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You Look Great!

Who wouldn’t want to hear those words? In our culture, looking good is highly valued, and we spend a significant chunk of our fortunes on grooming, clothing, jewelry and other adornments that improve the way we are perceived by those around us.

Yet, you’ve heard the expression “you can’t tell a book by its cover” – appearing good on the outside doesn’t mean that everything is working properly on the inside. In fact, sometimes health problems are sneaky and insidious, without any noticeable symptoms.

Blood pressure can creep upwards, wear and tear can erode the joints, and any number of subtle changes can occur that at first create no pain or obvious malfunction. There are really only two things you can do to help yourself.

First, you can choose the very best lifestyle habits available. Eat well. Reduce your stress. Exercise appropriately. Avoid unnecessary injury. Minimize toxicity by reading labels and staying away from excessive chemicals in your food.

Second, you can consult experts on body function and lifestyle design, building a wellness team with the services you prefer – nutritionist, personal trainer, life coach, massage therapist or body worker, and of course your doctor of chiropractic, who can help you coordinate the use of professionals like these and others.

There’s an old story about a young man and his mentor, walking and contemplating, when the student, looking up at the heavens, exclaimed, “I cannot believe that the ancient peoples of the world were so stupid as to think that the sun rotated around the earth!”

The old man looked up as well, and remarked, “Does it look any different to the two of us down here?”

The young man realized that his understanding of the earth rotating around the sun was from his previous knowledge, and that the sky really did look like the sun was revolving the earth – he could see how people were duped by the appearance of it.

And so are we sometimes misled when we hear people say, “You look great” – it may be true, but you’ll still need to take the responsibility of developing good health habits and building a team of professionals to help you get healthy and stay healthy, so you work as great on the inside as you look on the outside!

What are your Health Goals?

Most of us know at least a little about goals. Setting a goal is one of the simplest and most basic success tools – it means to pick a target to aim at, a result you would like to happen, and then make a plan to work toward it. Setting goals is how almost all successful people create their success, in every chosen field of endeavor.

Some health goals are goals of safety – for example, if you want to travel safely in your car and avoid unnecessary injury, you would wear your seatbelt. Yes, it’s a law, but if you have a goal to be as safe as possible in your car, then no one has to insist that you wear a seatbelt – it’s an action step you would take to achieve the goal.

Or, you can choose a goal of a slimmer figure or clean, healthy lungs. You would then have to select some new behavior patterns, perhaps in eating, exercise and self discipline, to move yourself to lose weight or stop smoking.

See how this works? When the goal is clear and meaningful, the natural tendency is to act to make it happen, and that’s one of the main reasons setting goals is so important – it guides you toward naturally good decisions and behaviors, supportive of what you want to accomplish.

Interestingly, you can also set goals around positive health practices, like deciding to improve your diet, starting a regular exercise or meditation practice, or coming in for regular chiropractic care. These goals are not only to avoid pain and illness — they are designed to increase health and wellness, for a longer and better life.

You could set a goal of better posture, or a better attitude while doing chores you don’t really enjoy. You could aim at more patience with your children (or your parents). You could work toward improving your strength, balance or your wind and lung capacity by walking or running regularly.

You could set a goal to learn a martial art like karate or a sport like tennis. You could pick an ideal weight and combine proper diet, exercise and coaching to get there. You could aim at better mobility and flexibility by practicing yoga.

You could set a goal to clean up your nutrition, and reduce or eliminate unhealthy food and drink habits, like sugary soft drinks, excessive coffee, or chips and candy.

You could set a goal to assemble a team of expert health and wellness advisors, and research the best providers in your area and develop relationships with them.

So what are your health goals? To avoid pain? To improve your quality of life? To live as long as possible and be as healthy as possible? Learning to eat fresh wholesome natural foods, get enough rest, reduce your stress and keep your body tuned up and ready to go with exercise and chiropractic care are habits that will take you toward a healthier life.

Too little, too late…

They say that hindsight is 20/20, which means that after things happen it’s obvious what decisions you should have made along the way, but too often the opportunity has by then been missed.

So it goes too often with our health – we may be lulled into a false sense of security by the lack of overt symptoms, only to discover that our poor choices have painted us into a corner, requiring a huge effort to get out of it, if we even can.

Sad, and ironic, since the commitment necessary to stay healthy is usually a reasonable one – moderate eating and exercise, staying positive and reducing stress, getting enough rest and keeping our bodies tuned up with some basic maintenance care can go a long way toward producing good health and avoiding preventable illnesses and conditions.

Your doctor of chiropractic is specially trained in lifestyle science, and can advise you on some of the fundamentals of good health. You’ll be surprised how easy it can be, especially once you develop some momentum around these simple and profoundly beneficial habits.

If you wait too long, you could suffer the consequences – doing too little, too late is common in our world, but you don’t have to become an unfortunate statistic if you just make a few good decisions and stick to them.

Ask your chiropractor how you can improve your quality of life and avoid health problems – the result will be a longer, healthier life for you and your family.

“Begin with The End in Mind”

Recently we lost one of our foremost authors and success teachers, Stephen Covey. Covey wrote the landmark personal growth book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” regarded by many as the greatest business and self-development book of all time.

His second habit to build a great life is to “begin with the end in mind” – in other words, to be clear on the vision of what you’d like to accomplish.
This enormously powerful tool is used on the path to “personal leadership”. It supports you in becoming more determined to lead yourself to a successful outcome regardless of your starting place. It invites you to get very clear about what you want and fortifies you to address any obstacles that may interfere.

This is more than simply managing the circumstances of your life — it’s more about doing whatever it takes to get that desired goal.
As a chiropractic patient you have the opportunity to apply this habit, by imagining what you want your ultimate health and wellness to look like. What would a life of wellness be like? What would being healthy be like? Beginning with the end in mind will clarify your decision-making and help you get there the fastest and best way possible.

Keep your eye on your target and do whatever it takes to get to the end you have in mind – that’s how the most successful people do it, and you can too.

Fighting The Obesity Epidemic

Modern living has its advantages, but there are drawbacks as well, and the inactivity and excessive eating of unhealthy foods, coupled with the body function imbalances from poor lifestyle habits, have led to an all time high in obesity in our communities.

In fact, in 2010 it was discovered that 35.7%, over a third of all adults, and 17% of all children are obese, meaning that their body weight was 20% or more above their optimal weight. This doesn’t even include those who are simply overweight, and it points out an unavoidable fact – if we don’t do something about this trend, our health care system will collapse under the weight, since obesity seems to lead to many serious diseases, like heart disease, diabetes and even some cancers.

If you or someone you care about is obese or moving in that direction, there’s plenty you can do to make things better. Awareness is always the first key – call it what it is, and admit the problem, so you can start to work on it.
It’s unmistakable – you’ll need to eat less and move around more. Go easy on the exercise in the beginning, but even walking for a half hour three times a week, even if you have to work up to it, can be very beneficial in burning fat and trimming down.

Set goals, and work at a reasonable pace. Weight reduction is not a sprint, it’s a marathon – develop better habits of eating, depending more on fresh, wholesome foods and less on processed foods filled with sugar and fat. And drink water – the more the better.

Get help if you need it – it’s no shame to seek advice on this challenge. Consult your chiropractor, who may be able to help you choose better nutrition and design the right exercise program, or at least direct your attention toward the latest thinking in this area. Get your weight under control – not only will you look and feel better, but you’ll decrease the chance of serious illness, too.

Headaches, Neck Pain, and Back Pain – You Don’t Have To Suffer

Every day millions of people experience a wide variety of painful conditions – low back pain, neck pain and headaches among them.
Yet current research shows that there is a simple solution for people who are afflicted with these conditions.
For example, last year a study was done called the Mercer Report, where some of the world’s best scientists evaluated chiropractic care compared to physical therapy, exercise and other medical treatments. Chiropractic care was found to be by far the most effective answer to the back pain riddle.
In 2001, a report was released by Duke University showed that chiropractic adjustments provided almost immediate relief for headaches originating in the neck, and resulted in significantly fewer side effects and considerably longer lasting relief than commonly prescribed headache medications.
As researchers take a closer look at chiropractic, it compares favorably to most medical treatments in these common situations. So if you know anyone who is complaining of back pain, neck pain or headaches, point them toward your chiropractor – they don’t have to suffer.

The Difference That Makes The Difference

Dear Patient and Friend,
Why are some people healthy while others are not?
It’s easy to chalk it up to genetics, that some have better raw materials to work with, and this is not entirely inaccurate. But much as some athletes have natural gifts and others have to work harder to achieve their objectives, so it goes with health and wellness – regardless of your inborn tendencies, there are things you can do to improve your chances at glowing, vibrant good health and vitality.
Good health and wellness boil down to lifestyle habits and decisions – some more obvious than others. For example, if you eat fresh, wholesome foods, balancing and combining them effectively, then your body gets the fuel it needs and works better. If you drink enough water, get enough rest, and exercise appropriately, you’ll feel better, look better, and your body will work better. If you meditate, get regular massage or perform some other stress relaxation technique, then you have less stress and less wear and tear on your body. Most people are aware of the importance of developing patterns of behavior like this.
But your body also requires some maintenance to work at its best – and one of the most important things you can do is to keep your spine and nerve system healthy with chiropractic. Your nerve system is the control system of your body, and when it is working well, your body thrives. When it is not working as well, your body doesn’t work as well.
Well-informed people include safe, all-natural chiropractic care among their lifestyle choices – it’s the difference that makes the difference in health and wellness.

“Careful Now!”

If you’ve ever watched your favorite sports team play without one of their star players because of injury, you know about the frustration they must feel when they go out onto the field of battle undermanned or short-staffed.

Often the player is sitting on the bench, and looks okay to you – but the team doctors’ evaluation says that this player is not fit to play at this time, no matter how he or she might look on the outside, or even how they feel. The doctor knows to look for certain signs and details that make the player ready or not ready to perform, especially when re-injury would extend the disability and cost the team even more time without that player. Going back too soon might create an even bigger problem, and it’s the doctor’s responsibility to make that judgment call, to tell the player, “Careful, now!”

At times, your Doctor of Chiropractic may also ask you to refrain from certain activities. In the beginning of your care (for many injuries and in certain situations), you would readily agree to the wisdom of “not doing” and “not participating” in such activities.

 But then, when the miraculous healing process begins, and you start to feel much better, you may begin to wonder if the doctor is being overcautious. Doesn’t the doctor understand that you have to … have to what? You fill in the blank. When you are feeling better, your nature is to want to return to your normal daily activities and habits … but it may be premature to do so.

 Your doctor of chiropractic knows how to deliver your program of care, and how to advise you on what you need to do, and not do. This is why you have chosen to work with this particular doctor. Your chiropractor is an expert, and you greatly benefit from his or her experience in situations like yours. If you go back to “normal” activities too soon, worse injuries are possible. And, too often the re-injury complicates the recovery, sometimes making it tougher to get well.

 So, if your chiropractor asks you to refrain from doing things that you may feel ready to do, please follow the doctor’s recommendations – when your chiropractor tells you to be “Careful, now,” it is probably good advice you should strongly consider following.

How Chiropractors Help People Get Well and Stay Well

How Chiropractors Help People Get Well and Stay Well

 Understanding that a chiropractor is looking for disturbance in the nerve system caused by subluxations, spinal bones that go out of place, is only the first step to comprehending what a chiropractor can do for you and your family.

 Throughout your life, you are subjected to all kinds of stresses – some of them are based on mechanical stresses and trauma, like injuries, car accidents, slips and falls, and other types of physical insults.

Some of the stresses you encounter are chemical stresses, like poisons in the air and water, household agents like hairspray, insecticides and detergents, food additives like preservatives and colorings, and the by-products of faulty eating, like excessive sugar or fat or not drinking enough high quality water. Such habits reduce the raw materials needed for proper health and body function, and risk contaminating or polluting the body much like a lake, river or ocean may become toxic and filled with inappropriate substances.

 Finally, we can be stressed for psychological reasons, where we interpret our daily experiences to be harsh, harmful, difficult or painful, and this brings about responses in our minds and bodies that do not serve us, that do not move us toward health and wellness, but rather toward poor body function  and disease. While “psycho-somatic” illnesses were once dismissed or relegated to those with serious psychological issues, we now know that even small interruptions in healthy thinking can produce health problems.

 Some chiropractors concentrate entirely on the adjustment of the spine and correcting subluxations, to counteract the effects of stress on the spine and nerve system directly and exclusively. These doctors may or may not make specific recommendations about diet and emotional support, but they invariably see the value of addressing these issues, even if it means engaging other professionals to advise you on these relevant topics.

Other doctors of chiropractic include counseling on nutrition and psychology, either themselves or through other professionals they refer to, on site or not. This gives you a chance to develop your team of health and wellness advisors, so you can feel prepared to handle any of these types of stress and minimize the negative effect on your health.

That’s why you will benefit more by being an active participant in your health and wellness care – knowing that you need a proper blend of structural care, nutritional advice and psychological support gives you the power and responsibility to be as healthy and well as you wish to be.

In fact, that is the technical difference between health and wellness. Health is what happens when your body is working right, but wellness is a deliberate choice to make things even better – improving nutrition, improving your mindset and worldview, and of course keeping your spine and nerve system healthy, with chiropractic care, appropriate exercise and avoiding traumatic injury.

 Everyone has a slightly different and unique blend of these factors, and you will discover that personal blend by pursuing some of these habits and behaviors mentioned above. You can be healthy, and you can move yourself toward wellness – get regular spine and nerve system check-ups and adjustments when necessary, refine your diet and avoid or eliminate toxicity in your surrounding environment, and strike a sensible balance between family, work, leisure and other personal issues so you can maintain a positive mental attitude.

Apply these ideas, and you will get the most out of your chiropractic care, and help your chiropractor to help you to get well and stay well the natural way.

These three sources of stress, trauma, toxins and thoughts, are responsible for many of the maladies we suffer and the disease process that comes about as a result. That’s why your doctor of chiropractic is interested in addressing all of these, to varying extents based on his or her particular specialty and focus.

What is subluxation?

July ::  2012 Issue

     

Dear Patient and Friend,   

 

No doubt when you go to any of your assorted doctors and health advisors, on occasion he or she uses a term you are unfamiliar with or do not understand. So it goes with your chiropractor, who is trained in a very special and unique healing art that differs from anything else available, and because of that, the terminology a chiropractor uses is also different from what you may have heard your doctors say before.

 One of the words you may have heard your chiropractor use is the word “subluxation”(pronounced sub – luck – say’ – shun), a technical term that describes the main problem a chiropractor looks for and aims to correct. When a bone in your spine goes out of position and disturbs the nerves it’s supposed to protect, it’s called a subluxation, and while it causes many health conditions and problems, no other kind of doctor has the tools for finding and correcting it.

 That’s why developing a relationship between your family and the chiropractor of your choice is so vital – if no one else fixes this problem, and so many people have it, only a chiropractor can advise you and care for you properly.

 A subluxation prevents normal healing and body function by disrupting the control mechanism of your body. The brain uses the nerves like wires; to connect to all your body parts, and if anything interferes with that control, your body parts don’t know what to do and can’t work properly. This direction from the brain is responsible for regulating your body and healing it when it needs repair, which is the reason why chiropractic care has such far-reaching effects on our health and wellness – it helps the body to work better overall, so all of the various body parts are brought into harmony with all the other parts, which leads to not only healing any problems, but better health in general.

 How do you know if you have a subluxation? Well, you don’t – sometimes they cause overt symptoms, like pain or illness, and frankly, sometimes they don’t. Like diabetes, heart disease and cancer, often the early stages of subluxation have no tell-tale signs whatsoever.

 That’s why it’s so important to get periodic chiropractic examinations for yourself and your family, even if you’re feeling fine – an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

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