Health News & Views You Can Use

derekartmug.jpgDerek Clontz Herb and Health Report

Question for Derek? Give him a jingle at 1-800-215-4682 or send him an email at derekclontz@gmail.com . If you know Derek, it will be like old times. If you haven't met him yet, get ready to make a friend for life. He can help  you.

 

What you don't know about macular degeneration CAN hurt you. Knowledge is power, people. Spead the word!

Click to read this important report. Share it with family and friends who may be at risk 

 

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Biofilms and Chronic Illness - if you are chronically ill, there is an eight out of 10 chance biofilm is making it harder for your to get well - National Institutes of Health and Science Direct REPORT

Click to read this potentially life-changing - and -saving - report

 

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Derek, Why did the FDA tell companies to stop using Expiration Dates on dietary supplements, and for that matter, EVERY FOOD in the grocery store with only one exception - Baby Formula? What's going on? - Marla in Kannapolis, NC

Thank you for writing, Marla. A LOT of people are confused, primarily because they believed expiration dates, first required by the FDA in the early 1970, actually meant something which, of course, has never been true. Expiration Dates are pulled more or less out of thin air because it's next to impossible to prove how long any given food, herb or vitamin can sit on a shelf without losing potency or, for example, growing mold. The reason?  Manufacturers know how they store their products, and if that's all they had to worry about, it wouldn't be to hard or too expensive to determine the shelf life. But once the product is sold and leaves the manufacturer's facility, there's no telling how the products will be stored. Here at Nature's Trust and Susan's Herbs, we store all supplements at 72 degrees F around the clock all the year through because extremes of temperature contributes to the degradation of supplements. We keep moisture - humidity - within a tight range that is considered to be ideal for the storage of supplments. And all herbs are stored in dark rooms to protect them from sunlight and bright artificial light that are not conducive to the preservation of potency. But we have no idea how consumers are going to store them. And, unfortunately, too many people pay no attention and, for example, keep their supplements in sunny windowsills in their kitchens or bathrooms, both of which are exposed to excessive moisture and heat from a steaming shower or the kitchen oven and stove. To determine an accurate shelf life and Expiration Date for supplements, manufacturers would have to account for ALL conditions the products might be stored under. Because that very expensive if not impossible to do, the Expiration Dates that have been in use since the 1970s were pretty much guesswork and pulled out of thin air and had little or no meaning. An Expiration Date doesn't mean a food or supplement is unsafe. It doesn't mean they've "gone bad." As The New York Times put it in a recent news article, when an product reaches its Expiration Date, all that means is that the Expiration Date is out of date, nothing more, nothing less. Recently scientists tested a 25-year-old can of pinto beans that was recovered from a sunken ship and what they found will astound you. The beans maintained color and freshness