Vitamins and Herbs for Strong, Healthy Hair

If your hair is not as thick and shiny as you'd like, Danna Norek says that several vitamins and herbs can help you have strong, health hair you desire.

Men and women alike desire thick, healthy and shiny hair. Chances are people who possess all of these traits are supplementing with certain vitamins and herbs, or eat a diet that feeds their hair these nutrients on a daily basis. Hair is not just an extension of our bodies. It has become a symbol of beauty, health and status. In order to get the coveted body, bounce and sheen you desire there are certain nutrients you should be concentrating on putting in your body. Read more

Reverse Gray Hair and the Aging Process with He Shou Wu

Learn how to reverse gray hair and the aging process with the herb He Shoul Wu, aka Fo-Ti Root.

Magnesium Deficiency: Is It Hurting Your Health?

Margaret Durst reveals how an often overlooked, but easily corrected, deficiency could be hurting your health.

Magnesium is a mineral that is often overlooked, particularly in terms of bone health. Conventional thought considers calcium the most important mineral for bone health. However, the United States has one of the highest intakes of dietary calcium and still suffers one of the highest rates of osteoporosis in the world.

Most people at risk for osteoporosis tend to be deficient in magnesium and tend to have diets low in magnesium and/or high in factors that deplete bone mineral stores. Dietary changes that include magnesium rich foods such as dark greens, raw almonds and pinto beans while limiting bone depleting items such as sodas, caffeine and sugar help to restore balance to the body’s mineral stores. Magnesium supplementation that does not include calcium for a short time (30 to 60 days) is also helpful. Read more

What Is Inflammation?

Mark Sisson explains what inflammation is and eleven ways we induce it in our bodies.

Inflammation is one of those words that people use without really thinking about its actual meaning. So today we’re going to take a bit of a break from the blood lipid series to cover inflammation. In later posts, I’ll dig deeper into how the inflammatory response works with stuff like exercise and heart disease, but for now, I’ll just get the basics out there.

Existence is suffering, according to certain schools of thought. I don’t know that I’d go quite that far, but I would emphatically state that anyone who spends a modicum of sentient time in the space time continuum we call existence is gonna experience some unpleasantness. A bump on the knee, a bacterial infection, an acute injury, a persistent illness, a death of a loved one, a broken heart. It’s a big and often angry world that doesn’t necessarily care about you, and something’s gotta give. When that happens and the sanctity of our bodies is interrupted by pain, injury, or illness, our bodies respond with inflammation. Read more

Make Your Own Natural Antibiotics

Learn how to make your own colloidal silver, a natural antibiotic.

3 Natural Ways to Avoid the Winter Blues

Winter, especially if you live in a cold climate, is often a time when people feel "blue" or get depressed. Your choices are not putting up with it or taking drugs - legal or illegal. Natural remedies can help you avoid winter depression.

If you live in the upper reaches of the Northern Hemisphere, winter can often mean a seemingly interminable period of cold weather and short days. For many, the lack of sunshine, combined with life stress factors, can lead to depression.

Often people fail to recognize depression for what it is, treating it as a weakness or personality flaw rather than an illness. A "suck it up and get on with it" attitude often keeps people from labeling themselves as depressed, but this approach is counterproductive; failing to treat the disease only prolongs it.

Some of the signs of depression include: difficulty concentrating; persistent sadness or anxiety; inability to experience ordinary pleasure and enjoyment; irritability; change in appetite; ongoing fatigue and feelings of hopelessness. Learn how to cope with dark days naturally, without recourse to pharmaceutical anti-depressants which can cause serious side-effects ranging from nausea to reduced sex drive. Read more

12 Ways Sugar Consumption Accelerates Aging

It's sad but true: sugar consumption accelerates aging. Find out why.

The largest source of calories for individuals living in industrialized nations comes from sugar. Sugar increases insulin levels which promote fat accumulation and inflammation throughout the body. Sugar consumption and elevated insulin accelerate the aging process and create an environment conducive to degenerative disease.

The chemistry of sugar is based on the number of carbohydrates and includes monosaccharides, disaccharides and oligosaccharides. The most important monosaccharides are glucose, dextrose, and fructose. The primary difference in these deals with the way they are digested and metabolized. Glucose and dextrose are basically the same form of sugar. Many sugars can be identified by their characteristic "ose" ending.

Many of these sugars also combine to form complex sugars such as sucrose. Sucrose, typical table sugar, is a disaccharide (2 sugar forms) that is half glucose and half fructose. Meanwhile, high fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose and 45% glucose. Read more