We are all guilty of ignoring the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle ways that our body’s tell us that something is out of whack. When we are busy, it is easy to brush off an occasional headache, muscle pain or even more severe issues like chronic allergies or constipation. What is important to understand is that all of these are symptoms of possible chronic inflammation. As a reminder, if you already didn’t know – chronic inflammation is behind over 95% of all western diseases such as diabetes

You’ve probably heard the claims.  But even if you are aware of all that apple cider vinegar has to offer, you might find it hard to believe that just one food can offer so many benefits. Surprisingly (or maybe not) it’s true!  Drinking apple cider vinegar daily is a sure fire way to improve many aspects of your health and your life. Raw, organic, unfiltered and unpasteurized apple cider vinegar (or ‘ACV’ for short) is one of the oldest and most useful remedies on Earth.  It contains a wealth

How often do you pay attention to your ears? If you are like most people, you tend to ignore your ears – they are just kind of there on the side of your head. Ears actually have a few critical jobs to do including regulating balance and transmitting information about the position of your head to your brain. Not only that, but your ears also reveal a great deal about your health. Listen up, while we reveal just what your ears are trying to tell you: You might have diabetes Loss of hearing is t

In some cases, modern technology can have a negative impact on our health, such as staring at a screen just before bed, which can really mess up the quality of your sleep and too much screen use, can strain our eyes. But there are also a lot of high-tech devices that can enhance our health and well-being, including these gadgets that can make your home healthier. Most people don’t really think about dust, especially when it’s hiding in corners and underneath furniture. At least until it starts

Gardening is not for the faint of heart. There’s a lot of information to balance if you want to have success with your plants. But while you’ve been fiddling with your fertilizer levels and optimizing each plot’s acidity, you might not be giving enough thought to the other creatures that inhabit your growing space. Nematodes, for instance, can be helpful or harmful to your garden… [read more]

Hair takes a beating. We often don’t think about what we subject our hair to on a daily basis. Just the vast amount of environmental toxins floating in the air can do damage to our locks over time. Not to mention the chemicals, including chlorine in water, sun, wind, dry air, and the countless products we may use to “help” make our hair look and feel its best. The irony about this is that many of the so-called “healthy’ products marketed to enrich, detangle, smooth, protect, etc., actually end

Do you have a desk job? Sitting at a desk all day can be hazardous to your health. Sitting is not natural for humans who were designed to be on the move. However, it is estimated that 86% of American workers sit all day. On top of that, most sit when they get home from work. In total, Americans sit 13 hours per day and sleep for another 8. This means that for 21 hours a day, they are sedentary. Sitting has even been referred to as the new “smoking,” in terms of the damage it does to health and w

You probably already know that following a healthy diet and getting regular exercise are important habits for good heart health, but you probably don’t realize that there are many things you may be doing that have the opposite effect. There are multiple activities that few think twice about but can have a negative impact on heart health. Do you have any of these in common, heart-damaging bad habits? If so, it may be time to make some changes. The Mayo Clinic reports that people who sit for pro

For years, essential oils have been the rage in the natural health arena. From improving your mood to helping stimulate healing, is there anything they can’t do? Whether you’re in school and test time is looming, or you’re concerned with aging gracefully and retaining your memory functions as you do so, there are a number of essential oils to help you achieve your goals. I’ve pulled together a list of my five favorite essential oils to improve memory, plus a few more recommendations for decrease

Coconut oil has been gaining a lot of popularity in the fast growing community of health conscious people. People in Asia and the Pacific Rim have used coconut products for thousands of years. They drank the milk, ate the flesh, turned the tree sap into sweet syrup, and weaved baskets with the leaves of coconut trees. In the 1950s, coconut oil, which you receive when you press the meat of the coconut, could be found in every household. With the low-fat craze that swept through the Western world

Charcoal is made from coal, hardwood, or softwood, peat, or even coconut shells.  It becomes “activated charcoal” when high temperatures are mixed with an activating agent to expand its surface area. As it burns hotter, charcoal is considered superior to wood, and so, historically, it became the fuel utilized to smelt ores, with its earliest recorded use dating all the way back to 3750 BC. The Egyptians and Sumerians produced charcoal for the reduction of copper, zinc and tin ores in the manufa

Sugar is everywhere. Even in places, you’d never expect it. When I decided to give up sugar, I assumed that meant foregoing dessert and giving up my favorite snack – Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch cereal, but I soon learned that it was going to take a whole lot more than that. For years, I told myself that sugary treats, especially things like cereal, hard candies, jelly beans and the like, weren’t really all that bad for me because they contained little, if any, fat. When I had my cholesterol chec

There are so many products out there these days promising to give us radiant, glowing skin that it can make your head spin just choosing one. Luckily, there is one seemingly unlikely candidate for a gorgeous complexion waiting patiently in your local organic grocer’s pantry: raw, organic, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. Apple cider vinegar, or ACV, is an amazing concoction. It is made by crushing apples, collecting the juice and adding beneficial bacteria and yeast cultures to start the ferm

I am sure that the majority of you are well aware that processed, white, enriched wheat products contain zero nutritional value and are actually very bad for your health. What many don’t understand, however, is that products made with or containing whole wheat are actually no better for your health. In fact, all modern wheat will compromise health… end of story. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors collected all they could from the ground for food including insects, berries, nuts, etc. In their gath

Since as long as I can remember I have told my children that sugar is the devil. It disguises itself as all sorts of pleasantries but, in reality, it can kill you. Some may say that this was a harsh way to raise my children but it has saved me trips to the dentist and instilled in my children a very healthy fear. Today, they are all grown up. When I hear them telling others, “Stay away from sugar, it will kill you,” I have to chuckle. I know that it’s for the best and they are sending a message

Not to be confused with an extract of the tea plant (Camellia sinensus), tea tree oil is distilled from the leaves of the Australian tea tree (Melalenca alternifolia.)  Although it is highly toxic when ingested, thanks to its antibiotic, anti-fungal, antiseptic, expectorant and antiviral properties, tea tree oil has a surprising number of topical uses which can help cure or prevent a whole host of everyday maladies, which is why it is often referred to as a “medicine cabinet in a bottle.” Let’s

Magnesium is intimately involved in over 600 reactions in the body including the metabolism of food, the transmission of nerve impulses, the synthesis of fatty acids and proteins, muscle movements, gene maintenance and protein formation. It is one of seven essential macrominerals that must be consumed daily in large amounts — 100 milligrams or more. We store about 25 grams of magnesium in our body with more than 50 percent of this being stored in the skeletal system. The rest goes in the muscle

“Man cannot live by bread alone; he must have peanut butter.”  -James A. Garfield If you are like me, peanut butter is my go-to. A little dab with an apple makes it all the more sweet, a little bit in my smoothie makes it all the more creamy. Who can resist a peanut butter spoon when they are having a bad day? I used to say to may kids, “A peanut butter spoon chases all your tears away!” When President James A. Garfield professed his love for peanut butter, it was likely that he was not referr

Like many people in the Baby Bust generation, I grew up on dry, boxed cereal. Sure, my mom would make bacon and eggs, waffles or even homemade donuts on weekends or other special occasions, but for the most part, we ate a vast array of sugar-coated and very tasty cereal with brightly colored boxes and even some cool toys. Cereal was the very first processed food that was designed to make eating easier — not necessarily healthier. After all, cereal requires no preparation or cooking. Cereal made

I hate clutter of any kind. Before I had children, it was pretty simple to keep my house in order and practice my passion for less. Everything had its place and I made a habit of shopping only when necessary, practicing environmental stewardship by recycling and repurposing what I could. My desire was to live with as small a footprint as possible, buying local, growing what I could, keeping chickens and trying to avoid being hooked up in the stream of commercialism. Then, there were children. A