A chiropractor managing high blood pressure may sound like a stretch, but there is surprisingly good evidence that your chiropractor SHOULD be involved in lowering your blood pressure.
Chances are you or a loved one has a diagnosis of high blood pressure or hypertension. It, in fact, is the single most common diagnosis in family medicine with approximately 25 percent of American adults being affected. A diagnosis is usually settled on when your blood pressure is consistently measured above 140/90, and there is no pathological cause found for the increase in pressure.
Hypertension is almost always a symptom of bad things to come. It’s a major risk factor for stroke and heart attack and contributes to the development of congestive heart failure, retinopathy (eye issues and blindness), and hypertensive kidney disease.
Where does your chiropractor fit in?
Management of hypertension should be a three-pronged approach with nutritional, lifestyle, and adjustment/alignment interventions forming the triad. As the only nationally licensed health care discipline with training in nutritional, lifestyle and adjusting interventions, chiropractic stands out as the premier discipline for managing chronic high blood pressure. The research substantiates this approach.
Lifestyle
A study published in a nationally respected journal showed that the combination of improved diet and fasting normalized blood pressure in nearly 90 percent of the hypertensive group in this study. The drop in blood pressure also was greater than a group taking blood pressure lowering medications.
Nutrition
Several nutritional supplements also have been shown to lower blood pressure in the research. These include CoQ10, vitamin D, magnesium, L-carnitine and others.
Adjustments/Manipulation
Finally, chiropractic spinal adjustments have been shown to be effective in lowering blood pressure. The most recent publication in the medical journal, Journal of Human Hypertension, found that neck adjustments lowered blood pressure on average 17/10 mm Hg versus 3/2 in the placebo group. An added bonus to this research is that it changes the way we think about the cause of chronic hypertension, namely that it may be caused in part by compression of the brainstem in the upper neck.
This post summarizes an article by Dr. Alex Vasquez, DC, ND, DO. If you would like to read the full article, go to the link below:
Healing Tip of the Week
Get your vitamin D naturally! Sunbathing a half-hour a day in midday sunlight will give you approximately 10,000 IU’s of Vitamin D, a very healthy dose of this crucial hormone that has been shown to help lower blood pressure.
Everything is energy. The source of everything you think, do and feel is energy. So, how are you using yours? Are you putting energy into things, people, practices that are draining you? Or, are these efforts sustaining you? Are you aware of what drains your energy vs. what gives you more? How you’re allocating your energy is directly related to how you feel each day and how you’re going to feel in the future.
When you’re injured, sick, depressed, stressed, whatever, it’s a direct result of how much energy you’re expending vs. how much energy you actually have. Most of us believe we have an abundance of energy, and it will last forever. Or, at least, most of us live as if that’s the case. Work hard, play hard, spend time trying to make everyone happy, worry about every little detail of life; spend, spend, spend your energy. But, where is the time for building and sustaining energy? Where is the time for taking care of you? It’s important to have balance. The “secret” to a longer, higher quality of life is to build and maintain more energy than you expend. It’s a balancing act, and the balance is different for each person. Learning how to build your energy level naturally and how to use it efficiently is the key to preventing illness, injury, etc.
You already know how to expend energy. So, how can you build it? It’s simple.
Consider balance and moderation in everything you do. Eat healthy food in moderate amounts. Exercise moderately. Take time to connect with nature, the people and things you enjoy. Take time to nurture yourself. Be flexible – adapt to change as it occurs. Feel the feelings, but flow with the change. Laugh and smile a lot. Spend time with people who love and support you.
We also build energy by paying attention to internal growth through such things as relaxation, meditation, tai chi and qi gong, as well as yoga.
Here are three simple questions you can ask yourself to gain more clarity on how you use energy and what areas possibly need more balance:
What makes you laugh and smile and feel good deep in the core of your being?
What makes you feel tired, depressed, lonely, and void of energy?
How can you redirect and balance those aspects of your lifestyle to build more energy then you’re expending?
If you find that the answers to these questions reveal that you are stuck or that there is no way to change your situation, the acupuncturists at the Advanced Wellness Center are here to help. The foundation of Acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine is to move energy, or Qi, that is stuck or blocked. Moving energy creates change, which helps the body, mind and spirit build energy.
Healing Tip of the Week
We are dynamic, always changing, vibrant beings. Be willing to believe that this dynamic quality opens the door for the unlikely and the impossible to occur. Time is the vehicle of change. Today, practice patience, tolerance, and compassion for yourself as you allow time for change.
With a busy California lifestyle, it can be tough to eat healthy every day. Luckily, in Long Beach, we have several easy options for getting fresh, organic foods. One such place is Olives Gourmet Grocer with one store on 2nd St. and another on Broadway. In Dr. Michael Day’s article, “All Five Servings at Olives Gourmet Grocer,” which appeared in the Long Beach Post on July 6, he describes the ingredients and benefits of a healthy raw meal.
Yes, it does! A single night of poor sleep leads to insulin resistance, according to a study accepted for publication by the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. The study measured the insulin sensitivity of healthy people after a night of eight hours of sleep against the same people only getting four hours of sleep. Insulin resistance, which is common among overweight people and is one of the precursors of Type 2 Diabetes, was increased after the night of only four hours of sleep. Most of us already know that chronic lack of sleep can alter metabolism and contribute to obesity, but now we know that only one night of poor sleep can negatively affect your weight.
Healing Tip of the Week
For many, getting enough sleep only requires a simple goal of getting to sleep earlier. Going to bed around 10 p.m. would give an average sleeper 8 hours of sleep. For these folks, it’s also a good idea to turn off the TV, radio, and end stimulating readings or conversations about 30 minutes prior to bed. I like to call it “down-shifting”. For more serious sleep problems, one effective remedy is acupuncture. Regulating your energy with this time-tested therapy often helps regulate sleep cycles.
Allergies differ from other forms of illness, as they are the result of over-activity of the immune system. They occur when the body initiates an immune response to a non-offending substance such as pollen or a type of food.
Here are a few natural solutions to fight allergies and their symptoms.
Limit allergen exposure: Using an air filter (preferably one that ties into a central heating or air conditioning system) can drastically remove the build-up of allergens in your home. Pet areas, carpets, rugs and upholstered furniture should be cleansed regularly and bedding should be washed at least once a week.
Avoid these foods: Chocolate, sugar and gluten have been closely linked to respiratory allergies.
Eat these foods: Intake of omega-3 fatty acids has been shown to encourage the production of anti-inflammatory mediators. Consider also onion, garlic, ginger, rosemary, cumin and turmeric.
Get your antioxidants: Vitamin C and E, selenium and flavonoids, which prevent the production of free radicals often elevated in allergies and asthma.
Have you had the functioning of your brain evaluated? Healthy brain function not only prevents memory, concentration, and focus challenges but also issues such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia, just to name a few. In fact, two of the most common and misdiagnosed signs of declining brain function, or neurodegeneration, are fatigue and a range of digestive troubles.
Did you know that brain cells (and heart cells) are the only cells in our bodies that don’t regenerate themselves? From the time we’re born, we are all losing brain cells by the thousands, every hour of every day, proportionate to lifestyle stresses. This means, for some of us, this loss is at a much faster pace than others. The factors that accelerate this loss and lead to dysfunction are many and common due to today’s plethora of lifestyle stresses. This accelerated loss of brain function not only affects the elderly but also children and adults of any age. In addition to neurodegeneration, compromised brain firing is what affects children’s learning and contributes to behavior disorders, such as autism, ADD, and ADHD. In fact, one of every eight children is affected by some behavioral disorder. Adults of any age can be affected as well.
The good news is that natural medicine offers lifestyle and nutritional therapies that can provide helpful, and sometimes dramatic, improvements of many neurodegenerative conditions. Further, in a healthy-firing brain, although you’re slowly losing brain cells, your brain can more than compensate by proper stimulation which builds plasticity. Plasticity is the building or reinforcing of connections between remaining brain cells, so you can continue to stay mentally sharp at any age.
So don’t let brain dysfunction unnecessarily depreciate your quality of life and aging. Speak with your wellness practitioner if you feel you are experiencing any signs of neurodegeneration. He or she may recommend you start with a Brain Health Questionnaire or other important testing. With your practitioner’s guidance, you can discover answers that can lead to better preserving your precious mind and memories and even restore the spark of happiness and motivation that makes life so rewarding.
Healing Tip of the Week
Egg yolks are great brain food! Maligned and misunderstood, eggs are a rich source of choline, which is a vital building block of brain transmission. And, the lecithin found in egg yolks efficiently helps the liver to easily eliminate the cholesterol that comes with the egg.
A friend and colleague of mine, Dr. Dan Kehres, once wrote, “Sitting is one of the unhealthiest activities one can do.” How so? The body isn’t designed to sit. It’s designed to move. As many office workers can relate, when we sit too much, unhealthy events begin to occur. The muscles underneath the back of your head start to get irritated causing tension headaches. Your chin starts to jut forward flattening your spinal curve, irritating joints, nerves, and discs in your neck. The shoulders start to round forward causing shoulder and mid-back pain. The low back rounds forward irritating the muscles and increasing the stress on the lumbar discs and nerves.
Unfortunately, modern living is requiring us to sit more and more. How many hours do you sit per day; 8, 10, 12 or even 16? Fortunately, there are stretches and exercises you can do while sitting at the office or waiting at red lights. At AWC, we incorporate these into a program called “Chair Care.” Chair Care is a set of exercises designed to counter the effects of constant sitting. With Chair Care, you will learn exercises, such as “The Fonz” and “Head of the Cow.”
Healing Tip of the Week
Try this Chair Care exercise when you feel your low-back tightening. Make sure that the majority of your weight is supported by your arms. You can use the arm rests as well.
Vinegar has been around for thousands of years, and is credited with many health and hygiene properties.
An important health effect of vinegar is its ability in aiding blood glucose control. It was reported first by Japanese researchers in 1988. Several other studies have pointed out the same findings; that is, vinegar reduces the speed at which sugars get absorbed into the bloodstream.
One study by Italian researchers published in 1995 shows that when healthy subjects consumed about 4 teaspoons (20 ml) of vinegar as a salad dressing with a meal that included white bread with a little less than 2 ounces (50 grams) of carbohydrates, there was a 30% reduction in their glycemic response, or rise in blood sugar. That is compared to the same meal without vinegar.
Separate placebo-controlled trials have corroborated the meal time, antiglycemic effects of 20g vinegar in healthy adults. Sugiyama and colleagues documented that the addition of vinegar or pickled foods to rice (e.g., sushi) decreased the GI (Glycemic Index) of rice by 20% to 35%.
From these studies, we can safely deduce that making salad dressings involving the use of vinegar is a healthy habit to support a healthy lifestyle.
Flatulence may be a laughing matter for some, but it’s still socially inappropriate in most settings. So why do some people have it more than others, and what can you do to save yourself the embarrassment of excess gas and “letting one go” accidentally?
Excess gas is commonly caused by the body’s inability to digest certain carbohydrates (for example, beans and legumes, sugars, starches and fiber). When the body doesn’t have the right enzyme to digest the food, it ferments in the large intestine where it gets broken down by beneficial bacteria. This process produces hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane. This gas produced in the colon needs to exit! Hence, flatulence occurs.
If excessive gas becomes a problem for you, your healthcare practitioner can offer effective treatment. You may be asked to provide a food journal to review your food and drink intake and decipher which food may be the culprit. Certain digestive herbs or supplements may be recommended to help resolve the issue.
Want to get to the bottom of your gas? Write us a question or comment, and we’ll offer suggestions and/or let you know how we can help!
Healing Tip of the Week
Some of the healthiest people eat simply and chew food thoroughly, as do many children, who are more in touch with their instincts. This makes it easier for the body to manufacture the enzymes to properly digest food.
Have you ever experienced the infamous “food coma”. Most of us have. This is the feeling of fatigue and the need for a nap after a big meal. Or have you ever had weakness or “the shakes” after forgetting to eat, which promptly goes away after eating? Truth be told, both of these experiences are not normal and are in fact an indicator of less than optimal health.
Large changes in energy after eating is a sign of poor blood sugar stability. Blood sugar stability is a crucial aspect of health. It affects everything from your risk of developing Type II Diabetes to the promotion of inflammation and auto-immune disorders within your body. The bottom line is that any drastic change in your energy, whether it be fatigue or increased energy, is not healthy. You want to work toward steady, constant energy levels throughout the day instead of experiencing that post-lunch, 3 o’clock crash.
Here are some key things to look for when monitoring your blood sugar stability:
Fatigue after meals
Sugar cravings after meals
Difficulty falling asleep
Or
Energy after meals
Sugar cravings before meals
Inability to stay asleep
Crash and crave sweets between 3-5pm
So how do you attain this nice, steady energy? As always, it starts with the basics. Eat every few hours. Focus on meals and snacks that increase your fiber and protein intake and decrease your sugar and starch intake. Good snacks include nuts, seeds and veggies. Avoid going more than 12 hours without eating. This may mean that you may need to eat dinner a little later to shorten the fast between dinner and breakfast. Also start exercising. Any exercise that you look forward to doing and enjoy is beneficial. If this does not calm your symptoms down, you may need to see a professional at AWC who can prescribe a supplement to modulate the systems responsible for blood sugar stability.
Healing Tip of the Week
Always have a healthy snack at the ready in your purse or glove compartment. Getting hungry and being far from home can lead to unhealthy eating, such as fast food or gas station snacks. Having a bag of nuts or a healthy bar can help you stop your hunger just long enough to get you home to a healthy meal.
