Happy, Healthy People

As another summer flew by, I started thinking about time. An 8 hour day at the office goes by pretty quickly. Before you know it, it is the weekend and then that is over too soon. Weeks go by like a flash and a new month begins. And all of a sudden it is Christmas already. Time flies, which pretty much means, life is short. Our time here on this planet is very limited and we need to make the most of it. It is extremely important to enjoy life. Happiness, laughter, love and excitement are all the things that we need to experience on a daily basis.

Sickness, pain, discomfort, stress and anxiety all diminish our quality of life, making our time on earth less of the experience it should be. The good news is that we all have a choice. A large part of our being or our self is centered in the spirit of our mind. We can control our thoughts and actions. We choose to be who we are. Is the glass half full or is it half empty? Do clouds have silver linings? Is it really darkest before the dawn? Choose to look on the positive side and then act on that choice. Optimisim may be something we are born with, but it can also be a learned trait. One of the most important components of health is a positive mental outlook, a healthy spirit, so to speak. Happy, content people with an optimistic view on life are just much more healthier than people who are not. You can choose to be healthier, to have an improved quality of life, to be positive. Make the choice and then take action steps to achieve your goal. Preventative health care is not just only taking vitamins, eating right, exercising and having your spine adjusted for nerve interference on a regular basis. It is also being the best "person" you can be. True health come to those who do the above, but it comes much easier to those who project their optimisim, their love and their happiness.

Health Tip of the Week: Vitamin D is a very important vitamin. Its main function is to help the calcium we get in our diet be absorbed into our bones. Vitamin D is also important for a healthy thyroid and may prevent certain cancers. Vitamin D is the sunlight vitamin. Natural sunlight produces vitamin D in our body. This can be a problem in the winter time, as outdoor time is drastically cut backwards. The good news is that the essential omega three fatty acids we need to be healthy, the ones contained in fish oil are also in Cod Liver Oil. Cod Liver oil is high in Vitamin D. Winter time is the time that we switch from regular fish oil to cod liver oil. Vitamin D is also found in egg yolks, cold-water fish ( salmon, sardines, herring) and small amounts in leafy, green vegetables.

Stop MS with Diet?

Multiple Sclerosis is a disease in which the body's own white blood cells mistake cells of the central nervous system as invaders and attack them. This is called an autoimmune disease. Once the cells, known as myelin, are attacked this can affect areas of the body that are controlled by the nerves. Common symptoms are fatigue, blurred vision, dizziness, numbness or weakness in limbs, tremors (shakes), nausea and bowel and bladder problems. Doctors are not sure what causes MS, but the leading thoughts lean towards an acute infections, long term stress, environmental toxins, toxic metals, food allergies, cervical spine trauma and immunizations. A doctor at the University of Oregon Medical School put his MS patients on a special diet, removing all hydrogenated oils and shortenings. Saturated fat was lowered to less than 20g daily. The patient's diet contained polyunsaturated fatty acids, like olive oil, coconut oil and fish oils. The patients were told to eat fish three times per week. Results showed that 95% of the people who started the regimen and who had minimal disabilty to begin with, showed little or no progression of MS over a thirty year period.

Thought for the Week: " Someone must teach new things, someone must take the abuse, someone must be ostracized, someone must be called a fraud and a quack. Then, out of all of it comes the new truth to become part of us... Thus we receive new facts to make up our proud possession of knowledge."------ Fred Hart (1888-1975) Founder, National Health Federation

The Ups & Downs and In's and Out's of Sea Sickness

Health Tip of the Week: Some psychologists say that sea sickness is partially psychological. They say that by thinking of different thoughts you can stop yourself from throwing up. I say, that some psychologists have never been on a small boat in rough seas. A wonderful thought may delay throwing chum over the side of the boat, but thoughts alone aren't curing a bout with sea sickness. Motion sickness results when the brain receives wrong information about the environment. The info is sent from the senses in the body to the inner ears and then processed by the brain. The problem is when there is a difference between what our inner ears sense and our eyes see. This creates motion sickness. It is very tough to stop sea sickness once it starts, but you can keep it at bay by following some useful tips. Avoid bad odors, don't smoke, think "good thoughts" (yeah, right), don't help other sea sick people, (it's not contagious, but watching others can bring it on), travel in the dark (if you can't see the ups and downs ,it helps), fresh air, and sit still (motion is the problem all ready). Ginger root is a very effective remedy, as our dry crackers and acupressure wrist bands. Once you get on dry land, your problems will clear up immediately.

Thought for the Week: "That which can be foreseen can be prevented." "It is unfortunate that so few appreciate from what small causes diseases come from." -- Charles Mayo, M.D. (Mayo Clinic)

Acne

Now that it is the beginning of September and school is back is session, this weeks health tip will discuss the scourge of adolescence...acne. Acne is a condition where the pores of the skin become clogged, causing inflamed or noninflamed lesions called pimples, whiteheads and blackheads. The biggest cause of acne is not food like chocolate or dirty skin. It is heredity. But don't give up hope as there are things that you can do to limit an acne flare-up. For the ladies, make-up is a huge factor. Oil based make-up is very bad for pimple outbreaks as well as make-up containing lanolins, sodium lauryl sulfate and red dyes. To help fight and prevent acne, clean your skin thoroughly 2-3 times per day and don't pop pimples. While it is okay to squeeze the black out of a blackhead, a whitehead pimple is an inflammation. Squeezing will add to the inflammation and may also cause an infection.

Thought for the Week: " The cause of Dis-ease is interference with the transmission of mental impulses from the brain, spinal cord and spinal nerve. The subluxation is the physical representation of the cause." ---Ralph Stephenson, Ph.C, D.C.

Knock, Knock. Who's there? Arthur. Arthur who? Arthuritis!

Did you know that arthritis is actually a generic name for degeneration of the bones. Specifically, there are many different kinds of arthritis. For example, Degenerative Joint Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Gout are three of the most common forms. Degenerative Joint Disease comes from excessive wear and tear on the joints over time. The friction on the bone wears the joint out. This is the type of arthritis associated with aging. Rheumatoid Arthritis is a systemic disease, meaning the disease is coming from within. It is a blood disorder where the body attacks itself causing degenerative changes to the bone. Gout is caused by too much uric acid in the blood stream. The uric acid turns into tiny crystals that inflame the joints. Uric acid build-up comes from eating foods high in animal protein. Foods like meat, chicken and shell fish. Gout commonly attacks the big toe first.

Thought for the Week: "If we all had light bulbs on our foreheads that turned on whenever we were subluxated, we could go to the chiropractors when our bulbs were on. Unfortunately, we do not have such a bulb. Consequently, we cannot know when we are subluxated. That is why we need to be checked regularly by our chiropractor." - Reggie Gold, DC