VR Columns
Back Talk with Doug Crabtree
THIS MONTH:Doug Crabtree and his wife, Anna Jones-Crabtree, own and operate Vilicus Farms, a diverse organic dryland crop farm north of Havre, MT, near the Canadian border. They grow 12 to 15 crops annually in a five-year rotation of grains, legumes, broadleaves, pulses and oilseeds. Doug also serves as organic certification program manager for the ...
The First Herbal Extract? Prehistoric Tea
Popular medicinal teas for modern health.Tea, Camellia sinenesis, is the most popular beverage in the world (excluding water), and most likely, some form of tea was the world’s first herbal extract.1 Soaking dried camellia plants in hot water releases compounds that can have systemic effects, from stimulating caffeine, to cancer preventing polyphenols, to the calming ...
Medicinal Mushrooms
For over 2,000 years, mushrooms have been used as medicines. In fact, in September of 1991, a 5,300-year-old mummy in the Tyrolean Alps, was found along with his medicine kit that contained Piptoporus betulinus, a mushroom he probably used as a natural wormkiller and laxative.1 Edible mushroom extracts, especially those used in Chinese and Japanese ...
Metabolic Syndrome: Watch Your Waistline
According to the American Heart Association, metabolic syndrome has become common in the United States. Approximately 20-25 percent of adult Americans are estimated to have it.1 This syndrome is associated with central obesity (fat in the abdominal area) and insulin resistance. Obesity contributes to high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, low HDL or “good” cholesterol ...
Back Talk with Fraser Kershaw
Fraser Kershaw is the founder of Water Works, a charitable organization with the goal to provide clean, safe drinking water to people in third-world nations. He is also the host of the new film, Behind the Water, and works alongside medical teams, as well as on-air with international film crews. In order to maintain their ...
High Homocysteine Levels and Nutraceutical Treatment
Dean of Academics, Huntington College of Health SciencesHomocysteine is a byproduct of normal protein metabolism. It is formed from the conversion of the amino acid methionine. Since high levels of homocysteine is not a good thing for our health, the body has a built-in mechanism to partially convert it back into methionine and other beneficial, ...
The River of Inflammation
There is no doubt about it, inflammation can be a pain. But surprisingly, sometimes it is not a pain at all, hiding away in our body, silent but damaging. Regardless, unchecked inflammation is a force with lethal potential.There are two types of inflammation. Acute inflammation is a quickly resolved, normal reaction to disease or trauma. ...
Omega-9 Fatty Acids
If you want to learn about omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, there is a plethora of information available on the web and through other resources. Omega-9 fatty acids, however, are far less commonly discussed, despite the fact that research has demonstrated their benefit in promoting cardiovascular health, reducing the risk of diabetes and certain cancers, ...
Thyroid Condition: More Common Than You Think
According to Thyroid.org, more than 12 percent of the U.S. population will develop a thyroid condition during their lifetime. An estimated 20 million Americans have some form of thyroid disease. Up to 60 percent of those with thyroid disease are unaware of their condition. And women are five to eight times more likely than men ...
Antioxidants & ORAC
It seems like whenever we open our emails, there is a new antioxidant “flavor of the week.” Indeed, over the past few decades the choices for nutraceutical antioxidants have increased exponentially, as have the number of articles written about those nutraceuticals. In fact, I’ve written a number of them in previous issues of Vitamin Retailer ...
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