At Functional Ingredients magazine, we’re looking forward to our September Condition Specific Directory. In it, we take a look at what’s coming down the pike in terms of ingredients to address a number of different health conditions. One of the biggest (this pun never gets old) is always the weight loss category.

There are any number of ingredients and products made with them to help people lose weight, maintain a healthy weight and healthy blood markers, like good cholesterol numbers and healthy blood sugar levels. At the risk of using another pun, the need is huge. The daunting obesity statistics keep piling up.

But here’s our dirty little secret: The best weight loss ingredient is free.

(NaturalNews) A study led by Dr. Patricia Boyle of Rush University Center in Chicago has concluded that people with greater life purpose maintained cognitive ability better than those who weren’t leading a purposeful life.

Dr. Boyle and her team wanted to establish a strategy for avoiding Alzheimer’s consequences rather than attempting to find a way of keeping brain plaques and tangles from accumulating.

After following 246 senior citizens — with up to ten years of annual cognitive exams and neurological testing — and quizzing them about life missions and then doing brain autopsies after their deaths, they reached a conclusion.

(NaturalNews) Throughout history, honey has played an important role in cultures around the world not only as a food, but also as a medicine. And manuka honey in particular, which is derived from the nectar collected by honey bees that forage the manuka bushes (Leptospermum scoparium) of New Zealand, contains unique antibacterial, antiviral, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiseptic, stomach-healing, wound-repairing, and overall health-promoting properties that make it an amazing “superfood” worthy of further investigation

ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2012) — Older patients taking a common cholesterol medication should be cautious of the impact on their kidney health. In a new study by Dr. Amit Garg, Scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), and colleagues, one in 10 new older fibrate users experienced a 50 per cent increase in their serum creatinine.

Don’t scowl when you read this, but the lines on your face may say something about the status of your skeleton.  Researchers determined that the deeper and more abundant a woman’s facial wrinkles, the weaker her bones.  Why?  Both skin and skeleton are supported by collagen, a fibrous protein.  If you have a lot of wrinkles, ask your doctor about your fracture risk, says study author Lubna Pal, MD. 

Prevention, October 2011.

In the three decades since cholesterol-lowering statin drugs hit the market, they’ve been hailed as a medical breakthrough for cardiovascular disease (CVD), now the nation’s number-one killer, responsible for the deaths of one in four Americans. They’ve also become the biggest selling class of pharmaceuticals of all time: More than 24 million Americans are now estimated to take statins.

Researchers have unravelled the mechanism behind black pepper’s purported weight management properties after they revealed that piperine from black pepper extract may block fat cell formation.

(NaturalNews) Vegetarians and vegans can put up quite the convincing argument when it comes to what they are passionate about - not eating meat. Several have even appeared on this site. With all due respect to them, in the interest of fairness there is another side to the story. Humans are omnivores designed to use both animals and plants as food. Entirely removing one or the other can not only be detrimental to human health, but, if done on a mass scale, could even have environmental consequences.

(NaturalNews) Sweet potatoes, also commonly labeled as yams, are an excellent and inexpensive staple to have on hand. These deep orange-fleshed nutritional powerhouses add several important components to the diet. Their health and weight management benefits far exceed the nutritional value found in ordinary white and yellow fleshed potatoes.

ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2012) — Migraine pain sits at the upper end of the typical pain scale — an angry-red section often labeled “severe.” At this intensity, pain is debilitating. Yet many sufferers do not get relief from — or cannot tolerate — over-the-counter and commonly prescribed pain medications.