A Healthy Lifestyle Helps the Planet

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

A Healthy Lifestyle Helps the Planet

The Tranquility of Nature

It is well-known that meditation offers profound benefits in terms of reducing emotional turmoil, anxiety and stress.  It also provides the possibility of improving immune system function and lowering a person's blood pressure. You can enjoy the same benefits by communing with nature - admiring the beautiful colors as the sun dips below the horizon, taking a leisurely stroll through a wooded area, or walking barefoot along a sandy shoreline.  Spending time in a nature creates a marvelous feeling of tranquility and peace in most people, which can also improve their health and well-being. It may take a bit more effort for city dwellers to find a patch of green, but the benefits are worth it. Green spaces, including green-trails, rooftop gardens, and stands of trees, can be an oases of tranquility amid the stress and hurry of city life. Even adding houseplants to your home is a simple way to help you connect with the natural world.  Not only that, but they can also help purify your the air you breathe by reducing toxins in your home.

Has it ever occurred to you that the choices you make to increase your health and well-being may also improve the health and well-being of the planet?  They can, especially when there are a large number of people making the same healthy choices to improve their welfare, and that of their family and community at large.

Maintaining a health-enhancing personal lifestyle with regard to nutrition and fitness can have a positive impact on the both the local environment and the global biosphere. Our personal choices and the positive actions we take can make a difference. When we make life-affirming choices to get fit, remain fit, and eat a health-promoting diet, it often has a positive affect on everyone and everything around us.

Consider how you get to work.  For most Americans driving to work is a lifelong habit that they don't even think about. But driving a car or truck with a typical internal combustion engine produces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  Every gallon of gas burned pumps 17 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

If you walk or ride a bicycle to work, you are gaining not only the vast health benefits of exercise for yourself,^1,2 but you're also helping to reduce GHG emissions which can help to stabilize the overall climate.

If you live too far away from your place of work to reasonably walk or bike there each day, perhaps you could arrange a car pool with your co-workers and bike or walk to their home on days when you're not the designated driver.

Buying local farm products and produce is not only good for you, but good for the planet also.  Food is usually much fresher, tastier, and more nutritious when it doesn't have to be transported across the country or from the other side of the world - which also saves on fossil fuel and reduces the emissions involved. Did you know that on average, food consumed in the United States travels an average of 1,500 miles to get to your local grocery store? Foods that are grown locally eliminate most of the fossil fuel resources that are otherwise wasted in transporting non-local items. Check out LocalHarvet.org and EatWild.com - Alabama for local farms near you.

In addition to supporting local farmers, tending your own garden or participating in a community garden is a health-enhancing activity that offers a triple benefit.  First of all, food production doesn't get more local than your own garden, saving fossil fuel resources and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.  Secondly, you'll be adding the freshest vegetables to your family's diet, providing an abundance of natural vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals that are necessary for good health.  And last but not least, gardening is terrific exercise! It's the kind of exercise our forebears used to get, way back when people didn't sit in chairs at their desks all day long.


The side benefits of participating in health-promoting activities don't stop there.³ For the most part, healthy people don't wind up in the local hospital emergency room. Resources saved include fossil fuels burned by high-speed ambulances, fossil fuels burned to produce electricity used to power life-saving medical devices, and energy utilized to produce the vast amounts of medical supplies consumed in an emergency procedure, including syringes, IV set-ups, and towels, wipes, and disinfectants.  Additionally, if you are able to keep yourself healthy by maintaining a health-promoting lifestyle, chances are you will avoid or at least minimize the amount of prescription drugs you take during your lifetime.  This benefits you by avoiding the expense and side effects, but it also benefits the planet because you're not adding to the increasing amounts of pharmaceuticals that end up in the water we all drink.

Making an effort to improve your health and that of your family has a huge multiplying effect. Your chiropractor knows that all body systems are deeply interconnected and must work together to produce good health.  It is the same with the population and the many different living systems that make up Planet Earth. Your Millar chiropractor can provide you with detailed information regarding good nutrition and health-promoting exercise that can help make a real difference in not only your own health, but that of your community.


¹Villegas R, et al: The cumulative effect of core lifestyle behaviours on the prevalence of hypertension and dyslipidemia. BMC Public Health 13(8):210, 2008
²Christie BR, et al: Exercising our brains: how physical activity impacts synaptic plasticity in the dentate gyrus. Neuromolecular Med 10(2):47-58, 2008
³Booher MA, Smith BW: Physiological effects of exercise on the cardiopulmonary system. Clin Sports Med 22(1):1-21, 2003

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Above-Down, Inside-Out

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Above-Down, Inside-Out

The Nerve System and Chiropractic Care

How is it that chiropractic health care can be so effective across so broad a range of conditions? One of the main reasons is because chiropractic focuses on optimizing the nerve system by normalizing its function. The nerve system directs and coordinates all the functions in your body. A properly functioning nerve system can help your body recover from many kinds of problems. Chiropractic physicians are specialists in analyzing and correcting nerve interference, which in turn helps your body function more optimally. Chiropractic care helps to reestablish the free flow of information between your brain and the rest of your body. When the various systems of your body receive accurate information - on time and in the right sequences - they can do the jobs they were designed to do. The result is the full expression of vibrant health and well-being.

Dr. B.J. Palmer, one of the founders of chiropractic, used the phrase "Above-down, inside-out" to describe the inner workings of the human nerve system which connects the brain and spinal cord to all parts of the body, including cells, tissues, glands and organs.

This was Dr. Palmer's way of addressing the complexity of human physiology all at once. From a high-level viewpoint, he was describing how the central nervous system communicates with the rest of the body. One major conclusion is that the brain originates nerve signals that flow to the spinal cord and from there to the glands, organs, cells, and tissues - and is therefore the master controller of all the other systems. The cardiopulmonary, endocrine, musculoskeletal, and gastrointestinal systems are all ultimately controlled and regulated by activities within the brain. 

Dr. Palmer was also referring to the organizing intelligence responsible for all the operations of a living organism. This concept, referred to as "Innate Intelligence", was advanced by his father Dr. Daniel David Palmer.  Dr. B.J. Palmer expanded upon his father's work, and promoted the idea of Innate Intelligence as he helped the field of chiropractic become the second largest healing arts profession in the United States.

In this paradigm of "above-down, inside-out," the guiding, intrinsic force that maintains ongoing health and healing is Innate Intelligence. It is this inborn intelligence that knows precisely what each cell needs to meet its energy requirements and thrive. Innate Intelligence knows precisely how to create a new antibody to fight a previously unencountered virus or bacteria. Innate Intelligence knows how much insulin is needed to properly use the carbohydrates you consume. And on, and on.

It is clear that disorder within the nerve system can interfere with the body's ability to carry out the instructions of Innate Intelligence. Symptoms, pain, disorders, and disease result from such nerve interference. Chiropractic treatment helps the nerve system function optimally, thus helping to restore health and well-being.^1,2,3

¹Nguyen LT, et al: Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Self-Rated Health Status: Results from a National Survey. J Gen Intern Med Nov 5 2010 (Epub ahead of print)

²Millet JD: Progress in complementary and alternative medicine research: Yale Research Symposium on Complementary and Integrative Medicine. Yale J Biol Med 83(3):127-129, 2010

³Ahn AC, et al: Applying principles from complex systems to studying the efficacy of CAM therapies. J Altern Complement Med 16(9):1015-1022, 2010

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Lifestyle Choices

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Lifestyle Choices

Enhancing Your Lifestyle with Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic physicians are experts in achieving and maintaining wellness. They can teach their patients how to begin safe, effective exercise programs. Chiropractors can also teach their patients how to design healthy food plans that can improve their own health and well-being and that of their families. Healthy lifestyles are an important aspect in the overall chiropractic approach to long-term wellness. Chiropractors are highly trained in nutritional science and rehabilitative exercise. In addition to your hands-on chiropractic adjustments and other treatments, regular vigorous exercise and a healthy nutrition plan will assist you in regaining high levels of wellness and well-being.

The fitness craze was initiated in the United States in the early 1980s by a group of celebrities, (most notably Jane Fonda,) who understood that regular exercise is crucial for health and well-being.

Although many of their methods were flawed, these early pioneers helped to promote the idea that physical fitness is very valuable in and of itself - an idea that has seeped into the collective consciousness over the last thirty years. But although most people are now aware of the importance of physical fitness, many still fail to take any action on their own behalf in this critical area.

Typically, a person will procrastinate about beginning an exercise program for many years while the extra pounds continue to accumulate. Then when they have finally become frustrated enough to take action, they will often join a gym or hire a personal trainer, and buy new workout gear in a flurry of activity.  Then, after the initial burst of enthusiasm begins to wane during the first month or two, more often than not the typical fitness-seeking person loses their interest, and their motivation to continue seems to evaporate along with it. Gyms and other fitness facilities across the globe profit by selling new memberships, with the full knowledge that most new gym members will discontinue their efforts within four to six weeks.

But fitness is important. And from an even broader perspective, lifestyle largely determines the risk of many diseases such as cancer, heart disease,  cerebrovascular disease (including hypertension and stroke), and pulmonary disease - which accounted for more than sixty percent of the 2.4 million deaths in the United States in 2007.¹ It is now widely understood that each of these conditions is primarily what we consider a lifestyle disease. In the case of cancer, less than 10% of occurrences are due to an inherited condition. The balance are a result of lifestyle choices such as excessive alcohol consumption, overweight and obesity, smoking, and lack of exercise.²

One of the best things you can do for yourself to help ensure your long-term health is to make regular vigorous exercise a life-long habit.  For those who have been sedentary for many years, enjoying a daily walk is usually a great way to begin a life-long exercise program. Begin with a modest five or ten minute walk, and eventually build up over over the next couple months to a 30-minute walk each day.  You can even break it up into two or three shorter walks during the day - perhaps a fifteen minute walk in the morning to start your day off right, and then another fifteen minute walk in the evening to help release the day's accumulated stress.  Once you've gotten to the point of walking about 30 minutes each day, you can gradually increase your walking pace to make it a bit more challenging. Once you've achieved this, you may enjoy alternating basic strength-training workouts with your walks.

Fitness does more than enhance your lifestyle though.  It also improves your state of mind.  Once a person becomes fit, they are very often motivated to remain fit. A person who becomes fit will often notice they naturally begin to make healthier food choices than they had previously.  Sugary drinks, ice cream, doughnuts, cake, potato chips and candy suddenly begin to lose their appeal. Water, organic whole foods, organic apples, raw nuts and protein smoothies become more appealing. People who develop a fitness enhancing lifestyle find themselves losing weight, easily and naturally.  They are free from stress-inducing diets and the feelings of deprivation.  Gone are the days of drastic weight loss and gaining the weight back plus a few extra pounds for your trouble.  Instead, the pounds just slowly but surely disappear because the person is exercising regularly and eating a healthy diet.³

People who become fit are motivated to maintain their results by continuing their improved, life-enhancing habits.  This new, healthy lifestyle becomes their preferred lifestyle.

¹Xu J, et al: Deaths. Final data for 2007. Natl Vital Stat Rep 58(19), May 20, 2010

²Kirkegaard H, et al: Association of adherence to lifestyle recommendations and risk of colorectal cancer: a prospective Danish cohort study. Brit Med J October 26, 2010 (Epub ahead of print)

³Brietzke SA: A personalized approach to metabolic aspects of obesity. Mt Sinai J Med 77(5):499-510, 2010

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Are You Flourishing?

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Are You Flourishing?

Chiropractic Care Can Help You Flourish

Health problems can make it more difficult to fully participate in life. For example, chronic back pain can make a person  anxious and irritable.  It can limit a person's activities, saps their energy and wastes valuable metabolic resources. Being in pain and the resulting physical limitations can also become emotionally draining. Chiropractic care may offer significant benefits in the treatment of back pain and many other physical ailments. Gentle chiropractic treatment helps reduce pain by increasing mobility and lowering the inflammation in affected ligaments, tendons, and muscles. As the person's pain disappears, their interest in daily activities begins to expand. Reducing pain is an important factor in increasing involvement in life. As optimal health and physical functioning is restored, the person's ability to thrive and flourish is restored as well.

How do you decide how well your life is going? Whether you're fulfilled and happy vs. just going through the motions? Whether you're stagnant or instead expanding and developing yourself as an individual?  To put it simply, do you awaken feeling excited at the prospect of a new day? Or do you instead wish that you could remain hidden beneath the blankets, putting off your daily routine for as long as possible?

"Flourishing" is a term long-used by philosophers to describe a state of ongoing positive engagement with life.^1,2 When a person is flourishing, he or she is not only an engaged and interested participant in life, but also tends to expand and widen their range of experiences. Many of us think of our plants and gardens when we think of the word "flourishing". A plant or tree that is flourishing is replete with new branches, leaves and buds.  The bark of a tree that is flourishing is often a deeper, richer shade of brown than one that is not. Its leaves will be a more vibrant green in the summer and display more intensely colored foliage in the fall. All the flourishing tree's semi-moving parts will be joyously turned toward the sun's life-giving rays.

Sociologists and Psychologists often characterize well-balanced individuals as happy.  But "being happy" seems like a relatively passive state.  Of course it's wonderful to be happy, but being happy is more of an emotional, subjective state of being.  A person is happy in response to something else. In contrast, when a person is flourishing they are an active participant in creating their happiness. Someone who is flourishing is the initiator rather than the responder. They are in the driver's seat, and get to say how things are going to go.

So how can we achieve a state of flourishing? As always, it's the journey, not the destination, that provides the biggest payoff - in this case, a fulfilling, joyful life.  Don't think of flourishing as an endpoint, but rather think of it as a moving target. We need to be proactive to replenish, reinvigorate, and revivify our lives each day.  It takes some effort to live a full and satisfying life, rather than merely exist. Living this way requires imagination, interest, action and creativity. Flourishing is an outcome of taking an active and proactive role in one's life and participating fully in all the wonderful aspects of life.

 

¹Menk OL, et al: Exploring measures of whole person wellness: integrative well-being and psychological flourishing. Explore (NY) 6(6):364-370, 2010

²Fosha D: Positive affects and the transformation of suffering into flourishing. Ann NY Acad Sci 1172:256-262, 2009

 

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