Things I wished I had done differently about my health.

Today I want to talk to you about relationships.  We all have relationships to different people and things: family, friends, coworkers, money, music, our car, sports and of course, our health.  And just like any relationship, it takes time, education, energy and effort to make that relationship work.  If you do not put time, education, energy or effort into a relationship, you cannot expect that relationship to work.

Your health is no different.  My question to you is, what kind of a relationship do you have with your health?  What are your daily habits that you do for your health?  Are you consistent with them?

Death is one thing that is certain in this life.  Most people believe that in order for us to die, we need to become plagued with chronic diseases, limited function, pain and no energy.  I have news for you, aging and getting old are not synonymous.  If you are not putting energy into your health now, you cannot expect your health to hang around.  You can expect disease and degeneration.  Instead, we can become experts at managing our own stress, eat a clean diet, drink plenty of water daily, exercise 3-5 times a week and get regular chiropractic adjustments. Then one day when you are 110 years old, disease free, pain free, fully functional and have all the energy you want, why can’t our light flicker out?  This scenario sound much more appealing to me then the first.

My point is saying this is your relationship to your health is important.  If you put little or no effort into it on a daily basis, your chances of being in the first scenario are high.  But you have the power to choose differently.  For those of you already living a healthy lifestyle, great for you.  For those of you that need to get started, I hope this compels you to start.  No judgment here from me.  I want to arm you with the knowledge and action steps to make a difference in your relationship with your health.  There is no competition.  Are you on a journey of becoming better than what you were yesterday?  Each and every one of you are so worth it.

I am a big fan of baby steps.  My call to action for you is this.  Pick one thing from this list below to add to your lifestyle and one thing to take away from your lifestyle.   Stick to that for one month, and then pick another.  At the end of the year you will have 12 new healthy habits.

Add to Lifestyle                                                               
• drink more water
• eat more organic fruits/veggies
• brisk walk 15-30 minutes daily
• exercise more consistently
• nurture your inner child/play more
• grass fed beef, wild caught fish, free range chickens and eggs
• more home cooked meals
• more rest/sleep

Eliminate/Minimize from Lifestyle
• soda, store bought fruit juices
• 1 small cup of coffee per day
• packaged, processed, GMO and fried foods
• eliminate artificial sweeteners (Splenda, Equal, Sweet n Low)
• eating out
• being sedentary

Thank you for reading and I wish you well. 

What is a subluxation and why you should care?

According to the American Chiropractic Association and the Association of Chiropractic Colleges the definition of a subluxation is:

“A subluxation is a complex of functional and/or structural and/or pathological articular changes that compromise neural integrity, and may influence organ system function and general health.”

What does this mean?  Vertebra in your spine can become misaligned or misplaced, where their joints do not move as fluidly as they should.  Two vertebra become stuck or restricted together.  This is what chiropractors call a subluxation.  Subluxation means incomplete or partial dislocation.

Why is this important?

The spine has 24 vertebra from our head to our pelvis.  Each individual vertebrae needs to move independently of the one above and below it.  Due to many different things, your spine can develop subluxations.  Subluxations can happen at two or more levels.  Subluxations can irritate and/or put pressure on the nerve that exits at that spinal level.

Nerves are very sensitive structures in our body.  When there is pressure on them, they can cause problems in the body.   Every nerve that comes out from your spine goes to three things: an area of your skin, a muscle group and an organ system.  When a subluxation is present in your spine, you can experience different things, such as numbness and/or tingling, they can affect your muscles causing muscle weakness, muscle contractions or muscle spasms and they can even cause a decrease in organ function.  Subluxations can cause any combination of these things and of various degrees.  The last thing to show up in a subluxation is pain.  However, you will experience pain only in the most acute or extreme situation.  This is why pain is a very poor indicator for health.  Ninety percent of the time you will have a decrease in function BEFORE you experience any pain. This decrease in function can look like headaches, fatigue, sleeping difficulty, sinus or allergy issues, digestion problems, breathing problems, a weakened immune system or frequently getting sick, numbness/tingling, chronic tightness in your neck, shoulders, mid back or low back,  just to name a few.

Why should you care?

As long as subluxations are present in your spine, your body will be operating at a decreased level of function and does NOT have the ability to heal itself.  In the presence of subluxations, your brain cannot communicate efficiently to that specific part of your body.  Without proper communication from your brain, your body simply cannot and will not heal.  Subluxations can contribute to many symptoms and health problems.  Chiropractors are trained to seek out, locate and correct subluxations by delivering a chiropractic adjustment.  A chiropractic adjustment is very specific and corrects the subluxation by putting motion back into that spinal level.   This motion releases the pressure on the nerve and restores proper brain body communication.  Proper brain body communication is essential for you to be health and at your best.

Life depends on you being at your best.  Chiropractic can help you function better to get more out of your life.  Your spine is the gateway to your overall health and how well you function.  If you have never been checked by a chiropractor before, give me a call to come in and simply get checked.  It will take 30 minutes of your time to get educated about your spine.  I will do this at my expense.  To schedule your free screening, call 630-548-0700.

#chiropractic  #subluxation  #napervillechiropractor  #betterhealth

Why your lifestyle may not give you the results you want for your health?

Better body performance

Do you want more energy, clarity of thought, better restful sleep, quicker recovery time from workouts, weight loss, stronger digestion or immune system, less body/joint aches and pains, decreased allergies, food sensitivities or skin/hair problems? Do you have a healthy lifestyle such as consistently exercising, eating clean, drinking enough water and getting restful sleep, but the results or performance that you want from your body are just not happening? I hear this all the time from my patients. Can you relate to this at all? Do you feel stuck? I want you to know that you are not alone. This is pretty common. But there are reasons why your body is not performing. When your lifestyle is not converting into the performance you want from your body, it is not a question of your lifestyle. The question needs to be pointed at the way your body is functioning, or shall I say not functioning.

Every single cell in your body has this innate desire for well-being. That is what I love about the human body and physiology. The human body was designed to ALWAYS heal, grow, repair and thrive, not just to idle by and survive. When you are not getting the performance from your body with the lifestyle that you are living, it may be due to a certain level of dysfunction occurring in your body? What do I mean?

Your cells, tissues (muscle, connective, bone, nerve) and organs need 3 things to perform their normal function and for you to be healthy. Cells, tissues and organs need food to be dropped off, their waste products removed and clear communication from your brain to be able to perform their normal function. If your body can do these three thing efficiently, performance from it is a non-issue.

When your lifestyle is not getting the results you want for your health, it may not be getting proper communication from your brain because you have subluxations in your spine or you have poor posture and the signals from your brain are not reaching the target tissue or organ. If you are eating a clean diet, you may have a subclinical digestion or absorption issue and your body cannot get the proper nutrients to your cells and organs for them to function properly because of specific enzyme deficiencies. Maybe your body is locked into a sympathetic dominance (fight or flight mode) because you are eating too much refined carbohydrates, have a type A personality or have mineral deficiencies. These are a few of the many reasons that can be compounding factors of why your body is not performing the way you want. Don’t sweat it, you need to get your body checked.

This is what I specialize in. I evaluate your body from a functional perspective and find the primary source of stress on your body. Once found we minimize that stress and then work together to improve and support normal function. When this happens and you give your body the time and space it needs to heal, it is only a matter of time before health is expressed. The human body has to. It is what it was designed to do. The main problem I see is that most doctors are not trained to identify the source of stress. Which is why the results are minimal at best. Most people then try to self-diagnose and treat themselves from what they find on the internet, which can be dangerous. If you have a lot of unanswered questions about your health, then call my office and schedule an appointment to get your body checked. I am not okay with people having unanswered questions about their health. Schedule now call 630-548-0700.
#bodyperformance #betterhealth #chiropractic #enzymenutrition

Two Self-Inflicted Sufferings

I was at a conference several years ago. This one speaker came out on stage and started by saying that he recently learned two things that we as humans inflict suffering upon ourselves. I was intrigued. He then proceed to share them with us. They are our constant obsession about the future and our constant comparison to others.

I was blown away by the simplicity and how very true they are. When you are feeling stressed out, stop to think for a moment. Is your stress self-inflicted based on these two concepts? I have done this little exercise countless times over the years and realized how much I was beating myself up based on these two concepts. Can you relate to them? How would your life be different if you become fully aware of these and choose more wisely in the moment when it was happening?

Let us take a closer look at these to see if we can understand them better.

The first one is our constant obsession about the future. Where are you? Going through your average day, how present are you from moment to moment? Are you present and focused on the task or is your mind worrying about a project deadline, meeting or just somewhere else? I struggle with this one but I am very conscious of it. That is a personal daily goal I have for myself. I strive to be 100% present in the moment, all day long. When I can successfully do this, I have lots of energy at the end of the day. This is one way I measure my success. If I did a bad job of being present, I am exhausted at the end of the day. Try it for yourself and see how you do with it?

The second one is our constant comparison to others. Again, this is another great way to beat ourselves up. Do you compare yourself to someone else? Either, with the way they look, how their business is doing, the house or car that they have the amount of peace in their life or just how put together they are. Life is a journey and a process of becoming more. You are exactly where you are supposed to be. As long as you are continuing to work on yourself and striving to become better then you were yesterday, you will get there. Remember, a flower blossoms when a flower is ready, and not before it is ready. Moreover, when a flower blossoms, the flower does not ask other flowers to smell its scent or comment how beautiful it is. A flower is a standalone thing and blossom simply because it can. Being who you are, having the strength and courage to be you and make your mark on the world is what you are here for. You need to be you because there is no one else like you.

Your mind a very powerful thing, and so are your thoughts. Thoughts become things so choose them wisely. I hope this helps you on your journey.

Give this a try and let me know how it works for you. Be well.

#selfhelp, #napervillechiro, #personalgrowth

Baby Steps to Better Health

When we think of relationships, we usually think of them in terms of relationships with other people.  We also have relationships with things such as money, hobbies, our computers, cell phone and of course, our health.  As you know, for any relationship to flourish and grow we need to nurture them by putting energy and effort into them.  Our health is no different.

Many people look for a short cut to regain their health by trying to find that magic pill, certain exercise or gadget that will give them instant health.  None exist.  True health is not obtained or maintained by doing one thing often or doing it really well.  True health is a lifestyle which has five factors contributing to the overall performance of the human body.  These factors are stress management, good nutrition and hydration, regular exercise, a good night sleep and regular chiropractic adjustments.   Health is like excellence, they are both created by being consistent with self discipline and great habits.

The best way to eliminate or dissolve bad habits is to create new ones to replace the old.  We must make sure we see the big picture as to “why” we want to create new habits in the first place.  If our “why” is not strong enough, we are setting ourselves up for failure from the start.  What is the end result we are looking for?  Is it weight loss, more energy or getting better performance out of our bodies? We must have a specific outcome and picture it in our mind’s eye.  Then we must create a plan of specific steps that we can do daily to achieve our goals.  Once a plan is created, all we have to do is focus and execute our plan.

What lifestyle habits do you need to create to incorporates all the factors for great health?  Let’s look at them one at a time.   

A Normal Life

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”  This quote is so true on many levels.  As we grow up and become responsible adults, we tend to forget the potential that lies within us.  What I want to touch on is the innate healing potential the body has.   When we listen to our body and provide it with what it needs to thrive you would be amazed at what is possible.  I see this everyday in my practice with my patients.  My patients make poor lifestyle choices that stress their body and they get sick or injured.  As a result they come to me to help them get their body back in balance.  A normal, healthy, full life is what I intend to live, free of symptoms and disease especially in my golden years.  All of this is possible and much, much more.   Here is an article from a fellow colleague that talks about a normal life that I whole heartedly believe in.  Click here.

Allergies or Lymphatic Congestion?

Do you think that there was a flaw in the design of the human body so that some people are plagued with allergies and not others?  Do you experience mild sinus congestion or post nasal drip on a daily basis?  Or do you experience seasonal allergies spanning 2-4 episodes of sinus congestion a year?  Sniffles after eating a specific food or when you overindulge with the amount of food you eat in one sitting?  Can you identify with any of these scenarios?  Are allergies more of a functional problem with your body or are they a pathological condition?  What really causes allergies? 

Swine Flu Shot

Are you still on the fence about the Swine Flu Shot?   Do you need more information to make a decision?  Here is an article that goes over the nuts and bolts of the Swine Flu Shot.

Swine Flu

My patients have been asking me about the swine flu and I want to address a couple of  things.  First, there is a lot of fear being created in the media about the swine flu going around.  I don’t want people to be afraid of this hype.  Secondly, it doesn’t matter if it is the swine flu, avian flu or the regular flu, there is one thing you need to focus on to protect yourself from ANY sickness? 

I understand that people are concerned and do get effected by what is going around.  At the same time your body is perfectly capable of handling what is going around provided that you take responsibility for yourself and own health.  The human body is an awesome self monitoring and regulating machine.  It knows exactly what to do every time we get sick or injured.  We don’t need to out smart our body, we just need to give it what it needs to function optimally.  Inside us, we have this amazing police force called our immune system.  The immune system can fight off anything that comes its way when it is strong.  What the immune system needs is a properly functioning nervous system, nutritional support and efficient waste removal.

Here are 6 things you can do to make your immune system stronger and keep it there.

To sleep or not to sleep?

 As I see patients over a period of time, I start to see patterns in their health, behavior and lifestyle choices they make on a daily basis.  One thing that I am seeing recently is that people tend to get up, get ready for work, hit the automatic pilot button and go, go, go until they run out of energy at the end of the day 12 hours later.  Then the weekend comes, they go out with friends and are still on the run.  They do this week in and week out.  Does this sound like any of you?  Don’t get me wrong, we need to work and spend time with family and friends.   But what about YOU?  You need time for you to slow down, relax, breathe and sleep to recharge your battery so you can keep going.  Let’s take a look at what happens to people as they live the above example.

It’s overwhelming to see a lot of my patients experience this.  I am constantly advising them to take more time for themselves and sleep more.  Sleep is a very important part of our health.  Getting into the R.E.M. sleep is the only time our body has the ability to repair itself from the daily wear and tear.  It is also when our immune system is the strongest.  When my patients don’t take this advice, they don’t get better or it takes them a lot longer to heal and they get frustrated.  When they do sleep at least 7- 8 hours a night consistently, it is amazing to watch firsthand how the human body knows exactly what to do with their stressful circumstances and it heals very quickly. 

You have this routine down pat.  You are a master of it.  Now you are starting to have insomnia, energy levels are low throughout your day now and the stress at work is increasing.  You still forget to slow down and take time for ourselves and WHAM.  You get a cold or the flu, insomnia, stiff sore joints, heart burn, indigestion, constipation, diarrhea or experience recurring headaches.  We need to listen to our body and check in with it from time to time because our body knows what is best.  When you get sick or you start to experience 2, 3, or 4 of the symptoms I referred to earlier on a daily basis, your body is screaming SLOW down and take care of me!  Symptoms are like the check engine light coming on in your car.
 

For natural solutions to these conditions you can follow me on:
Facebook: Keith Giaquinto
Twitter: DrKG
Website: www.YourDigestionDoctor.com