Who’s in charge of your health? Who makes the best decisions for you and your family? Is it a doctor or other health professional? Or is it becoming increasingly clear that only you can make the most important decisions about your own health?

For many years, the doctor has been revered, looked up to as an important role model, and that should never change.

But ultimately, you are the one who must take the responsibility to choose your daily habits, select which professionals to consult, and make whatever mid-course corrections are required for you to have the best quality of life possible.

Yes, you may depend on doctors like your general practitioner, your chiropractor or your dentist to give you the latest information, either about a health problem or about improving your wellness and peak performance. These experts have been trained to notice, compile and communicate the best ideas and observations, and from there, many people relinquish their control and just accept whatever the doctor says.

It makes more sense for you to be an active participant in your own health and wellness process. Remember, the time you spend with the doctor is a tiny fraction of your overall time – what health choices are you making at all other times? What do you eat, how much do you sleep, what is your typical exercise routine, if any? How often do you visit your dentist, your medical doctor, or your chiropractor for maintenance or wellness care? Which specialists would contribute valuable distinctions to this process? Do you seek out a nutritionist, massage therapists, or personal trainers to help you take your health to a new level of excellence?

It is in no way disrespectful to differ with or expand upon a conclusion your doctor has drawn, especially if you do it respectfully. It’s not that you should ignore your professional advisors, but remember, it’s your body, and you know it and feel it better than anyone else, and ultimately you reap the rewards or pay the consequences of the decisions made, either by you or on your behalf. You can tip the scales in your favor by using common sense and following through on taking better care of yourself overall.

Clearly, in times of emergency, you need to change the balance and receive more input, but even in this situation, unless you are unable to participate, you should still play a major role in the direction of your own health and wellness care.

Putting together your team of health professionals will help you coordinate your and your family’s health and wellness, because the better the information you have to work with, the better decisions you can make. Developing communication among your advisors will coordinate the opinions you receive and give you the final word on what is in your family’s best interest.

The style of health care is changing, and each individual and family will be called upon to add more to health care delivery and to the conditions surrounding their own health and wellness. Stay current by reading, listening to and watching health related information, and put yourself at the top of your health and wellness decision-making team – your efforts will be repaid multifold in the form of a longer, better, less painful and more productive life.

Most of us realize that we live in a cause and effect world. If I touch a hot stove, my hand will burn. If I drive my car and use up all my gas without refilling the tank, I will coast to a stop. If I choose intelligent lifestyle habits and follow through on them, I will improve the quality of my life, cause and effect.

Each of us has a responsibility to observe how this cause and effect relationship influences our lives, so we can make the best decisions possible on our own behalf.

Think for a moment – many people believe that germs cause disease. But if that were true, wouldn’t everyone exposed to the germs get the disease? What could explain why this doesn’t happen? Could it be that it isn’t the germs, but rather the strength and resistance of the individual that determines whether or not he or she will get sick?

This is one of the revolutionary concepts that makes the chiropractic viewpoint on health care different. Instead of fighting germs with medicines, chiropractors work with you to get your body working at peak efficiency, so when you are exposed to germs, your body is stronger, and has a better chance of maintaining good function and good health.

How does the chiropractor do that? Your body’s control center is your brain, and the wiring system that connects the brain to the body parts is the nerve system, which is protected by the spinal bones. When this protective covering is in proper alignment, then the nerves are protected and the information from the brain gets to and from the body parts normally.

But if the spinal bones lose their proper alignment, then the nerves can be injured, disturbed or interfered with, which may or may not lead to pain right away, but surely leads to poorer body function.

If we live in a cause and effect world, then you want to make sure your brain is controlling your body properly. When your brain can connect with your body parts, it causes the effect of better body function and better health. An unhealthy spine causes bad communication, where a healthy spine causes good communication.

Your chiropractor can tell you, whether you currently have pain or not, if your spine is in proper alignment. If anyone in your family has not had a spinal exam recently, schedule a check-up as soon as possible.

Most of us believe that we have only two settings on our own personal Health-o-Meter – healthy, or sick. This over-simplification has been at the root of many health problems – feeling okay usually means that there are no apparent symptoms, but this is no guarantee of good health. Many of the most serious illnesses, including heart disease and cancer, may have no symptoms at all in the early stages.

But there is another issue with measuring your level of health by the presence or absence of symptoms – what most people call “healthy” is really just “not sick,” since most of us have spent so little time at peak performance levels, we don’t even realize what is available to us – glowing, vibrant, exuberant vitality that can be gained with a few simple lifestyle decisions any of us could make if we wanted to.

In the famous Alameda County Study conducted over thirty years in California, there were seven simple lifestyle choices that greatly increased your chance of longevity and better quality of life. These habits are:

1. Eating breakfast every morning
2. Sleeping seven or eight hours each night
3. Exercising regularly
4. Not smoking
5. Drinking less than five drinks at one sitting
6. Maintaining a desirable weight for your height
7. Avoiding snacks

Most of this seems pretty obvious, and none of it seems very difficult, but most of us could do a better job implementing even these basic health practices.

If you were to add to these fundamentals a daily diet of wholesome, natural foods, a process of stress reduction like meditation, prayer or life coaching, and some regular body maintenance like chiropractic care to keep your spine and nerve system healthy, you would be in prime shape to handle all that life has to throw at you, the high points and the challenges as well.

The question we all have to answer is … how much of your potential do you want to express, and what price are you willing to pay to express it? Your answer will shape your health, your success, and the quality of your relationships, too.

Raise your standards and expect more of yourself – you’ll see how small refinements in your typical daily activities can pay you dividends by adding more years to your life and more life to your years.

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 of us realize that exercise has many benefits, but few understand the best way to exercise. See if you can identify which is a tip and which is a myth:

1. No pain, no gain.

MYTH! There is no relationship between how much you hurt during or after exercise and the ultimate benefit you receive. For most people, exercising moderately provides the desired healthy changes without unnecessary risk.

2. Weight training makes women bulky.

MYTH! It takes a program of significantly overloading muscles to dramatically increase bulk, and women can safely use weights to increase strength, tone muscle and increase lean muscle mass.

3. Exercise is good for seniors.

TIP! The weakness, loss of balance and osteoporosis that often accompany old age are actually improved by regular exercise. Exercise also boosts memory, helps to prevent dementia, and is a great social activity, too!

4. Exercise reduces stress.

TIP! Studies show that regular exercise, as little as thirty minutes three times each week, reduces stress chemicals in the brain and bloodstream.

5. It’s too late for me.

MYTH! No matter what your physical and mental condition, there are suitable and beneficial exercises that match up to your current status. Even sick and disabled people can improve their fitness and wellness with an appropriate program of exercise.

Exercise is one of the hidden assets each of us could cash in on. You don’t need to join a gym or invest in equipment – walking, dancing, yoga, t’ai chi or light aerobics can all be done in your home with a little guidance or instruction, which, if necessary, is usually available at little or no charge on the internet. Check it out, and get into exercise – it will reward you many times over!

If you (or someone you care about) experiences stiffness, pain, muscle spasms, or trouble moving from one position to another, it often means that the muscles, bones and nerves are not working together as they should to provide smooth, comfortable movement and freedom from discomfort. In this situation, some chiropractic care may be in order, to reposition the bones that are out of alignment, and restore normal function to your nerve system, which then brings about normal control of the other body parts that need to heal.

In a more extreme situation, where the signals that come from the body are ignored or masked with medications, the body has to turn up the volume on such notifications, and more severe symptoms are the result. At this point, more radical intervention and treatment is often required, at greater suffering and greater expense.

Being aware of what’s going on with your body takes a little practice to know what to look for, but it can save you tremendous unnecessary suffering and considerable expense by paying attention to what your body is trying to tell you and taking action early. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure — that’s why smart health care consumers make sure that they and their families get periodic checkups to address any deviations from normal health before they get too unpleasant or destructive.

If you wear out your body, where will you live? Take care of yourself, it’s worth it.

Many people sail through their lives without paying much attention to the most miraculous gift they’ve ever been given – the human body. Each of us gets one, but what do we do with it, and how can we learn to be more aware and support it so it can work for us longer and better?

Your body gives you clues along the way which can guide your focus to important aspects of your body’s function – your weight, your ease in breathing, your ability to digest your food, how well you sleep and how refreshed you feel when you wake up, and many other simple observations can give you valuable feedback about your health and the condition of your body parts.

For example, if you (or someone you care about) are tired, parched when you wake up, prone to minor headaches or if you find that you are not as regular as you could be in the bathroom, it may be as simple as increasing your water intake – these are signs of dehydration. Could they relate to more serious conditions? They could, but try some water first, about eight glasses a day or more, and see if that helps.

If you (or those you care about) find that you are putting on weight, you may need to watch your food intake, exercise more, or if you are eating well and exercising but still gaining weight, you may need to consult some wellness professionals to find out how you could reset your habits so they work better for you. You may need to combine your foods differently or change your exercise routine.

The Valentine’s Day season reminds us all of those we really care about – husbands and wives, girlfriends and boyfriends, and admirers from afar descend on card stores and candy-makers to come up with little tokens of our esteem.

But the best way for you to demonstrate how you feel may not be yummy sweets and heartfelt sentiments, as important as those things may be. True love means caring enough about someone to help them in ways they can really appreciate, like for example to help them improve their quality of life, their health and wellness.

Good health is among our most precious possessions, and you can make a difference in someone’s life by helping them to discover how to develop and maintain better lifestyle habits, like eating well, sleeping sufficiently, exercising appropriately, and including safe, all-natural chiropractic care.

Why chiropractic? Every day, we walk, sit, and stand in gravity, the natural attractive pull of the earth. There’s a constant downward pressure applied to our bodies, and as long as the mechanics are sound, we are designed to handle the force – our spines are arranged with curves that create a spring-like action to bounce with the movements of our bodies, and protect us from gravity’s effect.

But if anything disrupts that spring-like action, like misalignments or faulty curves, gravity causes stress and wear-and-tear on our spinal bones, which can lead to arthritis, pain, and other related spinal problems, including damaging or interfering with the delicate nerves those bones are supposed to protect.

Common sense tells us that it’s better to take care of such misalignments as soon as they occur, instead of letting gravity injure us due to our own neglect. That’s why smart health consumers use chiropractic along with nutrition, exercise and other supportive lifestyle choices to have the best chance at longevity and wellness. It’s no guarantee, but it’s obvious that if you invest in your own health, it will reward you many times over.

You probably know someone who could really benefit from chiropractic care. Give a gift of health to someone you love, and let them in on the best-kept secret in wellness.

Every year, so many people end up stressing out during the holidays, eating poorly and self-indulgently, dealing with family matters that may be uncomfortable or difficult, or just working too hard to get ready for the festivities.

Here are ten quick and easy ideas to make your holidays healthier.

1. Take things in stride! You may not get to every single thing you need to do today – do what you can, and remember the reason you’re doing it, so you can feel good along the way.

2. Eat intelligently – stuffing yourself, even when the food is delicious and you rationalize that “it’s only once a year” is a poor strategy for being healthy – pace yourself with your eating, and wait between courses to see just how hungry you are – don’t let your eye be bigger than your belly!

3. Breathe – in traffic, waiting on line while shopping, or when in deep thought, remember to breathe so you get life-giving air to all of your body parts. Take a few deep breaths any time you are feeling pressure, and you’ll be amazed how quickly you feel better.

4. Drink lots of water – you need to hydrate yourself when you are working hard, thinking hard, or playing hard.

5. Get enough rest – staying up late occasionally is fine when you have a good reason, but remember to sleep sufficiently to sustain your energy levels, since there tends to be more demand during the holiday season.

6. Let others help you – the holidays tend to bring out the martyr in many of us. You don’t need to do it all yourself, get some support when needed.

7. Take a few minutes (or longer if necessary) to claim some little bit of quiet time for yourself along the way. Those brief meditative interludes are rejuvenating.

8. Do as much good as you possibly can – it makes you feel good to be of value to others, especially at this time of year.

9. Blow off a little steam with some vigorous exercise at least a few times a week.

10. Visit your chiropractor or natural health specialist of choice – keep your body in tune and working at peak efficiency, so you have it when you really need it.

Follow these simple rules, and you’ll be amazed how well you handle all the challenges and opportunities that arise. Have a wonderful holiday season!