Favorite Brand Spotlight (and Sale!): Natural Factors

This month I wanted to write about one of our favorite companies. They don’t have fancy labels, but they do have great products at a good price- Natural Factors. They’re a family owned business that really cares about their products and ingredients- they have their own farms where they grow and harvest herbs and supplement ingredients for their products using heirloom, non-GMO seeds. When they aren’t able to source their own ingredients from their own farm, they have partners where environmental sustainability and purity are paramount. The company also supports a number of philanthropic environmental causes and are founding patrons of the Plant A Seed & See What Grows Foundation, a non-profit organization that works to create opportunities for children to personally experience and be inspired by the natural world around them, that includes funding for school gardens, healthy school breakfast programs, farm visits, and reading programs.

Quite a few of their items are our top recommended products for different categories, often because they’re such a great deal. They have “buy one, get one free” two packs of CoQ10, ubiquinol (the active form of CoQ10), Vitamin D3, and more. They also have the best quercetin (a supplement for respiratory health and the immune system) on the market currently- a liposomal quercetin that’s significantly better absorbed than regular quercetin. I take the Natural Factors vitamin D, CoQ10, and liposomal quercetin every day.

We’re also featuring them this month because we have a limited amount of “Immunity Kits” that we’re offering at a great price as a thank you to our customers. It’s a one month kit that has 30 count bottles of their liposomal quercetin, vitamin D3, zinc, and a time release vitamin C that we’ve put on sale for just $19.99- it’s an amazing deal, since the regular price of a month’s supply of the liposomal quercetin alone is almost $30.

We wanted to offer it to our customers so it’s easier (and more affordable!) for everyone to stay healthy through this winter. Quercetin, vitamin D, vitamin C, and zinc are really the top supplements needed to stay healthy. We also thought it might be a nice gift for friends and family to help them stay healthy without having to spend a fortune.

Stop by to pick up one of our new Natural Factors Immunity Kits while supplies last, and stay healthy!

We’re at 7228 W. College Drive in Palos Heights.

Our Favorite Spring Wines

Now that spring has sprung, I wanted to mention some wonderful organic white wines we carry that are perfect for heralding in the spring season or for Easter get togethers!

Organic Grüner Veltliner

This is one of my favorite wines that completely embodies spring. It’s a light, fresh, crisp wine that’s only made in Austria, pronounced “Grooner Velt Liner”. We definitely recommend giving it a try, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed! It’s organic and vegan for $13.99 a bottle.

Organic Moscato Spumante Dolce

This is such a nice, celebratory wine from Italy. Everyone I know who’s tried it has loved it, even people who don’t consider themselves wine drinkers. It’s a sweet, sparkling wine that’s absolutely delicious and perfect for a spring brunch or lunch (or just for enjoying the mild spring weather on your back porch) and is $13.99 a bottle.

Organic Prosecco

This is a wonderful, dry sparkling wine that’s perfect for mimosas! Prosecco and Champagne can be used interchangeably, since it’s just about where the grapes were grown- Champagne comes from the region of Champagne, France, whereas Prosecco is a sparkling wine from the Veneto region of Italy. We have two varieties of Prosecco at the store- one that is organic, sulfite free, and vegan for $16.99 and another that is organic and vegan for $12.99. Both are great celebratory wines perfect for an Easter brunch!

Organic “Slightly Sweet and Shameless” White

This organic white wine blend is made by Stellar Organics, a winery in South Africa. All of their wines are organic, sulfite free, vegan, and fair trade. This wine blend is lightly sweet, crisp and fruity and is a customer favorite for $10.99 a bottle

Organic Sun & Rain Chardonnay

This delicious Chardonnay is USDA certified organic, vegan, and sulfite free. It’s sourced from the Mendocino region of California and is a lighter Chardonnay that doesn’t have the heavy oak and buttery flavors some varieties have, making it an easy drinking white wine that’s perfect for spring and is $12.99 a bottle.

Organic Alcohol-Free Sparkling Chardonnay

We’ve had many requests for an organic, non-alcoholic wine, so we were happy we found this delicious alcohol-free wine from the South of France. It’s a wonderful wine that’s crisp and fresh and is a nice option for people who choose to abstain from drinking alcohol for $14.99 a bottle.

We have many more wonderful organic wines at the store, as well as local craft ciders and organic craft beer, so be sure to stop by.

We have the largest selection of organic wines of anywhere else in the area.

See our entire organic wine catalog here:
White Wines | Red Wines

August is Back to School Month

August means back to school. I always think of September as the back to school month, since that’s what it was when I was little, but now most kids are going back be back in school by the third week of August if not sooner.

Hopefully this will be a more normal school year than last year, but even on the most normal of normal years, there can still be stress and anxiety for many about starting school. Theanine is a great supplement for stress and anxiety and is safe for both kids and adults. It’s an amino acid that’s found in green tea that can help kids to feel more calm and less worried. It can even be used before bed to help with sleep, not that it makes you tired, but it’s effective for sleep since it helps to encourage a calm state of mind. It’s especially helpful for school age children and teens since in addition to enhancing feelings of calm, it also can help with increasing focus (something most of us would benefit from). It’s available in gummies or capsules, and most children start with a 100mg dose, whereas most adults take 400mg.

See this article on our website for more information: Theanine for Reducing Stress and Increasing Focus

Preventing illness is always a concern once school starts again, since with so many kids packed in together, colds and other respiratory viruses are more likely. There are a number of great kid-friendly immune boosters we’d recommend, like our elderberry gummies by Zhou, which also contain a good dose of immune boosting zinc (plus they’re great tasting). A few other immune supplements that we recommend for kids are probiotics and vitamin D- we have both available in good tasting chewable supplements. Probiotics have shown in research to help with preventing respiratory infections in children, resulting in fewer missed school days, and vitamin D is a great all-around immune booster that’s great for everyone.

Here are a few helpful articles from our website with more information:

Preventative Immune Health

Keeping Kids Healthy this Winter

Manuka Honey Throat Lozenges for Cough and Sore Throat

Elderberry: A Potent Antiviral Against Colds and Flu

Finally, a few other supplements that can be helpful for kids are an omega 3 supplement and a multivitamin. Omega 3s are essential fatty acids that are crucial for brain function, and many kids are deficient because they have to be obtained through either diet or supplements, and most kids don’t eat a lot of fish. A great tasting, high potency supplement is Barlean’s Omega Swirl (for both kids or adults). We’ve found that most kid’s omega 3 chewables or gummies have very little actual omega 3 in them, so we recommend Barlean’s Omega Swirl liquid as an easy way to get the recommended amounts in just one teaspoon (it’s not at all oily or fishy, it tastes like lemon cream).

See our article Improving Children’s Concentration at School for more information.

Multivitamins are great for kids or adults that are picky eaters or people without the best diets, since they help to fill in nutrition gaps. A multivitamin is not a substitute for a healthy diet, but it’s a simple way to ensure you or your children are getting the nutrients you need every day for optimal health.

Please stop by the store this month so we can help you to find the supplements that are right for your individual needs.

A Sunburn Miracle (Literally)

Since we’re in the throes of summer, I wanted to mention a literal miracle for sunburns and skin irritation that we’ve discovered at Pass Health Foods. There must be fairy dust in it, because it’s amazing how well it works. It’s the First Aid Gel by Sovereign Silver, and I’d definitely recommend having a bottle in the house.

I first heard about how well it worked several years ago from Liz (one of the other owners). We’d gone to an event outside in late spring and she hadn’t thought about putting on sunscreen and got an awful sunburn. I saw how red and painful her arms were. She took home a bottle of the First Aid Gel and slathered it on that night. When I saw her the next day it was unbelievable how much better her sunburn looked.

Now, just last month, we were out of town and my daughter got sunburned on parts of her face (she didn’t rub her sunscreen in well enough). We had aloe with us, but it wasn’t helping enough. I stopped to pick up a bottle of First Aid Gel from a local health food store in the area and she said how from the first time putting it on that it felt so much better. She kept putting it on all evening and slept with a thick layer of it on her skin, and by the next morning it was so much better (and she said it felt so much better too).

Obviously, not getting a sunburn in the first place is the best idea, but things happen. I really couldn’t recommend our First Aid Gel by Sovereign Silver enough!

Probiotics for Disease Prevention [New Research]

I wanted to briefly write about probiotics since in the past few months, numerous new studies have come out showing previously unknown benefits of probiotics for disease prevention. I’ll link a few of the articles below:

New research underscores the link between multiple sclerosis and the gut microbiome

Gut bacteria trigger immune defense mechanism to protect against viral infections

Gut microbiome link to deadly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Study offers "indisputable" link between Alzheimer's and gut microbiome

Microbiome study could change the way doctors diagnose depression

We don’t often think of our digestive system unless it’s giving us trouble, and then usually we’re just looking for a fix for those symptoms, but our digestive system and specifically our body’s unique microbiome (or the trillions of bacteria and microorganisms that live in our digestive tract) affect our health far beyond our stomach.

A healthy balance and variety of good bacteria in the body is incredibly important for overall health, but it’s easy to be ignored since many people can take probiotics and not feel very different. Part of the benefit of probiotics are more overreaching, affecting our health long term for the better. It’s similar to giving a car an oil change- generally, the car doesn’t drive very differently after having one done, but it’s important to keep the vehicle running properly in the long run.

We have lots of great supplements at the store, which have benefits for an assortment of issues, but realistically a person can’t take 100 pills a day. So as you choose the supplements that are most important to your personal health, we’d really recommend adding (or continuing to take) a quality probiotic with a variety of well-researched strains. Stop by the store because we’d love to help you choose the product that’s best for you. A favorite of mine are Solaray’s line of refrigerated Mycrobiome probiotics. They have specific formulas for a variety of needs including a women’s probiotic, a 50+ formula, and one specifically for colon health. I like them because in addition to being high potency products with a variety of effective probiotic strains, they also contain prebiotics, which help the good bacteria in your digestive tract and in the supplements you take to flourish.

Product Spotlight: Immune Fast Lozenges

I wanted to highlight an impressive and little known supplement called Immune Fast by Zand. They're chewable supplements that come in a convenient tube that's the perfect size for a purse or bag. They contain a unique, patented probiotic yeast that has been shown in research to enhance our immune response within two hours, helping our bodies to mount a quick attack against invading viruses and bacteria.

I love that they come in an easy to carry tube, since they're great to take with you and can be used at the very first signs of illness. They can be used along with your regular supplement regimen, and are the perfect "just in case" supplement to have on hand.

Since we're featuring them in our October newsletter, we have the Immune Fast tubes on sale for 25% off during the month of October, so they come out to be $6.74 each. I'd definitely recommend picking a couple up!

Stay Healthy This Autumn

Autumn is a beautiful season, but unfortunately, it often brings with it the beginnings of cold and flu season, and because of that, it’s a great time to start a preventative immune-boosting regimen.

There are so many supplements that can be beneficial to the immune system, both preventatively and if you do happen to get sick, to help you to get better sooner.

Here is a great overview of past articles from our website on a variety of science-backed immune-boosting supplements:

• Olive leaf is also great for the immune system, plus it lowers blood pressure.

• Aged garlic extract is wonderful for the immune system, and also helps with cardiovascular health as well as lowering blood pressure.

• Oregano oil and neti pots can be helpful for sinus infections or people prone to sinus issues.

• Elderberry extract, also known as Sambucus, is an amazing antiviral, particularly against the flu. We have a new elderberry extract that we recommend- Nature’s Answer Sambucus. It’s the highest potency elderberry available. Elderberry is also safe for both kids and adults.

• This is a helpful article for immune boosters that are safe for kids.

• Quercetin is a great natural antihistamine that can also help with boosting the immune system, particularly for athletes.

• This is a nice article that focuses on several different immune boosting supplements, particularly Vitamin D and mushroom extracts like beta glucan and AHCC.

• Irwin Naturals Immuno Shield is another favorite since it’s a blend of a number of well-researched supplements that work to boost the immune system.  It can be used both preventatively or if you do happen to get sick to help to get better faster.  We also now having it for 25% off from now until the end of the year! 

A "Miracle Cure" for Sunburn

Sunburns as an adult are so terrible since we’re not children, we should know better. Still, it happens. I wanted to share about what I now think of as a “miracle cure” for sunburn- I wanted to write about it last month but there just wasn’t room in last month’s newsletter.

In May, Liz and I from the store went to Revival’s Yoga Fest in Palos Heights (if you’re not familiar with them, they’re an amazing yoga studio in Palos Heights with fabulous people). It was an absolutely gorgeous day. We had a booth there outside to talk to the people there about supplements and whatever else. It wasn’t that hot and since it was still May, and Liz forgot to use any sunscreen- she was just there in the morning until just a bit after noon, so generally you wouldn’t think the sun would be that strong at that time anyway.

Well, when I saw her at work the next day, her arms were as red as a tomato and she was in so much pain (as anyone who has been badly sunburned will attest to). She took some of our Sovereign Silver First Aid Gel (which has had research done on its benefit for healing burns) from the store as well as Alba Botanicals After Sun Gel, a favorite of both of ours that mixes aloe with cooling plant extracts that are soothing and healing to the skin.

She alternated using both the First Aid Gel and the aloe gel several times throughout the day on her arms, which she felt were absolutely radiating heat. By the NEXT DAY she said her sunburn was so much better, and then when I saw her the day after that, her sunburn was completely gone, and even more amazingly, she had no peeling whatsoever from where her skin was damaged.

To be honest with you, if I had not seen what happened with her sunburn with my own eyes, I would not have believed it. It was literally like a miracle, particularly since I saw how red her arms were in the beginning.

So, first I would definitely recommend using sunscreen if you’re going to be outside, obviously. If the worst happens, and you do forget and find yourself sunburned, I would definitely recommend using this combination. I actually just picked up a bottle of the First Aid Gel by Sovereign Silver to have in the house just in case.

Aloe in general is of course wonderful, but the After Sun Gel by Alba is really worth having- I feel like it’s less sticky and gloppy than other aloe gels I’ve used. In addition to the aloe, their After Sun Gel also contains green tea extract which has been shown in studies to help repair sun damaged skin when used topically as well as probiotics, which have been shown in research to help to reduce skin sensitivity and redness from sun damage when used topically.

Natural Help for Perimenopause and Hormone Balance

This month I wanted to write about a supplement that Sarah at the store uses and loves- DIM + CDG by Jarrow. That’s a lot of letter abbreviations, but they stand for Diindolylmethane, an extract from cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, and Calcium D-Glucarate a nutrient found in fruit. So I guess it’s definitely easier to just use the letters.

DIM + CDG is an amazing supplement to help with hormone balance, specifically that it helps your body to be able to balance its own hormones correctly. It can be helpful for women of all ages with hormone related issues, but Sarah has found that it really helps her with regulating her emotions during perimenopause- she actually calls it her “anti-crazy pill”. Jarrow was out of stock of it for a while due to manufacturing issues, and during that time that she didn’t take it, she said she could really feel a difference.

She has said that for her, during perimenopause, she has been feeling “irrationally emotional”, some days going back and forth between crying and laughing and then crying again. She says she sees a huge difference between the times she has been using the supplement and the times when she hasn’t.

DIM, or diindolylmethane, is a supplement that can help the body to balance its own hormones better. It’s not a hormone supplement, but rather, it helps the body to balance the natural estrogens that can form in women’s bodies to achieve better hormone balance and to reduce the negative effects of hormone imbalance so common in perimenopause and menopause. One of the ways those hormone imbalances manifest themselves is in mood swings, which are extremely common in women in the throes or perimenopause.

This supplement by Jarrow is so nice in part because it combines DIM’s hormone balancing action with a supplement called CDG, which actually works as a sort of hormone cleanse, detoxing the body from negative forms of estrogen and working to remove excess estrogens from the body. It’s due to these actions that CDG has been found to be able to reduce the risk of hormone related cancers. GDC and DIM also have a synergistic effect on women’s hormones, working together to be more effective than either product taken alone.

Sarah says she felt like she could feel the DIM + CDG working from within the first week, though each woman’s experience may be slightly different due to their own unique hormone makeup. Still, it’s a supplement that we definitely recommend for hormone related issues for women of all ages, since I think everyone would benefit from a little hormone balance. Plus they’re in easy to swallow capsules that are in a one-a-day formula. Also this month our Jarrow DIM + CDG will be on sale for 25% off, so it’s a great time to try it to see if it works for you!

A New Approach for Managing GERD and Heartburn

This month I wanted to write about a unique and little known supplement for heartburn and GERD. Digestive enzymes, probiotics, and DGL licorice are all helpful for managing GERD, but there is another supplement ingredient I’ve discovered and have been doing some research on which I believe could be a great help for GERD and heartburn sufferers.

The ingredient I’m talking about is called alginate, also known as algenic acid. It’s an extract from brown algae that absorbs many times its weight in liquid, making a natural gel substance. When that algae gel is combined with natural buffers like sodium bicarbonate and calcium carbonate and used after a meal, it is actually able to make a gel-like raft that blocks acid reflux into the esophagus.

When the alginate reaches the acids in the stomach, it makes a pliable gel. At the same time, the calcium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate (also known as baking soda) produce bubbles in the algae gel which make it rise to the top of the stomach, so it is literally floating on top of the contents of your stomach.

By making this floating stomach acid raft, it prevents those stomach acids from coming back up the esophagus, which is what happens in acid reflux, GERD, and heartburn.

It sounds a little strange, and but if you think about it, it makes sense. One of the main reasons so many people suffer from acid reflux is that naturally as we age, the muscle at the bottom of the esophagus known as the esophageal sphincter can weaken, so it doesn’t close all the way. When this happens, it allows acid to begin to travel back up the esophagus from the stomach, causing pain and damage over time.

When this gel raft is formed, it can last several hours in the body (which means that it is effective for that amount of time) before passing through the intestines and being digested like any other fiber.

Research has been done on alginate and its gel barrier method for preventing acid reflux, and when compared with PPIs, other acid blocking drugs, and antacids, it’s been found superior in both safety and effectiveness (here’s a link the abstract of one of those studies on Pub Med). There are no side effects, drug interactions, or toxicity that has been found from using this method since you are not actually taking a drug or anything that is necessarily changing what the body naturally does, but are just preventing acid from going where it shouldn’t be going anyway. It’s very much like fencing a dog in your yard- you aren’t stopping Fido from doing whatever he likes to do in your yard, you’re just preventing him from running in the street.

This alginate combination has been the subject of over fourteen different studies as well as a meta-analysis that examined each of the studies done on these nutrients at Duke University. The results showed that the alginate based supplement was more effective than placebo or antacids. In the studies, the people who took the alginate supplement were 4.42 times more likely to have a complete resolution of their symptoms than the placebo group.

I don’t know why alginate based supplements aren’t more well known, since the research is sound, but I’m happy to be able to share the information I’ve come across, since I think it could help a lot of people.

The supplement we’ve found that has this impressive alginate combination that we carry at the store is called Nutrisec by a company called Nature’s Plus. It’s a chewable tablet that is meant to be taken after a meal or 30 minutes before bedtime to prevent reflux when lying down to sleep at night, which is a very common issue for people with GERD. If you use it before bed, wait a half hour before laying down so the raft has time to get into place so it can work properly.

I’d very much recommend trying it, especially since it has been shown to cause no harm, and that it seems like something that might really help if you’re dealing with acid reflux, GERD, or heartburn. It’s definitely worth a try!