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Become a Least Vulnerable Person and Family

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You and your family can take steps right now and become ‘Least Vulnerable People’. Here are 15 things you can stop doing and start doing that will make a difference.

Becoming A ‘Least Vulnerable Person’

There is growing concern about COVID-19, the flu, and other infectious diseases affecting the most vulnerable people. Who are these most vulnerable people and what choices can you make for yourself and your family to become a Least Vulnerable Person. Fortunately, most of these options are under your control!

Who Are The Most Vulnerable People

Seniors

Elderly people are the most at-risk population for infection and serious complications due to COVID-19 or any other virus. The reason is not just because of their age. In fact, there was a recent report of a 102-year-old woman who recovered from the COVID-19 virus. What makes them most vulnerable is that many of them are living lifestyles that include all of the additional factors listed below.

Underlying Health Conditions

People with underlying health conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other conditions, are more vulnerable as well. Their immune systems are already stressed and challenged, which makes them less able to ward off other types of infections.

https://youtu.be/1EXplnxo0Wo

PolyPharmacy

Polypharmacy is a term used for people who take multiple medications. This can alter blood and brain chemistry causing immunosuppression, hindering the body’s innate ability to fight infections.

Marlo Sollitto, author of Polypharmacy in the Elderly, states that “Being on too many medications can lead to potentially dangerous drug interactions and exposure to many side effects at once. Keep in mind that this applies not to just prescriptions, but also over-the-counter medications… The average adult takes four or more prescription drugs each day.”

Obesity

According to the National Institute of Health, obesity, and overweight together are the second leading cause of preventable death in the US, close behind tobacco usage. An estimated 300,000 deaths per year are due to the obesity epidemic.

Poor Posture

Chiropractors have been labeled Essential Service Providers by the US Department of Homeland Security, which is why we are open, taking the proper precautions, and serving our community.

Poor posture can make you more vulnerable by increasing stress, reducing lung capacity, straining muscles, causing fatigue and contributing to many other factors that affect your immune system.  A recent Harvard study showed that people who sat with good posture showed a 25% decrease in Cortisol, the stress hormone.

Sedentary

On average, Americans sit for about 11 hours per day. Sedentary lifestyles are a contributing factor to every lifestyle disease and a risk factor including cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Erin Michos, the associate director of preventive cardiology at the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease explains “A large review of studies published in 2015 in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that even after adjusting for physical activity, sitting for long periods was associated with worse health outcomes including heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer. Sedentary behavior can also increase your risk of dying, either from heart disease or other medical problems.”

Smokers

Smoking is known to compromise the immune system. This increases the risk for many immune and autoimmune disorders, conditions that occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s healthy cells and tissues.

Becoming a ‘Least Vulnerable Person’

Here are some important lifestyle changes you can make to help you and your loved ones become ‘Less Vulnerable People’.

Positive Psychology

Positive psychology can improve your health and immune system function. According to Johns Hopkins expert, Lisa Yanek, people with a family history of heart disease who had a positive outlook were one-third less likely to have a heart attack or cardiovascular event within 5-25 years compared to those with a negative outlook.

Another study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology compared optimistic vs. pessimistic first-year law students regarding their performance in the upcoming school year. The study showed better functioning immune cells in the optimistic students versus the pessimistic students.

Physical Activity

Physical activity and movement is a keystone in maintaining optimal health. A study published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science illustrated the following:

  • Acute exercise is an immune system adjuvant
  • A clear inverse relationship was found between moderate exercise training and illness risk
  • Habitual exercise improves immune regulation, delaying the onset of age-related dysfunction

Reduce Stress and Get Plenty of Sleep

Stress is not an outside thing, it’s an inside thing. You have the opportunity to choose how you react to any situation. It is true that chronic stress reduces the capabilities of your immune system and makes you more vulnerable to disease. According to Bruce Lipton, Ph.D and author of the Biology of Belief, your body cannot be in positive production mode and defense mode at the same time. He explains this concept in detail in this video.

Quality sleep is important. Minimize your stress so that you sleep well. This will certainly make you reduce your vulnerability.

Improve the Function of Your Nervous System

Your nervous system is your body’s main communication highway, relaying nerve signals to every single, cell, tissue and organ in the entire body, allowing the body to perform all vital functions in order to sustain life. It is ESSENTIAL to maintain the integrity of this communication highway in order to live a healthy lifestyle. More importantly, the nervous system supplies communication to the thymus, spleen, adrenal glands, and lymph glands, all of which play pivotal roles in the function of your immune system.

Chiropractic care improves posture which can improve the health of your nervous system In addition, correcting spinal imbalances can influence basic physiological processes affecting oxidative stress and DNA repair. Reducing oxidative stress is an important factor in immune function.

In a study by Ronald Pero Ph.D, subjects under chiropractic care demonstrated higher mean serum thiol levels than patients with active disease and produced some values that were higher than normal wellness values.

Social Interaction

Community equals immunity. The NCBI states that Social relationships-both quantity and quality- affect mental health, health behavior, physical health, and mortality risk…..Social isolation of otherwise healthy, well-functioning individuals eventually results in psychological and physical disintegration, and even death.

Good nutrition

Make good nutrition your new lifestyle by choosing QCs over ECs, quality calories over empty calories, every time you’re faced with a food choice. A proper nutritional regimen consisting of lean proteins, organic green leafy vegetables, whole grains, healthy sources of monounsaturated fats such as avocados, nuts and seeds are important to help provide your body what it needs to be healthy, and strong.

  • Choose Quality Calories over Empty Calories
  • Supplement Your Diet
  • Avoid Processed Foods
  • Avoid Canned Foods
  • Avoid White Rice, Sugar, Flour and Pasta
  • Avoid Regular and Diet Soda
  • Minimize Caffeine and Alcohol

Technology

Limiting technology use can improve your health dramatically. Diagnoses of ADHD, autism, coordination disorder, developmental delays, unintelligible speech, learning difficulties, sensory processing disorder, anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders are associated with technology overuse, and are increasing at an alarming rate.”1

Raise a Least Vulnerable Family

Apply these principles to raising your family and everyone you love will be healthier for it, becoming less vulnerable to infections and experiencing better health now and for a lifetime.

Avoiding Everyday Health Traps

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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.

Children’s Health and Longevity

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According to the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, 50 percent of the babies born since the year 2000 are expected to live over the age of 100. Additional research is concerned that our current generation of children may be the first in recent history to see their life expectancy go down.

How can this be? Doesn’t it seem like a contradiction to see so many children living longer while their overall life expectancy goes down? The answer is sad yet simple in that the other 50percent of children are expected to die younger and sicker than ever, not because of their genetics, but because of unhealthy lifestyle choices.

The Requirements of a Healthy Life
It is not rocket science to understand the connection between lifestyle choices, quality of life and longevity. A healthy life requires a lifestyle that includes healthy food, exercise, strong social circles and a healthy spine and nervous system, The 100 Year Lifestyle, as well as avoiding destructive habits such as smoking and excessive stress. On the other hand, a 50 to 60 year lifestyle includes unhealthy eating with excessive sugar, calories, sitting, lack of exercise and an unhealthy spine and nervous system.

“It Runs in My Family”
Are you raising your children to live a 60 year lifestyle or a 100 Year Lifestyle? You will often hear people say as they get older, after they are diagnosed with diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes, that “these diseases run in my family.” While there is a genetic component to these conditions, it is actually a small component. These diseases are mostly lifestyle diseases. Based on the lifestyle in which your children are being raised, they are either inheriting the lifestyle habits that contribute to a 60 year lifestyle or they are inheriting the lifestyle habits that contribute to a healthy, active, positive, productive 100 years and beyond.

100 Year Lifestyle Affiliate chiropractic offices are filled with individuals and families who are committed to optimizing the expression of their genes by living their ideal 100 Year Lifestyle. By providing a positive environment filled with healthy lifestyle education and chiropractic care, we are helping our community raise healthy drug-free families over the course of their entire lifetime.

It’s Not Too Late
If you have not been healthy and you are ready for a change, it is not too late for you. 100 Year Lifestyle Affiliates provide care to many people who have lived from crisis to crisis and become tired of the suffering and the roller coaster ride. The good news is that, because of the amazing ability of your body to adapt and heal, it is never too late to take care of your spine and nerve system and adjust your lifestyle.

Begin shopping in stores that sell organic food. Fill up your shopping cart with fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats and whole grains. Avoid high fat foods like cookies, cakes, and cereals that are high in sugar as well as white flour and white rice. Turn off the TV and the video games and get outside with your family for walks or bike rides, and come in together for your chiropractic appointments.

In 1903 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.” It is 2013 and the future is now. You do your part by making good lifestyle choices and we will do our part keeping the master control system of your body, your nervous system, functioning at its full potential so you can enjoy good health now, for 100 years and beyond.

Discipline & A Healthy Life

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Live More

“Discipline is getting yourself to do something you don’t necessarily want to do to achieve a result you really want to get.” – Andy Andrews

Most people want to be healthy, want to feel good, want to function well and live a long life. This does not happen by accident. The healthiest and happiest people on the outside have usually done a lot of work on the inside or in private to achieve this goal.

The discipline it takes to be healthy requires healthy choices done consistently for a long time. If you are currently unhealthy or have bad habits many of these choices are not easy at first. Discipline requires that we develop habits, good habits, which we rely on to give us the best opportunity to have a healthy state of being.

If we can discipline ourselves and take responsibility for our lives and we practice this discipline with healthy choices, good habits will become our lifestyle, freeing us to live unencumbered by illness or injury where we enjoy the quality of life we deserve.

In regards to our physical health, we should all become disciplined in the areas of exercise, nutrition, rest and protecting our spine and nervous system through Chiropractic Lifestyle Care.

How are your habits? Are your disciplines healthy? Good habits require discipline that, when put in place, are easy to live with. Bad habits develop when you are not conscious, not responsible and do not discipline yourself. Bad habits may seem easy but they are very hard to live with.

When you are in a health crisis and suffering from a situation that requires your utmost attention, you are likely to be motivated to reclaim your health. You will usually do whatever is required and are more likely to be disciplined to get the result you want. However, as you become stable and relief has been achieved, do you make the critical transition to change your lifestyle? Do you continue on the path to achieve optimum health and peak performance levels?

Exercise, nutrition, rest, good posture and having your spine checked for nerve interference and proper function are the disciplines of many top performers in sports, entertainment and in the board room as well. Top performers are disciplined and make chiropractic care part of the health disciplines they practice regularly so their nervous system can function properly, which is vital to good health.

As it says in The 100 Year Lifestyle, “Learn to love the things that are good for you.” By being disciplined today and every day you are more likely to enjoy a longer, healthier life. See you at your next appointment.

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

Smart Phone Syndromes

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Smartphones have taken over our lives and we can’t imagine life without them. However, based on new research and health information, it is important to be smarter than ever about smartphone use.

Neck & Spinal Problems
Many 100 Year Lifestyle Affiliate chiropractors are finding that long-term smartphone usage is having a detrimental effect on the health of their patients’ spine and nervous system leading to many types of pain syndromes and health problems. The nerves in the neck directly or indirectly supply vital messages to the muscles of the head and neck, as well as all of the organs and glands of the body. If the messages are altered due to compression the symptoms can be mild to non-existent initially but then come on like a freight train when you least expect it.

Research out of the Center for Musculoskeletal Research in Sweden found that 90percent of the participants held their head in a flexed position when texting or playing games on their smartphone. According to research by Dr. Ken Hansraj, the head, which normally weighs around 10 pounds, can exert a force of up to 60 pounds on the neck when it is tilted forward at an angle of 60 degrees. This repetitive, chronic stress, can cause new alignment issues in the spine as well as aggravate pre-existing ones.

Instead of wedging your phone between your head and shoulder which can make the problems even worse, connect it to a headset or other hands-free device and when suitable, use the speaker phone setting. Better yet, arrange a face to face or webcam connection to communicate.

Wrist & Elbow Problems
Good Housekeeping reported that carpal tunnel syndrome is affecting more people from overuse of smart phones. Inflammation in the elbow can cause pain and numbness in the ring finger and pinky finger. It now has its own diagnosis called “Cellphone Elbow”.

Many of our Affiliates are finding that more and more patients need to have their elbows and wrists evaluated and adjusted as an additional service, in addition to their spine, because of this long-term smartphone use. And while the chiropractic adjustments are very effective, being smart about limiting your smartphone use and how you hold it can prevent the problem from recurring.

Smartphones are the Information and Technology System that enables a constant clear stream between you and your personal, business and global connections. Your nervous system is the IT system that keeps your body working properly. Be smart about your body’s IT system. Chiropractic checkups can detect issues before they are able to develop into something more serious.

Homework Headaches

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Successful homework sessions don’t just happen. A little effort, planning and support make the difference between the headache, frustration and battleground around the completion of homework and the peaceful smooth sailing episode of your dreams.

The Real Headache – Afternoon headaches can be symptomatic of numerous causes. Getting to the cause is vital. A chiropractic examination or check-up will determine if there is misalignment of the neck, shoulders or other part of the spine – a common cause of headaches. Many times, there is immediate relief. Is the book bag or backpack too heavy? Did an injury occur during practice or rehearsal? Is dehydration possible? Is an essential vitamin or mineral missing from meals? Address the cause as soon as possible. Some chiropractic practices offer nutritional recommendations in addition to spine and nervous system services.

Study Skillset
Set Up – Arrange the study area to allow focus, good posture, and time management. Eliminate distractions and the battle stations structure. Successful homework sessions begin and end positively so determine what works for the best long term benefit. Good set-up includes a reset of thoughts. If today was a challenge, remember that tomorrow is a new day. Recalling successes, big or small, that occurred through the day help redirect discouragement and fatigue.

Stretch – Sitting for extended time can cause discomfort, a fidgety feeling, and a sense of boredom. Set a timer or alarm as a reminder to stand up and stretch, walk around the room, climb up and down the flight of stairs and breathe deeply. While standing, rest your eyes by looking out the window or simply closing them briefly. If it is a challenge to sit or concentrate, ask when the last chiropractic exam or checkup was scheduled. There can be pressure on a nerve or misalignment without pain that causes dis-ease in organs, systems or functions.

Snack – Keep nutritious snacks on hand to regulate blood sugar and help with concentration. Avoid sugary foods. Water is essential. Herbal tea may help de-stress from the day. If eating for the sake of “something to do while studying” is a habit, make changes now and snack sensibly. Avoid using food as a reward. View it as fuel to keep the engine running.

Reset – During the break, check your calendar and arrange the next chiropractic appointment to reset focus on the mind-body connection. This action can be a huge reward at the following homework session. After a break, do a “reset” with good intention and purposeful thought. Mark off what has been completed. Set a new goal for the next segment of the homework or study session. Reset the alarm or timer.

Success Awaits – The familiar saying, “They didn’t plan to fail. They failed to plan.” speaks as a reminder that in the same way homework won’t do itself, the body needs help to perform at its best. Small steps and small changes lead to achieving goals of all types. Contact us today to assist you in reaching yours.