Chaga: Ancient mushroom with modern health benefits
History The first mention of the use of Chaga comes from the 16th century, and its use in Russia. Chaga was used in a variety of ways, including general well-being, internal cleansing, and curing and preventing diseases in general.[i] While we can’t say that Chaga...
Where and How Your Herbs are Grown Matters
In a previous blog, I wrote about the advancements in technology and how these innovations contributed to making our supplements better. However, it is good to note where and how your herbs are grown may impact their effectiveness. When we factor in different growing...
Advances in Technology Benefits Your Dietary Supplements and Health
Necessity is the mother of invention (innovation), a commonly used proverb when someone comes up with a way to do things better or hasn't been done previously. This proverb is not limited to ultra-technical fields and is now quite the driving force for innovation in...
e-Gaming Supplements: Improve your Health and Gaming
Attention all e-gamers, you need to take a hard look at adding supplements to your daily routine. The demands of e-gaming can negatively impact your health and your performance while playing. This blog will cover several areas e-gamers should consider supplementing...
Cognitive Health at Work, Play, Sports, e-Gaming and More
What is Cognitive Health/Function? What do you think of when you see the words “cognitive health”? Most of us think about our parents or grandparents and how they forget things or aren’t quite as sharp as they used to be. Let me be the first to tell you that...
Mental Wellness – Balancing Stress, Sleep and Cognitive Health
We often hear about mental illness, but not mental wellness. Is the concept of mental wellness new to you? Consider this; mental wellness is about how all aspects of your life, i.e., social, emotional, physical, spiritual, intellectual, and how they collectively...
Finish the Year Strong
Normally I do a long post on specific health challenges and my natural approaches, but today I want to encourage you to finish this year strong and carry it over into the new year. Check out my blog post on Goals and how to set/achieve them. Why wait until the...
COVID-19 vs. Common Flu Herbal Pharmacist Perspective
Since the "outbreak" of COVID-19, I have been dumbfounded by how much fear is being pushed down our throats by the media and governments. If you take a look at the “REAL NUMBERS” of both worldwide Flu and COVID-19, you can see that the Flu is much worse...
Black Cumin Seed: An Ancient Seed with Powerful Immune Support
Black cumin seed oil, a.k.a black seed oil (N. sativa or NS) and thymoquinone have been thoroughly studied for decades. With the heightened interest in ingredients that support immune health, taking a look at the extensive research done with regards to...
Foundational Supplement Program with Whole Food AstaPure® Arava
One of the most pressing questions consumers have is, “What supplements do I need to take daily?” The answer should be simple, start with a strong foundation. Just as if you were building a home, you would first pour a strong foundation in which to build...
Sarcopenia: The New Osteoporosis
Your Muscle Will Tell You More About Your Health Than Just Strength Before you blow by this article keep this in mind, muscle health or should I say lack of muscle health is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, the overall health of your...
Simple Steps to Achieving Your Goals
My concepts are Foundational and Fundamental ideas on achieving your Goals. Whether or not your goal is directly related to your health or not doesn’t really matter. The information I share will help you with whatever your goals may be. To reach your goal, you must...
Holiday eating: Let your food be your medicine.
Thanksgiving launches us into a feeding frenzy each year. During the weeks following Thanksgiving and all the way through New Years we will eat just about anything put in front of us. We will treat our plates just as a painter does their canvas: Fill it all in with...
Total Body Makeover-Cleansing
Want to look good? Sometimes you need to start your work from the inside. Cleansing and detoxification systems are the best way to start your total body makeover. As long as the focus of our year is building a strong health foundation, the topic of cleansing is...
Antibiotic Use and Probiotics
Even with public awareness campaigns by the WHO (World Health Organization) and other authorities, the over-prescribing of antibiotics continues. We can’t blame patients for this necessarily because we are at the mercy of our health care providers to determine the...
Probiotics Linked to Improved Skin Health
Are you showing more skin these days? Don’t take that the wrong way-with Spring here and summer on the way, it is an important time of the year to focus on your skin. It seems like now more than ever our appearance matters most. Since the skin is the largest organ...
Eye Health
In the next several months, different organizations will be honoring specific eye health months such as Glaucoma Awareness Month and AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month. This prompted me to write a general article on eye health. Now it is time to help those (like me) who...
Digestive Woes? Foundational Digestive Help 101
Too often we overlook the importance of taking care of this part of our body until something goes wrong with it. Conditions such as Heart Burn, Acid Reflux, GURD, Diarrhea, Constipation, IBS, IBD, Crohn’s, Leaky Gut Syndrome are getting out of control yet most of us...
Probiotic 101
True or False: All bacteria are bad for you. False! Simply put, there are two types of bacteria found in/on the human body-pathogens (disease causing) and probiotics (life promoting/friendly). In the large and small intestine, probiotics (also known as Flora or...
Are you bathing suit ready?
The winter is over, spring has sprung and depending on what part of the country you live in, it may be bathing suit season already. The fall and winter months are unkind to most of us because colder temperatures lead to less physical activity. Those same months are...
Using tonics for sustained health
For over a year now, I have made the shift back to using mostly herbs as part of my supplement program. My foundational supplements now include what are better known as tonics. In short, tonics are herbal in nature and provide nutritional support to a particular area...
Avoid Winter Dry Skin Issues
Now that we are into colder weather, dry skin becomes more of a problem. When we turn on the heat in our homes, the dry winter air plays havoc on our skin. In more severe cases the skin will crack and bleed. I hope after reading this tip you can all avoid problems...
Foundational Supplement Program
One of the top questions I get asked is “What supplements should I really take? There are so many supplements available and the thought of where to start can definitely be overwhelming. Keeping with my philosophy of “foundational and fundamental health” I will explain...
Knowing this number could save your life
What number you ask? Your Omega-3 Index number or perhaps better stated; your omega-3 levels. Why is this number so important? Omega-3s play a critical role in in just about all aspects of health because they are a key component of each and every cell membrane in your...
Trouble Sleeping? Easy and drug free solutions
For many of us falling asleep at night is like work. For others, we may fall asleep fine but wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back to sleep. Whatever your sleep dilemma, I am here to help. You may not be aware of the potentially severe health effects...
Children’s supplements
As a parent of two children I understand the everyday challenges and concerns of keeping our children healthy. Let’s face it, getting our kids to eat healthy at home is a challenge, but at school and other outside events it is nearly impossible. I believe it is even...
Memory and Cognitive Issues
While working in my pharmacy I had a regular customer who came in monthly to purchase her memory pills (lecithin). She would walk in and say “Dave, I need my memory pills” and reach down and pick up a bottle and walk to the register. One day several months later, she...
Understanding High Blood Pressure
This blog post is an excerpt from my book on Heart Disease. This does not have any of the solutions to high blood pressure but is designed to explain what it is and why it can be so devastating if not treated properly. I firmly believe that in order to treat or...
Cholesterol 101
Everything I read speaks of cholesterol and lipids, but those phrases don’t work for me. The reason I called this article abnormal blood fats is that depending on which component we are speaking of-LDL, HDL or Triglycerides-the ideal value is relative to each...
Clean Slate i.e. Cleansing
Want to look and feel good? Sometimes you need to start your work from the inside. Cleansing and detoxification systems are the best way to start your total body makeover. Since your year should be focused around building a strong health foundation (core health), the...
Hemorrhoids- Silent suffering
Many people have hemorrhoid problems at some time. They can happen at any age, but the incidence increases after age 30. About half of the people over 50 have had hemorrhoid problems at some time in their life. Hemorrhoids are often linked to both diarrhea and...
Urinary Tract Infections-Natural Solutions
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are very common. It is estimated that just over 10 percent of women have this type of infection each year. It is also estimated that over half of women will have at least one UTI in their lifetime. What is even more serious are about 10...
Kitchen spices for a healthy flu season
As the cook in my family, I have learned to incorporate many herbs and spices into my daily cooking that will improve my family’s overall health. Below you will find some of the more popular and tasty spices to reach for this year’s cold and flu season: Turmeric: This...
Obesity Epidemic
Obesity is now killing three times as many people as malnutrition according to a landmark study published in the British medical journal, The Lancet. Researchers who authored the study conclude that obesity has taken the place of hunger as the No. 1 health crisis...
Prepping for Cold and Flu Season
Cold and Flu: The 4-Pillars of Health Approach It is that time of the year again. Cold and Flu season is upon us. In order to understand how to prevent or even treat the cold and flu, I though it might be better to explain how the immune system works and who the...
The War on Fat: A contributing factor to how we got fat.
I am writing my next book and decided to make it on the topic of weight. Why, well you will have to read the book when it comes out. For now though I felt compelled to blog on something I discovered in my research and post something about it now: There seems to be a...
Antioxidants and Diabetes
Building a strong foundation is critical for your health—and antioxidants are a critical element in the structure of your health regimen. When selecting antioxidants, it is important to focus on those that are targeted to a specific health issue that you are either...
Sugar Industry Deception
If you haven’t seen or heard of this recently; the sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to play down the link between sugar and heart disease and promote saturated fat as the culprit instead. How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat 50 Years Ago, Sugar...
Allergy relief
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America website (www.aafa.org), “an estimated 50 million Americans suffer from all types of allergies (1 in 6 Americans) including indoor/outdoor, food & drug, latex, insect, skin and eye allergies. (Allergy...
Acne-Free Skin
Here is my expanded protocol for handling your acne/boil issues. Part 1 Cleansing Cleansing is actually divided up into two types when it comes to your acne needs. The first type is to use a more dramatic/deep cleanse. These “total” body type of cleanses (ex....
Diverticulitis Solutions
I have been putting off writing about this topic for years. I think it is not that “sexy” of a topic nor do I think that most people want to discuss it (or read about it). BUT, out of the abundance of questions from friends and acquaintances I decided that now is the...
Does your body need a tune-up?
Time for a Tune Up Recently while waiting for the oil in our car to be changed, I came to the conclusion that I needed to write an article on scheduling regular Body Tune Ups. If you follow your automobile’s owner’s manual, you will see scheduled times or miles to...
Arthritis: It isn’t just an “old-person” disease
Take a minute before you read my blog to watch this movie clip with Ben Stiller where he is told he has arthritis by a doctor and sort of freaks out (because he doesn't think he's old enough). [video width="1280" height="720"...
Infant Help: Colic relief
Recently I have been receiving several questions about the use of supplements in infants. Colic is one of those issues that leave a person feeling helpless. If you have ever been around a child with colic it is almost as unpleasant for you as it is the screaming...
Resistant Starch: Adding more to your diet could save your life.
If you have been following my blog, television and radio segments you would know that I am not a big fan of starchy foods. Especially rice, pasta, bread, potato and processed/boxed foods. These foods have contributed to our increases in obesity, diabetes, cancer,...
Sunburns-Treat them inside and out
I think by now we all know about how to avoid sunburn. Regretfully, it still happens. Last week I was at the Airport in New York and saw a couple that looked like they belonged at a Lobster Boil. I have even been burned (so to speak) recently by failing to pack...
Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome
Due to a constant increase in people with diabetes, pre-diabetes and metabolic syndrome, I felt it would be a good idea for a quick refresher course on what supplements can be used to help with blood sugar and insulin resistance issues. Be cognizant that supplements...
Hydration Tips: Not just because you’re thirsty
Water- Perhaps the most critical nutrient! It is estimated that 60 percent of your body weight is water. Staying hydrated is the key to so many aspects of health. Most people take water for granted. We don’t usually think about staying hydrated until those warmer...
Top 5 Killing Diseases in America
According to the CDC website, over the past 75 years the top 3 killing diseases have not changed. Heart disease, cancer and stroke lead the way and according to a recent information found on their site, the top 5 diseases that are killing Americans are: Heart Disease...
Antioxidants-Free radicals eliminators
So no doubt you have probably heard of antioxidants by now, but why do we take them? The answer is simple; we are constantly being bombarded by “Free Radicals”. We only ever hear about taking antioxidants because they are good for you and never hear or understand what...
Which Diet is best for you?
When it comes to weight loss, there's no shortage of diet plans. Check any magazine rack, and you're bound to see the latest and greatest diet plans. The question is this though, how do you know if a diet plan fits your needs and lifestyle? Before you begin, ask...
Want a healthy child: Use more fats
The role of fats and children’s health is nothing less than critical. Too often when we hear the word fat or fats our brain tells us to run screaming the other direction. In the case of our discussion on building a strong foundational supplement program for your...
Carbs 101
Popular low-carb diets like Zone, Atkins, South Beach, and Paleo limit the intake of carbs yet I don’t believe that many people understand what they are or if they are really good/bad for you. As I watched a recent television infomercial (yes I was up late one night)...
The Power of Vitamin D
In the past several years I have spent numerous hours researching Vitamin D and the truth behind the correct amounts to take and more. Why? There seems to be a ton of confusion revolving around Vitamin D. What form do I take? How much should I take? Can’t I get enough...
Glycemic Index and its impact on your health
For years I have written on weight loss, blood sugar, heart disease, cancer and just about every condition under the sun. One thing I haven’t ever covered is the Glycemic Index (GI) and its impact on your health. The glycemic index, or GI, measures how a...
Are You Getting Enough K2? I doubt it
VITAMIN K As parents, we realize in the delivery room how important Vitamin K is right out of the gate. One of the first shots your child will ever get is a shot of Vitamin K. Why? Babies are born with a Vitamin K deficiency. This deficiency makes newborns more...
Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome
Due to a constant increase in people with diabetes, pre-diabetes and metabolic syndrome, I felt it would be a good idea for a quick refresher course on what supplements can be used to help with blood sugar and insulin resistance issues. Be cognizant that supplements...
Are supplements regulated by the Government
Is the natural product industry regulated? This is a very common question and misunderstood area of natural medicine. For me as a pharmacist and health expert, it is imperative the products (supplements, foods, etc.) that I suggest effective, but that they also are...
Simple steps to Guarantee Succeeding with your Resolutions
My concepts are Foundational and Fundamental ideas on achieving your Goals. Whether or not your goal is directly related to your health or not doesn’t really matter. The information I share will help you in whatever your goals may be. To reach your goal, you must...
New Years Resolution- Weight Loss?
Admit it, it is much easier to pop a pill than to eat less and get more activity. (This is the secret to weight loss-consume fewer calories than you burn—unless you have a metabolic disorder) In order to lose one pound, you need to burn 3500 calories. Simply put, if...
Mental Clarity: Are your thoughts cloudy?
Mental clarity issues are becoming a very hot topic these days. Parents now come to me looking for something to help their children as well as themselves. There are a multitude of reasons we can suffer from decreased “mental” power. Issues like not enough sleep,...
Managing Chronic Pain Naturally
When I ask people what is the most prevalent chronic illness, chronic pain isn’t even mentioned. Conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and stroke are usually mentioned long before someone says anything remotely related to pain. Shockingly though, chronic...
Giving: A great way to heal
In a day and age when most of us are thinking about ourselves, along comes a bright and shining star-Vitamin Angels. Vitamin Angel’s is a non-profit organization that connects children under five with essential nutrients, giving them the chance for a brighter future....
Hidden Weight Loss Solutions
Over the past several months I have created a firestorm of backlash on posts about how to lose weight or even recently asking the question “If a child is significantly overweight, should it be considered child abuse?” First, let me say that I am more than both...
Healthy Digestion 101
Too often we overlook the importance of taking care of this part of our body until something goes wrong with it. Conditions such as Heart Burn, Acid Reflux, GURD, Diarrhea, Constipation, IBS, IBD, Crohn’s, Leaky Gut Syndrome are getting out of control yet most of us...
Sorting out the B.S. about Cholesterol
Abnormal Blood Fats I toiled with the title of this section for a few minutes. Everything I read spoke of cholesterol and lipids, but those phrases didn’t work for me. The reason I called this section abnormal blood fats is that depending on which component we are...
How to build a strong supplement foundation
My simple approach is to start building your supplement program from the bottom up. Even the Bible says that a strong foundation is built on rock or deep in the ground. The same thing holds true with our health. In order to build a stronger and healthier you, we need...
Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) Solutions
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are very common. It is estimated that just over 10 percent of women have this type of infection each year. It is also estimated that over half of women will have at least one UTI in their lifetime. What is even more serious are about 10...
Why use supplements?
I am often challenged by dieticians who claim that we can get all the nutrients we need from our everyday diet. Perhaps 100 years or so ago that was possible. In our modern days of genetically modified, pesticide and fertilizer covered, hormone injected, antibiotic...
How to build your own supplement program
Regardless of your current state of health - "healthy as a horse" or "one foot in the grave" - my four part program will have a significant impact on how you feel. Most of you who have been a loyal reader of this newsletter, attendee of my seminars, or listener of my...
Is Beauty only Skin Deep?
Start Inside-out! Wow is that a painful question! With the rise in sexy magazine covers and the desire to look like the cover girl or guy, Americans are constantly looking for the way to look and feel better. Is beauty only skin deep? My experience is that you need to...
Using Tonics to improve your health
For over a year now, I have made the shift back to using mostly herbs as part of my supplement program. My foundational supplements now include what are better known as tonics. In short, tonics are herbal in nature and provide nutritional support to a particular area...
Sciatic issues? This is a must-read
Lower Back Problems-Sciatica Sciatica occurs when there is pain, numbness or tingling in the lower back or down one leg. This discomfort comes from pressure on the sciatic nerve as it leaves the spinal cord into the lower back. With more severe cases, people...
Foundational Digestive Health
A few years ago I wrote a series of articles entitled 4-Steps to building a healthier you. In those steps, I covered; how to build your own personalized supplement program, the importance of cleansing/detoxification, using Superfoods as part of your everyday...
What’s in your bottle?
Are you getting what you paid for? I don’t often get time during my busy day to sit down and watch television, but recently was able to catch a popular health show. The segment was discussing weight loss. It is almost ironic that in the past few weeks I have seen this...
David Foreman talks herbal remedies for flu season
Herbal Pharmacist David Foreman’s Tips on Surviving Super Bowl Parties
Age Related Cognitive Decline
Is your memory going bad because you have too many trains on the track or because you are in the beginning stages of Age-related Cognitive Decline (ARCD)? We all expect to lose a bit of our memory as we age. I remember my Grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease...
Seasonal Depression-SAD
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a form of depression that begins in autumn or early winter and generally lasts from 5-7 months until spring. The early loss of sunlight in the winter appears to induce chemical changes in the brain that bring on depression. When...
Back to School Tips – ADD, ADHD and Immune Guide
Back to school is here. Where did the summer go? With back to school come many health issues that can be approached very simply with my 4 Pillars of great health. The biggest issues facing moms and dads at this time of year are keeping the kids healthy and the issue...
Age Related Cognitive Decline – ARCD
While working in my pharmacy I had a regular customer who came in monthly to purchase her memory pills (lecithin). She would walk in and say “Dave, I need my memory pills” and reach down and pick up a bottle and walk to the register. One day several months later, she...
Energy Solutions
This article isn’t about the price of gasoline but the fact that millions of Americans are running out of physical and emotional energy. I am not referring directly to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in this article, but the growing number of people who suffer from being...
Nattokinase
In 1980, Doctor Hiroyuki Sumi was in the middle of searching for a natural agent that had thrombolytic effects (able to break up blood clots). The enzyme he was looking for would be able to dissolve the clots associated with heart attacks and stroke. After testing...
Stop Smoking
With Lung Cancer awareness month upon us, I thought it would be most appropriate to help those of you who are still smoking quit. I often get asked why I don’t tell people to stop smoking. The answer is very simple; everyone knows that smoking is bad for you. Heck,...
Free Radical Damage
You have probably heard of antioxidants by now, but why do we take them? The answer is simple; we are constantly being bombarded by “Free Radicals”. We only ever hear about taking antioxidants because they are good for you and never hear or understand what they are...
Back to School Tips
Back to school is here. Where did the summer go? With back to school come many health issues that can be approached very simply with my 4 Pillars of great health. The biggest issues facing moms and dads at this time of year are keeping the kids healthy and the issue...
Keeping Hydrated
It is estimated that 60 percent of your body weight is water. Staying hydrated is the key to so many aspects of health. Most people take water for granted. We don’t usually think about staying hydrated until those warmer months and we are sweating buckets....
Cleansing
Why is cleansing so important or do you really need to cleanse at all? Let’s take a look at the body. The body is sort of like a car. You take in fuel, burn it and get energy and exhaust. If this exhaust isn’t vented from your car it will begin to run poorly and...
Purchasing Supplement Guide
When you purchase a drug, you generally know exactly what you are getting. Drugs are single chemicals that can be measured and quantified down to their molecular structure. Thus a tablet of extra-strength Tylenol® contains 500 mg of acetaminophen, no matter where or...
Hydration
It is estimated that 60 percent of your body weight is water. Staying hydrated is the key to so many aspects of health. Most people take water for granted. We don’t usually think about staying hydrated until those warmer months and we are sweating buckets....
4 Steps to Building a Healthy You – Part 1
Step 1- Using the right combination of dietary supplements The big question is "What is the right combination of supplements?" Most people I speak with take supplements based on what they hear from their friends, commercials or read about. When we hear about something...
Putting out the Fire – Acid Reflux and Heartburn
Have you ever noticed that a great majority of commercials on TV are for heartburn medications such as Prilosec®, Tagamet®, and Tums®? It’s probably because an estimated 40% of the adult population suffers from heartburn. Americans now spend more than $8 billion...
Indigestion during the Holidays
All that special holiday food often causes even the healthiest eaters to overindulge causing heartburn, reflux, indigestion and bloating. Perhaps you are eating too much protein, or combining the wrong foods. Your solutions could be as simple as a few natural...
Liver Gallbaldder Flush
Suggested at least twice each year for prevention. For liver congestion, gallstones, llactic acid build-up (anxiety), eliminates shoulder, upper arm, and upper back pain or use for general health improvement. Ingredients you will need: 1/2 Cup Olive Oil Extra Virgin...
Probiotics – Friendly Bacteria
Probiotics are the beneficial or good bacteria for the body. These bacteria (as well as others) are normal inhabitants of the large and small intestines. Probiotic bacteria inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria, promote good digestion, boost immune function, and...
Fiber
When it comes to fiber there are two types available; soluble and insoluble. Both are required for optimal health. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and can be found in many fruits, vegetables and grains. It helps reduce cholesterol, regulate blood sugar and feed the...
Sports Supplements
Whether you are a weekend warrior or a world class athlete, your needs for additional supplementation is critical and perhaps life saving. Yes, life saving! The purpose of this feature article is to help you understand what supplements you can use to enhance your...
Diabetes
This article is not going to directly address the disease Diabetes, but some of the recommendations would definitely apply to those with high blood sugar issues. It is estimated that about 40+ million Americans have blood sugar control issues. My belief, as with most...
Rosacea
Do you blush a lot? Does your face redden easily? You could be one of over 14 million Americans with Rosacea. The exact cause of rosacea is unknown. One thing we know for sure is the condition consists of flushing, which turns into red coloration from the dilation of...
Acne Rosacea
Acne Rosacea: Not a healthy glow. Do you blush a lot? Does your face redden easily? You could be one of over 14 million Americans with Rosacea. The exact cause of rosacea is unknown. One thing we know for sure is the condition consists of flushing, which turns into...