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longevity

Lifetime Care Study Reveals

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In a new pilot study performed by the Life University Research Department, Dr. Eric Plasker and The Family Practice, the data suggests very promising results relating to quality of life and length of time under chiropractic care.

Eleven clinics and more than 100 patients ranging from one to three years under care to more than 20 years under chiropractic care, show two trends worth noting.

The first trend is that people under chiropractic care during their first three years showed a definite improvement in their overall health even beyond their initial complaint. In patients under care from three years to more than 20 years, the second trend takes the form of a leveling off effect – indicating that there was no decline in health with age.

This is an important finding as many advocates for lifetime chiropractic care have described how chiropractic care as a part of their lifestyle contributes to their quality of life and activity level as they age.

Staying healthy is more important than ever as we are learning that we have a greater longevity potential than our parents and grandparents.

In fact, 100-year-old people are the world’s fastest growing group and we are the first generation in history that is getting the advanced notice that whether we like it or not, we will probably live longer than we ever thought.

According to the New England Centenarian Study, “Health span equals lifespan…Instead of the aging myth that the older you get, the sicker you get, it is much more the case of, the older you get, the healthier you’ve been”. Staying healthy is more important than ever to ensure your quality of life as you age so that your health span matches your lifespan.

Too many people are crisis oriented when it comes to their health. As the study suggests, if you want to be healthy, make the critical transition from Crisis Care to Lifestyle Care and make the health of your spine and nervous system a priority.

The pilot study results are preliminary and require confirmation in a larger study that we are planning now. We will keep you informed as to when the results of Phase Two are completed and ready for circulation. Between now and then, make this transition with your family and make Lifestyle Care your top priority.

1. Hitt R, Young-Xu Y, Perls T. Centenarians: The older you get, the healthier you’ve been. Lancet, 1999;354 (9179):652.

100 Percent for 100 Years

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Wouldn’t it be great for you and your loved ones to function at your highest level throughout your lifetime, 100 percent for 100 Years? What an exciting goal? This includes being healthy and performing at work, in your hobbies, your passion and activities that are most important and fun for you. For your children it includes growing healthy and strong, performing at their best in school and during extracurricular activities. For everyone, this is a great goal and the best way to get the most out of life.

All of us know people who compromise themselves. This may include you, allowing yourself to function much lower than 100 percent because of health habits or challenges, injury or illness, or due to a chronic condition causing deterioration over time. This compromise can create a limited belief you’re your health cannot improve or a lifelong dream cannot be achieved.

One thing we’ve learned through longevity statistics is that for many people, it is not too late to turn things around. We are the first generation in history to have advance notice that we are probably going to live longer than we ever thought. We are also learning more about the incredible healing and life potential of the human body and mind.

Healthy lifestyle choices combined with a healthy spine and nervous system can ensure that you function and live as close to 100 percent as possible throughout your lifetime. This is the best investment you can make for your health!

Why a healthy nervous system? Your nervous system controls and coordinates all the functions in your body, from movement to digestion and immunity.

Why a healthy spine? Your spine is the structure that holds you upright straight and strong, and it is necessary for you to enjoy the activity you probably want as you age.

Why healthy lifestyle choices? So you fuel your body and keep it fit and functioning well throughout your lifetime. Nobody wants to suffer during their last decades of life and become a burden to their family. Your choices today can make all the difference now as well as in your later years.

When you visit our office, you may notice 3, 4 and 5 generations of families coming into our office for chiropractic care. You may notice individuals in all stages of health and ability to function. Everyone is on their own personal journey towards 100 percent regardless of why they began receiving chiropractic care.

One thing is for sure. The sooner you start on your journey towards 100 percent and optimum function, the greater the likelihood that you will enjoy quality years for up to a century.

This is why millions of people enjoy chiropractic care as part of a lifestyle. Some people experience immediate results from an acute or chronic problem. For others the process of healing takes time. For others, 100 percent means setting a personal record in your chosen sport or field of endeavor. For newborns, it can begin on day one with your family’s commitment to living your ideal 100 Year Lifestyle.

Don’t wait for a crisis to force you to act. There’s no better time than the present to start your journey to 100 percent.

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!

Movement and a Healthy Brain

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Your brain is remarkable. It’s comprised of hundreds of billions of individual cells that are constantly receiving and transmitting information about your body and its place within your environment. The sum of all this activity is what you perceive as your personal human experience. Put more simply, the health and activity level of your brain determines who you are as a person.

In order for your brain to be healthy and perform its job at a level that allows you to enjoy life, each one of your individual brain cells needs to be healthy and maintain proper communication with it’s neighbors. Therefore, if you are to keep your brain healthy as you age, it is important to understand the three requisite factors of a healthy brain cell: oxygen, nutrition, and activation. Without the right amount or quality of any of these factors it becomes impossible for your brain to efficiently perform the countless functions that make you you.

Unfortunately, everyday life is not conducive to a healthy brain. Our jobs and schools require us to sit for hours limiting the amount of activation our brains receive. Technology forces us into positions that work against our natural breathing mechanics, and it has become exceedingly difficult to find high quality foods. To top it all off, there has been a marked increase in the amount of mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) due to falls and accidents to the point that public agencies have declared mTBI “A Silent Epidemic.”

We all experience these forces to varying degrees, but the only time we can truly appreciate it is when our brain’s functioning declines to levels that make every day life more difficult. Headaches, pain, confusion, fogginess, vertigo, sensitivity to light and sound, anxiousness, dizziness, and light headedness are just some of the many symptoms that people can begin to experience as their brain cells decline in health.

Fortunately, modern science has discovered that there are strategies and activities that you can perform on your own to mitigate the deleterious influence of modern life on your brain. The one constant in most of these brain-healthy activities is movement. When you move your body, receptors in your spine, joints, and muscles send powerful signals to your brain that help to drive growth, forge new connections, and enhance the ones already in place. That’s why most people feel more alert and energized after exercise.

Study after study has shown that regular purposeful movement whether it be weight-lifting, running, yoga, dancing, or Tai Chi can help keep your brain functioning at high levels and even lower your risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia, and more.

There are many times that the insult to our brains and nervous systems require professional intervention. Chiropractic examinations and protocols can assess the function of your nervous system and the movement in your spine to correct the cause of imbalances and restore proper function.

Don’t wait for a crisis to force you to take action. Be proactive, schedule an examination, and keep your nervous system healthy throughout your lifetime.

Article Contributed by Dr. Jacob Plasker, 100 Year Lifestyle Affiliate Chiropractor in Bend, Oregon.

Stop Blaming Old

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When you awoke this morning did you feel groggy or did you feel rested? Do your clothes fit the way they did when you bought them? Do you dread a flight of stairs? Maybe it is your knees, ankles, low back or memory reminding you that you are not a teenager anymore. Before you decide your age is to blame consider the following:

Feeling out of breathe is not because of old age.

Struggling to find clothes in your closet that fit is not because of old age.

Forgetting appointments or where you left your keys is not because of old age.

Waking up with stiff and sore joints is not because of old age.

A chronically sore back is not because of old age.

Taking medications daily is not because of old age.

In a recent issue of Psychology Today, Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D wrote “Blame is an excellent defense mechanism. Whether you call it projection, denial, or displacement, blame helps you preserve your sense of self-esteem by avoiding awareness of your own flaws or failings.” It is not a flaw to be tired, weak, in pain or forgetful. It is a failing to deny one’s personal duty to acquire physical and mental strength and stability, and avoid damaging activities, foods and drugs.

Cicero wrote, “The foolish lay their own vices and their own faults to the charge of old age.” Since no one wants to be thought of as a fool, it’s time to stop blaming “old age” and begin to take responsibility for the way you feel, think and live, and make your health a priority.

Your body is capable of adapting in a healthy way to positive changes in your lifestyle. These changes include the way you take care of your spine and nervous system every day.

Unfortunately, injuries and interference to the function of your nervous system can cause many of the conditions that make people feel old. They can be caused by falls, accidents and injuries as well as chronic stress or exposure to toxins to name a few.

Most of these nervous system imbalances can be improved, corrected and reversed so it is not necessary to live with them for the rest of your life and get old before your time.

If you are feeling old, Chiropractic care can help restore the function of your nervous system to get you feeling young again and Lifestyle Care can keep you feeling that way before problems arise.

Combined with movement, nutrition and good habits you and your loved ones will be able to enjoy a greater possibility of both quality and quantity years as you age.

Stop blaming “old” and start building your awareness of ways to defend yourself from potential or ongoing chronic issues through healthy choices that will afford your mind and body what it needs for today and in your future.

Remember:

Regardless of your age…

“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 of 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.”

What’s Age Got to Do With It?

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People who are 100 years old are jumping out of airplanes, running races and traveling the world while other people in their 70s, 80s and 90s are suffering and in assisted living centers and nursing homes. Quality of life, activity level and energy have nothing to do with age.

Imagine what your life at 100 would look like based off of your current lifestyle choices. Do you get excited or scared? As centenarians, 100 year old people, are proving, how you age is largely dependent on the lifestyle choices you are making right now. Getting older doesn’t have to mean aging along the way.

While many older people still languish in assisted-living facilities, hampered by poor health and decreased mental agility, centenarians across the globe are showing that it doesn’t have to be that way. Consider Verdun Hayes, who set a world record in May of this year by becoming the world’s oldest tandem skydiver at age 101. Then there’s Don Pellmann, a 101-year-old track star from Santa Clara. He began running in track events at age 70, and has since participated in 890 of them, winning most and even breaking world records. Some other great examples of high-quality 100 year living are Fauja Singh, the 106-year-old marathon runner, and Mieko Nagaoka, who is still breaking world records in swimming at 102 years old. Compare these go-getters to people you might know in their 80s or 90s who are living lives of poor health and low energy, and you’ll begin to realize that quality of life has very little to do with age.

People across the globe are living longer. Information from a CDC study indicates that in the United States, the number of people 100 years old or older has increased greatly in the past few years, jumping by 44%! If you knew you could live to more than 100 years old, wouldn’t you want to be as healthy as possible?

How can you live a healthy, fulfilled life all the way to 100 years old and beyond? The 100 Year Lifestyle promotes practices that can be easily remembered if you use an acronym related to the word fitness. Take the NESS from fitness, square the “N”, and use this acronym to enjoy your healthiest today while propelling yourself into a healthy, happy 100 years and beyond.

– N is for Neurology. All of your conscious and unconscious functions are controlled by your nervous system, including your heart, muscles, digestion and circulation. Taking care of your body means paying attention to your neurology, which is an integral part of chiropractic care and promotes full body health.

– N is also for Nutrition. You’ve heard it said that you are what you eat, and it’s absolutely true. A diet full of fruits, vegetables and lean proteins, low in sugar and processed carbohydrates, is essential to a strong and healthy body.

– E stands for Endurance. You can build your endurance through cardiovascular activities like walking, running, swimming and bike riding, which increase your heart rate and strengthen your cardiovascular system. Start slow and steady, be consistent and you’ll be able to increase the frequency, intensity and duration of your endurance training over time. Who knows? You could be a 106-year-old marathon runner, too!

– S is Strength. Don’t wait until you lose your strength to prioritize it! Instead, start strength training today, so that as you age your muscles will remain strong and healthy.

– S also means Structure. Staying active and healthy means keeping your spine healthy, strong, and straight. That’s why so many world class athletes turn to chiropractic care to help them protect this important part of the body.

Are you ready to get started? It’s time to live your best life for at least a century, and we can help! It’s all about making the critical transition from crisis care to lifestyle care, taking care of your body so it will be in good shape throughout your (long) life. Visit our office and give us the opportunity to make a difference for you.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/25/health/centenarians-increase/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db233.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/15/europe/101-year-old-skydiver/index.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/100-year-old-track-star-don-pellman-keeps-breaking-records-california-santa-clara/
https://www.thenational.ae/sport/other-sport/101-year-old-japanese-swimmer-aims-for-more-world-records-1.158307