Q: I’ve been wondering if you have any advice that can help me get rid of canker sores. I seem to get them all the time, and it’s quite a nuisance! Thanks again.

––K.S., Roanoke, VA

Last night I watched an episode on NBC’s The Doctors. If you don’t know the show they have four doctors with different specialties discussing and educating the audience on popular health care topics.

One of the topics for discussion was whether vitamin B12 injections have any effect.  The answer from the panel was a quick, “No, the energy increase the person is experiencing is simply a placebo effect, there is no reason somebody would be low in vitamin B12 they should be getting it from their diet.”

I was seriously surprised at the oversimplification and misinformation as this comment is basically 100% false and misleading.  So in an effort to create a sane stream of health information, here’s the deal with vitamin B12:

Fish oil is widely acclaimed for its health giving properties – the benefits of which span across the entire health spectrum. However, considering the vast range of fish oil suppliers and products currently available, you’ll understandably be hard-pressed to find the one that is not only the most effective, but also the purest, freshest and most natural fish oil in the world – well, at least until you’ve finished reading this article.

Dear Pharmacist,

I’d like to try natural supplements and save some money on medications. Do you have any ideas for easy substitutions using vitamins, minerals or other supplements that could improve my health? 

--B.H. Ontario, Canada

There are two serious vitamin D health epidemics in America today; one is the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency and the other is the epidemic of ignorance about vitamin D deficiency.

With every beat of your heart, blood is being pushed through your arteries.  After feeding all of your bodily tissues this blood travels to the lungs, where it is revitalized with oxygen.  The oxygen-rich blood then returns to your heart where the whole process begins again.  Your heart beats more than 100,000 times per day, moving about 70ml of blood per beat.  If you do the math that works out to more than 7000 liters per day.  A little more math and we find that about 2000 gallons of blood moves through your heart and blood vessels daily.  To beat a dead horse, that’s over 8 tons of blood per day!

When I first came across a new study from Australian researchers I thought it was covering familiar territory. I quickly realized I was thinking about a study I told you about several years ago, in which vitamin B-2 was shown to help prevent migraines. Turns out, the new study is actually much more promising.

Migraine patients take note: I think this team from Brisbane may be on to something big.

Question: I recently underwent cardioversion treatment for my irregular heartbeat. I know the fibrillation can come back—what can I do to reduce my chances of a quick recurrence?

Last week, I had another client complaining of chronic headaches. From a Naturopathic point of view, we have a completely different perspective as to why they happen and we always want to look at the cause! We will not band-aid them by giving pain-relieving medication; but instead look at what is causing them and eliminate that from our life.

Being in a desert where there is no real sign of Spring whatsoever -- I almost forgot about seasonal allergies!  Here are some useful websites to find out the pollen and mold count for the United States and Europe (if anyone has maps for other regions, please send them to me).  Let’s do a quick round up of the top 10 easy to obtain over the counter natural products which are  effective against the fire and brimstone symptoms of nature’s freshest season...