General thoughts on health: the basics:

General thoughts on health: the basics:

Human health is a very complicated matter. However, there are a few basic guidelines that should be useful to almost everyone: maintain a reasonable weight, get enough sleep, get regular moderate exercise and eat a well balanced diet. I'm sure that we've all heard this before. Besides taking a daily dose of multiple vitamins and minerals, other dietary supplements may be of use: Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Beta-carotene, L-lysine, Alpha-lipoic acid, Niacinamide and Co-enzyme Q-10. There are many fine books on dietary supplements. Find one that intelligently discusses these supplements and you will be well informed. Also, in this book there is a section devoted to a discussion of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other dietary supplements.

Note: strongly toxic herbs have not been listed in this section, except as insecticides, insect repellents and folk aphrodisiacs.

Note: for any serious health problem, seek competent medical help immediately.

We need to have medicinal herbs accurately labeled and regularly tested for purity. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the organization that should insure that medicinal herbs are properly labeled and also tested for purity.

It should be obvious that from the size of these lists of ailments and possible remedies that there is a strong need for more scientific double-blind testing of medicinal herbs. The German government has lead the way in this effort. Their results have been published by the German Commission E. It is time for the U. S. Food and Drug Administration to follow suit and sponsor some of these tests on medicinal herbs.

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This web page was recently created by James Sayre.

Contact author James K. Sayre at sayresayre@yahoo.com. Author's Email: sayresayre@yahoo.com

Web page last updated on 4 June 2003.