Q: I have suffered for seven years with fibrocystic breast disease and ovarian cysts…Could you please give me some advice regarding how to take it to cure my problem? Should I buy Iodine, iodide, or SSKI?

Q: I’m a new subscriber to your newsletter, and I’m eager to start using your advice. But there’s one thing I’m not sure I agree with. I can’t help noticing that you’re against milk. But I’ve been drinking milk for years without problems–and my bones seem to be all the stronger for it. Can it really be that bad for me?

Q: If you are allergic to antibiotics like neosporin, what else could you use that would help heal naturally?

I’ll be honest with you: There’s not much new to say about hearing loss. Mainstream medicine hasn’t “discovered” the cause or cure for hearing loss, so they’re usually not interested in spending much time on it. If your doctor has bothered to talk to you about it at all, it was probably just to recommend a hearing aid. But that’s certainly not your only option. I first covered the natural way to approach hearing loss several years ago. Since I hear from so many of you that you still struggle with this problem, it probably bears repeating.

Last December, we introduced a new e-mail update service for Nutrition & Healing readers called Health e-Tips. Over the past year, we’ve discussed quite an array of natural tips and solutions. Here are just some of the topics we’ve covered:

If there’s one marker that all doctors and other medical professionals seem to agree on, it’s the double-blind, placebo-controlled study. To be honest, these types of studies can be more than a little frustrating sometimes-especially if you’re practicing or preaching the virtues of herbal medicine. Not because the studies aren’t there-there are plenty of controlled trials clearly proving the benefits of herbal therapies. But what’s frustrating is that you only hear about the trials that “prove” some sort of negative effect of herbs. Think about it: When was the last time you heard a reporter talk about good news on an herbal remedy?

I know it seems a bit early in the year to talk politics and elections. But with special interests in Washington forever hatching new schemes to invade the field of natural medicine, it’s important to know as much as we can about who is and who isn’t on our side. There’s certainly no shortage of politicians and bureaucrats lining up to carry out those anti-alternative medicine plots. It’s sad but true that our allies in the government are few and far between. The situation is so bad it even drove me to run for Congress a few years ago, in the hopes of being at least one voice speaking out for alternative medicine in the political arena. I didn’t win that election, but in 1996, in Texas, another candidate with many of the same beliefs did win his campaign for re-election.

Every time I turn on my TV or radio, I’m shocked by the bad health advice coming at me from every angle. Perhaps the worst, or at least the most pervasive, is the ridiculous idea that taking aspirin every day is the best way to prevent heart attacks.

You wouldn’t think a roomful of doctors would get excited about vitamin D. But it turns out there’s some news about it that is causing quite a stir-at least it did when I presented it at a recent conference. I know we just covered vitamin D a few months ago, but since high blood pressure is such a prevalent problem, particularly as we get older, I thought an in-depth look at this aspect of vitamin D was a good idea.

IN THIS ISSUE: The blood pressure regulator you need to know about: One vitamin could replace ACE inhibitors altogether; Ignore your TV: It’s giving you bad health advice!; How will this year’s elections affect you and your health?; New proof for an old arthritis-relief standby; In case you missed it…; Five ways to avoid that hearing aid; Four natural wound-healing alternatives; Four natural wound-healing alternatives ; Four natural wound-healing alternatives