Sometimes prescription and nonprescription medicines can cause headaches, especially if you use them regularly. Medications that may cause headaches include:

• Birth control pills (oral contraceptives).
• Caffeine (or caffeine withdrawal).
• Cold medicines, such as antihistamines and decongestants.
• Ergotamine (Cafergot) therapy.
• Heart and blood pressure medicines (vasodilators).
• Hormone therapy.
• Overuse of fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin A and vitamin D.

Often, if you stop taking the medicine or take a smaller dose, your headache will go away. If you suspect your headache is caused by a prescription medicine, talk with your health professional about your side effects. Do not stop taking the medicine until you have spoken with your health professional. Read the rest of this entry »

Whether or not you get a flu shot, try these tricks to lower your chances of getting grounded by the flu, as well as to prevent colds and other infections.

Wash, over and over
Your hands need attention. Use plain old soap and water, and make sure to rub vigorously for 15 to 20 seconds.

Avoid crowds
The flu virus thrives on socializing. Do more shopping online than at the mall, and try to cover your face if someone sneezes near you.

Keep hydrated
Membranes in your nose and throat trap viruses and move them back out in the form of mucus. Drink lots of fluids and gargle to keep your membranes in fighting shape, says Neil Schachter, MD, author of The Good Doctor’s Guide to Colds and Flu. But avoid humidifiers; they can spread germs. Read the rest of this entry »

Vitamin D is the nutrient of the day, year, and even decade. Vitamin D plays a role in maintaining healthy bones, but the sunshine vitamin also helps prevent certain cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic pain, and neurological disorders.

In these dark, cold winter months, especially if you live in the northern half of the U.S., you’re probably lacking vitamin D. Research suggests that about half of all men and women lack vitamin D and up to 70% of our children are deficient.

Individuals at highest risk for vitamin D deficiencies include:

• Anyone who lives in a cold climate (north of 42° latitude)
• Children and older adults
• Those with dark skin
• Individuals who are overweight or obese

Increasing vitamin D to at least 400 IU per day is the best way to boost vitamin D in the absence of sunlight, and here’s how to do it. Read the rest of this entry »

Telling the truth in America is currently illegal… at least as far as food and supplements are concerned. You see, for decades the federal government has suppressed the free speech rights of food and supplement manufacturers, preventing them from telling the truth about how their products improve health and prevent disease — even when that information is based on peer-reviewed scientific studies published in scientific journals. But right now, three vital pieces of legislation hold the potential to end the era of censorship in America and once again restore freedom of speech to the health industry.

But your help is needed to make this a reality.

The U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act currently defines anything that cures, treats, mitigates, diagnoses or prevents disease as a drug. This means that making truthful claims about the cancer-preventing properties of green tea, for instance, is illegal because if such claims are true, then green tea is automatically considered an unapproved drug. So farmers, supplement manufacturers and vitamin formulators are forced to remain silent about the health benefits of their products while drug companies are free to run wild making all sorts of bizarre claims about the alleged health benefits of pharmaceuticals. Read the rest of this entry »