Tag: Diet

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How to Avoid Chronic Inflammation

inflammation

Our lifestyle is so far off track – particularly from a dietary perspective -that nearly all people today are living in a state of unhealthy, chronic inflammation. It’s no wonder that we’re seeing ever-increasing rates of inflammatory related conditions and diseases. Chronic inflammation is an issue because it results in putting our body into a reactive mode sustained over time that results in destructive physiology. In other words, chronic inflammation could be described as being sick all the time, throughout the body.

The good news is that it’s almost always caused by our lifestyle choices. There are a number of choices that we can make (or not make) that will result in an inflammatory response within the body.

Foods That Cause Inflammation

  • Processed Vegetable Oils: These are some of the most chemically altered foods in our diets, yet they get promoted as healthy. They cause disease, and they’re in everything (think soybean, corn, sunflower, safflower, etc)
  • Grains: Bread, cereals, pasta, pizza, bagels, crackers – aka the foods most people eat on a daily basis.
  • Sugars (and foods that act like sugar): Our bodies are not meant to break down as much sugar as we consume. (think bread, cereals, pasta, pizza, bagels, crackers – got it?)

How Our Lifestyle Contributes To Inflammation

Stress is also a major contributor to chronic inflammation for many people; stress results in a cascade of metabolic responses within the body, lead by cortisol, the chief stress hormone. Stress creates a perfect storm of disease-producing reactions, lead by an inflammatory response – causing increased blood pressure, heart rate, blood fats, insulin resistance, along with decreased immune function, digestion, reproductive hormones, and serotonin.

There are times when the body’s stress response is appropriate or healthy; for example, a normal or healthy stress response occurs when we stress our bodies during exercise, or get chased by a mountain lion; the body is designed to endure or cope with these relatively brief periods of stress. It becomes inappropriate or unhealthy when the stress is induced from unnatural things (bad foods, stress from bad relationships, bad jobs, lack of sleep, etc.), and/or when stress occurs over sustained periods of time (i.e. long-term stress from our hectic, over-scheduled, digitally demanding, sedentary, debt-laden, traffic-stuck lives).

How To Avoid Chronic Inflammation

  • Significantly reduce your intake of processed foods. By avoiding processed foods, you get extreme benefits because you avoid processed vegetable oils, sugar, and flour, ALL of which promote inflammation in the body (along with directly or indirectly causing obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, autoimmune, and dementia disorders).
  • Stop eating sugar and foods that act like sugar
  • Stop eating grains (grains present a triple threat – in addition to promoting inflammation, grains promote high insulin levels and intestinal permeability or leaky gut syndrome, which leads to a whole host of conditions)
  • Eat lots of organic plant foods (aim for more vegetables than fruit each day)
  • Eat pastured animal proteins (not feedlot, grain-fed meats)
  • Eat healthy fats – this includes coconut oil, raw nuts, avocado, butter from pastured cows, meat from pastured animals, wild-caught fish.
  • Exercise regularly and to the point of exertion. BUT when going for exertion, short-interval, high intensity is what you’re after, not sustained endurance exercise – meaning functional training type of exercise such as CrossFit or hour-long Bootcamp classes are what’s recommended, not training for marathons, or going to the gym for 90 minute sessions on a treadmill or bike.
  • Supplement with a high-quality omega-3 fish oil which helps to balance the critical omega-6 to omega-3 ratio in the body (people today get too much omega-6 from vegetable oils, grains, and grain fed animals; and disruption in the omega-6:omega-3 ratio leads to inflammation, disease, etc.).
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Why Are We So Allergic Now? (And What to Do About It)

Why Are We So Allergic?

Spring is finally here, and for most of us, that’s a big relief. For many others, however, this means the return of sneezing, coughing, wheezing, itching – better known as spring allergies. Research shows that more kids than ever before have allergies, and it seems every year we’re told it will be the “worst spring ever” for allergies. According to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), 23.6 million Americans were diagnosed with hay fever in the last year. The prevalence of allergies is surging upward, with as many as 30 percent of adults and up to 40 percent of children having at least one allergy.

Why are more kids than ever before allergic and/or have asthma? The difference is not the pollen, the difference is how our bodies react to the pollen. An allergic response happens when the body’s immune system overreacts to allergens such as dust and pollen. The response is that the body overproduces neutralizing chemicals such as histamines to correct the problem. Why is this happening more and more with each passing spring?

Let’s look at some growing trends in our society to figure out why childhood allergies have become so severe and so prevalent. Continue reading “Why Are We So Allergic Now? (And What to Do About It)”

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Top 10 Posts in 2013

lookingback 2013

This website continues to grow well beyond my expectations. The best part is, the growth has occurred entirely from the support of readers like you. A special thanks to each of you for sharing this website and the articles on it. But even more than that, thank you for sharing the life-changing message of natural health and chiropractic care.

Here’s a trip down memory lane of True Health’s top 10 blog posts viewed this year, judged by page views:

1. Is Your Spine In Line?  Ever wonder how to tell if your spine is out of alignment. This post offers a look at 15 warning signs of an unhealthy spine.

2. Breastfeeding Is ‘Health, Not Lifestyle’ Choice  This post includes a graphic that lists the benefits of breastfeeding as well as the role chiropractic care plays in optimal breastfeeding.

3. Sharpen Your Child’s Mind  If your child is having difficulty concentrating at school, often seems lethargic, or is constantly frustrated with trying to learn, the following tips can help you address the cause and offer natural solutions.

4. The TrueHealth Grocery List  This is a list of nutrient dense, fresh, whole (or in some cases minimally processed) foods which promote optimal health. The post includes a printable PDF version to bring with you on your next grocery trip.

5. Alkaline vs. Acidic  Our body has a desired state of slightly alkaline, but most Americans eat a diet full of acid forming foods. Here is a basic list of alkaline and acidic foods as well as a detailed chart.

6. The Core Four  This is an explanation of the four supplements that everyone (men, women, and children) should be taking. These are supplements that will actually improve your health and well-being if taken on a regular basis.

7. I Don’t Believe in Chiropractic  There are many people out there that question the notion that chiropractic is a viable health care tool. This post takes a closer look at what chiropractic is.

8. Are Baby Carriers Good For the Spine?  Many new parents are unsure as to how to carry their newborn, especially when it comes to how it may affect their developing spines. This post explores the best way to carry based on anatomy and neurology of the infant.

9. Lower Blood Pressure Naturally  A chiropractic adjustment of C1 can significantly lower high blood pressure (This adjustment has the effect of not one, but two blood-pressure medications given in combination).

10. How to Beat Seasonal Allergies Naturally  Seasonal allergies are far from normal, and the fact that they are so common means that many do not have an optimally functioning body. Here are some tips for beating allergies this and every spring without relying on pill popping

Whether you’ve been reading True Health for one week, one month, or since we started two years ago – thank you. This blog owes its success to the support of its readers.

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8 Ways to Avoid Being A Supplement Junkie

nutritional supplements

I should start off by saying that I am not in any way, shape or form anti-supplement. Supplements are a great tool and they serve many people well, especially when used appropriately. But here’s what I don’t understand. People are slowly moving away from treating every minor ailment and condition with a prescription drug (which is great). However, many are replacing pharmaceuticals with natural supplements – which are sadly doing the same thing (albeit usually in a safer way). They are simply treating symptoms and covering up the problem, never truly getting to the cause.

As a chiropractor my viewpoint may be different. After all, our profession was founded on the idea of getting to the cause – we focus on creating health rather than managing disease. I would never associate health as something that could come out of a pill or bottle whether they were natural or not), but as something that is experienced from the inside-out. When it comes to nutrition – the right food turns on the right genes, and create biological signals that create health, while the wrong foods turn on genes that cause disease and create biological chaos.

With that being said, have you been in a health food store recently? Standing in line you can see people whose shopping cart is covered with no less than 30 boxes of different herbs, vitamins, and supplements of all kinds. B-complexes, Glucosamine, Licorice, Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Ginko, Garlic, and St. John’s Wort just to name a few. While this is certainly an extreme example, it’s not as rare as you might think.

We have the power to determine how healthy our cells are by the choices we make with our bodies. Our bodies are equipped with an incredible ability to go towards health when it’s supplied with the right building materials. If your cells are like houses, the quality of the cell is dependent on the building materials which are found in our food.

Taking vitamins have become an extra job for some, here’s how to avoid it: Continue reading “8 Ways to Avoid Being A Supplement Junkie”

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Getting To The Cause

symptoms vs cause

An image of a lowly iceberg. It looks so simple to simply steer around and bypass it on the way to smoother seas. But if our past was a good teacher, then we know that by only paying attention to the surface, we can miss a dangerous obstacle in the depths.

As long as we continue to exist in a healthcare system that only seeks to reduce symptoms, then we will continue to get the same results as those who only saw the tip of the iceberg.

Presently, however, physicians lack the training (and financial incentives) to help people learn how to eat healthy, exercise, stop smoking, avoid environmental toxins, or address the effects of structural abnormalities in the spine. So they continue to do what they know how to do: prescribe medication and perform surgery.

Our bodies are equipped with an incredible array of signals to let us know that something is wrong. Sometimes it comes in the form of a pain in the back, draining fatigue, or headaches. The purpose of these signals is to tell us that something is wrong, but it’s up to us to look within to identify the cause. Structural shifts of the spine that lead to neurological communication errors are often the underlying cause of some of the challenges that are preventing you from being your best.

Unless we look towards the body’s Innate healing capacity, and why it’s not operating at 100% full function, then we are missing the boat on the health challenges of millions of people. And there’s no amount of drugs, natural medicine, surgery, or insurance money that can save that ship from sinking.