How Uneven Is Your Body?

April 28, 2011

Everyone has asymmetries in their body. One eye is smaller than the other; feet are slightly different sizes. In fact, if you put a mirror up to one half of your face, you’ll see the two sides are rarely the same!

Although there are always asymmetries, it’s not good for your body to encourage unevenness. Do you continually sit on a wallet on the same side? Do you always carry your purse on one shoulder?

In addition to seeing a chiropractor regularly, here are a 3 ways to help you keep your body even:

• Try using your non-dominant hand to perform menial tasks for a month. If you’re right handed, open doors or wash dishes with your left hand. This is also very good for your brain and forces you to be conscious of your movement. If you really want intense brain stimulation, you could even try writing with the opposite hand!
• Exercise both sides equally. This is especially difficult for one-sided sports like golf or baseball. To balance yourself out, try using the opposite side when you can.
• Distribute the grocery bags evenly when you carry them in, and alternate shoulders if you’re regularly carrying a diaper bag or purse.

What additional ways do you encourage evenness in your body?

Go Green This Earth Day

April 21, 2011

As you probably know, tomorrow is Earth Day! Did you also know that Rozenhart Family Chiropractic is green certified? As an environmentally friendly office, we take numerous steps on a daily basis to do our part for the earth such as:

• We’ve invested in new software that eliminates a lot of paper and paperwork for our practice members.
• We purchase recycled paper products whenever possible.
• We no longer use paper towels for cleaning or hand drying; instead we use hand towels that are washed in an environmentally friendly soap and reused.
• We do not use paper gowns; instead we use cloth gowns that are washed in environmentally friendly soap and reused.
• We utilize email and our in office software to communicate instead of Post-Its and paper to send team memos.
• We encourage our practice members and staff to refill a reusable cup or water bottle instead of paper cups.
• We have a low flow toilet and encourage people to turn the water off when not in use.

There are a lot of ways you can help out the planet at home, too. Here are 5 simple tips to go green this Earth Day:

1. Add “P  Please consider the environment before printing this email” to the bottom of your email to remind people to really consider whether they need to print it out.
2. Switch to environmentally friendly cleaning products.
3. Use reusable dishes whenever possible; stay away from paper plates and plastic cutlery.
4. Turn off the tap run while brushing your teeth.
5. Have a separate trashcan or area for recyclables.

What additional ways do you help protect our planet?

How Long Is Your M-PYR?

April 19, 2011

What is your life expectancy? Do you know your M-PYR? How about your MAX-PYR? Watch to see how to figure our yours. Did you know that lifestyle chiropractic care can add quality years to your expectancy?

47 Ways To Reduce Stress

April 14, 2011

Have you been feeling stressed lately? There are a LOT of lifestyle changes you can make to help reduce your stress level. Here are just 47 of the hundreds of things you can do:

Mental Changes

• Set short and long term goals
• Learn from mistakes and don’t dwell
• Avoid quick fixes that create long term problems
• Let go of perfection
• Change your routines
• Read uplifting books and listen to motivational audios
• Stop being defensive
• Own up to mistakes
• Trust yourself
• Adopt an alternative view

Physical Changes

• Remember the 50/10 Rule – Sit for 50 minutes, stretch for 10
• Hold a meeting on the move
• See a chiropractor regularly
• Wake up an hour earlier and work out
• Stretch daily
• Breathe deeply

Chemical Changes

• Ask for support if you need it
• Make healthy food choices
• Eat organic
• Eat breakfast
• Eat more fruits and vegetables
• Say no to the white devils – white sugar, white flour and white rice
• Stop your chemical dependency on drugs, alcohol, caffeine and sugar
• Increase your metabolism naturally through exercise

Financial Changes

• Invest in your health and make your self care / health care a priority
• Consult a financial expert
• Get on a plan to improve your credit score
• Pay down your debt and save money
• Focus on your core business
• Focus on your unique skills
• Confront your challenges head on
• Reconnect with customers

Relationship Changes

• Say I love you often
• Stop blaming others
• Take responsibility for your role
• Look for the good in others
• Show compassion
• Listen
• Honor each other’s boundaries
• Don’t take things personally
• Don’t take things for granted
• Live in gratitude
• Make time for your spouse and kids
• Relax and laugh together with friends and family
• Openly discuss fears and concerns
• Dream together
• Create a vision for the next phase of your life!

What are additional lifestyle changes you’ve been making to help reduce your stress level?

Information provided by The Family Practice.

Is Your Body Pre-Stressed?

April 13, 2011

It is well documented that high levels of stress can contribute to heart disease and cancer. Stress has also been shown to contribute to or cause headaches, ulcers, digestive disturbances, backaches and nearly every other condition known to mankind.  How can one word cause so many unique and different problems in different people especially since the stress reaction is the same for everyone? The answer may be simpler than you think.

Stress is a nervous system reaction that causes your heart to beat faster, your muscles to be tense, your stomach to tighten, and your hair follicles to stand up, all as a way to prepare your body for an emergency. When you interpret a situation as stressful, whether it truly is or not, your brain triggers this reaction by sending a signal over your spinal cord and nervous system to every cell of your body. In prehistoric times, this would have been the perfect reaction to escape from a hungry dinosaur but in today’s modern world of chronic stress and no tyrannosaurus rex, this chronic reaction can cause pain, sickness and disease.

Where your body breaks down from stress may depend on whether or not you have a condition known as vertebral subluxation. A vertebral subluxation is a spinal misalignment causing nerve pressure that interferes with the normal function of your body. If you have this in your spine, your body is already pre-stressed.

Research shows that it only takes the weight of a dime to reduce nerve transmission. Additional research has found that nerve compression can exist without pain and can cause deterioration within two weeks. In this pre-stressed condition, your body becomes more vulnerable to outside stresses that can take you over the edge and make you sick or cause you to feel pain.

This is a main reason why some people are vulnerable to every circumstance while others are much more resistant.

Where people are subluxated will often determine how people are affected by stress. For example, someone with nerve pressure in the upper part of the neck might feel headaches, have allergies, or a stiff neck. Because the nerves that come out of the upper neck also go to the entire body, pressure here can literally cause or mimic every symptom or disease.

Pressure on the nerves in the lower back can cause a backache, leg problems and also affect ovary, prostate, bladder or bowel function. Pressure on the nerves in the middle of your back can affect your heart and lungs or cause tension, stomach problems, and digestive disturbances.

The scary part is that like most serious conditions, the vertebral subluxation can cause stress for decades without any symptoms until the body can no longer adapt. This is when serious problems occur, many of which could have been avoided by eliminating the stress and the subluxation. The birth process, childhood falls, sports injuries and poor lifestyle habits are just a few causes of subluxations that can cause your body to be pre-stressed. Rather than getting to the cause and removing the subluxation, many people attempt to chase their symptoms away with drugs, wondering why they always come back. Getting to the cause and removing the pressure is a much better immediate and long-term solution.

Crisis care is one way to deal with it, only receiving care when you are in trouble and suffering. A much better option is to remove the subluxation, stress, from your body and keep it out of your life as a part of your lifestyle. This will help you to stress less and live more, and enjoy the quality of life you deserve.

Reprinted with permission from The Family Practice.

More Than 50 Years Ago…

April 12, 2011

Did you know that the function of the spine directly and dramatically affects the function of the organs? Listen to Dr. Stephanie explain the Winsor Study from more than 50 years ago!

Change the Course of History – YOURS

April 11, 2011

The lifestyle choices that you make for yourself and your family can literally change the course of your history. It used to be thought that if you had a family history of heart disease or cancer then it was your destiny to get these conditions too because they were “in your genes.” Through the science of epi-genetics we are learning that nothing can be further from the truth. Epi-genetics, which means ‘around the gene’, has shown that your lifestyle choices, both positive and negative, can influence the expression of your genes, turning them on and off like a light switch.

A recent report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA found the activity of more than 500 genes in the normal tissue of thirty men with low-risk prostate cancer changed after the patients began eating diets higher in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and lower in red meats and fats while also implementing an exercise and stress reducing regimen.

After three months the men had changes in the activity of about 500 genes including 48 disease preventing genes that were turned on and 453 disease promoting genes that were turned off.

In the largest nature/nurture study that was ever done, on 44,000 pairs of twins, it was found that the primary determinates in most cases of cancer were environmental or lifestyle factors such as tobacco use, diet and exercise habits rather than the inherited disposition of their family history.

So here is a very important message if you want to live an active, healthy, quality of life for 80, 90, 100 years and beyond…stop blaming your genes. Too many people rationalize unhealthy choices with words like, “Why bother, it’s in my genes.” You can’t get away with this anymore.

Adjust Your Lifestyle

Changing the course of your history is not rocket science. Eating a diet filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean meats will keep you lean and healthy and they will activate healthy genes. Exercise, as a part of a lifestyle, reduces stress, strengthens your heart and muscles and has been shown to reduce the risk of nearly every disease.

Optimistic thinking has been shown to keep people motivated to make healthy lifestyle choices regardless of their circumstances. In addition, chiropractic care as a part of a healthy lifestyle, Lifestyle Care, keeps your spine and nervous system aligned, balanced and healthy and free from deterioration, this ensures that the vital messages between the brain and the body are optimized. Reducing stress is also important as stress has been shown to shorten the telomeres, or caps on the genes, which can reduce the life expectancy of your cells.

One of the life-changing principles of The 100 Year Lifestyle is “Change is easy, thinking about change is hard.” It is much easier to eat healthy and exercise regularly as a part of your lifestyle than it is to be on a weight gain, weight loss rollercoaster or to chronically have to deal with being sick or injured.

Chiropractic care as a part of a lifestyle is a much better option than the crisis to crisis suffering that comes with an unhealthy spine and nervous system. Bringing these values into your home can literally change the course of your history and ensure a healthy future for you and your loved ones.

Please take advantage of the resources our office is providing this month to help you and your loved ones rewrite your history and a healthy future will be yours for decades.

Reprinted with permission from The Family Practice.

Stress: The Good News and Bad News

April 7, 2011

Here’s the bad news: Stress is all around us and is not going away anytime soon. But there’s good news, too: You have control over how you respond to stress!

The Bad News
It’s true that high levels of stress can contribute to heart disease and cancer. It’s also been shown to contribute to or cause headaches, ulcers, digestion problems, backaches and much, much more.

Stress is how your nervous system prepares your body for an emergency; your brain sends a signal to every cell in your body through your spinal cord. Although this can be helpful when there truly is danger (such as a dangerous animal attacking), the constant reaction can cause pain, sickness and disease.

The places in which subluxation builds up often determine how stress affects the body. If you have a lot of subluxation in the upper part of your neck, chances are you feel have headaches, allergies and/or a stiff neck. Subluxation in the lower back can lead to backaches, leg problems and ovary, prostate, bladder or bowel dysfunction.

So how do you control the way you respond to stress?

The Good News
Removing the subluxation from your body and keeping it out of your life can help you take control of the stress in your life. In addition to regular chiropractic care, here are 6 tips to stress less and live more:

1. Drink plenty of water and eat well. What you put in your body will affect how you feel, so keep putting in things that are good for it so it keeps running smoothly. Remember to avoid stimulants and sugar, too!
2. Take a quick break. The 50/10 rule is a good one. After sitting for 50 minutes, standing up and walking around for 10 minutes to help you clear your mind and get back to work with renewed focus, in addition to give your body a break from sitting.
3. Breathe deeply. It’s common for stressed people to take shallow breaths, so practice breathing deeply – 5 counts in and 5 counts out. Slowing down and paying attention to every breath forces our nervous system into a relaxed state.
4. Laugh. Laughing increases oxygenation to our entire body – there is even research that suggests it activates parts of our immune system as well! Hang out with people who make you laugh, rent some funny movies and laugh out loud!
5. Get some exercise. Exercise, as a part of a lifestyle, reduces stress, strengthens your heart and muscles and has been shown to reduce the risk of nearly every disease.
6. Be grateful. Thank someone instead of getting annoyed. Optimistic thinking has been shown to keep people motivated to make healthy lifestyle choices regardless of their circumstances, and you’ll feel a whole lot happier.

What additional ways do you like to keep the stress down? Take our poll on Facebook or let us know in the comments!

5 Tips For A Great Night’s Sleep!

April 5, 2011

Follow these 5 tips to have your best chance of rejuvenating sleep every night!

 

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