Natural Health News 2003 | Jon Barron's Newsletter

Announcements 2003

Healing America

After four wonderful years of working together to bring the Baseline of Health® message and products to many thousands of people around the world, Healing America and I are going separate ways. But even though I will no longer be personally overseeing the manufacturing of their products or their ingredient sourcing, I am sure that they will continue to produce the same kind of high quality products as when I was working directly with them.

In the meantime, I am now in the process of finalizing arrangements for making new and enhanced versions of the Baseline of Health products (which I will be personally monitoring) available through other channels.

For now, though, I would like to thank Healing America for all of their support over the last four years, and I wish them all the best in all their future endeavors.

The Baseline of Health® Foundation

Partly in response to these changes, I have formed the Baseline of Health Foundation.

The Baseline of Health Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to providing support for:

  • The Research and development of Natural Health Formulas
  • And to serve as an information resource on Natural Health Alternatives.

The Foundation is supported in entirety through the tax-deductible donations of its friends and members.

In line with these changes, jonbarron.org and this newsletter will now serve as the communications arm of the foundation.

Over the next few months you will notice both the website and the newsletter changing to reflect their role in support of the foundation’s mission.

The Most Significant Anti-Aging Discovery in Medical History

In the most recent edition of LifeExtension magazine (Volume nine/Number six), the cover story was “The Most Significant Anti-Aging Discovery in Medical History.” That’s quite a statement — if true.

I will cover this in more detail in the next newsletter, but for now:

  • The essence of the article was that regular use of the prescription drug metformin (commonly sold as Glucophage), can mimic the life-extension effects of a calorie restricted diet with minimal side effects (unless you consider the occasional death from lactic acidosis as more than minimal).
  • While most likely true, it is less than it seems. But even more important, similar results can most likely be achieved through the elimination from the diet of high-glycemic carbohydrates and the regular use of some readily available herbal supplements that do not have the side effects associated with metformin — and that do not require a prescription. The bottom line is that while the discovery of metformin as an anti-aging supplement may be new and notable, achieving similar results through natural means probably makes more sense.

Although I am normally a big fan of the LifeExtension Foundation and their magazine, in this case, I think they succumbed to a bit of overexcitement. The danger is that their report is likely to encourage some people to press their doctors for a prescription that may not be in their best interest. On the other hand, if the article serves to make people aware of the dangers of refined carbohydrates and high-glycemic foods, it will be of inestimable value. As I mentioned, I will cover this in more detail in the next issue of the newsletter.