Relax & Reclaim

Are you suffering from allergies?  Need some tips for relief? This new series can help you: Discover what causes allergies. Which foods and herbs are good to minimize the effects of allergies. Find out why some allergies do not easily go away. Perhaps even learn how to cure your allergies. How Allergies Happen Allergies are caused when your immune system defensively reacts to environmental agents such as: pollen, ragweed, mold and pet dander. Some foods like eggs, various fruits, nuts, and milk can all contribute to allergic reactions. Substances which cause allergies are called allergens. When the body's immune system identifies these foreign invaders, it sends out antibodies to drive them out.  Under normal circumstances, your immune system sends out antibodies proportionate to allergens that are present.  Allergies occur when the body overcompensates and sends too many antibodies. These antibodies may even attack your body's own tissues to extermin...

We all need it . We've gotta have it every night. And if a person doesn't get enough of it they could go crazy.... You do know that this is about sleep and nothing else, right? At least for now ...😉 If you have ever gazed at the ceiling at 2:17 a.m. ( for   example ) asking why your brain suddenly chose to become very creative... You are not alone. Not too long ago, I had one of those evenings. Body?  Totally depleted. Eyes?  Finished . Brain? Apparently I just had a triple espresso and a new batch of ideas. It suddenly decided to: Replay a 2008 humiliating event like it's breaking news. Create a complete to-do list for tomorrow, next week, and perhaps next year. Throw in a couple totally unneeded life queries. I am lying here wondering, meanwhile. " Wonderful. Just what I always wanted zero sleep .” And naturally, the more I tried to get to sleep, the more my brain resisted back. like, Oh, you need rest? Good luck, chump! 🍀 Do Herbal Remedies for...

It’s a question that sounds simple—but the answer isn’t. Depending on who you ask, alternative medicine is either a valuable extension of modern healthcare… or a collection of treatments that don’t quite hold up under scrutiny. So when a longtime reader named Tabitha asked me: “… what in the hell is alternative medicine, anyway ?” I realized she had a point. It’s a term people use all the time—but rarely stop to clearly define. So let’s break it down. A Brief (and Honest) Explanation At its core, alternative medicine refers to health practices that fall outside what we typically consider conventional or mainstream medical care. Here’s where it gets more nuanced. Today, most experts use two related terms: Alternative medicine: used instead of conventional treatment Complementary medicine: used alongside conventional treatment You’ll often hear both grouped together as CAM ( C omplementary and A lternative M edicine). And the range is wide. It includes everything from acupuncture and he...

We're at the finish line now as this is the last chapter of our series. We wanted to wrap this up for with more recent examples of what can only be called "diet insanity".  Let us know what you think about these crazy diet plans and most importantly, have you ever tried any of them yourself? Part 1 ,   Part 2 , Part 4  Anyway, let's go into a couple more examples before we wrap up, okay? By the year 2000, we had shifted our focus from just popping pills to seeking out "natural" remedies. We believed that plants were always a safe bet. Turns out, we were quite mistaken. The Rise and Fall of Ephedra In the early 2000s, Ephedra was all the rage. This plant-based supplement promised boundless energy and rapid weight loss, making it a favorite among athletes and busy parents alike.  But there was a serious downside. Ephedra acted as a potent stimulant, putting immense strain on the heart and being linked to high blood pressure and strokes. The most notorious inci...

Just when you thought the diet craziness came to a crescendo in the 1970s, the next few decades continued the ridiculous trends.  Check this out: If the 70s were all about liquid protein, the next two decades seemed to be about completely escaping reality. The 1980s and 90s were a wild ride filled with neon fitness tapes and those so-called "miracle" pills.  You didn't miss part 1 did you? The "Sleeping Beauty" Diet Ever hear of this one? In the 80s, one trend took the idea of "beauty sleep" to a whole new level. Enter the Sleeping Beauty Diet. The concept was pretty straightforward: if you’re knocked out, you can’t eat. Followers would take heavy sedatives to sleep for days on end, and there were even whispers of celebrities giving it a go. It wasn’t just lazy; it was downright dangerous. Overdosing on sedatives can lead to respiratory failure, and let’s be real—your body needs real nutrients to function, not just a long nap. The Fen-Phen...

We're not trying to trigger anyone around here. But, we got even more heat from this article and (even) this article . We want to reiterate that the Fibermaxxing series is informational only. We are not promoting this option at all.  All we are doing is letting you know about it and allow you to choose. We got a message sent through our contact form that kind struck us, like an uppercut punch. ✊  " I don't know what you all think you're trying to do here, but this is an unproven diet plan that you REALLY need to do some research on! I cannot imagine a more reckless position to take by bringing this to your audience and presenting it as being legitimate! Shame on you! Sincerely, Sophia "  Once again : * This article isn’t meant to strongly support or dissuade your decision. As always, we’re simply presenting what modern research says — and reminding you that you and your physician should decide what’s best for your personal health.* Well...we love you...

If you pay attention long enough, you can see when the old saying: "If it sounds too good to be true, then it isn't true" becoming a fact of life everyday. Take weight loss, for example. Somebody's always got a weight loss secret to sell you.  It's literally been that way for years. Let's go back a few years in time just to prove this point to you. Weight loss in the 1960s wasn’t just about salads; it was a whole chemistry experiment.  People were chasing quick results, and some doctors were more than willing to help out.  Enter the infamous "Rainbow Pills".  The Psychedelic Diet of the 1960s These colorful tablets looked like candy, but the ingredients were anything but sweet. Each dose packed a punch with amphetamines and barbiturates, along with laxatives and thyroid hormones.  The idea was to rev up your body, while the barbiturates were there to keep you from shaking like a leaf! By 1968, a shocking exposé in Life magazine revealed the grim trut...

New to the whole resistant starch thing? You’re in the right place. This is the companion piece to our main deep-dive — think of it as the “wait, but what about…” article for people just getting started. So wait, is this just regular potato starch from the grocery store baking aisle? Probably not. Most potato starch sitting next to the cornstarch has been processed, pre-cooked, or otherwise messed with in ways that destroy the resistant starch content. What you want specifically says “unmodified” on the label.  Bob’s Red Mill is the brand most people start with, and it’s widely available. If the label doesn’t say unmodified, assume it isn’t. Why would I eat raw starch?  That sounds weird. Fair reaction. But “raw” here doesn’t mean you’re eating something dangerous or gross — it just means it hasn’t been cooked, which is what preserves the resistant starch. It’s virtually tasteless and dissolves easily into cold liquid. Most people mix a spoonful into water, a smoothie, or juic...

A deep dive into unmodified potato starch, resistant starch, and why your gut bacteria are starving. Let me paint you a picture. You’re at the grocery store, staring at a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Unmodified Potato Starch. It’s $4.99.  It looks like baby powder.  The label says almost nothing useful. You pick it up, put it down, pick it up again, and then put it in your cart because some guy in a health forum wouldn’t shut up about it. Good call.  Put it back in the cart. Because unmodified potato starch is quietly one of the most interesting things you can add to your diet — and almost nobody’s talking about it in plain English. It’s not sexy like collagen peptides.  It doesn’t have a celebrity endorsement. It won’t make your smoothie turn a cool purple color. But what it does do — down in your gut, where the real action is — is genuinely remarkable. Let’s break it down without the lab coat. unmodified potato starch What Even Is Resistant Starch? Most starch gets ...

We caught a lot of heat from some readers about our last article on this diet option. We decided it was a good idea to highlight some counterpoints on this subject for fairness sake.  So, please don't hate us: Fibermaxxing is having a moment. Suddenly fibermaxxing feels like it's everywhere Fibermaxxing didn’t come out of nowhere—it rode the wave of a much bigger shift. Search interest in things like “ gut health ,” “ fiber foods ,” and “ blood sugar balance ” has been climbing steadily, and now the internet has done what it always does: packaged it into a trend with a name. “ Fibermaxxing ” just happens to be the version that stuck. Scroll long enough and you’ll see it framed as the missing piece: better gut health , fewer cravings, smoother digestion , more stable energy. Add some chia , hit 40 grams, fix your life. And to be fair, fiber does matter. Most people probably need more of it. But whenever a single nutrition idea gets this much momentum, it’s wo...

Have you ever noticed how certain foods seem to call your name when you're stressed? Maybe it's cookies after a long day. Or potato chips while watching the evening news. Or that bowl of ice cream that somehow appears during a rough week. Stress and food cravings are closely connected, and many people turn to so-called comfort foods when life gets overwhelming. But, is there any good news? Maybe. Understanding why these cravings happen can make them much easier to manage. cookies ala remote The Stress–Comfort Food Connection When your body experiences stress, it releases hormones designed to help you cope with challenges. One of the most important is cortisol, often called the stress hormone. Cortisol can increase your appetite and make you crave quick energy foods , especially those high in sugar, salt, and fat. In other words, the very foods we tend to label as “comfort foods.” These foods can temporarily boost feel-good chemicals in the brain like dopamine, which is why...