nervous system

100 Healthy Days™ Week 9- Review, Reflections, and Recommitments

March 3, 2021 by admin Leave a Comment

Taking responsibility for your health and lifestyle choices is vital to you and your family’s well-being. We love seeing our patients and practice members getting younger and healthier every year as they commit themselves to Chiropractic Lifestyle Care and healthier lifestyle choices. Learn to love the things that are good for you and make them a priority.

Trust your Innate Intelligence

As you begin to turn things around with your choices, your body and mind will strengthen. You will feel yourself getting sharper and younger in mind and body. This will give you the confidence to continue. Also, your body’s Innate Intelligence makes trillions of new cells for you throughout your lifetime. If there is no interference, it will keep you functioning at your highest level for a lifetime. Read more about innate intelligence on our 100YL article, Artificial Intelligence VS Innate Intelligence.

Let Go of Trying to Control the Things That Are Out of Your Control

Focus on the things that you truly can change. Through this acceptance and letting process, you will begin to formulate a transition strategy that will help you transform your environment. Trying to control all the things that are out of your control is like trying to control gravity. Accepting the things that are out of your control and facing the reality of them will open the door to exciting opportunities. This simple connection can be life-changing; because now, instead of us getting angry when things do not go our way, we can step back and enjoy them. Read more about letting go of things you cannot control in our article; We Can’t Control Gravity.

Choose Your Own Hierarchy

If your Health Care Hierarchy has been crisis motivated and you have been on a crisis roller coaster, choose to make self-care a priority, and get yourself on track. Decide which self-care strategies are the most appealing to you and begin to make them a part of your lifestyle, one day at a time and one choice at a time.

Examples of Health Care & Self-Care: Health Care – What you do for yourself to keep your mind, body, and spirit healthy and functioning at your highest level – utilizing the skills of trained health care professional. Self-care would be brushing and flossing your teeth.

Health Care is seeing a dentist. Self-Care is having good posture. Health Care is having a chiropractor examine and adjust your spine and nervous system. Health Care is having a chiropractor examine and adjust your spine and nervous system.

Read more about health care and self-care in our 100YL article, Health Care Values of Stressless People.

FitNESS

How would you like to perform at 100 % for 100 years? How you perform as you age will depend on how you take care of your body every day along the way. If you wait for a crisis or an injury to make your health a priority, then you have waited too long and will most likely suffer the consequences. Listen to our 100YL Podcast Episode 14- Human Potential Geek Dr. Josh Handt Trains For 100 Mile Challenge. Dr. Plasker interviews Dr. Josh Handt as he preps for his 100-mile race, and he is “not a runner.” They discuss human potential, explore possibilities and strategies to be your best you today that is also sustainable over the course of a lifetime!

Your Ideal Health AND Crisis Care Team

When it comes to your health care, does your doctor or team of doctors have your back? Do you trust that your health care providers will guide you in the right direction? Through this journey called health, are your doctors inspired to help you reach your health goals, or do you feel they are just doing a job, going through the motions to get paid? Read which characteristics you should look out for from your healthcare providers in our article, Who’s Got Your Back?

The Compelling Principle

If you are going to make a change, make it with your long-term vision in mind. The quality of changes that you make today will improve your life quality, not just today but over the long-haul.

Listen to our 100YL Podcast’s very first episode; Your 100 is Coming, You Make the Call! Dr. Eric Plasker talks about embracing the reality of your potential life expectancy and how to develop an exciting vision for your extended life!

Have Gratitude and Appreciate Your Current Environment

Look for the good right where you are and make the most of your current environment. If you are not willing to take the time to begin constructing your compelling future in your current environment, you will probably re-create the past in your new one if you move.

Get your FREE 100 Healthy Days™ eBook & The 100 Year Lifestyle 2nd Edition PDF!

Click the link and follow the directions to receive your free eBook & PDF.

Join The 100 Year Lifestyle Community Group for more resources, support, & community!

Mastering Your Emotional Brain

June 8, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

Emotions can be disorienting, detrimental, and downright challenging. One moment our life can be peaceful and easy, the next chaos! As we all have experienced, in the blink of an eye, everything can change.

Whether it be pandemics, political unrest, challenging transitions, the passing of loved ones, or a stuck emotional pattern, our Nervous System is taxed with the responsibility of helping us process what is happening in our life. If we are clear and connected, emotions can become a guiding compass for us understanding ourselves on a deeper level and thriving regardless of the circumstances around us.

Processing

We love seeing many of the people in our chiropractic practice, as their nervous system becomes healthier, find clarity through all sorts of life’s crazy challenges. Processing and learning from our emotions is a journey. As you continue to make decisions with your Ideal 100 Year Lifestyle in mind, it may be beneficial to consider the possibility that your emotions hold more value than you think, and the individual parts of your emotional brain are interconnected!

The Limbic System

Our emotional brain is essential for our body’s ability to process. It is called the “Limbic System.” It is a complex compilation of different nerve groupings. Each with a specialized function. Here is a quick guide to understanding the key aspects of your brain’s Limbic System:

Amygdala: This tiny almond-shaped structure is known for helping the Nervous System evaluate potential threats. It can trigger the “fight or flight” response. And is also responsible for conditional learning (based on reward or punishment).

Hippocampus: Memory formation and storage.

Thalamus: This is the “Amazon Prime” of the brain. The Thalamus delivers messages coming up from the body to the appropriate processing centers. It plays an essential role in connecting the rest of the Limbic System to other aspects of the Nervous System.

Hypothalamus: This is the key regulatory center. The Hypothalamus is constantly taking in physiologic messages. Such as breathing rate and metabolism. This is the part of your brain that triggers you into “hanger” when your blood sugar levels have dropped.

Cingulate Gyrus: Associates sights and smells with pleasant memories of previous emotions. It also plays a role in processing our conscious emotional experience.

Basal Ganglia: Think of this as the “dimmer switch” for the brain’s motor output. It’s capable of inhibiting certain behaviors such as talking out of turn.

Crucial Role

All of these parts of the Limbic System play a crucial role in directing our Nervous System. We want to respond with the appropriate “fight or flight” response should a big grizzly bear appear during a hike. Sometimes, it is necessary to use this adrenaline-boosting response. But not always. How often is our body stuck in this type of stress pattern when there is no emergency?

When there is interference to the Nervous System, its ability to respond appropriately is distorted. With this distorted signaling, our emotional response may become unregulated and downright dramatic. We may become overly aggressive or act out in a way we later regret. Maybe, we find ourselves in a recurrent emotional loop. And we replay the same pattern again and again.

A Clear Nervous System

When our Nervous System is clear and connected, it is much easier to step outside of the recurrent loop. With healthy decisions such as receiving Chiropractic Lifestyle Care, our brain and body have a leg up in processing emotions. When the Nervous System is balanced out, the brain and body can work together. They provide clarity and depth to the wisdom our emotions hold. Once we make healthy decisions and take responsibility for our emotions, we truly learn from them.

Perhaps most importantly, we need community. Reach out to family, friends, and other supportive roles in your life. By reaching out you are taking the first step towards forming a more healthy relationship with your emotions. Also known as vulnerability. This act of bravery goes a long way and can lead us to brilliant discoveries and experiences. When we make vulnerability a regular occurrence in our life, emotions become healthy opportunities to learn about ourselves and move through life challenges.

Create communities that support your 100 Year Lifestyle.

Become a Least Vulnerable Person and Family

April 3, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

You and your family can take steps right now and become ‘Least Vulnerable People’. Here are 15 things you can stop doing and start doing that will make a difference.

Becoming A ‘Least Vulnerable Person’

There is growing concern about COVID-19, the flu, and other infectious diseases affecting the most vulnerable people. Who are these most vulnerable people and what choices can you make for yourself and your family to become a Least Vulnerable Person. Fortunately, most of these options are under your control!

Who Are The Most Vulnerable People

Seniors

Elderly people are the most at-risk population for infection and serious complications due to COVID-19 or any other virus. The reason is not just because of their age. In fact, there was a recent report of a 102-year-old woman who recovered from the COVID-19 virus. What makes them most vulnerable is that many of them are living lifestyles that include all of the additional factors listed below.

Underlying Health Conditions

People with underlying health conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other conditions, are more vulnerable as well. Their immune systems are already stressed and challenged, which makes them less able to ward off other types of infections.

https://youtu.be/1EXplnxo0Wo

PolyPharmacy

Polypharmacy is a term used for people who take multiple medications. This can alter blood and brain chemistry causing immunosuppression, hindering the body’s innate ability to fight infections.

Marlo Sollitto, author of Polypharmacy in the Elderly, states that “Being on too many medications can lead to potentially dangerous drug interactions and exposure to many side effects at once. Keep in mind that this applies not to just prescriptions, but also over-the-counter medications… The average adult takes four or more prescription drugs each day.”

Obesity

According to the National Institute of Health, obesity, and overweight together are the second leading cause of preventable death in the US, close behind tobacco usage. An estimated 300,000 deaths per year are due to the obesity epidemic.

Poor Posture

Chiropractors have been labeled Essential Service Providers by the US Department of Homeland Security, which is why we are open, taking the proper precautions, and serving our community.

Poor posture can make you more vulnerable by increasing stress, reducing lung capacity, straining muscles, causing fatigue and contributing to many other factors that affect your immune system. A recent Harvard study showed that people who sat with good posture showed a 25% decrease in Cortisol, the stress hormone.

Sedentary

On average, Americans sit for about 11 hours per day. Sedentary lifestyles are a contributing factor to every lifestyle disease and a risk factor including cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Erin Michos, the associate director of preventive cardiology at the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease explains “A large review of studies published in 2015 in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that even after adjusting for physical activity, sitting for long periods was associated with worse health outcomes including heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer. Sedentary behavior can also increase your risk of dying, either from heart disease or other medical problems.”

Smokers

Smoking is known to compromise the immune system. This increases the risk for many immune and autoimmune disorders, conditions that occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s healthy cells and tissues.

Becoming a ‘Least Vulnerable Person’

Here are some important lifestyle changes you can make to help you and your loved ones become ‘Less Vulnerable People’.

Positive Psychology

Positive psychology can improve your health and immune system function. According to Johns Hopkins expert, Lisa Yanek, people with a family history of heart disease who had a positive outlook were one-third less likely to have a heart attack or cardiovascular event within 5-25 years compared to those with a negative outlook.

Another study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology compared optimistic vs. pessimistic first-year law students regarding their performance in the upcoming school year. The study showed better functioning immune cells in the optimistic students versus the pessimistic students.

Physical Activity

Physical activity and movement is a keystone in maintaining optimal health. A study published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science illustrated the following:

Acute exercise is an immune system adjuvant
A clear inverse relationship was found between moderate exercise training and illness risk
Habitual exercise improves immune regulation, delaying the onset of age-related dysfunction

Reduce Stress and Get Plenty of Sleep

Stress is not an outside thing, it’s an inside thing. You have the opportunity to choose how you react to any situation. It is true that chronic stress reduces the capabilities of your immune system and makes you more vulnerable to disease. According to Bruce Lipton, Ph.D and author of the Biology of Belief, your body cannot be in positive production mode and defense mode at the same time. He explains this concept in detail in this video.

Quality sleep is important. Minimize your stress so that you sleep well. This will certainly make you reduce your vulnerability.

Improve the Function of Your Nervous System

Your nervous system is your body’s main communication highway, relaying nerve signals to every single, cell, tissue and organ in the entire body, allowing the body to perform all vital functions in order to sustain life. It is ESSENTIAL to maintain the integrity of this communication highway in order to live a healthy lifestyle. More importantly, the nervous system supplies communication to the thymus, spleen, adrenal glands, and lymph glands, all of which play pivotal roles in the function of your immune system.

Chiropractic care improves posture which can improve the health of your nervous system In addition, correcting spinal imbalances can influence basic physiological processes affecting oxidative stress and DNA repair. Reducing oxidative stress is an important factor in immune function.

In a study by Ronald Pero Ph.D, subjects under chiropractic care demonstrated higher mean serum thiol levels than patients with active disease and produced some values that were higher than normal wellness values.

Social Interaction

Community equals immunity. The NCBI states that Social relationships-both quantity and quality- affect mental health, health behavior, physical health, and mortality risk…..Social isolation of otherwise healthy, well-functioning individuals eventually results in psychological and physical disintegration, and even death.

Good nutrition

Make good nutrition your new lifestyle by choosing QCs over ECs, quality calories over empty calories, every time you’re faced with a food choice. A proper nutritional regimen consisting of lean proteins, organic green leafy vegetables, whole grains, healthy sources of monounsaturated fats such as avocados, nuts and seeds are important to help provide your body what it needs to be healthy, and strong.

Choose Quality Calories over Empty Calories
Supplement Your Diet
Avoid Processed Foods
Avoid Canned Foods
Avoid White Rice, Sugar, Flour and Pasta
Avoid Regular and Diet Soda
Minimize Caffeine and Alcohol

Technology

Limiting technology use can improve your health dramatically. Diagnoses of ADHD, autism, coordination disorder, developmental delays, unintelligible speech, learning difficulties, sensory processing disorder, anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders are associated with technology overuse, and are increasing at an alarming rate.”1

Raise a Least Vulnerable Family

Apply these principles to raising your family and everyone you love will be healthier for it, becoming less vulnerable to infections and experiencing better health now and for a lifetime.

A Lasting Holiday Health Plan

December 1, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

The holiday season has begun and now is the time to commit to a lasting holiday health plan. Enjoy the healthiest holiday season ever and start your new year with a mindset of staying healthy for a lifetime.

The Lifestyle Care Continuum

The three elements of the Lifestyle Care Continuum are Crisis Care, Critical Transition and Lifestyle Care. Too many of us make unhealthy choices during the holidays which results in a crisis, and then use the crisis to motivate us to get healthy again. Every year millions of people begin exercise programs, diet plans, and chiropractic regimens to get themselves healthy. When you choose to live your ideal 100 Year Lifestyle, you will get off the roller coaster ride and enjoy good health without extreme ups and downs and, you will never feel deprived.

The Critical Transition is the transition from Crisis Care to Lifestyle Care! To help you make this transition, remember this acronym for FitNESS every time you are faced with a choice during the holidays or any other time that you feel tempted or get off track.

FitNESS: Neurology, Nutrition, Endurance, Strength, and Structure.

Neurology comes first for a reason. Muscles are attached to bones and controlled by nerves. In fact, your nervous system controls and coordinates all of your conscious and unconscious functions including your muscles, organs, and systems. You must have a spine and healthy nervous system for your heart to beat, your lungs to breathe, your brain to work right and your balance to be stable. The transition from Crisis Care to Chiropractic Lifestyle Care will keep your nervous system functioning at its optimum potential and is the foundation for everything else that follows. This is one reason why many of the top athletes in the world utilize chiropractic care to optimize their training and fitness program.

Nutrition comes next. Make healthier food choices this holiday season and as a part of your lifestyle. Learn to love the things that are good for you. It is true, you are what you eat. Consuming a diet filled with organic fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, and very low in sugar, white flour, white rice, and pasta, should be your lifestyle and not just as a weight-loss crash. This will sustain you not just while getting into shape but as you stay in shape. It’s making your new shape your lifestyle.

Endurance develops through cardiovascular exercise which includes walking, running, hiking, bike riding, and ellipticals that will increase your heart rate and strengthen your cardiovascular system. Start slow and steady, be consistent and as time goes on increase the frequency, intensity and duration of your endurance training.

Strength gives you confidence and is necessary if you want to be independent as you age. Whether you use weights or you do strength training through yoga, Pilates or other types of plyometric training, it is important to keep yourself strong as a part of a lifestyle.

Structure is also vital, especially when you consider the overuse of technology, cell phones and computers. Even children are developing postural imbalances at a very early age and it is wreaking havoc on their health and posture. When it comes to your 100 Year Lifestyle fitNESS plan, having a healthy, straight, strong spine and posture is vital to your quality-of-life in the short and long-term. This is another reason why chiropractors have become the central figure in the healthcare team for millions of people including nearly every professional and collegiate sports team.

Statistics show that you will probably live longer than you ever thought. If you want to get there in style with health and vitality, you must make your lifestyle fitness a priority. Any time of year is the right time to shift to a lifestyle of fitNESS and enjoy the journey on your way to a sensational century.

Schedule an Appointment for yourself and your family today and give the gift of health and chiropractic this holiday season.

The Triune of Triathlon

August 5, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

The Triune of Triathlon includes the three sports of swimming, cycling and running that create one of the most challenging and fulfilling competitions one can find. It is also one of the fastest growing sports across the country. The key to success in triathlon is to condition your body in all three sports in order to perform at your best.

Triathletes spend months of training and dialing in their nutrition leading up to the race. There is a lot of planning that takes place in order to prepare your body to endure the many miles you will cover with limited food and water. It would be extremely difficult and dangerous to show up at the starting line unprepared.

On the day that an athlete signs up for their first event, there’s usually no way they could complete the race and it seems like a crazy idea. But as they train, their body steadily changes and come race day they are primed and ready to go. This phenomenon that happens in endurance sports is the change that occurs in an athlete over time. Getting ready for a race doesn’t happen in one day, one week, or even one month.

What exactly is this phenomenon that enables your body to adapt to the training and compete? It is a second Triune of Triathlon that is as follows…

Innate Intelligence: Your body has an innate intelligence that is allowing it to adapt and change according to your training and nutrition. This intelligence conditions your muscles and improves the metabolic pathways to use your energy stores effectively throughout the race. Your body will adapt as long as your nervous system is healthy.

Interference: There can be interferences to your body’s ability to adapt. These can be lifestyle related such as lack of sleep, poor nutrition, over training, alcohol, work and relationship stress. There can also be nerve interference. Dysfunction in your spine and nerve system has a negative impact on your body’s ability to adapt to your training and may lead to injury or poor performance. Since your nerve system controls your body’s ability to adapt, interference here will slow your training plan and you will not get the maximum benefit out of your workouts.

Adjustments: Remove the interferences in your lifestyle and in your nerve system to optimize your training. By eliminating the things that are holding you back, and making small changes and corrections, you will improve your overall health, respond more efficiently to your training, eliminate and prevent injury and optimize your performance.

The chiropractic care our office provides addresses this triune to help Triathletes and all other types of athletes heal quickly from injury, adapt to their training and perform at their highest level.

Casual athletes and anyone for that matter who addresses this triune as a foundation of their health and lifestyle, often sees great results.

Many people begin to feel less pain, have more energy, take less medications, sleep better and set personal records in the gym. Others have more stable emotions and improve their relationships with their family and loved ones. Others see allergies clear up and their immune systems get stronger. Kids often become more focused, stand up straighter and demonstrate a greater sense of well-being.

Just as training consistently will allow you to race at your best, getting checked for nerve interference regularly will allow your body to function properly so that you can achieve optimal health and peak performance.

Whether you’re thinking about taking on a Triathlon, or you just want to get more out of life, apply this triune. Take your Innate Intelligence out for a test drive and you will be blown away by your own capabilities. Remove the interference from your life and make the critical transition from crisis care into lifestyle care. Adjust your lifestyle and enjoy a sensational century.

Stop Chasing Symptoms

December 4, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Isn’t it time you stopped chasing symptoms? These signals that you get from your body are frequently misunderstood. More importantly, treating symptoms without getting to the cause of a problem can lead to mismanagement of your health and more severe health problems as you age.

When you get sick, for example, and your temperature goes up, your body is naturally fighting off the infection. Bacteria thrive in a climate that is 98.6 degrees so your body’s Innate Intelligence raises your temperature to help fight off the infection on its own. The symptoms of this elevated temperature can be muscle aches, fatigue, weakness and general malaise. At the first sign or symptom of a fever, many people will immediately panic and try to bring the temperature down with medication, treating the symptoms rather than letting the body do its job and heal itself.

The medications that are used to treat these symptoms can lead to side effects and even weaken the body’s natural immunity. In recent years, the overuse of antibiotics has created an epidemic of superbugs within individuals that are untreatable and pose a serious threat to our long term health.

The CDC states, “If antibiotics are used too often for things they can’t treat-like colds or other viral infections-they can stop working effectively. Antibiotic resistance has been a concern for years and is considered one of the world’s most critical public health threats. Widespread overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics is fueling an increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

In the U.S., antibiotic-resistant infections are responsible for $20 billion in excess healthcare costs, $35 billion in societal costs and $8 million in additional hospital days.”(1)

A report commissioned by the Canadian Coordinating Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance estimated that infections caused by antibiotic-resistant organisms increased direct hospital costs in Canada by $15-25 million annually(2).

Many experts say that it is better to give the body a chance to heal itself with rest and fluids along with chiropractic adjustments that remove pressure from the nervous system. Unless there is an extreme elevation in body temperature, and depending on other symptoms, allowing your body to heal itself naturally helps your immune system build the resistance it needs to keep you healthy and fight infections more effectively.

Consider the case for “referred pain.” This means you can feel a symptom in one part of your body while the cause or the origin of that pain is somewhere else. For example, very often the cause of arm, hand or finger pain is in the neck. Leg and foot pain will often originate from a problem in the back. Problems with the gallbladder will often refer pain to the spinal nerve roots in the middle part of the spine and vice versa.

Because chiropractic works to restore health and vitality to the nervous system, we are always amazed at how the entire body often becomes free of symptoms through our work with the spine. Since nerves control every cell, tissue and organ of your body, problems in the nervous system can cause or mimic nearly any and every symptom imaginable.

It is very common to hear our practice members say things like “I know I came because my neck hurt, and my allergies and headaches are gone too.” or “I didn’t even tell you about my menstrual cramping but since I’ve been getting adjusted, my cramps have been reduced dramatically.” or “I sleep so much better since beginning my care.”

The list goes on and on. Isn’t it time you stop chasing symptoms and get to the cause? You will enjoy a much healthier life when you do.

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