Please understand:   No criticism is intended or implied.   When you have hundreds of fantastic, everyday products, it’s impossible to highlight them all equally.

So let’s get started, to find out why you might want to add the following products
to your everyday list of favorites.

Shaklee's Premium Alfalfa Complex: (20160)

Best known as a grazing crop, alfalfa has been a staple in traditional medicine for more than a thousand years, for managing healthy digestion, asthma, and related respiratory complaints.   Because of its deep tap root (anywhere from 10-50 feet deep!)   [1],   [2]   alfalfa leaves are very high in protein, calcium, and a number of other important minerals, as well as a spectrum of vitamins, including the B’s, C, D, E and K, along with numerous digestive enzymes.   [3]

A Google search for alfalfa gets boring pretty quickly.   It was only after I ran across an article about a group of compounds called phytoalexins, while I was researching the benefits of organic produce, that I stumbled on the key to why Shaklee’s Alfalfa product is so beloved by the Shaklee Field.   [4]

Phytoalexins refer to a class of phenolic compounds, produced by plants as a response to assault by molds, mildews, bugs, viruses or other micro-organisms.

These unique compounds rarely appear at any concentration in conventionally grown, or bug sprayed fruits, grains or vegetables;   they are only found at appreciable levels in organic produce. [5]   This is because plants only need to produce these powerful phytochemicals as an “immune response” to attack.   Without this threat stimulus, plants have no need to produce them.   Biologists refer to these phytonutrients as secondary metabolites, because they are “organic compounds that are not directly involved in the normal growth, development, or reproduction of the plant”.   [4]

Additional phytoalexin research revealed that organic alfalfa produces a protective agent called medicarpin.   This compound has been found to be so effective that Merck Pharmaceutical Company patented a synthetic version of it as a therapeutic agent to treat allergic conditions, asthma, cardiovascular disorders, and inflammation. [6]

This helps to explain why Alfalfa Complex has always been so popular in the Shaklee family for managing respiratory and allergic disorders.   [7]

Phytoalexin production in plant cells after an attack

Alfalfa is also a natural antihistamine and decongestant, acts as a digestive aid, and is an important source of trace minerals.   It is highly effective for relieving congestion, even when caused by allergies or hay fever.   In addition it also reduces swelling, pain, and stiffness in the joints.

What continues to strike me as strange is that, until I searched specifically for the term phytoalexin and medicarpin, I would never have discovered that alfalfa was so beneficial.

This provides a dramatic insight into the wisdom of Dr. Shaklee.   Alfalfa tablets were one of his early legacy products, created during the early 1960s.

As you will soon discover, he was a brilliant and insightful herbalist.

Herbal Blend Multi-Purpose Cream: (39078)

Shaklee recommends this skin cream for addressing dry, chapped, callused, or roughened skin on the knees, elbows, and feet.   To gather more information about this product, I interviewed friends who had been using this product for 20 or 30 years, and was stunned by the spectrum of complaints they had used it for, from calming and repairing the itchy skin of eczema and psoriasis, to soothing the pain of bug bites and sunburn.   It was after I began researching the numerous natural herbs contained in this formula [8]   that I discovered why it was being been used for so many different complaints.

Herbal Blend contains menthol, a crystalline compound with a cool minty taste and odor, and is derived from peppermint oil.   A recently published (2012) study reported on 96 pregnant women, who were suffering from pruritus gravidarum, an intense itching and associated rash on the abdomen, hands and/or feet.   Pruritus is reported to affect somewhere between 8 to 20% of all pregnant women.   Half this study group was treated topically, twice a day, for 2 weeks with peppermint oil.   The menthol group reported a dramatic decrease in their discomfort levels, from an average of 6 out of 10 severity, down to a 1 (no complaint) post-treatment. [9]   Considering that most pregnant women would prefer to avoid using synthetic drugs, this natural menthol treatment has proven to be an extremely effective natural alternative.