Book Review: Optimize Your Immune System: Create Health and Resilience with a Kitchen Pharmacy by Marie Ruggles RD, CN + giveaway

Optimize Your Immune System: Create Health and Resilience with a Kitchen Pharmacy
by Marie Ruggles RD, CN
September 27, 2020
Genre: Heath/ Food/ Medical/ Immunology
Many people think that it’s normal to come down with an illness each year and, for some, two or three times a year. Yet researchers have proven that nutrition and lifestyle factors can boost your immune system.

Learn how to build a kitchen pharmacy of whole foods, superfoods and nutrients to provide a stable foundation for your health. And when you’re at an increased risk of infection, know what to do to derail a virus before it takes hold.

Follow this immune-boosting roadmap to a healthier diet, making you less prone to viral infections and more resilient after an illness.

In Optimize Your Immune System, you’ll read about the three phases of immune support.
Phase I: Everyday immune strengthening and care
Phase II: After exposure to an unhealthy person or environment
Phase III: Immune-boosting support to prevent an illness when you feel like you’re coming down with something

For each of these phases, Marie Ruggles, M.S., R.D., C.N., C.D.E., draws upon over forty years of experience within the wellness arena.

The book begins with her explaining how the immune system works and what it does. From there, she discusses the foods that help and hinder our immunity. She even gives a whole foods quick start guide for those who aren’t too certain where to start.

She also shares the concept of juice bathing, and how to minimize the fuss and mess of juicing while maximizing its benefit.

Optimize Your Immune System makes specific recommendations for how to fortify and stimulate your body’s natural defenses using a simple kitchen pharmacy, no matter which phase of immune support you are facing.

Diving deep, the book looks closely at whole foods, superfoods, nutrients and supplements, even giving specific product recommendations for those brands and products the author personally loves most.

The final chapter of the book pulls everything together in an easy-to-reference format sharing phase-specific recommendations, as well as how to eat more nutritious foods even if you’re on a limited budget.

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Marie Ruggles has written an easy to understand book helping people understand how to improve their health and build a strong immune system through the foods you eat. The book has a good format that makes it simple to refer back to for reference, and Ruggles also includes recommendations on the products or stores she uses, which helps you find some of the items.

One of the most beneficial things she discusses is processed foods. Processed food is something that has surfaced in the last sixty years or so and has had a significant impact on our health. Ruggles discusses how whole foods can improve already damaged cells and improve your health.

Her book includes chapters with meal ideas, ways to change up boring or repetitive dishes, vitamins, and minerals, to name a few. This book has so much beneficial information that I highly recommend this as a must-read for health improvement and making real-life changes.

Getting 5 sheep

Denise B

About the Author
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Marie Ruggle’s teaching focus is on coaching others to take back their power by developing a home inventory of natural wellness solutions. She is obsessed with searching for the healthiest products and bringing nutrition science (eating for prevention) into the kitchen by sharing easy hacks for getting real food on the table with minimal effort. Her background is in Nutrition & Public Health. She has a master’s degree from Columbia University where she started her career in research. She also has a certification in Essential Oil Safety and has been a Certified Diabetes Educator for many years.

Blog Tour Schedule 

January 4th 

Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com

I Smell Sheep (Review) http://www.ismellsheep.com/

Book After Book (Review) http://bookafterbook.blogspot.com/ 

January 5th 

Tsarina Press (Spotlight) https://www.tsarinapress.com/

Rambling Mads (Review) http://ramblingmads.com

January 6th 

B is for Book Review (Spotlight) https://bforbookreview.wordpress.com

Book Dragons Not Worms (Spotlight) https://bookdragonsnotworms.blogspot.com/?m=1

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January 7th 

@bookmarkedwithchris (Review) https://www.instagram.com/bookmarkedwithchris/

The Faerie Review (Review) http://www.thefaeriereview.com

January 8th 

Sophril Reads (Spotlight) http://sophrilreads.wordpress.com

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Book Review: Toxic Game (A GhostWalker Novel) by Christine Feehan + excerpt

Toxic Game (A GhostWalker Novel)
by Christine Feehan
March 12, 2019
416 pages
Publisher: Berkley
#1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan takes readers into the hot zone in this pulse-pounding GhostWalker novel.

On a rescue mission in the heart of the Indonesian jungle, Dr. Draden Freeman and his GhostWalker team need to extract the wounded as quickly as possible—or risk spreading a deadly virus unleashed by a terrorist cell. When Draden gets infected, he forces his team to leave him behind. He won’t risk exposing anyone else. He intends to find the ones responsible and go out in a blaze of glory....

Shylah Cosmos’s mission is to track the virus and remain unseen. Her enhanced senses tell her that the gorgeous man eradicating the terrorists one by one is a GhostWalker—and his lethal precision takes her breath away. When he’s hit by a lucky shot, she can’t stop herself from stepping in, not knowing that by saving his life she’s exposed herself to the virus.

There’s no telling how much time Draden and Shylah have left. Racing to find a cure, they quickly realize that they’ve found their perfect partner just in time to lose everything. But even as the virus threatens to consume their bodies, they’ve never felt more alive.

I absolutely love a medical thriller or a virus outbreak or even a book with a plague story in it. But mash that up with a paranormal romance and I'm all in! Dr. Draden goes to the jungle with his Ghostwalker team to try to help wounded soldiers get out fast without getting infected by a crazy virus a terrorist faction had unleashed. Ghostwalker's were classified soldiers that had been enhanced physically as well as psychically. They almost made it out and then one of the terrorists gets a lucky shot with a dart. When Draden gets infected he orders his team to leave him behind and get the wounded soldiers out, fast. He thinks he can stop the terrorists or at least a few of them and stop the virus from spreading, hopefully. He's a lethal hunter and takes out a buttload of the terrorists but then he gets hurt and that's when Shylah steps in to try and save him, not knowing how badly he's hurt.

Shylah was sent there to track and stop the virus but was to remain unseen and undiscovered. So when she deviates from the plan to save Draden, she unknowingly exposes herself to the virus too. At first, Draden doesn't trust her but he soon realizes that she's been enhanced as well even if she's not a Ghostwalker. They find the lab that the three virologists had been testing the virus in and also find internet and a computer so they are able to get in contact with Draden's team. His team is trying to come up with a cure so Draden and Shylah have a little hope that they might not die from the virus but they still have to go back out into the jungle and see if they can track down the virologists and stop them from unleashing more of the virus someplace else.

I really liked Draden and Shylah together and how well they worked with one another. Draden might have been used to working with the men on his team but when he realizes that Shylah is a trained assassin as well and can handle herself and have his back he has no qualms about treating her as an equal. Even though they are fighting for their lives, they can't help but notice the attraction they have for one another and when they do finally act on it, they are hot and wild. I really loved watching them get to know one another. There were a couple of great twists and a few secrets come to light which made this story really fun to read. That coupled with all the action and a crazy virus made this book a real page-turner.

I give this book 4 out of 5 sheep!

Mary Kirkland
Dark Thoughts Blog

Excerpt 1 (ch 1)
The last of the helicopters had lifted from the ground, gunners providing cover for him, spraying the tree line to keep the terrorists from taking aim at Draden. Diego and Malichai used automatics to aid the gunners as Joe and Gino worked on the wounded. A rope was dropped down as the chopper circled back. Draden kept running as gunfire erupted from the cover of the forest. Bullets spat around him.

The chopper came slipping out of the sky toward him, coming in low, the rope flying like a slinky tail. Behind him, the forest went strangely silent. No gunfire. He didn’t stop. He leapt for the rope, his gloved hands catching hold, the jerk so strong it nearly pulled his arms out of their sockets. Still, his enhanced strength allowed him to hang on while the chopper began to climb.

He was twenty feet up when he felt the sting in his thigh, and his heart stuttered with instant awareness. He glanced down to see a dart protruding from his muscle and knew why the terrorists’ weapons had gone silent. They had a sniper, and he wasn’t armed with a bullet. He was armed with a virus. If Draden went up into the helicopter, he was condemning everyone in it to the same death as those in the village. Without real conscious thought, he let go of the rope, dropping out of the sky and back to earth.

Virus injection. It was the best information he could give them, so they would know to leave him behind.

Malichai was staring down at him, their eyes meeting as he fell away. He saw Malichai practically dive from the helicopter, but Diego caught at him, holding him back. Draden landed in a crouch, his enhanced DNA allowing his legs to act like springs to absorb the shock. He somersaulted forward and stood up, facing the forest, his arms spread wide. Let them shoot him if they wanted, but if they didn’t, he was infecting the bastards. He began walking toward the edge of all those trees and brush.

Draden. What the hell happened? Joe’s voice slipped into his mind. It was faded, as if the distance was already too far. He heard the helicopter circling back so Joe would be able to reach him. He pictured Joe holding a weapon on the crew. He could get that intense.

By the time he reached the trees, the MSS members had faded away, leaving him to die however the villagers had. He’d seen the reports the Indonesian government had shared with the WHO. It was one of the reasons his team had been in the region. Two team members were two of the leading scientists developing treatments, therapies and pharmaceuticals in the field of viruses.

Infected with the virus.

Draden had taken the time to finish both his doctorate and MD, to be an asset to others on his team. He’d dabbled in biochemistry but finished his undergrad degree, a BS in genetics. Stanford offered a dual MD and PhD program and he’d taken advantage of that. He’d gotten his MD as an infectious disease doctor and his PhD in microbiology and immunology. He found it ironic that he would be dying of a weaponized virus after all that work to earn his degrees. Determined to be of some use, he decided to record everything he could about his symptoms, along with any suppositions he might have before he put a bullet in his head. He’d leave final conclusions for them.

Tell Trap and Wyatt I’ll leave behind a recording. Don’t know if they can use whatever I find, but they should remotely be able to access my recorder without touching the device.

I’m sorry, man. Trap and Wyatt may have ideas.

Draden knew, just from the earlier reports, that their ideas would be too late. The virus acted too fast. He would be dead before Joe had time to make it back to the States.

About the Author:

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I write every day and have done so since I was old enough to pick up a pen. (I spent a lot of time getting in trouble at school for writing instead of doing the things I was supposed to do.) Once I create my characters, I try very hard to have them react to situations as they really would. Sometimes I have preconceived ideas of what I would like them to do, but they don't mind me, because it would be out of character for them. They take on a life of their own. Sometimes when I throw difficult situations at them in the hopes I'll get a certain reaction and they don't do what I want, I complain bitterly to my husband and he laughs at me. Still, it is important to me to have them be real, not perfect people, so they make mistakes we lesser mortals might make.

Comic Review: Harvest: Volume 1 of 5

Harvest: Volume 1 of 5
Co- Creators: A.J. Lieberman (writer), Colin Lorimer (artist)

Letterer: Brandon Destefano

On Sale: Aug. 01, 2012
Rated: M for mature

Image Comics

Human traffickers. Rogue medical teams. Yakuza run organ mills and a six year-old drug fiend. Welcome to Dr. Benjamin Dane's nightmare. His only way out? Bring down the man who set him up by reclaiming organs already placed in some very powerful people. If Dexter, ER and 100 Bullets had a three-way and that mind blowing tryst somehow resulted in a kid, that kid would read HARVEST. Medical Grade Revenge.

Harvest is a bold, new series by Lieberman and crew. It’s filled with beautifully done, in your face graphics and is a great read for anyone who likes a side of blood with their story time. Perhaps side of blood is too little, it’s pretty much an entrée of blood (which is beautifully done by the way) and this is only the first of the series.

This really was a very interesting first entry and it’s one you might have to read a couple times to find any hidden clues and such as to how the story will unfold. Harvest is a mix of horror, crime thriller, and medical drama. It is filled with blood, shady characters you wouldn’t want to meet while under the scalpel or in a back alley, organ stealing, and crime lords. The book grabbed my attention with the intriguing cover and then wouldn’t let go of its grip until the last page, it’s a well thought out and intelligent thriller.

With main characters including a junkie surgeon (who is like what I would imagine if “tiger blood” Charlie Sheen had been a surgeon) whose vices are hookers and drugs, you just get the feeling that we haven’t seen this doctor hit rock bottom yet. You get the feeling that he might have thought he was as low as he could get, but I’m guessing in the black market organ harvesting business life could prove him wrong. He’s a huge train wreck waiting to happen and well…I’ve bought my ticket and popcorn- bring it on Lieberman!

I’m also highly intrigued by the vulgar, crazy eyed boy in the cape and how his story will unfold- he’s got all the fixings to be a total creeper! Haha

I give this exciting new series 4.5 organ-less sheep

Guest Reviewer: Bunni Darling