Eight ways to fight off flu - naturally! (July 2009)

With all the current hysteria surrounding swine flu, it can be difficult to sort good health information from bad. For the vast majority of people, influenza – of any variety, swine or otherwise – presents no serious health danger, and the best thing we can do to help protect ourselves is simply stay healthy.

In this special report, we take a look at a few simple ideas of how to boost your immune system naturally – obviously we recommend that you do further research to see what works best for you.

1. Antioxidants such as vitamins C, A and E have been shown to support the immune system and they also weaken the side effects which the immune system’s response has on the body e.g. runny nose. We should all be getting some of these as part of our diet, but supplements are a great way to top up. Click here to see the wide range of natural supplements offered by Forever.

2. Garlic doesn’t just kill vampires! The antioxidant properties of garlic are widely known, whether eaten as part of a meal or taken in capsule form. Forever’s Garlic-Thyme also includes the additional antioxidant benefits of thyme.

3. Raw fruit and vegetables generally have much higher levels of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, fibre and enzymes than their cooked counterparts and will do wonders for your overall health as well as strengthening your immune system. Conversely, too much sugar, fat and alcohol adversely affects the immune system due to their damaging effect on white blood cells.

4. Over a century ago, Echinacea - a native American plant - was recognized as a natural infection fighter. It’s available in capsule form and is regularly prescribed by doctors in Germany as a cold and flu remedy. Forever’s Echinacea Supreme is an excellent source, and also includes goldenseal.

5. Simple herbal teas, such as ginger or cinnamon, are great immune-boosters, the stronger the better, so remember to brew it for a while (take a look at our Aloe Blossom Herbal Tea – a lovely cinnamon based hot drink).

6. Getting enough protein in your diet, drinking plenty of water, getting a good night’s sleep and observing basic hygiene will do wonders for your immune system. It may sound like plain common sense, but many of us could do better in one or more of these areas.

7. One of Forever’s best products when it comes to fighting infection is Bee Propolis, nature's finest antibiotic.

8. Finally, of course, let’s not forget Aloe Vera. Packed with vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes and numerous other beneficial substances, it acts as both an immune system booster and a natural antiseptic. The best way to take it is by drinking it – click here to see the range of aloe vera gel drinks offered by Forever.

We hope you’ve found this useful, and if you’d like to share any flu-beating natural remedies with us, we’d love to include these in later newsletters!

Until our next newsletter, stay well.

Cheers
Kirsten & Greg

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Aloe for Health Newsletter 5 (July 2009)

Welcome to our fifth newsletter – in this edition, read Part 2 of Greg’s story about how his hair and his waistline have benefitted from aloe vera. The rest of Kirsten’s story will follow in later newsletters.

Also, following recent changes in EU regulations which lowered the acceptable level of certain vitamins and minerals in supplements, one of Forever’s popular supplements, Forever Pro-6 (which contains a number of vitamins and minerals associated with male prostate health) was withdrawn from sale on 1 July 2009. Greg takes a timely look at The Codex Alimentarius, a body of international guidelines which aims to govern the sale of natural products like vitamin and mineral supplements. If you have any interest whatsoever in natural health products, it’s something you should be aware of.

You’ll also find our regular Top Tips section, and thanks to all those who have sent in their ideas and suggestions – keep them coming!

Change to online ordering policy

From 1 July, all online orders are now processed by Forever via links from our website. You can pay by debit or credit card (no more Paypal invoices!), and Forever will post your order out to you within a couple of days. Delivery is by Royal Mail or courier and the cost never exceeds £5.95. Click here to browse our website. If you live in the Leeds area and want to place an order for collection or delivery in person, just contact us direct.

Thinner waistline, thicker hair (Greg’s story)

When it comes to shaving, I’ve discovered that aloe vera works very well for me. Once I started using the Aloe Liquid Soap as my daily face wash it didn’t take long for me to get thinking, and I tried using this instead of shaving gel or foam. I amazed even myself with the results. Not only is it easy to remove several days’ growth, the process is like shaving and washing at the same time.

Like many men, I can wash my hair with pretty much any shampoo and it does an acceptable job. However, in the interests of getting to know the products, I started using the Aloe-Jojoba Shampoo and occasionally the Aloe-Jojoba Conditioning Rinse. Both do a great job, as many of the fairer sex have enthusiastically testified (particularly Kirsten), but personally I’ve also noticed that my hair feels thicker than before and I need to have it cut slightly more often these days. The last thing I’d want to do here is turn this into a hair restoration info-mercial, but the positive effects are definitely noticeable and I put that down to the general healing and nourishing qualities of aloe vera itself.

One product I didn’t expect to find myself trying was Forever Lean, a formula which helps reduce absorption of calories from fat and carbohydrates. I’m generally sceptical about the claims made for ‘miracle’ diet pills which usually seem to be mostly about preying on people’s desperation to lose weight. However, when FLP came up with Forever Lean, I felt that, as with all the other products, the only way I could speak about it meaningfully was from personal experience. Fortunately – if you can call it that! - I’d wanted to lose a few pounds (who doesn’t?) so I thought I’d give it a shot.

FLP sensibly recommend that taking Forever Lean should be accompanied by a healthy diet and regular exercise. This may seem like common sense, but it’s advice often absent from the advertising of mass marketed weight loss products which often hold out the promise of weight loss with no effort. And I've experienced no side effects as a result of taking these pills - again, not something you can say about other weight loss products.

After a month of taking the pills with most meals (I’d forget from time to time), I felt pretty much the same but found to my surprise that I was seven pounds lighter. I hadn’t altered my eating habits or exercise regime – such that it is – at all during this time, so this would seem to provide some anecdotal evidence that Forever Lean may well be helpful as part of a weight loss programme.

Top Tips
1. Make your Aloe Propolis Creme (or any other lotion) last even longer – when coming to the end of a tube, cut it open near the lid and scoop out what’s left into a separate container.
2. The Aloe Heat Lotion is best applied when pores are closed, so avoid using straight after a hot bath (thanks to Carol Irvine of Carluke for this tip!)
3. Apply a dab of Forever Bright Toothgel to mouth ulcers for soothing relief and to promote healing.
4. Always carry an Aloe Lips with you – as well as being great for lips, you can use it on paper cuts, grazes, bites and stings.
5. Apply Aloe Ever-shield Deodorant Stick under the Aloe Sunscreen for double protection from the sun.

The Codex Alimentarius

The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations relating to foods, food production and food safety.

The so-called ‘texts’ of The Codex Alimentarius are developed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a body established in 1963 by the United Nations (which has 192 member countries) and its agency the World Health Organization. Its stated aims are to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the international food trade, including the production, labelling and distribution of vitamins and supplements.

Currently, Codex exists merely as a set of voluntary reference standards but there are fears that its wider adoption and use may eventually lead to a situation where mandatory global control is exerted over personal health and dietary choices. There is some cause for concern in this area. For example, in 1996, a proposal was put forward that no herb, vitamin or mineral should be sold for preventive or therapeutic reasons, and that supplements should be reclassified as drugs. The proposal was agreed by the Commission, but protests halted its implementation.

In 2005, the ‘Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements’ were adopted and although this document does not seek to ban supplements, it subjects them to labelling and packaging requirements and sets criteria for dosage levels. Under these guidelines, member countries might choose to regulate dietary supplements as therapeutic goods or pharmaceuticals or by some other restrictive category. In Europe, the guidelines are effectively legally binding as they broadly follow the European Food Supplements Directive, which has been in force since 2005. The World Health Organization has stated that the guidelines are “to stop consumers overdosing on vitamin and mineral food supplements.”

This notion that consumers are regularly overdosing on vitamin and mineral food supplements seems somewhat risible when considered in the light of the massive ill-effects routinely caused by prescription medicines manufactured by multinational pharmaceutical corporations. Lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry have worryingly taken a keen interest in the drafting of The Codex Alimentarius and it’s easy to imagine why. ‘Big Pharma’, as it is disparagingly known, has no interest whatsoever is achieving a healthy world population. Sickness is their industry, disease their profit. A tightly regulated system which classified supplements and herbal products as drugs to be sold only by ‘approved’ manufacturers would be a positive boon for Big Pharma and a potential disaster for small businesses and individuals.

With all this in mind, we would be well advised to be watchful for any attempt to restrict free access to vitamins, supplements and alternative remedies done in the name of protecting consumers. Are there rogue vitamin suppliers? Certainly. Are they a bigger problem than the dark side of Big Pharma? Consider this: In February 1992, the consumer research body Social Audit reported, on the basis of four studies between 1981 and 1988, that more than 10,000 hospital beds in the UK are taken up at any one time by people suffering adverse reactions to prescription drugs. Also, in May 1998, The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that “each year, prescription drugs injure approximately 1.5 million people so severely that they require hospitalisation, and 100,000 die.”

As things stand, there is no complete global control over our nutritional choices, but it is also clear that a structure which could be used to exercise such control is quietly being put into place. In a world where we are assaulted daily by pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, degenerating food quality and a host of environmental toxins and pollutants, increasing numbers of people are turning to organic and/or small scale food producers and natural remedies as a way to take control of and responsibility for their own personal well-being. The globalisation of rules and regulations should not be used to dumb down our choices and restrict diversity. Any attempt to do so should be met with a confident assertion of our common sense ability to choose what is right for ourselves in a free and open marketplace.


Well, that’s all for this newsletter – hope you’ve enjoyed it and do get in touch if you have any questions or comments. And please forward this email to anyone you think might be interested by using the link at the bottom of this page.

Look out for our special report coming out shortly which takes an in-depth look at nutritional and weight management issues. And in future newsletters, we’ll be taking a look at the fascinating world of animals and aloe. Lots to look forward to!

Kirsten & Greg
Aloe for Health

Email: info@aloe-for-health.co.uk
Website: http://www.aloe-for-health.co.uk/