Advertisers bombard us all day long about products that purport to cure us of anything that ails us. Drug companies, vitamin and supplement makers, health food producers, and others claim to have exactly what we need to be healthy. In this world of too much information, we must all become skeptics and educate ourselves.

Doctors and those pretending to be doctors can make a convincing sell, but we must remain skeptical and demand scientific proof. Is someone just trying to sell us something? Though most of these products are merely ineffective, some can be hazardous. In the past few years the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the U.S. found that, for example, some zinc cold remedy users lost their sense of smell and some infants were exposed to potentially harmful levels of the toxic nightshade plant in homeopathic teething tablets.

Though I have an M.D. and a M.P.H. (Master's in Public Health), I am comfortable advocating information from the Edgar Cayce health readings precisely because the readings did NOT try to sell miracle cures. The readings were given for specific individuals in their particular physical, emotional, and social situations. Some of the Cayce readings do mention suggestions that were stated as being for everyone. These generalizable suggestions offered no quick fixes but instead demanded focus and determination on the part of the suffering person to change his or her own health. The behavior changes recommended in the Cayce readings are the same ones that modern medical science promotes today: eat healthier food, exercise, drink plenty of water, get enough sleep, decrease stress, and change negative attitudes. These lifestyle changes enable the body to heal from the inside out.

Yes, sometimes people need medication or surgery - the readings agree,

And whether there is the application of foods, exercise, medicine, or even the knife, - it is to bring the consciousness of the forces within the body that aid in reproducing themselves.

--Edgar Cayce reading 2696-1

But we all need to follow healthy lifestyle recommendations. No vitamin or device is going to undo the damage of cigarettes, fried foods, and sitting all day. It's much easier to pop a pill in our mouth or drink some expensive H2O, but scientific studies show over and over again that lifestyle changes are the main tools we have to improve our health. These changes are not easy to make, but they are inexpensive and they WORK.