Blog
Coffee as a Medicinal Herb
Over the past year-or-so, I have been following this gradual
embrace of coffee as a health food. Some even promote coffee alongside medicinal herbs. While this was a little frustrating and concerning at first, the use of
coffee as if it were a therapeutic substance is becoming so pervasive that it is time to say
something about it.Don't buy (literally and figuratively) the coffee hype.Coffee is Not a Health Food and Coffee is Not a Medicinal PlantSure, it may be temping to think of it as such
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Feb 04, 2015
What is Qi
The
Ephemeral Qi; the Substantial Qi
Qi is not
an abstraction. It is not esoteric nor strictly the material of the mystics.
While in the US and other western countries we imbue qi with a deep sense of
other-worldliness, steeped in new age mythology, qi is actually just a simple,
almost colloquial, way to describe energy. In traditional Chinese, for
instance, the word weather is written as 天氣, tiān qi. To be angry is to have
rising qi (dú qì). Qi is quite simply—and completely complica
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Feb 02, 2015
Stress, Biological Aging, and Telomeres
Stress: It Doesn't Just Feel Like It’s Killing You
How Stress Shortens Telomeres Length and Leads to Early Aging
I have written extensively here at our blog about both the importance of reducing stress in achieving a vibrant, healthy, and long life, and also about the complicated role that telomeres have on the human lifespan.
In fact, I recently sent out to our
Facebook followers a link to an article recently published by Stanford University, where researchers were able to
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Jan 29, 2015
Foraging a Deeper Connection
The Micro and Macro, the Self and the Universe
Everyone is talking about the "New Year" and a "new you." How about the old you? How about reconnecting with who we really are?
Foraging a Deeper Connection
Jan 05, 2015
Beautiful and Sad Ocean Health Gifs
What have we done to our Oceans?
And what were we thinking? Isn't it interesting how our lives depend on water yet we waste it, dump our trash and (human) waste into it, treat the oceans as both the world's largest toilets and also the world's largest grocery store? I really believe a psychoanalyst would have a field day thinking about this highly dysfunctional relationships as many humans have with water. Yet the survival of our species depends--completely and absolutely--on healthy oceans
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Nov 29, 2014
Gut Bacteria and the Blood Brain Barrier
The Gut → Brain Health Connection
One of the most interesting and telling things about the
blood brain barrier is the vast similarity between the cells which make up the blood brain barrier and the cells which line the small intestine, forming a barrier between what is essentially outside the body and what is inside the body.
In looking at the histology (the study of cells) of the body, it is no surprise at all that the foods we eat and the health of our gut will have a direct impac
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Nov 22, 2014
Comprehensive Nutritional Analysis of Pine Pollen
The Nutrition of Pine Pollen
Customers have been asking recently for more information on the nutrition of Pine Pollen. Like most of the research on Pine Pollen, the research done in identifying the nutritional components of Pine Pollen has all been published in Chinese and has yet to be translated. This makes doing research, as an English speaker in the US, difficult.
But we did it.
Because of the difficulty in locating and understanding the research, we have worked
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Nov 15, 2014
Health, Meditation, and the Mind Body Connection
The Necessary Mind Body Connection
"It was always obvious to the ancients wisdom traditions that mind and body were interconnected but somewhere along the line we created a dichotomy as if they were different" -- The Connection: Mind Your Body
Meditation has been gaining popularity in the west now for several decades, but a unique combination of factors (technology advancements, social advancements, a real need for meditation) has resulted in a real blooming of interest into meditation, t
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Nov 08, 2014
Expanded Intended Uses Page
Navigating the Improved Intended Uses Page
In an increasing effort to help you find the products that most interest you we have expanded the
Intended Uses page at our website. Previously--and unfortunately--this page did not serve our customers as well as we would have liked. But with the launch of our new website we have giving this page a serious reworking.
When you visit the
Intended Uses page you'll now find six highly easy to navigate categories for helping select whi
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Oct 31, 2014
BPA and Store Receipts
Lurking Endocrine Disruptors and Learning to Avoid Them
The association between store receipts and
Bisphenol A (BPA) grabbed headlines a few years ago (2010-2011), prompting some stores to switch to BPA-free receipts while most others continued to use them. BPA is commonly found in thermal print paper, including the silky-smooth receipts often received with groceries, making it a prevalent endocrine-disrupting environmental contaminant.
The debate surrounding the safety of BPA con
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Oct 30, 2014