Advanced Wellness Center

From the point you start thinking about getting pregnant to the moment the stick says “Pregnant”, there are great things you can do to prepare your body! First, start decreasing your stress with exercise, meditation, yoga and even changes at work if needed. Second, begin taking some critical vitamins such as folic acid -B12, good fish oil, antioxidants like coQ10 and minerals which all play an instrumental role in the early stages of development before you may even know your pregnant. Also, start adding some great sources of vitamins to your diet with rich foods like spinach, brussel sprouts, kale, proteins from beans, quinoa, eggs, brown rice and omega 3′s from salmon, tuna and avocado.

Don’t trust the supermarket brand of prenatal vitamins. I know the adds look great from “One a Day” and “Centrum” but they have many fillers and they are bound so tightly that our bodies can actually absorb very little. For just some standard prenatals, you can find good brands at Whole Foods, small health food stores or through a doctor’s office (like ours) where they can order better made products that you can’t get on the store shelves.

Another more specific option is a nutritional protocol for pregnancy using Standard Process and Pharmanex supplements. This program covers everything from helping your uterus produce a healthy thick placenta in the first trimester to keeping your bones strong while the baby needs so much of your body’s calcium in the 2nd & 3rd trimesters. Each stage of your pregnancy is different and unique, therefore your body has different needs. Ask us if you would like to find out what your body needs during your pregnancy.

Also, once your pregnant exercise is important but it shouldn’t be straining. The first trimester is the most fragile so get the heart rate up with walking, dancing, yoga, pilates or pure barre. These are all safe ways to stay in shape without heavy weights.

Lastly, take time every day to visualize a healthy pregnancy, birth and baby. Our brain/body connection is critical during this time, that’s why your never missing a Chiropractic appointment:) But also that connection to our thoughts and fears can manifest into reality so meditate on happy, healthy thoughts. Picture your birth with love and calmness. Bring light and joy into your belly with each deep breath you take. This is a miracle so embrace the love, the joy, the serenity and the amazing power your body has to give your baby.

Fat has got a bad rap! It all started in the late 70′s-80′s. We should have known “they”were wrong about fat when “they” were also telling us to wear spandex, blue eyeshadow and eat microwave dinners.

We need fat! Ordering and buying food “fat free” is not going to help you lose weight. In fact this is actually working against you by helping you hold on to weight! Fat is what helps our bodies metabolize sugar therefore effecting the insulin levels secreted. Have you ever noticed other cultures like French and Asian consume large amounts of good fat in their diet all without an obesity problem? There is a reason. Our bodies need good fats from butter, eggs, yogurt, fish, meat, and meat bones (make a broth) to keep the balance of hormones and insulin. It is essential for women to consume a healthy portion of fat in their diet and to maintain a minimum of 18% body fat. This balance of good fats will allow women’s delicate endocrine system to perform better, keeping their menstrual cycles regular and their thyroid happy.

Seven Reasons Why We Need Fat by Dr. Mercola:

There are several good ways to get healthy fats but we do recommend keeping it clean! Eat healthy, organic sources of saturated fat in your everyday diet. Organic butter and eggs are important so no other hormones are added to the foods. Fish is best if it’s wild caught and meat is best grass fed. Use large bones such as beef bone or whole chickens to slow cook your own broth. Don’t scape off the fat! Those fat molecules also hold many of the vitamins and collagen (yes wrinkle fighting) that you need. Use the broth as a soup, cook risotto, brown rice or drink it alone.

Healthy fats will help you stay thinner and look younger! It’s a win/win! But yes you still need to eat lots of vegetables, fruits and exercise:)

Ah…the sun! Yes we are solar powered! Vitamin D is a unique and essential vitamin to our bodies. It has a tremendous effect on our immune systems. When our Vitamin D levels become lower in the winter, our immune system becomes supressed making us more susceptible to winter colds and sickness. During the winter months, if you live north of the “mason-dixon” line (which I know you do) you are not absorbing enough sunlight through the eyes and skin for our bodies to trigger the production of vitamin D. In the summer months if you lather on sunscreen daily or it’s in your makeup than again your not absorbing the sunlight correctly. When we lather on sunscreen it changes the way our bodies absorb the sunlight and the chemicals in the sunscreen can actually prevent any production of vitamin D to occur.

Vitamin D is one of the few that also acts like a hormone. That’s right it has a huge impact on our Thyroid, causing depression, anxiety, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis,  and fatigue when our levels are low. Vitamin D is responsible for helping the conversion of T4 to T3, intricate thyroid hormones that balance the delicate endocrine system.

Experts are convinced that Americans are vitamin A and vitamin D deficient. This problem has contributed to deadly and even epidemic levels of cancers, chronic inflammation, bone problems, depression, MS, lupus and other autoimmune disorders.

We are truly solar powered. Yes, we can get good sources of vitamin D and vitamin A through foods such as butter, eggs, full-fat yogurt and liver. So, don’t shy away from these foods….fat is good for you but that’s another topic! In the winter months it is critical to supplement with Vitamin D3 to support your immune system and hormone balance. We recommend 5,000IU’s daily from a good source. Many over the counter vitamin D and vitamin A supplements are synthetic and stripped of cod liver oil which is not good for you. Don’t waste your money. We order products from sources we trust like Pure and Standard Process who use whole foods with real cod liver oil. If you get the chance to go south in the winter soak up the sun! Give yourself 20 minutes daily of sun without any sunscreen.

There have been numerous studies about this little metal called aluminum. However, despite the findings and links it has to many of the occurring diseases such as Alzheimers, Parkinsons, heart disease and breast cancer they continue to use this metal in more and more products.  When mercury was removed a few years ago from several of the vaccines (except the flu vaccine) they replaced the mercury with aluminum, stating it was “perceived” as less harmful. Now we find out it’s not less harmful and possible worse considering how it works in our body and how many other ways we are getting aluminum in our system.

Even a study in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, admitted that:

Aluminum actually attaches itself to tissue, such as with a vaccine when it’s injected the aluminum travels to the brain affecting certain brain cells to become overstimulated which invokes this ripple affect in our immune system.

Unlike a natural immune boost that would come from, say, eating healthy and exercising, artificial immune adjuvants can be dangerous in and of themselves. Says Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D., a board-certified neurosurgeon and author:

It’s important to know ALL the facts before running to your nearest grocery store to get a flu shot. First, the statistics for flu related deaths have been exagerated for the fear affect. The CDC combined pneumonia and flu deaths for the stats which when you separate the two illnesses the numbers go from 36,000/ year to 1800/ year. Big difference. Also they fail to mention the other complications involved in such deaths. Secondly, the flu vaccine is derived by using the strain of flu in Asia the year prior to the vaccine being released. “They” assume the strain will be the same by the time it reaches the U.S. in the fall.

Take notice, anything that is pushed on people this hard such as 50 signs in every drug store and grocery and commercials with scare tactics, there is big money behind it all! People need to know that the flu vaccine is far more harmful than getting the actual flu!

Know what your putting in your body!

How is the Flu Vaccine Made?

This is another area that many people do not understand or take into consideration before getting a seasonal flu shot.In January or February of each year, health authorities travel to Asia to determine which strains of the flu are currently active. Based on their findings in Asia, they assume that the same strains of viruses will spread to the U.S. by fall.At this point, U.S. vaccine manufacturers start making that season’s flu vaccine, which will contain the strains found in Asia. However, if the viral strains circulating in the U.S. that season are not identical to those in Asia, the vaccine you receive is a complete dud.And to add insult to injury, you’ve just been injected with a laundry list of harmful ingredients.

What’s in the Seasonal Flu Vaccine?

The flu strains selected are cultivated in chick embryos for several weeks before being inactivated with formaldehyde, which is a known cancer-causing agent. Then they’re preserved with thimerosal, which is 49 percent mercury by weight.Even many health care professionals are confused about this and are not aware that the preservative thimerosal is mercury. As a quick side note, one of my chief writers told me that, “the doctor’s office told me the vaccine does not contain mercury, just something called thimerosal.“Please, don’t be fooled by this incredible ignorance. If you have carefully studied this issue there is a great possibility you may know more than your physician about this topic. Don’t back down if they tell you something you otherwise know to be true. According to the CDC, the majority of flu vaccines contain thimerosal. Some contain as much as 25 mcg of mercury per dose. This means that it may contain more than 250 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit for mercury. By now, most people are well aware that children and fetuses are most at risk of damage from this neurotoxin, as their brains are still developing. Yet the CDC still recommends that children over 6 months, and pregnant women, receive the flu vaccine each year.In addition to mercury, flu vaccines also contain other toxic or hazardous ingredients like:

• Aluminum — a neurotoxin that has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease
• Triton X-100 — a detergentPhenol (carbolic acid)Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
• Betapropiolactone – a disinfectantNonoxynol – used to kill or stop growth of STDs
• Octoxinol 9 – a vaginal spermicideSodium phosphate

Just to name a few!

To read more go to http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/26/Flu-Vaccine-Exposed.aspx

Our advice for preventing the Flu:

• Get adjusted, as it is proven to increase the immune system by 200%
• Drink water, 64-70oz. per day
• Eat fruits & vegetables
• Wash your hands regularly
• Exercise 30 min daily to boost your immune system
• Take probiotics daily (5-15 billion count)
• Take good multivitamins daily
• Take 3,500-5,000 IU’s of Vitamin D3 daily during the winter. When feeling symptoms- avoid sugar, increase hydration and take 5,000-10,000 IU’s of Vitamin D3.

So many times after beginning Chiropractic care we find sleep is an issue for the patients healing. If your not sleeping well then your body isn’t healing well. Our brain and body performs 70% of their regenerative and restorative process during sleep. So this is where your mattress can play a huge roll in your overall health.

If you can’t remember how long you have had your mattress, it’s time for a new one! And if your mattress was in your parents home before yours then it’s definitely time for a new one!

If you feel like Goldielocks every time you go shopping for a mattress you’re not alone. It’s an important decision and one that effects 7-8 hours of your life every single day. So take this purchase seriously. Save money on a car or TV but don’t skimp on your mattress.

We get asked regularly what we recommend so here are some suggestions. Personally we have a Tempurpedic brand mattress which we LOVE!! Everyone in our family, parents, brother, sister-in-laws family…everyone has a Tempurpedic mattress and swear by them! And most of them are Chiropractors so I think that says a lot.

What we like about the Tempurpedic is that is truly keeps your spine, hips and shoulders in the best alignment possible while sleeping. Even if you are a wild, rolling, topsy turvy sleeper, this mattress supports your joints and alignment incredibly well. The rumors that you get too hot with this brand has never been an issue for us or anyone we know who uses them.  There are many styles within the Tempurpedic line so depending on what you like you have several options. But even the most basic, original Tempurpedic is amazing!

Another one we recommend is Sleep Number beds. They’re completely adjustable to your comfort level for support which is nice as our body’s needs change. We always recommend going more firm than soft with any mattress as it provides better alignment and support.

We hope you sleep tight….

The birth process is pretty stressful for the newborn and the mom. The most normal vaginal birth method is to rotate the newborns head 180 degrees to the right and the left as they pull the baby from the pelvis. This can cause a lot of strain on their first vertebrae (atlas) during the birth process. Especially if any further methods such as forcepts, vacuum or C-section are performed.

The atlas (C1) provides protection around the brainstem and upper nervous system. It is critical that there is no misalignment causing pressure in this area of their spine. Many times symptoms such as difficulty getting the infant to breast feed on either side, colic, ear infections, hard or few bowel movements, spitting up, difficulty sleeping or even sickness are a result of subluxation (nerve pressure) at their C1 vertebrae.

It takes a tiny, gentle and specific adjustment to correct the alignment in their spine and allow them to heal. Infants’ bodies are remarkable and so pure that they respond immediately. Innate intelligence is what created them.  Chiropractic alllows that innate intelligence to continue to flow helping them develop into healthy, vibrant children without unnecessary drugs and side effects.

What an incredible start for a new life to be expressed fully! This is where true prevention happens.

This has been a huge debate for several years. A patient recently told me that a local company was informing their employees of the risk of stroke and Chiropractic so (of course) the company is no longer going to cover Chiropractic care in their insurance plans…. In my opinion it’s another low and dirty way to get out of covering alternative health care that has helped millions of people.

But let’s talk about the facts and get it all out there.

First of all, every study or case regarding stroke and Chiropractic are with manual manipulation ONLY.  The safest technique with no record of contraindications to adjusting a patient with vascular disease is an Activator Certified physician. You know, like us:)

As they say bad news spreads faster than good news.

An example of a recent case is a woman in New York who had seen a Chiropractor for 20 years getting great care for headaches. She then began seeing a different Chiropractor who on her first visit “twisted her neck to the right then to the left”. She was extremely sore following each visit and after the 3rd visit with the same manipulation each time, the doctor even performed this twisting TWICE on the same visit because he didn’t hear a pop, she began suffering speech and motor issues. She had a stroke as a result of a torn artery in her neck.

It is unfortunate and disheartning that there are ANY even if it is few cases such as hers. However, stroke is one of the leading causes of death and as Chiropractors we need to know when someone is at risk and care for them accordingly. What people don’t talk about is all the great doctors out there that find early stages of arterial insufficiencies in patients which help prevent them from having strokes or other problems in the future.

Despite websites and articles stating cases against Chiropractic manipulation I think the fact that Chiropractors have the lowest Malpractic Insurance of all medical doctors says it all. Even a major Malpractic Insurance Company, NCMIC stated in the recently published “Current Concepts: Spinal Manipulation and Cervical Arterial Incidents 2005” concludes in it’s Executive Summary: “Unfortunately, opinion rather than fact has tended to dominate discussions regarding CVAs and chiropractic, even though there has been no definitive evidence that chiropractic adjustments (actually) cause strokes. The good news is that this monograph notes that a causative relationship between chiropractic manipulation and stroke is unlikely. There is an associative relationship between the two because people may go to chiropractors for relief of stroke-related symptoms”.

Even in Canada they did a 10 year study of 4500 Chiropractors and found “The likelihood that a chiropractor will be made aware of an arterial dissection following cervical manipulation is approximately 1:8.06 million office visits, 1:5.85 million cervical manipulations, 1:1430 chiropractic practice years and 1:48 chiropractic practice careers. This is significantly less than the estimates of 1:500,000–1 million cervical manipulations calculated from surveys of neurologists”.

Those are staggeringly low numbers which still seem to get hype considering iatrogenic disease (death caused by a doctor, hospital, misdiagnosis or medication) is now the #2 leading cause of death in the U.S. as of 2010!

I am still amazed that only a handful of cases in the last 30 years relating Chiropractic and stroke can still get so much media. Especially when there are millions who have been able to walk, get off medications, go back to work and even live because of their Chiropractic care!

There are dangers if you have arterial disease or deficiency. Actually any disturbance to the vertebral arteries such as turning too quickly, laying your head over a wash basin and a car collision have all been proven to increase your risk of a stroke. So, choose your Doctor wisely. Not all Chiropractors are gentle and specific with their adjustments, just as their are bad surgeons, dentists and MD’s. Ask questions, check out their certifications and even watch an adjustment in their office.

I encourage you to spread the good news about your results and Chiropractic! We need to take the lead in inspiring others not scaring them. Fear is a useful tool that insurance and pharmaceutical companies use to keep people on their medications.

Our body is resilient and it has the power to heal!

This is a big topic and new information has been released.

They can now prove that cellphones cause an increase in brain activity due to radiation in the area closest to the phone even when using for less than one hour. Obviously when you can see stimulation in the brain repeatedly, as many of us talk on our phones several times per day, this can lead to damaging consequences. There is no direct link yet to cancer but anytime you prove our bodies are reacting to radiation then there are cells being affected. I know we aren’t all going to immediately get rid of our cell phones but there are some smart things we can do to limit their harmful affect.

1. Use headphones/ear buds when on the phone for more than 10 min.

2. Switch ears when talking on the phone (stimulating different areas)

3. Don’t use the phone if your signal is weak.

4. Keep your phone at least 5 feet away from you while your sleeping.

5. Limit use if under the age of 20. Brain tissue isn’t fully developed and more susceptible to the radiation emitted.

Please check out the Dr. Oz show where he features this controversial topic! http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/truth-behind-headlines-pt-5

This week we celebrate our 8th anniversary, so I think it’s only fitting to write about us! Eight years has gone in a flash but I see so many faces when I think of those great years so far.

When we first opened our office, starting from scratch, we knew we were different. We went around to many local practices and found everyone to be so beat-up by the system and negative. Chiropractors and MD’s constantly complaining about insurance, their patients, their hours and how people just won’t follow their recommendations. We decided it didn’t have to be this way. Granted, we knew we were a little green but we also knew there are too many amazing people in this area who need and want great leaders in health care. Eight years later our office is proof of that idea. It’s been a journey and took several steps to get us to this point.

Our technique: Becoming advanced proficiency certified in the Activator technique was our first step towards our goal. The technique allows us to care for infants, athletes, pregnant moms and older patients easier because of the gentle adjustment. Also the analysis and specificity was important to us in helping people reach their health goals.

Secondly, we knew we wanted to be great educators. People can’t make better choices without knowing how and why. So we joined a great group of Chiropractors who had a vision to change the health of our world. They gave us the tools to communicate our knowledge to you so we can all work together to create change. Chiropractic had been seen as just “back pain relief” for so many years. Chiropractors knew the true secret was taking care of your spine and nervous system over the course of your life that made the difference but they were too scared to tell their patients. Many were afraid they wouldn’t get paid by insurance anymore. Well guess what, that happened anyways and people still needed our help. We have to take a stand for what we know is the truth. So we that’s what we have been doing ever since.

Now, we are constantly inspired by all of you. We have the best practice I know because of you:) You push us to constantly learn more, do more and take Chiropractic to the next level. Just like this blog. Some of you wanted more information so here we are, and I love it!

Just remember that our bodies and minds are powerful and amazing. We all have innate intelligence which guides our lives and allows us to be healthy, inspired, unique human beings. Our passion for Chiropractic comes from seeing how it works in your lives everyday. Removing interference in the mind-body connection truly allows your innate to create the life you invision. Just as we created a wellness practice, not managed by insurance companies or the system, you can create your dream. Even when you’ve been told it’s impossible.

Thank you all for making our dream come true and we look forward to growing our vision in the years to come.