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Archive for March, 2011

Why bother taking vitamins at all? Our forefathers survived just fine without multi vitamin packs, why can’t we? The answer to that question is easy, go look in your cupboards. Our forefathers ate a lot better than we do. High processed, homogenized, pasteurized, canned and prepackaged fast food means less chance of natural occurring vitamins surviving for any length of time.

While some of us pick our own fruit and grow our own vegetables, most of the country chooses to rely on packaged, store bought fruits and veggies. These aren’t as healthy as they look, either. The longer the apples and tomatoes are off the vine, the faster they begin to lose their nutritional value, losing vitamins during processing and shipping.

Your body needs vitamins to boost your immune system, ward off colds and other viruses, and even keep you even tempered, so to speak. Did you know with a vitamin deficiency that you are less likely to clot when you cut yourself? Vitamins play a much bigger part then we think, and the average diet does not include all the vitamins necessary to keep the body in top shape.

A good multi-vitamin is your best choice, but here again you can be misled into believing that 100% of the USDA recommended dosage is good enough. They mean 100% total, not 100% of each vitamin necessary. Think about it, they can’t possibly pack the right amount of every kind of vitamin that you need into one pill a day, and most multi vitamins sold in your local grocery store are cut with fillers and preservatives. Nope, you’ll have to visit your local food co op and get some natural, all inclusive vitamin supplements. Along with eating well, these supplements contain everything you need for balanced vitamin intake, with none of the fillers and preservatives that I, for one, resent paying for.

So let’s talk B vitamins as an example. You need several different kinds of B vitamins alone. B6 and B12 are just two, but the most commonly talked about. Vitamin B6 promotes the development of red blood cells, and 12 helps promote energy and fights Alzheimer’s disease. You need these and other vitamins to be in the purest form possible in order to be the most beneficial. Let’s skip back for a moment, the history of vitamins, if you will. Vitamins began being “discovered” by scientists and surgeons around 1914, and the word “vitamin ” comes from the word “vital” as in vital energy for life, but as far back as the 1600′s sailors knew to eat citrus fruits to prevent scurvy. It wasn’t until later that they knew it as vitamin C.

Now we will skip forward to the future. Many vitamins are now available as liquids. Remember cod liver oil? Well now most vitamins can be taken from a spoon rather than choked down (although if you were one of the kids forced to down cod liver oil, you were choking anyway), what’s more, they taste good now as well.

Now before you get all excited and run out to stock up on each vitamin that you are deficient in, let me remind you that you can, in fact, ‘overdose’ on vitamins, kind of. The water soluble vitamins such as B’s and C’s will simply be expressed through your urine if you’ve taken in more than your body needs, but fat soluble vitamins such as D and E can accumulate and cause problems such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and rash.

I recommend contacting a homeopath to test for vitamin deficiencies before you run out and spend a lot on vitamins. Knowing exactly what you need the most and in what daily dosage will save you some money, because again, you really need to purchase each vitamin separately, rather than in a multi-vitamin pill.

DISCLAIMER: This information is not presented by a medical practitioner and is for educational and informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read. Since natural and/or dietary supplements are not FDA approved they must be accompanied by a two-part disclaimer on the product label: that the statement has not been evaluated by FDA and that the product is not intended to “diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

Imagine waking up pain free, being able to move around without any problems, playing with your children and getting through the day pain-free. Sound good?

Is that your experience now? Are you pain-free? Does your body function like a well-oiled machine?
Do your back, neck, legs, chest and arms move smoothly without sending white-hot bolts of pain shooting through your body?

Regular chiropractic care can help you get relief from many of your pains, injuries and physical problems that are holding you back right now. It can make getting up in the morning much less of a chore, climbing the stairs, or playing with your young child more of a pleasure than a punishment.

You see, your body is a lot like your car. Except, instead of being made up of metal, nuts, bolts, engines, an wheels… it’s made up of tendons, muscles, joints, tissues and fibers.

Listen, just like your car, your body needs general maintenance to run at its best. For a car regular oil changes, tire rotations, realignments and general maintenance can add years to its life and thousands to its resale value.
Here are the 8 ways regular chiropractic treatments can help you…

1. Restore And Maintain Full Range Of Motion

2. Promote Full Function

3. Improve Biomechanics

4. Optimize Performance And Coordination

5. Maintain Joint Stability

6. Induce A Sense Of Well-Being And Relaxation

7. Improve Nutrition To Discs And Other Joints

8. Reduce The Risk Of Injury And Degeneration

Regular chiropractic treatments can also frequently find hidden problems that are small right now, but will turn into large, debilitating and expensive problems later. These problems develop more frequently than you think, from old injuries that are causing your body to over compensate to complete normal movements.

Left uncared for, this over compensation can cause severe and debilitating injuries over the long term.

A recent patient in fact came in with a neck injury, and after examination, we discovered the original cause of his pain was from a shoulder injury he sustained in college. The shoulder was so weak, it was causing a great deal of undue stress on his neck.

Now thankfully we caught it, and all it cost him was a few days of pain and bad sleeping, but if we hadn’t, if he had just iced it and let it heal without treatment it could have resulted in more serious problem down the line.

Chiropractic treatments are as much about treating the problems you have, as they are treating the underlying issues of your body, which have not yet surfaced. True preventative healing.

Dental Hygienist visits can be costly and expensive. My last visit cost £50 and involved a lot of blood and pain.

I probably visit my dental hygienist twice a year, shortly after my biannual dentist visit. Without fail he will inform me that my dental hygiene is not quite up to scratch, and recommend that I see the hygienist in order to maintain things.

During each visit, the hygienist will recommend a number of ways in which I can improve my oral hygiene. I usually follow them for a few weeks, before getting lazy and forgetting. I have therefore compiled a list of tips that hygienists have given me over the years, to help both me and you try to avoid them in the future.

Floss first, before brushing your teeth. Flossing before you brush your teeth helps to dislodge debris in your mouth, and makes it easier for your toothbrush to do its job.
Try using Interdental brushes. They are for cleaning between your teeth, and are an alternative to flossing. I prefer flossing as the gaps in my teeth are small, so the wires on interdental brushes tend to bend, but whichever one you use is down to your personal preference.
Experiment with using dental floss on a stick. Using dental floss that comes on the end of a stick is a lot easier than using the string that you wrap around your fingers. By using these sticks, you will be more likely to floss when you’re feeling lazy.
After you’ve brushed your teeth, rinse your mouth out with Mouthwash. Mouthwash helps to keep your mouth fresh after you’ve cleaned it.
If you don’t already have one, buy an electric toothbrush. These tend to be more efficient than manual brushes. My father used to complain about the hygienist cutting up his gums, but after he changed to an electric model, his dentist stopped sending him to the hygienist.
Move the brush slowly around your teeth. Do not brush with it. You’ll get a more effective clean if you let the motorised action do the brushing for you.
Place the brush head parallel to tooth surface.
Pause and hold the brush head over the gaps between the teeth. Push the brush gently into the gap between your teeth, to allow the bristles on the brush to work between your teeth. Your flossing should have already loosened up any debris, making the job of your toothbrush a bit easier.
Use your wrist to rotate your toothbrush in such a way that the head stays parallel to the surface of the tooth as you move the toothbrush over the curved surface. This is more applicable to the back teeth that have rounded sides. Doing this will again help to clean the gaps between your teeth.
Don’t open mouth too wide. If your mouth is too wide, it tenses the muscles at the back of your mouth, and this makes it harder to get the brush there. If your mouth muscles are more relaxes, then it’s easier for you to place the brush there and clean your back teeth.
Try changing hands. It is easier to clean the right if your mouth with your right hand, and easier to use your left hand to clean the left side of your mouth. My hygienist managed to guess that I was right handed, as the right side of my mouth was cleaner than the left. So she recommended I try switching hands every now and then.
For the rear of your mouth, hold the brush on top of your wisdom teeth and molars, and then rotate it around slowly. You might find it easier to start this process with the brush turned off, then placing it on the tooth, and then turning it on.