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The turkey is thawing, the last minute grocery shopping is starting, and friends and family will soon arrive. Such a joyous celebration! Don't let the festivities be ruined by indigestion due to the rich menu. There are two ways to assist your digestion through the holiday season.
First, have a pitcher of natural mountain spring water with lemon wedges available. Keep it on the dinner table so that guests can help themselves. The mineral rich water will provide needed minerals in our diet, and the lemons will help our gal bladders handle the rich fatty foods. For the guests who know that they suffer from indigestion and need some relief, keep organic apple cider vinegar at hand. They can either take a tablespoon or two before eating, or put it on their salad. This will increase the stomach's pH, which will assist in breaking down the heavy meal. I offer my patients a product called Betaine Hydrochloric Acid. It is the same type of acid that is in our stomachs, so adding more right before big, heavy meals, helps break down our food more efficiently. If you have questions about indigestion or any other concerns, please feel free to contact me. Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy Thanksgiving! You wake up to the sound of the alarm and realize that you're in so much pain that you can barely move. Most of you have been in this situation. So what do you do?
First of all, avoid heat. Everyone rushes to put a heating pac on painful spots, but this is not the right time for heat. Anytime your pain has increased significantly, it's time for ice. I know it doesn't feel as good as heat does, but it does more for the pain and inflammation. Heat increases blood flow, which increases inflammation. Ice decreases blood flow, which decreases inflammation, which decreases pain. If you would like more information on this topic, look up my older blog on ice vs heat. Now that you have ice on the painful area, you must let it get cold enough to go numb in order to be affective. ALWAYS have a layer between you and the ice, whether it be a paper towel, T-shirt, etc. Next, gentle stretching, if possible will help relax the muscles involved. If it's the low back, lying on your back, with an ice pac under you and bringing you knees up to your chest (as far as you can comfortably) and holding to a count of 10. If it's your neck, lying on your back with ice pac under you with a rolled up towel to support your cervical curve. Clasping your hands together and placing them behind your head, gently lift your head towards your chest. Ice and stretching can do wonders until you can get in to see your Chiropractor. This combination will help stop the inflammation, calm down the muscle spasms and actually begin the healing process quicker. I am always available for questions and offer a free consultation to everyone.  Every organ, tissue and cell has a nerve supply. The brain sends messages out to every part of our bodies and also receives feedback from every part. This allows the body to function properly in every aspect. If there is an organism intruding on the body, messages are sent to the brain and the signals are sent to the white bloods cells to attack. In order to stand, walk, balance, read, digest food, keep the heart beating, lungs breathing, we need the nervous system. There is not a function that goes on in the body without the nervous system being involved.
We as Chiropractors know that by realigning the spine, we remove interferences that may speed up or slow down the messages that get through from the brain to the spinal cord, to all parts of the body and back again. If there is a subluxation ( a misalignment of a vertebra from the one above and/or below) present, it can change the message as it passes from the spinal cord to the body. This can change the organs, tissues and cells that are supplied by that nerve. For instance, if the nerve that supplies the heart was interfered with due to a subluxation, your heart may not get the proper message to function properly. Does that mean that you would have a heart attack from this misalignment? Not necessarily, but if you have heart issues, you definitely want the nerve supply to your heart to be as clear and as close to one hundred percent function as possible. And by all means, if you are having a heart attack, of course, you would go to the emergency room, not your chiropractor's office! But it would also be a great idea to see your chiropractor after you recover from you heart attack. Removing any interference would help in the healing process. And that's what Chiropractors are in the business of doing; assisting you in healing, enhancing the healing process with many different natural, non invasive techniques, and helping you stay healthy. We empower our patients to live a healthier, happier, fulfilled life. Wikapedia's definition of Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is "an entrapment median neuropathy, causing paresthesia, pain, numbness, and other symptoms in the distribution of the median nerve due to its compression at the wrist in the carpal tunnel. The pathophysiology is not completely understood but can be considered compression of the median nerve traveling through the carpal tunnel.[1]
In my experience, patients have symptoms of pain before they actually have numbness. They can have pain in the wrist and/or forearm. The numbness is one of the last stages, when the inflammation has encroached on the small space where the median nerve runs. Carpal Tunnel can be treated with therapeutic massage, Acupuncture, ice and B6. I start with deep tissue massage techniques and have the patient ice at home. If this does not resolve the issue, the next step is acupuncture and B6. So far, I have not had a patient that needed surgery. There have even been some cases where the patient was scheduled for surgery and was able to cancel. Every case is different, and not everyone can avoid surgery, but if it were me, my family or friends, I would try this before surgery. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me. I always offer a free consultation. More and more we hear that we Americans eat plenty of food, but we are still starving. In other words, we are overfed and undernourished. We are not eating enough fresh fruits and vegetables, and the foods we do eat have been stripped of their nutritional value. The same goes for our supplements.
The supplements available are abundant, diverse, and overwhelming, But they can also be nutritionally insufficient. Where did the nutrients in your vitamin come from? The best multivitamin nutrition is whole food supplements. That means that whole foods are concentrated into a supplement so that all the nutrients from the food are intact, and are replacing the missing nutrients from our diets. Most multivitamins available are not from whole foods. They are single vitamins in large amounts, not the entire food complex, and not from whole foods. If you want the most effective multivitamin supplement, look for a whole food supplement. The one I use and recommend is Catalyn, by Standard Process. For further information, feel free to contact me. I always offer free consultations, and I am available for questions.  I have struggled with allergies most of my life. Sinus infections were a common illness growing up. I tried everything under the sun to relieve my sneezing, coughing, post nasal drip, rhinitis, sinus infection issues. It was finally to the point where it was causing a chronic cough and sinus infections that led to asthma and bronchitis. I was sick at least three times a year, for months at a time. The last straw was when I had fluid on my lungs that I could not get rid of. I went to my primary care doctor and had to take Prednezone to get rid of the fluid. At that moment, I vowed to find something that would control the allergies, so that I would never have to take steroids again. My journey was frustrating and disappointing at times. I tried herbs, supplements and finally found a combination of homeopathic remedies and whole food nutrition that helped control all of the symptoms I was suffering from. After researching the causes and the body's responses to allergens, I came up with a combination that has rid me of sneezing, coughing, sinus infections, and bronchitis. I am completely symptom free! I occasionally have to take both the homeopathics and the whole food supplements to keep the symptoms in check, but it's not as severe or as often as it used to be. I have not had a sinus infection for over a year now, and have found that my sense of smell is better. My hearing has also improved since I don't have the drainage, congestion, and fluid in my ears! It is possible to support your body's healing ability. I am living proof, as are my patients. If you are interested in finding out about products that will support your body's healing ability, I am available to answer questions and help you heal! We have been taught that when you have a muscle cramp or "Charlie Horse", you should eat bananas to increase your Potassium. That is true. However, Magnesium is usually the reason for muscle cramping. Low Magnesium levels affect heart, neuromuscular and renal tissues. Some of the symptoms of a Magnesium deficiency are weakness, confusion, personality changes, nausea, muscle tremors, and gastrointestinal issues. I have given it to patients that are on heart medications, and their cramping goes away. Some of the heart medications decrease the body's Magnesium levels and can cause severe muscle spasms. I also recommend it to my patients that have severe pain that is due to, or worsened by muscle spasms.I recommend 400-600 mgs of Magnesium/day. If you are taking too much for your body to utilize, you will have diarrhea. If this is the case, take less until you have normal bowel movements. Once you have increased your levels back to normal, you can stop taking it. This usually takes a couple of weeks.
It is very important to continue to consume foods that contain Magnesium so that you don't become deficient. Good sources of magnesium are legumes, nuts, whole grain breads, dark green vegetables, seafood, and soybeans. There are also small amounts in meat, poultry and eggs. So make sure you are consuming these foods to keep your levels up. Several years ago, the National Cholesterol Education Program started promoting new guidelines for cholesterol levels and the use of statin drugs to lower these levels. The recommendation for people at high risk for heart disease was LDL levels <100 mg/dl, and people at very high risk for heart disease LDL levels <70 mg/dl. These are extremely low levels and can only be reached by using high doses of statin drugs.
Dr. Duane Graveline, MD, MPH explains "On July 13, 2004, they published their recommendations for new cholesterol guidelines in Circulation of the American Heart Association. Circulation failed to disclose that six of the nine authors had direct financial ties to the makers of statin drugs. Those drugs include Pfizer's Lipitor; Bristol-Myers Squibb's Pravachol, Merck's Lovastatin, and AstraZeneca's Crestor. These guidelines immediately boosted the sales of statins from fifteen billion per year when the report was released in 2004 to over twenty-two billion in 2005. And now we come to find out there is not a shred of scientific evidence to support that lowering cholesterol in this manner will reduce cardiovascular disease. The October 3, 2006 review in the Annals of Internal Medicine tears this "solid science" to shreds, something that should have been done two years ago. The review explains the deceitful manipulation of statistics and how not one study proves that lowering LDL cholesterol to the super low levels recommended has any benefit in reducing cardiovascular disease. Simply put, this report is shocking." You can read more about this at Dr. Duane Graveline's website spacedoc.com. |
AuthorDr. Laura would like to share her knowledge so that everyone can live a healthier, happier life. Archives
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