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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

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.

Run Faster. Jump Higher. Recover Better

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As the current sports season kicks into full stride, the desire to do everything we can to maximize recovery time and increase performance is greater than ever.

As the intensity of our training activities puts added stress on our bodies, ensuring proper healing and recovery becomes increasingly important. How would you or your loved ones benefit from gaining a competitive edge over the competition this season? Would you like to set a personal record?

If you are already training hard, eating well and keeping well-hydrated, that is great. And you may be overlooking the most important aspect of health that is vital to achieving your goals this season. Having an optimally functioning nervous system is crucial to gaining the competitive edge whether you are out to win the next match or playing a game of one on one with your child.

The most cutting edge neuroscience and research on the brain is finding that stimulation and nutrition to your brain requires a healthy spine. In Brain Research, Yates describes the importance of proper nervous system function on balance, posture and breathing. Yates writes, “In addition to maintaining stable eye and body position during movement, the vestibular system influences cardiovascular and respiratory control; vestibulosympathetic and vestibulorespiratory reflexes may be important in correcting posturally related disturbances”(1995). In other words, proper posture and nervous system function are directly related to balance, eye movements and control over your breathing pathways. What athlete wouldn’t want better hand-eye coordination, balance, and ability to take in oxygen during the high demands of sport? Having a properly functioning nervous system is sure to give you the extra edge on your competition.

How would being able to run faster and jump higher give you a competitive advantage? In 2000, Colloca and Keller published a study in JMPT designed to see how a single chiropractic adjustment could impact the strength of muscles. They found that after a single adjustment, athletes had stronger muscle contractions measured by EMG technology. By maintaining a healthy nervous system through chiropractic care as part of a healthy lifestyle your muscles will be bigger, faster and stronger (JMPT).

One key factor in becoming bigger, stronger and faster is the body’s ability to recover and heal. New research supports that chiropractic adjustments help reduce harmful inflammatory substances without reducing Substance P, a chemical responsible for cell growth and repair. This study is the first of its kind to support that chiropractic adjustments can help reduce harmful inflammation after grueling workouts while simultaneously boosting the immune system to help the body heal quickly (Teodorczyk-Injeyan, Injeyan, Ruegg 2006).

This sports season, make sure you’re performing at the top of your game. Regular chiropractic care as a part of your already healthy lifestyle is sure to help you run faster, jump higher and heal better. Have your nervous system checked today to increase your function and performance.

Keller, T. S., & Colloca, C. J. (2000). Mechanical force spinal manipulation increases trunk muscle strength assessed by electromyography: A comparative clinical trial. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 23(9), 585-595. doi:10.1067/mmt.2000.110947

Teodorczyk-Injeyan, J. A., Injeyan, H. S., & Ruegg, R. (2006). Spinal Manipulative Therapy Reduces Inflammatory Cytokines but Not Substance P Production in Normal Subjects. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 29(1), 14-21. doi:10.1016/j.jmpt.2005.10.002

Yates, B.J., Siniaia, M. & Miller, A.D. (1995). American Journal of Physiology. Descending pathways necessary for vestibular influences on sympathetic and inspiratory flow. 268, 1381-1385.

Contributed by Daniel Kimbley, DC, BS and Dr. Eric Plasker

Your 100 IS Coming

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The Pew Research Center recently reported that the world centenarian population is projected to grow eightfold by 2050. This is extraordinary growth. With an estimated 451,000 people around the globe over the age of 100 in 2015, that number is expected to be 3.7 million over the next 34 years. This is a staggering statistic considering that the population over the age of 80 and 90 is also expected to skyrocket.

The evidence is everywhere. Assisted Living Centers are popping up in record numbers in nearly every community. The children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of aging seniors are moving their loved ones closer to home to oversee their care and ease their suffering.

This is your advance notice! The likelihood that you and your loved ones will live this long or longer is increasing every day. What will your quality of life would be like when you get there and will you enjoy great quality of life every day along the way?

Making healthy lifestyle choices combined with taking action to ensure the health of your spine and nervous system with chiropractic checkups will help you adapt to our ever-changing environment, daily stress and empower you to function at your highest level for a lifetime.

Don’t wait for a crisis to force you to take action on your health. Unfortunately, this crisis mentality is responsible for many of the challenges of our aging population.

Be proactive! Adjust your lifestyle now and ensure your best life today while also setting yourself up for a healthy future.

Here is some poetic motivation for you to make the commitment to improve your health every day:

If you want to perform at the top of your game
Eat healthy foods and take care of your frame

The choices you make will direct your Innate
To a life of decay or an optimum state

Take care your body your mind and your spine
Make healthy choices that keep you in line

You’ve got to have nerve to adjust to it all
Your 100 is coming you make the call!

The Hero and The Villain

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If your personal journey of health and well-being was a story that lasted 100 healthy years or more, who would be the hero of this story? Who would be the villain if you did not live these quality years and instead lived a deteriorating life to 60 or 70? Understanding the hero and the villain will help you make choices that ensure that you and your loved ones live an active, healthy life and express your full potential throughout your lifetime.

The hero of this story is your Innate Intelligence. Your body has within it an Innate Intelligence that, from the moment of conception, strives to keep you functioning at your best. From the moment you were conceived, one cell grew into over eighty quadrillion cells without any direction from a doctor, drug, or research.

Your brain and spinal cord were placed in protective casings of bone for safety as they are the most important systems in your body. Your heart was placed in the center of your chest, an efficient location to distribute oxygen, nutrients and waste products to their proper locations with great efficiency.

Your Innate Intelligence knew how tall you were going to be before you were born and was equipped with the resources to digest your food and adapt you to your environment. As long as your Innate Intelligence is free to express itself, then you would have a great chance of expressing your full potential for eighty, ninety, a hundred years and beyond.

The villain in this story is anything that interferes with the expression of your Innate Intelligence.

Nerve interference, lifestyle interference and environmental interference can reduce your body’s innate ability to communicate or regulate itself. It is very common during the birth process for a baby’s spine to be injured, especially in the upper neck, which can reduce nerve transmission over the spinal cord and nervous system. This type of nerve interference can result in immediate symptoms like colic, constipation, diarrhea, allergies or other problems or it may lie dormant for decades until your body can no longer adapt.

Nerve interference can occur during childhood through sports injuries, childhood falls and poor nutrition, again, causing numerous symptoms or lying dormant and asymptomatic for decades. Car accidents, falling down the stairs, weight gains or losses and emotional stress are just some of the additional causes of nerve interference.

Lifestyle interference can also alter the expression of your body’s Innate Intelligence effecting your health while also causing nerve interference, sickness and disease. Lifestyle interference includes poor diet, being overweight, eating excessive amounts of sugar and caffeine, taking drugs, poor posture and stress. Interference is the villain of this story, your story, because it robs your body and mind of your true innate capabilities.

Environmental Interference is caused by toxicity from air, food, water, or chemicals, as well as accidents or natural disasters. With chem trails blanketing the sky, GMO foods on our tables dangerous chemicals in our crops and water, environmental interference has never been more of a problem to our nervous system. 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. As Dr. Zieve points out, “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.”

Our chiropractic office will do everything we can to nurture your hero and eliminate this villain from your life, and keep it out of your life for the rest of your life, so that you and your loved ones can enjoy the quality of life you deserve. By nurturing your Innate Intelligence and expressing your full potential and you will enjoy health for a lifetime.