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#166 THAT ONE THING

2/23/2017

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Imagine you are sick and have taken the day off work to stay home and rest.  You are sitting on the couch wrapped in your favorite snuggie that you bought on QVC last winter.  What’s a snuggie you ask, google it.  The TV is on.  Jerry Springer.  A husband and wife are fighting about which of his girlfriends needs to leave the house.  Cut to commercial.  Worker’s comp lawyer.  ED pill.  Red Copper pan.  Health in a bottle.  This last one grabs your attention.  Finally, a magic pill you can buy and take on a daily basis that will cure what ails you.  You’ll lose weight and look 20 years younger too.  The first bottle is free.  You only pay for shipping and “handling.”  Deal.  We are always trying to find “that one thing.”  The pill.  The exercise machine.  The super lotto ticket.  The laser therapy.  Whatever.  But wait, there’s more.  I would argue that there kind of is “that one thing” in health that we should all be focusing on.  Perhaps it would be better to call it the “most important thing” or “the most important thing that we have the ability to change” but since that’s too long to put as the title of this article we’ll just call it “that one thing.”  Which is…inflammation. 
            This article is not to convince you that inflammation is so very important.  Dr. Oz already did that for me in his show in which he said that the blood test, C-reactive protein (CRP), is probably the most important test there is to gauge your overall health.  CRP is the accepted measure of inflammation.  Why don’t M.D.’s routinely order the test you ask?  Good question.   First, few of them watch or perhaps even like Dr. Oz.  Second, they don’t have a pill to give you to lower CRP if yours is high.  “I’m sorry Mr. Smith, your CRP is high.  You have lots of inflammation.  That’s bad and will result in chronic diseases.  There’s nothing for me to do about it though, so have a good day” goes the conversation.  And third, they are afraid that if you have a very high CRP, in the future insurance companies may deem you uninsurable.  Don’t ask don’t tell in health care.  So it’s a bloody important blood test but there’s nothing to be done about it…right?  Wrong.  While there’s no prescription pill for it, there is plenty that you can do.  Gosh darn it though, it’s all about lifestyle again.  I’m going to list some of the top things that reduce inflammation.  You should be doing these.  If you’re not convinced go sit in a hospital lobby for an hour and watch the people going in and out.  Most of them suffer from too much inflammation.  For more on inflammation read 2/24/2004 Time Mag. – The Fires Within. 
1)  Get adjusted weekly– One of the largest repositories of inflammation in the body is the spinal joints, which we routinely cut by 50-75% by adjustments alone.
2)  Exercise – Briskly walk (away from work) 150 minutes per week.  This is why I have a hiking club to encourage this.    
3)  Curcumin – 1000 mg/day has been shown to significantly lower CRP.  We sell this. 
4)  Stretch – This is partly why we have the “disc pump” exercises.  Do them.  Or do yoga. 
5)  Water – drink 64 oz. of water per day.
6)  Dental hygiene – It is true that bad gums can lead to heart disease, because of the spread of inflammation.  Brush your teeth.  Use Listerine.  See your dentist 2-3 times per year.
7)  Gut health – The immune system starts here. Probiotics to recolonize after antibiotic use, or periodically just because, or perhaps ongoing if you have a history.    
8)  Sleep – 8 hours per night.  No, I’m serious.  But I don’t have young kids.  My last CRP was 0.6, way below the 1-3 normal.  What’s yours?  Find out.  Share this.  

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#165 WORSHIP

2/23/2017

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I recently heard a theologian postulate that humans are wired to worship.  That seems a reasonable idea.  Looking back over the history of humanity we have worshipped everything from weather to animals to mountains to trees to golden calves to gods.  While this article is not about religion it does ask you to think about what you worship.  Do you know people who worship their job… workaholics?  Drink… alcoholics.  Gluttons worship food.  Hedonists worship pleasure.  Sadly, many or perhaps most of us worship money to a greater or lesser extent.  I think we need to be very careful about worship, about what we “honor and hold in reverence.”  Apart from God, worshipping anything in this temporal life has a high probability of leading to imbalance, stress, and separation from what is important, namely family, friends, and relationships.  Having said that I would still make the argument that there is one thing that we should worship, at least a little bit, and that is our health. 
            I very purposefully do not say to worship our body for that likely leads to vanity.  We know that person who worships appearance.  But the worship of health, holding health in honor and reverence, can only lead to a higher quality and quantity of life, and thereby allow us greater freedom of mobility and time to carry out our real purpose in this life, relationships with our loved ones and caring for fellow humans.  Am I on target here?
             That leads to the question what is the opposite of worship?  To not hold something in honor and reverence would mean to ignore its very existence.  Look around you and you will see most of humanity ignoring their health, at least until they have lost it.  Do you see that when you look in the mirror?  Are you going to ignore your health until you have lost it?  You have a choice, ignore it or worship it.  I don’t think there is an in-between.  There are degrees of worship for sure, but in order to keep your health you have to think about it and take action on it each and every day just like anything you worship.  You must hold it daily in honor and reverence.  What does that look like?
             It starts and ends with mobility.  Mobility is, to a large extent, health.  Walking 150 minutes a week.  Getting regular adjustments.  Stretching.  Protecting your cartilage.  Move. 
            It includes heart health.  Again, walking 150 minutes a week.  Weight management.  Reduced levels of inflammation. 
            It includes balance.  Work.  Play.  Rest.  Relationships.  Fold them together in your daily life in equal measures. 
            It includes nutrition.  Balanced.  Controlled.  Plus purposeful supplements. 
            It is best based upon baby steps, or what I call Just One More Step.  Pick something to do that will move you toward health.  Pick an easy thing.  Then do it.  Make it part of your life.  Then pick another thing.  Something a bit harder.  Make it part of your life.  Then pick another thing….  Just One More Step to health.  One at a time.  Health, one of the few earthly tangibles the worship of which is actually good for the mind, body, and spirit.  

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    Dr. Rick

    After writing an article per week for a year, I just kept going.  These are most of my collection.  They are written with my existing patients in mind, so some stuff may seem odd or unusual, but would make perfect sense to those who know chiropractic and who know me.  Enjoy and share!  For my personal blog visit: 

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Yolanda wrote:
     
     I used to suffer severe headaches and migraines on a daily basis, usually all day.  I managed to work in an office because I had to.  When I went home at the end of the day I would often close the shades and go to bed.  I could not plan weekend events because I simply never knew how I was going to feel tomorrow.  If there were a special event such as a birthday or wedding, I would begin to medicate myself two weeks in advance to give myself the best chance of making the event.
     Friends and fellow church-goers had been trying to get me to see Dr. Rick for some time before I finally gave in.  Looking back, I don’t know why I waited.  Within a month, I was headache free.  I couldn’t remember what it was like to not feel pain.  I could do whatever I wanted and not live in fear of the headache.  This was a miracle for me, but the story does not end here.
     An opportunity came up for us to adopt a newborn baby girl not long after I began chiropractic care.  This baby was particularly important to me and my husband because her mother is a relative.  Tragically, her mother was also a drug user and did drugs during her pregnancy.  If we could not adopt the baby she would have been put into the foster system since the biological mother was incapable of raising her.
     To keep a long story short, we did adopt her and she is doing fantastically.  There is no sign of any effect of the drugs on her as of yet, and with God’s help, there never will be.  We think that is because of the vast amounts of love and attention she gets from us, her real mommy and daddy.
     What does this have to do with chiropractic?  The reality is that without chiropractic, I would still be nearly an invalid with headaches.  I COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN CARE OF AN INFANT OR RAISED A YOUNG CHILD.  THEREFORE, SHE WOULD NOT HAVE ANY OF THE OPPORTUNITIES IN LIFE THAT MY HUSBAND AND I WILL BE ABLE TO PROVIDE FOR HER.  MY DAUGHTER’S LIFE IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE SOMEBODY MADE ME GO TO A CHIROPRACTOR. 
     You need to tell everyone you know what you know about chiropractic.  Who knows who’s life you will change too.
Andrew's mother, Barbara, wrote:

     Hello, My name is Andrew and I am a happy, healthy one year old.  But I wasn’t so happy or healthy when I first met Dr. Rick a few months ago.  I had been having problems with my ears for four months, I couldn’t sleep at night and I was miserable.  We’d been to the doctor lots of times but nothing was helping.  In fact, all the medicines the doctor had tried seemed to make me worse instead of better!  Both the regular doctor and the Ear-Nose and Throat doctor said that if the antibiotics didn’t work, then they’d just have to put tubes in.  Now my Mom and dad weren’t about to let them do surgery on me, especially since they had been reading and learned that tubes can cause more problems than they solve.  My mom and dad did a lot of praying.  Then my mom heard that sometimes babies who have a traumatic birth like mine have ear trouble.  You see when I was born they used a vacuum extractor and forceps to pull me out.  I guess all that yanking on my head, hurt my neck.  She also heard that chiropractic care can be the answer.  Now she was skeptical because she couldn’t imagine a chiropractor helping ear infections!?!  But at that point she was willing to try anything!!  Happily, a few weeks of adjustments and my ears were all cleared up.  In addition, I no longer had a stiff neck or shoulders and my whole personality was happier.  I have to tell all babies who have ear troubles, don’t let them give you tubes until you at least try chiropractic care first.  After all, it can’t hurt and if you’re like me, you could be perfectly well with no drugs and no surgery.  In my family, we thank God for Dr. Rick, because I feel better, my mom and dad are happier and sometimes, I even sleep through the night.