In this month’s newsletter:
Happy New Year! This is a special time where many people reflect on 2013 and set new intentions for 2014. Please know that I am grateful and honored to be a resource for you on your quest to enjoy great health and have fun in the new year! We will be bringing to you a new series of presentations at the office on healthy living topics later in 2014, so please let us know if there are specific topics you would love to learn more about.
Read on for a video on immune system boosts, controversy on vitamins, chiropractic and ear infections, fevers, a great TED Talk on stress, and some tips for shopping on budget.
Keys to a Strong Immune System – Watch this 3 minute video from Dr. Pete
The winter months are often a challenging time to stay healthy. In this short video, learn some keys to keep yourself feeling well.
Your immune system is strengthened by quality and quantity of sleep, scheduling enough time for yourself to relax and recover (learning to say yes and say no so you have enough time to rest), limiting sugar and alcohol intake, eating real foods and probiotic rich-foods or supplements.
In the video, we also discuss helpful supplements available at the office that I use for immune support. Vitamin D, Congaplex, Andrographis Complex and more.
Latest Study Declares Multivitamins are Useless. Is it True?
I agree with some parts of the researchers findings. We should strive for nutrient dense diets, where we obtain as much as possible from whole food sources. Also, I agree that most vitamins are useless. Most widely available brands are synthetic. The body does not absorb and utilize these chemicals.
However, I do see value in vitamin supplementation with whole-food based products, such as the Standard Process products we use in the office. These supplements contain whole-food vegetable, fruit, and animal glands in a form that our bodies can recognize and utilize.
Some others have weighed in to question the study as well. If you have any questions on this study or vitamins in general, please let me know. I will be glad to help.
How Can Chiropractic Adjustments Help Resolve Ear Infections?
When the spine is misaligned it affects the normal draining of the Eustachian tubes. Stagnate water left in the ears provides a breeding ground for bacterial growth. A chiropractic adjustment releases the pressure on the tubes allowing normal drainage to occur and reduces the incidence of ear infections.
45 children with ear infections were treated with chiropractic care. 93% of the cases resolved under care. 75% within 10 days or less. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 1996 Mar-Apr;19(3):169-77.
It’s Not the Stress, It’s How We Think About Stress
While driving to visit family over the holidays, I listened to a fascinating TED Talk by Kelly McGonigal. The audio or video is worth the 14 minutes to check out.
The essence of Kelly’s message is this: when you change your mind about stress, you change your body’s reaction to stress. How you think about stress matters. It turns out people do not show negative health outcomes to increased stress levels IF THEY DON”T BELIEVE THE STRESS IS HURTING THEM.
Kelly describes how oxytocin, a hormone, actually helps to heal and regenerate body tissue after stressful situations. She recommends reframing our understanding of the stress response (increased heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, etc) as a helpful mechanism for the body to improve performance and energize for a challenge.
Fevers: Even More Mainstream Docs Recommend NOT Treating Fevers With Drugs
The body produces a fever to help our immune systems fight infection. In much the same way you would boil water from a stream to make it safe to drink, fevers help the body kill off unwanted organisms. It appears that more MDs are seeing the value of a fever and no longer recommending treatment to reduce fevers:
“Parents have been told for generations that a high fever can be dangerous to kids. If you don’t get your child’s fever down, you’ll run the risk of frying brain cells, doctors have warned.
But now the American Academy of Pediatricians has turned that conventional wisdom on its head. A new report published in Pediatrics states that not only is there no need to bring down a fever in an otherwise healthy child, but there is a downside to treating a fever – it can prolong the illness that originally sparked the high temperatures.
The only reason to treat a fever is to make a child more comfortable, a co-author of the report said. “In a normal child there’s no set temperature at which you’d need to treat a fever,” said Dr. Janice Sullivan, a professor of pediatrics and pediatric critical care at the University of Louisville. “Our recommendation is primarily to treat discomfort associated with an illness rather than the fever itself.“
Eating Healthy on a Budget
Look here for helpful tips on minimizing your expenditures while maximizing your good health.
Recently I was in a time crunch and decided to pick up some groceries at Kroger and Remke’s instead of making the trip to Trader Joe’s as I normally do.
I was shocked at the cost differences for some of my staple foods. I have found that farmer’s markets, CSA’s, and direct purchase of bulk meats from farmers are the most economically friendly way to eat well. I regularly get many other items at Trader Joe’s, and then pick up just a few things from Whole Foods and Remke’s.