CoQ10 is Proven to Decrease Migraines

A recent small study conducted at University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland has shown that taking Co-Q-10 100mg three times daily reduced migraine frequency.  I love it that again we find that a natural substance can help prevent a chronic problem that otherwise you might end up having to take medicine to prevent.

We Take This

Now don't expect to never have another migraine if you start taking Co-Q-10 faithfully; expect a decrease in how often you get those blasted headaches, and a decrease in how many days are ruined per month.  From someone who formerly suffered from migraines, I can tell you that having two headaches per month instead of four per month is a big deal.

The great news is that many migraine sufferers could also use the other health benefits offered by Co-Q-10.  Its benefits for the heart and other organs have been proclaimed far and wide.  While this study tested 100mg three times daily, you might benefit a little more from four times daily without any problem.

A Good Book

I firmly believe that migraines are made more likely by eating junk food.  With the New Year upon us, now would be a great time to begin to slowly change your diet in more natural ways.  One by one, you can eliminate junk items from your diet; you can start with these three.

This study gives migraneurs one more bullet for their gun in preventing and/or eliminating those terrible migraines from their life.  If taking Co-Q-10 with each meal caused you to skip two migraine attacks each month, how much happier would you be?
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Why I Don't Waste Time on Drug Reps (video)

Opened My Eyes

Two years ago I decided that I wasted more time talking to Drug Rep's (those pretty people in suits you always see in your doctor's office, who often get to cut line in front of you) than it was worth.  We started stopping them at the front desk; they could leave samples if they liked, but I would no longer spend any time talking to them.  We made this decision for several reasons, I'll let you in on the most important.

Generic Drugs -The list of generic medications keeps growing almost every day.  There are now so many available that I seldom write prescriptions for name-brand drugs.  The two times I might write the name-brand version of a pill is if the medicine was started by a specialist, or if the patient asks for name-brand.  There was a time when generics were unreliable; those days are long, long gone.  You can find more good info on generic medicines here.

Great Book

When patients ask for a name-brand there is usually a reason; either they just saw the TV commercial and were so persuaded by the paid actors that they will pay extra for this pill, even though the guy who is trained to make that decision (me) is sitting right there on his stool telling them the generic is just as good, or they had a friend recommend a certain pill and they are eager to give it a try, or they want the name-brand of something for its re-sale value...

I used to try to reason with such people but quickly realized that TV commercials and non-MD friends evidently seem to give more reliable medical advice that a silly doctor and so I just smile and write them the prescription (except for the re-sale folks).  Usually we get a call from the pharmacy in a couple of hours from a flustered pharmacist (and the patient still yelling in the background) who has just made it known that insurance will not cover the televised pill, and that it will cost the patient $256 every month to take said pill.  We quickly apologize for our error and change the medicine to the generic, and everyone is again happy.

Eye-Opening Book

Patient Time -More than once, out of the corner of my eye I would see some sweet older lady patient eye-balling me as I talked to the pretty Drug Rep who was eating into the patient's time.  For a few years I told myself that Drug Reps contributed to my on-going education and this inconvenience couldn't be helped.

The only place you will see pretty Drug Reps in my office today is at the front desk trying to con their way down my hall (and failing).  I would much rather help another patient or two in a days time than listen to the canned sales pitch from a Drug Rep.

Science vs. Cuteness - The more I thought about the seeming inconsistency of the attractive people who knew so much about medicine despite lacking an MD degree, the more it bothered me.  So I started doing a little research, read a book or three, and came to the obvious conclusion.

I thought back to my days of roaming the halls in the Biochemistry and Cell & Molecular Biology Labs and I remembered something; there were very few really cute people there, and none of them were well-dressed!  These Drug-Reps are trained and polished to appeal to my weaknesses as a doctor, to study me, take notes about me for their partners to use, and to trick me into making a decision that I might not have made otherwise.  In order for one to be a good doctor science has to win over cuteness every time.

Another Good Book

Appearance - The little old lady eye-balling me for letting the attractive Drug Rep cut in front of her was right.  This drug rep was only going to tell me what his/her company wanted me to know.  They would minimize any unfortunate findings in the research data.

Even though I was talking to the Drug Reps with the best of intentions, my patients were basically getting the message that I would rather spend my time talking to attractive, well-dressed Reps than to my patients.  That certainly is not true, and I don't want to give any such appearance to my patients.

What about the Free Samples - Times have changed.  In the past those free samples could actually help patients.  That was back in the days when Synthroid and Coumadin were brand new.  Both these and hundreds of other important drugs are now generic which means no samples are left.  Samples nowadays usually are for drugs that are very expensive and are of little more benefit than the generic equivalent.  Oh, and they no longer leave any Viagra samples, sorry.

So much money is spent on Drug Ads that different dosages of the same pill often cost the same amount; this should tell you how much the drug itself really costs.  For example, Viagra comes in 25, 50 and 100mg doses which all cost the same amount.  How is it possible that the 4x's greater dose of 100mg cost the same as 25mg?  It's because the chemical itself is relatively cheap; the multi-millions in Drug Ads, however, are anything but cheap.

Recently I found the video below, and I found it to be a little disturbing.  It was made by a former Drug Rep who has "come clean" about the tactics, strategy and truth-stretching that are common when drug companies communicate with doctors.  There is a whole science behind taking a college graduate and training them to walk and talk and act in such a way that doctors feel comfortable around them, and indeed, respect their advice.  This lady seems to be pulling out all the stops and I think this information is very important for everyone who trusts their doctor's advicer.

Another Disturbing Book

Watch this video, share it with friends, like it on FB, link to it every way you can.  This information need to get to as many of your friends and family members as possible so they don't waste another dime on pills that work no better than generic.  Nicely ask your own doctor to consider no longer seeing drug reps; I guarantee you he/she is already thinking about it and only needs some nudging (and maybe some eye-balling).

Those nice people in the expensive suits have a job to do.  It is not to make you healthier, it is not to make you feel better, it is not to make you less depressed; their job is to get your doctor to prescribe the pill their company makes in order to make their share-holders more money.  It doesn't get more simple than that.

Click the arrow to watch this disturbing video...

Click the arrow to watch this disturbing video...

Make no mistake, some patients are quite sick and need to take medicine, some need to take a lot of medicine in order to function at a level meaningful to them.  But we all need to remember that TV commercials are not there to educate us, they are there to sell a product.  In the case of this product (pills), the company needs a middle man (your doctor) to close the sale.  Taking a daily pill is a big commitment and should not be taken lightly.

Buy for Your Doctor

No doctor worth his stethoscope is going to be offended by a well-informed, curious patient asking questions, but you have to remember that most doctors have been doing this for a while and we are not (should not be) as easily tricked by the big multi-national pharma companies and their million-dollar commercials as the uninformed patient/consumer.  Email this article to your doctor and ask what he/she thinks...

Feel free to bring a list of questions you have for me, print info off a website, or even bring your friend who recommended the pill; I promise I will listen and together we will decide the best course.  It worries me when a doctor is offended by a patient who has been doing some of their own research; every patient should be very knowledgeable about their own condition and the medicine they might need.  But, if I'm trying to tell you you don't need a pill, or that a generic pill will do just fine, remember that I make the same amount whether or not you take the name-brand pill; since I don't see Drug Reps, I tend to focus on what is truly best for you and your pocketbook.  Trust your doctor, and if you don't trust your doctor, find a new one.
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5 Things You Can do to Prevent Knee Replacement

Knee replacement surgery is a scary prospect for most folks, and is very often not at all needed.  While it is true that knee replacement surgery has come a long way since its beginning, it is still a major surgical procedure with all of the risks that go along with major surgery.

I have come up with a list of 5 things that have either been shown scientifically to delay knee replacement surgery, or make lots of sense to educated people who study this area of medicine.  You will find the list below moves from completely safe and non-invasive to a little more invasive and more costly.

People who suffer from mild to moderate knee arthritis should be able to control their symptoms for years with 1-5 of this list.  We must admit, however, that some folks have severe knee arthritis and ultimately need to go see the knee surgeon to discuss the options he/she has to offer.  My goal with this list is not to say that no-one ever needs to have knee replacement surgery, but to be realistic and with some common-sense say that most folks don't need this surgery if they will just take charge of the care of their knee(s).

Highly Recommended

1. Neoprene Sleeve - This is so simple and affordable that you might not believe there is an actual medical study to back up its use.  We are not sure why it works but it seems to in the hundreds of patients I have given this recommendation, and a medical study seems to bear out this finding.

You should wear the sleeve anytime you will be on your feet; don't wear it while you are in bed.  To make sure the sleeve doesn't cut off your circulation, measure your knee with a tape and buy the sleeve that fits your measurement.

You can read the results of the medical study I am writing about HERE.

A Great Book

2. Eat non-inflammatory foods - I think that many of the cancerous and inflammatory conditions we suffer from in modern America are caused by the inflammatory nature of the junk-food we eat on a daily basis.  Real food comes from trees and gardens and lean animals and eggs.  A great way to think about this concept in eating is to pretend you are handing what you are about to eat to your great-great-great-great-grandmother; if she would look at you and say, "What the hell is this?!", then don't eat it, its probably not real food.  A great book that will make you smarter than the average doctor on this subject is The Paleo-Diet by Cordain.  Another great book about both the diet and the lifestyle of our ancestors that I really believe will improve your quality of life without drugs or surgery is The Primal Blueprint by Sisson.  Dr. Josh Axe has a great web-site here that talks about a healing, non-inflammatory diet.

A Great Book

3. Weight Loss - Although this one costs nothing and can be done with no doctor involved, I didn't put it first or many people would just quit reading at that point.  People find this one quite hard - I think - due to the fact they want to alter their diet a little bit and maybe exercise a tiny bit more and then have this really add up to big weight-loss.  Sorry, folks, it just doesn't work that way.  I do advocate making changes in the diet and your lifestyle slowly, but these changes have to ultimately be substantial and lasting for them to lead to meaningful weight-loss.

4. Walk - This is perhaps the most important, and misunderstood, point on my list.  I can't even estimate how many hundreds of times I have had a patient inform me - while I was trying to tell them about the benefits of walking - that their doctor told them not to walk.  I haven't tried to chase down every specialist who has supposedly given this advice, but the ones I have asked have told me they would NEVER tell a patient such a thing.  Somehow patients mis-hear their doctor tell them not to walk, but I think very, very few doctors ever tell their patients not to walk.

Now granted, the doctor may have said not to walk for a few weeks after a surgery or procedure, but as long-term advice, I can't imagine any doctor telling any patient not to walk; please let me know if you can find any evidence to the contrary.  Walking will NOT wear out the cartilage in the knee any sooner.  If anything, walking will stimulate the joint and increase the lubricating fluid in the knee.  If you, or your loved one, are completely sedentary, you may need to start with something as simple as walking 100 feet ever day.

A Very Good Book

You may need to start with walking from one end of the hallway in your home to the other end each day.  After two weeks of doing this every day, you can double the distance to 200 feet or 2-hallway laps.  I tell all my truck-driver patients to walk truck-laps; start with one lap around your truck each day, and then increase to 2 laps after two weeks of walking one lap.  After two more weeks increase to 3 truck-laps, and so-on adding an extra truck-lap every two weeks.

By doing this a truck-driver who is completely sedentary can become quite the walker in about six months time, all without over-doing it, over-stressing his heart, or increasing his risk of injury much at all.

5. NSAIDS - Let me say that I would rather you not take anti-inflammatoriesinflammatories to control their joint pain and stiffness.

NSAIDS (ibuprofen, naproxen, meloxicam, etodolac, indomethacin, sulindac, etc) have a long list of side effects and should only be used after all other avenues have been tried; but, in my opinion, they are still much less invasive and safer than knee replacement surgery.

A Very Good Book

6. Steroid Injections - This treatment is quite a bit more invasive than the other options on this page, and I would highly recommend you try 1-5 above first (and, in that order) before even thinking about a joint injection.  During my years of practice I have found knee injections, (with steroids) to be very safe and effective, with very little risk if performed correctly and not used too often.  I can find no research that proves steroid injections harm the knee joint if given no more often than every 3 months.

7. PRP Injections - This is a very new technique so I don't whole-heartedly endorse it.  An old Family Physician once wisely told me, "Don't ever be the first or last to try something."  And within that advice I can say that this new treatment looks very promising, and makes good medical sense, but we will just wait and see.  You can see the results of a medical study here, and read a good explanation about the procedure here.

Now there are some older orthopedic surgeons who will give steroid injections monthly or even weekly, but remember they are surgeons and if it damages the joint, then they get to replace it...  Many Family Physicians and some Internal Medicine doctors can give these steroid injections just as well, and much cheaper, than orthopedic surgeons can or will.  I personally give these injections in my office, but in many orthopedist offices, the assistant or nurse will give the actual injection into the knee...

It is my belief that thousands of people have needless knee replacement surgery every year.  The reasons they do this are many; it could be because their doctor misleads them, it may be because they just don't know about items 1-5 above, it might be because they are lazy and don't want to change their life in any meaningful way, or it could be a combination of all these reasons.  In any event, I would love to see all these thousands of patients take charge of their knee arthritis and manage it in such a way that they never need knee replacement surgery.
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Please, leave comments, sharing with me and the readers anything you have found that really helped you to control the pain and stiffness of your knee arthritis; I am always eager to learn.

If you have a buddy with a bum knee, you can email this article to him by clicking on the little email icon () just below...

"No, No; Eggs are Good for You!"

Rarely has a politician or a criminal gotten more bad press than has one of the best natural foods you can eat.  Every day I find myself correcting the wrong-assumption among patients that eggs are bad and should be avoided.  Patients will proudly proclaim their dietary success with, "I have cut way back on eggs!"  To this I try to remain calm and therapeutic, and gently explain how they have been deluded.

Study after study and even the Harvard School of Public Health have failed to show any link at all between egg consumption and heart disease, which is the proposed bad outcome from having high cholesterol.  But, somehow the Media has just not been able to educate the public concerning this great news...

Disturbing DVD

Chickens have been Turning Bugs into Breakfast for millennia! There is no more natural a way to get the protein, vitamins, minerals and fat that you need every day than to eat eggs.  But, while blindly buying eggs from the grocer in sexy little cartons with their own little egg-tattoos (EB) is better than nothing, there is a much better ways to get nutrition from eggs, and help your local economy.

Mother Earth News has a great article on the awesome value of properly raised chickens and the eggs they lay here; the chart of their findings is here.  M.E.N. wisely writes, "The conventional egg industry wants very much to deny that free-range/pastured eggs are better than eggs from birds kept in crowded, inhumane indoor conditions."   Don't be surprised that corporations would play fast and loose with word-definitions; they are in business to make a profit for their share-holders, not to make nutritious breakfast for your family.  The noble hen needs no help from corporate scientists, who tweak her genes and diet, she has been doing quite well a creating her eggs for millenia...  

Highly Recommended

The absolute best place to get your eggs is from your own back yard. By having a few hens (rooster optional) in your back yard you are suddenly a very powerful person. Like magic, you are now in control of your own food supply. You decide what goes into your chicks and thus what goes onto your family's plate. There is no longer a Multi-National Corporation between you and your food. Never forget; chickens make food, corporations make profit.

The next best place to get your eggs is from an elderly neighbor who loves their chickens and wants them to be happy; someone like my great grand-mother. She owned, cared for, and loved about forty "Dommi-necker" hens well into her 80's. She babied this flock and allowed them to roam happily on about 5 acres, and morning sunshine would rise over her depression-hardened face every time she sold a dozen precious eggs to a neighbor.

 Little did she know that she was handing that neighbor one of the best sources of protein and minerals on the planet; twelve little orbs of energized health-goodness. Her chicks ate about 75% bugs, grass and table-scraps, and 25% corn and layer-pellets.  Not only was her poultry-outfit humane to a fault, it was also the ideal nutritional setup, and a great example of how local economics can be quite powerful.

Eye-opening Book

We have a small flock of hens in our backyard and they require about 10 minutes of care daily (much of which can be automated), while providing us with about 5 dozen eggs weekly.  You can find many blogs about doing this yourself and I promise you it is lots of fun, very rewarding, and very easy for most anyone.  Many books will also give you everything you need to grow your own breakfast; you'll see one above and to the left.

So, please spread the word that eggs are good for you, and properly grown eggs are great for you.  Frankly, I'm getting hoarse from the lonely effort!
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Great Book!

Bladder Infections Can Be A Thing of The Past

I promise this article is not going to be about how to wipe or when to pee.  While researching for this article, I was amazed at how many doctors out there in Internet-land don't think women know how to wipe their own foo-feey (sp.)  Seriously Doctors, if she can navigate a computer around the Internet, she knows about the front-to-back thing, and to go pee-pee after sex!  Seriously...  Now, on to the info.

Bladder infections are a plague to some women.  I'm not talking about the occasional bladder infection every decade or so that all women get, I'm talking about the infection that some women seem to get almost monthly, or sometimes never seem to completely clear up.  This scenario is very rare in a man but all too common for many women.

Most of the reason for this gender difference is anatomy.  A average woman's urethra is much shorter than the average man's and so the bacteria just don't have as far to climb to the bladder.  Another probable reason is the difference in estrogen and progesterone levels.  The bad news is that bladder infections are much more common in women; the good news is, in all but rare cases, these bladder symptoms can be prevented with natural methods that are quite inexpensive and easy to take.

Probably the least expensive prevention is to increase your water intake.  Anytime your urine is concentrated, or you have only urinated a couple times during a day, you are at higher risk of getting a bladder infection.  Women with recurrent bladder infections often benefit from increasing water intake so that they are urinating no less often than every four hours.  Not every liquid works as well..

It is much more common for women who drink more than one soft drink daily to have recurrent bladder infections.  Drinking several soft drinks daily can also increase the risk of having something called Cystitis which, although it can feel exactly like a bladder infection, is inflammation of the bladder without infection.  Some doctors will talk about caffeine in relation to bladder infections, but I have not seen research supporting this.

It is quite likely that smoking increases the risk of bladder infection symptoms.  It is well known that smoking DOUBLES the risk of bladder cancer, due to chemicals which collect in the urine and irritate the bladder wall.  Please don't smoke, it is bad for your bladder and is a big waste of money...

Now, for you ladies who suffer from these recurrent bladder infections, here are a few things that I have seen have very good effects in my practice.  All of these pre-Doctor options are natural, safe and affordable.

Cranberry Compounds - The benefits of cranberries for the bladder have been known for many years, and shown in a recent study. There are several compounds within the cranberry that may have this positive effect; one is D-mannose, and the other is proanthocyanidins (word of the day!).  The best way to get these compounds is with fresh cranberries, however, they are hard to come by for some of us.  It seems logical to reach for the cranberry juice cocktail, but the juice is often low in these helpful compounds and too high in fructose and other sugars.  Better to take a Cranberry Extract product.

Vitamin C - This helpful vitamin tends to acidify the urine which is actually a good think in that it makes your bladder much less comfortable for those pesky bacteria.

Probiotics - I'm sorry to say this ladies, and you don't have to share this info with him, but the vaginal-urethral-anal area is home to quite an assortment of bacteria.  And, these bacteria will quite often, umm..., changes residences, if you know what I mean.  This is not a bad thing, indeed, it has been happening for thousands of years.  Problem is, with the wrong mix of bacteria are down there, this home-swapping from back to front, through no fault of your own, can lead to bladder infections.  This is where probiotics come to the rescue.  By taking a good quality Probiotic, you will keep your numbers of good bacteria so high, the bad ones will have no room to grow.  Trust me, this is a good
                             thing.  There are studies to back up the use of probiotics for bladder symptom prevention.

You can either consume daily helpings of yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi or real buttermilk; or you could take a good quality probiotic supplement daily.  I have personally seen scores of women whose bladder symptoms disappeared after starting probiotics.  Oh, and it wouldn't hurt your bladder symptoms a bit if He too probiotics also...

D-Mannose - This is another product that seems to work.  It is purified from cranberry extract and purports to be 10-50 times stronger, and seems to have a very rapid onset of action in the few women I know who have tried it.  It, like all of the products I talk about here, is safe for long-term use.

I don't recommend that all women take one of these products - except maybe the probiotics - but I do recommend them for women who have repeat episodes of bladder symptoms and have had enough.  If all of the above fail to fix your bladder symptoms, then you probably need to see your doctor for some testing and some good old antibiotics.
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Please comment on any other natural things you might have found that keep the bladder creepie-crawlies away.  You can easily e-mail this to your dear friend with the recurrent bladder issues by clicking on the little e-mail thingee  just below...

3 Things You Should Never Eat Again!

It's time to be grown-ups here and say, some of the things we eat on a daily basis are just NOT food.; they are not good for us, have no redeeming nutrition, and just should not be in the our cabinets and in our refrigerators.

 Very often, towards the end of a patient visit, the patient will say something like, "That's it, tomorrow I'm gonna quit smoking and eat only raw fruits and veggies, no exceptions!"  Now obviously this person is very motivated, but what do you think the chances are that this person will be able to make such drastic changes in their life, and make those changes stick?

Usually this patient-strategy is short-lived and they soon slip back into their old, destructive patterns.  There is really no benefit in making sudden, about-face changes to your lifestyle.  Any benefits to making drastic changes are usually minimal, and such quick changes can be very, very hard to maintain over the long haul. 

 Better, I think, is to make small changes over the course of a few months; each little change is something you can live with (or without), and really wont miss anyway.  After all, you didn't get to your present state of health overnight, it took you years.  Over the course of a few months, usually 3-6 months for most people, one can make remarkable, permanent changes in their diet and lifestyle.  So I want you to be motivated, no doubt, but you have to have some patience and staying power to really make changes that will count towards extending your healthy lifespan.

New Years Eve is a great time to make changes in your life, but remember these changes only help if you make them Permanent.  With that thought in mind, here are three "foods" I would encourage you to NEVER eat, or give to your children again.

They have no redeeming value at all, and only lead to worsening health.  You don't have to stop all three if you don't think you can make the change permanent; just remove one at a time from your families menu. These foods are so easy and cheap to make, and seem to even be pseudo-addictive to some people; Multi-National Corporations often make them, or make some of their ingredients.  Never forget, the only thing you can trust large corporations to make is a profit, not healthy food.  So here are three things you should never eat again:

Doughnuts

Doughnuts are usually fried in canola or some other unhealthy oil, full of white sugar and white flour and most all varieties contain trans fat. Store-bought doughnuts can have 35-40 percent trans-fat.

An average doughnut will give you about 200 to 300 calories, mostly from sugar, and almost no true nutrients.  Doughnuts may be the worst "food" in the world.

Never again should you view doughnuts as a breakfast food, especially for your kids, as  eating a doughnut is one of the worst ways to start off your day. It will expose you to unhealthy chemicals, throw off your blood sugar and won't stay with you so you'll be hungry again soon. You are better off making your kids a quick fruit/berry smoothie with the recipe here.  There is no reason to ever eat a doughnut again.

French Fries
Potatoes are NOT a vegetable!  Their simple sugars are rapidly converted to glucose that raises insulin levels and can devastate your health. But when potatoes are fried at high temperatures, bad things happen. 

Anything fried at a high temperature, can lead to formation of acrylamide, a harmful substance we are learning more about every day. <The acrylamide link is to the FDA's site on acrylamide; it is very interesting to note that they admit it has caused problems in animals and in humans, and the FDA has initiated a broad study into the substance, BUT, you should make no special effort to avoid it...  What???> 

In french fries we have a food that is basically empty-calories, fried in questionable oils at very high temperatures.  Home-grown potatoes (see this article) may contain many more vitamins and nutrients that the corporations chemically-treated potatoes; and when fried in Grape-seed or Coconut oil may actually be an acceptable food.  Fast food fries have no redeeming nutritional value whatsoever, and you should never eat them again.

Chips
Almost every chip you buy, and this includes corn chips, potato chips, tortilla chips, are high in trans-fat. Chips, like fries, subjected to high heat lead to those nasty chemicals like acrylamide that we discussed earlier.  The dangers of trans-fats, which almost all chips contain, are well known.  You won't find any meaningful vitamins, minerals or proteins in chips; they are another thing that you should never eat again.


Meaningful, long-lasting change in your life will only happen one step at a time.  Maybe you can't ban all three of these substances from you life at once, maybe you can only stop one at a time.  Either way, the whole key is to start; even the smallest positive change will help a little.

By removing these unhealthy things from your cabinets and your frig, you will be saving thousands of calories yearly and protecting your organs from some potentially noxious chemicals as well.  Not only will you be improving your own health, you will also be setting a valuable example for your little ones.


The path back to good health is open to you, will you take that first step?  Below you will find links to three books that would make great first steps towards re-claiming your health; or great gifts for someone who needs to...
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These 3 books are perfect for any age and any level of conditioning.  You start where you are, and improve from there...