Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN Flaxseed has actually been a part of the human diet for thousands of years. It has a rich history of use. Four thousand years ago, in southern Mesopotamia, citizens constructed irrigation systems primarily for the growth of flax, and the plant was cultivated in Babylonia, Circa 3,000 BC. The famed philosopher-physician

Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN Selenium and N-acetylcysteine [NAC] help the body produce glutathione, one of the most powerful free-radical fighters produced by the body. Glutathione is crucial in protecting the body from destructive by-products of many chronic illnesses, including asthma. It is found throughout the body but in higher levels in the lungs and the

Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN Many people use the words vitamin and supplement interchangeably. Technically, this is inaccurate. Supplements can be broken down into vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, and a host of other compounds including bioflavonoids and isoflavones. I will focus on the relatively small army of researched Nutrients For Asthma that can help

Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN Allergies can be as wide-ranging as the world itself. Perhaps, the most common form is allergic rhinitis, the technical name for sneezing, coughing, runny nose, watery eyes, and itchiness that many of us experience every year. The seasonal pollination of trees, grass, and weeds distributing airborne allergens varies little from year

Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN Milk thistle is my centrepiece in restoring the healthy functioning of the liver. It not only protects the liver from damage, it actually stimulates the growth of healthy new cells. Amazingly, studies have shown that this humble herb can reverse liver damage, protect against hepatitis and cirrhosis, speed recovery from jaundice,

Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN  I am privileged to be practicing integrative medicine during a time of revolution –– the Nutraceutical Revolution. Nutraceuticals are nutrients that have the capacity to act like medicines.  They are ‘natural’ pharmaceuticals. The real miracle –– nature’s power to heal — has always been available to us.  But, now science has

Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN The existence of vitamin E was first uncovered in 1920, but Agnes Fay Morgan and her colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley are credited with the 1937 discovery of vitamin E’s special role in the body. While myriad studies have shown the promise of other natural herbs and supplements,

Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN The right nutritional supplements can turn asthmatic kids around and place them on the road to recovery. We all know how fickle kids are at the dinner table. As hard as you try to get your children to eat right, it’s difficult to make sure they get the nutrients they need

Words: Dr Rajgopal NIDAMBOOR Millions are overweight and unhealthy today. It is, therefore, not uncommon for most of them to embark on new dietetic experiments and diet plans at any given point of time, and at the drop of a new ‘formula.’ The problem, in reality, is not so much with dieting, but falling for

Words: Dr Richard FIRSHEIN Asthma is the epidemic in our time. Over fifteen million Americans, for example, now suffer from this devastating condition, and it is the primary cause of hospitalisation in children. We spend more than US$6 billion a year on asthma treatment and our solution so far has been the use of potent