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

Hello and Welcome to Millar Chiropractic - HealthTalk

Welcome
We are Millar Chiropractic Clinic. We are one of the largest Chiropractic group practices in Alabama. For years we have had a weekly blog "Millar Chiropractic - BackTalk".  In fact, we also have a 30 minute TV show on ABC Waay TV Channel 31 called "BackTalk."  Over the years, we have had so many request from viewers and patients with questions about non back related health topics.

Starting November 2011, we are doing a 15 minute TV show called "HealthTalk" and answering your questions live on the air. This blog is the extension of those shows. A place were we can expand thoughts and discussion on subjects of health and wellness.

When I started Millar Chiropractic years ago, I wanted a place where people could exchange ordinary healthcare for extraordinary wellness through Chiropractic an lifestyle changes. With Millar Chiropractic - Health talk we continue to keep that promise. Follow us as we share health and wellness.

Yours in Health
Dr Greg Millar