Herbs That Promote Prostate Health

What do these well-known men all have in common?  Actor Bill Bixby, poet Robert Frost, novelist Langston Hughes, 1960s counterculture icon Timothy Leary, poet Pablo Neruda, actor Jerry Orbach, Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling, guitarist Johnny Ramone, actor Telly Savalas, Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and musician Frank Zappa.  Yes, they all died from prostate cancer.
Although cancer of the prostate is certainly not a new disease (though until recent years was rarely openly discussed), many specialists in this field note what they believe to be a sharp increase in incidence of this often-deadly illness.  Read more . . .

Herbs That Boost Testosterone

From the time of birth, testosterone plays a key role in the development of male reproductive tissues such as the testis and prostate, as well as contributes to behavioral patterns and sense of individuality.  In adolescence, testosterone is responsible for promoting secondary sexual characteristics such as increased muscle, bone mass, penis and gonad size, sperm development, facial and pubic hair, a deeper voice, and of course, sex drive.  Read more . . .

Kosher, Iodized, Sea: What's the Salty Difference?

“Kosher” salt, (a term recognized as primarily American in usage), is a variety of edible salt with a much larger grain size than that of most common table salt.  Like common table salt, kosher salt consists of the chemical compound sodium chloride, but unlike table salt, kosher salt typically contains no additives such as iodine–although some brands include anti-clumping agents in small amounts. (The Salt Institute, located in Alexandria, VA, claims "Kosher salt contains no additives".)  Read more . . .

Herbs That Promote Ear Health

A middle-ear infection is one of the most common and troublesome childhood health issues, and is often a baby’s first significant illness.  Often seeming to establish a life-long trend, chronic ear infections can plague many individuals, leading to a near-endless succession of doctor visits and medications.  With ear illness and hearing problems exacerbated by exposure to loud noises, high fever, nerve damage, infection, drug use, and smoking, more and more herbalists, nutritionists, and medical specialists are advocating the use of particular herbs known to cure common ear ailments, maintain good ear health, and prevent or reduce the progression of hearing loss.  Read more . . .

Herbs That Promote Eye Health

For at least 2000 years, various herbs have been utilized throughout the world to promote eye health–consumed regularly to prevent failing eyesight, and prepared as topical infusions to treat everything from common eye strain to glaucoma.  While there is little modern evidence to support many of the documented and anecdotal claims concerning some of these traditional herbal remedies, others have gained considerable supported from the medical community in recent years, scientifically recognized as containing healthful substances that can indeed prevent or treat eye ailments, and support overall eye health.  Read more . . .

Erectile Dysfunction: Current Options and Answers

As most adults are aware, treatment for men unable to achieve a natural erection took a giant step forward when the first oral erectile dysfunction (ED) medication, Viagra, hit the market in 1998.  Easy to use, fast-acting, and predictable, Viagra–and now a whole host of similar drugs–has added an entirely new dimension to the sex lives of the many men who’d thought that sex would have to remain just a pleasant memory of younger days.  But as effective as Viagra is for countless men, it is not the answer for all men suffering erectile dysfunction--for a wide variety of reasons.  And it is for those reasons that science continues to explore other options; vastly improving less effective options from the past, while seeking new approaches that may be effective for every man in the future.  Read more . . .

The Enteromammary Pathway: A Baby's Secret Weapon

While for several decades breastfeeding and the importance of breast milk fell out of favor across much of the world with the advent of baby formula, few have ever denied the many health benefits mothers’ own milk provides.  Recognized as the biological and sociological norm for humans, experts today emphasize that breastfeeding is the superior, species-specific nourishment for infants; one that cannot be artificially replicated or replaced.  And no sooner would we expect an elephant to feed its offspring horses’ milk, nothing–not cows’ milk nor prepared formula–can do what a human mother’s own breast milk can do for her baby.   Read more . . .

Female Herbs: Herbs Just for Her

Through the centuries, various cultures around the world have not only discovered that plants fall into categories in terms of their biological sex (with male and female plants often having completely different curative properties from one another), but that plants can also be categorized by which sex they best serve: female or male.  Thus, certain herbs are routinely designated as “female herbs.”  The following herbs have traditionally been singled out by many societies around the world as having curative and medicinal properties especially geared to a woman’s body; herbs specifically effective in treating female reproductive conditions for a wide range of women regardless of age, ethnicity, or cultural heritage.  Read more . . .

Has a Cure for the Common Cold Already Been Discovered?

Researchers at University of Wisconsin, University of Maryland, and the Craig Venter Institute, recently announced that they have decoded the elusive genetic blueprints of the common cold, essentially demystified the enigma behind how all the viral strains are related to one another, thus enabling them to hone in on the culprit: the rhinoviruses.  The findings of this study, published in the Feb. 12, 2011 issue of Science journal, explains the nature of the human rhinovirus.  But while this is certainly good news for the millions of men, women, and children who contract the opportunistic virus (twice a year on average for adults, and up to ten times a year for children), many wonder why is it that with all the scientific advances in recent decades, a cure for this commonly-contracted disease wasn't found long ago?  After all, any number of deadly bacteria-related diseases have been cured, why not the common cold virus?  Read more . . .

The Health Benefits of Fenugreek

Fenugreek is a deep-rooted annual herb resembling hay and alfalfa whose seeds have been used both as a curative and as a spice (called methia) for at least 6000 years.  Charred fenugreek seeds have been recovered from ancient sites both in Iraq and Israel (radiocarbon dated to 4000 BCE), and dried fenugreek seeds were even discovered in the tomb of the Egyptian boy-Pharaoh Tutankhamen.  Grown in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, and China since before recorded history, fenugreek is perhaps best known today as a common ingredient in curry powder and chutney.  A dull yellow powder produced from the roasted seeds, fenugreek is readily available fresh and dried, whole and pulverized.  Read more . . .

Home Remedies for Sexual Impotence

Since man first discovered the connection between an erect penis and fertility, he has persued an interest in natural substances that enhance his sexual performance.  While exploring the effects of various plants he found growing around him, he no doubt stumbled upon herbs that when chewed would cause him to have more frequent and harder erections; herbs that would allow him to maintain his erections longer.  As a result, most cultures of the world now have an assortment of herb-based home remedies for treating sexual impotence.  Read more . . .

The Health Benefits of Black Cohosh

Black cohosh is a member of the buttercup family, a perennial plant native to North America.  Also known as black snakeroot, bugbane, bugwort, rattleroot, rattletop, rattleweed, and macrotys, it has been used for centuries by Native Americans who first discovered its many health benefits.  Traditionally considered a female herb, it is commonly used to ease labor pains, treat menstrual cramps, hot flashes, infertility, threatened miscarriage, and to induce lactation.  Black cohosh first appeared in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia in 1830 under the name “black snakeroot.”  In 1844 it gained new popularity when Dr. John King, an eclectic physician of the era, prescribed it to treat a number of illnesses including rheumatism and nervous disorders.  By the early twentieth century, many doctors across the US were routinely advocating black cohosh for most female-related maladies including endometritis, amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia, sterility, severe after-birth pains, and for increased breast milk production.  Read more . . .

The Health Benefits of Grape Seed Extract

Grape seed extract, as the term suggests, is a natural chemical extract made from the seeds of grapes.  Most often, the seeds left over from the commercial production of wine or juice are used; harvested, ground, and extracted.  Especially high in particular chemical compounds science terms OPC’s (oligomeric proanthocyanidins), grape seed extract increases the strength of weakened blood vessels, and is also one of the most potent antioxidants known.  And in terms of cost-efficiency, grape seed extract is one of the least expensive ways to get your daily dose of these highly beneficial compounds.   Additionally, grape seed extract contains a vast array of health-supporting ingredients including substantial amounts protein, lipids, carbohydrates, and polyphenols (which come mainly in the form of flavonoids, also known as bioflavonoids).  Read more . . .

The Health Benefits of Essiac Tea

Essiac tea is a blend of herbs believed by many to have unique cancer-fighting properties and a number of other health benefits. Originally used by Native American medicine men, the recipe was rediscovered in 1922 by a Canadian nurse named Rene Caisse as she was attending a woman who claimed to have been cured of breast cancer with an herbal remedy given to her by a North American Indian shaman in the 1890s.  After learning for herself the health benefits of this herbal blend, Rene named her version of the recipe ESSIAC—her last name spelled backwards.  As nurse Caisse discovered, the four main herbs that make up Essiac, burdock root, the inner bark of slippery elm, sheep sorrel, and Indian rhubarb root, each have unique properties that have been utilized for centuries, both as an herbal infusion as well as for topical poultices and plasters.  Read more . . .

Estrogen: Physiological Function and Natural Sources

Estrogen is a hormone comprising a group of compounds which include estrone, estradiol, and estriol, and is the main sex hormone in women, essential to the menstrual cycle.  Although estrogen exists in men as well as women, it is found in significantly higher levels in women, especially those of childbearing age.  Estrogen also plays a key role in the development of secondary sex characteristics, the physically-defining differences between men and women that don’t relate directly to the reproductive system including enlarged breasts, widened pelvis, and increased amounts of body fat in the buttock, thigh, and hips.  Estrogen also contributes to women having less facial hair and smoother skin.  Read more . . .

Breastfeeding: Health and Practical Benefits for Moms

As most everyone is aware today, breastfeeding is the most natural and beneficial act a mother can do for her child.  Proven beyond a doubt, dramatic health benefits pass from mother to child through breast milk–from antibodies which protect an infant at birth, to the exclusive nutrients in mother’s milk which have been shown to prevent a number of childhood diseases–the benefits are incalculable.  In fact, it is said that there is no other single act by which a mother can so greatly impact the present and future health of her baby than breastfeeding.  But what many mothers are unaware of is the many health and practical benefits they themselves enjoy from the breastfeeding experience.  Read more . . .

La Leche League International: Mothers Supporting Breastfeeding

La Leche League International (LLLI) (la leche, Spanish for "the milk") is an international nonprofit, nonsectarian organization that promotes breastfeeding throughout the world.  Founded in 1956 in Franklin Park, Illinois, by seven mothers (including Mary Ann Cahill, Edwina Froehlich, Mary Ann Kerwin, Viola Lennon, and Betty Wagner) who had breastfed their own children and were motivated to help mothers who had difficulties with breastfeeding, La Leche League is now a presence in sixty-eight countries, dedicated to providing education, information, support, and encouragement to women who want to breastfeed.  All women, especially pregnant and nursing mothers, are welcome to attend their meetings.  The name, La Leche League, was inspired by a shrine in St. Augustine, Florida, dedicated to “Nuestra Señora de la Leche y Buen Parto,” meaning “Our Lady of Happy Delivery and Plentiful Milk.”  Read more . . .

Meditation, Music, and "Toning"

Pythagoras, the founder of the music-therapy concept in the west, is said to have sung soothing melodies to his disciples based on the principal that melody and rhythm cannot fail to restore harmony to the human soul.  Surviving letters explain that in the evenings with his lyre and voice, he “released his followers from the cares and stresses of the day, purified their intellect, and rendered their sleep quiet.”  And in the morning, “he freed them from nocturnal heaviness, relaxation, and apathy” through particular songs and rhythms.  He believed that music is essential to spiritual and physical health and is capable of producing the most beneficial correctness of human life and behavior.  And from ancient times to the present, there have been countless other scholars who agree.  Read more . . .

The Health Benefits of Masturbation for Women

As many psychologists readily acknowledge, women around the world have been socialized to believe that their sexual needs and desires are less important than those of men.  In many cultures, women are not permitted to verbalize sexual pleasure, dissatisfaction, or longing–outside the act of procreation.  Due to wide-spread cultural taboos and societal judgment, many women feel that masturbation is somehow wrong; spawning feelings of guilt or shame.  But as science now shows, there is enormous potential for physical and emotional healing through expressing this aspect of female sexuality.  Read more . . .

The Health Benefits of Masturbation for Men

Numerous cross-cultural scientific studies reaching all the way back to the famous Kinsey surveys of the 1940s show that 95 percent of all men say they have masturbated.  It is apparently a physical function we are designed to perform, serving a number of beneficial physiological purposes.  "We [of the animal species] are programmed, as best we know, to need orgasms," says clinical sexologist Dr. Gloria Brame, Ph.D., from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in Athens, Ga.  And for the male of the species, "It’s a fundamental aspect of men’s health, right up there with brushing your teeth. It relieves stress and keeps everything about your body—your heart rate, blood pressure, reproductive system, brain chemistry—in very good shape.  Men are doing themselves a favor with regular ejaculation," Brame says, "it cleans out the plumbing."  Supporting Brame’s perspective are numerous wide-sweaping studies including those conducted by an Australian team of researchers led by Graham Giles of the Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, who reported that frequent masturbation may serve an especially important health purpose, that of lowering a man’s risk of developing prostate cancer.  Read more . . .