The Stinky Truth

So I have given the advice many times before and it wasn't until recently that I decided it would be a good idea to do it myself.....a little sarcasm there. I knew what I should be doing, but I am a creature of habit so I actually have to put a lot of thought into changing my routine. Shocker for those of you who know me well!...

I finally did a little thing that I'm sure will add up to be a big improvement in my health! No, I didn't go gluten free. I'm still just thinking about that one. My "think about it" phase can last a while. I get it! I'm human! Even though I am a chiropractor doesn't mean I muscle test everything, only eat a perfect diet, exercise all the time, and live a natural, perfect life style. I admit that I am a work in progress. However, I do a lot of things very well! :)

I finally switched deodorants!!! That's my big improvement to my health for the week! I have been using a deodorant that I love for probably close to 10 years....creature of habit see? I had no complaints. No issues. But I do know what research and scientists are saying about deodorants with aluminum in them, and that happened to be mine. :( I had Justin muscle test me on it, and sadly it wasn't good for me. I switched to Tom's natural deodorant Apricot scent and am now used to it. And feeling pretty proud of myself I might mention!

Aluminum based compounds are the active ingredient in many deodorants. I suggest you read the label on the deodorant that you use to see. The aluminum based compounds create a plug that blocks the sweat ducts and stops the flow of sweat to the skin. Some research shows that these compounds are absorbed into the skin and have an estrogen like effect. Because of the location near the breast tissue and lymph nodes, the deodorant has an impact on the location of use. Estrogen and estrogen like compounds promote the growth of breast cancer cells. Some preservatives called parabans, also found in the deodorant, mimic the effects of estrogen in the body. Parabens are usually easy to identify by name, such as methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, or benzylparaben. Look on the label to know for sure.

Many people don't know, but estrogens can have a carcinogenic effect in the body. Xenoestrogen is the term used to describe estrogens that come from outside sources and are able to mimic estrogen in our bodies and act as ‘estrogen disruptors’. We are unable to break down xenoestrogens so they persist in our bodies for decades and have a cumulative and synergistic effect on our tissues. We are exposed to xenoestrogens through pesticides, plastics, petrochemicals, detergents, cosmetics, solvents, chlorinated water, fire retardants, lice shampoos and other sources. Not only that, but we ingest them when we eat dairy, meat, poultry and fish that may contain natural estrogen and (if not organic), may have been injected or fed estrogen to increase fat or milk production.

Estrogen dominant conditions are:

• Weight gain secondary to insulin resistance.
  
• Fibrocystic breast disease
  
• Certain types of PMS
  
• Migraines
  
• Menstrual disturbances--irregular and heavy bleeding.
  
• Endometriosis, the uterine tissue disorder, which is helped by the use of estrogen blockers.
  
• Fibroids, a sign of excess proliferative capacity of the uterus, which may not be balanced with sufficient progesterone.
  
• Ovarian cysts
• Breast Cancer

Anyway as you can see, those are no fun and I don't think I want any of those so I made a small change to improve my health and decrease my estrogen over load and decrease my risk for breast cancer hopefully. The deodorant that I have found that works well and is free of aluminum and parabens is Arm and Hammer All Natural deodorant. It's cheap and effective and works well. Try this one if you are looking for an easy to find switch from your current deodorant. I like little, easy things that are good for my health! Now maybe one day I will get to that gluten free point!....  :)

The Sick Season

So lately everyone I have seen in the office has had some type of illness passing through their houses. It's the sick season. Everyone thinks it is normal for this time of the year. I wonder why that's ok for all of us to except that this time of the year we are going to be sick. We are all just victims to the cruel weather. Well anyone who knows me knows I loathe being a victim. I'm determined to give the sickness a fight! :)

So here are some interesting things about the "sick season". The flu season is explained by some proposed ideas: People are in doors more often because it is cold outside and get less natural sun light, therefore less Vitamin D production in the body because sunlight is where we get Vitamin D from and Vitamin D is essential in proper immune system support. Indoors the air is drier and the flu virus thrives in dry air. While we are in doors, we are in closer contact with other people. The virus lives longer on surfaces in dry air. The season can start as early as October and go throughout the Spring.

Many health care professionals believe the flu season starts and ends in the manner because of some environmental and nutritional aspects. October is known for Halloween and the large amount of sugary candy and food that we eat in association with this holiday. Sugar lowers the efficiency of the immune system. Cold weather, lack of sunlight, being in doors with others, and a poor diet lead to the increase of the flu outbreak and other seasonal illnesses. The flu virus and other viruses and bacteria are not monsters who live in their caves and only come out certain times of the year. These micro-organisms are present all year long so why do we have a season for them? The above ideas could be the explanation.

So what can we do besides proper hand washing techniques and spraying surfaces with a disinfectant? Notice I left out the flu vaccine all together........ Some other things we can do to support our immune system are making sure our diet isn't poor. There are eight important immune-boosting vitamins and minerals found in whole foods- Vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin C, bioflavonoids, carotenoids, selenium, omega 3 fatty acids and zinc.That's the whole point of eating good foods. Because we want these good ingredients out of them. These vitamins and minerals help us to function. Some good and tasty food options for these essential minerals and vitamins are: oranges and tangerines for Vitamin C, grains for Vitamin E, carrots for beta carotene and carotenoids, garlic for antioxidants and selenium, almonds and lima beans for protein and zinc, flax oil for omega-3 fatty acids,  and broccoli for Vitamins A and C and much more. And of course if you don't get enough of these foods or just can't make yourself eat them, supplementation is always an easy possibility. Taking a good multivitamin is always a good idea, but especially during this time of the year.

Also, a recent clinical trial showed that green tea-based supplements reduced the risk of flu by 75%. This is far better than the 60% risk reduction recently reported in the Lancet for vaccinations. Given that green tea provides a host of other health benefits and none of the risks of injections, it would appear to be a far superior alternative to vaccination. There are many natural things that we can to for treatment, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

I hope this helps reduce the fear and increase the confidence in the power of the human body.....of YOUR body! It's an amazing thing, especially when it works right and when it doesn't it's usually because we haven't given it the necessary fuel and tools to do so.

"Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food" - Hippocrates (an old smart guy) ;)

Chiropractic, Philosophy, and God

So I went to Las Vegas this past week to a Parker seminar and I came away with many new ideas and even more reminders of things that I once knew, used to do, or always wanted to do but then forgot. That's the beautiful part of a good seminar! You learn how much you know, but realize you are not properly applying it. In my case, I realized patient education about why we do what we do as chiropractors was an area of weakness for me, I mean the real philosophy behind it. I do a wonderful job of educating the patient what I am doing, why I am testing them this way, how their body works, what shows up, what's improved, etc. but I forget to talk about the subluxation. Why? I already know the answer. Chiropractors are kinda weird and I don't want people to think I am weird too. But that doesn't mean avoid topics all together so I am trying to turn over a new leaf of sorts and incoroporate some new vocabulary and focus on some new areas. I guess my worst fear is to be put in the same category as the guy who is wearing magnets all over his body, feathers of some special bird around his neck, various types of religious beaded bracelets around his arms just to cover all the bases and because he respects the 'philosophy and culture' of all the religions of the world, walking around talking about the "universe this and the universe that", acting like chiropractic is a religion, all while chewing on tree bark! (No offense to anyone out there, do your thing :))

I do want to make a point that one of the best things about chiropractic is the wide variety of techniques and philosophies. What chiropractic is to one person, it's totally something else to another. I have worked very hard to make sure I am an example of chiropractic being nutrition, adjustments, and science based. I do not get into the gray area of the almost religious aspect of it because I am a Christian and I already know who made the body, what innate intelligence really is, and who is doing the healing. It's easy to blur the lines and confuse things if your personal philosophy isn't straight. I spend a lot of time talking to my patients about the power of their body and tie in God whenever possible. The wonderful chiropractor I used to work for in Alabama had a wonderful outlook on this and taught me more in my first year about all aspects of chiropractic than most of my peers get in the first decade in practice. He's a wonderful man and chiropractor and I will never be able to repay him for his generosity and the vision that he has given me.  Chiropractors are all so different. There are many different techniques. They all work. I always tell people that everyone needs a chiropractor and with the variety offered in the world, everyone should find a chiropractor that works for them and that they love. I know my approach isn't going to 100% satisfy everyone and that's because it's not a cookie cutter approach.

So my first 2 things that I want to work harder on are: #1 educating people, my patients or not, about a subluxation and #2 expanding the pediatric side of my practice which is probably the most challenging population group because #1 isn't done enough....

So a vertebral subluxation is a misalignment of a vertebra to a lesser degree than a dislocation putting pressure on the nerves that exit the spine that protects and covers the spinal cord of that region and thus having an effect on the organs or tissues that the nerve goes to (in layman's terms). There are 31 pairs of spinal nerves; 26 of these pass through movable vertebral segments. Five pairs of spinal nerves (accompanied by some parasympathetic fibers) pass through solid bony openings in the sacrum. There are an additional 12 pairs of cranial nerves which pass through bony openings in the base of the skull (including the 10th cranial parasympathetic vagus nerve, which travels down to supply visceral structures in the thorax and abdomen). You can see how an adjustment can be so globally powerful by affecting any number of these guys.  Unless you have been adjusted, you probably have a subluxation because they are caused by 3 common causes: emotional, chemical, and physical. So you can see how artificial sweeteners, bad diet, negative thoughts, stressful jobs, falls, childbirth, and long car drives can all cause a subluxation. It's been shown in nerve conduction studies that it takes only the amount of pressure equal to the weight of a dime to decrease nerve flow by up to 60% according to research conducted at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Your body is so innervated by nerves that if you were to take off all of the flesh off of a person, you would still be able to identify them and see the details of their body just because of the massive innervation via nerves. I don't think anyone can dispute the importance and value of nerves.

Moving on to my #2, children need chiropractic care! Some need it more than adults! 35% of births are estimated to be via C-section. The travel though the birth canal is the very first alignment of the spine. It's equivalent to the butterfly squeezing through the cocoon. If anyone has ever tried to assist a little butterfly and done the work for them, you know that the butterfly wasn't the better for it. Every butterfly I ever tried to help never flew because I opened the hole up so large it didn't squeeze him at all and the fluid never dissipated and his wings never spread and he never flew. Sad, I know. So for those kids, like my own, who miss the first alignment of the spine, an adjustment is very important! Since different segments give way to nerves who innervate different organs, you can have an effect on constipation, ear infections, digestive issues, allergies, immune system, and many other common childhood issues all by the adjustment! If you're thinking that the adjustment sounds like a powerful thing, then I'm conveying the message somewhat well! The first adjustment a baby needs to receive is when he or she is still in the womb. Maternity care is imperative for a healthy delivery of a healthy baby. The baby spends most of it's development upside down, crunched up, then in many cases is pulled out and injected with various chemicals all in the first phase of life. Then the child has to cut teeth, learn how to control muscles, walk, and is carried on Mom's hip and car seats. Childhood is kinda rough. If we adults had to learn how to walk we would need physical therapy and if we had to cut that many teeth again, we would have a prescription of Lortab on hand. Kids are resilient, amazing little people! It's all about giving them the best start to life as possible!  It's never too late to start getting adjusted and it's never too early.

I am so passionate about chiropractic for many different reasons. One is because you can see how wonderfully God made the body and it's designed to work well and well for a long time. Health comes from the inside out. It's been an amazing thing for me for various reasons throughout my life from being a child who suffered from migraines to being diagnosed with scoliosis to whip lash injuries from car wrecks to improving my immune system so I'm not the first person to always catch a cold to maternity care to dealing with baby blues after the pregnancy, etc. It's so wonderful to watch my child grow under this alternative way of thinking and see how he blossoms in every situation in every phase of life that he has been though yet and I just think, the proof is in the pudding! If anyone who reads this has any questions or wants to know more, please feel free to ask. :)

Parenthood Woes

This morning after I adjusted Benton, yes he loves to get adjusted, Justin noticed white spots on his nails. The nails, eyes, and tongue tell a lot about what's going on inside the body. Different marks, lines, colorations, and dents tell about different organs and mineral imbalances. White marks happen to be a possible zinc or trace mineral deficiency or an imbalance in the ratio of the minerals. These minerals are vital for proper immune system function. I say this to put emphasis on the point that health is forever changing, especially in the time of childhood. Childhood is an extremely important time in immune system development. This is when the body comes into contact with the most germs and is building up a defense against them for future reference because many encounters are on a first time basis. In order to make a healthy adult, the child has to come into contact with these agents and learn to fight them off. You are not doing your child any favors by constantly keeping them on an antibiotics or keeping Tylenol doses constantly coming towards their face. Fevers aren't bad. I don't mean to let your child run a fever of above 103 degrees without a cool bath or considering another option, but the body is designed to kill off invaders by increasing the internal temperature of the body. Many parents freak out over a low grade fever and there is really no reason to fret.

Vaccinations are one of the biggest topics of the first year of childhood.  Whether to vaccinate or not? Should I delay and play catch up? What are the benefits? What are the risks? Will not vaccinating keep my child from going to daycare, public school, playing sports, etc? There are a lot of questions and whenever someone asks me my opinion I am always careful in sharing my opinion....Yes, that is highly unusual and extremely difficult for me! I try to focus more on the parent's thoughts and worries and the research and education that the parent has done to form an informed decision. It's imperative to weigh out the pros and cons in any major decision, especially this one. If a parent has done the research and made an informed decision to vaccinate and is willing to take the risks, I'm not going to cold shoulder them. It's their child! I have had to make those decisions with my child and we have chosen not to vaccinate. The risks are minimal. We haven't taken him out of the county and he hasn't been around any illegal aliens. My reply when people ask me if I'm concerned he is at risk is always: Who is he going to catch all of these diseases from if everyone else is vaccinated? Another important point I want to make is just because you start to vacccinate doesn't mean you have to continue. You can change your mind at any point along the way and there is nothing harmful about this.

One of the most challenging things for us was finding a pediatrician to work with us on the non-vaccination choice we made for Benton's health. I have finally found one, but that doesn't mean that I didn't have to go though several before him. Let's face it, if you don't vaccinate, you don't see the pediatrician much and if everyone chose not to, where would their business go?  Ultimately I am Benton's mother and luckily we still live in a country where I do get to control most things about his health (don't get me started on politics, that's a whole different blog). I'm not worried about any of the things that not vaccinating will keep Benton from doing because there really aren't any. My dad is a public school superintendent and even though we have different views on child rearing topics from time to time, I know the things that public schools have to allow to avoid a law suit. If a person says that something is related to their beliefs or religion, that's such a hot topic that no one is going to touch it with a ten foot pole. I mean what do you think happened to prayer in school, saying the pledge of allegiance, etc.???? I encourage you to do research on religious belief and philosophical exemptions. It's a matter of filling out a little paperwork. I had to fill out a sheet for Benton's day care and that was the end of it. No big deal!

If parent's do chose to vaccinate, I encourage them to prep the child's immune system to get them ready for the vaccination before hand. This will help with the child's fever, discomfort, and protect the DNA from mutations. At least 2 weeks prior to a vaccination, give the child daily doses of B12, B6, and Glutathionol for protection of the proteins in the DNA strand ( http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=50746, info about Glutathionol). I dose these out individually for each patient as the need is different person to person. We do a lot of nutrition in our office so this is not out of the norm. This will get the child ready for the vaccine and help them tolerate it better. It also helps ease the parent's worries of the many 'what ifs?' that every parent has, no matter what your decisions are. My purpose is to help people and provide support, not scare people or intimidate people into making any certain decision and this should be the purpose of your pediatrician as well. Remember they work for you and you as the parent have the ultimate say. Parenthood isn't easy, especially if you are a first time parent, but eventually we all realize that they are tough little people. We have made our decision and we have been pleased with it and the little person that we made the decision for. He is the healthiest child in his day care room and extremely smart. My biggest fear as a parent is interfering with something that he was designed to be. He is truly amazing and I know this world will be a better place for him being here. I just want to guide and direct and keep him on track. I know all of the greatness is inside him just waiting for the right time to be released. Far be it for me to interfere with a greater plan. This is the decision that we have made as parents. I'm not saying anyone's decision was wrong, but I feel confident in saying that this was the right decision for us.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/12/29/vaccination-schedule-part-one.aspx. This is a link for an alternative vaccination schedule that many parents choose to follow. It spaces out some does and delays some others to not overwhelm the child's system. It also has some very good information that goes along with what I have been talking about.

Mommy Beginnings

Well I decided that since I have so many opinions, and quite good ones I might add, that it's a shame for me to keep them all to myself. My experiences with being a chiropractor and trying to do things naturally to allow the body the chance to heal and work itself have been useful and sometimes challenging during my time as a mother. There are always hard decisons and some hard lessons to learn within the first year of motherhood: when medical intervention is needed, when vitamins are needed, what to do for that snuffy nose, how to prepare your child for daycare, what decision to make when it comes to vaccinations, teething issues, ear ache issues, etc. There are too many to list out.  I hope to use my own research and experiences to provide comfort to other's in the same cross roads in life. We all want the best for our children and for our own health and for our loved ones. I have hopes that this blog will serve as that comfort for some and challenge some others to think outside the box and educate yourselves. We have options as parents and we have to make some hard decisions concerning our children's health sometimes too.

Things don't always go as planned, I learned this during the labor and delivery of Benton.  After 24 hours of labor, 4 doses of pitocin, my water being manually broken, Benton being manually turned from face up to face down, and an hour of pushing, a C-section was well welcomed. I did do it naturally for the first 12 hours and when I hadn't reached a centimeter, I yelled "Uncle"! Natural labor is where I gladly exit the "chiropractic- all natural" band wagon. I know not all will like this point of view, but did I mention Benton was all of a 9lb. baby? So those 9 pounds bother me a lot more than other people possibly criticizing my labor strategy.

We have chosen to take the natural route in everything concerning Benton's health from that day on. In the hospital, the only thing he received was Vitamin K and that was only to avoid readmitting him to the hospital for his circumcision. We denied the eye drops and the Hepatitis B shot. The eye drops are to protect the baby from sexually transmitted diseases in the mother. Since I knew I had none, and it was pointless anyway because he wasn't a vaginal delivery (it's just standard hospital protocol), we did not want those. Hepatitis B is not transmitted casually. It is transmitted via blood to blood contact, unprotected sex, unsterile needles, and/or an infected mother during labor (once again hospital protocol). This is where a birthing plan comes in handy so you can make sure things that are standard protocol don't happen to your child while you are unconcious or caught up in the moment. Education to know what you want and why you don't and communicating those things with your doctor are very important and should be discussed before you get to the labor part.

Benton was first adjusted at day 4, has never received any vaccinations, and is a perfectly healthy and happy little boy and does attend daycare on a regular basis. He has never had an ear infection, colic, digestive issues, or any other common baby complaint that you hear so much about. I would like to think it's because I am such a super mommy, but realistically it is because of regular adjustments and the nutrition that I have incorporated in since I knew I was pregnant (natural prenatal vitamins) and then continued since his birth with supplementation in his diet.

More about Benton's first adjustment and my maternity chiropractic care soon to come!  :)