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Chronic Health Problems

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Chronic health problems can affect your quality of life for decades. Whether they are musculoskeletal in nature affecting your back, neck, and limbs or they affect your organs (heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys or sex organs), your daily activities may become limited and your longevity can be compromised. The longer you wait the more suffering these chronic conditions deliver. Research shows that within two weeks of an injury, scar tissue can appear. Why would you wait another day when you can start your healing process right now?

You might choose to hold off on addressing chronic health problems because you have grown used to the problem and consider it normal. It is not normal. You might choose to wait because you feel like you don’t have the money and cannot afford to address the problem. This can be an extremely costly decision. The more chronic health problems become, the more expense is involved to care for them and the more likely you will experience some permanent damage.

No matter how long it has been, there is no better time than the present to start your healing journey. The human body has an amazing capacity to heal itself when you remove the interference to the nervous system and are consistent with chiropractic care and healthy lifestyle choices. The initial care, Crisis Care, can give you the relief and stability you are looking for, take the edge off, and give you hope for a healthy future.

Once your spine and nervous system are stable, and you stay consistent with your care through the Critical Transition, you will notice that your body begins to regenerate. If you are like most people you will feel younger and more energetic during this process. The energy that your body was using to protect you from your chronic condition will be freed up and can be redirected towards a more purposeful and healthy lifestyle. You will want to exercise. You will want to eat healthier. You will want to engage in activities you enjoy. Your newfound health and outlook on life will motivate you to make Lifestyle Care your top priority.

How long have you or a loved one been suffering from a chronic condition? Has it been months, years or decades? Now think about the oldest grandparent in your family history. If you live at least as long as they did and you do not correct your chronic condition now, how many more years of suffering do you have ahead of you? This is not your destiny. Researcher Ian D. Coulter, PhD’s study found that geriatric patients receiving chiropractic care are more active, live independent lifestyles and are less likely to end up in a nursing home.

Nurture the healing capacity of your body and don’t let your condition become more chronic than it is right now. Start your journey of healing and optimize your health by making an appointment today.

Stress Less Fitness Tips

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These five Stress Less Fitness tips will lessen your Stress and allow you to Live More.

There is an acronym for Fitness in The 100 Year Lifestyle that will ensure you Stress Less, Live More, stay healthy and on top of your game. The acronym takes the word Fitness and uses the N2ESS as follows:

N: Neurology – Stress is a nervous system reaction that can affect your entire body. Your brain and nervous system control and coordinate everything: your heart, digestion, breathing, hormones and muscles. A healthy nervous system is essential in adapting to stress.

N: Nutrition – Good nutrition is important for your body to be healthy. Quality calories come from live foods such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and whole grains. They are nutritionally satisfying because they contain vitamins, minerals, fiber and amino acids that are the building blocks of a healthy body. Choose organic or chemical free options. Both empty and excess calories will lead to sickness, low energy, obesity and chronic health problems. Empty calories come from foods such as white sugar, white flour and white rice.

E: Endurance – Exercise can help your body cope with stress in a healthy way. If you have good endurance, you will enjoy a greater sense of stamina now and while you age. Your energy will be higher and you will feel like staying active. You will be able to endure stressful times. You can increase your stamina through cardiovascular and aerobic exercise that strengthens your heart, burns calories and increases your energy.

S: Strength – Your level of strength will determine your ability to remain active and independent as you age. Through regular strength training with a personal trainer or on your own, you can build muscle and stand strong, no matter how many birthdays you celebrate. The saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it” is definitely true when it comes to strength. Free weights, functional training machines, Pilates and Yoga are all examples of exercises that build your strength.

S: Structure – If your body breaks down at the onset of a new fitness routine, there may be an underlying cause in your structure and spine, such as subluxations. You may experience pain and injuries that become nagging to severe. It can also keep you from getting results.

Chiropractic examinations can reveal underlying problems in your spine that can keep you from getting in shape and also lead to all types of health problems. The opposite of Stress Free living! Don’t wait until you “feel it” to get checked. You may be waiting too long. Why spoil your momentum if you are working out to get in shape, Stress Less and Live More?

Schedule an appointment for your chiropractic check-up today!

Natural Fertility Support

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Starting or expanding your family may be an important component of your 100 Year Lifestyle. Fertility challenges can be discouraging and frustrating. To increase your chances for an easy conception and pregnancy, keep your spine and nervous system healthy with Lifestyle Care and try some of these healthy tips!

AVOID – MicroNutrient deficiencies which can result from stress, smoking, toxins, poor diet, and prescription medications including certain contraceptives.

TRY – A good whole food multivitamin and probiotic, during and after birth control use, to prevent nutritional deficiency and restore already depleted levels.

AVOID – Having an abnormal body mass index. Being underweight or overweight can affect fertility in both males and females. In a person who is underweight, the body naturally panics and shuts down many important bodily processes and literally turns down reproduction.

With obesity, adiponectin (a protein released by fat cells that assists in burning up fat) decreases. Adiponectin would normally help to make the body more sensitive to insulin (which enhances ovulation). Without sufficient adiponectin, the body becomes resistant to insulin and fertility is compromised.

TRY – Normalizing weight before trying to conceive. Good nutrition helps to create a “clean slate” within the body that helps it to respond and utilize other natural remedies better. Try “cleaning and greening” your life before trying to conceive. Be sure that you are eating adequate amounts of foods such as dark leafy greens, sesame seeds, seaweed, almonds, quinoa, chia, and bone broth to maintain proper hormone production.

AVOID – Oxidative stress. This is heavily linked with many chronic diseases and fertility challenges. When we are exposed to environmental stress such as pollution, radiation, toxins in the home and work place, caffeine, smoking and drugs, the body accumulates oxidative stress. This may result in significant damage to cell structures, sperm cell development and ovary function, decreasing chances of fertilization and increasing the chance of miscarriage. Hundreds of synthetic chemicals found in our environment are now identified as hormone disruptors for ovulation, fertilization and implantation of the embryo.

TRY – Natural products for household cleaning, body care, pest and weed control and building materials.

AVOID – Spinal subluxations which occur when there are misalignments of the spine or pelvis. This results in altered joint motion and nerve irritation which can lessen organ function and general health. Both the severity of the subluxation and the length of time it has been left uncorrected dictate the impact on fertility.

TRY – Living “free and clear” so proper nerve messages that initiate and sustain reproduction can do their job. Don’t wait for a crisis to get started under chiropractic care. Make the critical transition to Lifestyle Care to optimize the function of your nervous system, which can contribute to the likelihood of conceiving.

Whether you are planning to conceive or not quite yet, these tips will help you live healthier and prepare you for parenting.

Contributed by Dr. Kendra Becker

Timing is Everything

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Time. We measure it, live by it, spend it, give it and sometimes waste it. Most of us wish we had more hours in day, more weeks to complete a project, more minutes before missing the flight, more time to say what we really wanted to say. Yes, timing is everything.

What if we had more time than we thought and we just haven’t discovered that yet? Consider this as the advanced notice that like it or not, want to or not, most of us have the potential to live longer than we ever imagined. What the journey looks like getting there, is up to us. How we use the time will be our legacy.

Measure your time. How much time do you have left? No one knows for sure. Here’s a simple calculation to determine one part of the best guess answer: Take the age of your oldest relative ever and subtract your current age from that number. The answer is your Minimum Potential Years Remaining. Your M-PYR. Genes are only a minor factor for life expectancy. The way you choose to live hour by hour, day to day, from one year to the next is your lifestyle. Lifestyle choices play a major role in life expectancy for you and for your family. If the choices are sedentary, monotonous, stressful, and unhealthy your time may be limited. If the choices are active, exhilarating, positive and vitalistic your time could be extended beyond your imagination.

Measure your time by your lifestyle choices and ask yourself if you like what you see. How you take care of yourself physically, mentally and emotionally now affects the future measurement of your time, your life. Take care of your body and take special care of your spine. It protects your nervous system which is your personal IT system designed to integrate your mind and body for perfect communication between the two.

Live, spend and give your time. Lifestyle choices either free us up to spend time with and give time to others or they consume us in a crisis to crisis survival mindset. Those who live life fully have made daily choices to use their time wisely, to incorporate self-care before crisis sets in, and give out of their abundance. People who are at peace in their life are able to give back to their community. The healthy balance that comes from physical well-being, reduced stress, and habits that strengthen the individual’s passions enable them to make better choices over and over. Develop social circles filled with the type of person who is positive, healthy and focused and be built up while you build up others. Exercise together, serve in your community together, eat healthy foods together, attend inspiring lectures together. If you want to do something different with your life and your time, you can. Change is easy, thinking about change is hard.

Schedule your time. Your schedule will either dominate all of your time or you will be master over your schedule. Set aside time to take care of yourself. If you put it off, and your health suffers, the rest of the schedule can fall apart without warning. You can’t afford to get sick. Overbooking your day, week and month only to be forced to scramble and scurry is detrimental.

Plan ahead, make appointments to get your spine and nervous system checked regularly, and choose to live like time is on your side. But only if you manage it wisely.

It’s impossible to predict exactly how long you will live so why not live your best life every day of your life like you will live to 80, 90, 100 years or beyond? Live your ideal 100 Year Lifestyle starting today.

Why Medical Conditions Respond

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Many adults come in for their first chiropractic visit because of backaches, headaches, disc problems, digestive conditions or hormone imbalances. The list of medically diagnosed conditions or health problems that lead people to a chiropractor is lengthy.

Parents often bring their children in for chiropractic care because they have watched them suffer from conditions such as ear infections, asthma, colds, colic, ADHD or sinus problems. Some conditions are severe and include concussions, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and autism.

Do these people get great results?

Do we treat these conditions?

The answers are yes, a high number of patients get excellent results and no, we do not treat the conditions themselves. Our primary focus is to locate and correct nervous system imbalances and spinal subluxations that can contribute to or cause the problems in the first place, regardless of the diagnosis.

Getting your nervous system functioning properly is essential to help the body heal itself regardless of the diagnosed condition or other treatments that you may have undergone.

In fact, if you have a health condition of any kind, the nerve component should be one of the first evaluations you receive.

Why? Because if there is a nerve system component to your condition, nothing you do for your problem will be as effective until your nerve system gets healthy.

Your nervous system controls and coordinates the function of every cell, tissue and organ of your body and helps you adapt to your environment. Your nervous system is vital in helping your body cope with stress, digest food and eliminate waste products. It will also help you perform at your highest level when engaging in athletic activities.

Unfortunately, exploring the nerve component of most conditions is not addressed by the majority of health care providers and symptomatic relief becomes the primary focus. While we certainly want you to feel better quickly, the underlying cause must also be addressed. There are a number of ways that we can evaluate the function of your nervous system.

Whether you are suffering from an acute or chronic injury or illness, or you want to improve your health and quality of life, now is the time to schedule a chiropractic check-up.

An Epidemic of Neurological Disorders

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Nervous system disorders ranging from autism, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease represent just a fraction of the growing number of neurological conditions that are affecting people of all ages in our society today. So much so that Robert Zieve, MD recently wrote in an article called, “Neurological Disorders: The Growing Epidemic of the 21st-Century,” that chronic neurological diseases are fast becoming the debilitating epidemic of our time.

Different than the headline grabbing diseases such as cancer and heart disease that frighten us because they are potentially deadly, chronic neurological diseases can destroy our quality of life including our ability to think, be active and relate to other people. They also have the potential to cause chronic pain and suffering that can last for decades and making us a burden to our loved ones which is something that nobody would want.

Dr. Zieve also states, “Having a healthy brain and nervous system is vital to being able to think clearly without which our active will lacks intelligent guidance and is weakened”.

Your nervous system controls and coordinates the function of every cell, tissue, and organ in your body. Keeping your nervous system healthy as a priority and a part of your lifestyle is essential if you want to be healthy today as well as over the course of your entire lifetime. As the master controller, problems in the nervous system can cause or mimic any condition or disease you can name. This includes problems with the heart, lungs, hormones, stomach, intestines, reproductive glands as well as your arms, legs, fingers and toes.

For this reason, Chiropractic examinations are more important than ever because they evaluate the health of the spinal column and the nervous system. Spinal subluxations, one such condition that is extremely common in adults and children, can alter the function of your nervous system and affect your health on every level even though it may lie asymptomatic for decades. Waiting until symptoms show up means that your condition has already become chronic by the time you feel it.

Don’t let this happen to you. These spinal conditions that affect your nerves can be caused by the birth process, learning to walk as a child, contact sports, stress, sitting too much and environmental toxicity, just to name a few.

A healthy nervous system is essential for you to be able to adapt to your environment in a healthy way. Dr. Zieve states, “We live in a toxic world. The great majority of chemicals we now take in daily were not on the planet 30 years ago. These toxins become neurotoxins, damaging the nervous system.”

You can control your exposure to many of these toxins by making healthier nutritional choices and avoiding environmental toxicity whenever possible.

Keeping your nervous system healthy with regular chiropractic check-ups can make a difference in your body’s ability to resist and adapt to these toxins.

It’s no wonder millions are making chiropractic Lifestyle Care a priority in their family budget. Don’t wait for a crisis to force you to act. Schedule your appointment today.