Almost every other website devoted to this topic went bust. That won’t happen to us because we’re taking it one step at a time. Also, all those other sites were motivated primarily by e-commerce and established by people who did not work in natural health. This site will maintain its journalistic integrity because its sole mission is to help you work out what really does work in this fascinating but complicated field.

What you see now with www.whatreallyworks.co.uk is Phase I of a four-part rollout programme designed to unfold over the next 12 months. For example, we have two new top health writers joining us over the summer to edit two new key zones - nutrition and parenting.

Peta Bee, who will run the NutritionZone, is a well-respected TV and print journalist who writes regularly in almost every national newspaper. She is also a trained nutritionist, and we are lucky to have her on board. Tania Alexander is a busy mum and working journalist who writes about health from the parents’ point of view. Again, getting Tania is a major coup!

Anyway, enough about us, the rest of this newsletter is about you!

What’s hot! - Stay calm with Relora

If you’re looking for an alternative to mood-boosting kava kava - which has been withdrawn while German health officials investigate claims that it can cause liver toxicity - then you should try Relora, a new supplement made from the Magnolia tree. In early trials, volunteers taking 200mg of Relora three times a day for two weeks reported increased feelings of wellbeing, better sleep patterns, and less stress. And when researchers measured levels of stress hormones, they found an impressive 37% drop in cortisol.  Most health stores have voluntarily withdrawn kava kava even though there is still no evidence that it can damage the liver. In fact, 28 of the 29 cases who reported adverse side-effects were taking other medication or supplements too, which makes it highly likely that the problem was one of interaction.

*Relora is sold in the UK by Victoria Health (0800-413596). 60 capsules cost £17.95. To boost mood, take three a day.

What’s not!  - PC spes

This was the amazing Chinese herbal formulation that achieved an 87% shrinkage in prostate tumours in cases deemed beyond hope. Not surprisingly, these results made headline news across the world. I had my concerns when, in recommending this product to readers several years ago, I was appalled to learn UK prostate sufferers were being charged in excess of £100 a month to have the formulation shipped out from the States. This is complementary medicine at its rip-off worst - I have since sourced other, more affordable formulations. As if this were not shameful enough, PC-spes has now been withdrawn in the US after sample batches were found to be “contaminated” with one of the conventional drugs used to treat prostate cancer. If the initial results were genuine (and having interviewed the Chinese scientist who first made this supplement, I still believe they were), then this PR disaster means PC-spes has lost all credibility - just at the point where prostate cancer has over-taken lung cancer as the most common cancer in men.

If you want an alternative, I recommend ProstaCol, which combines saw palmetto (this herb was in PC-spes too) with African herbs and prostate-protecting lycopene.

*ProstaCol is available from the NutriCentre (0800-587 2290). 60 capsules cost £34.95, and since you take three a day - the monthly cost is £45.

Susan’s Top Tip

If, like me, you find many of nutritional and herbal supplements you want to take hard to swallow - especially when they are the size of horse pills - then get one of the new award-winning pill splitter and crushers. I first came across these at the Natural Products Show in London. You can use it to either split large pills or to grind them to a fine powder that can be sprinkled over food. The device, which normally costs £5.99, is on offer to WRW subscribers along with a clever little pill stacker set for £10.98; which represents a £1 saving. 

*For details, call 01273-558112 or visit the Lemonburst website.

Say Again?

This is the section where you get clarification of dosages and further detail of remedies I have recommended elsewhere throughout the month.

Bug Bites

I know lots of you were shocked when I went on the Jimmy Young show and talked about the virulent mosquito and sandfly bites I came back from New Zealand with - no wonder hobbits need thick skins! And then lots of people wrote saying “surely some mistake?” because their chemists told them that nobody takes 500mg of vitamin B1, which is my recommended solution. This is the correct and safe dosage because you are not taking it for months on end.

Start two weeks before your holiday, and stop when you get home again.
So, to recap: prevent bugs from biting by taking 500mg of vitamin B1 a day.

Tinnitus

Your Q&A on page 43 of Style (May 26) was of particular interest to me as a tinnitus sufferer. I went out at lunchtime today and bought a tub of 50 cytacon tablets from Boots. The "dosage" is stated as " 1 to 3 tablets or more".  Your article suggested that I should take 2000mcg per day initially, which amounts to 40 of my 50mcg tablets.

I am happy to do this if: a. It cures my tinnitus, and b. My bank manager doesn't object (at over £5.00 per tub). But before taking the risk, I thought I should check the advice with you in case there was a misprint. Your help would be much appreciated and noisily awaited. - Peter Thompson

In my May 26 Sunday Times column, I recommended taking 2000mcg of vitamin B12 to help relieve the symptoms of tinnitus. You all went off to Boots to find this supplement, and all came back again with the same alarm bell ringing… which was Boots telling you that this dosage was way too high.
Question: Which complementary health specialists were you talking to in Boots? Did they have special training in this subject area? Did they tell you, for instance, that some people get this prescribed high dosage via an injection from a qualified health practitioner - which would be another of your options?
I check all my dosages with medically qualified practitioners before printing, and this was no exception. What I would say is that we were looking for a therapeutic dosage, and I stressed in the column there is no known toxicity associated with this nutrient.

Since Peter is quite right - it would be expensive to get this dosage from the product he bought in Boots - I am going to say again, go to a specialist health store. They could have told you that Solgar make a 1000mcg vitamin B, which costs just £9 for 100 tablets. You take two a day. Note: CYTACON (the product Peter brought home) is synthetic B12!

Win, Win, Win… an industrial-strength Juicer!

Juicing is still the fastest way to get nutrients into the bloodstream - what’s important is that you drink your juice within 15 minutes of making it while the enzymes are still live. We’re giving away an Oscar Juicer - like the one I have at home - worth over £300. To win, answer the following question:

Q. Which herb is known as nature’s Prozac?

Send your answer to competition@whatreallyworks.co.uk

Q. I heard you recommend Rhodiola on the radio. Is it okay to take this herb with other medication? - SP

A. Herbs are as powerful as prescription drugs - which is why, of course, they work. So you must check before mixing them with existing medication. There are now some excellent reference books that highlight potential interactions. The one I most frequently use is the A-Z Guide to drug-herb-vitamin interactions published by Healthnotes. The ISBN number is 0-7615-1599-2. (Since I don’t know what medication you are taking, I cannot give more than general guidance on this topic.)

Rhodiola rosea is an adaptogen - this means it normalises and then enhances all of the body’s systems - including the immune system, the hormonal system, and the digestive system. It works to disable the enzyme that would otherwise breakdown the feel-good chemical serotonin, and so is a good alternative to St John’s Wort - especially if you live in South Ireland and can no longer buy the latter over the counter.

Another good tip is to contact the companies that make these supplements and ask them about interactions. Solgar makes a good quality Rhodiola product so call 01442-890355 and ask to speak to the technical department.

Q. I am a menopausal 45-year-old and have rheumatoid arthritis. I am taking evening primrose oil and St John’s Wort, and feel I would benefit from a good multivitamin but am not sure which one to buy. I also take echinacea when I feel run down. - PJ

A. Can you bear to start again? If so, I suggest you take Meno-herb and Woman essence to manage the menopausal symptoms and a newer supplement called Nexrutine for the arthritis. Details of both and where to get them are on my Radio 2 Factsheet on the website. I would also swap the evening primrose oil for one of the new generation Omega 3 & 6 fatty acid supplements. The one I like is the sprinkle sachet from The Green People Company (0101444-401444), because you get the perfect ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6.

Q. Is there anything I can give to a seven-month-old baby who has already had two lots of antibiotics for coughs and colds, and who is still chesty and wheezy. He has been put on asthma drugs and his mother (my daughter) is now really worried about building up his immunity. What can we do? - DS

A. The good news is that there is a lot that you can do to rebuild your grandson’s health. For starters, your daughter should give him an infant probiotic to replace those good bacteria that will have been wiped out of his digestive tract by the antibiotics. BioCare (0121-433 3727) make an excellent probiotic powder for babies.
We are currently waiting for Australian scientists to publish the results of a rare clinical study into the usefulness of rye grass in helping to manage asthma in young children. I say rare because there is so little clinical research that is carried out on children, and you can understand why. Would you volunteer your kids? Neither would I.
Anyway, early results were promising enough for the researchers to launch a larger trial. Rye grass is now included in a formulation called Oralmat, which you will need to dilute down for kids. I have posted dosage guidelines for children on the website. And maybe you should buy your daughter a copy of my new book, What Really Works for Kids - The Insider’s Guide to Natural Health available from the site, since it covers these and many more topics for parents who want to go the extra mile for their children’s health.

Q. Can you tell me what cereals I need to buy to start the whole oat diet for high blood pressure? - TT

A. Why waste money on fancy cereals when a good old-fashioned bowl of porridge oats is going to do the same trick? Rich in a gum called beta glucam, a 3oz serving of oats each day can lower cholesterol by 10%. Oats are also an excellent source of nerve-calming calcium and magnesium and help the body build energy and reduce stress.

If you want to take a more scientific approach, then you need to take a supplement that will guarantee a therapeutic dose of a cholesterol-lowering agent. The one I currently rate is Cholesterol Defence (see Radio FactSheet for details), which provides Red Yeast extract. In clinical trials, this lowered cholesterol rates by 23% in just eight weeks!

Q. What can you recommend for my 87-year-old mother-in-law who is worried about her failing memory. She has always had a good diet but is less able now to cook fresh food and is also tired from coping with her husband’s recent illness.

A. Sometimes called the ‘Indian Ginseng’ the herb ashwagandha root is said to have a special affinity with the elderly. It is an excellent general tonic and is used by modern herbalists to rebuild the body after a stressful period, like the one your mother-in-law has just come through, and to overcome exhaustion. It is also an effective herb for anyone recovering from a long illness.
For her memory, I recommend either Gingko biloba or sage. There is more clinical evidence for the former but the latter is a very powerful female tonic, and is now being investigated by pharmaceutical companies for its usefulness in helping overcome and even prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Both are widely on sale in health stores but you will get what you pay for, so buy the best and take as directed on the bottle.

Companies who have been invited to take a commercial link to WRW can also submit news and research material to be considered for publication. WRW maintains independent editorial control over the contents of this newsletter, and the information that appears below has been selected by Susan Clark as being of special interest to subscribers.

Heavy Metal Bans

Natural healers often link heavy metal contamination with a range of chronic conditions; from Chronic fatigue to arthritis. Thinking about it and all the chemicals in your daily life, they may just have a point. Heavy metal pollutants are stored in the body where they can cause a range of problems from everyday headaches to sinusitis, digestive disorders and unexplained skin problems. Country Life has now launched a new supplement designed to safely and effectively rid the body of these contaminants. Metal Factors is a combination of plant products, including energy-boosting spirulina and extract of sea vegetables, which can help detoxify the body. For more details, visit the Country Life website.

Boosting IQ

Food supplements can help children with learning difficulties such as ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia to improve both concentration levels and learning skills. In UK trials where primary school children were given fish oils, learning ability was boosted by the equivalent of two years over a 12-week period, according to researchers. In my new book, What Really Works for Kids, I cover this topic in more depth, and explain how supplementing the diet with essential fatty acids has been shown in mainstream research to help improve behavioural responses of these children.

Summer Hay fever Launch

A more exotic solution to a condition that I normally recommend vitamin C and quercetin for is Luffa Complex; a herbal formulation made from tropical plant extracts including Luffa operculate, or the sponge cucumber.  Luffa is also effective against rhinitis - the streaming, stuffy nose and sneezing symptoms that are typical of this allergic reaction. Luffa is launched by Bioforce and is now on sale in good health stores. This is the company that put echinacea on the map, and new this month is Echinacea Forte - an organic tablet made from the fresh herb tincture.

Healing Yoga Bangles

The season’s new Bollywood ‘must-have’ in healing circles is the new Indian healing bangle, which bears the deeply profound inscription Om Namah Shivaya. Mine has not left my wrist since I first saw it - and since it is a mix of copper, brass and silver, I am counting on it to protect me from arthritic conditions too. If you are remotely serious about your yoga, you will know that this Sanskrit Vedic chant translates to mean “I honour my highest self”. True Yogis chant for healing and so do I. Try it - you’ll be amazed.
To get started, I recommend Thomas Ashley-Farrand's book Healing Mantras (Gateway:ISBN 0-7171-3001-0), which comes with a CD and a full explanation of the Sanskrit words you are chanting. For details of the yoga bangle, visit Ancient Roots.

If you would like a friend to win the oscar juicer, email us their name and email address together with the answer to the competition question... to competition@whatreallyworks.co.uk

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*Disclaimer: The advice in this newsletter should not be taken as a substitute for medical advice or treatment, especially if you know you have a specific health complaint. Our advice is that you find a GP who is sympathetic to the usefulness of natural medicine.