This is going to be a great year for your child. By following these tips, your child will be able to enjoy a healthy, happy and successful school year.

Even as adults, all of us can recall a child from our long ago school days who simply could not pay attention and disrupted the whole class. Maybe this kid was the class clown, the kid who just couldn't sit still," the constant daydreamer, or even the school bully. Whatever the case, this child often disrupted the whole class's learning process because of his or her inability to focus and concentrate on school tasks. Looking back at these "problem children," experts realize that many of them probably had the disorder called attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

While most parents try hard to make nutritious meals for their family, most children find the appeal of refined, fried, fast, and junk food simply overwhelming. And, sadly, increasingly easy to buy and consume, as well. From kindergarten through 12th grade, in both grade schools and high schools, vending machines offer calorie laden candy bars, sugar-filled soft drinks, and snack foods loaded with fat and salt. Many school cafeterias actually sell fast-food to children for lunch every day.1

Perhaps no other disease is as closely linked to nutrition as diabetes. Not only does nutrition play a role in its development, nutrition is also one of the disease's most powerful treatments.¹

Between 1946 and 1965, 78 million Americans were born, creating the largest number of children in U.S. history. This Baby Boom generation has greatly influenced the makeup of American society and undoubtedly will continue to do so. Thanks to good nutrition and health care, Baby Boomers are aging well and have an excellent life expectancy. For the first time in history, we have more people turning 60 every day, and record numbers of adults reaching their seventh decade.¹ As a result, neurological diseases associated with aging, such as Parkinson's disease, are becoming major health care concerns. The good news is CoQ1 0 has applications for neurological diseases, in addition to its better known use for cardiovascular diseases.

More than 40% of all deaths in the U.S. are from cardiovascular disease (CVD). Statistics show people have a greater chance of dying from heart disease than from cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and accidents combined. More than 2,600 Americans die each day of CVD - an average of 1 death every 33 seconds. One in 5 men and women have some form of CVD. If all forms of major CVD were eliminated, life expectancy would rise by almost 7 years.¹

According to the American Pain Foundation (APF), the presence of pain is a national healthcare crisis. More than 50 million Americans are suffering from chronic headaches, back pain, muscle strain, and arthritis, as well as pain from chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, lupus, fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis. Another 25 million are dealing with acute pain as a result of injury or surgery. And although most pain can be relieved or greatly eased with proper care, the tragedy is that most pain goes untreated, under-treated, or is improperly treated.¹

While we know eating whole grains and fiber is good for us, most of us don't get enough. Adults in America today manage to only eat about 15 grams of fiber each day, just half the recommended amount.1 However, in a world full of highly processed foods, it can be difficult to get the fiber we need. This issue of Ask the Doctor will look at fiber: why we need it, what it can do for us, which types of fiber are best, and how to make sure we are getting enough. Some exciting new fiber supplements provide a significant amount of healthy fiber in a tasty powder form to mix in water and can give us added benefits, not found anywhere else.

Have you ever wondered why men seem to be able to lose weight so much easier than women can? A typical guy, trying to lose his "spare tire" will simply lay off salty snacks, cut down on his fat intake, and - voila - 2 weeks later he's lost 10 pounds! Women's bodies on the other hand, seem to hang onto to every molecule of fat that passes the lips, refusing to budge, despite hours at the gym and weeks of calorie counting.

Do you ever think about what goes into your body each day? You should. One of the keys to feeling good and being healthy is eating nutritious food and making sure our gastrointestinal (GI) tract has the tools it needs to optimally digest and absorb nutrients. The GI tract includes of the stomach and intestines, which work to digest food and eliminate waste.

While other herbs such as St. John's wort and echinacea may appear in the news more often, Milk Thistle is actually the most researched and best understood of all the medicinal herbs. In fact, study after study has confirmed the most significant property of Milk Thistle: namely, the ability to protect and actually rejuvenate the liver.1-3

In India, Alzheimer's disease is relatively uncommon. People over the age of 65 living in certain rural areas of India have a less than 1 percent (0.84%) chance of developing the disease. In the larger cities and rural areas of India, the risk is just 2.4 percent.^1,2

Approximately 44 million American women and men aged 50 and older have osteoporosis (severe bone loss) or osteopenia (mild bone loss), with women being affected about twice as often as men.1 At least 1.5 million fractures of the hip, vertebra (back or neck), or wrist occur each year in the United States as a result of osteoporosis, and the annual cost of treating this disorder is nearly $14 billion and rising. And the toll in human suffering and loss of independence is even greater.