I am deeply saddened whenever I hear parents talk about children who suffer from chronic ear infections and wind up having tubes in their ears. The longest it ever took me to relieve an earache in one of my children was five hours, and most of the time I could relieve them much more rapidly than that.

Natural and organic food not only tastes better than mainstream supermarket fare. It can also serve as a "supplement" to your health insurance policy, protecting you from developing heart and lung disease, Alzheimer's disease, a weakened immune system and inflammatory diseases like arthritis, according to Rita Greer and Dr. Robert Woodward, authors of Antioxidant Nutrition: Nature's Protectors Against Aging, Cancer and Degenerative Diseases.

As Greer's and Woodward's book title implies, antioxidants-the nutritional buzzword of the new millennium-are one of Mother Nature's powerful dietary weapons. If your organic living regimen helps protect you from environmental pollutants and you consume a diet rich in organic fruits and vegetables, you're already ahead of the average American.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air pollution poses significant health risks. We inhale mold spores and other fungi, dust mites, animal dander and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in cleaning solutions, solvents and home furnishings (another reason to opt for organic living). The list of nasty symptoms includes:

• Eye irritation
• Nose and throat discomfort
• Headache
• Allergic skin reaction
• Breathing trouble
• Nausea and vomiting
• Fatigue
• Dizziness
• Development of cancer

Dr. Keegan Sheridan

It's a subject no one talks about: flatulence. We rely on several colorful euphemisms to hide our embarrassment: passing gas, breaking wind, cutting the cheese. But let's face it: We all fart. (There, I've said it…)

In fact, you can expect to dispel intestinal gas more than a dozen times a day, so it's time to stop blaming the dog and accept this bodily process as a sign of gastrointestinal health. Eat your fair share of natural and organic food, and you'll prove you're human.

Flatulence Facts

Most digestion occurs within the small intestine, where enzymes and bile break down food. These enzymes, however, are unable to break down some elements, such as specific sugars in beans and other plants. Thus, undigested matter passes into the large intestine, where bacteria ferments it. This leads to the production of "flatus" (gas), composed primarily of carbon dioxide, methane and hydrogen.

Even the country's most jaded physicians will admit that ancient civilizations made significant contributions to health science.

"A 4,000-year-old Sumerian clay tablet, one of the oldest medical manuscripts in the world, shows a series of astonishingly modern procedures," writes Dian Dincin Buchman, PhD, in her fascinating book, Ancient Healing Secrets. "Wounds were first washed with a kind of liquid soap made of beer and water, poultices or plasters applied, and finally bandages. In today's laboratories, time and again scientists find that ancient herbs used to treat wounds are usually effective against staphylococcus or E. coli bacteria, or both."