The following description of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) appears on the PubMedHealth page at the US National Library of Medicine for crib death.

“Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the unexpected, sudden death of a child under age 1 in which an autopsy does not show an explainable cause of death.”

A newborn baby or young infant dies, and medical science cannot produce a conclusive explanation. Perhaps this is where common sense and reason can be applied in order to demystify SIDS with complete certainty. Truly, the causes are as obvious as night and day.

What is quite interesting is that the same PubMed web page offers the following anecdotal evidence under the heading “Causes, incidence, and risk factors”

“SIDS rates have dropped dramatically since 1992, when parents were first told to put babies to sleep on their backs or sides to reduce the likelihood of SIDS. Unfortunately, SIDS remains a significant cause of death in infants under one year old. Thousands of babies die of SIDS in the United States each year. SIDS is most likely to occur between 2 and 4 months of age. SIDS affects boys more often than girls. Most SIDS deaths occur in the winter.”

Because of the many mixed messages from the medical establishment concerning SIDS, many parents are often left in the dark when an infant dies and the cause of death is identified as SIDS. This label is not a very effective way of helping the parent(s) bring closure to what is always a very traumatic event in their lives.

What we hope to do with this session is bring clarity and focus, so that parent or parents-to-be are fully apprised of the realities in the life of a newborn or very young infant.  Continue reading →

The Health Coach was compelled to write this critique of HCG Ultra Diet Drops (HCG) because of the number of people whose email accounts have been hacked since the original product has been ‘taken over’ by so many other wannabe companies. HCG Ultra is one of the ‘latest and greatest’ diet fads to hit the marketplace and has made true believers out of many previously overweight people. It therefore demands serious scrutiny and investigation.

However before we even go there, let’s consider some of the basic laws concerning body weight and proper calorie intake.
• There never is a quick fix unless that fix involves Ayurvedic body type dieting, regular exercise, sound sleep, refraining from eating processed junk food, avoidance of prescription drugs, among several other key lifestyle practices

• No matter what the weight loss program, lose it fast and you’re subjecting your body to a process or substance which you’ll likely regret down the road

• When you’re counting calories 24/7, there is an inordinate focus on the symptoms instead of the true causes of obesity. As long as calories reigns supreme in one’s crusade against fat, a lasting cure will remain elusive. And so it has for millions of Americans

• When the treatment involves a synthetic drug or concentrated isolate (natural or synthetic) or artificial stimulus of some other origin, there are bound to be unintended consequences which will appear the longer one takes them

• No matter what the cause of being overweight, the emotional and mental components of the dis-ease of obesity must be address if a permanent healing is to occur  Continue reading →

Can you imagine having surgery which permanently shrinks your stomach while at the same time makes alterations to the GI tract in order to bypasse an integral length of your intestine — the duodenum. Wow! How did we ever get to this point in the weight loss industry?!

Also known as Bariatric surgery, Gastric bypass surgery (GBS) is prescribed to treat not only morbid obesity, but also Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, and other so-called co-morbid conditions.

Did you get that? The same operation used to treat serious cases of morbid obesity is now used to treat sleep apnea, hypertension and diabetes. Perhaps you now see how the surgical profession likes to take over any area of health where they can run a LOT of patients through their ambulatory surgery centers.

As you can see, we are not at all happy with this trend as health coaches. It represents the epitome of treating disease with a scalpel when these conditions ought to be managed with a holistic approach, natural therapies and integrative medicine. When you rearrange a vital organ like the stomach and forever alter the intestinal tract, the body is moved past a point of no return, often with serious consequences.

As is usually the case, most people who opt for bariatric surgery have no clue what they are really setting themselves up for. The surgeons, who have very little business in the weight loss industry, go to great lengths to practice non-disclosure about the unintended consequences of such an invasive and disfiguring operation.   Continue reading →

Lyme disease is the quintessential Multi-Infection Syndrome (MIS). Having been around for some time and studied by many in both the allopathic and holistic fields, we can now say with certainty that Lyme disease manifests differently depending on which types of pathogenic micro-organisms are present.

You see, like many of these New Millennium Maladies, Lyme disease (LD) can show up with a number of different symptoms, depending on the many different co-factors involved and which precise microbial cocktail* happens to be the one which found a nice ‘home’ in the conducive bio-terrain.

*A microbial cocktail refers to the multiple pathogenic micro-organisms which constitute a syndrome like Lyme disease, each triggering particular phases of the disease process. These ‘cocktails’ often contain various components such a bacteria, virus, fungus, parasite and mycoplasma and can occur in various combinations.
For example, Lyme disease is known to have the following multiple infections co-existing at one time, or manifesting over the evolution of the syndrome. It’s important to note that all of these pathogenic micro-organisms may be present in the same individual; likewise, only the Lyme borreliosis may be found for one who suffers from Lyme disease. Each case of LD is different and will often present symptoms which are both similar to and diverging from the established LD clinical profile. Continue reading →

Smartphones are here to stay. Smartphones are radically changing the way we live our lives. Smartphones are causing different health crises, most of which remain under the radar until they seemingly emerge out of nowhere.

The headline below speaks directly to two different health concerns which are becoming more pervasive and serious by the day.

Smartphone users ‘risking health’ with overuse of devices

Those two health problems are posture and addiction.

If you use a smartphone, consider for a moment your posture when you’re focused on the small keypad. Think about how often you assume this posture. And then contemplate that this may be your predominant posture toward life … toward the world … toward your job.

The longer we maintain an ergonomically incorrect posture, the quicker the body will react with some form of compensation. Usually that means either neck pain or back pain. And usually we fail to make the connection because who would relate the overuse of a smartphone, tablet and laptop to a lower back pain. Like we said, compensation —> wherever it decides to show up in your body.   Continue reading →

That’s a pretty serious statement, especially in Western society that is considered clean and hygienic. Now consider the following headline that recently appeared in the mainstream media.

Fecal Matter Hiding in Hotel Rooms

What this article highlights is a status quo in the hospitality industry that is not too different than the homes of the great majority of Americans. We have all known for years that hotels and motels, restaurants and bars are quite unsanitary and unhygienic. The truth be told, these establishments are shockingly filthy and unsafe from a strictly hygiene standpoint.

Referring to the article above, it is clear that it is impossible for these food and accommodation businesses to maintain a truly clean and hygienic environment. Absolutely impossible in this day and age! Therefore, one ought to approach them with this accurate understanding.

Where are we going with this?  Continue reading →

Life in 2012! Has living ever been so stressful?

Do you feel the compression of time? Is there more to do with less time to do it?

Do the seasons come and go more quickly? Are the months flipping by with extraordinary speed?

We all know the answers, but many are not aware of the effects.

As an example, many people now suffer from chronic insomnia. While there are many co-factors which contribute to this condition, perhaps the most common one is the presence of too much cortisol in your system at night when you retire to sleep. Even if every thing else is right for you to experience a good night’s sleep, this imbalance will prevent you from sleeping well.

Cortisol is also known as the stress hormone. As such it is secreted at much higher levels during the body’s fight or flight response to stress. It is also found at its highest levels in the morning and the lowest at night. Herein lies the problem, especially for those who cannot get to sleep, or stay asleep.   Continue reading →

Are you at risk? How so, and what you can do?

As Global Climate Change manifests more and more in the form of regional warming on many parts of the globe, the northward migration of insect-bearing parasites and the spreading of disease becomes more common. Chagas Disease is one of those diseases from the South which is quickly gaining a foothold in North America. Known as American trypanosomiasis throughout South America it has long established itself as the disease of the poor and one which is very difficult and expensive to treat.

Take a good look at this reduvid bug (Rhodnius prolixus is the principal vector of Chagas transmission throughout Central and South America.)

Continue reading →

Pharmaceutical drug interactions have not been studied closely by the Medical-Pharmaceutical Complex for two reasons.

First, there are simply so many pharmaceutical medications on the market that the cost to do so would be prohibitive. Prohibitive to their profit-taking, certainly not prohibitive relative to the enormous revenues that they take in each and every year.

Second, these same companies have a vested interest not to conduct such revelatory clinical trials since they would expose startling realities.

There are other reasons why you will find only so many high integrity research studies performed with the explicit purpose of informing the buying public about this serious health matter. Yes, there is a catalogue of anecdotal evidence which is maintained and updated, but only so far does it really disclose the true state of affairs in the realm of drug interactions. In fact, the extremely dangerous side effects from mixing various drugs (including alcohol) are responsible for all types of mental illness, emotional imbalance, psychological maladies and psychiatric conditions.

We are encroaching on an area of health and wellness that affects us all. Especially those of us who have grandparents or parents who are older and are currently taking regimes of pharmaceutical medications three times a day for the rest of their lives. Many of us have witnessed first hand the various forms of bizarre behavior, anti-social performances and aberrant conduct which the older folks sometimes exhibit as they age. Mind you, this radical change in their psychological profile is often completely out of character.   Continue reading →

Goji berries are just one of a long succession of highly touted ‘superfoods’ marketed by MLMs and health food companies alike. For years now they have been trotted across the stage of “the next best and greatest health food you can eat today and every day of your life”. Also known as wolfberries, boxthorn, lycium fruit, and matrimony vine fruit, these small dried berries belong to the Nightshade Family of plants, which can make them particularly dangerous to those who have exceeded their capacity to properly digest them.

Wherever it concerns the regular ingestion of Nightshades, we highly recommend deliberate moderation. Surely you remember when momma used to warn you about eating the little red poisonous berries out in the wild. That’s because a good number of those red berry bearing plants belong to the Nightshade family.   Continue reading →