedan article within on “Why taking supplements leads to enlightenment.” While we’ve noticed being happier and more clear-minded since cleaning up our diet and adopting a program of high-quality supplements, we were especially intrigued that this article’s author is a modern-day shaman. While he has academic credentials, Alberto Villoldo, PhD, reports spending thirty years in the high Andes and the Amazon, training with master shamans. Yet, as we read his article, we found him recommending a similar diet and many of the same supplements Beyond Health recommends. Alth…

Even though your bones serve as the scaffolding that supports your body, you might not give those all-important bones a second thought until something goes wrong with them. Nutritional imbalances can contribute to bone-thinning conditions such as osteopenia and osteoporosis, raising your risks for fractures and collapsed vertebrae.Fortunately, you can improve and maintain the health of your bones by feeding your bones with the nutrients they need most. Depending on your diet, lifestyle, and baseline health, you may get these nutrients from food or supplements as directed by your physician. Pay special attention to the following four vitamins and minerals.1. CalciumThe human body contains more calcium than it does any other mineral, with nearly all of this mineral residing in your bones. The more calcium your bones can absorb, the greater your bone density and the less trouble you may have with degenerative skeletal conditions such as osteoporosis.Most adults should get betw…

Use it or lose it. No where is this more true than with our joints. Joint stiffness, joint pain, and a loss of range of motion has less to do with age than it has to do with lack of use.Our lives often lead us to a lot of sitting, which means our joints are not moving. How often do we allow our ankles, our knees, our hips to go through a full range of motion? Probably not often enough.When we have joint stiffness, joint aches, and joint pain it takes much more effort to do the simplest of activities, discouraging us from doing the very thing that will make us feel better.How do we break this cycle and make our joints be the levers that spring us into the joys of a more active life? Here are 8 simple tips to reduce joint pain and joint stiffness and fuel a more active life with less pain and more excitement. With each of these suggestions, make little improvements at a time. Gradual improvements allow our muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones to strengthen as they t…