Gratitude

If you read last week you learned that science knows the precise point where positive and negative thoughts originate in the brain and the only way to shut off harmful negative thoughts is by replacing them with healthier positive ones.  Like anything, our way of thinking is a habit and like any habit it can be relearned.  I thought this week would be a good time to share a strategy to begin strengthening your habit of positive thinking that I’ve seen work for many people.

The Christmas Season is a great time to start a gratitude journal.  

You need a notebook kept bedside so each night, right before you go to sleep, you can write 5 things for which you are thankful and grateful in your life.  Really feel this!  This will put your subconscious mind (that runs your body) in a relaxed, positive state and help keep you there while you sleep.  First thing in the morning before you get out of bed, grab the journal and begin reading all that you have written over the previous nights until you “feel” that you are in a true state of gratitude.  This should not just be a list of stuff – it should be a list of everything meaningful in the past, present and even future.  Doing this in the morning will help you start your day in the right state.  This strategy sounds simple, but I’ve seen it be extremely effective.  Even if you believe yourself to be a positive person, commit to doing this for one month and see what changes take place in your life.

The Power of Positive Thinking

Several times, I’ve discussed the importance of lowering stress and monitoring your thoughts to promote health and prevent disease.  I even cited the studies showing negative thinking changed the expression of our DNA (in a bad way).  Massive amounts of medical research have been performed in the last few years looking at this brain-body connection.  The basis of this research is that the brain runs the body and what the brain puts out will be expressed in the body.  This is precisely why many experts are now coming to believe that our thinking may be the most important lifestyle factor even over diet and exercise. 

With the use of functional MRI, they have identified the origin of negative and positive thinking and have discovered that positive thoughts originate in the front of the left side of the brain and negative thoughts originate from the same spot on the right side.  The importance of this discovery is when they had someone think a negative thought and then asked them to stop thinking that, nothing changed on the MRI.  Researchers quickly learned that the only way to turn off the right side of the brain associated with negative thinking is to turn on the left side associated with positive thinking.  This means that feelings of depression, anger, frustration, fear, and regret cannot just be turned off!  They have to be replaced with feelings of joy, peace, love, faith, and gratitude.  My belief is that these thought patterns, positive or negative, are habit forming.  Like anything, we get better at repeating these patterns with practice.  What are you practicing?  Even if you are practicing the negative thoughts that have a devastating effect on your health, you have the choice to change even just a little at a time.  Next week, I will share some tested strategies on how to start making this change.

It’s That Time Again

If you’ve been a regular reader you may recognize that this is a repeat article on seasonal affective disorder or S.A.D.  This condition is more commonly referred to as the “winter blues” and it is characterized by a sense of depression that starts in the fall and ends in the spring and is accompanied by decreased energy and initiative.  While this condition is commonly treated with prescription drugs and antidepressants, often its ‘cure’ is intimately related to its cause.

The reason many people get S.A.D. in this part of the country at this time of the year is because the weather forces us into hibernation with a deficit of sunlight exposure.  Regular exposure to sunlight stimulates our skin to release vitamin D.  In truth, vitamin D is less of a vitamin than it is a hormone precursor.  Optimal levels of vitamin D simulate and balance our hormones to help regulate our normal physiology.  When we are lacking adequate sun exposure causing a deficiency of vitamin D, our hormones become imbalanced resulting in depression, fatigue and numerous other problems.  If you worry that you suffer from these winter blues and weekend trips to the Bahamas are not an option you can try a couple options.  First, you can supplement with vitamin D.  While this often works, you need to take much more vitamin D than is in your multivitamin as it does not get into the system easily.  When supplementing, you do need to practice caution because it is possible to get too much vitamin D and the only way to truly know your level is a blood test.  The second option is the use of light therapy using a light box that runs about $60 and is intended to provide synthetic sunlight.

I repeat this article because it affects so many people this time of year.

Boost Your Immunity

In the past couple articles, I’ve discussed how sugar decreases a person’s potential for wellness by compromising the immune system and limiting a person’s defense.  In this article, I’d like to point out one of the many ways to strengthen the immune system and improve defense.

One of the studies that inspired me to pursue chiropractic in the first place was performed in 1989 by Ronald Pero, Ph.D.  Dr. Pero was the chief cancer prevention researcher at New York University.  Since cancer is recognized as an immune system problem, Dr. Pero decided to check the immune systems of people under chiropractic care as compared to people in the general population and to people with cancer or other serious disease.  In a 3 year study of 107 individuals who had been under regular chiropractic care for at least 5 years, he found that this chiropractic group had a 200% greater immune function than the general public.  More than this, he found that the chiropractic group had a 400% greater immunity than people with cancer and other disease.

In his conclusion, Dr. Pero reported, “I have never seen a group other than this chiropractic group to experience a 200% increase over the normal patients.”

In addition to regular exercise, proper diet and reduced stress, maintaining the proper function of your spine and nervous system through regular chiropractic adjustments is proven to be a vital component of optimal health and wellness.

Sugar - Part 2

If you missed last week’s column, I picked on sugar.  If you missed it, that’s o.k. because this week I’m going to do it again!

Last week I reported how cutting sugar in schools improves student performance and behavior.  We all know that sugar contributes to obesity and of course is the main cause of type II diabetes.  This week I’d like to talk about how sugar adversely impacts your body’s defense or your immune system.

I’ve heard it reported that the amount of sugar in a single soda (which is about 12 teaspoons!) will virtually shut down your immune system for about two hours.  This makes you much more susceptible to all types of infection.

Did you know that about 75 years ago the Nobel Prize was given to Dr. Warburg of Germany when he discovered that sugar caused cancer?  Dr. Warburg reported that almost anything can cause cancer, but that there is only one prime cause and that is the fermentation of sugar in normal body cells.

A similar 2004 study concluded that women who ate more sugar-laden foods were nearly three times more likely to develop colon cancer.

We all know that sugar is bad for us, but hopefully this information can serve as motivation to avoid the sweets more often for better health.

Sugar

Despite the reported side effects of psychosis, mania, and hallucinations, over 4 million children in the U.S. are using prescriptions of ADD and ADHD medications.

An Atlanta, Georgia school principal has taken on an alternative approach.  What did he do in his school . . . banned all sugar.  After overcoming his own health problems with diet and exercise, Principal Butler requires physical exercise in his school and they have enforced a policy of no sugar.  Instead, the lunch room serves healthy lunches and snacks.

According to Butler, after adopting this simple policy in his school, just in the first year standardized test scores improved 15% and discipline problems decreased by 23%.  As an added benefit, student health has improved dramatically and obesity is virtually non-existent in his school.

Principal Butler also notes, “In nine years we have saved $425,000.  We’ve done that not by cutting back, but by having more fruits and vegetables.”

Hopefully, in time, all schools will follow the practical lead being taken by this Atlanta school.  But until that happens, we can all develop similar policies in our own homes.  If you want to see changes in your kids, start with yourself – be the example that you want to see in them!

Billfold Pain

A recent study in Spine Journal revealed that the annual cost of low back pain was a staggering $90.7 billion in this country alone.  While countless studies has shown the efficacy of chiropractic as a treatment for back pain, the Manga report done in Ontario demonstrated that: “(1) chiropractic manipulation is safer than medical management for low back pain;   (2) that spinal manipulation is less safe and effective when performed by non-chiropractic professionals;   (3) that there is an overwhelming body of evidence indicating that chiropractic management of low-back pain is more cost-effective than medical management;   (4) and that there would be highly significant cost savings if more management of LBP was transferred from medical physicians to chiropractors.”

This week I would like to share a tip that can often be a complicating factor of low back pain for the men out there.  When you sit, please take your wallet out of your back pocket.  I cannot tell you how many times I have seen this simple modification help resolve and prevent back pain from reoccurring.  When you sit, you put about 12 times more pressure on your pelvic joints and sitting on a wallet on one side can throw you out of alignment.  I always tell patients that sitting on a wallet is like driving your car with 18 inch tires on one side and 14 inch tires on the other – it will always throw you out of balance and create excessive wear-and-tear on your pelvic joints and lumbar spine and discs.  

Inflammation - Part 3

Over the last two weeks we have discussed the dangers of inflammation in the body and the research that all disease begins with some level of inflammation.  We have discussed how oils (corn/vegetable) and all grains (even the healthier ones) contribute to this inflammatory process.  Today I’d like to talk about what you can and should be doing to reverse this process and “deflame.”

Turns out, Mom was right again – you need to eat your fruits and vegetables.  These are nature’s anti-inflammatories and eating them regularly will decrease your risk of nearly every disease.  To get the real value of these foods you should eat most fruits and vegetables raw or lightly steamed.  Cooking at high temperatures breaks down the enzymes and fiber that you are trying to get.  How much should you eat?  This recommendation has changed and they are now saying that you should have 5-13 servings every day!  If you are eating organically, you can likely get away with just five servings, but if you are eating traditional non-organic sources, you should eat more because the organic sources are much richer with the desired vitamins and minerals that promote health.

Before you panic at this amount, an apple is considered to be two servings.  This means that if you commit to having a raw, organic source of fruit or vegetable with every meal of every day you will be covered and on the pathway to better health.

Inflammation - Part 2

Last week we began the discussion of how to reduce inflammation in the body in order to help prevent all forms of disease.  In our diets, with every bite we eat or sip we take, we are either deflaming or inflaming.  Since the diseases that result from chronic inflammation develop very slowly until it’s too late, learning to make the right choices can be the biggest factor for better health.

Last week we discussed that all grains, even whole wheat, will increase inflammation in the body.  

This week, it should not come as a surprise that all oils dramatically increase this same inflammation.  In the 70’s and 80’s, we were sold the lie that margarines, corn oils and vegetable oils were good for us.  The truth is that when we use these trans fats, it is like drinking arthritis and disease.  In fact, all oils, all fried foods, and all foods made from oils such as salad dressing and most pre-packaged foods will increase inflammation in the body.  Corn oil specifically will cause a 70:1 ratio of inflammation.  This means it would take nearly 70 servings of broccoli to balance the inflammatory effect of one tablespoon of corn oil!

The lesson here is the same as with grains – moderation and good choices.  When using oils we should gravitate toward products such as extra virgin olive oil (11:1 ratio) or better yet, coconut oil.  When using olive oil, be careful not to cook at high heat as olive oil will degrade into a trans fat (hydrogenated oil) at extreme temperature – try not to let it smoke. 

Inflammation - Part 1

If there were one thing that every person could do to promote health and prevent all forms of disease it would be to “deflame”.  Nearly all experts agree that the common denominator of every disease is inflammation in the body.  Chronic inflammation will cause everything from pain and arthritis to cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s.  In the next few weeks, I will be discussing how to decrease inflammation in the body.

Most of the process of reducing and avoiding inflammation in the body will start with diet.  Stated simply, we need to increase the foods that decrease inflammation and decrease the foods that promote inflammation.  One food that promotes inflammation may surprise you is grains.  But whole grains are supposed to be good for us, right?  The nutrients and fiber in whole grains certainly are beneficial and whole grains are much better than white bread and products made from white flour.  However, all grains are inflammatory.

Most grains contain two ingredients that are the source of the problem.  You’ve likely heard of gluten.  This protein will often cause a type of allergic reaction in the body that begins in the bowel.  

Grains also contain a substance called phytic acid that will reduce the absorption of calcium, magnesium and zinc.  Likewise, all grains will cause the pH of our body to become more acidic which is known to cause inflammation.

Limiting the intake of grains is a great solution for reducing inflammation.  In the next few weeks I’ll discuss other strategies.

Weight Loss

Certainly there are several effective strategies out there to help with weight loss and promote a healthy way of eating.  I came across this recent study and wanted to share it with you to prevent self-sabotage when it comes to preventing weight gain.

Researchers from Northwestern University have found that eating at the wrong time leads to more than twice as much weight gain as when eating at appropriate times.  These findings were consistent in all the subjects studied.  So what is the wrong time to eat?  Apparently eating after dark is the problem. While still uncertain to the ultimate cause, they believe that metabolism slows at night in response to darkness and circadian rhythms in the body. Calories taken in after dark will not be burned up and will be moved to storage instead.  While we all have different sleep patterns, nighttime is a time for rest and for the body to repair and recharge.  Regardless what time you actually go to sleep, at night your thyroid functions at a lower level dropping your body temperature, lowering your metabolism and encouraging sleep.  This lowered thyroid function and metabolism is likely the cause of this dramatic difference in weight gain at night.

I suspect many of us are guilty of late dinners and evening snacks, but hopefully knowing that these habits deliver twice the punch will make us all modify our habits and plan meals accordingly.  

What Would You Pay for Optimal Health

What would you pay for a pill if you knew it was guaranteed to slow or even stop your brain from aging?  Well, there is no such pill, but the great news is that based on recent information, you don’t need a pill and it doesn’t cost anything to maintain healthy mental function.  Researchers have determined that the primary thing you need to do for your brain is to exercise your body!

Physical exercise is an essential of wellness.  Most people are aware that exercise is critical for maintaining weight, lowering blood pressure, improving sleep, decreasing stress, decreasing pain and even preventing many cancers.  But if these benefits are still not enough to get you going, one 2008 study showed that just walking briskly for 45 minutes three days per week improved “mental fitness” in just six months time. 

A similar study released last September showed that 20 minutes of any exercise per day resulted in improved cognitive function and memory.  The best part of this study was that these benefits persisted even 12 months after exercise had been discontinued!

Regardless of your reasons, the message here is that exercise works and the results are long-lasting.  If you’re not exercising now, it’s time to start.  This study and most others suggest that you need to commit to at least 120 minutes of exercise per week in order to get the best results.

Good luck and always remember that your body was designed to be self-healing.  Practice a healthy lifestyle and let health happen.

Managing Inflammation Naturally

Inflammation is critical for the healing of wounds, fighting infections, and responding to toxic exposures. But like a double-edged sword, inflammation is also a biochemical response that can become too much of a good thing. Unfortunately, if certain substances in our bodies become unbalanced, the inflammation switch can be flipped "on" at the wrong time or get stuck in overdrive even though it is no longer needed.

When inflammation occurs, it can be seen externally as swelling or a rash. But a more dangerous kind is that which can occur internally. If it persists and becomes chronic, it can cause damage to organs or organ systems. Diseases in which inflammation plays a role are heart disease (see my last post), stroke, Alzheimer’s, Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, cancers, arthritis, gingivitis and other “itis” disorders.

The Diet: A Primary Driving Force of Inflammation

Since the prevalence of these conditions can be correlated with and related to our increased diets of nutrient-depleted, calorie-rich convenient foods, it is possible to end the inflammation process with a change in diet. Saturated and trans-fats, refined sugars, processed meats, and artificial sweeteners all shift the balance of chemicals in our bodies toward inflammation by driving inflammatory chemicals like arachadonic acid. Inflammation increases oxidation; oxidation leads to degeneration; degeneration leads to more inflammation; and so goes the vicious cycle.

The Conventional Approach
The conventional therapy for inflammation – pharmaceuticals - has been a tragic failure. The FDA stated that as many as 50,000 people died as a direct result of taking Vioxx, and the 16th leading cause of death in the U.S. are the side effects of non-steroidal anti- inflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen.1 Thankfully, there are natural alternatives that fight inflammation without dangerous side effects.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids
One group of dietary nutrients enjoying much publicity as it pertains to inflammation and other health benefits are the omega fatty acids. Don’t be confused by the wording here. Omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory because they displace arachadonic acid and other inflammatory chemicals, while omega-6 acids can actually drive inflammation. Proper balance is the key. We already get too many omega-6 fatty acids in the diet, but dangerously low levels of omega-3s. Dietary sources of omega-6 fatty acids would be meat, eggs, dairy, and certain vegetable oils such as the ones found in corn, safflower, and sunflower. Foods rich in omega-3’s include oily fish such as herring, sardines, tuna, mackerel and salmon (preferably wild); oils made from these fish; hemp, flax, pumpkin seeds, soy, canola oil, and walnuts and their oils. Also, non-starchy vegetables such as dark leafy salad greens, spinach, kale, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, and onions also have small amounts of omega-3 fatty acids.

A healthy ratio of these two fatty acids would be 1:1, or at most 5:1 in favor the omega-6s. However, the ratio in the typical American diet is more than 20:1 in favor of the omega-6 fats. This unfavorable ratio shifts the body toward a chronic inflammatory state which can set the stage for many chronic conditions.

Scientists were first alerted to the importance of omega-3 fatty acids in the 1970s when Danish researchers discovered that Greenland Eskimos suffered almost no heart disease, cancer, or arthritis in spite of eating diets very high in animal protein and fat. Most of the foods they were eating, it was later discovered, was rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and two omega-3 fatty acids in particular - Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

While altering the diet is paramount, we can also achieve more therapeutic levels of omega-3 fatty acids by supplementing with purified fish oil. Some research suggests taking as much as 4 grams per day of fish oil for cardiovascular disease, and 8 grams for neurological diseases. It is nearly impossible to get that much omega-3 fatty acids from the diet alone, so supplementing becomes necessary as a way to manage these types of problems.

The benefits of fish oil supplementation enjoy one of the broadest and largest bodies of evidence of any therapeutic substance, pharmaceutical or natural. In fact, fish oil supplementation has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks by up to 90%2 (see graph below), and increase IQ scores by up to 13%3.

The Problem of ContaminationThe FDA has stated that a 132-pound woman eating two cans of albacore tuna per week would exceed safe dose ranges of mercury by 3 times! Unfortunately, one of God’s most healthful foods for human consumption has been contaminated by various toxins and heavy metals. For this reason, eating fatty fish must be limited, and this emphasizes the importance of supplementing with fish oil capsules.

However, fish oil supplementation does not necessarily solve the problem, as fish oil supplements can be MORE toxic than eating fish if manufacturers do not take the necessary steps to remove all the contaminants through an ultra-purification molecular distillation process, and then by following that process up by paying a laboratory to perform a third-party analysis verifying that the oils are contaminant free.

The Journey of a Thousand MilesIt has been said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. The first step in beginning a life free of inflammation and vitality-sapping degeneration begins with lifestyle. The importance of exercising, eating healthfully, and losing weight cannot be overstated. And in the context of eating right, since even the healthiest Western diets are so deficient in omega-3 fatty acids, supplementing with high quality fish oil must be considered part of the first step.
__________________________________________

Robbins, Andy. "Managing Inflammation Naturally." Web blog post. Quantum Health. 28 June, 2008

References:

1. Wolfe M M, Lichtestein D R, and Singh G. Gastrointestinal Toxicity of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs. New England Journal of Medicine 1999;(24):188-89.

2. Lawrence J. Whalley, Helen C. Fox, Klaes W. Wable, John M. Starr, Iae J. Deary. Cognitive Aging, Childhood Intelligence, and the Use of Food Supplements: Possible Involvement of n-3 Fatty Acids. Am J Clin Nutr 2004; 50:1650-7

3. Adapted from Siscovich et al. JAMA 1995;274: 1363-1367

Inflammation Worse for Heart Than Cholesterol

Worse than cholesterol?

That might be difficult to believe, but the top health concern of millions of Americans is about to be trumped by what medical researchers say is an even bigger trigger of heart attacks.

The condition is low-grade inflammation, which may originate in a variety of unlikely places throughout the body, including excess fat. New federal recommendations are being written that will urge doctors to test middle-aged and older Americans for it. The discovery of its surprising ill effects is causing a top-to-bottom re-thinking of the origins and prevention of heart trouble.

Conventional doctors call it a revolutionary departure from viewing the world's top killer as largely a plumbing problem blamed on cholesterol-clogged arteries, which is the standard theoryin modern cardiology.

"The implications of this are enormous," says Dr. Paul Ridker of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. "It means we have an entire other way of treating, targeting and preventing heart disease that was essentially missed because of our focus solely on cholesterol."

In the past few years the evidence has become overwhelming that inflammation hidden deep in the body is a common trigger of heart attacks, even when plaquing in the arteries is minimal. Inflammation can be measured with a generic $10 test that looks for high levels of a chemical called C-reactive protein (CRP), one of many that increase during inflammation.

While measuring cholesterol is still an important consideration, it is noteworthy that half of all heart attack victims have levels that are normal or even low. Clearly, something big has been missing from the equation, and that something appears to be inflammation.

Ridker estimates that between 25 million and 35 million seemingly healthy middle-aged Americans have normal cholesterol but above-average inflammation, putting them at unusual risk of heart attacks and strokes. A series of landmark studies by his team beginning in 1997 suggest that inflammation is a better predictor of heart attacks than cholesterol. They found those with high levels of CRP have double the risk of people with elevated cholesterol. High amounts of CRP also predict increased risk of heart attacks and strokes years before they occur, even when cholesterol levels are low.

Having both inflammation and high cholesterol together is especially ominous, resulting in a NINE-FOLD increase in risk.

Nearly everyone who reaches middle age has at least some degree of fatty buildup, known as plaque, in the arteries. The new evidence suggests it becomes threatening if weakened by inflammation, which makes it squishy and fragile. Even a small lump of plaque can burst, prompting the formation of a clot that in turn chokes off blood flow and causes a heart attack or stroke.

Many people with no outward signs of anything wrong have high levels of internal inflammation. It is exactly the same sort that causes swelling, heat, and redness during infections or allergic rashes.

Researchers believe the internal inflammation has many possible sources. Often, the plaque itself becomes inflamed as immune cells invade the area in a defense response. But inflammation that arises elsewhere apparently can be just as bad, because it bombards the plaque with damaging chemicals.

For example, fat cells churn out these inflammatory mediators, which is one of many reasons why being overweight is so bad for the heart. Fat cells, or adipocytes, are now being referred to as “endocrine organs” by researchers because of their ability to “talk” to the rest of body through inflammatory mediators, and the language they speak is one of alarm. Being overweight sets off an ongoing state of alarm throughout the body through the production of inflammatory chemicals, and they in turn can cause muscle tissue breakdown and a catabolic snowball process that leads to more inflammation, more production of fat cells, and an accelerated rate of aging and degeneration through increased oxidation.

Other possible triggers of CRP include high blood pressure, smoking and lingering low-level infections such as chronic gum disease.

Although many chemicals increase during inflammation, CRP is particularly easy to measure. Many doctors believe that CRP should measured in everyone over age 40, just like cholesterol, regardless of their other risk factors like cholesterol or high blood pressure.

"It begins to look like a standard risk factor that one would evaluate at least once in middle age in most people," says Dr. Wayne Alexander of Emory University. "This is a very important concept for the general public to be aware of and to think about for their own health."

"We believe the niche for C-reactive protein - and it is a large niche - is the healthy population who want to do what they can to lower their risk of cardiovascular disease," says Dr. Richard Cannon of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Screening is important because inflammation can be readily lowered in several ways. One of the most powerful is losing weight. Exercise also helps, as does moderating alcohol intake, giving up smoking and lowering one’s blood pressure. Thus, doctors are likely to urge these habits for people with high CRP readings who until now would have seemed to be at no special risk of heart problems.

"In the last decade, people talked about their cholesterol levels," Dr. Cannon says. "In the next decade, the cocktail chatter will be, 'What's your C-reactive protein?' Everyone will need to know that."

Robbins, Andy.  "Inflammation Worse for Heart Than Cholesterol."  Web blog post.  Quantum Health.  23 June, 2008

5 Super-Foods that are Probably Already in Your Cupboard

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

5 Super-Foods that are Probably Already in Your Cupboard

When considering the typical American diet full of fried foods, nutritionally-flawed fast food, and the ever-increasing amount of sugar and chemical additives, it leaves one wondering how in the world anyone lives to a ripe old age!

It turns out that hidden in the typical western diet of highly-toxic processed foods are wonders of nature that you'd never suspect are really health foods.
Here, then, is a short list of the five most powerful health-enhancing foods that don't seem like health foods but which are quite possibly already in your cupboard – foods that help to ward off disease even when the rest of the diet is not so healthy.

#1 - Mustard
Mustard, believe it or not, is a medicinal paste made from the seed of the mustard plant. It's a superfood that's been around for at least 5,000 years, and it's one of the few common sources of the anti-carcinogen, selenium, a trace mineral often absent from our produce because of over-farmed soil.
Mustard is known to help in reducing migraines, and it's a natural anti-fungal and antiseptic. Another benefit of mustard is that it's never made with MSG or yeast extract. Mustard products -- even conventional products from non-health-food companies -- are still very healthful to consume.

#2 - Cole Slaw
Cole slaw is made out of one of the most powerful natural medicines in the food kingdom: raw cabbage.

Raw cabbage is a proven cure for stomach ulcers. It's also an amazing anti-cancer food that can help prevent (or even reverse) many types of cancer. Cabbage has been one of the most medicinal foods ever consumed in the history of mankind. It's also good for you even when cooked, such as in the case of cabbage soup, or fermented, such as in sauerkraut.

Cabbage is rich in indole-3-carbinol (I3C), one of its many anti-cancer nutrients.
It's best to make your own cole slaw at home, but if you purchase store-bought cole slaw, be sure to avoid processed ingredients often used in cheaper cole slaw recipes, such as high-fructose corn syrup and canola oil (which is often GMO).

#3 - Cinnamon, cloves, rosemary, paprika and other spices
Nearly all the pungent cooking spices are actually powerful medicines.

Cinnamon, for example, helps regulate blood sugar in diabetics. Cinnamon is also a powerful anti-microbial agent (i.e. it kills bad bacteria).
Cloves are the No. 1 source for the highest density of antioxidants found in the entire food supply. Yes, cloves have a higher ORAC value (an antioxidant score) than any other food or spice.

Rosemary is a great source of antioxidants as well, and is also a powerful digestive tonic, anti-inflammatory, and internal detoxification herb.
Ginger is legendary as an immune-boosting, circulation-enhancing tonic herb that's also fantastic for beating winter colds and flu. Ginger even works to relieve muscle pain!

If you like curry, then you'll be glad to know that turmeric, the main ingredient in curry, is also an amazing source of natural medicines. It's a powerful anti-cancer as well as an anti-inflammatory medicine.
In Southern and Midwestern cuisine, barbeque sauce is a surprisingly good source of bitter alkaloids and health-enhancing spices (often including mustard and paprika), but this is only true with the rich, homemade sauces, not the highly-processed super-market sauces, which are usually loaded with sweeteners.

Nearly all the common spices you find in grocery stores are medicinal foods.

#4 - Raisins
Raisins may not sound unusually healthy, but if you think about what they really are, it becomes obvious how powerful they can be as a health food. Raisins are dried grapes, of course, meaning they contain all the natural phytonutrients of grape skins.

Remember: Most of the phytonutrients in grapes is found in the skin. This is why it's so important to buy only organic raisins, because grapes sprayed with fungicides have low levels of resveratrol – one of the most powerful of all the nutrients found in grapes. Organic grapes have the highest levels of resveratrol.

Raisins are also very high in naturally-occurring antioxidants, making them a fantastic overall source of nutrition.

#5 - Common nuts: Walnuts, pecans, peanuts, etc.
Once again, nuts may not be on your list of the healthiest foods, but they probably should be. Walnuts are an amazing natural medicine that helps reduce the risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. They're very high in natural antioxidants and also help reduce the risk of prostate cancer.

Pecans boost brain protection and also help lower cholesterol levels. Almonds are now being widely used to make almond milk (a natural anti-cancer milk beverage) and almond butter, and even the common peanut is now making a comeback as a health food.

Just remember: When you buy nuts, raw is best because heat processing destroys the phytonutrients found in foods. Avoid "salted" nuts because they're almost always salted with toxic sodium chloride (simple table salt). Avoid "flavored" nuts because they almost always are made with MSG flavor enhancers such as yeast extract or autolyzed proteins. Just look for plain, simple, unsalted nuts.

So there you have it: Five simple and common foods that you probably didn’t know were healthy super foods.

Vitamin D: A Deficiency Pandemic

Dr. Michael Holick, MD, of Boston University and author of The Vitamin D Solution, says that vitamin D deficiency is epidemic throughout the USA through all age groups. In fact, 75% of US teens and adults are deficient. Unless you live south of the 30th parallel, which runs along the panhandles of Florida and Texas, it is very difficult to get enough vitamin D from the sun, especially in the winter months, because the sun never gets high enough in the sky for the ultraviolet rays to penetrate the atmosphere. Furthermore, less and less people get out in the sun because of inside activities and entertainment. Kids and teenagers, for example, once active outdoors, find more reasons to stay indoors than to go outside because of digital entertainment. Similarly, the elderly rarely get enough sun exposure because of inactivity. Thus, it has become important to supplement this important nutrient even during summer months, since serum levels of most patients tested will be woefully inadequate all throughout the year, and because nearly every disease has a vitamin D deficiency connection. 

While supplementation seems to be the answer, a Boston study found the 36% of young adults 18-29 years old had vitamin D levels below 20 ng/mL at the end of winter in spite of consuming fortified milk or a multivitamin daily. Furthermore, an article appearing in JAMA (Feb. 11, 2013) indicated that researchers found that OTC vitamin D supplements from a dozen manufacturers tested at a range that was as low as 52% of their advertised vitamin D content. Duffy MacKay, vice president of the scientific and regulatory affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) in Washington, DC - a trade group representing supplement manufacturers and ingredient suppliers, said that "there is no excuse for supplements to deviate from their labels." Yet, this goes on in the industry routinely because there are no FDA regulatory standards on supplement label claims. That is where GMP certified products that are tested both internally and externally ensures products that do not deviate from label claim.


The Vitamin D Council has recently raised their supplement recommendations from a minimum of 4,000 IUs per day to 5,000. Hence, active people might consider supplementing at least 1,000 IUs per day during the summer months if they get outside regularly, and more if they are less active. During the winter months, it is not unreasonable to supplement as much as 10,000 IUs per day, and more if serum levels are extremely low. 

Robbins, Andy.  "Vitamin D: A Deficiency Pandemic."  Web blog post.  Quantum Health.  28 June, 2013

With Every New Beginning

After quite a bit of deliberation, I want to inform you that I’m going to discontinue the “Let Health Happen” column (at least for now).  For one thing, after nearly 300 columns, quite frankly, I’m running out of things to write about.  More importantly, I’ve decided it’s time to come out of my safe zone and get out doing more talks in the community in person rather than writing it in from a distance.  So for this last column, I’d like to reflect on a few of the concepts I believe are most important.

This column has been called “Let Health Happen” because you were genetically designed for health.  If God made us in his image and that image is perfect, then you were created in perfection.  The trick is to let that perfection express itself and get out of the way.  Getting out of the way is all about lifestyle.  Controlling your relationship in regard to what you eat, how you move or exercise and how you manage stress or think, has absolutely everything to do with your physiology expressing health naturally or expressing a state of dis-ease or illness.  In the end, there are only two real causes of disease – deficiency and toxicity.  Deficiency is when we are not providing our body with the essential components it requires.  This includes vital nutrients from real food, adequate movement and physical exercise, and positive thoughts or emotions.  Toxicity is when we are putting components into our body that simply don’t belong.  Obviously this includes all the junk, fake, processed food, but a sedentary lifestyle is toxic as well.  Most importantly, negative thoughts, feelings, and self-talk are all toxins that lower our vibrational energy and change the expression of our hormones to what I’ve commonly referred to as stress-physiology.  The New England Journal of Medicine states that 75% of all disease and the associated expenses are preventable.  This means the nearly all disease is related to lifestyle and not something that is acquired as the result of bad germs, bad genes or bad luck.  And because your body is innately intelligent, it also means that you can begin to change your outcomes.  In fact, we see amazing outcomes in our office even with bloodwork in just 8 weeks’ time when you begin to address these critical lifestyle factors.  When it comes to your health, you are not a victim, you are in control!

We will be reposting all the old articles on our website blog every week and I will commit to including some new posts at least a couple times per month.  Please go to www.rivertownchiro.com to check our blog and while you’re there, sign up for our free newsletter as well as information on upcoming events.  To receive these articles via email, click on the title (With Every New Beginning), enter your email address and hit submit.  I would like to thank the Madison Courier for working with me on this column for the last 5 ½ years.  But most of all I would like to thank all of the local people who supported this column and let me know that they looked forward to reading it – that the information made a difference!

Posture Problems

In the first chapter of every physiology book you’ll find the phrase, “Anatomy dictates physiology.”  In other words, our structure dictates our function or how well things work.  This is certainly true in your neck.  A normal neck has a 35-45 degree curve as measured on x-ray.  Think of this like the bow in a dam or a bridge.  The curve provides flexibility and strength amongst numerous other functions.  When the curve is lost or especially reversed, problems can arise with our physiology.  These include chronic aches and pains, but also bigger problems with overall health. 

The normal curve (lordosis) of our neck develops as an infant when we begin to hold our head up and crawl.  As mentioned, this curve reduces stress on the soft tissues of the neck and provides flexibility – think of it like a spring or shock absorber for the weight of the head.  This normal curve keeps the vertical pressure and weight of the head on the backs of the vertebrae rather than the fronts where the discs are.  Likewise, the curve allows the numerous little muscles on the back side of the neck to stay relaxed.  Poor posture from driving or sitting at a desk or especially looking down at a phone, tablet, or laptop for hours will change the muscle balance of the neck; stretching the muscles of the back side while shortening those in the front.  Some studies have shown that this phenomenon will happen 80% of the time after a whiplash accident from a car wreck or other injury.  In previous articles, we called this “upper-crossed syndrome.”  This syndrome results in a straightening of the neck or sometimes even a reversal of the curve.  Either way, when the curve is lost, you lose the functional advantages mentioned above and forces are shifted to the front of the vertebrae and onto the discs.  The result will be chronic tightness of the muscles in the back of the neck, chronic neck pain and stiffness, tension headaches, shoulder tension, and loss of normal range of motion in the neck.  Over time this imbalanced pressure creates excessive wear-and-tear that causes degenerative changes such as arthritis of the spine and breakdown of the discs.  Worse than this, as the head starts to drift forward from these changes of the neck, our shoulders won’t move the same.  Also, breathing will become more difficult.  You can try this on your own – just push your head forward and attempt to rotate your shoulders like you were swimming or take deep breaths.  A landmark 2004 study looking at thousands of subjects found that the loss of curve in the neck will increase tension in the spinal cord and stretch the cord up to 5-7 centimeters.  The study found that people that had this loss of curve on average lived two years less than those who retained the normal curve in their neck.

The good news is that all of this can be prevented and many times reversed.  Obviously, focusing on normal posture is critical.  But even when the curve is lost, there are neck and shoulder exercises that work to undo the damage.  Contoured cervical pillows help prevent the problem, but only if you sleep on your back.  When the curve is already lost, in most cases, you will need to practice some form of neck traction/extension regularly over a period of 6-12 months and there are various products that are designed for this retraining of the neck.  

Two Opportunities

I want to make you aware of a couple events we have planned to help promote health and wellness.  My experience is that people are either scared into making changes and moving toward wellness, or they are inspired to do so.  Unfortunately when fear is the factor, it generally means that you’re making decisions from a doctor’s office due to unfavorable tests or worse, from an emergency room.  While it’s never too late to make better choices and change, this is not the best way to do things.  We decided to bring two separate events to the community in hopes of enlightening and inspiring you to make the changes that result in better health and we’ve partnered with North Madison Christian Church to provide us with a big enough room and first-rate facility to accommodate as many people as possible.

The first event is something we’ve done before – we’re re-screening the Fed Up movie.  This film is still in some theaters and it’s the film that USA Today said, “Will change the way you think about eating.”  I’ve watched it twice and it will definitely enlighten you as to why our dietary choices are directly linked to our health (or disease) outcomes.  You truly are what you eat!  This movie was produced by Katie Couric’s team who set out to make it a regular segment for her show and decided what they uncovered was much too big for a segment piece.  The film focuses on the true causes of obesity and metabolic syndrome which is the syndrome that is a pre-cursor to heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes.  It’s worth the watch and I would encourage you to bring your kids as childhood obesity is on trial in this movie!  This will be shown in the main room at North Madison Christian (across from the hospital) on Wednesday, January 14^th at 6:30 p.m.

The following week, on Wednesday, January 21^st (at 6:30), we will be bringing in Dr. Denise Chranowski who runs a practice called Wellness Solution Centers in Newtown, Pennsylvania.  She has franchised her own wellness center to over 60 other centers across the U.S. and abroad.  Dr. Denise speaks all over the country on health and wellness and was gracious enough to come to our town!  I’ve asked her to speak on the subject of how to raise healthy families with emphasis on what specific steps we can take to ensure results.  I learned the last time that we screened Fed Up that people were excited and motivated to make change, but they really didn’t know how to get things going.  Dr. Denise is an expert at this!  This is by far the biggest thing we’ve ever done and I want to thank North Madison Christian for having the vision to include health and wellness as part of their mission for this community.  All are welcome to both events and there is no cost or obligation – this is about getting you and your family the health outcomes you really want!  You don’t need to R.S.V.P., but if you’d like more information, I encourage you to go to our webpage at rivertownchiro.com and sign in your name and email on the “newsletter sign-up” box of the home page and you will get updates of these events as well as future speakers we intend to bring to town.  I hope to see you there!