How Much Money Are You Wasting?

I had a practice member come in that I hadn’t seen since he had moved to Arizona roughly 4 years before. He looked the just the same as I had remembered him - happy, healthy and exuding the glow that someone who loves life does. I told him how great it was to see him and asked what he had been doing to stay so happy and healthy. He told me he had continued with the healthy lifestyle habits he had started while he was a member of our practice, including getting checked by his chiropractor at least once per week.

I told him how I admired his discipline and dedication to constantly improving his health. That’s when he said something to me that I will never forget. What he said was, “You know Doc, I have often stopped to marvel at how much money people are wasting on health club dues, organic foods, bottled water and everything else they do to be healthy.” I was a little confused by his statement since I knew he did all of these things himself, so I asked him what he meant. Now he was the one who looked confused. He replied, “I’m talking about people who do all of those things but don’t go to their chiropractor every week - or those who don’t see one at all.”

Now I understood what he meant. He was saying that without a properly functioning nerve system, all the good lifestyle habits were limited in their ability to affect the change people were hoping for. This is absolutely vital to understand. What good is eating impeccably if nerve interference prevents you from digesting, assimilating and eliminating foods properly? Is it advantageous for a person with a subluxation that affects the nerves to his heart to undertake a running program that jars his body and furthers the irritation? Does someone who is suffering from exhaustion benefit from extra time trying to sleep if his body is so completely out of balance that deep sleep is not possible?

I have had people ask me in the past, “Do you really want me to come in to get checked every week for the rest of my life?” My answer has been, “No, only as long as you want to continue to work toward fully expressing your purpose and potential in life.” You may have gone a week without needing an adjustment, and if you are fine we’ll celebrate! But you can’t know if you’re clear unless you get checked!

Many people are just fine with the idea of taking an aspirin or some other medication every day for the rest of their lives. But those things at best only prevent you from getting worse and may do nothing more than cover up symptoms. They can do nothing to actually improve the long-term situation. I find it curious that people will spend time and money trying to “not die,” but they have a very hard time investing consistently in something that will actually help them to live more fully.

We in chiropractic see the body as a vehicle and we believe that we were all put here for a reason. Our bodies are the vehicles we have been given through which to express our true selves and manifest our purpose and potential in life. It is each of our responsibility to keep our bodies as whole and healthy as possible by living a healthy lifestyle. But, if your brain and body can’t communicate fully, all of those healthy lifestyle habits may be futile. Chiropractic is the crucial the “missing piece” to the life puzzle that makes all of those other things worth investing in.

Do you know someone who has been wasting his or her money? Refer them to our office by going to http://alpainrelief.com/helpafriend/

In the United States, about 20 million people have been diagnosed with asthma; nearly 9 million of them are children. The most common treatment for Asthma has been the use of corticosteriod inhalers.


A new study found that breathing techniques can cut the use of asthma reliever inhalers by more than 80% and halve the dose of preventer inhaler required in mild asthma, research finds.

The new study, published in the journal Thorax, compared the impact of two breathing techniques on symptoms, lung function, use of medication and quality of life among 57 adults with mild asthma.

One technique focused on shallow, nasal breathing with slow exhalations, and the second technique used general upper body exercises, accompanied by relaxation.

The participants, who used a preventer inhaler and required reliever inhaler at least four times a week, were randomly assigned to one or other breathing technique.

Participants practiced their breathing exercises twice a day for around 25 minutes over a period of 30 weeks. They were also encouraged to use a shorter version of their exercises in place of reliever inhaler, and to use reliever if the exercises did not work.

Researcher Professor Christine Jenkins, of the the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, found that the use of reliever medication fell by 86% in both exercise groups, a process which began within weeks of starting the exercises, and was maintained over eight months. She writes: "Breathing techniques may be useful in the management of patients with mild asthma symptoms who use a reliever frequently."
 
By the end of the study, the participants dropped from using around three puffs of their reliever inhaler each day to approximately one puff every third day. Preventer dose requirements were also cut in half.
 
Tips to Reduce Asthma Symptoms


Use air filters to help clean air in your home.

Cover mattresses and pillows with dust covers and use hypoallergenic bed clothing to reduce exposure to dust mites. Choose a mattress like the BED BOSS Memory Foam Mattress which is htpo-allergenic and toxin free - Go to http://www.thebedboss.com/. If you choose a mattress, upon check out use the Coupon Code wc-2 for a 35% discount - you'll be surprised at the reasonable cost of the BED BOSS

Include foods with omega-3 fatty acids in the diet—such as fish or fish oil.

Supplement with vitamin C, which helps reduce allergic reactions and wheezing symptoms.

Get regular chiropractic care.

Dr Wade has a busy chiropractic practice in Oxford, AL - you can email him at drwade@wadechiropractic.com or visit the website at http://www.wadechiropractic.com/.

Can Spinal Decay/Degeneration Be Reversed?

Looks like I need to find another analogy. Thousands of chiropractors have used the "rust on a car doesn't make more paint" analogy when explaining spinal degeneration to patients- you leave rust on a car, and it makes more rust. You keep a degenerating vertebra in the same condition, it will degenerate further. But a new study on cadaver spines suggests this may only be half the story.


Scientists took spines of people who died in their 50's to 90's and asked whether the ostephytes (bone spurs) from T5-L4 were there to keep the vertebra from compressing on the discs, or an adaptation to restrict movement in a direction that had been damaged. They removed the osteophytes to run the tests again, and after analyzing the results came to some surprising conclusions. Removing the spurs made compressing the spines a little easier- about 17%, but being able to bend forward, backward, and side to side increased from 35-49%. Those vertebrae with the osteophytes also scored 7-9% lower on bone density tests, suggesting that the calcification was lightening the load on the spine by acting as a bony support for it.

The researchers wrote that, since the osteophytes were a signal that the body had reversed the process that lead to their formation, the calcification seemed to be more of an adaptation to instability in bending than a "wearing out." This subtle, important difference has major implications for chiropractic. For one, calling something an adaptation signals that the body is intelligently growing and protecting itself from further damage. It also suggests that if the conditions are changed, the adaptation will, too.

Watch how the spine Adapts(Reacts) to the Progression of Stress...

The Good News!

This is a more accurate way of describing what we see in practice- that some of the "degeneration" on an xray seems to disappear after a year (or sometimes less) of chiropractic care not because we're tapping into some Fountain of Youth, but because we're changing the adaptation to instability. As we teach the body's neurology what the new normal is and improve the spine's biomechanics, the vertebrae become more stable and find they need the adaptive osteophytes less and less. This is also a positive sign for chiropractic's role in osteoporosis. If a vertebrae with osteophytes have a lower bone density, then allowing the body to adapt without the extra calcification means that the vertebral body will gradually take on more load (up to 17%, apparently) and be forced to increase its density.

Al-Rawahi, Maimouna; Luo, Jin; Pollintine, Phillip; Dolan, Patricia; Adams, Michael A. (2011). "Mechanical Function of Vertebral Body Osteophytes, as Revealed by Experiments on Cadaveric Spines." Spine 36(10) pp. 770–777; doi: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181df1a70

Credit: The GuerrilaHealthReport