Healthy Foundation can be used any time the body needs a general tune-up. Just as it's good for a car to get an oil change every so many miles, our bodies may benefit from taking herbal tonics from time to time. Many people like to take Healthy Foundation for a month or two, once a year, as part of a "spring cleanup." And a lot of people like to take it every day, year after year, just as a general tonic.

A tonic is a formula that's seen as something good for the body, like a healthy habit (like healthy diet and exercise). Healthy Foundation can be thought of as specialized food for the body that provides nutritional support, strengthens and boosts many functions that the body must accomplish every day.

Healthy Foundation may be especially helpful for people that are in poor health. It contains herbs that are traditionally beneficial to the digestive system, liver, endocrine system, adrenal system, and circulatory system. Healthy Foundation may really help increase the overall vitality of people. It may provide benefit to people with fatigue, depression, decreased memory, digestive problems, elevated liver enzymes, attention deficit, and more.

Healthy Foundation is also recommended for anyone suffering from a generalized health problem (such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or chronic muscle (Fibro) pain) and/or an auto-immune illness like Autoimmune Thyroid inflammation, inflammatory bowel, chronic join pain etc.*

Side Effects
None. The individual herbs in Healthy Foundation are believed to strengthen the immune system. During organ transplants, doctors give patients drugs to suppress their immune systems to reduce rejection of the organ. Therefore, giving Healthy Foundation in such a setting would be counter-productive. Other than that, there are no known side effects.

Please note that Healthy Foundation contains grain alcohol as an extracting agent (which extracts natural compounds from the herbs). The doses of Healthy Foundation can be mixed with a little water to make it easier to swallow. Here's a tip for people who don't like the idea of ingesting the alcohol. You can swish the Healthy Foundation around in your mouth to warm it, and then blow air over it, out of your mouth. A lot of the alcohol will evaporate and be blown off that way. If you do that several times, it will substantially reduce the amount of alcohol you take in and be very easy to wash down with water.*

Fatigue
Healthy Foundation (HF) is a good choice for people who want to try something for fatigue but don't want to do any major therapy. A number of Healthy Foundation users say they feel an improvement after taking Healthy Foundation. However if the fatigue is really severe it may not be enough to help.*

Depressed Mood
Many studies on the value of medicinal herbs come from Germany. Natural medicine is a very big part of their health care system. In Germany, herbs are often compared against prescription drugs, and if the herb is found to be more effective than the drug it becomes the official therapy of choice. The effectiveness of St. John's Wart for depressed mood has been studied in Germany and it has been found helpful. The typical dose of Healthy Foundation contains the same amount of St. John's Wort herb which was used for clinical studies in Germany.*

Digestion
Constipation or diarrhea, as well as gas and bloating often benefit from HF.*

Liver
HF can be very helpful to the liver. For example, some patients have had elevated liver enzymes (AST and ALT) go back down to normal within 15 days. These levels were 3 times higher than normal, and they came right down. There have also been patients who had their jaundice clear in 10 days. Traditional use and clinical studies have validated that Silymarin (from Milk Thistle Seed) induced protection of liver functions.

The liver is important in detoxifying the body. Good liver function is important in helping correct autoimmune illnesses, like thyroid inflammation. Healthy Foundation can also be helpful in combating drug toxicity. Drugs are often cleared through the liver. One woman who was suffering from constipation and no menstrual cycle (due to the effects of a drug she was taking) started having periods and normal bowel habits again when she started taking HF.*

Immune System
The herbs in Healthy Foundation are traditionally known to support the immune system, which is a good for people who get a lot of colds, or who have a tendency to abnormal cell growth. However, sometimes people take immune suppressive drugs to help them accept an organ transplant. It wouldn't make sense to use Healthy Foundation to boost the immune system when a patient is taking other drugs to suppress the immune system. Thus, HF is not good to use it in that kind of setting.

When fighting autoimmune illnesses it's important for the liver to function well and it may be helpful to use herbs known to help regulate overall immune and endocrine functions. For these reasons, we recommend Healthy Foundation to assist with autoimmune conditions.*

Attention Deficit Disorder
There have been studies on the use of St. John's Wort and Ginkgo Biloba for people with Attention Deficit Disorder. The dose of those herbs in Healthy Foundations is the same amount that was used in the studies for ADD. There are mothers who give Healthy Foundations to their children for ADD and appear to be getting good results.*

Detailed Product Description
Good health begins with good digestion and absorption of nutrients. For digestive support, Healthy Foundation provides two outstanding carminatives, peppermint (Mentha piperita) and fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). The term carminatives describes a class of herbs which bring a pleasing warmth to the digestion by increasing gastric circulation and peristalsic contractions while relaxing the system.

Peppermint is a traditional carminative employed in the management of colic, dyspepsia, flatulence, nausea and intestinal spasms. It is calming, which helps to promote sleep, and has demonstrated efficacy in alleviating irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Fennel shares the above properties, with the additional benefit of reducing bacterial overgrowth or dysbiosis.

From digestive support this tonic proceeds to immune and endocrine support with the addition of Astragalus (Astragalus membranosum) and Wild Sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicalis). Astragalus is a prime immune and energy tonic in Chinese medicine, and is valued in that system for its ability to enhance the medicinal properties of other herbs in a given formula. Wild Sarsaparilla is a tonic used for the alleviation of debility, fatigue, rheumatism and digestive weakness (Foster and Duke), and is considered a balancing agent for endocrine metabolism.

No general tonic could be complete without supporting the main organism of metabolism and detoxification, the liver. For this, Healthy Foundation includes Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum).

As mental clarity is often impaired in CFIDs and other chronic conditions, Healthy Foundation includes the flavonoid and antioxidant-rich herb Ginkgo biloba. Research indicates that Ginkgo can improve brain circulation, memory and concentration while improving circulation to the extremities and brain.

Depressed mood and a negative outlook can prolong and intensify the suffering of chronic conditions. Healthy Foundation employs St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) to increase serotonin, and thereby buoyancy, in the depressed patient. This versatile herb also possesses antioxidant properties, making it useful in limiting the secondary damage from free radicals which accompanies many degenerative conditions.*