In the old days, people went to their doctors only when they were sick, usually very sick, received some advice and/or treatment, and then went home to heal, following the doctor’s instructions the best they could.

But in modern family health care, there is more to it. There are any number of health and wellness experts who don’t only help you through health crisis and emergency, but actually make recommendations about how to improve your quality of life and longevity, whether you are sick at this particular moment or not.

Developing a relationship with a team of wellness professionals is one smart way to do it, so you already have experts who know you and your family and can advise you properly, regardless of your current health status. But how do you select the right types of professionals, and once you know what you want, how do you pick someone you can count on?

Medical doctors have divided the body up into an assortment of specific specialties, with doctors whose primary focus might be the heart, the lungs, the kidneys, the digestive system, or some other body part. The wellness process is a little different – you may still need a variety of specialists, but you start with the big picture – good body function.

Good body function comes from all the body parts working together in harmony, and that happens through the master system of the body, the brain and nerve system. So, you would want a chiropractor, who specializes in keeping the nerve system working well, to be on the team.

You must provide the right amount of the right kind of fuel for your body to burn, so you’d need someone to direct your attention on nutrition and proper eating habits.

You want to keep your muscles, bones and ligaments healthy, and build strength and coordination, so you must include the right amount of the right kind of exercise, and you may need a personal trainer or exercise physiologist to help you there.

You may need to learn to deal effectively with stress, so you may want to have a massage therapist, meditation teacher, some bio feedback training or a counselor of some sort to help in that area. Often, exercise and good nutrition work hand in hand with stress-reduction techniques to create more inner peace and less irritability in common situations that might otherwise bother you.

When you improve your eating, resting, exercising, thinking, and get your body in better working order, especially your spine and nerve system that control the other systems, it is only logical that you will experience better quality of life – and that’s the point of developing relationships with trustworthy wellness professionals, to enjoy the best quality of life and greatest longevity possible.

Your investment of time, energy and capital in this process takes you closer to that end, so start building your team of wellness advisors now, and reap the rewards for the rest of your life.

Ask your chiropractor about his or her recommendations for lifestyle habits and decisions, and refine your personal and family choices to take you toward health and wellness. Many doctors of chiropractic offer a variety of these services and products in addition to their chiropractic care, while others choose to interface with other professionals in their area to provide their patients with these worthwhile experiences.

Whichever strategy you choose, appreciate the logic of a natural wellness approach, and decide which improvements you’re going to make in your habits and lifestyle choices to move yourself and your family in this rewarding and life-enriching direction.

Most of us have grown up with the idea of the germ theory dominating our thoughts about health – from colds, viruses, infections, and many other maladies, we’ve been trained to think that germs cause disease.

But if this were true, then anyone who was exposed to those germs would get sick, cause and effect. This is not the case, as some people are more susceptible to “whatever is going around” and others rarely if ever get sick.

Is this just the luck of the draw, or are there some observations we can make about those who seem to be stronger, hardier and less likely to succumb to illness?

DD Palmer, the founder of the profession of chiropractic, said that there were three contributing factors to people’s health issues – physical stress, chemical stress, and psychological stress.

Even back in 1895, Dr. Palmer was aware of basic principles that are just as true today – that to facilitate health and prevent disease, we must:

• Make better lifestyle choices about eating and toxicity
• Avoid injuries and repetitive micro-trauma that can wear and tear the body
• Handle significant emotional events to reduce stress and develop an optimistic worldview.

In this way, we can begin to see that health is actually an “inside-out” game, where the condition of the person counts more than the presence of outside invaders like germs.

Take better care of yourself, and you improve your chances of having the “flu bug” skip you next time. If you understand that health really works inside-out, then you’ll take good care of yourself on the inside so you can express your health better on the outside!

Most people want to be as healthy as possible. Some think it’s luck, some think it’s genetics, some think it’s for someone else besides themselves.

But what most people don’t realize is that there is a way to improve the quality of your health, by following some simple, logical guidelines, which improve your chances of living a healthy life.

These easy-to-understand lifestyle choices will lead to a better quality of life overall, as well as relative freedom from the pain, suffering and inconvenience that often comes when we don’t follow these basic rules.

1. Get enough rest and sleep. Too many of us “burn the candle at both ends,” and the result is that we deplete our energy. Allow for 7-8 hours of sleep each night, on a comfortable and supportive bed, and if you can’t do that, then find time to rest during each day so your body and mind have a chance to recover from the stresses of daily life.
2. Eat a healthy wholesome diet. Eating more fruits and vegetables and less heavy, fried or processed food makes it easier for your body to use your nutrition and leads to reduced body weight, which experts agree leads to a longer, healthier life.
3. Drink enough water. Your body is mostly water, and that means you need to constantly replenish your cells that lose water through breathing, sweating, urinating and other body functions.
4. Exercise enough. As little as three thirty-minute sessions of walking each week can set your body on the road to fitness. Be reasonable, start at the right pace, but be consistent and it will reward you many times over.
5. Develop a positive mental attitude. Look for the bright side of life, and be nice to yourself and those around you. Find ways to reduce and manage your stress.
6. Take good care of your body parts – your skin, eyes, teeth, and spine require periodic maintenance, and as long as you take the responsibility to keep your body working right, it’s more likely you will experience a sense of vitality.

 Why take care of your spine? Your spine protects your nerve system, responsible for communication between the brain and all body parts, so an unhealthy spine leads to an unhealthy body. Take care of your spine by visiting your chiropractor, and he or she will advise you on any further attention that may be necessary. For many people, this is the missing link that brings together everything else they do to stay healthy – find out for yourself what your spinal health care needs may be, and make the decision to take proper care of your spine – it makes a big difference!

Most of us wish we could spend more time on vacation, but we forget that nature has provided for us a piece of every single day designed for our rest and rejuvenation.

If only it were that simple. Daily stresses can build up and interfere with sleep patterns, not to mention working overtime and feeling like there isn’t enough time to get everything done, much less get a good night’s sleep. That’s why it’s so important to get the most out of the sleep you do get, and here are some simple tips from helpguide.org to help you do so. Keep in mind that everyone is different, and you will have to experiment to discover your best sleeping patterns.

Tip 1: Keep a regular sleep schedule
Get back in sync with your body’s natural sleep–wake cycle. If you go to bed and get up at the same time each day, you will feel more refreshed and energized. Consistency is important, so set a regular bedtime, wake up at the same time every day, and nap to make up for lost sleep.

Tip 2: Make your bedroom more sleep friendly
You’ll sleep better when your bedroom is quiet. If you can’t avoid or eliminate noise, try masking it with a fan, recordings of soothing sounds, or white noise.  Keep your room dark and cool.

Your mattress and bedding are also important. Make sure your bed is comfortable. If you often wake up with a sore back or an aching neck, you may need to invest in a new mattress or a different pillow.  Experiment with different mattress and pillow firmness.

Tip 3: Create a relaxing bedtime routine 
A peaceful bedtime routine sends a powerful signal to your brain that it’s time to let go of the day’s stresses. Turn off your television, which actually stimulates the mind. And if you associate your bed with work or other obligations, it will be harder to wind down at night, so use your bed only for sleep and sex. That way, when you go to bed, your body gets that it’s time to nod off.

Tip 4: Eat right and get regular exercise 
Your eating and exercise habits play a role in how well you sleep. Stay away from big meals at night. Avoid alcohol before bed. Cut down on caffeine. Avoid drinking too many liquids in the evening. Quit smoking. And you’ll sleep more deeply if you exercise regularly, as little as 20-30 minutes each day.

Tip 5: Get anxiety and stress in check 
Residual stress, worry, and anger from your day can make it difficult to sleep well. When you wake up or can’t get to sleep, take note of any recurring theme, to help you figure out what you need to do to get your stress and anger under control during the day. Learn how to manage your time effectively, handle stress in a productive way, and maintain a calm, positive outlook. Try relaxation techniques like deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, or simply visualizing a peaceful, restful place.

If you have questions about mattresses and pillows, ask your family chiropractor for his or her advice – doctors of chiropractic are often familiar with the various products and also with your particular needs, so make sure you have comfortable and properly supportive bedding – it will make a big difference in the quality of your sleep, and the quality of your life.

We hear a lot about wellness these days, but it seems to mean different things to different people.

For some, wellness is fitness, good muscle tone, proper posture, and being in shape. For others, wellness is eating right, avoiding processed foods, preservatives and food additives that clog their bodies, instead concentrating on fruits and vegetables and other fresh, whole foods. Others still think wellness is in the mind, and that positive mental attitude and an optimistic outlook on life is wellness. Who is right?

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines wellness as “the quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal.”

The American Heritage Medical Dictionary says wellness is “the condition of good physical, mental and emotional health, especially when maintained by an appropriate diet, exercise, and other lifestyle modifications.”

Mosby’s Medical Dictionary says wellness is “a dynamic state of health in which an individual progresses toward a higher level of functioning, achieving an optimum balance between internal and external environments.”

It’s a Blend
These definitions help us to understand that all of the abovementioned people are right in pursuing wellness in their own way. No one has to be wrong for each of them to be right. And it seems like blending the different pathways to wellness can make it more personalized, more effective for each individual, and more fun as each person creates his or her own best quality of life.

Notice that each of the definitions quoted here includes an intention to be well, and a willingness to do what it takes to experience wellness. Different people use different combinations of lifestyle habits to get as well as they can, and many people have discovered that the right approach is to develop habits like good diet, sufficient sleep and rest, drinking enough water, exercising to keep fit, maintaining a positive attitude, and performing body maintenance procedures, like massage or meditation, and periodic check-ups for your eyes, your teeth, and your spine and nerve system.

Choosing Your Professional Wellness Team

Most people have a dentist, and if they have needed glasses to see better they’ve seen an optometrist, but many people have not yet learned of the importance of having a family chiropractor to take care of your spine and nerve system. Your nerve system is your body’s switchboard, connecting all the parts to the brain and to each other, and the spine protects the delicate nerves with bone. If the spine is healthy and the bones move properly, the nerve system is protected. But if anything disturbs the way the spinal bones fit together, like an injury or other stress, they don’t protect the nerves, and in fact can start to irritate them. This can cause pain and poor body function, and the way to prevent that is to get regular spine and nerve system exams, just like you get your teeth checked.

The doctor who specializes in the spine and nerve system is the doctor of chiropractic, also know as a chiropractor or DC. Most people think of the chiropractor as a back doctor, and it’s true that the doctor does examine the back to decide how to help you – that’s because the spine is in the back, and the doctor of chiropractic is interested in how your spine is working to protect or interfere with your nerve system. This doesn’t only affect back pain and neck pain, it affects all of your body’s functions that depend on nerves to carry information to and from the brain – your digestion, your breathing, your immune system and reproductive function all are influenced by nerve system control.

Chiropractors and Wellness

Chiropractors have been educating people about wellness for over a hundred years. Choosing good lifestyle habits, like good nutrition, rest, exercise, attitude and chiropractic care, has always been a part of the doctor of chiropractic’s recommendations – just remember that like all people, each doctor of chiropractic also chooses the blend of lifestyle habits that lead toward wellness. Based on that blend, your chiropractor may concentrate primarily on spinal care, leaving the remainder of the wellness habits and routines up to your discretion. Others have learned about and specialized in various other disciplines, like exercise, nutrition, sports, and many other areas of expertise.

So, when you combine these definitions of wellness, you can see that wellness is “a dynamic state of being in good physical, mental and emotional health, especially as an actively sought goal, maintained by an appropriate diet, exercise, and other lifestyle modifications, toward a higher level of functioning, achieving an optimum balance between internal and external environments.”

Ask your family chiropractor about which wellness habits he or she uses – it may give you some insight into how you can keep yourself healthy physically, mentally and socially, and improve the quality of your life by deciding which lifestyle habits are best for you.

Many people first visit a chiropractor because they are suffering some kind of pain – back pain, headaches, neck pain, shoulder pain, leg pain, or some other kind of discomfort. They are mainly seeking relief, often having tried other approaches like medications, pain-killers, bed rest, and heat.

In fact, many people do get relief from visiting their chiropractor. The reason, though, may be somewhat different from what you might think!

When you’re hurting, the pain seems like the problem, but this is usually not the case. Your body uses pain as an alarm system to alert you to the fact that something inside isn’t working right. So, the pain isn’t the problem, it’s your body’s way of telling you there is a problem.

If you just shut off the alarm, and the fire continues to burn, then the purpose of the alarm was ignored and the house burns down, even though the alarm rang. It’s the same in your body – if you just shut off the pain without finding out why it was happening, the fire in your body continues to burn, and the effect can be a more serious health condition. For example, stomach pain may mean a developing ulcer, but shutting off the stomach pain with antacids or drugs does not address the underlying cause of the ulcer, like stress or poor diet, and eventually the stomach wears out.

So, the pain usually isn’t the problem, it’s the evidence that there is a problem!

That’s why chiropractic care doesn’t really try to shut off the pain, but to find the underlying cause, and deal with that. Often, the cause of the pain is some malfunction in the body, and chiropractors are experts at finding such malfunctions.

Here’s the way it works. The body is designed with a wiring system that connects the brain, which runs the show, with all the body parts. This wiring system is called the nerve system, and nerves are the wires that go from the brain to the body parts, so the brain can direct their function and tell them what to do.

The brain and nerve system are protected by bone, the brain by the skull and the nerve wires by the spinal bones. That’s why chiropractors are trained to examine and correct misalignments in your spine – when those bones go out of position, they can interfere with nerve function, which may either cause pain, or cause some other body malfunction that leads to pain.

When someone decides to begin chiropractic care, the decision frequently stems from a desire to experience relief, and it would be inaccurate to say that this doesn’t happen – most of the time, the pain subsides fairly quickly, and if this is all the individual wants, there’s a tendency to discontinue chiropractic care prematurely, before the underlying problem is adjusted properly so it can heal.

That’s why many chiropractors recommend periodic check-ups, for early detection and the correction of structural problems before they progress.

Many families decide to come in for their adjustments together, as a health and wellness practice, whether or not anyone has a painful problem. They have found that their quality of life improves with regular chiropractic care, among other good lifestyle choices, like healthy diet, sufficient exercise, sleeping on a good mattress, drinking enough water, and practicing stress reduction techniques like meditation or yoga.

So, doctors of chiropractic do help people with painful problems by finding the cause of the problem, and they also help people who don’t have painful problems by coaching them on better lifestyle decisions and keeping their structure healthy. Chiropractic care has something to offer just about everybody.

We see it on the news and on the internet constantly – another drug being taken off the market because of unwanted, unexpected and dangerous side effects. We read it in the papers and hear it on the radio, so frequently that we may become desensitized to it, but make no mistake —  while some drugs are necessary and do help people, too often drugs are used as a crutch instead of accepting responsibility to make lifestyle changes that would work better and last longer. And they can be very harmful at times, so it’s up to you to be smart about what you put in your body.

For example, some people need high blood pressure medication to keep their blood pressure under control. Yet, they may be able to control their blood pressure with diet, by reducing salt, or by increasing foods that help the body to balance fluids better.

Examples of foods that help you regulate the water balance in your body are cranberries, celery, parsley, asparagus, artichoke, melon, watercress, and apple cider vinegar. Sometimes, you can get off medication by selecting a natural remedy instead.

Many people rely on pain relievers, yet these can be some of the most toxic substances, with harsh side effects that can be worse than the original pain. Quite a few of these have been taken off the market, but fortunately, there is an alternative – safe and gentle chiropractic care, which uses the natural healing ability of the body to relieve pain. The pain usually isn’t the problem, it’s the signal that tells you there is a problem. Chiropractic aims to find and correct the cause, and that’s why so many people feel better and are healthier through chiropractic care.

If you can avoid taking unnecessary drugs and instead make good lifestyle decisions, you’ll find that the natural way is most often the best way. Be smart about what you put in your body – that’s what works best.

If you’ve visited your chiropractor recently, you probably received an adjustment, the primary service most chiropractors offer. Adjustments are intended to restore and/or enhance normal function by reducing or eliminating any stress or interference in your body’s control system, the nerve system. Spinal bones (vertebrae) can lose their proper position and disturb nerve function, and adjustments are designed to relieve that nerve pressure and allow the body to heal and function the way it was meant to.

The art of chiropractic is unique to each practitioner – some adjustments are very light, some are more firm. Some are done by hand, while others may use an instrument of some kind. Some adjustments make noise, and some are silent. There are dozens of ways chiropractors correct nerve interference, and no one way is necessarily better than the others – they all have their place, and they all do good for people. It’s up to the individual chiropractor to choose which methods are a good fit for each patient’s needs.

Chiropractors study for years in chiropractic college to become expert at adjusting, and most take post-doctoral courses in specialized techniques to improve and master their art. You may even notice that on different visits, your doctor adjust different areas or uses a different approach – that’s because each patient is unique, and each adjustment requires the doctor of chiropractic to evaluate and decide where the nerve interference may be, and what to do to correct it. This may only take a few moments, but it is custom-tailored to your body, and is one of the reasons chiropractors get such great results in helping people get well and stay well – the chiropractor gives the body what it wants and needs to heal itself.

Every year, we get a little older and hopefully a little wiser – but how many of us realize how important it is to do the little things that keep us healthy? When the winter draws to a close and the buds start popping out, we know it’s time to do some spring cleaning in our homes – but how many of us do the same for our bodies?

Smart and well-informed people know that developing healthy lifestyle habits is a critical key to a happy, healthy life. Eating well, sleeping enough, observing the basic rules of hygiene and including the right amount of the right kind of exercise builds a foundation most people can grow on – you can take the opportunity now to check yourself on these and other essential lifestyle choices, and do some “spring cleaning” inside your body.

You may want to knock off a few pounds of winter weight by eating lighter and increasing your activity levels. You may want to choose some nutritional supplements to give your body some extra building blocks to work with. You may want to reduce or eliminate your intake of sweets, or increase the fruits and vegetables in your diet.

All of these options are fairly well-known, but there are other things you can do to streamline the efficiency of your body and get it working at peak performance, not the least of which is to remember the role your spine and nerve system play, and take proper care of them by visiting your chiropractor. Those adjustments you receive are a way to improve your body’s function, clearing any interference in the way your brain tells your body parts what to do, so that your body works the best it can.

All of your body’s functions, from growth and repair to detoxification, are influenced by nerve system control, and that’s why it’s so important to make chiropractic care part of your regular health habits – it helps your body work the way it’s supposed to, naturally.

One more tip – when you clean anything, you usually use water, and your body is no different – drinking plenty of water, as much as eight or ten glasses a day or more, is one of the best ways you can keep yourself clean on the inside, not just in the springtime, but all year round.

Poets, authors and philosophers have recorded their ideas about the beauty and excitement of this time of year – enjoy some lovely and entertaining thoughts about the month of March.

 It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.
– Charles Dickens

 “A light exists in Spring
Not present in the year
at any other period
When March is scarcely here.”
– Emily Dickinson

 “Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.”
– William Shakespeare

 “The March wind roars
Like a lion in the sky,
And makes us shiver
As he passes by.

When winds are soft,
And the days are warm and clear,
Just like a gentle lamb,
Then spring is here.”
– Author Unknown

 “Springtime is the land awakening.  
The March winds are the morning yawn.”  
– Lewis Grizzard

 “March is a tomboy with tousled hair, a mischievous smile, mud on her shoes and a laugh in her voice.”
–  Hal Borland

 One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of March thaw, is the Spring.
– Aldo Leopold

 Spring is nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!”
– Robin Williams