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”

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.

Avoid Stress And Sickness This Holiday Season

stress person

We all know that exercise, clean eating, and proper supplementation can have a profound impact on our health. But what about our stress? If left unchecked, it can ruin your holidays and hurt your health.

The truth is that no amount of supplements or good nutrition could counteract the toxic effects of chronic, repetitive stress responses on the body – and the overload of cortisol and epinephrine that accompany these physiological “fight-or-flight” responses. Chronic stress has been found to increase the risk of anxiety, depression, digestive problem, heart disease, and sleep problems just to name a few.

In addition, it increases both the risk and duration of cold and flu symptoms substantially – not fun. However, when we are better able to adapt to these stress responses, the natural self-repair mechanisms of the body are able to go about the business of doing what they do best – heal the body. This is where chiropractic fits in. After all, balance is the key when we’re dealing with the nervous system.

When the spine shifts from it’s normal structure – there are 3 components involved: a misalignment of the vertebrae, which then causes fixation (the bone becomes stuck), which in turn leads to interference and stress placed on the nerve(s) in that area. We know now that this can cause the entire nervous system to go into a state of fight/flight – known as the sympathetic stress response. Continue reading “Avoid Stress And Sickness This Holiday Season”

5 Tips For Building Healthy, Happy Children

We have the power to determine how healthy we are by the choices we make with our bodies. Our bodies are equipped with an incredible ability to go towards health when they’re supplied with the right building materials. For optimal health, children should eat right, move more, and enjoy life to the fullest (which happens to be the same advice for us adults).

The idea behind these five daily strategies are to build healthier kids, because as we know healthier kids are happier kids, and happier kids are more successful. Continue reading “5 Tips For Building Healthy, Happy Children”

I Don’t Believe in Chiropractic

believe in chiropractic

“I don’t believe in Chiropractic.” This is something that all chiropractors hear from time to time when out in public or in the office. I always get a kick out of it because after all – I am alive and real AND I am a Chiropractor – so do they not believe I exist? Okay, maybe people don’t question the existence of chiropractors. However, there are many people out there that question the notion that chiropractic is a viable health care tool. That’s fair enough. Let’s take a closer look, though.

Most of this comes from not understanding what chiropractic is. Chiropractic is a “clinical science based on the fundamental laws of biology, anatomy, and physiology” therefore; belief, religion, and/or faith don’t factor logically into the equation. Fortunately – you don’t have to believe in chiropractic – it works regardless of your belief system. In our office we see a lot of pediatric patients – and guess what? They don’t believe in chiropractic. In fact, some (newborns, infants) have no idea what it is – but they still get better, and their health problems still resolve.

The first question I ask when I hear “I don’t believe in chiropractic” is – do you believe you have a spine? That’s an easy one. So, now if we understand that there is a normal range for your spine’s structure, is it reasonable to say that IF your spine is outside of normal, this can lead to dysfunction and eventually pain?

Better yet, if there was a profession that detects and corrects a spine when it is outside the normal range without the use of medications, long therapy or even surgerywould that be a good thing? Well, then you do believe in Chiropractic, especially my type of chiropractic that detects and corrects abnormal structural problems of the spine.