Your Health is like a bucket. What are you going to fill it with?

“Life is like a box of chocolates.” A notorious quote from Forest Gump about what we are dished out in life.  Here’s a new one, “Your health is like a bucket.”  What are you going to fill it with?  In our youth we take our health for granted.  We try to regain it in mid life.  We preserve what we have left in a elder life.  that is all too often what typically happens in America.  I think the greater problem is that we go through life unconscious about many things, including our health.  We don’t give attention to the things that are in our face ripping us out of our comfort zone.  These days we don’t save money until we want a new car.  We don’t turn the TV off until the power goes out.  We don’t give attention to our health until the alarms go off to tell us that we never really had it to begin with.

There is a flip side to that, however.  You can look around and realize that there is a significant problem.  There are more sick people, prescribed drugs being used and far too many tears being shed in this crazy high stress world.  Something isn’t working and it is what we are filling our buckets with.  Everything we do and every habit we endorse for ourselves is a pebble that goes into our bucket.  Laziness?  Add a pebble.  Poor sleep?  Add another pebble. Lots of chemical consumption? Add a couple more pebbles.  Relying on the medical institution to keep you healthy?  Add a pebble  Junk food diet?  Add a rock for this one.  No Exercise?  Add a bigger rock.  High stress drama?  Add a boulder.

Now what’s the score with all of those rocks in your gallon bucket?  You are spilling over.  You are sick.  You have to react.  So you can either add more to your bucket or take some of the stones out.  Let me put it another way.  You can believe in the rest of the quote that says, “You never know what you’re gonna get.”  or you can make some conscious choices on the habits you choose for yourself and make some not so profound choices for your health.  The kind of choices that keep you young and vibrant for most of the days of your life rather than chasing they health you squandered before your got a chance to really enjoy it.  What’s in your bucket?

Chiropractic prevents heart disease

It is true, Chiropractic does help prevent heart disease at the very core.  I’m sure that if you are reading this you are thinking, “there is no possible way.” Stay with me for a moment and think this through.  At the very root of heart disease is a lifestyle of neglect, poor choices and probably relying on health to come from a bottle instead of the amazing healer already inside your body.  We could probably use a focus on our health much like the care we would give to a brand new $100k sports car or sparkly new dream home.  We would keep it clean, tuned and put only the purest best gasoline in there.  We would use it, love it, but not abuse it.  So where have we gone with our own bodies?  We choose fast food over delicious home grown organic veggies.  We choose the TV instead of going to the gym or exercising.  We choose prescriptions and surgery instead of taking care from the beginning.

So how does chiropractic help?  At the very surface most people go to a chiropractor when they hurt enough and can’t do something important to them.  So if chiropractic can locate the cause of someones problem and help the process of removing the interference they can start to not only feel better but start functioning better in their lifestyle.  If their pain is what is keeping them from exercising then chiropractic just enabled them to prevent heart disease.  Usually along with exercise comes a level of at least conscious eating habits if not better ones.  Just releasing a person from pain’s grip can create a waterfall of healthy success!

Oh wait, there is more!  This is the best part.  Had you ever thought about the idea that your heart has a nerve supply?  It does and the most important nerves come out of your spine just at the top of the shoulders before the neck.  If there is just a little pressure, torque, or twisting on those nerves, how well do you expect your heart to work?  Nowadays with the stress of life and so much media consumption we have terrible posture.  Look around and you’ll see slouching shoulders and forward protruding necks everywhere.  If there is pressure on those nerves, you got it, they are going to have a heart functioning less than 100%.  Chiropractic serves primarily to remove the interference on those nerves to allow your body to function.  Implementing it as part of your personal health care plan will have paramount effect on your health.

Sugar is not so sweet on the heart leading to obesity and heart disease.

The grocery stores have a complete aisle loaded with valentine’s chocolate and candy.  Everywhere you turn business’ and people are sharing those little sugar hearts that say “be mine.”  Even my inbox is stoked daily with offers from candy makers imploring me to be sweet to the one I love.  Sugar, sugar, sugar, it’s everywhere.  I shouldn’t be surprised this is the way it is for most holidays.  The reality is that sugar is everywhere now days, not just the obvious candy.  It’s in the drinks, it’s in the soup, french fries, sauces, syrups oh my!  It is everywhere.

Many of the people that I talk to say that they don’t eat much sugar.  To most people that means that they don’t eat it by the spoonfuls in their coffee.  What we fail to consider is that most anything grain based, like wheat, or that has an ingredient ending in -tose is a sugar.  It really is everywhere but not unavoidable.

The challenge is that sugar is very addictive.  It’s addictive in the very chemical sense that even illegal drugs are addictive.  To prove that point eat nothing but meat, veggies and drink only water for a week.  Pay very close attention to your energy, attitude and cravings.  You will see what I mean.

Sugar’s reputation is gain such bad reputation that there are various new laws at the state level calling for it’s regulation in school lunches and other programs.  There are even editorials suggesting we should have a sugar tax or regulations similar to those put on medications.

One would argue that we need sugar in our diets and that is true.  The problem is that we are eating tons more sugar that our ancestors did and we have a host of health problems to boot.  Sugar consumption is at the root of a lot of our lifestyle heath issues today from diabetes, cancer and heart disease.  If you study cultures that don’t consume much sugar, these diseases are pretty much absent and they are living amazing vibrant lives into their 90′s and beyond.

Sugar really has made a mess of our health.  And since we are all addicted to it, I don’t see it getting better any time soon.  Sugar is very acidic and inflammatory.  That means when you have it in excess in your body you start a disease process that will affect every system in your body.  As to your heart, when you consume larger quantities of sugar you are prone to obesity that is a risk factor to heart disease.  Additionally, studies show us that increase in sugar consumption lowers your body’s good cholesterol but increases fats circulating around in your blood stream.  All these factors are powerful indicators pending heart disease.

So what do we do about it.  We trained ourselves or our children to crave sugar, so untrain.  The simple tips I will give you are to cut out fast food, reduce grains, drink more water, focus on foods that come from the earth and not from a can or package.  We could get more detailed than that, but let’s keep it simple.  Finally, on Valentine’s day, eat a few pieces of chocolate with the one you love, but leave it at that.  The day after put your sense back on and realize that you are eating for a healthier life where you enjoy your years and don’t merely fade out with heart disease in your early 70′s.

Your posture can be an indication of health and potential heart disease

Your posture has so much to say about your health.  It is true.  Just spend some time watching many of the elderly in our society and you will see what I am talking about.  You will see a lot of slouched, head down, humped backs and rigid movements.  Then ask yourself, better yet ask them, what health challenges they are dealing with.  Undoubtedly you will hear about aches and pains, but go beyond that.  Most of them are on blood pressure medications and other heart disease medications.  In fact the number one cause of death in America is heart disease.  It is a lifestyle disease and is avoidable.

Beyond the obvious of changes to, or starting an exercise or eating program, you need to take a good hard look at what chiropractic can do for your heart and posture.  The reality is that we live our life through what our brain is programmed to do in response to stimulus from the nerves in your body.  That network of communication has to go through your spine.  If you have misalignments or decay in there the communication is probably hampered.

Now your heart has a nerve supply.  Do you want the nerves going to your heart working at 100% or is 80% okay with you?  So if over the years of your life you had any physical, chemical or emotional stress, there is a good chance that you have a less than perfect spine.  That is unless you have actively visited with your chiropractor and did home care directed at providing for the integrity and function of your spine and nerve system.  If you do have a less than perfect spine and posture, especially in the upper back where the nerves to your heart come from, then your heart is probably functioning at less than 100%.

If you or your loved ones has less than good posture, consult your chiropractor.  Corrective measures can be taken to instill better posture and health.  The bonus is that you will have more energy and feel better.  This will help motivate you to more activity and taking better care of  yourself.

A few tips to get you started are to limit how long you are in one position.  If you are sitting take frequent breaks, or go the next step and practice sitting up straight on an exercise ball.  Another crucial tip is with how you sleep.  If you are waking up tired, sore, or exhausted, you never completely shut down and let you body regenerate.  You might need a new mattress or some spinal aids to support your body while you sleep.

There are so many things that you can do to help your posture beyond those two tips, but its a start.  If you are serious about making changes to your posture and health, give your chiropractor a call.  We are the experts on how to help the body heal and change from the inside out, ensuring you have a nerve system working as close to 100% as possible.

Buy a heart from Inner Vitality and support the Open Door Mission

Everyone is getting all caught up in the frenzy of flowers, candy and amore this month.  It’s getting hard to find a reservation for that V-day dinner you want to make an impression with.  With all that happening we have been calling out heart disease and taking massive action to live a lifestyle devoid of its perils.  We want you to Have a Heart, a healthy one at that.  But when we say we want you to Have a Heart, we mean something else.  Specifically we want you to have a heart for the homeless.  This month we are going to donate the proceeds from any new client that comes through our door to the Open Door Mission in Fort Collins.  Instead of our usual fees we are selling hearts for $20 that entitle a friend of family member our complete new client consult and examination.  That $20 goes to support the services at ODM.  So at your next appointment you can buy a heart for a loved one and know that you are not only investing in their health but the life of others in need of a little love this time of year.

The Open Door Mission is a member of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions and is one of Colorado’s respected non-profit Christian charities. Assisting needy children, women, and men, we act as examples, without forcing our beliefs on others. Our duty is to the community. Through guiding those who arrive here to a new, steadfast way of life, we give people an opportunity to become productive members of the community.  Focusing on long-term solutions rather than on “band-aids,” the shelter offers both 24-hour, 7-day-a-week emergency shelter services as well as drug and alcohol programs, job and educational assistance, church services, Bible studies, transitional housing for ex-prisoners, and free counseling. It is our mission to provide immediate assistance to men, women, and families who are struggling with homelessness, while emphasizing the services that will help them stay off the streets permanently.

February is Healthy Heart Month at Inner Vitality Chiropractic

Today is February 1st and that marks the start of Heart Disease Awareness or American Heart Month.  With the skyrocketing statistics showing heart disease as the number one cause of death in America the fist sized organ deserves its own month.  Living the typical American lifestyle each of us can expect that either we or someone we know will deal with and perhaps die of heart disease.  Every year 785000 people experience their first heart attack and 616000 die from various types of heart disease. That is a pretty grim start to the month.

The good news is that there are limiting factors to heart disease.  That limiting factor is YOU.  What are you willing to do to make sure that you don’t become one of the 616,000 statistics collected by the CDC?  Heart disease is a lifestyle disease that has it’s advent with the progressive industrialization of our country moving head long into an era of stress, chemical food and misunderstanding of what real health is.  A diseased heart doesn’t happen to you.  You earn it.  You can also earn a healthy one that will serve you well over the years of your life.

In that spirit this is Healthy Heart Month at Inner Vitality Chiropractic.  We will be bringing you heart healthy tips on this site and Facebook as well as heart healthy snacks and events in the office.  Join us this month to celebrate a life with a healthy heart!

Specific Chiropractic techniques have been shown to be more effective at lowering high blood pressure that two prescription medications combined.

That’s right, chiropractic can lower your blood pressure.  There are more that 65 million Americans that deal with high blood pressure and are at risk for heart attack, stroke or cardiac failure.  So look around you.  For every three adults that you see, one of them has high blood pressure and those risks are a reality.  Wow, that is bleak.  There is hope, however!!!  I study showed that specific chiropractic adjustments to the top part of your neck can lower high blood pressure up to 14 mm Hg.  That is really amazing considering that it usually take two prescription medication in combination to lower it that far.  George Bakris, MD published this study in the Journal of Human Hypertension.

How is this possible that chiropractic can really lower your blood pressure?  The adjustment performed in this study was to the top most vertebra in the neck called the Atlas.  By many authorities this is the most crucial part of the spine and acts as a sort of fuse box for the body.  With the many muscles influenced by this vertebra, the blood vessels traversing around it ascending into the brain as well as the nerve centers for blood pressure just above in the brain stem; it is no wonder the results that were realized.

Are you taking medications for high blood pressure.  Would you like a less invasive approach with virtually no side effects?  It is a whole lot easier to just pop those pills than make lifestyle changes.  Changing your diet and implementing an exercise routine have all been shown to be effective in lowering high blood pressure.  Then you need to make sure the integrity of your spine is in place and not interfering with your nerve or vascular system and keeping that pressure up.  The risks of continuing the way you always have are listed above; heart attack, stroke, cardiac failure.  The statistics are gloomy as heart disease is the number one killer in America.  The risks of trying something outside the box are practically null, but may have tremendous benefits unrealized.

Watch this video on YouTube.

“I came to see Dr. Jeremy because I have a stomach issue called gastroparesis.  I’ve struggled with it for about a year.  I’ve been suffering with it on almost a daily basis and the doctors I went to see said it was UN-curable.  Every since he has been helping me for the past couple of months its been a miracle.”

The Truth is that Chiropractic can help you more than you think

“I want the truth!” “You can’t handle the truth!”  What if I told you that chiropractic is not what you think it is?  When I have polled people on what they think chiropractic is for I will get a variety of answers from back pain to I don’t knows.  The truth is that a majority of the public has either no clue what a chiropractor does or only holds on to about 5% of our scope.  Since the very first chiropractic adjustment that the founder, D.D. Palmer, delivered to Harvey Lilard over a hundred years ago that restored hearing, many have come to believe that chiropractic is only for back pain.  It works amazingly well for back pain, but let me set the record straight.  Chiropractic’s sole intent is to remove nerve interference from your body.  What did I just say?  That’s right nerve interference.  That may sound pretty off the wall when we are so used to hearing about infectious diseases, heart disease and cancer all over the news.  So how do you get nerve interference and how does chiropractic remove it?  Anatomy 101 tells us that we have a brain and a nerve system that runs the whole body.  With out a nerve supply, what happens to tissues?  They die.  The spinal cord that gives off the nerves to your body is encased in bones called vertebra.  They protect the cord and facilitate body movements.  With small to severe injuries or insults to your spines you make damage some tissues that cause your vertebra to move out of their innately designed space or range of motion.  This can cause some pain or even degeneration over time.  The main risk here is that that vertebra moved out of place may be rubbing, tugging, twisting, or frankly sitting on a nerve that is supposed to provide life giving nerve impulse to vital body tissues.  Maybe your heart, your liver, legs, arms, or even your pancreas.  Maybe your don’t even know it.  After all only 10% of your nerves are for sensory.

That in a nutshell is what chiropractic’s focus is.  So before you go to your M.D. asking for the latest and greatest medication or surgery to start with the foundation of health to include good wholesome food from God, proper exercise, detoxing your body from all chemicals and making sure your spine is free of nerve interference?  I am a simple person and it seems to make better sense to me to address why the body isn’t functioning the way it was innately designed to before we complicate things with drugs and surgery.

Increased weight can lead to and exacerbate lower back pain!

No secret no news flash that losing some poundage will increase your health.  There are so many advantages to losing weight: decrease risk of heart disease, diabetes, longevity, more energy, and the list goes on.  For many one of the components of their lower back pain is the extra weight that seems to target our mid section as we age.  Ask any woman who has ever been pregnant if additional weight in the belly made their lower back complain.  The truth is that when we increase our weight we put a greater demand on our body to keep us up right and do our activities of daily living.  Specifically, more weight causes more stress to our lower back as it transfers stress from our upper body to the lower body and vice versa.  This has the potential to put added stress on the lumbar spines disks, joints, ligaments, muscles and tendons.  Add that to an already weak or damaged lower spine and it can spiral out of control and side line you with a ton of pain.  Now the pain is your red flag.  The reality is that if you have pain you are damaging tissues.  If you are damaging any tissues or altering the alignment of your spine you will interfere with the function of your nerve system.  In chiropractic we call this subluxation.  This will have tremendous impact on your health.  You won’t always know if you are interfering with your nerve system unless you are evaluated by a qualified  chiropractor, but if this is the case there are a few things you can do to help your self for a better you and greater health.

You may need chiropractic care to address your lower spine subluxations.  I cannot encourage you enough to be evaluated for that, immediately.  In the mean time you will want to consider losing some of those extra pounds.  Studies have shown that losing a mere ten pounds will reduce your chance of lower back pain immensely.  There are come keys to doing this.  There is no easy way but I have some practical approaches.  First eliminate all sugar and grains from your diet.  Most of these come is the form of soft drinks, breads, and snacks.  For more information I recommend the Maximized Living Nutrition Plan Book.  The next step is detoxifying your body.  There are so many food additives and chemicals in the foods we eat, medicines we take and cleaning products we are exposed to that our bodies can do nothing with but store in our liver and fat cells.  You need to eliminate these to really be healthy but this will turbo charge your weight loss.  Lastly is exercise.  I know that is a dirty word to most people, but could you hand just 12 minutes a day?  If done correctly, in 12 minutes you can catapult your weight loss forward.

At Inner Vitality Chiropractic in Fort Collins we help people with their health and spinal challenges.  We don’t just stop at fixing spines.  We teach our practice members the essentials of nutrition for life, weight loss, detoxification and exercise all in a very practical approach.  it is routine for our practice members to lose 10 to 20 lbs. in there first month or two.  The stories are replete with weight loss success and life changes.  If you want to be evaluated to see if we can help you, don’t hesitate to contact us.