Published December 3, 2008

Watch out for heavy metals in all Asian herbs — not just China’s

You probably already know about contaminated Chinese health products. Now you have to worry about Indian medicines as well.

An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association has bad news about Ayurvedic medicines. It says about 20% of these medicines sold on the Internet contain contaminates. They contain undesirable levels of lead, mercury, and/or arsenic.

Ayurvedic medicine is an ancient Indian art of healing. It centers on herbs. So it’s really sad to see that these herbs on the market are contaminated.

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Published November 27, 2008

How these heartburn drugs can cripple you

If you have heartburn, conventional medicine told you for years to reach for an antacid. That all changed, though, with the discovery of the proton pump inhibitor. Now, these drugs are the most frequently advertised medications on television.

As the name implies, they work by inhibiting the body’s ability to pump protons. Since this is how the body makes stomach acid, these pills eliminate the production of stomach acid. This is how they relieve heartburn. The most common proton pump inhibitors (PPI) are Prevacid^®, Protonix^®, Aciphex^®, Prilosec^®, and Nexium^®.

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Published November 26, 2008

Reduce pain and fight heart disease with one supplement

When I was in medical school, the professors taught that American natives had a genetic resistance to vascular disease. At that time, heart disease among these peoples was still uncommon. Not so anymore. It is more than rampant. A recent study found out why.

For eons, the Alaskan Eskimos ate out of the sea. Until recently, like other Native Americans, they didn’t get heart disease. This study followed 686 Eskimos over the age of 35. The researchers found that a high intake of omega-3 fatty acids reduced the thickness of their carotid arteries.

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