Consumer Reports Gives Chiropractic a Thumbs Up

Consumer Reports survey shows hands-on therapies as top-rated treatments:

April 10, 2009 — A study in the May issue of Consumer Reports shows that hands-on therapies were tops among treatments for relief of back pain. The study, which surveyed more than 14,000 consumers, was conducted by the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center.
According to the report, the survey respondents tried a variety of different treatments and rated the treatments on how helpful and satisfied they were with the results. The report concluded that hands-on therapies were the top-rated.
The report states that, “eighty-eight percent of those who tried chiropractic manipulation said it helped a lot, and 59 percent were ‘completely’ or ‘very’ satisfied with their chiropractor.”
Source: Consumer Reports, www.consumerreports.org

The Power of Sleep

We often hear the popular phrase, "Sleep is over rated" & "I don't have time to sleep." Living in a society where time is money, we often trade sleep for getting more done in our day. I am at fault of this all too often, until I recently had a wake up call (no pun intended).

I like to think of myself as a healthy person. I know the importance of living a wellness lifestyle & most days do a good job of getting exercise, eating healthy, having a positive mental attitude, etc. I get adjusted 2 times a week (one of the many perks of being married to Josh!). But, alas, I began experiencing symptoms. At first it was a scratchy throat, slight fever, achyness. Day 2 it was coughing, runny nose, more fever, more achyness, general tiredness. Day 3, all previous symptoms worsened & I was cranky. You get the idea. This continued for a week. I made dietary changes, used garlic as a natural immune booster, drank copious amounts of ginger tea for an anti-inflammatory effect. I was getting adjusted every day. I increased my fish oil to 3 grams, again for an anti-inflammatory effect. Despite all of my efforts, I was seemingly not improving, & getting seriously frustrated.

It was Josh who realized I was neglecting the importance of getting adequate, restful sleep. Realizing I was extremely overtired & irritable, Josh took Hudson out for the day. I slept a solid 6 hours & woke up feeling better already. We decided to make some changes to our sleeping arrangements, so that I could get the rest my body needed to heal. This would leave Josh largely responsible for Hudson throughout the night. I was apologetic, but excited to get some more sleep. Guess what happened? I slept like a rock again (and again).

The moral of my story is this: we can be taking care of ourselves by eating right, getting adjusted, exercising, and thinking good thoughts, but if we are not getting enough restful sleep, our body is unable to repair & heal. Healing is a process that requires time. Most healing occurs during the hours that our mind is quiet and our bodies are resting. It is during this time that our body can focus its energy on repairing and restoring health.

Make time for sleep. It is not over rated!

Strengthening Your Immunity

Understanding immunity is vital in grasping our body's innate ability to heal itself. We are born with an innate or genetic immunity. While we were in our mother's womb, we received immunity through her exposure to different pathogens. As we came into the world, if we were breastfed, our mother continued to pass immunity to us, through her superfood breastmilk. Throughout our lives we continue to build our immunity through exposure to different pathogens. Each time we are exposed to a virus or bacteria, our body identifies the foreign invader & produces an antibody to protect us. Our body remembers every immune response we have had, & protects us from having symptoms or getting "sick" a second time. For example, most of us know that once we have had chickenpox, we cannot have it again.

We are exposed to different pathogens either naturally or artificially. Natural exposure is when we have the flu for example. We feel ill & spend a few days resting & allowing our body to heal. No matter how many more time we are exposed to that flu virus, we will not get it again. Artificial exposure is obtained through vaccination. You are injected with a solution that contains the pathogen (along with many other substances or additives). Your body reacts by producing antibodies in the same way as described before.

The more we are exposed to, the stronger our immune system becomes. This may be different that what you originally believed. Most people subscribe to the germ theory & use it to explain why we get sick. Germ theory was developed by Pasteur in the 1800's. He believed that the human body was pure & sterile. He theorized that if airborne pathogens, or germs, contaminated the body, sickness would result. However, we know today that the human body contains 20 times more bacteria in our body than cells. We have a normal "good" bacteria that help us digest & assimilate our nutrition daily. Bacteria is not only plentiful in our immune system, but necessary.

Our body has some fantastic systems in place for fighting pathogens. In fact, the body is constantly renewing itself & making changes to facilitate rebuilding. 98% of the atoms in the human body are renewed each year, with about half of the water molecules, or 70% of the body, being replaced every 8 days. Blood plasma renews itself every 10 days, white blood cells every 2-3 weeks, red blood cells every 120 days, & our entire blood supply every 3-4 months. Our skin renews itself every 28 days, the stomach lining replaces itself every week, & the liver regenerates every 6 weeks. It is clear to see that the human body is an amazing self healing, self regulating organism.

For some reason we agree with this fact when we think about getting a cut, or breaking a bone, (body heals itself), but we seem to forget about it when we think about getting a cold, flu, or other common illness. The fact is that we cannot escape germs. They are abundant everywhere. We must replace this ideal of "fighting germs" with strengthening our immunity. If we support our body properly, we can look forward to having better health through better immunity. Below is a list of simple tasks to use towards improving your immunity:

1. Eat organic, whole foods, many vegetables & fruits

2. Avoid processed foods, sugars, hydrogenated oils, bleached flours, & high fructose corn syrup

3. Check with your health care provider to see if Essential Fatty Acids & Probiotics would be of benefit to you.

4. Remove toxins from your life: chemicals, alcohol, smoke, plastics, dyes, additives, etc.

5. Limit pharmaceutical drugs that cover up symptoms & in some cases are unnecessary

6. Maintain a positive mental attitude

7. Exercise five times a week

8. Get at least 6 hours of restful sleep each night

9. Practice quiet time each day (prayer, meditation, yoga, etc.)

10. Get adjusted! Research shows people who receive regular chiropractic adjustments have immune system competency that is 200% greater than those who don't!

For more information on strengthening your immunity, attend one of our advanced wellness workshops with Dr. Jessica. Upcoming dates: 12/9 @ 10 am & 12/18 @ 5pm.