How about this for inspiration. Author, blogger and Super Centenarian Bernando LaPallo will be 111 this year, and feels on top of the world: “As I move into my 111th year of life, I still feel great and am grateful for my good health which allows me to stay active both physically and mentally. I have never been sick in my life.” Bernando walks briskly or runs at least a mile daily, reads and writes voraciously, looks half his age, and is called daily by people worldwide eager to hear how he’s done it. How Has He ‘Done It’? Simplicity, humility and natural living: “You don’t need a recipe book or health guide to age less and live more ” he says. According to Bernando what you do need is to “Eat properly and get your rest as stress is a killer.” Specifically, eat: raw fresh veggies, super-foods, raw nuts and berries, extra virgin olive oil, raw honey, cinnamon, fresh garlic, dark chocolate , barley soup, fresh coconut  and plentiful alkaline water. He especially stresses the value of the following fresh foods since: “Cooking your foods kills the nutrients…” Fresh organic fruit and veggies: for low calorie, high fibre and nutrient rich vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phyto-nutrients and antioxidants boosting vitality and balanced health. He’s a big fan of juiced fruits and veggies .  High quality, organic, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil: use on the skin as lotion, in foods and salad dressing to lessen the risk of colon cancer and heart disease. Dark, organic chocolate: to lower blood pressure, cholesterol, stress and depression. Organic garlic considered nature’s antibiotic which helps to fight coughs and colds, and aids digestion and intestinal health

Right now, while you’re reading this, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re sitting. You could be at home, at work or even on the bus or subway… it doesn’t even matter if you’re reading this on a computer, laptop, smartphone or tablet device… right now at this very moment, you’re probably sitting down. “So what,” you may be thinking. Well, as extreme as it may sound, you could be slowly killing yourself. This infographic gives an interesting explanation of how prolonged bouts of sitting may contribute to the development of various degenerative diseases and other health complications. As you can see in the graphics, the human body was never meant to sit around doing nothing for hours on end…it’s a complex dynamic organic instrument that requires movement for optimal performance and overall health.

This is the most controversial question that can be asked and certainly provokes the most controversial answers. Over the years there have been many instances in which scientists have claimed to have had success in curing various types of cancers. Unless it involved a drug or a treatment that fitted within the current cancer ‘treatment industry’ all these scientists have been either discredited or put out of business in one way or another and their ‘alternative’ treatments have died with them. Because of this, conspiracy theories about big Pharma or the FDA deliberately suppressing new unorthodox treatment protocols over the last 20 or 30 years have become rife. However, like most conspiracy theories there is little documented evidence to support them, and they remain just that…a theory, until someone does the research to document the facts. Let me tell you a true story. A couple of years ago a very good friend of mine was diagnosed with a very aggressive brain tumor.  I encouraged him to research alternatives to radiation and chemotherapy because they had virtually a zero chance of curing this type of brain cancer.  However, the oncologist convinced him surgery, then, radiation in combination with a new ‘superduper’ chemotherapy drug was the way to go.  I don’t know the name of the drug other than that it was very expensive ($100,000+ per course). After two courses of this and two surgeries the Doctors said that there was nothing further that they could do.   A friend of mine Dr Ali Mohammad suggested that a friend of his Dr Stan Burzynski in Texas may be able to help as he specialising in brain tumors.  However, at this stage my friend was too ill to travel all the way from New Zealand to Texas, so Dr Ali called Dr Burzynski who was in Japan at the time and he was willing to depart from his normal protocol and arrange to have the treatment done in New Zealand. Unfortunately by that time my friend was feeling very tired, and when I called him from my Thailand office and explained that I had it set up, he said, “Warren, I really appreciate what you have been doing to try and help, but, I think that I will now just let nature take its course.”  He died a few weeks later.

I felt it may be interesting to share the following exchange between myself and a customer who contacted me.  First, Let me show you what he had to say. From Customer: “Thank you so much for your reply. I used to go to an internal medicine doctor that helped me with panic attacks and depression, he put me on effexor for years. I started thinking, what would happen if you gave your body all the vitamins and nutrients that it needed, then see what if any pharmaceutical drugs I may need. My doctor thought this was a bad idea, so I switched to a doctor that also was a nutritionist and he ran blood test and said that I need to take Usana, and at least 2000-4000IU of Vitamin D3. Well it has seemed to work, I have been off all meds for years. Now I have found out my current doctor is on the Scientific advisory council for Usana and his wife is a distributor. Not saying this is bad, but make me wonder if he is promoting it just to increase his sales? He told me it was almost impossible to get too much of the Vitamin D3, also started me on testosterone injections because me testosterone was too low. Said there was no supplement out there that can increase this

Do you sometimes despair at the condition of your skin? Perhaps you’ve tried all the so called ‘miracle’ potions and lotions. Or resorted to heavy make-up, big shades or, worse, hiding at home!   What is your skin trying to tell you? Usually, the message is that unless the cause of the skin issue is external, such as a cut or insect bite, an external remedy will almost never properly correct an internal problem. You see, our skin is the largest organ of our body, with more area exposed to the elements – internal and external – than any other organ. It receives one third of all the blood that is circulated in the body, helping it to protect, absorb and excrete wastes. So if you don’t ‘feed’ and ‘water’ it correctly, with the right nutrition, adequate pure liquids, proven natural supplements , and natural topical ingredients , it gets sick! And if it can’t excrete toxins because the digestive and excretory systems are impaired, leading to chemical and hormonal imbalances, aging and degeneration , the skin becomes even sicker! Indeed, the skin is a vivid fingerprint of what’s going on inside. According to Chinese medicine, skin is the ‘third kidney’: it rids the body of excess moisture and toxins. Oily, dry, blotchy, itchy, inflamed red skin, acne, psoriasis and other skin disorders very often indicate that the organs which eliminate toxins from the body, such as the liver, kidney or colon are not working properly

Here at Xtend-Life we are always looking for ways to improve our products and the health benefits that they provide to many thousands of customers. As part of this process we have just completed the transition to using the new, state of the art Nutrateric II enteric coating system across the full range of our enteric coated tablets. This applies to all of the following products… Total Balance range (7 products) Neuro-Natural range (4 products) Arthrit-Eze, Cardio-Klenz & Diabet-Eze We have been working with Colorcon, a world-leader in immediate and delayed release coating solutions for some time on this transition and we were also proud to be the first supplement manufacturer in the world to move to this new system. Why did we make this change? Over the last eight years we have been using well proven pharmaceutical enteric coating from Colorcon Inc and it has been an excellent system. However, we made the transition to the Nutrateric II system because we believe it is the best and most natural enteric coating material on the market.   Most of the ingredients are extracted from plants. Unlike the previous coating the Nutrateric II system is clear, because it has no iron oxide or other materials which are used to provide colour. This means that you can now see the color of the ingredients in the tablets rather than the white or yellow coating which was used previously.

NDI’s stand for new dietary ingredients. If you have been reading this blog for some time you will be aware that last year the US FDA came out with a bombshell for both industry and consumers alike when they issued a ‘guidance’ document for NDI’s.  This document was seen by many as a direct attack on the supplements and much of it was without justification and some aspects of it were technically impossible to comply with. If you are not aware of how ominous this document is, then you may wish to have a look at some of my earlier blogs which can be accessed from the links below. Is this the beginning of the end for Supplements? An Update on the FDA’s ‘attack’ on Dietary Supplements… An Update of NDI’s… Update of FDA proposed NDI regulations As a result there has been a significant uproar by consumers and industry alike.  The ‘guidance’ if passed would severely undermine the integrity of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) as well as restrict the availability of supplements.  It would deal a ‘death blow’ to the industry and provide a major victory for the pharmaceutical industry. The two US Senators who were the prime authors of the DSHEA legislation have come out solidly opposed to the proposed ‘guidance’ document for NDI’s.  They have written to the FDA Commissioner requesting that they withdraw the current document and start again.  Fortunately they have the support of other influential politicians, but then they have a real fight against those politicians supporting the pharmaceutical lobby. You can read the letter to the FDA by Senators Tom Harkin and Orrin G. Hatch by clicking here .

If you’re amongst the millions who suffer from Depression, you’ve probably tried many treatments, both Conventional and natural. Have they helped you, made no difference, or made things worse? Perhaps you’re even wondering what to do now? Then this fact may interest you. More and more research is concluding that Conventional anti-depressant medications are at best useless or worse, dangerous. Indeed, a study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry reveals that antidepressant drugs work no better than other methods at relieving depression. Or, in the words of the Journal’s authors: “This trial of urban MDD patients failed to confirm that either active treatment was better than placebo.” Their lead researcher, Jacques P. Barber PhD, even admitted: “I was surprised by the results, they weren’t what I’d expected.” The results may also have caused Barber some embarrassment given that some of co-researchers have received funding from the pharmaceutical industry for the study. In trying to justify the ‘unexpected’ results, Barber also said: “receiving a placebo in a clinical trial is not the same as getting no treatment.” That’s because study participants in placebo groups have contact with health professionals who are asking about their symptoms and well-being

Does your life depend on your mobile phone or other mobile devise? Think about it… how much information, some critical, does it contain? How much time do you spend using it? If you lose it you feel as if you’ve lost your best friend! Now, as health management moves from files and folders, to electronic medical records and into the memories of smart phones, our health may become more dependent on these little devices too! Here’s How… I recently read about the 2011mHealth Summit which aims to promote the use of wireless technology to improve health outcomes worldwide. It’s a great idea given the popularity and ubiquity of mobile technology. By current estimates there are now are over 5 billion mobile phone subscribers and over 70 % live in low- and middle-income countries. In fact it’s in counties like Africa where many text-based health programs originate, before they are adopted and adapted by the rest of the world. For example, Text To Change , a non-profit organization in Africa, has been successfully using mobile technology for health education since 2008.

I recently wrote a blog entry about the poor quality of hospital food in the UK after watching a reality-based TV series about a world renowned chef trying to improve the nutrition and quality of food served to patients… especially children. It seems the trend of serving unpalatable (and probably low quality) meals to patients has spread to a hospital in New Zealand. According to this article , a woman is claiming that she was served poor quality food during her recent admission to a hospital. Now this may just be a case of one person’s opinion versus the hospital’s menu…the article also doesn’t reveal any comments from other patients at the same hospital. Whether the hospital in question does actually serve bad food or not cannot be verified. However, the issue itself should be something that every hospital catering service needs to take seriously. A patient’s recovery should be a hospital’s primary objective…so when it comes to the patient’s meals, this objective shouldn’t be diverted for any reason. Sorry for sounding a little cynical, but a part of me cannot help but wonder if some hospitals insist on serving poor quality food that’s low in nutritional value to simply get the patients back in. I know this is probably far from the truth but it does make you think doesn’t it?