The question is not "Are we toxic?", but "How toxic are we and how is it impacting our health?" We invite you to take a journey through a dietary, lifestyle and detoxification program that will encourage the release of stored toxins in your body resulting in increased energy, better sleep, reduced pain, mental clarity and weight loss.

The symptoms we experience: itchy, watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing, and congestion, are all immune responses that our body produces to protect us. When we are "suffering" with these symptoms our immune system has become overactive.

How can we combat these symptoms? Here are several things that can help:

1. Eat honey.

2. Keep mucous membranes moist.

3. Do a sinus saline wash.

4. Avoid foods that you are sensitive to.

5. Stabilize your mast cells - an important part of our immune system.

Step one for spring cleaners is: Open a window and let those pollutants out! Yet even in this season, when a vase of daffodils can fill a room with a lovely natural scent, many consumers stubbornly keep using synthetic room fresheners and fragranced cleaning products that are full of VOCs and other toxic chemicals. These can make our indoor air unhealthy, provoke skin, eye, and respiratory reactions, and harm the natural environment.

In the bible we read, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so shall he be." Over the past thirty years numerous studies have confirmed the truth of this ancient proverb. Scientists have discovered that the mind really does affect our physical body. High levels of chronic stress, for example, severely compromise the integrity of our immune systems.

In fact, how we think and what we think about not only influences our health but also our self- esteem, our job performance and our relationships.

Join us on the third Thursday of every month for a FREE health talk at Earth Fare on Johnston Road (Ballantyne area).

We gather at 5:00 pm for healthy refreshments followed by a healthy dose of information from the clinicians at Carolinas Natural Health Center -- important tips and guidelines to help you maintain your healthy lifestyle throughout 2008.

Thursday, April 17 @ 5:00 pm - Shoppers Guide to Safe Cosmetics presented by Dr. Marci Scott, Naturopathic Physician.

In mid-March of this year, the Associated Press released the results of a five-month inquiry into the nation's drinking water. The results are disturbing; pharmaceutical drugs were detected in the water supply of 24 major metropolitan areas across the United States. Drugs detected include antibiotics, hormones, mood stabilizers, pain medications, and anti-convulsants, among others.