How To Make 2025 The Healthiest Year Ever!

2025. Doesn’t that sound more interesting, maybe even more exciting, than 2024? I know that I have a lot of new things planned for this year, including creating some online courses on health and hormones. I’ll keep you posted about that.

In light of creating content for the courses, I have been thinking about what motivates us. Why do some people achieve highly, become wealthy, inspire others, or enjoy robust health, and others don’t? And, more importantly, how can I help people achieve their goals of health, well-being and longevity?

One of the best tools to know more about your current state of health is to do Functional Blood Work. This isn't just a bunch of numbers on a page, but a color-coded chart of which blood markers indicate optimum function and where there is room for improvement. It is not a diagnosis, but a window inside to how well things are working. With or without muscle testing, Functional Blood Work gives you vital data. During the month of January get $25 off the price of the full panel. $235 instead of $260. There are 19 different markers plus a urinalysis, and this is a fantastic price for Functional Lab work. 

Add in a Saliva Hormone panel for an additional $25 discount. $175 instead of $200. This test is done at home, first thing in the morning, to get an accurate morning cortisol. Cortisol influences, weight, mood, energy, sleep, as well as all the other hormones. This panel is suitable for females from puberty to menopause, and for men, as well.

Every goal, every attainment, takes work, persistence and an ability to overcome obstacles. It occurs to me that the joy of reaching the prize, whatever that it, must be greater than the pain or discomfort or inconvenience of getting there. Guessing about your health may mean that you are worrying about something that is not serious, or missing something that should be monitored. This is all with the goal of putting you in charge of your health. 

Most of us came into this world fairly passively. The choices made by two other people, our biological mother and father, gave us the form we found ourselves in at birth. From there it has always been up to us.

We had to learn to communicate what we needed without language, in a way that got the point across without driving our caretakers completely crazy. If you have ever tried to comfort a screaming infant you will know what I am talking about.

In order to talk we had to manipulate our mouth and tongue to form words in a language spoken by those around us. We had to bruise a few knees to learn to walk on wobbly legs. Riding bikes required a balancing skills, and more bruises.

Each time we persevered to master something new it was because the reward of achievement outweighed the lumps and bumps we suffered along the way.

Successful people apply the principle of delayed gratification to achieve goals, enduring discomfort and boredom and effort because the harder things require a process.

Health goals are the same. It often takes a great deal of effort and endurance of boredom or discomfort to be healthy. We eat, not just for nourishment, but to reward ourselves, out of boredom, or for temporary relief from uncomfortable aspects of our lives. The same is true for drugs and alcohol. Many of our junk foods and fast foods have a drug-like effect. Just binge on sugar and see how closely it resembles a hang-over afterwards.

So, when you make your New Year’s Resolutions this year, I hope that you will include high ambitions for your health and well-being. Everything in life is easier when you feel good.

Bear in mind that the willingness to make it happen will determine your success, no matter what your dreams are. When you look in the mirror, the story that you tell about yourself and the person you see, is the story of your life. And you can always change your own story.

For example, I often hear people say that they tried every diet, but nothing works for them. What they haven’t done is completely change their lifestyle and nutrient intake to those of a slimmer, healthier version of themselves. Being overweight is not a normal human condition. It rarely existed, except for the very rich, before the 1970’s. And it’s not just excess calories, but the crap that is allowed in our food that means that many of us have to fight to be thinner. Every single person can drop weight, improve their energy, sleep well, and get the body into an optimum condition. But, honestly, its a bit of a war zone these days, and it takes toughness, discipline, and know-how. Are you healthier than you were last year at this time? No matter your age, you can increase your “health account.”

I think that 2025 will be a very interesting year, so we may need to fasten our seat belts. There are some pretty big changes happening, whether we like it or not. Just look at how AI is already disrupting our world. When changes come fast, it can be hard to handle. All the more reason to double down on physical health, because it has a profound effect on how well we react to emotional and mental challenges. Are you up for it?!

Happy New Year to all! May 2025 be our best year ever!

A Minty Fresh Christmas

There are many kitchen spices and herbs that we associate with Christmas. Ginger and Cinnamon are favorites, and have some wonderful health benefits. Ginger helps with inflammation for pain or stomach distress. Cinnamon helps blood sugar balance, which may explain why it’s added to so many Christmas cookies. 

But another delicious one is Peppermint. It’s use predates Christmas and it has been found in some Egyptian pyramids. 

It is delicious as a tea, and helps soothe the stomach. But it’s medicinal use extends far beyond a comforting cup. Capsules of peppermint oil (enteric coated to pass through the stomach to the intestine) are a treatment for Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBS. Studies verify that, for both children and adults, peppermint oil capsules taken twice daily, alleviate symptoms in up to 75% of patients. Abdominal pain and diarrhea are two of the symptoms that were helped. 

If you look for peppermint oil capsules, be sure to check out the carrier oil. You don’t want to ingest soybean oil.

Peppermint oil helps with gastric emptying, which means that food passes more quickly into the intestine so that it does not ferment and cause discomfort. Infant colic is another use of peppermint oil, and is as effective as drugs sometimes subscribed to babies. It is so much better to harness Mother Nature rather than Big Pharma.

Peppermint has many other therapeutic uses. It has been used since the Middle Ages for fresher breath. It can help with allergies and tuberculosis, and can be applied topically for the pain of Shingles or during a Herpes Type I (Cold Sore) outbreak. 

It protects against radiation used in cancer treatment and assists chemo-induced nausea.

Pretty powerful for a leafy herb that will take over your garden if you plant it, so always keep it contained in a pot, or garden bed if you want to grow some for yourself. 

Peppermint (and Rosemary) also have a positive effect on memory, so they can be used in an aromatherapy pot. Peppermint will also provide a pleasant mood lift, and will help us to feel energized, and yet a cup of tea is calming. So, peppermint is a remedy for so many demands of living.

Sugar sticks with a crook at the top to mimic Shepherds’ staffs date back to a German choirmaster in 1670, who wanted the sweets to keep children quiet in Church. Peppermint flavoring and the red and white stripes seem to emerge in the 19th century in the US. Bob McCormack, the founder of Bob’s Candies, popularized the candy that became synonymous with Christmas.

Red Dye 40 is finally in the cross-hairs of the FDA. It is a synthetic food coloring that has been shown to increase symptoms of hyperactivity, allergies, and negatively impact gut health.

You can find candy canes from Yum Earth or naturalcandystore.com that are colored with natural vegetable dyes and are free of high-fructose corn syrup. Santa approved. 

The fresh minty taste of peppermint conjures up frosty winter weather and snow angels, even for those of us who live in warm climes. 

You don’t need high doses of the peppermint essential oil, to get the benefits. You can brew tea from your own garden mint, or masticate the leaves in a mortar and pestle to make a delicious mint drink, sweetened with monk fruit. Don’t use too much of the essential oil, either. The benefits are in the smaller doses. 

Put a few drops of peppermint oil in a spray bottle of water and spray any room, including the bathroom, to freshen and revive. It’s a great way to avoid synthetic scented candles but make everyone healthier. I used a lot of peppermint spray in my closet this summer to foil the tiny clothes moths that seem to thrive in Florida. I also add a couple of drops to a cloth and toss it into the dryer to scent sheets or clothes. 

Personally, I love peppermint in many forms, so I am happy to share some ideas with you. You can enjoy a little Christmas spirit all year long, using peppermint in so many forms. I didn’t realize how many medicinal uses there were of peppermint, until I researched it for this blog. I hope you will spread the word to family and friends so that we can all be less dependent on chemicals and money interests that haven’t always served us well.

We used to make peppermint and vanilla taffy candy canes when I was a kid. (in that little ol’ log cabin. Just kidding! My mom was from Iowa and loved to bake for Christmas.) We had to put butter on our hands and pull the taffy to stretch it. Great fun for kids.

I asked Chat GPT if you could substitute monk fruit for cane sugar in a taffy recipe. Surprisingly, the answer was yes! Let me know if you would like a copy of the recipe to try for yourself. Just add peppermint flavoring, twist the taffy into sticks (with a crook at the top) and you have homemade candy canes that won’t have kids bouncing off the walls. I use monk fruit for most of my baking these days. You can buy it with or without eurythritol online.

I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season and creating or continuing lots of traditions that mean Christmas to you! 

Real-Life Goblins and Ghouls and A Simple Remedy

Every culture in the world has had stories of mischievous or malevolent creatures that interact in our human world in various ways. Goblins may be even be kind of cute and not really harmful, expect for those few who behave in a more sinister manner. Of course, the same could be said for humans!

Ghouls, however, are a different story. The word itself comes from the Arabic “to seize.” Ghouls were known in folklore to lure people into graveyards or deserts to eat them. Greedy or glutinous people have sometimes been referred to as ghouls. It makes sense when you consider that certain types of addictions (including money) seem to replace the soul and destroy the person from within.

Halloween seems like the perfect time to evaluate our own protection against these creatures. Recently I had a very interesting conversation with someone who has years of experience in private security, as well as extensive military and counter-terrorism training. He told me that the two most important aspects of security are deterrence and buying time.

We can apply this to our goals for a long health span and avoiding the debilitating consequences of chronic ill-health that plague the majority of Americans.

There are a vast number of steps that can be taken to deter ill-health. You can probably list a number of them for yourself. Most of them are common sense and fundamental, without even adding in all the bio-hacks from the gurus in fitness and extreme sports.

The often unknown and rarely considered element is buying time. What is the most challenging aspect of a cancer diagnosis? It’s the fact that the cancer may be encroaching on the body rapidly and the oncologist will push for immediate treatment. This causes a panicked approach in the patient and the family to get it out NOW. The time seems to be sucked out, allowing no nuanced or holistic approaches to how the cancer took root in the first place. The oncologist is applying his/her training, that nothing else except poisoning by surgery, drugs and radiation will work quickly enough, or at all.

In some cases, this may be true regarding an aggressive cancer. Other life-threatening conditions seem to rob us of the time we have to be healthy and productive. Neurological conditions are an example, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons, and Dementia. These may linger for decades with a slow decline.

Diabetes is an epidemic in the United States and causes more blindness, amputation, and kidney failure than any other cause.

Here is the crazy truth. These are all metabolic diseases. They are all caused by choices we make, and the lack of regulation from the agencies who decide what is allowed in our food and our environment.

I wonder how different our lives would have been if we didn’t have ultra-processed foods like seed oils and high-fructose corn syrup in all our prepared foods or if our food crops weren’t GMOed and sprayed with glyphosate and other pesticides?

Would Americans be the most unhealthy of all the Western countries? And would we be spending 17.3% of our GDP (gross national product) on “healthcare,” which should actually be called by what it really is-sick care. i

You might say that these diseases are ghouls and goblins, but those who profit by selling us garbage to eat, and market sickness to us at every turn are the real ghouls.

Okay, you know that our food and environment is affecting our health. But you are busy and there are other more pressing issues for you right now. So, what can you do that doesn’t require more time and money than you want to spend right now?

If you look at disease progression, what happens is that toxins and harmful chemicals and seed oils and excess sugar damage cells and tissue. That is the simplicity of what occurs. So, first is deterrence, which means eliminate the dangerous substance. Maybe pick one area that you know is toxic, such as a personal care item or processed food and change it out for something healthier.

The second one is buy time. Chronic health problems usually take years or even decades to reach a critical level, although the time period has gotten shorter, especially for people who have lots of pharmaceutical interventions of any kind, even when they are life-saving.

Getting rid of some of the toxins can help buy time for your body to rebalance and repair. Big detox programs are wonderful and highly recommended on a regular basis. But you have to carve out time to do those when there aren’t a million distractions.

I have been using a new Detox product that is for daily use, and I have seen some excellent results. Some weight loss, better sleep, less congestion, less joint pain, more energy and stamina are a few. Start with one capsule and work up to 3/day. There may be a very slight detox response at first. I was a bit more tired and achey but also slept very well. I take one first thing in the morning with warm water and again in the evening. This detox product is mostly made of enzymes, with some herbs for liver, inflammation and parasites. Take the Detox supplement on an empty stomach, and take digestive enzymes (Biozyme, Enzycore, Zypan, MF 90) with meals.

This is a great preparation for the Holidays coming up, and could be used right through the Holiday feasting.

One of the interesting things about the body is that the more healthy things you do, the less the body wants unhealthy things. So, simple changes like adding regular detoxification and digestive enzymes may subtly improve your health and make it easier to avoid the constant temptations all around us.

Also, this is a simple remedy for those people in our lives who aren’t making the healthiest choices and really don’t want to learn (or hear) about it.

There are fairly painless ways to resist the Ghouls, and avoid the Goblins, improving your defense. Some wise prevention can help you avoid the crises moment when there is no time to think clearly. I don’t want anyone to have to give up the Ghost any sooner than they have to. So, I hope this little Trick will be the real Treat your body needs for your health and happiness

Let me know if you want to try the Detox supplement. We ship every from the office every day.

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