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

Flourishing - Living from Abundance

Flourishing

Chiropractic Care and the Possibility of Flourishing

Health issues often interfere with the ability to participate fully in life. For example, ongoing lower back pain can make a person irritable and anxious. Lower back pain reduces a person's activities, wastes valuable metabolic resources, and saps energy. The affected person's emotional range becomes restricted as she is continually compelled to be aware of her body's limitations.  Chiropractic care may provide substantial benefit in the case of lower back pain and many other physical ailments. Gentle chiropractic care helps reduce pain by restoring mobility and reducing inflammation of affected muscles, ligaments, and tendons. As the person's pain resolves her interest in daily activities begins to grow. Reducing pain is associated with increasing involvement in life. As good health is restored, the person's ability to thrive and flourish is restored as well.

Chiropractic patients at Millar Chiropractic Clinic are encouraged to flourish in life's opportunities, regardless of possible back pain or stress. How do you determine whether your life is going well? Whether you're happy and fulfilled vs. merely going through the paces? Whether you're growing and developing as a person vs. merely expressing more of the same old, same old? In short, when the alarm goes off in the morning does the prospect of a new day cause you to be filled with excited anticipation and a sense of being actively engaged? Or do you wish you could bury yourself beneath the blankets and put off your daily routine for as long as possible?

"Flourishing" is a term long-used by philosophers to describe a state of ongoing positive engagement with life.^1,2,3 When a person is flourishing she is not only interested and participating, but also widening and expanding her range and her scope. Most of us are familiar with the concept of flourishing as it relates to our plants and gardens. A flourishing tree sports many new branches, many new twigs, and many shiny new leaves. The bark of a flourishing tree has deeper and richer shades of brown. The greens of such a tree's leaves are moister and wetter, reflecting the aqua tones of the rivers, streams, and sky. All the flourishing tree's semi-moving parts are joyously turned toward the sun.

A flourishing human being expresses many similar phenomena. When describing the characteristics of well-balanced individuals, psychologists and sociologists have historically used the term "happiness". But "being happy" seems a fairly passive state of affairs. It's good to be happy, certainly, but what's being referred to is more of an emotional, subjective state of being. You're happy in response to a circumstance or series of events. In contrast, when you're flourishing you're actively taking part. You are the initiator rather than the responder. You're in the driver's seat. You get to say how things are going to go.

How do you achieve a state of flourishing? As always, it's the journey, not the destination, that provides the biggest payoff - in this case, a joyous, fulfilling life. Flourishing as such is not an endpoint - it's a moving target. We need to be proactive to replenish, reinvigorate, and revivify our continuing cycle of 24-hour allotments. One of the ways we teach our patients to Flourish is to visualize and think of all you have... abundance. Then when we compare our abundance with others less fortunate we see that we are truly blessed. We want to live, rather than merely exist. Living requires imagination, invention, interest, and action. Flourishing and living with abundance is an outcome of playing full out, of active participation in life, of living life to your potential all the while knowing that you have so much to give.

¹Menk OL, et al: Exploring measures of whole person wellness: integrative well-being and psychological flourishing. Explore (NY) 6(6):364-370, 2010

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

³Fosha D: Positive affects and the transformation of suffering into flourishing. Ann NY Acad Sci 1172:256-262, 2009

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Toll Free 1-800 Go Chiro 1-800 462-4476

Swing for the Fence

Huntsville    Madison    Jones Valley   Decatur    
Toll Free 1-800 GoChiro or 1-800-462-4476Dr Greg Millar;  Dr Dana Berthiaume;  Dr Jamie Bunis;  Dr Adam Shafran; 
Dr Jack Langston;  Dr Marie Krause

Swing for the Fence

Chiropractic Care and Peak Performance

You exercise regularly and eat a wide variety of nutritionally balanced foods. You get sufficient rest. Your work is personally meaningful. You enjoy spending time with family and friends. This sounds like an ideal healthy life toward which many of us strive. A key action step that would help ensure overall health and wellness for this person (and us) is getting regular chiropractic care. Chiropractic care identifies and corrects spinal misalignments, restoring balance, harmony, and normal function to your body's mechanical center and core musculature. Chiropractic care enables all the body's systems to work well together, working from the inside-out to improve a person's health and well-being.

Swing for the fence. Game-changing plays in any sport and at any level are tremendously exciting. Whether we're watching T-ball, little league baseball, middle school recreational soccer, high school basketball, or Major League Baseball, an extraordinary athletic play makes us stand up and cheer. If our team takes the lead as a result, it makes us feel good about ourselves and our team.

Attempting to make a game-changing play is known as swinging for the fence. But forcing the action in everyday health and wellness is not always a good idea. People who want to be healthy and well can gain value from considering the contrast between swinging for the fence vs. staying the course, tried and true.

For example, if you've played any team sport for any length of time, you know a little bit about what this feels like. Bottom of the ninth, your team is two runs down. You're at the plate with two runners on base. What's going through your mind? Hit a home run, that's what. One swing, game over. Forget situational hitting, you're swinging for the fence.

Or you're the quarterback of your football team. Your team is behind but the score is close or tied. You know you need to make a momentum-shifting play. You've got years of mental images in your head of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady using the vertical part of the field, going down-field, way down-field. You call the play, take the snap, drop back three steps, and heave the ball toward your wide receiver racing to the corner of the end zone. The Hail Mary pass you've just thrown is the football equivalent of swinging for the fence. But your wobbly deep pass could just as easily be intercepted instead of resulting in the difference-making touchdown. You over threw your ability. 

The analogy holds true in all sports. The game-winning penalty kick in soccer. The thundering, momentum-shifting slam dunk in basketball. The dominating volleyball kill shot which drains the spirit from the opposing team. Each key moment is a sport-specific swing for the fences. Again, the opposite result could just as easily occur.

We can see that striving to make a big play is often a mistake and can easily lead to a loss. Forcing the action never works. Smart athletes stay within themselves, letting the game come to them. The best athletes are able, more often than not, to rise to the occasion when an opportunity presents itself. Then, in the context of the flow of the game, you'll see the baseball flying over the fence or the beautifully arcing touchdown pass floating into the hands of the receiver.

This is especially true regarding exercise and health. When it comes to exercise, slow and steady wins the race.1,2,3 Trying to do too much usually results in an injury, which sets you back and wastes precious time in the recovery process or takes you out of your game altogether. In strength-training, for example, lifting big weight is not the goal. Progressive, incremental gains are what build lifetime fitness. Aerobic exercise is similar. Going for a five-mile walk is a bad idea if you haven't walked at all in six months or more. Going for an eight-mile run when you're used to running three miles is another bad idea. Gradual increases in time and distance are what works.

Swinging for the fence is great when it happens. In exercise and fitness, achieving a personal best is cause for celebration. But in exercise and fitness, personal bests result from much effort and preparation. When you have a long-term, solid base of fitness, you can swing for the fence with confidence. You can achieve your dreams. 

¹Schellnus MP: Cause of exercise associated muscle cramps - altered neuromuscular control, dehydration or electrolyte depletion? Br J Sports Med 43(6):401-408, 2009

²Gyurcsik NC, et al: Is level of pain acceptance differentially related to social cognitions and behavior? The case of active women with arthritis. J Health Psychol 16(3):530-539, 2011

³Dumke CL, et al: Relationship between muscle strength, power and stiffness and running economy in trained male runners. Int J Sports Physiol Perform 5(2):249-261, 2010

Double Indemnity for A Wonderful Life

Double Indemnity

Chiropractic Care: Short-Term and Long-Term Benefits

Let's say you make a choice to start taking control of your health. You want to leave as little to chance as possible. You acknowledge that you could get something out of doing some exercise. You're willing to admit that you could eat a healthier variety of foods, including fresh fruit and vegetables. You are going to begin doing the things that years of scientific research have shown to be related to long-term health and well-being. Your partner in this journey to good health is your chiropractor. We like to say you need a medical doctor and a chiropractor. 'You need a medical doctor in sickness and a chiropractor in health. For Chiropractic care is a key component of a complete return-to-optimal-health. With regular chiropractic care, your body is primed to make the most out of the positive actions you're taking, particularly regarding exercise and nutrition. Let your chiropractor be your guide through the maze of vitamins, supplements, exercise and nutrition. To get all the way to good health, all of your body systems need to be online and available. That's what chiropractic care makes possible.

In the classic 1944 film, "Double Indemnity", stars Fred MacMurray as an insurance saleman, Barbara Stanwyck as a provocative housewife who wishes her husband were dead, and Edward G. Robinson as a claims adjuster whose job is to uncover phony claims. The term double indemnity refers to a clause in certain life insurance policies that double or more the payoff in cases of accidental death.  In Life not many things payoff double. And if they do we rarely get to enjoy the extra. 

But,  Surprisingly double indemnity or double payoff works very well for Health Care. Diet -  healthy nutrition, Rest, Exercise, regular Adjustments, and a Good Mental State can pay off, not only double, but often in many multiples. However, before we begin reaping these benefits, we have to know where to look and how to make use of this goodie we all get for free.

Out in the world, insurance policies pay us a benefit when problems arise. Car insurance, home insurance, life insurance, and health insurance are all financial instruments that compensate people (in some degree or other, more or less) when things go wrong. Inside our bodies, double indemnity is double payoff just the opposite. When we do things that are good for our health and well-being, our built-in "banker" pay off double, sometimes triple, and sometimes in ways that cannot even be calculated.

Let's consider a person who is overweight, possibly seriously overweight. That person decides, much like Howard Beale in the multiple-Academy Award-winning film "Network" (1976), that he is "not going to take this anymore". He declares to himself that he will begin to lose weight. He makes a commitment to start exercising regularly and eating nutritious food. Change takes time, and sooner rather than later he loses a few pounds. Then he loses a few more. After three months he's 12 pounds lighter, and after six months he's more than 20 pounds lighter than when he first chose to live a healthier life.

By now his body's double indemnity clause has started to pay off. He began doing some things, began engaging in a healthy new lifestyle, and he begins to reap the other benefits. Owing to his new exercise program and his new diet, his blood pressure begins to go down. His insulin levels begin to stabilize,¹ rather than spiking and falling off drastically throughout the day. His blood glucose levels become steadier, too, and his cells, organs, and tissues (particularly his brain) are beginning to receive consistent supplies of oxygen and other precious nutrients.² His immune system gets stronger.³ As a direct result, his stress levels are going down and his heart rate is steadier. His sleep is more restful and he has more energy throughout the day. There are many other benefits, too, known only to him and his loved ones. And then you might say he has "A Wonderful Life."

Our built-in double indemnity clause is primed for action. It is ready to kick in and begin an open-ended flow of good health and well-being. All we need to do is begin taking consistent actions that will enable our innate powers to function in the ways they were designed to function. So the choice is truly yours to live "A Wonderful Life." 

Call Huntsville Chiropractor Millar Chiropractic for your appointment today at 1-800-GoChiro or toll free 1-800-462-4476.

¹Bloem CJ, Chang AM: Short-term exercise improves beta-cell function and insulin resistance in older people with impaired glucose tolerance. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 93(2):387-392, 2008

²Ahmadi N, et al: Effects of intense exercise and moderate caloric restriction on cardiovascular risk factors and inflammation. Am J Med 124(10):978-982, 2011

³Walsh NP, et al: Position statement. Part one: Immune function and exercise. Exerc Immunol Rev 17:6-63, 2011