Introduction Fertility—the ability to have children—is dependent on many different factors. It can depend on anatomy, genetics and family history, medical history, the health of the hormonal system—in both women and men—AND on your overall health and nutritional status. There is some information that some vitamin and mineral supplements CAN have a positive effect on …
Part 2 So, in Part 1, we described the basic mechanics of the immune system, how it has evolved two arms (innate and acquired), how it uses two basic types of responses (humoral or antibody-based and cellular) to kill off, neutralize and/or remove disease-causing pathogens. Now—more on the active role you can take for yourself …
Part 1: How Vaccines Work To better understand how vaccines work, first, a few basic facts about the immune system.(1) The Immune System The basic function of the immune system is to “screen” the body for what is “self” and what is “non-self”. It does this by “looking” for antigens—small molecules (or parts of bigger …
Since ancient times, almost every civilization across the world has traditionally included at least one fermented food in their diet. Kimchi, miso, sauerkraut, and kefir are just a few among these. Cultured dairy products have been around since 10,000 B.C. Yogurt, of course, is by far the most common fermented milk product. Recently, there is …
12 Research-Backed Health Benefits of Probiotics Read More »
Magnesium—An Introduction Magnesium—Atomic #12, alkaline earth metal—described and known as an element by 1775. In a sense, magnesium is a year older than the United States! Found in the 2nd column, 3rd row of the Periodic Table of Elements, it is the 8th most common element on earth. Magnesium is usually abbreviated as “Mg”. For a chemist, that …
A growing number of studies show that probiotics can do more than just improve your gut health – they can improve your brain health too. While we don’t yet know exactly how they take advantage of the relationship between the gut and brain, there is evidence that probiotics can help reduce symptoms of depression and …
In “Probiotic 101” we talked about the basics of what the microbiome was and what probiotics (and prebiotics) can do to support overall health. In this article, we are going to go a bit deeper into how this works and how (and what) you do can either support or harm the microbiome. A glossary of …
Lots of people tend to react with an “eeeeeewwww” when they realize that we have (or SHOULD have) about 100 TRILLION bacteria living in our guts. We are so used to thinking of ALL bacteria as nasty “germs” it took quite a few years before mainstream medicine latched on to the concept that gut bacteria …
