Here’s Part 5, the last of a series from an excerpt from my and Donal O’Mathuna’s book, Alternative Medicine: The options, claims, evidence, how to choose wisely. You find the book here.

21. Does the product you’re considering require advance payment? Look out! You may never receive what you bought or get your money back.

This Saturday, May 18, Barb and I will be attending the Blue Ridge Book Festival on the campus of the Blue Ridge Community College in historic Flat Rock, NC. For those of you within driving distance of western North Carolina, we hope you’ll consider coming to the event so we can share a visit with you.

Here’s Part 4 from an excerpt from my and Donal O’Mathuna’s book, Alternative Medicine: The options, claims, evidence, how to choose wisely. You find the book here.

16. Is a therapy encouraged simply because it’s been used for centuries by people in some remote place? This might simply mean that those people had nothing else to use. If the best texts on the subject are decades or centuries old, you’ll probably find that many of the old ideas were discredited long ago. Medicine evolves—just think about all we have discovered about nutrition in the last few decades. Continued use adds to our knowledge, uncovers side effects, fine-tunes dosage, and brings change.

My and Barb’s interview with Jim Daily, President of Focus on the Family, about our book, His Brain, Her Brain: How divinely designed differences can strengthen your marriage, will be broadcast around the U.S. tomorrow, Monday, May 6. You can find information about the broadcast here.

Here are the contents of this month’s Family Newsletter:

• Family Update
• Speaking and Book Signing (Blue Ridge Book Festival in Flat Rock, NC, on May 18)
• Publication Updates (Article on vaccines and another print run for my Alternative Medicine book)
• Broadcast Update (His Brain, Her Brain Broadcast on Focus on the Family set for May 6)
• Events of the Last Month
• Upcoming Events

Here’s Part 2 of an excerpt from my and Donal O’Mathuna’s book, Alternative Medicine: The options, claims, evidence, how to choose wisely. You find the book here. Next week, I’ll post another five warning signs.

6. Are technical words used without a clear definition? “Energy” is one of those words. Claims that a therapy “boosts energy” can mean anything from the common idea that you feel better able to do things, to Eastern ideas of promoting the flow of chi or prana. Introducing ideas from quantum physics is usually not necessary if the product really works. Information sheets should clarify, not baffle with mind-boggling gobbledy-gook.

This is the second part in a series excerpted from my book God’s Design for the Highly Healthy Teen.

AFFIRMATION

During the teen years, affirmation and approval are crucial. Your young man wants to know, Do I have what it takes? Am I becoming a man in your eyes? Your young woman wants to know, Am I lovely? Am I precious? Am I worthy of pursuit? You must be your child’s best cheerleader. Think about it: if you’re not cheering on your teen, who is? He or she needs your “way to go” and “I’m so proud of you” more than you know. Too many parents major on critique and forget to cheer.

Here’s an excerpt from my and Donal O’Mathuna’s book, Alternative Medicine: The options, claims, evidence, how to choose wisely. You find the book here. Each week, for the next 4 weeks, I’ll post another five warning signs.

So, when you suspect quackery or fraud, how do you know if your suspicions are right? What are some of the warning signs? When evaluating a medical claim, here’s what to look for:

In August, 2010, I had an opportunity to sit down with my friend, evangelist Sammy Tippit, to do a series of short interviews for a devotional series designed for men who have attended one of his “Burning Bush” Conferences. This three-minute devotional, the last of the nine I did with Sammy is titled, Spiritual Health and Rest, and can be seen here. I hope it blesses you.

In August, 2010, I had an opportunity to sit down with my friend, evangelist Sammy Tippit, to do a series of short interviews for a devotional series designed for men who have attended one of his “Burning Bush” Conferences. This three-minute devotional, the eighth of nine I did with Sammy is titled, Spiritual Health, and can be seen here. I hope it blesses you.

In August, 2010, I had an opportunity to sit down with my friend, evangelist Sammy Tippit, to do a series of short interviews for a devotional series designed for men who have attended one of his “Burning Bush” Conferences. This three-minute devotional, the seventh of nine I did with Sammy is titled, Healthy Relationships (Part 2), and can be seen here. I hope it blesses you.

Here are the contents of this month’s Family Newsletter:

• Family Update
• Publication Updates
• Sugar Fork: now in large print and as an audio book
• Article: Could Supplements Harm Me? The Shocking Truth.
• Broadcast Updates
• His Brain, Her Brain Broadcast on Focus on the Family
• Events of the Last Month
• Upcoming Events

In August, 2010, I had an opportunity to sit down with my friend, evangelist Sammy Tippit, to do a series of short interviews for a devotional series designed for men who have attended one of his “Burning Bush” Conferences. This three-minute devotional, the sixth of nine I did with Sammy is titled, Healthy Relationships, and can be seen here. I hope it blesses you.

In August, 2010, I had an opportunity to sit down with my friend, evangelist Sammy Tippit, to do a series of short interviews for a devotional series designed for men who have attended one of his “Burning Bush” Conferences. This three-minute devotional, the fifth of nine I did with Sammy is titled, Healthy Emotions (Part 2), and can be seen here. I hope it blesses you.

In August, 2010, I had an opportunity to sit down with my friend, evangelist Sammy Tippit, to do a series of short interviews for a devotional series designed for men who have attended one of his “Burning Bush” Conferences. This three-minute devotional, the fourth of nine I did with Sammy is titled, Healthy Emotions, and can be seen here. I hope it blesses you.

In August, 2010, I had an opportunity to sit down with my friend, evangelist Sammy Tippit, to do a series of short interviews for a devotional series designed for men who have attended one of his “Burning Bush” Conferences. This three-minute devotional, the third of nine I did with Sammy is titled, Your Body – God’s Temple, and can be seen here. I hope it blesses you.

In August, 2010, I had an opportunity to sit down with my friend, evangelist Sammy Tippit, to do a series of short interviews for a devotional series designed for men who have attended one of his “Burning Bush” Conferences. This three-minute devotional, the second of nine I did with Sammy is titled, A Healthy Body, and can be seen here. I hope it blesses you

In August, 2010, I had an opportunity to sit down with my friend, evangelist Sammy Tippit, to do a series of short interviews for a devotional series designed for men who have attended one of his “Burning Bush” Conferences. This three-minute devotional, the first of nine I did with Sammy is titled Leaving a Legacy and can be seen here. I hope it blesses you.

Here are the contents of this month’s Family Newsletter:

• Family Update
• Publication Updates
• Upcoming Books for 2013-2014
• Recent Sermons
• Listen to my sermon on “The Palm Tree Christian: How to thrive during the storms of life”
• Listen to my sermon on “Why ADHD Doesn’t Mean Disaster”
• Broadcast Updates
• How to Cherish Your Wife
• Parents, Teen Boys, and Puberty
• Events of the Last Month
• Upcoming Events

Many believe in the power and messages contained in dreams. In fact, you can click here to listen to an interesting radio interview about this topic with my friend, psychiatrist Paul Meier, MD. Anyway, another friend wrote me of a dream he had about my wife, Barb, and me. Do any of you want to venture an interpretation?

Many have wondered about another Dr. Oz favorite … green coffee extract. He calls it “the fat burner that works!” Does it?

In the past, these every-other-month prayer letters have only been send to a group of subscribers who faithfully pray for Barb and me and our family. But now we want to share these prayer requests with those of you who read my blog. And, for those of you to whom prayer is a daily spiritual discipline, we hope you’ll include us and our ministry on your prayer list.

My most viewed blog for 2012 was on raspberry ketone for weight loss. You’ve been asking for an update, so here it is. 

Looking for some ways to improve your health. Then you may want to read an article I wrote for iMOM entitled, “How to Change These Four Bad Habits.” I serve as an iSpecialist for this wonderful ministry. I hope the article is helpful for you and yours.

When our children were young, Barb and I quickly learned that parenting skills were not intuitive or inherited, so we sought mentors who could help us. We were so grateful to our friends Bill and Jane Judge sharing with us so much good information. I’ve recently written about some of that great advice in an article for a national parenting magazine.

As I mentioned in our family newsletter for February, I had the privilege of being asked to preach on the topic of “Why ADHD Doesn’t Mean Disaster” at the Fallbrook Baptist Church in Houston, TX, last month. You can now listen to this 30 minute sermon here.

Here are the contents of this month’s newsletter

• Conference Invitations
• Barb and I invite you to join us for a Marriage Retreat (2/15-17/13)
• Healthcare professionals, learn to share your faith at work (2/8-10/13)
• A Discipleship Conference for Christian Physicians (2/21-24/13)
• Publication Updates
• Article on Natural Medicines for Menopause
• Child Discipline Article
• Influenza Vaccination Article
• Two Childhood Obesity Articles
• Two Upcoming Books for 2013-2014
• Events of the Last Month
• Upcoming Events

For those of you with flexible plans that are looking for a marriage retreat, Barb and I would like to invite you to join us the Laity Lodge for Valentine’s weekend!

I recorded an interview with Trace Embry for the nationally-syndicated License to Parent radio program on teens and puberty. You can listen to the program here.

Oh, how I wish I had known this information earlier in my marriage. And now that I talk on this topic, it has become one of my most requested talks. In fact, when the talk was first broadcast on the Focus on the Family daily broadcast, it became one of the five most popular programs of the year. I thought you might be interested in listening to it (just click here).