It's Your Life...Live it Well

This is a repost from Millar Chiropractic Clinic website

 

Envision Your Future

Chiropractic Care and Your Next Ten Years

Can you have a rewarding, fulfilling life when one's health is not good? Sure, but most people would agree that good health, or at least improving health, helps to make life much easier and enjoyable. With good health one has more energy, and with more energy one can do more things.  Chiropractic care addresses several  components of good health and encourages a person achieve good health from a more holistic perspective. Chiropractic care primarily focuses on the spinal column and nerve system. By improving a person's spinal biomechanics and optimizing their nerve system function, chiropractic improves energy levels throughout the body. Chiropractic care also helps reduce pain, so you can be more active in your everyday life, and get more out of whatever forms of activities and exercise you do. Chiropractic care also helps makes rest more efficient, maximizing your body's restorative powers, so you can get more benefit from your time spent resting and sleeping. The many benefits of chiropractic care assist you in achieving increased levels of health and well-being. Chiropractic care also helps support all your other activities and endeavors as you strive for optimal wellness.

What does your future hold in store for you? None of us can know for certain how long we are going to live, but some predictions are possible. Stock market indexes and hemlines will invariably fall. Then everyone will hope that they will rise again. Then in a couple of years they rise once again.  We've all heard that change, death and taxes are the only sure things you can count on in life.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  The French even have a saying for all this - "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."  Many would agree that in the last ten years, we've collectively experienced more change than ever. It is difficult to even remember life before the computer, internet or cell phones. In the United States an African-American man was elected president. Longstanding dictatorships were toppled in the Middle East. The world map changing almost daily. 

We know that things don't remain the same for long. But the pace of change is growing ever faster. The next ten years have the possibility of being even more gloriously impactful.^1,2,3 The great news is that 70 is the new 55. That's right. Since we're living longer we can do more in life. Just think, actress Betty White has reinvigorated her career at age 89. Jeff Bridges won a Best Actor Academy Award at age 61, highlighting a 40-year career. The 2010 Best Original Screenplay Academy Award went to the 73-year-old first-time winner David Seidler.  Now, it's never too late to follow your dreams.

In the next 10 years, anything is possible. But in order to create a healthier, more satisfying life, we need to change our thinking and lifestyle and move beyond the "same old, same old". Simple changes such as giving up drinking sodas, walking and getting more exercise and limiting fast food can pay big dividends in your health over the years. So can getting regular chiropractic care. As a Chiropractor we have many older patients that get adjusted to maintain their health and wellness.

It is also important to pay attention to your thoughts and notice if you have any that are habitual and negative.  Ask yourself, what underlying beliefs support these negative thought patterns?  Our thoughts and beliefs create who we are and what we experience, and can have a profound effect on our physical bodies.  If you think your "old" and are expecting to "fall apart" at a particular age, your subconscious mind and your body will almost certainly fulfill that expectation. On the other hand the opposite is true.

As a Chiropractor we teach our patienrs to follow the acronym "DREAM." Diet is anything you eat. Rest is not only quality sleeping at night but getting enough rest to continue your activity. "E" stands for exercise. We all must have exercise. "A" is for activity and adjustments. We want our patients to be active. Do something, dance, golf, tennis it really doesn't matter just do it. Then get adjusted on a regular basis to keep you body aligned and ready for the future. And finally "M" is for that mental state that we talked earlier about. If you think your old you are. Get a check up from the neck up and quit that "stinkin thinkin."

There are many people in the public eye who set a great example for remaining youthful and active late in life.  They can be a great source of inspiration as we envision what we want in the rest of our own lives. The old saying, "if it's going to be, it's up to me", remains true today. It's important to make an effort on our own behalf, making choices that will further our growth and development and the growth and development of our loved ones. In doing so, we can create a wonderful next ten years.

¹Fosha D: Positive affects and the transformation of suffering into flourishing. Ann NY Acad Sci 1172:252-262, 20093

²Bunkers SS: A focus on human flourishing. Nurs Sci Q 23(4):290-295, 2010

³Culbertson SS, et al: Feeling good and doing great: the relationship between psychological capital and well-being. J Occup Health Psychol 15(4):412-433, 2010

Turning Back the Clock on Memory Loss

Turning Back the Clock on Memory Loss

Cognitive Function and Chiropractic

One of the theories for why  regular exercise improves mental functioning relates to changes in the amount of blood reaching the brain.  A proposed mechanism involves changes in the strength, structure and function of the brain's own blood vessels. The ability of regular exercise to encourage the growth of new blood vessels and strengthen and improve existing blood vessels depends, in part, on a properly functioning nervous system. Your system of nerves supports the activity of all other body systems. It needs to be operating at optimal levels in order for all other systems to operate at their optimal levels. Regular chiropractic care helps ensure the integrity and proper functioning of your nervous system, including your brain, spinal cord, and spinal nerves. By achieving this, chiropractic care helps you get the highest benefits from your exercise.

Many individuals notice occasional problems remembering things as they get older. Every so often, it may become frustratingly difficult or even seemingly impossible to recall a particular person's name or a specific word or number. One might commit a telephone number to memory and then immediately forget it. Of course, everyone is familiar with the sinking feeling associated with the critical question "where did I put my keys?", or perhaps after a day of shopping: "where did I park my car?".  For most people these are minor glitches, and nothing else. However, for approximately 10-20% of older persons, these lapses represent mild cognitive impairment.¹ And for a proportion of these people, mild cognitive impairment will progress to Alzheimer's disease.

As a Chiropractor we treat the entire body. We help our patients with longevity and aging issues. Normal aging may include occurrences of subtle forgetfulness such as having difficulty remembering certain words, not recalling where you put an important document, or perhaps leaving a full carton of milk on the kitchen counter overnight. But the memory loss associated with mild cognitive impairment represents an actual condition or disease entity. This type of memory loss is more significant and troublesome. People may forget important information such as meaningful telephone conversations, recent events that would normally be of interest, and dates and times of important appointments.

In the early stages it can be hard to tell the difference between mild cognitive impairment and the normal effects aging. Some suspected cases of impaired mental activity may be the result of treatable conditions such as depression or the symptom of an underactive thyroid.

It is common for people experiencing the significant memory problems associated with mild cognitive impairment to decline by about 10% each year. Risk factors associated with more rapid decline include a low metabolic rate in regions of the brain associated with memory and processing of information. More rapid decline is also associated with reduced size of the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped structure located in the center of the brain which is critical in memory, spatial memory, and navigation.

The good news is that people can take action  to improve and preserve their cognitive function. Many recent studies have shown that regular exercise provides a significant benefit in people with memory problems.^2,3 For example, walking just 50 minutes a day, three times a week resulted in long-term improvements in cognitive function. People exercising for 150 minutes each week had better delayed recall and they performed better on cognitive exams. Additionally, people doing moderate exercise had lower Clinical Dementia Rating Scores. In one study, a 6-month program of physical activity resulted in improvements which persisted over an 18-month period.

As a Chiropractor the message is obvious. In order to live long and live well during our advanced years, exercise is critical, and has a wide range of benefits for the mind and body. We now know that exercise can not only improve a person's physical health, but it can also help them maintain and improve their cognitive abilities. Getting regular exercise is a smart choice, and it also helps us stay smart through the years. We encourage you to start at your level whatever that level may be in balance, flexibility, range of motion, strength and endurance. 


For those with mild cognitive impairment we also recommend that you stay alert and active by doing crossword puzzles, math puzzles and even learn a foreign language. So our recommendation is to exercise the brain and the muscles.

¹Petersen RC: Clinical practice. Mild cognitive impairment. NEJM 364(23):2227-2234, 2011

²Lautenschlager NT, et al: Effect of physical activity on cognitive function in older adults at risk for Alzheimer disease. JAMA 300(9):1027-1037, 2008
³Prohaska TR, et al: Walking and the preservation of cognitive function in older populations. Gerontologist 49(Suppl 1):S86-S93, 2009