How the Cardiovascular System Works: Basic Anatomy The cardiovascular system includes the heart and blood vessels (arteries, veins, and capillaries). The cardiovascular system is really a pump (heart) with a system of hoses (blood vessels). The blood vessels leaving the heart are called arteries. The blood vessels bringing blood back to the heart are called [...]
Antioxidants are a requirement for health. Oxidation is breakdown of tissues. When fat is oxidized, we say it goes rancid. When iron oxidizes, it rusts. When your apple oxidizes, it turns brown. When people oxidize, they age, get sick, and eventually die. We are exposed to a lot of toxins from our environment and foods that causes oxidation of tissues. Our own [...]
Lacto-fermentation allows us to more easily digest many foods. If one looks at the digestive systems of herbivores, you will find multiple stomachs able to hold and ferment difficult-to-digest plant foods. This allows the ruminants (cows, goats, etc) to live off of grass where we cannot. We can imitate this process by fermenting our food before we even [...]
Ingredients: Fresh Whole milk (preferably raw, never ultrapasteurized) A good organic plain commercial yogurt with live cultures (7 Stars, Stonyfield, Brown Cow) Equipment: Glass Jars (wide-mouth quart mason jars work very well) Stainless steel or glass pot large enough to hold all of the milk Candy thermometer (needs to reach to 150 degrees F and [...]
Vitamin D (cholecalciferol) has been described as a vitamin, but it actually has more characteristics of a hormone than a vitamin. For instance, you make your own Vitamin D in your skin when exposed to ultraviolet light as from the sun. Vitamin D is made from cholesterol just like your sex hormones and stress hormones. There are receptors [...]
Since the threat of a serious influenza epidemic is again in the news and on our minds, people are asking for ways to keep from getting the flu. The advice from public health officials is to wash your hands often and stay home if you feel sick. While these measures are useful, they focus only on [...]
Statistics: In a 2006 study, almost 25% of people surveyed reported insufficient rest or sleep for 14 or more days out of every month. Over 10% reported getting insufficient rest or sleep every day. The Centers for Disease Control estimate that 50-70 million people in the United States have chronic sleep disorders.1 I see lots of people in my [...]
Cholesterol, as most of you know by now, is blamed for causing heart disease. It seems obvious that this must be the case, after all, isn’t heart disease caused by collecting plaques made of cholesterol? And don’t people who eat lots of cholesterol-containing foods get heart disease more often? This is certainly what we have been led to [...]
Hypothyroidism affects around 0.9% of men and 4.8% of women over 20 years-of-age with an additional 0.4% of males and 0.9% of females having undiagnosed hypothyroidism. Many people have mild or subclinical hypothyroidism and have no idea. 1 There is a bit of controversy surrounding optimal lab values. As with most things, some people who have a “normal” [...]
