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Sometimes I get so frustrated at the way things are going in the world of health. It seems like an uphill battle against the big corporations and it even appears that these corporations have a controlling influence among many of our politicians. It seems that we have become myopic or short-sighted as a culture. Big business is more concerned with profitable, and quarterly reporting than long-term results. More concerned with the quick fix and the facade of reality than building for the future. An American once observed the strength and durability of the roads in Canada, which withstood years of harsh weather and traffic showing little signs of wear. He was told that these roads were built with a deep and strong foundation, so as to prevent the weather from getting under the road and weakening it. These Northern roads have double and triple the foundation as compared to the roads of milder climate to the South.

It seems as though so much of what is manufactured and marketed today is designed to last only a short time. (Planned obsolescence) We went from a society of citizens to a culture of consumers. We've been programmed to consume and discard and consume some more. I really dislike the title 'consumer'. It implies using without giving back. And for masses, this may be how they are being directed. We are becoming a society of spectators, observers and users. Technology allows us to develop relationships assuming any persona we fancy. Virtual reality has become life's reality for many. I can't help but feel that as a society and culture we are being coddled and slowly bound with soft caressing cords that are slowly binding us. Many are concerned that we are becoming a welfare state. In fact, several years ago, monthly welfare checks were renamed and are now called 'entitlement checks'. What message are we sending with that?!

Big business, whether we are talking about the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry or the mass manufacturing of merchandize, these corporations are concerned with money. And it appears that they are willing to sacrifice the health and well being of their consumers in order to increase corporate profits. Often those in power justify their decisions and behavior in order to satisfy the 'shareholders'. This justification of harming individuals or the environment to increase short-term profits for the 'shareholders' is ludicrous. Let me get a little more specific as to what I see happening in the health-related industry.

Many years ago as modern science was evolving, astute and scholarly observers notices that eating certain foods had either positive or negative effects on the health of individuals with various diseases. They noticed things like eating carrots helped with eyesight. The diabetic was helped by eating sweetbreads. Sweetbreads is a euphemistic term for the pancreas of an animal. Later they learned that carrots contain high amounts of vitamin A and the pancreas is directly involved with blood sugar balance. Somewhere along this road of discovery, however, the profit motive was introduced. The only one who would benefit from people eating more carrots was the farmer and the grocer. With the discovery of vitamins and specific nutrients came the rush to provide these to people in a pill that they could charge money for. And herein lies the problem. If science were able to produce a vitamin or pill that would carry all of the benefit of foods without you having to eat your vegetables everything else being equal that would be okay. Unfortunately, or fortunately - depending on which side of the argument you sit on, what is mass produced as vitamins and food supplements are artificial and provide only a portion or a shadow of what you think you are getting.

As vitamins were discovered and identified, they were given names that described what they looked like in chemistry. For example, vitamin C was called ascorbic acid. If you look on your bottle of multiple vitamins you will see in the ingredients that some form of ascorbic acid such as calcium ascorbate is listed as vitamin C. In the world of drug manufacturing ascorbic acid is vitamin C. In the real world - the world of nature - the world that has been producing the food that has nourished humanity and the animal kingdom for millions of years, ascorbic acid is most certainly NOT vitamin C. In nature, vitamin C is a complex of nutrients containing synergists, buffers, co-factors and supportive nutrients, which all together give you the nutrients and delivery system to optimally use what you have ingested so it can build and nourish the body. This same example can be extrapolated to all of the other nutrients found in that "one-a-day" pill you take.

Believe it or not, we are designed to eat food. Whole Food, food as it comes from nature - not from some pharmaceutical corporations' laboratory. Drug companies are like insurance companies. They are always trying to stay ahead of the dollar. In the early 1980's, I thought that health insurance companies would all go under as costs of medical care continued to rise with the advent of new and expensive technology. But the insurance industry is as health and profitable as ever. They charge higher rates, pay out less for services and charge higher deductibles. And when unprofitable simply refuse to pay legitimate claims. The pharmaceutical companies are equally savvy. They see that the consumer is spending more and more on alternative health supplies. Did you realize that only a few drug companies produce nearly all of the artificial vitamins taken today? These vitamins are then sold and repackaged by smaller vitamin companies and marketed to you, the consumer.

For years the drug companies have been trying to make in-roads in to the herbal industry. This is their problem with herbs. Because herbs or plants are natural and can grow in yours and my backyard, they cannot own a patent on the herb. A government patent says that the patent owner will have exclusive right to this product and no one else can produce or sell it without their permission. A drug company cannot have exclusive rights to carrots or broccoli. But if they can take something natural and tweak it enough to make it unique, then they can be rewarded with a patent. This is what is happening with genetically modified organisms (GMO's). So large companies can genetically alter wheat and sell it to farmers. And it is illegal for the farmer to harvest the seeds and replant them next year without paying for the use of its' patented property. I believe that the drive to change plants and seeds are not so much to improve upon nature but to create profits - often with some pretty scary and harmful results.

Now we are seeing a movement in the herbal industry of promoting 'Standardized Extracts'. This is where scientists have decided what the active ingredient of a particular herb is and then determining the percentage of this 'active ingredient', process an herbal extract to match this exact percentage that was predetermined. Here's my concern. First off, the plants in nature should be viewed as a complete whole. Just because a group of individuals with white coats and goggles decide what chemical is the important one in a plant does not convince me that this is all the plant has to offer. I believe that these plants are perfect and that altering them does no good. Some will argue that standardizing of herbs simply checks them scientifically to make sure that only the good ones are sold. This is not true. What happens during the standardization process is what also is done to our processed orange juice and milk. The ideal perfect orange juice has a certain level of sweetness and nothing is better than fresh squeezed orange juice. However, once this optimum level of sweetness was established, producers are allowed to 'standardize' their orange juice before it hits the shelves. So if you have a bunch of oranges that are a little sour or bitter, sugar can be added to sweeten them up. And the added sugar doesn't have to go on the label - because the producers were just adding what should have been there anyway. The same is true of milk. Once pasteurized and homogenized, milk takes on a whole new character (a very unhealthy character). And so milk producers are permitted to add powdered milk (especially to the low-fat and skim milk) to enrich it and improve its consistency. Both of these products have been hurt and changed because of how they are handled.

Likewise with standardized herbal extracts, by adding 'active ingredient' or diluting an extract to achieve the minimal required percentage, the whole balance of the herb can be thrown off. Many of us herbalist know that a particular herb can be prepared in several different ways to bring out unique properties. Standardizing also brings the drug companies one step closer to having exact doses of active ingredient that should be prescribed - and their push is that only medical doctors can prescribe.

Why is it that so many Americans spend so much money on vitamins and supplements and are still the sickest, most unhealthy population in the modern world? I believe that the artificial vitamins we take and the altered and processed food supply is largely to blame. Research is validating the harmful effects of artificial vitamins. If you are taking a vitamin whose ingredients read like a chemistry class you may be stimulating certain aspects of your physiology and achieving short-term benefit but I tell you, you are like the American road builder constructing roads with a weak and shoddy foundation designed to last only a short time until it needs to be rebuilt or repaired. When you read the ingredients on the box, bag or can of food and see a chemical laundry list, you need to know that these "ingredients" will not be building a strong deep nutritional foundation. And like a poorly built road, life will chip away at you until there is a breakdown, unless your health is built of the firm foundation of good solid real (not artificial) nutrients. You notice that potholes and cracks occur in the road only after adverse conditions and so it is with our lives. It is only after adverse conditions that we begin to fall apart, not when everything is wonderful.

I am suggesting for many of you a major reformation of your diet, supplements and lifestyle. For some, you may need to make only a few simple course corrections. If you supplement your diet (and unless your diet is stellar you should), you need to be taking a whole food supplement like Earth's Nutrition or Bountiful Blend. When taking herbal supplements, you need to be taking something prepared from nature that is pure and natural and has not been chemically altered to achieve some standardized quota. Don't be fooled into believing that even the best and brightest scientist are going to improve upon nature. When you eat, your food should be clean, natural and wholesome. Organic fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, eggs, meat and dairy products. You will pay more for organic, but consider that you will be investing in a deeper, stronger foundation that will not crack or crumble in the harsh weather of life. From a financial perspective, it costs much more to eat an unhealthy diet consisting of fast foods, prepared and processed foods and convenience foods than healthy whole natural foods. Eating health requires time and money management but it is well worth the investment. This will be difficult for those who are not inclined to spending time in the kitchen, but there is no other way (that is not entirely true - I know several people who have hired a personal chef to prepare their meals and it is more economical than you would think).

We at Western Botanicals' wish for you the blessings of health and happiness and are committed to do all that we can to make a difference in your life through balanced, pure and effective herbal products.

~ Dr. Kyle D. Christensen ~