More and more folks are asking me about the flu, vaccinations and their immune system than ever before.  It seems the media is creating some top of the mind awareness if not a bit of fear about this.  As a result and in an effort to provide everyone with the full picture, I will be conducting a free workshop on Wednesday evening, the 11^th of November at 6pm here in our office.  If you’re at all concerned about everything you’ve heard lately about the Flu, H1N1/Swine Flu and the new vaccine, if your not sure what’s true, what’s false and what’s been exaggerated, if you don’t know what to believe and what to ignore and if your at all concerned over the rushed development, production and distribution of the new H1N1/Swine Flu vaccine, you need to be here. 

 Without a sales pitch or prescription, I intend to provide you with everything you need to make an informed decision while giving you tools necessary to make sure you are as strong as possible during “flu season” and all year long.  I only have so much space to work with so please call to reserve your seat today at 507-663-6006, and by all means bring a friend.

Whenever I have a chance to talk to someone about advancing their health through nutrition, I inevitably get questions that reflect on the level of programming many of us have received over the years as a result of big business pushing self interested agenda’s. 

As an example, unpasteurized, unadulterated dairy products both cultured and uncultured have sustained mankind for thousands of years and yet when I mention how incredibly healthy and nourishing a good high quality ‘raw’ milk is, they eventually have to ask, “that makes sense doctor but what about TB and brucellosis?” In the past, my answer has been what about it, it is a classic case of guilt by association and money minded entrepreneurs have done a bang up job to keep the association intact for many decades in spite of the evidence.

Recently however, I have come to appreciate that this does little to ease the minds of those who are eager to restore and maintain good health, not only for themselves but for their families. So in an effort to provide some facts concerning this question I came across a well written answer that I think would be helpful.  At  Organic Pastures under the Q & A section you will find:

“In the 1800s, many US dairies began commercially producing low quality raw milk in the inner cities of Boston and New York and others. These Brewery dairies would feed their cows very poor quality “brewer’s mash.” The resulting milk was very weak and nearly blue from lack of protein, mineral, and fat content. This occurred during the Jamaican rum embargo. During this same time period, the dairy industry did not use or have access to refrigeration, stainless steel, milking machines, rubber hoses, hot water, or chlorine as a sanitizer. TB and Brucellosis were rampant (not to mention horse manure on the streets, flies, and lack of public sanitation and sewage) and the cows were milked by hand without mechanical machines. The cows stood in manure and there was no access to pasture (sounds like some factory dairy farms of 2005). The resulting unhealthy milk from these sources literally killed millions. The heating of milk to high temperatures reduced this horrible blight. During this same time period, milk from the countryside taken from pasture grazed healthy and clean cows was the best medicine of the day. In fact, the Mayo Clinic used this high quality country raw milk as a basis for many disease curing therapies. This was the untold story of raw milk. Because of pasteurization successes, commercial interests prevailed and all dairies (the good, bad, and the ugly) then began to pool their milk so that “nobody would die,” even if milk quality was very poor. This was great news for milk mass marketing, and creameries created high profits. These pasteurization practices continue today with the chief benefit being extended shelf life. These modern dead milk products now cause allergies and lactose intolerance to huge sectors of the population.”

I will often make an attempt to answer the questions posed in my office by doing the work myself however I found in this case that someone else has provided a well written answer that does a far better job than I could ever hope to.  Look at the facts, ask hard questions and consider the money trail. It could mean the difference between a healthy life and joining the millions who find their end in cancer heart disease and or a bottle of properly prescribed medication.

“The bitter taste of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.” Author Unknown

This morning, a practice member who had just completed his pre adjustment warm ups said with a smile on his face, “hey doc, I got some “pops” in my back doing the roll this morning, maybe I should buy one of them and get rid of you!.”  While Tom was poking a little fun, he was also, albeit subtle, asking “can I adjust myself?  Given how often I hear this question in some form or another, I thought now would be a good time to address it.

The short answer is no and here’s why.  While it is possible to turn or bend or twist in certain ways to create a “popping” sound that sometimes accompanies a Chiropractic adjustment, it is virtually impossible to adjust yourself correctly and accurately.

The Chiropractic adjustment is a specific force, applied in a specific direction to a specific joint with the intent of restoring normal alignment and function.  This in turn allows the nerve system connections to communicate a normal flow of life energy between our brain and body which then allows us to resume our natural state of ease. 

Unfortunately, the kind of popping Tom was referring to is a type of joint manipulation that can be counterproductive, often making an already unstable spine even more unstable not to mention in rare occasions it can be dangerous. What tends to happen is that through some form of stress or trauma, a portion of our spine locks up and stops moving. The strain this eventually places on nearby vertebrae and nerve tissue is such that they become lose and unstable leading to the earlier described “popping.”  

Keep in mind that everything happens for a reason and should you experience this “popping” in your spine, it’s a definite sign you should have your spine and nerve system professionally evaluated to make sure your natural state of health is not being obstructed.  The time spent will be well worth it as adjusting the spine is not for amateurs!

Absolutely!  Imagine spending the better part of a year feeling as though you were carrying a couple of grocery bags around without ever having the chance to set them down.  Chiropractic adjustments not only help a mother handle the stresses associated with pregnancy but make delivering the newborn much easier for both themselves and the child.

Not only that, improving the functioning of your nervous system, the principle goal in chiropractic, allows for proper development of the child and gives it the best environment with which to develop and grow to express its normal state…healthy and happy!

In our office, the adjusting tables and techniques allow us to adapt to the mothers size, weight, age and condition of health.  Having helped many mothers carry, deliver and nurture newborns into the world, we can have no greater effect on humanity than to encourage mothers to make chiropractic a key player on their families health care team.

“If I have learned anything in long years of introspection, it is that life requires a price if you want to be as fully alive as you can be.  You need courage to pursue the truth of your life and yourself.”  Eda J. LeShan

Every day I’m reminded of the truth of this quote; whether through the lives of practice members or my own, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. We will or will not achieve health depending on what actions we will or will not take, it’s just that simple.  Everything has a price and when you don’t want to pay it one way you’ll pay it another.  If actively creating peace, exercising daily, getting proper rest, maintaining a deliberate and positive focus, eating nourishing foods, drinking life giving water and maintaining a clear neurological connection appear as to steep a price to pay for health, one should expect he will then pay instead with health crisis after health crisis that only get worse with time. The irony in all this is that it’s far easier to live a healthy life than it is an unhealthy one because health is our natural state.  Take a step toward health, then another, one at a time until it’s just the life your living.

Most people go to the doctor because they think they have something they shouldn’t have and want to get rid of.  But over the years, we chiropractors have come to understand that the problem when you aren’t feeling well is NOT that you have something you shouldn’t have and need to get rid of; the problem is really that you have LOST something you need to be healthy and happy.  You see HEALTH (also called “EASE”) is your natural state!   If you are experiencing anything other than ease, it is usually because you have simply LOST something that is necessary for you to maintain ease/health.  Understanding this very simple truth will not only help you get the most out of your chiropractic care, it will also help you and your family to keep growing stronger and healthier for the rest of your lives!

Let’s begin helping you understand this by looking at how your body really works.  There are three things you need to know in order to move consistently toward health, wellness and wholeness.

• 1) Every day, your body either gets a little stronger or a little weaker.
• 2) In order to get stronger instead of weaker each day, you must have a clear neurological CONNECTION between your brain and your body.
• 3) In order to have a clear connection between your brain and your body and keep growing stronger every day, your spine must be properly aligned and functioning normally (because of the intimate connections between your spine and nerve system).

If you understand these three things, you can also understand that if you lose normal alignment or function in your spine, you will also partially lose the CONNECTION between your brain and your body.  This is very important because without proper communication, you lose the ability to purposefully ORGANIZE all of the various parts of your body to work together harmoniously and with EASE.  In other words, you get a little weaker rather than stronger each day and you gradually LOSE your natural state of health/ease.

Chiropractic has only ONE GOAL, which can be summed up in what we call “The 3 R’s.”  Our goal is to;

• 1) Help Restore and maintain alignment and function in your spine, in order to…
• 2) Re-establish and maintain the neurological CONNECTIONS between your brain and your body, so that…
• 3) You can Resume purposefully ORGANIZING all of the parts of your body to work harmoniously together and consistently grow stronger and healthier every day.

And, as you continue growing stronger and healthier every day, you will move consistently from wherever you are right now toward first regaining your natural state of health (EASE), and then keep on moving toward wellness and ultimately into what we call wholeness.

So as we said before, the problem is NOT that you have something you shouldn’t have and need to get rid of; the problem is that you have LOST something you need to be healthy and happy.  HEALTH is your natural state, and if you are experiencing anything other than ease, it is usually because you have LOST your CONNECTION…and our job is very simply…to help you get it back and keep it for Life!

It’s as simple as that!

Your spine and nervous system are so intimately connected that if you lose normal alignment or function in your spine, you will also partially lose the connection between your brain and your body (subluxation). This loss of a clear nerve connection leads to the loss of your ability to function normally which then leads to a loss of your natural state of health.  Adjustments help you by correcting normal alignment and function of the spine which then restores proper nerve supply and your ability to function normally.  Keep in mind, when you are “sick,” it’s not that you have something you shouldn’t have (cold, flu, cancer, pain, diabetes, etc.) it’s that you have lost the ability to function normally.  Getting adjusted helps restore your body’s ability to function and heal naturally through a clear neurological connection.

“If you keep postponing a decision, your indecision becomes your only decision.” Unknown

Billions of dollars are spent every year on health clubs, organic foods, vitamins, bottled water and many other healthy habits but as a whole there are very few who truly experience the kind of health that is possible.  In more than ten years of serving in health care, I have come to believe that the answer lies not only in misinformation but to a greater degree, our motives.  I find day in and day out that most of us have not decided to experience health rather we are striving to “not be sick”.   You see, you can’t escape what you are giving your attention to and when you get flu shots to avoid the flu or take aspirin daily to avoid heart disease your attention is not on health, it’s on the flu and heart disease.  Just look at the proof, our country rates 37 out of 39 industrialized nations and yet nobody spends more money than we do on “health care.”   To decide is to cut off and rule out all other possibilities.  To decide, however unconsciously, to “not be sick” is to postpone the decision to be healthy and be frustrated to no end that your efforts never seem to produce the health you desire.  To learn how to attain health, see our workshop schedule and give your attention to what’s possible, not what the world says you should fear.

For several years now, Sister Luigi Frigo of Cudahy Wisconsin and her second graders, conduct a science experiment to compare the affects of whole food and genetically modified (GE) foods on mice.  Three mice receive nutrition from whole foods while three more receive theirs from foods commonly served in high schools across the country.  The results could not be more revealing and border on science fiction.  The first time her class conducted the experiment, they observed that the mice fed whole foods gave no indication of any problems with health or disposition while the mice fed GE food within days displayed erratic sleeping behavior and became lazy, nervous, and so antisocial that two of the mice eventually killed and ate the third.  Since then, the experiments conducted last only four days however she states that even on the first day of junk food, the mice behavior “changes drastically” and requires two to three weeks on whole foods for their behavior to return to normal.  Any attempts to reintroduce GE foods ends in failure as the mice have learned and will no longer consume the GE food.

          This study is not unique in its attempt to provide information about the power of food on health.  A study in science (December 2002) concluded that “food molecules act like hormones, regulating body functioning and triggering cell division. The molecules can cause mental imbalances ranging from attention-deficit disorder to serious mental illness.”  When you reconcile this information with the ever increasing numbers of kids being diagnosed with mental health or “behavioral” disorders, you can’t help but wonder what’s going on.  Schools all over the world and especially in Europe have banned GE foods to prevent their children from becoming lab rats in a grand social experiment. In America however GE foods are in a majority of our processed foods with no labeling requirements whatsoever; teaching our kids to read labels and expect the government to look out for us will not keep them healthy.  It’s like teaching them that walking in the cross walk gives them the write of way without reminding them to look for traffic; whether you had the right of way or not, if you get hit crossing the street because a truck didn’t yield, you’re still dead.  Don’t be fooled; if your seven year old can’t sit still or concentrate and your 13 year old seems to be on an emotional roller coaster, there’s little evidence to support a deficiency in Ritalin or Prozac, even when the media suggests it as a miracle cure. An old Chinese proverb states that whatever the father of illness, the mother is wrong food.  For more information about genetically modified foods see seedsofdeception.com