Did you ever think your health and well-being are really important factors in the health and well-being of the planet? It’s true. The choices each of us makes each and every day are important for our family’s welfare as well as the welfare of our neighborhood, our community, our city, our country, and our global society.

We do not often consider that a healthy personal lifestyle – relating to fitness and nutrition – has an impact on the environment and the global biosphere. But our personal choices and actions do matter. Our life-affirming choices to get fit, be fit, and eat right affect everyone and everything around us. How you get to work is a perfect example.

Of course, most of us drive to work, as it is a lifetime habit, and we don’t even think about it. But, driving always produces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – every gallon of gas burned pumps 17 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Biking to work and walking to work are fitness-promoting activities that have a double benefit.1,2 You’re exercising on your workdays and you’re actively helping to reduce GHG emissions and stabilize the Earth’s climate.

If it’s too far to walk or bike to your place of employment, arrange to car pool with co-workers and walk or bike to their house on the days when you’re not the designated driver. Planting a garden or participating in the activities of a community garden is a health-promoting action step that has a triple benefit.

First, you’re producing or helping to produce foods that are grown locally. Foods consumed in the United States travel an average of 1500 miles to reach your local supermarket. Foods grown locally eliminate almost all of the fossil fuel resources required to transport non-local items.

Second, you are adding really fresh vegetables to your family’s diet, providing vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals required for abundant good health.

Third, gardening is exercise – the kind of exercise people used to get when they didn’t sit in chairs at desks all day long.

The benefits of health-promoting activities keep on coming.3 For the most part, healthy people do not wind up in the local hospital emergency room. Resource saved include fossil fuels burned by high-speed ambulances, fossil fuels burned to produce electricity used to power life-saving medical devices, and energy utilized to produce the vast amounts of medical supplies consumed in an emergency procedure, including syringes, IV set-ups, and towels, wipes, and disinfectants.

Being a healthy individual as a member of a healthy family has a huge multiplying effect. Your chiropractor knows that all body systems are deeply interconnected and must work together to produce good health. So too are the many different living systems that make up Planet Earth. Your chiropractor can provide you with detailed information about good nutrition and good exercise that can help make a real difference in your health and the health of your community.

1Villegas R, et al: The cumulative effect of core lifestyle behaviours on the prevalence of hypertension and dyslipidemia. BMC Public Health 13(8):210, 2008 2Christie BR, et al: Exercising our brains: how physical activity impacts synaptic plasticity in the dentate gyrus. Neuromolecular Med 10(2):47-58, 2008 3Booher MA, Smith BW: Physiological effects of exercise on the cardiopulmonary system. Clin Sports Med 22(1):1-21, 2003

For additional information on health please contactDr. Jason Fowlerwww.lakestlouisdc.com

The day after Thanksgiving is a milestone of sorts in America. It reminds us of just how quickly the year has gone by, and how close we are to the holiday season. This realization- coupled with the fabulous sales at major department stores and malls everywhere- helps make the day after Thanksgiving our biggest shopping day of the year. And until we flip the calendar over to a new year, the chaos just doesn’t let up.

“Our bodies have the capacity to do a little more than we normally do,” says Dr. Scott Bautch, past president of the American Chiropractic Association’s (ACA) Council on Occupational Health. “But our bodies do not adapt very well to doing more than we normally do. Since the added demands of this season can stress the capacity of our bodies, we need to do everything we can to help ourselves. Eat right, drink plenty of water, stretch, exercise and take a few minutes to slow down and reflect on what the season is all about.”

So relax and enjoy the holidays! Dr. Bautch and the ACA encourage you to consider the following tips to help keep you and your loved ones healthy, happy and safe this season.

Treat Holiday Shopping As An Athletic Event Stay hydrated! Drink eight to ten 8-ounce glasses of water a day. (Coffee, tea, soft drinks and alcohol are diuretics/dehydrators. Don’t substitute them for water.) On shopping days, you may need to drink even more water. Be sure to stretch before and after a long day of shopping. When you are stressed-out, your muscles are less flexible than usual. Wear shoes with plenty of cushioning in the soles to absorb the impact of walking on those hard shopping mall floors. According to recent studies, 60% of women report wearing shoes that are uncomfortable. Make sure the clothing you wear is as comfortable as possible. It is a good idea to wear layers, because you may be going from a cold environment (outdoors) to a warm environment (indoors). Leave your purse at home. Wear a light fanny pack, or if necessary, a light backpack instead. Pack only those items that are absolutely essential (driver’s license, credit card, etc.). If you start to feel some pain, nip it in the bud. Apply an ice bag to the affected area for 20 minutes, then take it off for a couple of hours. Repeat a couple of times each day over the next day or two. “During the holiday season, we’re running at absolute maximum capacity, which can lead to stress and even depression,” says Dr. Bautch. “Why do so many people become depressed around the holidays? We need to stretch and stay hydrated to increase our capacity, so we are not overwhelmed by the activities of the season.”

Plan Frequent Breaks Into Your Shopping Day During a day of heavy shopping, most people should take a break every 45 minutes. Those with less stamina may even need to take a break every 20-30 minutes. If you work in a physically demanding job where you are accustomed to being on your feet most of the day, you may be able to get away with taking less frequent breaks. If possible, obtain a locker. Lockers can help cut down dramatically on how much you have to carry around. You can take a load off by scheduling trips to your locker into your breaks. If your mall or shopping center doesn’t offer lockers, try to plan trips to your car. Don’t carry around more than is absolutely necessary at one time. When taking breaks, try to eat light foods. A salad and some fruit is a much better option than a burger and fries. Skip the coffee break! Coffee and sodas contain caffeine and sugar, which add even more stress to your body. Pass on the designer coffee at the java stand and keep drinking water. “We actually need to eat better than normal during the holiday season,” explains Dr. Bautch. “On average, people gain five to six pounds during the holidays. And heart attacks occur more often during the holidays as well. Eating a heavy meal and then running out on an exhausting shopping trip can be very dangerous.”

Shopping With Children If at all possible, DO NOT bring a child or children along on a holiday shopping trip. Most children simply do not have the stamina for such an event, and you and your child will only become frustrated with one another. Don’t add this type of stress to an already stressful situation. Try to split “child duty” up with a spouse or another parent. They’ll watch your kids while you shop, and vice-versa. “Shopping with children is just a bad idea,” says Dr. Bautch. “If your hands are loaded with shopping bags, you may not be able to hold your child’s hand, which could increase the chances he or she might wander away from you. Take whatever steps necessary to not have to bring your child along.”

Wrapping Your Gifts Since there is no “ideal” position for wrapping gifts. The most important thing to remember is to vary your positions. For example, try standing at a table or countertop for one package, sitting on a bed for another, sitting in a comfortable chair for another, etc. Do not wrap packages while sitting on the floor. Wrapping packages while sitting on a hard floor can wreak havoc on your posture, and should be avoided. Always stretch before and after you wrap gifts. “When wrapping presents, it’s a good idea to ’stretch the opposites,’” says Dr. Bautch. “In other words, if you are leaning forward when wrapping your gifts, stretch backward when you are done.”

For additional information on health feel free to contact Dr. Jason Fowler Dr. Jason Fowler

The holidays are here – Chanukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. Lots of family get-togethers, lots of fellowship and fun, and usually lots of food. Family dinners, parties, family breakfasts, more parties. Is there any way to avoid gaining five or ten unwanted pounds during the extended holiday season? Thanksgiving through early January can be a pretty long time. In order to maintain that healthy weight range you have worked hard to achieve, it’s important to keep following the good habits that got you there.

We want to have fun and enjoy ourselves during the holidays. We want to participate in all the activities and share the abundance of good food with family and friends. The questions is: How to let go without letting go? The solutions are available by having built a solid foundation. Food plans that work are based on a few simple and solid principles -

Eat five or six small meals daily.

Make sure each meal combines protein and complex carbohydrates 1,2 Drink plenty of water Exercise regularly Have a “free food day” once a week Such a food plan is realistic and doable. There’s no crazy dieting involved, no highs or lows. You are eating healthy food with no restrictions, choosing from all basic food groups. You eat anything you want, being sure to follow guidelines on portion sizes. The results are weight loss that stays lost. Because you’re exercising regularly, your body sheds fat pounds and adds a few pounds of lean muscle mass. Your metabolism becomes optimized to burn fat, even when you’re resting. If you’ve been following such a food plan your metabolism is already doing what it’s designed to do. During the holidays you’ll continue to burn fat for energy, provided you don’t overload your system with too many extra calories.

Try to schedule your free day – when you can eat anything you want, as much as you want, and whenever you want – to coincide with a big holiday get-together. When you’re at a party and it is your free food day, you can indulge as much as you like. It’s a part of your regular food plan. That’s a pretty good bonus! Also, alcohol consumption often goes up during the holiday season. Punch, egg nog, all sorts of “holiday cheer”. These beverages are super-high in calories. 3 Again, your free day is a good day to indulge yourself. On other days, maybe not so much.

After the last guest has gone home and the last dish is put back in the cupboard, if we’ve gained a few pounds during the course of the holidays it is not so bad. What we wanted to avoid was gaining a bunch of weight. Now, we can return to our regular food plan – six days on and one day off – and those extra few pounds will be gone in four to six weeks. We had fun, we spent quality time with a lot of family and friends, and at the same time we took care of our health and well-being. That helps make the holidays especially joyous!

1 Hageman R, et al: A specific blend of intact protein rich in aspartate has strong postprandial glucose attenuating properties. J Nutr-8(9):1634-1640, 2008 2 Claessens M, et al: Glucagon and insulin responses after ingestion of different amounts of intact and hydrolysed proteins. Br J Nutr 100(1):61-69, 2008 3 Suter PM: Is alcohol consumption a risk factor for weight gain and obesity? Crit Rev Clin Lab Sci 42(3)197-227, 2005

For more information on chiropractic please contact Dr. Jason Fowler www.lakestlouisdc.com

Stress, sleep deprivation and fatigue have been no small component of Dr. Michael Benson’s life. As a fetal surgeon, Benson is often up for 24- to 36-hour stretches at a time looking after patients. He has little time to rest or eat regular, healthy meals. It’s no wonder he has suffered from migraines for years.

Benson is not alone. It is estimated that 28 million Americans suffer from migraines. As anyone who experiences these intense headaches can tell you, they can be extremely debilitating. Acute pain, possible visual disturbances and nausea, as well as sensitivity to light, sounds and odors can render a person incapable of going about everyday responsibilities, much less performing complicated tasks like surgery.

In order to cope, Dr. Benson has used Ibuprofen and heat to manage the pain, but sometimes it doesn’t work. “I used to keep a preloaded syringe of Toradol [a strong, anti-inflammatory pain reliever] in my medicine chest,” he admits, “because once my headaches get really bad, I get nauseated and can’t take anything by mouth. It saved having to go to the ER.”

Having trained as an M.D., Benson confessed that chiropractic treatment was not in his knowledgebase or on his immediate list of pain-relieving measures. In fact, if he hadn’t been visiting his brother, a doctor of chiropractic, when a bad migraine hit, he may never have received chiropractic care. “The Ibuprofen didn’t work, so my brother offered to examine me and adjust my neck,” he says. “When you’re in pain, you’re willing to try anything.” Within 10 to 15 minutes of the adjustment, his migraine had disappeared.

It is likely that Benson’s body reacts to stress by tensing muscles around the cervical joints in the neck, causing nerves in his neck to become impinged and triggering his migraines. Chiropractic adjustment alleviates this pain by relaxing muscles and promoting a full range of motion in the neck, allowing the headache to subside. And Benson’s positive experience isn’t uncommon. Recent studies at Duke University found that spinal manipulation was almost always immediately effective in relieving headaches originating in the neck and provided longer-lasting relief than commonly prescribed pain medications.

Dr. Benson’s migraines probably won’t go away completely without substantial lifestyle changes- changes that could be tough to implement with his profession. Once migraines are an established pattern, they are very difficult to get rid of, explains his brother. But he can work to minimize them with chiropractic care- a solution that doesn’t carry the potential side-effects of over-the-counter and prescription pain medication. Whenever a potentially incapacitating migraine hits and Benson gets an adjustment from his brother, “It always works,” he says.

For additional information on chiropractic feel free to contact Dr. Jason Fowler www.lakestlouisdc.com