Does Dr. Oz need a reality check on Consumer Labs?  What’s the real story behind Consumer Lab’s supplement testing? As a subscriber to the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), their recent newsletter prompted this post. The ANH is an organization “dedicated to promoting sustainable health and freedom of choice in healthcare through good science and good law:” They advocate an integrative “approach incorporating functional foods, dietary supplements, and lifestyle changes” to improve health versus drugs, invasive surgeries and increased health care costs. You can see why I respect their opinion!

Dirty Dozen Strikes Again

Apples, strawberries, grapes. You might think this is the start of a healthy shopping list to glean fresh antioxidants but you’d be wrong. The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit advocacy agency, released its top 12 “dirty dozen” foods for the ninth successive year and these fruits take the top three spots for pesticide residue. So what are the other 9 making the list? 

The link between ATP, mitochondria and pain in fibromyalgia. Dr. M. Cordera has done multiple studies of CoQ10, showing its benefits in helping mitochondrial function for fibromyalgia (FM). His published study study on 20 FM patient s further demonstrates that 300 mg of CoQ10 daily improves several clinical markers in as little as 40 days. Likewise, a second study shows that ATP is low in FM muscles. Since CoQ10 helps with ATP energy, this is double good news for fibromyalgia or anyone with an energy crunch!

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a multi-faceted syndrome that appears to require mufti-faceted answers! One important aspect is the "energy crunch", primarily caused by low levels of magnesium. More than 75% of Americans are low in this mineral and deficiency could be a contributing cause of many FM symptoms. The energy cycle depends on magnesium as its chief officer of operations. But there is more to the energy equation, particularly for fibromyalgia.