REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Governments around the world are concerned by the catastrophic threat posed by the avian flu virus. Avian flu transmits from birds to humans, but not yet from humans-to-humans. However, virologists expect the virus to eventually mutate and pass among humans. Predicted is a catastrophe that could kill a billion people and turn some cities into ghost towns, causing worldwide disruptions of travel, trade, and food supplies. Unfortunately, our government’s response to this challenge is to spend seven billion dollars stockpiling worthless antibiotics and flu vaccine. The city of London is already acquiring extra morgue space to house the victims of this expected epidemic. Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s School of Public Health said, “I think we would see outcomes that would be virtually impossible to imagine.” Avian flu is killing about half the people it…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Why is educational performance so bad? One reason is American children are getting dumber. SAT scores have been declining for decades. In response, our educational establishment has progressively lowered standards and dumbed down achievement tests to avoid embarrassment, but the scores continue to drop anyway. Despite the fact that we are spending more money than ever before on education, numerous studies show a decline in cognitive ability—our ability to think and reason. For a country whose prosperity is founded on superior technology, these are ominous trends. Why are these things happening and what can we do about them? As our children continue to suffer problems with intelligence, learning, poor academic performance, behavior, violence, and suicide, some insights are being provided by the National Children’s Study into the causes of these problems. The study identified a number of common environmental chemicals that ca…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Spirit is the most powerful force in existence, yet few of us are using this power to heal. A woman once asked Thomas Edison, “What is electricity?’’ Edison replied, “Madame, electricity is. Use it.” The same can be said for spirit. It is, and we should use it—even if we don’t fully understand it. Fortunately, spirit is just as easy to use as electricity, and with it, spontaneous remission of disease is achievable. Most of us are familiar with the terms “body, mind and spirit.” In practice, however, our attention is mostly on the body, some on the mind and little if any on the spirit—hence we fail to take full advantage of the most powerful force in the universe. For most of human history, medicine and spirit were inseparable. Yet conventional allopathic medicine pays no attention to the body/spirit connection and fails to see the body as an energy system. In actuality, spirit is all there is, and if we are not actively…

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…

Have you ever won a stare-down with a tray of Christmas cookies?  You’ve probably heard that people gain an average of five to ten pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years. The good news is that the real average is more like one to two pounds. The bad news is that most of that weight is never lost. And people who are already overweight tend to gain pounds faster than normal-weight individuals do. Whether you are following the Beyond Health lifestyle to lose weight, or to get well and stay well, the next few months may challenge your resolve like no other time of year. The holiday season—for many now stretching from Halloween to the Superbowl—is a marathon of festive celebrations with friends and family that attempt to bring cheer to what might otherwise be a cold and gloomy time of year. The Challenge of Cheer It’s always harder to maintain your diet when you leave your house, but during the holidays, there is a whole lot of leaving the house. And the ten…

Question: I am taking St. John’s Wort for depression.  Are there any downsides to doing this?  M.P. — Delray Beach, FL Answer: 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 sure to read my article on depression at www.beyondhealth.com.…

Question: I heard you talk about thermography.  Could you tell me more about this, how it works, and how good it is?  N.F. — Kentfield, CA Answer: Thermography is a safe and effectivealternative to cancer-causing mammography.  It is a way of measuring the temperature of the breast and of detecting changes in temperature as a tumor begins to receive its own blood supply.  A cancerous tumor will be warmer than the surrounding tissue and will stand out when the temperature of the breast is measured.  Thermography appears to be a far more accurate way of detecting tumors and at a much earlier stage. According to the National Cancer Institute, in 95 percent of cases, a tumor found by mammography or physical examination is already eight years old and has had ample opportunity to metastasize.  Thermography, on the other hand, can find tumors two to three years before any other means of detection.  In addition, thermography can differentiate between a cancerous tumor and fibrocystic g…

. . . do eat the peel, but skip the seeds If you’re going to start eating an apple a day, which apple should you pick? In one Canadian study Red Delicious led the pack in number of antioxidants, but many varieties better known in the US weren’t included. Really, all apples are recommended, as long as they’re fresh, unwaxed and organic. Supermarket apples are often years old! So, as always, it’s best to buy your apples from the friendly farmer at your local Farmer’s Market. Apples in the northern hemisphere are best from late summer until early winter. Many of the ancient supermarket apples are waxed. Put them in attractive baskets to decorate your home if you wish, but by all means don’t eat them! Many of the healthy, antioxidant polyphenols in apples are formed in response to pests as a natural pesticide, so organic apples will have far more. Plus you won’t be getting the synthetic pesticides as well as fungicides and insecticides that bathe the poor non-organic apple. Hav…

Forget diets. Forget New Year's resolutions.  You are building a new you, from the ground up, one healthy habit at a time. You endured the election.  You made it through Thanksgiving.  And, for the sake of argument, let's assume that the world doesn't end on December 21. Now what? What do you want your life to look like in 2013?  What do you want to accomplish?  What new habits do you want to develop?  What old habits do you want to let go of? About 40% of us make New Year's resolutions, and often they're a long list of radical changes that are very hard to make and even harder to sustain.  That's why after one week 25% of people making resolutions have already abandoned them, and by July 54% have given up. HERE'S A SUGGESTION: Instead of making a huge list of New Year's resolutions and demanding of yourself that keep them all from day one, why not take a gradual approach?  The Beyond Health Lifestyle is not like a diet or exercise program; it is a way of life.  And cha…

. . . But most of us can't get raw almonds anymore! Most food-calorie charts list an ounce of almonds as 165-170 calories. But a new, and more accurate, way of measuring calories has found that almonds provide only 129 calories per ounce, about 24% less. Published last August in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, this study used a way of measuring calories that takes into account the rigid structure of cell membranes in almonds that apparently locks in some fats and keep them from being digested. This same factor may mean that other nuts and plant foods are lower in effective calories than we’ve assumed. Last year, the same lab found that pistachios provide 6% fewer calories than had been thought. The problem with almonds, however, is that it’s far healthier to eat them raw, since heat damages their essential fatty acids. But it’s become impossible for most of us to get raw almonds. Most US almonds are grown in California. In 2007, the Almond Board of California (ABC)…

. . . but have Monsanto et al. gone too far this time? A rider to a resolution that will fund the federal government through September 30 – critics call it the “Monsanto Protection Act” – is too much for even mainstream media like the New York Times and Bloomberg to stomach. This rider prevents federal courts from putting a stop to the sale and planting of genetically engineered (GE) food crops that the courts themselves have deemed possibly dangerous to public health while the USDA performs an environmental impact report. How could such a thing happen despite an avalanche of letters and emails from a public that opposed this rider? Well, as the Alliance for Natural Health points out, it has something to do with the nearly $90 million Monsanto and the agricultural industry contributed to political campaigns between 2011 and 2012. Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), who introduced the rider, alone received $243,000 from agribiz PACs in 2010. Food Democracy Now! reports that the rider is…

Question: What supplementation would you suggest for an athletic 11 year boy with asthma? — Internet Answer:You should pride yourself in recognizing that supplementation is needed for young athletes.I would recommend Beyond Health Multi-Vitamin, Cod Liver Oil, CoQ10, and vitamin C, D, and E. An active child should take additional Vitamin C to keep their immune system strong.I would recommend at least one tablet twice a day.To reverse inflammatory conditions (like asthma) we often recommend Vitamin C “to bowel tolerance.”Athletes also require extra antioxidants.CoQ10 is an antioxidant and would be beneficial to your son’s program.With his asthma, Beyond Health Vitamin E Formula and Cell Repair would also be excellent additions as they would bolster his immune system.As for Vitamin D, one multivitamin will give him 200 IU of Vitamin D and each teaspoon of Cod Liver Oil will give him additional 400 IU.A tablespoon plus the multivitamin would give him a substantial total of 1,400…

Question: I have celiac disease and I have been off of gluten for almost a year.  I have been very careful about avoiding gluten.  Unfortunately, I still have lots of symptoms and my doctor has no suggestions.  Do you have any suggestions? H. A. – Chapel Hill, NC Answer:   There exists today a pandemic of bowel disease that sometimes manifests as celiac disease (gluten intolerance).  As you are surely aware, celiac can be quite serious, but it is usually controlled by carefully avoiding the gluten found in grains such as wheat, rye, barley, and oats. There are many contributing factors to the development of celiac disease including our excessive consumption of wheat, our poor diets, and our consumption of chlorinated drinking water.  However, the most important cause of bowel diseases may be the irrational use of antibiotics by our physicians.  Antibiotics damage the natural balance of the bacteria in our digestive systems, causing overgrowth of abnormal flora, disrupting gut…

Question: I have cervical dysplasia.  Do you have any suggestions as to how I can help myself? B.T. – Tarrytown, NY Answer:   Cervical dysplasia is abnormal cells found in the cervix, usually leading to cervical cancer.  It can be caused by infection or physical trauma, but is usually the result of estrogen dominance.  As mentioned above, this can be caused by the excess estrogen you consume in meat and dairy products.  However, there is another reason for estrogen dominance – the consumption of environmental chemicals called xenoestrogens.  Xenoestrogens are chemicals that have a different chemical structure than estrogen, but they have the ability to attach to estrogen receptor sites on cells and provide an estrogen effect.  Xenoestrogens are everywhere in our environment, so you must make an effort to avoid them.  These include pesticides, phthalates and bisphenol-A. These xenoestrogens are fat-soluble molecules.  They build up in your body with time.  The best way to get r…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis A pandemic of chronic and degenerative disease is sweeping our country—diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, Alzheimer’s are all out of control. Even our children are sick, so sick that they are not expected to live as long as their parents and average life expectancy is expected to decrease. The largest single cause of this human tragedy is—malnutrition. In the best-fed country in the world, malnutrition is our leading cause of disease. Given the reality of today’s nutritionally- depleted foods, one of our biggest fallacies is the myth that you can get all the nutrients you need by eating a so called “balanced diet.” Foods no longer contain what we need for good health. Depleted soils, resulting from intensive farming, the use of artificial fertilizers, and poor crop rotation practices plus premature harvesting, long transit times to market, processing and other factors, have dramatically re…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Summer is here, the secret sauce recipes are out of the vault, and the neighbors think your house is on fire -- it's barbecue time! Oh, it tastes so good, but it's so bad for us. Here's the bottom line: Man was not intended to eat cooked foods. The hotter we cook food, the more nutrients are lost, and the more carcinogenic chemicals are produced. Grilling and blackening food literally converts some of the food to carcinogens, creating a real cancer-causing nightmare. If we go back to nature and see what is natural - cooking is not natural. Homo sapiens are the only creatures that cook their food. How this foolish practice began no one knows, but the act of cooking produces fundamental changes in the food. Cooked food is chemically different from raw food. And, like all the other creatures on earth, raw food is what we were designed to eat. Since not all of the essential nutrients necessary for good health have been disco…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Disease is a choice. And there is only one disease, malfunctioning cells. Cells will malfunction for only two reasons- they are not getting everything they need (deficiency) and/or they are getting something they do not need (toxicity). The Breakfast of Chumps manages to be both nutrient deficient and toxic and is a sure-fire pathway to disease. We all have been brought up with the myth that a healthy way to start the day is with a breakfast cereal. They come in a convenient box, are easy to prepare and are time efficient. Oh, if only they were good for us. Far from a "breakfast of champions," these products are the breakfast of chumps. Almost all breakfast cereals are second rate sources of nutrition, made from refined grains and loaded with toxic sugars, hydrogenated oils, and artificial vitamins, colors, flavors and preservatives. Providing both deficiency and toxicity, these products cause disease. Amazingly, some ce…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® News by Raymond Francis Following is a synopsis of the speech I presented at the New Millennium Conference in Egypt on the afternoon of January 1, 2000. As I was speaking, I could see the Great Pyramid through the window. What a fitting place it was to ponder the next 1000 years of human history, and to project the evolution of health and medicine in the coming centuries. I was reminded that it was in Egypt where man first created a great state, devised institutions to rule a widespread geographical area, organized the governmental machinery to administer large groups of people, and planned and executed the first epicscale projects. It was an awesome experience talking about the next millennium, while in direct view of 5000 years of human history. The millennium is a convenient way for us to measure what we call "time," but beyond that the millennium has no importance; it is an arbitrary human construct, with no meaning of its own. However, this…