Cafe of Life

Just another WordPress site

Lifestyle Care Continuum

Man Up, Stand Strong

by Leave a Comment

www.100yearlifestyle.com

– Man Up!
 – Don’t Wait for a Crisis
 – Make the Critical Transition Now

Man Up!
If you are a man and you are reading this newsletter, then I am glad we got your attention. The term “man up” is the expression used by many men that describes taking on challenges, facing fears and accepting responsibility. “Stand strong” implies overcoming adversity and promoting and defending your beliefs. In this context, to ensure that you can “man up” and “stand strong” for a lifetime, it is critical that you make your health a priority.

Don’t Wait for a Crisis
Too many men are crisis motivated only. They wait until their pains or illnesses become debilitating. Rather than manning up and standing strong on their own accord, they do not take action on their health until they hear their family and friends screaming the wake up call, “man down!” Don’t let this happen to you.

A recent report found that 48 percent of women admit that they have to resort to nagging to get their husbands to see a doctor. Research shows that, in general, women live longer healthier lives than men because they are more likely to be proactive about their health and heed the early warning signs before they become major problems.

Too many men suffer from preventable health problems that deteriorate their quality of life as they age, causing them to die sooner and more painfully than necessary. This is completely unnecessary, especially when simple lifestyle and chiropractic adjustments can keep them standing strong.

Men spend tens of billions of dollars treating injuries to their spine that cause back pain and many other health problems that can be related to pressure in the nervous system. These spinal injuries are known as vertebral subluxations. Approximately 185,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer annually. The nerves in the lower back and upper neck supply the prostate gland.

According to the AMA, 8.8 million men suffer with coronary heart disease. The nerve supply to the heart comes from the upper back and the upper neck.

Obesity and being overweight is also a problem. According to government statistics, the number of overweight men is alarming:

• 67.6% of men aged 35-44
• 71.3% of men aged 45-54
• 72.5% of men aged 55-64
• 77.2% of men aged 65-74
• 66.4% of men aged over 75

Being overweight can contribute to herniated disks, heart disease, cancer, diabetes and may other preventable health problems. If you’ll notice from the overweight statistics, the numbers increase to age 75, and then the statistics go down. Why? At this age the severity of their health crisis leaves them no choice. “Take care of yourself now or die” have become their only options.

Make the Critical Transition Now
Now is the time to man up, stand strong and make your health a priority. Chiropractic care is a great place to start because with a healthy spine and nervous system, your entire body can function better.

Our office has a simple home test that you can do to check the alignment and strength of your spine. Or, if you have not had a thorough spinal examination recently, make an appointment today to get checked. Thomas Edison said, “The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.” Man up, make your future now, and stand strong for a lifetime.

Change Your Families Course of History

by Leave a Comment

Stop Blaming Your Genes

Here is a very important message if you want to live an active, healthy, quality of life for 80, 90, 100 years and beyond: Stop blaming your genes. Too many people rationalize unhealthy choices with words like, “Why bother, it’s in my genes.” You can’t get away with this anymore.

The lifestyle choices that you make for yourself and your family can literally change the course of your history. A family history of heart disease or cancer used to mean that it was your destiny to get those conditions too because they were “in your genes.” Through the science of epigenetics we are learning that nothing could be further from the truth. Epigenetics, which means ‘around the gene’, has shown that your lifestyle choices, both positive and negative, can influence the expression of your genes, turning them on and off like a light switch.

In the largest nature/nurture study that was ever done, on 44,000 pairs of twins, it was found that the primary determines in most cases of cancer were environmental or lifestyle factors such as tobacco use, diet and exercise habits rather than the inherited disposition of their family history.

A recent report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA found the activity of more than 500 genes in the normal tissue of thirty men with low-risk prostate cancer changed after the patients began eating diets higher in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and lower in red meats and fats while also implementing an exercise and stress reducing regimen.

After three months the men had changes in the activity of about 500 genes including 48 disease preventing genes that were turned on and 453 disease promoting genes that were turned off.

Adjust Your Lifestyle
Changing the course of your history is not rocket science. Eating a diet filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean meats will keep you lean and healthy and they will activate healthy genes. Exercise, as a part of a lifestyle, reduces stress, strengthens your heart and muscles and has been shown to reduce the risk of nearly every disease.

Optimistic thinking has been shown to keep people motivated to make healthy lifestyle choices regardless of their circumstances. In addition, chiropractic care as a part of a healthy lifestyle, Lifestyle Care, keeps your spine and nervous system aligned, balanced and healthy and free from deterioration, this ensures that the vital messages between the brain and the body are optimized. Reducing stress is also important as stress has been shown to shorten the telomeres, or caps on the genes, which can reduce the life expectancy of your cells.

One of the life-changing principles of The 100 Year Lifestyle is “Change is easy, thinking about change is hard.” It is much easier to eat healthy and exercise regularly as a part of your lifestyle than it is to be on a weight gain-weight loss rollercoaster or to chronically have to deal with being sick or injured.

Chiropractic care as a part of a lifestyle is a much better option than the crisis to crisis suffering that comes with an unhealthy spine and nervous system. Bringing these values into your home can literally change the course of your history and ensure a healthy future for you and your loved ones.

Please take advantage of the resources our office provides to help you and your loved ones rewrite your history. Contact us to make an appointment for yourself or someone in your family. A healthy future could be yours for generations.

Enjoy the Healthiest Holidays Ever

by Leave a Comment

Good Health is a Blessing

If you, your family and friends are healthy, consider it a blessing. The opportunity to gather and enjoy each other’s company without the worry or burden of suffering loved ones contributes greatly to a healthier holiday season.

Take Your Health to a New Level

If you and your loved ones fall into this category, consider taking your health to new levels. When faced with choices between healthy foods and unhealthy foods, choose the healthy ones. Make exercise your first priority by exercising first thing in the morning so that you do not get swept away by holiday activities and miss out on your workout. Schedule your chiropractic adjustments in advance so your nervous system stays healthy and your body is more resistant to stress.

When you are making plans to gather with family and friends, do not just make appointments to gather around food and drink. Gather around going for walks in the woods or hikes in the mountains or on the trails. Gather around fresh air and sunshine. If the sun is not out or the weather is bad in your area, take a fitness class together. If you have young children, this will help them to build healthy habits and values that can last a lifetime. Encourage house guests to pack clothing and shoes for these kinds of activities.

Share Healthy Recipes and Gifts

When planning your holiday meals, experiment with healthier recipes. Look for dishes that call for fresh ingredients. Download five or six recipes from your favorite cooking website and have the people you will be gathering with do the same. Talk about them and decide which ones would be fun to experiment with. Mix in a new, fresh, healthy recipe with the other foods that you like to eat and bring balance to your holiday meals, making them less destructive to your body.

Each year you can experiment with new recipes. Before you know it, your holiday meals will become both delicious and healthy while helping you get off the weight loss, weight gain rollercoaster ride that has been a plague for so many people. You will leave your holiday table guilt-free and empowered.

Healthy gift giving can change a life. Many people are turning to healthy gift giving as a way to say, “I love you, I care about you, your health is important to me.” Your willingness to invest in the well-being of those that you love can go a long way to inspiring them to choose to invest in it. This action on your part can even act as an intervention to someone who is really in trouble and in denial about their health.

Healthy gifts can include a gym membership, exercise shoes, a heart monitor, a chiropractic examination or a series of chiropractic adjustments. While so many gifts are forgotten within 30 days, healthy gifts can be life changing and may be remembered for a lifetime.

Embrace a Healing Path

If you or any of your friends or family members are experiencing pain or ill health of any kind this holiday season, this is all the more reason to make healthy choices a priority. By following these guidelines and removing pressure from the spine and nervous system with chiropractic care, this holiday season can become an opportunity to embrace a healing path and a healthier New Year.

Everyone deserves to be healthy and express their full potential from the time they are born through their last breath of life. This includes you and your loved ones. We hope that you enjoy the healthiest, happiest holiday season ever.

© 2012. TFP, Inc. and www.100yearlifestyle.com. All Rights Reserved.

Avoiding Everyday Health Traps

by Leave a Comment

Are You Heading For An Everyday Health Trap?
Do you sit at a computer and talk on the phone all day? Do you wedge the phone between your ear and shoulder while you write? Is your desk, chair, keyboard or monitor too high or low? Do you text, surf the internet or watch movies with a hand held device? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, then pay attention to this article and learn how to avoid these everyday health traps.

The health traps above cause repetitive strains that can have a similar effect on your body as a car accident, only it takes longer. Where a car accident takes a split second to cause injuries and health problems, repetitive strains may take a week, a month, six months or a year. The effects on your body can even lie dormant for decades without giving you any notice of a problem. Or, they can become sudden and dramatic.

Repetitive strains can cause vertebral subluxations in your spine that interfere with the function of your nerve system and affect your health on many levels. Headaches, neck pain, low back pain and herniated discs are just a few of the problems that can arise. Because your nerves control everything in your body, your organs and systems may be affected also. These symptoms and injuries can hamper your career and cost you a lot of unnecessary expense, time and suffering.

Here are 3 simple things you can do to avoid and prevent these everyday health traps:

Fix Up Your Workspace. Don’t wait for your company to do this for you or for a crisis to force you to do it. Back pillows, wrist rests, and headsets are not very expensive and can make a big difference. If you buy them yourself, you can take them with you if you change jobs or work from home. If you use a laptop, try standing at a counter instead of sitting at your desk. Move around your workspace instead of sitting during a call. Don’t underestimate the value these small changes can make on your body. Do them immediately.

Stretch and Watch Your Posture. By stretching your neck, shoulders and back periodically during the day, you will keep tension from building up in your muscles. Have you experienced soreness after a workout? The same lactic acid buildup that causes soreness after exercise causes muscle fatigue and weakness from these health traps. When texting and working with your handheld device, straighten up and be conscious of your posture, raising the device to eye level. If straightening up is uncomfortable, then you are way overdue for a chiropractic check-up.

Adjust Your Lifestyle. Avoiding everyday health traps can be as simple as adjusting your lifestyle. Having the awareness that you are doing things on a daily basis that may deteriorate your health and quality of life as you age will help you make changes in the moment that are good for you long term.

How long have these unhealthy everyday health traps been a part of your lifestyle? How many months or years of these unhealthy habits have you accumulated? If your answer is more than 30 days, then now is the time for a chiropractic check-up. Whether you have symptoms or not, you can prevent underlying health problems from becoming permanent by taking these appropriate action steps right now.

The Power of Recommitment

by Leave a Comment

Commit to What Matters to You
We all know the power of commitment. Think about the last time you committed yourself to something that was significant to you. Was it your family, your health, your job, or learning a new skill? Commitment is energizing because you block out the world, focus your energy, and create meaningful results.

Too many people make a commitment, get the results they want, and then become complacent or back off of their commitment. When this happens, the results you created when you were committed mystically vanish into thin air leaving you wondering what went wrong, what happened, and why did it all come to a stop?

The answer is simple: it is not enough to commit to something that is good for you, you must recommit every day. This daily recommitment makes those areas of your life that are important to you a part of your lifestyle which leads to tremendous fulfillment and lasting results.

Recommit Daily
Stop wondering what you need to do to get your health back on track. Recommit. Recommit to eating healthy, exercising, getting adjusted on a regular basis and making choices that bring balance to your life. Recommit. Recommit to spending quality time with your family and listening to your spouse or significant other. Recommit. Recommit to the hobbies, passions, and activities that bring you joy. Recommit. Recommit to your job, nurturing your talents and abilities and building your skills.

Commitment is a one-time action. Recommitment, every time you are faced with a choice, is ongoing and is how meaningful lives are built. In addition to recommitting to the things you know you need to do, say no to the things you know are destructive to your health, vitality, and lifestyle. These usually include things like saying no to unhealthy foods, saying no to drugs, or saying no to mindless television and internet surfing.

We see the power of recommitment in our practice every day through the people who have made Lifestyle Care their top priority. Since this type of care is not based on symptoms, people who participate in Lifestyle Care typically feel healthier and younger every day even as they age. They get off the symptomatic roller coaster ride that comes with being committed one day and not staying committed the next.

Enjoy a Healthier, Longer Life
According to the New England Centenarian Study, you are more likely to live an active, healthy, long life if you avoid sickness in the first place. According to the Health Care Hierarchy of The 100 Year Lifestyle, you must make self-care and health care your top priority.

The power of daily recommitment will optimize the expression of your Innate potential for a lifetime. Recommit.

Why would you want to live any other way?

Vacation Motivation

by Leave a Comment

“Ahhhh….Vacation!”
When we are young, vacation for most implies a laid back schedule filled with adventure, fun and “me” time. We dream about vacation for weeks. We can hardly wait. When the day arrives, we say goodbye to work, hello to fun and exhale a contented sigh of “Ahhhh….Vacation!”

Take A Vacation Quiz
As the pressure of life grows, it becomes easy to lose sight of the purpose for vacation and let our lives get out of balance. What motivates you now to take vacation time? When you think of your vacation days which of the following applies to you or someone you know?

A.) Vacation is well-deserved time off to reconnect with family and friends and to physically and emotionally rejuvenate. I take vacations regularly.

B.) Vacation days are like money in the bank because I can buy the unused time from my employer at the end of the year. I try not to use all of my weeks.

C.) I am saving my vacation days because I have used or probably will use up all of my sick days this year. I wish I had more vacation days left.

D.) Are you kidding? I can’t take a vacation right now. There is too much at stake!

If you chose the first one for your usual response to vacation, good for you! Enjoy your vacation. You deserve it!

If you chose any of the other responses, you are looking at vacation time in an unhealthy way. Regularly using your vacation days for anything other than their intended use, means you may be heading towards a crisis. There are times when unexpected reasons arise and you’ll need to take time off; however, waiting to schedule vacations based upon “what if” is not a good way to plan out your calendar.

Quality Time Living
The 100 Year Lifestyle model of time is Prime Time, Prep Time and Play Time. Together these make up Quality Time Living, an important part of Lifestyle Care. Play Time is taking planned time off. It has many benefits and may help prevent forced time off as a result of a health crisis. Just like people who make the Critical Transition to Lifestyle Care with their chiropractic care often experience higher levels of health consistently, the same is true with people who plan for and build vacations into their lifestyle.

Vacations may help you live longer – A study by the State University of New York at Oswego that surveyed 12,000 men between ages 35 and 57, found that men who go on vacation every year reduce their overall risk of death by 20 percent. The Framington Heart Study indicates women who regularly take time off have a 50 percent lower risk for heart attack.

Vacations can raise energy levels – Experts from the University of Pittsburgh and Radboud University both said that people had more energy and felt more satisfied with life on vacation.

Vacations free your mind – The author of “How To Succeed In Business…” Robert Kriegel says that many workers get their best ideas away from work and Los Angeles psychologist, Robert Butterworth told ABC, “The break will allow you to refresh your brain cells.”

Vacations can strengthen relationships – A Wisconsin Medical Journal published findings that women who take two or more vacations a year are less likely to be depressed, tired, or unhappy with their marriage.

If you still believe you can’t take a vacation and there is too much at stake, in one way, you are right. There is too much at stake: The toll on your long term vitality, health and energy. Stress affects everyone differently. It is well documented that high levels of stress can contribute to heart disease, cancer, digestive issues and sleep deprivation. Stress can elevate cortisol levels and reduce the strength of your immune system. These are just a few conditions from a long list that can slowly sneak up on you over time or dramatically surprise you with the speed of their impact in your life. If you use up all your sick days then have to dip into your vacation days, where is the win?

You have the choice. What’s your vacation motivation going to be? Go ahead, adjust your lifestyle and take a vacation. You deserve it!

Recommended Vacation Reading: The 100 Year Lifestyle Second Edition, available now on Amazon.com

References from www.businessinsider.com and from www.prevention.com