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Feeling or Function

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“How Are You?” is a common question we use to engage with another person when we meet on the street, at work, in school or at family gatherings.

Most of us reply with the answer, “Fine!” or some version of that to keep the conversation short and social because most people are asking out of politeness and don’t really want to get in a deep discussion. You, however, need to know how you are really doing so ask yourself the question but expand on it by adding a few key words at the end:

1. How are you feeling? Seriously, how is your body? How is your mind? Are you experiencing any symptoms on a recurring basis such as neck or back pain, headaches, stomach or other digestive disturbances, tension or stress? These symptoms are indicators that there may be imbalances in your body that need to be addressed. How are you addressing them? Are you masking these symptoms with medications or are you eliminating the underlying cause? Getting to the cause is a much better plan. This leads to the next question.

2. How are you functioning? If your body is functioning properly then you have the opportunity to feel healthier most of the time and also perform at your highest level. Your body can heal itself from symptoms and conditions and you will be adaptable to the stresses in the world.

Your nervous system is the master control system of your body and must be healthy for you to function properly. Recent research has revealed that neuro reflexes support homeostasis, which is body balance, by modulating the function of organ systems and regulating the immune system.1 Many of our patients report that the chiropractic care we provide helps their body eliminate recurring symptoms while it functions at much higher levels. When you make Function a priority over Feeling, you will appreciate a greater level of health and vitality every day.

3. How are you living? Is your lifestyle supporting you in function and feeling at your highest level for a lifetime? If not, you may be headed for a roller coaster ride of deterioration that could last for decades. Through The 100 Year Lifestyle education and chiropractic care we provide, you and your loved ones will be able to answer the “How are you?” question with gusto! and enjoy the long, healthy, quality of life you deserve.

Reference: Eva Sundman , Peder S. Olofsson Advances in Physiology EducationPublished 1 June 2014Vol. 38no. 2,135-139DOI: 10.1152/advan.00094.2013

Under New Management

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Have you ever seen a sign on a business, “Under New Management?” What comes to mind?

Usually it is thoughts of hope, new infusion of energy and resources or the old management wasn’t working, better business, excitement, new people, new systems, new products and new idea…something new and better in a nutshell.

It is interesting to see what is new and better with the New Management especially if it is a business you have used or visited in the past.

Now is a great time to ask yourself “How effective was I managing myself this past year?” In the arena of physical health are you healthier now than last year or worse? Is your weight up, the same, or down? Is your blood pressure higher or lower? What did your lab results look like? How is your energy? How are you sleeping? What is your exercise frequency or at all? How do you feel?

Did you manage yourself well or are you worse off? You may have made New Year’s Resolutions about things you know you needed to change. How did that work out?

Do you need to be under New Management? Not that someone will step in and manage you, but you can hire advisors such as Chiropractors, personal trainers, nutritionists and life coaches but what you really need is a new mindset. This mindset has to be the overriding factor of what you are committed to and plan to accomplish for yourself, your health and your life.

Brutal facts will help you manage your health. People are living longer whether they want to or not. Centenarians, people over 100, are the fastest growing population in the US. The current aging population was blindsided by longevity and now has become the nursing care generation. Chronic illness, obesity and health care costs are rising. The current “health care” system is not working. Something has to change.

Luckily, you can make the change. You can live The 100 Year Lifestyle each and every day and avoid 70 to 90% of the problems people seek care for by changing your lifestyle.

Here is how to be under New Management:
1. Exercise 4 to 6 times per week with endurance exercise, strengthening exercise and stretching. Start off with a few minutes each time if exercise has not been part of your life lately. You can increase your exercise time and frequency as you reach plateaus.
2. Eat for quality not quantity. A new menu is often part of New Management. Be creative!
3. Get proper rest. Sticking to your New Management goals is easier when you’ve given yourself time to rejuvenate mentally and physically.
4. Protect your spine and nervous system by removing interference to the flow of information between your brain and body.

Our office can help you with your New Management. Chiropractors have been helping people regain, retain and optimize their health for over 125 years. Management of your future health can be optimized by seeking care from us to help you live your ideal 100 Year Lifestyle. Introducing the New Management – YOU!

Contributed by Dr. Dennis Buckley -The 100 Year Lifestyle Licensed Affiliate Chiropractor in Pasadena, CA

What’s Your Number?

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Some people are excited about living to be 100. Some are scared of the thought. Either way, it is important to realize that you may not have a choice. 100 year old people are the world’s fastest growing group. How many of them do you imagine planned to live so long?

If your number is not 100, what’s your number? Is it 63? 78? 107? If you had quality years during every one of those years, why would you ever want to check out? When you focus on your number, making quality of life choices and making the most of every day becomes a priority.

Three simple steps will immediately improve the quality of your life from this point forward:

1.Develop a long term vision for your quality of life. Create an image in your mind of how you want your life to look as you age. You can get away with abusing your body and mind for a few months or years but in a little while it will catch up with you. The wake-up call can be devastating. Keeping a long term vision in your mind creates a compass for your life. Most people do not want to wake up in ten years and look in the mirror at a sick, overweight, stressed out, broken down reflection. Instead, paint the picture of your ideal long term vision and make daily choices that support it. <b>Life Changing Principle #3: If you make a change make it with your ideal 100 Year Lifestyle in mind.</b>

2.Make choices today that support the long term vision. Choices that improve your quality of life today will automatically support you in a better quality of life as you age. We see this in chiropractic Lifestyle Care patients who make the health of their spine and nervous system a priority in their life. As they age, they are able to stay active and more functional. Many describe feeling younger even though they are older chronologically.

Healthy food choices fall into the same category. They will help you feel better today and keep you younger and healthier as time goes by. Life Changing Principle #2: Change comes one choice at a time; think progress not perfection.

3.Make the change. If you make the same New Year Resolutions year after year, stop kidding yourself. You have not yet truly committed. Make this year your year. Do not settle for mediocrity. Your current habits are causing you some level of suffering but not quite enough to do something about it. Sooner or later, the comfort of staying the same will become extremely uncomfortable because of a crisis that forces you to take action. Commit to the quality of life changes today and enjoy the benefits for decades. Life Changing Principle #1: Change is Easy. Thinking about Change is Hard. When you commit to change, you diminish the suffering and begin to enjoy your best life every day.

Our 100 Year Lifestyle Affiliate chiropractic office is committed to helping you enjoy the best quality of life possible so that regardless of what your number is, you make the most of every year along the way. We’ll see you at your next appointment!

Copyright 2014 The Family Practice, Inc., Dr. Eric Plasker and The 100 Year Lifestyle. All Rights Reserved.

Sitting Solutions

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The Bottom Line On Sitting

Millions of people working from their homes and offices are spending way too much time in their chairs. This is a habit that can lead to more than just a numb bum!

Too much sitting sets you up for a host of physical problems including poor circulation, chronic back and nerve pain, depression, osteoporosis, swollen spinal disks, fatigue and many other health problems. In fact, according to Health Day News, Canadian researchers found that prolonged daily sitting could cause these problems even if you exercise regularly.

Stand Up for Yourself

According to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, the U.S. will spend $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years treating a wide range of debilitating ailments resulting from sedentary lifestyle such as diabetes, depression, osteoporosis, certain cancers, and even sexual dysfunction. They’ve even coined their own term, Sedentary Death Syndrome (SeDS), as a growing life-threatening risk for many unsuspecting Americans.

No need to worry though. You can stand strong with these Sitting Solutions:

– 50/10 RULE: Don’t sit for more than 50 minutes. Set a timer and take 10 when it rings.

– BE A SWINGER: Stand with hands on your hips and legs slightly more than shoulder width apart. Rotate your hips clockwise in a full range of motion ten times and then reverse it. Stand sideways next to your desk. Put all your weight on your right leg and gently swing your left leg forwards and backwards 10 times. Repeat with other leg.

– DON’T BE A CROOKED SITTER OR SLOUCHER: Sit up straight. If you find this difficult, uncomfortable or painful, call our office and schedule an appointment. Your spine may have a misalignment with nerve pressure, a subluxation, which needs correcting.

– TAKE YOUR LUNCH BREAK: Get up and go somewhere even if you bring something in.

– GO MOBILE: Attach a portable unit to your stationary phone or use a cell.

– HOLD “MEETINGS ON THE MOVE”: Take a walk through the building, meet clients on a hiking trail or stroll outdoors.

– PUT A LUMBAR PILLOW IN YOUR CHAIR

– INVEST IN AN ERGONOMIC CHAIR

– STAND UP AND SURF: Raise your workstation or monitor so you can net surf and type while standing.

– GO TO THE GYM – BUT STAY OFF THE STATIONARY BIKE

Take Care of Your Spine

Sitting is to the spine like sugar is to the teeth except you can’t replace your spine after it rots away. Chiropractic Lifestyle Care provides gentle adjustments to the spine that can eliminate pain and improve your health.

These Sitting Solutions will improve your health and quality of life dramatically.

Copyright 2015 The Family Practice, Inc., Dr. Eric Plasker and The 100 Year Lifestyle. All Rights Reserved.

Body or Health Conscious

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Are you Body Conscious or Health Conscious

Unfortunately, too many people are concerned about how they look and not necessarily about their health. Perhaps you do not know the difference between being body conscious or health conscious. The following information will help you understand this critical difference as it relates to the following topics:

Eating Fats

If you are body conscious, you will not eat fats out of fear of adding fat to your shape. If you are health conscious, you will eat a moderate amount of healthy fat because hormones, nerves and cell membranes require fat to function properly.

Eating Sugar

If you are body conscious, you believe sugar gives you energy to workout and if you work out more, you can build larger muscles and look better. If you are health conscious, you know that energy from sugar is temporary, empty calories. You’d rather eat natural whole foods of complex carbs for sustained energy.

Sleep
If you are body conscious, you believe that you will get enough sleep to keep circles from forming under your eyes. If you are health conscious, you recognize that sleep is essential to re-boot your system and rejuvenate your body.

Lifting Weights

If you are body conscious, you lift weights to create larger muscles for a “hard body”, muscular look. If you are health conscious, you lift weights to gain/maintain strength and structural integrity.

Aerobic Exercise

If you are body conscious, you believe that if you do cardio today, you can have dessert and/or eat whatever you want today. If you are health conscious, you believe that if you do cardio today, you will improve your heart strength, your endurance and create a strong heart to serve you for years.

Doing Yoga

If you are body conscious, you may think, “How does yoga help with my body shape? It is a waste of time”. If you are health conscious, you know that yoga centers, stretches and strengthens you from your core. It calms you and helps keep you balanced.

Chiropractic Care

If you are body conscious, you believe that you will go to a chiropractor to help alleviate an ache or pain, so you can workout and look better. If you are health conscious, you know that you will go to a chiropractor to alleviate an ache or pain and continue to utilize care to keep your nervous system working at its best. Like eating healthy foods and exercising regularly, it keeps your body functioning at optimum levels.

So Which are You?

Body Conscious or Health Conscious? Are there any changes you know you need to make? We are here to support you to be the healthiest version of you possible.

Contributed by Dr. Jordan Plasker, 100 Year Lifestyle Licensed Affiliate in Montvale, NJ

Need vs. Want

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Contributed by Dr. Josh Handt, Affiliate in New City, NY

Are you the kind of person who only takes care of yourself when you are in desperate need and in the middle of a crisis? Do you know anyone else like this? Or do you take care of yourself because you want to live a healthier, more active lifestyle? Shifting your motivation from crisis to lifestyle is life changing and easier than you think.

Crisis Care choices are based on what you need at a given moment in time to survive the crisis. Lifestyle Care choices are based on what you want so that you can optimize your quality of life now and in your future. At some point, if you truly want to get the most out of life you are going to have to transition your thinking and your actions from Need to Want. This includes how you take care of your spine and nervous system.

Crisis care people only take care of themselves when they feel like something is wrong. The problem is that only 10% of your central nervous system deals with sensation and when that is interfered with, you feel pain. What does the other 90% do?

Your autonomic nervous system makes up approximately 45% of the remaining 90% of nerves and controls all your organs, glands and systems. The remaining 45% of the nerves control motor function which includes your muscles. When these two parts of the nervous system experience interference, you may get signs or symptoms other than pain such as allergies, sinusitis, low energy, digestive disturbances, muscle spasms, weakness or fatigue.

Crisis care people treat the symptoms. This is what the media and drug ads teach us to do. We are trained to use medication to hide the problem or symptom, not to correct the cause of the problem. This perpetuates our underlying problems and causes them to get worse over time. We feel better because our symptoms are altered, while our bodies continue to deteriorate.

Lifestyle Care people remove the cause and make Lifestyle Care a priority regardless of how they feel. When they go to a restaurant, they make healthy food choices. When they go to a grocery store, they fill their carts with live foods such as fruits and vegetables and lean meats. They avoid eating sugar. When it comes to their chiropractic checkups, they are consistent with their Lifestyle Care so they can function at their highest potential.

Isn’t it time that you make this transition for yourself and your loved ones? Don’t wait for the crisis. A healthier, more vibrant future is waiting for your shift from Need to Want. We’ll see you and your family at your next appointment.

Copyright 2015 The Family Practice, Inc., Dr. Eric Plasker and The 100 Year Lifestyle. All Rights Reserved.