I firmly believe that getting plenty of pure, clean water (at least eight to 10, eight-ounce glasses per day) is a must. However, water isn’t the focus of this particular story. There are a handful of other beverages out there that not only satisfy thirst but also confer multiple health benefits.

Tea-ing Off
Hot, iced, green, black, chai, jasmine: It’s tea time around the world. In America alone, more than 127 million people drink tea daily, and for good reason. Next to water, tea is one of the healthiest beverages on the planet.

Green Tea. Known for its therapeutic polyphenols, which have proven protective against cancer, heart disease, and even cavities, this health-enhancing tea was recently shown in lab tests to block the HIV virus from attaching to healthy immune system cells. This is just one more example of how green tea continues to prove useful in the medical arena.

Black Tea. Black tea accounts for nearly 80 percent of all tea consumption worldwide, and here in the US, a whopping 90 percent of the tea we drink is black. Not a bad choice, considering this type of tea has been shown to reduce risk of skin cancer, lower LDL cholesterol, and protect against heart attack and cardiovascular disease.

White Tea. Less well known than its black and green counterparts, white tea boasts its own health benefits—along with a sweeter, milder taste. Because it is processed from younger buds and leaves, white tea contains lower levels of caffeine. Even more important, when green, black, white, and oolong teas were tested for their ability to hinder pre-cancerous mutations in cells, white tea came out on top.

Another bonus? The caffeine and polyphenols in tea are thermogenic agents, meaning they help boost weight loss by revving up the rate at which your body burns fat.

Ale for What Ails You
While wine has cornered the market in recent years, both in sales and purported health benefits, beer is starting to make a comeback—Americans drink more than 220 million barrels per year. They just may be on to something because beer is a boon for a multitude of health conditions.

One is osteoporosis. Everyone knows that calcium plays a role in building strong bones, but silicon is also important. This mineral promotes greater bone mineral density by allowing other bone-boosting minerals to be absorbed into bone tissue. And guess what a primary dietary source of silicon is? That’s right, beer. Furthermore, it’s an exceptionally bioavailable form of silicon.

Beer is also a great source of B complex vitamins and is linked to lower levels of homocysteine and reduced risk of heart attack and stroke. So enjoy an occasional cold one this summer, but don’t forget that the positive effects of alcohol end after one or two daily drinks. Cheers!

Biofeedback for the Brain
Biofeedback is officially defined as “a process that enables an individual to learn how to change physiological activity for the purposes of improving health and performance. Neurofeedback, as its name suggests, is a type of biofeedback that focuses on the brain and central nervous system.

Brain cells communicate with one another via electrical discharges that have varying but predictable frequencies known as brainwaves. For example, when you are mentally engaged, higher frequency beta waves dominate. If you’re resting or relaxing, electrical frequencies slow down and you’re in the alpha state. Theta brainwaves are even slower—it’s that pleasant, ultra-relaxed state you experience just before you drift off to sleep or when you daydream or do repetitious, “no-brainer” tasks. The slowest brainwaves are delta, and they occur during sleep.

Neurofeedback simply identifies patterns associated with negative symptoms and provides feedback that encourages the production of more positive patterns—such as slowing brainwaves down, speeding them up, or acting on excitatory/inhibitory pathways. And, unlike conventional biofeedback, in which you concentrate and willfully try to change physiological reactions, you’re not “telling” your brain to calm down or rev up. This therapy focuses more or less on a subconscious level.

A Typical Session
Before treatment begins, patients usually undergo a quantitative electroencephalogram (EEG, a common diagnostic tool in neurology) that “maps” the electrical activity in the brain and identifies patterns that are likely causing symptoms. During a typical session, electrodes are applied to your scalp that monitor the brain’s electrical impulses and transmit them to a computer. Then you simply sit back and watch a program on the computer screen. If you’re focused and relaxed, you’ll enjoy the images and sounds on the computer. However, when your attention wanders or you become anxious, the pictures and sounds will fade in and out or, depending on the software, change altogether.

At the Whitaker Wellness Institute, we also use brain entrainment during neurofeedback sessions. Patients wear special glasses that employ blinking lights to guide the brain toward specific wavelengths. The end result is an enduring sense of profound calmness and well-being similar to meditation or deep relaxation.

Sessions last about half an hour and are repeated as needed, usually half a dozen to 20 times, or as long as it takes for the patient to be able to normalize their brainwaves on their own.

If you have any of the conditions discussed in this article, neurofeedback is worth a shot. It’s safe, painless, and incredibly effective. To find a practitioner in your area that offers Neurofeedback, visit the International Society for Neurofeedback and Research’s website, isnr.org.

Regardless of the underlying cause, recent research reveals that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) offers new hope for the behavioral, social, language, and emotional problems these children and their families face.

Study findings presented at a meeting of the US Autism and Asperger Association revealed that children with autism who were treated with 40 one-hour sessions of HBOT had marked improvements in cognitive awareness, speech, motivation, communication, and overall health. This has certainly been our experience with the scores of kids who have received HBOT at the Whitaker Wellness Hyperbaric Center. For information on treatment at the clinic, call (800) 488-1500.

Prescription Drugs Can Interfere With Performance
Problem is, some of the medications used to treat these diseases make things even worse. For example, psychotropic drugs are notorious for causing significant sexual dysfunction. Studies suggest that up to 60 percent of the men and women taking Prozac and related SSRI antidepressants have difficulty achieving orgasm. Also problematic are some blood pressure–lowering drugs (especially beta blockers), stimulants, narcotics, antihistamines, sleeping pills, and peptic ulcer and heart meds—more than 130 prescription drugs in all!

Recently, I heard from a subscriber whose husband had been taking a number of drugs that robbed him of his sex drive. It was very frustrating for both of them. He finally got so fed up with feeling lousy on all of his medications that he replaced them with CoQ10, L-arginine, and other nutritional supplements. Now his libido is back and their sex life is “fantastic.”

Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle
Harvard researchers have found that men who eat a good diet, exercise regularly, and maintain their optimal weight are able to delay age-associated erectile dysfunction by about 10 years! Among the bad habits that contribute to sexual problems are drinking too much alcohol, overeating (obesity), and smoking. As you can see, anything you can do to improve your overall health will also improve your sexual function.

HRT to the Rescue
A hallmark of getting older—and what many experts believe to be an underlying cause of aging—is declining levels of hormones. As a woman’s production of estrogen gears down and her monthly cycles cease, the vagina loses elasticity and becomes drier, which makes intercourse difficult and uncomfortable. No wonder some women lose interest in sex! Men, you’re not off the hook either. As testosterone levels fall, erections take longer and are less firm, and libido may take a hit as well.

Fortunately, there’s a solution: hormone replacement therapy. Estrogen can be a lifesaver for women during and after menopause. It relieves hot flashes, improves vaginal tone and dryness, and lifts mood, which often translates into better sexual function. Suffice it to say that bioidentical hormones—exactly like those produced in your body—can be a godsend at this time of life. Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy requires a prescription and must be ordered from a compounding pharmacy. To locate such a pharmacy, contact the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists (IACP) at (800) 927-4227 or iacprx.org.

Testosterone for Men…
I have one thing to say to men who are having sexual difficulties: Give supplemental testosterone a try. Although men don’t experience a defining “event” such as menopause, testosterone production tapers off throughout adulthood. This decline is linked not only with sexual problems but also with increased risk of obesity, loss of muscle and bone mass, heart disease, diabetes, and even death. Supplemental testosterone is an amazing libido lifter. If lack of interest is your problem, I can almost guarantee it will work. But sexual desire isn’t the main problem for most men—it’s erectile dysfunction (ED). And testosterone can also improve function. Given its many benefits, I recommend it as a first-line therapy for this condition.

…and Women
Women who want a libido booster should also talk to their doctors about testosterone. Testosterone is the hormone of desire for women as well as men. A small amount of weak testosterone cream, applied to the skin daily, is the best therapy I know for restoring female sexual desire.

Nonprescription Options
Nonprescription options are also available. One of my favorites for men is the amino acid L-arginine, which is the direct precursor to nitric oxide, a vasodilator that relaxes the arteries and improves blood flow to the penis. For women, I suggest trying DHEA, a hormone that converts into testosterone in the body. Although results aren’t as predictable as with the drugs, supplemental arginine and DHEA have been shown to improve sexual function in several clinical trials—and they don’t require a prescription.

I recognize that sexual problems are a sensitive topic, and there’s no single solution that works for everyone. The good news is, you do have several options. I sincerely hope that these suggestions will help you and your partner enjoy a lifetime of intimacy.

Diet and exercise—plus targeted nutritional supplements—are still cornerstones of the clinic. Patients continue to come and stay for one to three weeks, eat healthy meals prepared by our gourmet chef, engage in exercise, and attend lectures, workshops and a plethora of therapies. Being totally immersed in a wellness lifestyle—especially when you’re surrounded by others who share your challenges and goals—is the easiest way to break old habits and establish new ones. Our patients invariably feel better, lose weight, and gain confidence that they can do this on their own once they return home. Whitaker Wellness is, in a sense, a rejuvenation boot camp.

I want to share with you one of the many letters that I have received from patients who had life-changing experiences after coming to the Whitaker Wellness Institute. This one is from a woman with a long history of diabetes.

“Turning Challenges Into Blessings!”

“I went to the Whitaker Wellness Institute for help with my diabetes, and blood pressure. I’d also been gaining weight and my legs had swollen up like posts. I had so much discomfort that I went to local doctors to try to find what was causing it and tried a variety of different medications, but nothing helped.

“At the Whitaker Wellness Institute, I got the help I needed! My medical doctor there, who is trained in Western and holistic medicine, helped me get off insulin. Yes, I stopped all insulin! I had been taking 170+ units of insulin per day, but my blood sugar was still high, in the 200-300 range. Now it is lower than that—without taking insulin—and my body is now learning to handle its own insulin, with a boost from the vitamins.

“Yes, I am on a diet, but far from an impossible one. I eat vegetables, fruit, meat, nuts, juice, etc., so it’s easy and healthy. I know a lot of my excess weight was built-up fluids, but I’ve lost 23 pounds since changing my diet. I am not thin, nor do I expect to be. But thinner and healthier I do expect!

“Miracles Happen”

“If you have health challenges, the Whitaker Wellness Institute is the place to help you tackle them. It’s not an easy fix, but it is well worth the time and effort. This experience will benefit me for the rest of my life, and I wasn’t alone. I saw many others who were in treatment with me at Whitaker Wellness receive a new lease on life. Miracles happened both weeks I was there—people with all kinds of health conditions getting stronger and better.” — Neena

Lipoic acid is a potent antioxidant that, unlike most antioxidants, is both water- and fat-soluble, making it active in virtually every cell in the body. In addition to neutralizing harmful free radicals, lipoic acid regenerates and increases levels of vitamin C, vitamin E, coenzyme Q10, and glutathione.

But that’s not all. Lipoic acid is also a mitochondrial powerhouse. It not only protects your energy-producing factories from free radical damage, it also helps “prep” the fuel burned in the mitochondria and increases the amount of energy generated. Furthermore, it has a unique ability to neutralize toxins, chelate heavy metals, and protect against DNA damage. These multiple actions make lipoic acid a valuable ally against diabetes, liver damage, cancer, and a host of other diseases — it even slows down aging.

Diabetics’ Best Friend. I had to limit lipoic acid to just one use, it would be for the treatment of diabetes. This supplement not only improves insulin sensitivity and lowers blood sugar, it is also an excellent treatment for deterioration of the arteries, eyes, and especially the nerves that plague so many patients with diabetes.

Bill, a former patient, had such severe diabetic neuropathy that he had constant pain and limited sensation in his limbs, his left leg dragged when he walked, and he was continually dropping things. He started taking lipoic acid after reading about it in this newsletter. Shortly thereafter, the pain subsided, his sensation improved, and his coordination returned.

Incredible as this may seem — especially for a condition that patients are told cannot be treated — it’s an everyday occurrence at the Whitaker Wellness Institute. Used intravenously or as an oral supplement, lipoic acid very effectively reduces pain, numbness, burning, and other unpleasant sensations of neuropathy.

A Lifesaver for Failing Livers. Lipoic acid also shines in the treatment of liver problems. This is most dramatically illustrated by the story of John and Eunice, who were admitted to the hospital in acute liver failure after inadvertently eating Amanita verna, the highly toxic “Destroying Angel” wild mushroom.

Lucky for them, their care was turned over to Burton Berkson, MD, PhD, a medical resident and one of the few doctors in the US at the time who was familiar with the use of lipoic acid for the treatment of liver failure. Although he had been told by the hospital’s chief doctor that nothing could be done for them and that John, who had eaten several mushrooms, would definitely die, Dr. Berkson tracked down some lipoic acid and treated John and Eunice with IV infusions. Within days, they left the hospital completely well. I interviewed them 20 years after this incident, and both were doing just fine.

By using this unconventional treatment, Dr. Berkson ruffled a few feathers. The chief doctor dismissed the role of lipoic acid stating, “They would have come around anyway.” He also refused to allow Dr. Berkson to administer lipoic acid to another couple with the same diagnosis soon thereafter. Dr. Berkson treated them anyway, and it saved their lives. For this good deed, he was rewarded with a furious admonition and labeled a troublemaker.

Rejuvenate Your Liver with Lipoic Acid. We need more troublemakers like Dr. Berkson. Today, he is an internationally recognized clinical expert in the use of lipoic acid, and has helped thousands of patients with liver problems such as hepatitis B and C, autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cirrhosis, and primary sclerosing cholangitis. We use several of his protocols here at Whitaker Wellness, including “triple therapy,” a combination of lipoic acid, silymarin, and selenium that reliably lowers liver enzymes and viral loads and improves symptoms.

A few years ago, I told a teacher at my kids’ school who had hepatitis C and was not responding to conventional treatments about “triple therapy.” Within a couple of weeks of starting on it, he began to feel much better, and his blood workup showed marked improvements. His doctor’s response when he told him what he was doing? “That can’t be true.”

Many More Benefits. This short newsletter can barely scratch the surface of this remarkable supplement. Lipoic acid is also an excellent preventive and adjunct therapy for cardiovascular disease, AIDS and immunosuppression, vision problems such as cataracts and glaucoma, and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Other current areas of research include lipoic acid’s ability to increase energy, decrease appetite, and inhibit inflammation-related bone loss.

For all of these reasons and more, I recommend that everyone over age 45, no matter how healthy they are, include alpha lipoic acid in their daily supplement regimen.

Let’s take a look at some unusual, yet treatable—causes for this very common condition.

Control GERD, Eliminate Coughing. Coughing isn’t always initiated in the respiratory system. Another leading trigger is gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). This condition affects the lower esophageal sphincter muscle, which opens to let food and liquids pass into the stomach and closes to prevent backup of stomach contents. When this muscle becomes lax or weak, stomach acids flow back (reflux) into the esophagus. Although heartburn and indigestion are the signature symptoms of GERD, these strong acids can also cause difficulty swallowing, hoarseness, sore throat, and persistent cough.

I urge you to try a safe, inexpensive supplement called deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL). We use DGL at Whitaker Wellness to treat all types of gastrointestinal problems because it protects and regenerates the mucosal cells in the digestive tract. It is particularly effective for heartburn and GERD—and, in some cases, chronic cough as well. I had a patient whose constant cough and adult-onset asthma completely resolved after she began taking DGL.

Could It Be a Vitamin B12 Deficiency? Another hidden problem that may contribute to chronic cough is sensory neuropathy. Damage to nerves in the larynx can lead to hypersensitivity and increased responsiveness to allergens, reflux, and other irritants. Fortunately, there is a solution: increasing levels of vitamin B12, which is required for optimal neurological function and is a well-documented treatment for neuropathies of all kinds.

If you have an unresolved cough, give vitamin B12 supplements (1,000 mcg daily) a try. There’s an erroneous belief that injections or sublingual tablets are the only way to raise blood levels of this vitamin, but oral B12 works just fine. It’s safe, well tolerated—and just might be the answer to your chronic cough.

Drugs Could Be the Problem. Finally, do not overlook the possibility that chronic cough may be iatrogenic, or inadvertently caused by medical treatment, in this case by drugs. ACE inhibitors, a popular class of medications for heart disease, hypertension, and heart failure, promote a chronic dry cough in one in four patients who take them—and it’s severe enough that a good percentage of them discontinue the drug.

Beta-blockers, also used to treat cardiovascular issues, are problematic as well, though to a much lesser degree. If you’re taking either of these meds, talk to your doctor about replacing them, preferably with side effect–free, nondrug therapies.

Most people with COPD aren’t diagnosed until at least 50 percent of their lung capacity is gone, and this degree of damage makes it an uphill battle. But given the scarcity of conventional treatments, these natural therapies are certainly worth a try.

1. Stay Mentally Sharp
We lose about two percent of our brain volume every decade as we get older. Although this is a normal part of aging, accelerated atrophy is linked with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. British researchers studied annual blood tests and MRI scans of older men and women and found that those with the lowest blood levels of vitamin B12 had a sixfold greater risk of excessive brain volume loss.

2. Prevent Cardiovascular Disease
An elevated level of homocysteine—a toxic amino acid that damages the arteries—is a well-established risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Several clinical trials have demonstrated that supplemental folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12, which lower homocysteine, reduce risk of stroke, heart attack, and other cardiovascular problems.

3. Boost Your Energy
Vitamin B12 is an excellent energy booster. We offer B12 and magnesium injections at the clinic, and they’re so energizing that some patients learn how to self-inject so they can continue them at home. High doses of oral B12 also improves energy, especially in people who have low levels to begin with.

4. Lift Your Mood
Folic acid, B6, and B12 also improve mood. These vitamins play an indirect, but critical role in the formation of serotonin and other neurotransmitters, and deficiencies—as well as high levels of homocysteine—are linked with mood disorders. Although B-complex vitamins are not a stand-alone treatment for depression, they’re an important adjunct.

5. Get a Handle on Migraines
Researchers from “Down Under” have discovered that people who have migraines with aura are more likely to have mutations in a gene that leads to elevated levels of homocysteine. When they gave these migraine sufferers high doses of folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 for six months, their homocysteine levels fell by 39 percent and their migraine disability scores were cut in half.

How much should you take?
Forget about the RDAs. As an example, the RDA of B12 for adults is just 2.4 mcg per day. Dutch researchers found that normalizing a mild B12 deficiency, however, required between 647 and 1,032 mcg—300–500 times more than the RDA!

Doses listed are for daily consumption and should be taken in divided doses with meals unless otherwise noted.

Age-Related Memory Loss

Blood Pressure Support

Blood Sugar Support

Cardiovascular Health

Cholesterol Support

Digestive Health

Fatigue/Low Energy

Mood Support

Pain

Respiratory Health

Weight Loss

+ Must be administered in a physician’s office.