Enhance Your Health

Health Tip of the Week: Tips for a Healthy Life

As 2020 comes to a close, I would like to present to you my top 3 healthy living tips that I have personally found to be essential for every single living person on our entire planet.  If the population would adhere to the advice offered below, I am quite certain that health care costs in our country would plummet.

The number one health tip is increasing the serum levels of vitamin D3 in our bodies. Vitamin D3 has been in the spotlight this year concerning the coronavirus pandemic, as a majority of people who contract covid-19 with severe symptoms are D3 deficient.

Many researchers are saying that optimal D3 levels could be the difference  between life and death for some people with co-morbidities.  Scientists published around the world are reporting that vitamin D3,  could prevent chronic diseases that claim nearly one million lives worldwide each year.

Vitamin D3 can significantly lower your risk of a variety of cancers, including bladder, colorectal, and breast cancer. There appears to be a causal relationship between vitamin D3 levels and death; this relationship is strongest when it comes to death from cancer.

In addition, D3 is a potent immune system enhancer and has been shown to prevent and reduce severity of the flu and common cold.  D3 is the sunshine vitamin and is the reason why there is a flu season in the winter time, not the summer season.

Healthy sun exposure creates vitamin D3 in the body. Scientists suggest that the optimal D3 supplement dosage during the winter months is 35 units per pound of body weight (ex. 150 lb. person would need just over 5000 units a day). 

The next two health tips involve weight gain.  Obesity is the leading cause of overall ill health and disease in the United States.  By paying attention to the following health tips, the general population would lose weight, thus improving health and lowering health care costs.

Research shows that the artificial sweetener aspartame (as in Nutra Sweet) worsens insulin sensitivity to a greater degree than sugar. Artificial sweeteners promote weight gain by tricking your body into thinking it will receive sugar (calories); when the sugar doesn’t arrive, carb cravings can result, making you even hungrier. Artificial sweeteners likely also cause weight gain by disrupting your intestinal microflora, thereby raising your risk of both obesity and diabetes.

In addition, aspartame is a neurotoxin and can lead to the same symptoms of multiple sclerosis.  Popular artificial sweeteners to avoid are Nutra Sweet (aspartame), Sucrolose and Splenda.

The last tip for promoting health involves exercise and boosting the metabolism for weight loss.  Interval cardio training has been shown to be the most effective form of cardio training for the entire body.

Not only is it the most effective way of increasing the body’s metabolism ( the ability to burn calories at rest), interval training increases heart and lung volume, improving cardiovascular health more than typical endurance training like distance running, distance biking or distance swimming.

The whole idea of interval training is that you do an exercise that gets the heart pumping for 20-40 seconds non-stop.  You than take a 10-15 second rest break and repeat. Beginning trainers would do this for only 6 minutes a day.  As endurance improves 12-20 minutes is all that is needed for optimal benefits.

Researchers in Japan have found that 5 minutes of high intensity interval training is the equivalent of jogging / biking/ swimming for 40 minutes.

So not only is interval training better for you, it saves you time!  Example exercises include running, swimming and biking (run, swim or bike hard for 20-40 seconds than rest 10 and repeat). Skipping rope, jumping jacks and or a combination of calisthenics could also be performed in this style of training.

In summary, these three health tips could have a major impact on your personal health and wellbeing as well as the having an impact on the ever increasing health care costs in our country.

The only problem is the old adage about leading the horse to water!!

Chiropractic Thought for the Week

Take the time to Google images and videos of white blood cells attacking and destroying bacteria and viruses.  It will amaze you how much power and intelligence the immune system has.

Chiropractic care has a positive effect on white blood cell production.  White blood cell production increased (enhanced phagocytic cell respiratory burst, as per study) with chiropractic spinal adjustments of the thoracic or mid back region of the spine.

In a laboratory study, cell counts were measured pre and post chiropractic adjustments.  A control group was included that received a sham chiropractic adjustment.  The group that received actual chiropractic care measured a significantly higher immune response then the sham control group.

This study showed that chiropractic care can have a positive affect on immune system response and function.

This is one of the reasons that over the last 125 years, chiropractic patients will say that they get sick less often then they did before seeing a chiropractor for regular care.

Pregnancy and Chiropractic

One of the most common pregnancy questions concerning chiropractic care is how often should the pregnant women be checked and or adjusted for spinal alignment.  Most pregnant women will see the chiropractor once a month during the first trimester and then as pregnancy progresses, increase the visits as needed.

On average, in my practice which specializes in the care of pregnant women, once a week visits are common in the second trimester, twice a week in third and some times daily in the last week or two. Naturally, every woman's pregnancy is unique to them and care is tailored to their needs.

 

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