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…

. . . more you can do on the above issue S. 1310 is currently "in committee." It is standard practice that when bills are introduced in either the Senate or the House of Representatives they are sent to a special committee made up of Senators (or Representatives) to study the bill and then come back to the whole group with recommendations. Since the committees receive hundreds of bills, many bills never get reviewed. Instead they "die in committee," and need to be reintroduced the following year. S. 1310 has been sent to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. If any of your state senators sit on this Committee, contact them and let them know of your opposition.  The members of the Committee are: Alaska - Lisa Murkowski (R) Arizona - John McCain (R) Colorado - Michael Bennet (D) Connecticut - Richard Blumenthal (D) (co-sponsor of S. 1310) Georgia - Johnny Isakson (R) Illinois - Mark Kirk (R) Iowa - Tom Harkin (D), Chairman of the Commit…

. . .slow cooking at lower heat is best Holidays are times when everyone breaks a few rules. However, you can minimize damage with these 5 tips for a healthier thanksgiving meal. 1. Choose organic turkey. Organic turkeys are usually more delicious than conventional birds, and they're free of pesticides and hormones. They're given antibiotics only when sick rather than as a standard practice, to stimulate growth and compensate for unsanitary living conditions. 2. Use low temperature cooking. Cooking at high temperatures saves time, but high temperatures (over 370 degrees Fahrenheit) create excessive toxic chemical reactions. It's best to preheat your oven to 325 degrees and cook the bird at this temperature until the stuffing reaches 165 degrees (at this temperature any harmful bacteria have been killed) and the meat in the inner thigh is 180 degrees. 3. Make a healthy stuffing. If you need to be strict in food combining, "stuff" with a quartered, peeled yellow onion; a bunc…

. . . cancer-causing fumes There's a good reason why many people get headaches when they stand near tumble dryer vents. Prof. Anne Steinemann, a pollution expert at the University of Washington, led research that analyzed fumes emitted from clothes dryers drying clothes washed using scented detergents, with added scented dryer sheets. The researchers found more than 25 volatile organic compounds including 7 hazardous pollutants -- 2 of them, acetaldehyde and benzene, carcinogens. Steinemann pointed out that such toxins are health hazards not only for people living in homes where scented detergents and dryer sheets are used, but chemicals from these products get into public air and go down the drain into public waterways. Acetaldehyde is a toxic emission from automobiles. Steinemann and her group estimated that acetaldehyde emissions from the top five brands of scented laundry detergents would equal about 6% of automobile emissions in the Seattle area. Non-toxic laundry deterge…

. . . You're on your own for now! You might be wondering how it's possible that dangerous chemicals are allowed in common personal care products. It's because our laws in this area were written before "better living through chemistry" had shown its darker side, and they've never been brought up to date. As a result, manufacturers can introduce and include any chemicals they like in their products without safety tests. It's left up to the public to prove the chemicals are harmful through the courts. This is next to impossible when you're dealing with a slow erosion in health caused by hundreds of different toxins working together. Two new laws, the Safe Chemicals Act and the Safe Cosmetics Act, were proposed this past spring to remedy the situation. They embody the "precautionary principle" of not allowing synthetic chemicals into general use until they've already been proven to be safe.…

. . . it can be challenging How about products that say they're "hypoallergenic," "natural," "herbal" or even "organic?" Sorry, but because this market is unregulated, such product descriptions are meaningless. How about buying products at the health food store? Sorry again, but genuinely non-toxic products are relatively rare, and most health food store products don't pass the test. Now manufacturers do have to list all ingredients on the bottle, so you can become an expert on the particular ingredients to avoid. I've written about many of these in prior Newsclips, and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has done an excellent job in making educational materials about common toxins available on their website. (Also see, "Is Your Bodycare Toxic" by the EWG, at www.shareguide.com/bodycare.html.) However, manufacturers don't have to list unintentional ingredients, i.e., impurities. For example, a Canadian study recently found heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, lead and others)…

 . . . many don't remove enough to meet current standards I firmly believe that our Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration System is the best bargain in home filtration systems available. Yes, there are cheaper ways to purify water, but do you really get a pure, safe product? A recent article in The Chicago Tribune reported that many popular pitchers with built-in filters, including Brita and PUR, don't reduce lead enough to meet current standards. If you purchased one of these pitchers before 2007, it may have been sold as reducing lead, but that was before industry standards required that filters remove lead particles as well as dissolved lead. The water pitcher type filters simply can't do this. Certification now requires that a filter take water with 150 parts per billion (ppb) of lead and reduce it to 10 ppb or less. Our Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration System not only meets these certification requirements, but greatly exceeds them. The two causes of disease are nutritio…

. . . they do permanent damage and are devastating our health We have more bacteria and other microflora in our bodies than we have cells, and our health is totally dependent upon them. Yet antibiotics devastate these populations and, in the process, devastate our health. I've been talking about this for the past 25 years. Now an establishment doctor, Martin J. Blaser, MD, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at NYU School of Medicine, has come to similar conclusions. In a news making commentary in the journal Nature, Blaser states that although concerns about antibiotics have been centered on bacterial resistance, there is a much worse problem in the "permanent changes to our protective flora." He has urged the medical community to curtail use of broad-spectrum antibiotics which kill both good and bad bacteria, citing findings that some of the beneficial bacteria may never recover, and that this may lead to increases in infections and other diseases, specifically obesity, alle…

Q: Hello, I am looking for information about breastfeeding.  I am  trying to get pregnant now.  I breastfed my first child for 6 months but my milk dried up and I don't want that to happen again.  I was aiming to breastfeed for 2 years. A: Thank you for your question. I would like to direct you to an article that Raymond wrote on breastfeeding. “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,…

. . . it prevents celiac disease Celiac disease is an extreme autoimmune response to gluten (found in wheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut and triticale) resulting in degradation of the intestinal wall. This greatly impairs absorption of nutrients. Celiac disease now affects 1% of the population (its incidence has been growing rapidly) and has a genetic component.  Spanish researchers studied 75 newborn babies over the first 4 months of life. They were classified according to genetic predisposition to celiac disease (high or low) and whether they were breastfed or bottle fed. The researchers found that among those genetically predisposed to get celiac disease, certain gut microflora tended to predominate; however microflora in those who were breastfed were more like the microflora found in the babies with a low genetic predisposition.  In other words, although the babies will be followed to see who actually gets celiac disease, breastfeeding appeared to be protective against it. …

David from rockstarreviews.com, reviews Raymond Francis’ book, Never Be Sick Again. David explains the basis of Raymond’s Beyond Health System. There is one disease, cellular malfunction, two causes and six pathways. David enjoys the section where Raymond opens up and tells his own story of disease and how he changed his life. The book takes readers “outside the box of traditional medicine.”  Watch the full review to hear more about Raymond’s simple to understand guide to health.…

. . . Essential fatty acids in a balanced formula  I met Udo Erasmus early in my search to regain my own health and admired him right from the start as a man of vision and integrity. Like me, he had a background in science, lost his own health and turned to the study of nutrition to help himself. His research led him into the world of edible fats and oils, and his book, Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill, became an instant classic. Having observed that the health benefits of most oils were being destroyed by processing, he pioneered new techniques for packaging edible, fresh oils that excluded the three main factors which destroy most oils: light, heat and oxygen.  It was Udo who taught me about the importance of balancing omega 3 with omega 6 fatty acids to prevent chronic inflammation, a factor in just about every chronic disease. His blended oil, Udo's Choice, combines several different seed oils in a perfect balance of fatty acids, weighted more towards the anti-inflammatory omeg…

. . .  formaldehyde and styrene join the government's list of known or suspected carcinogens Plastic and Styrofoam cups and containers aren't just bad for the environment -- they're bad for us. A new report from the National Toxicology Program of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services has named two chemicals commonly found in such containers, formaldehyde and styrene, as known or suspected carcinogens. As you might expect, the chemical industry as well as the American Cancer Society urged the public not to worry about "insignificant" exposures to these chemicals from cups and containers. What such advice always ignores is that we're being bombarded with chemicals at every turn. A little bit here, a little bit there . . . it all adds up to a significant problem. Avoid foods and beverages in plastic containers. National Toxicology Program, Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Report on Carcinogens, 12th Edition, 2011. …

. . . or taking good care of your nerve cells?  Alzheimer's disease has become an epidemic. Many people today fear losing their mental capacity more than they fear having a heart attack or getting a cancer diagnosis. One in eight individuals aged 65 and under now has Alzheimer's. For those aged 85 and older, it's one in two! Bad as this is, if the epidemic continues to grow at its current rate, the number of people in the U.S. with Alzheimer's could triple by the year 2050! Though these odds are alarming, Alzheimer's is easy to prevent. In fact in healthy cultures in the past, it didn't exist. The risk factors for getting Alzheimer's are familiar to anyone who's read my books: poor diet, nutritional deficiency, toxins, stress, free radical damage, chronic inflammation, blood sugar disregulation and insulin resistance (from eating sugar and other refined carbohydrates), excess body weight, stress, not enough exercise, particular prescription drugs, excessive use of salt and dehydr…

. . . it's a lot more than just empty calories For decades I've been calling refined sugar a deadly, metabolic poison that should be outlawed like cocaine or at least made a controlled substance like alcohol so that children will not be allowed to purchase products containing sugar. At long last someone in the medical establishment has come to the same conclusion! Dr. Robert Lustig is a professor of pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine (one of the highest-rated medical schools in the country), where he also directs the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Program. In May of 2009, he gave a 90-minute lecture that's still alive and well on YouTube called, "Sugar: The Bitter Truth." Last year at around this time, Gary Taubes reported in the New York Times that it had been viewed well over 800,000 times at a rate of about 50,000 a month. In this lecture, and in a new study written in collaboration with two colleagues at UCSF, L…

Question: In your books, you recommend avoiding all sweetners other than stevia, primarily because of their effect on blood glucose/insulin levels.  However, many holisitic practitioners allow xylitol (a sugar alcohol) as well as stevia.  Xylitol is even an incredient in my vitamin D supplement, and I've heard that xylitol is helpful in combatting yeast.  I am led to understand that these sugar alcohols have minimal effect on blood sugar and insulin release and have no side effects.  Is there any other reason why a cancer patient should avoid sugar alcohols, such as xylitol and erythritol? Also, I have read that cancer patients should avoid oranges.  Why is that?  -- LP, Internet Answer:  We are wary of xylitol, erythritol and the other sugar alcohols. Whereas they don't appear to cause rapid elevations of blood sugar, whether they are safe for long-term daily consumption is unknown. I don't know why a website on combating cancer would single out oranges; all fruits contain sugar…

REPRINTED FROM BEYOND HEALTH® Newsby Raymond Francis"Never doubt the power of small groups to change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, Anthropologist 1901 – 1978 The future of our nation as a world leader is at risk. This threat comes not from hostile countries or from organized terrorists; it comes from us. By making uninformed choices regarding our health, both our physical and mental health is deteriorating. A sick and mentally incompetent America cannot continue to supply the kind of political, economic, and technological world leadership that has been such a boon to mankind for more than half a century. The solution to this problem is to teach people how to maintain health. Health education, using cutting-edge technology, will put the responsibility for health where it belongs—with the individual. Pick a city, and it is almost a sure bet that the area's largest private employer is the hospitals, medical centers, doctors, and diagnostic laborato…