Years of Digestive problems gone after only 5 chiropractic adjustments!

Healthy Halloween - The Challenge

Halloween is an annual celebration traditionally held on October 31st. Halloween has religious roots but generally has become accepted as a fun holiday with both kids and adults celebrating by wearing costumes, attending parties and most importantly, by trick-or-treating.  

Trick-or-treating was made popular many years ago, with the earliest national news documentation in the United States being in the 1940s.  Traditionally, after the sun has set, children dress up in costumes and go door to door in their community collecting treats from their friendly neighbors. Popular treats given to trick-or-treaters consisted of fruits and even sweet treats such as sucking candies. These days kids are bombarded with sugar all year round. The sneakiest way it gets into them is by high fructose corn syrup.

According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, since 1950, corn sweeteners in our diets have multiplied by eight times! That is, we get eight times more corn sweetener in our diet today than we did sixty years ago. But why?

HFCS is cheap to make and easy to use.  While sugarcane requires a hot climate to grow in, corn can be grown almost anywhere and we have tons of it here in the US, it is also subsidized by our government. HFCS’s liquid form also makes it cheaper to transport, since it can be piped into trucks with less loss than granular sugar. That liquid state also makes HFCS easier to blend with other ingredients than sugar and acts as a preservative as well as a sweetener. 

Most brands of soda sold in the U. S. contain HFCS. It’s also a common ingredient of cereals, candies, crackers, and ice cream. Even healthy-seeming whole wheat breads sometimes contain the sweetener. Ketchup contain HFCS, barbeque sauce, canned fruits and even some canned soups. You will also find it in salad dressings, frozen dinners, pizza and more. It literally is everywhere!

So when Halloween first became popular, giving candy out was a special occasion. Nowadays the average person in the US is consuming 60-70 POUNDS of sugar per year and close to 50 lbs of high fructose corn syrup per year! We also have the highest rate of cancer, heart disease, diabetes in adults and obesity in both adults and children than ever before in the history of the United States. Ask yourself the question..does our country appear to be getting healthier or sicker? Most would say sicker.  

High fructose corn syrup and sugar are known to cause obesity, diabetes, cancer, inflammation, learning problems, sleep problems and tooth decay...so why are we still eating it.  The even bigger question is why are we letting our kids eat it and why are we glorifying it with every holiday that comes along??

Some companies have come out with organic lollipops and treats.  They are better - no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and no HFCS.  But each pop still contains 17 g  of refined inflammatory sugar! Yes it's better, but what else can we do?

Each year since I can remember I have limited my kids to 10 pieces of Halloween candy. After going around the neighborhood, they dump all their candy onto the floor and start the tedious process of choosing the 10 pieces.  They usually eat 2 or 3 and feel crummy so they put it away. They forget all about it and a week later I toss it! You can also use the "Switch Witch" idea that I was given by one of my practice members.  After the kids pick their 10 pieces, when they go to bed at night the Switch Witch comes and takes the rest of the candy and leaves a book, puzzle or toy behind in exchange!

This year I really changed gears. In the past I had given out pretzels and other alternative snacks, even those organic candies. This time I decided to ditch the food altogether and instead gave out glow bracelets to all the kids as they came around for their treats.  Only 2 teens scoffed at the lack of candy but overall the kids were really happy about their glowing gift and the parents were totally grateful. One less candy! So if that's what we really want and that's what makes us happy as parents (because we know what's best for our kids), isn't it time we share out knowledge with our kids and teach them the value in healthier choices? It all begins in the home and it all starts with you. Have no fear, the Wellness Warrior is here!

My ongoing frustration...This year I went on a mission to try to make some changes in Halloween in my community.  As a holistic wellness expert and chiropractor, I regularly teach people how to eat healthier so I didn't think this would be such a difficult task. First, I held a workshop in my office during the lunch hour to teach parents how to have a healthier Halloween and how to teach their kids to make better choices on the holiday and all year long. 3 speakers were lined up, a pediatric dentist, a family wellness coach and myself. The entire office was decorated and a table was set up for people to bring their kids with them to color pumpkins. I advertised to my own practice members and all over Facebook, created events in the local paper's website. A total of 2 people showed up! (A mother and her son). The mother was extremely impressed with the wealth of information she received from the 3 professionals,and her little boy learned some cool stuff too.  She also could not understand why more parents didn't show up. Yesterday we had a healthy Halloween party in the office which was also promoted everywhere, natural foods, fresh fruits and veggies, kids activities and glow bracelets... About 35% of my practice is children - not one came in for their adjustment! It was bizarre! Don't people want a safe and healthy environment where their kids can learn to choose something healthy, or does everyone just continue to follow the herd of parents who just let their kids go sugar crazy on Halloween? Don't people want new strategies to create better health or are they still going by the old paradigm of waiting for a crisis to hit before make necessary changes to have better health. They are already celebrating at school, you know they are going to trick or treat in the neighborhood, but why not show them there is a better way? Health is our #1 asset. We must start teaching them now. Sugar and HFCS are everywhere and they are toxic poisons that causes disease.  So after the trick or treating ended last night, the kids had their friends over. I whipped out a veggie tray for them to snack on. They were so happy they forgot about their candy and went to town on the fresh veggies. Success! 

Be brave, Dr. Nicole

Weight Loss and Chiropractic for the family

Ear Infections, Swollen Tonsils and Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic is the best way to stop recurrent ear infections, chronic mucus and swollen tonsils and glands.  It is simply the best natural, safe and effective, drug free way to heal!

How does it work?

I have created a specific protocol in my family practice that works to stop ear infections and swollen tonsils, and prevents surgical procedures such as drainage tubes in the ears and removal of adenoids and/or tonsils. All of these medical treatments merely deal the symptoms and do not get to the root of the problem. Chiropractic, dietary changes and supplementation are the keys my protocol. They are all completely natural and honor the body's normal processes. We must address the cause so the body can heal!

The most important piece in this protocol is chiropractic. Chiropractic adjustments allow you to heal better so that everything else you are doing becomes more effective. The nervous system is the master control system of the entire body. A subluxation is a bone out of alignment in the spine that causes interference of the transmission of nerve impulses. The goal of the chiropractor is to locate and correct vertebral subluxations so the body can heal itself.

In the case of an ear infection, the top vertebrae in the spine called atlas is usually the main culprit causing several events to occur. When atlas goes out of alignment, the muscles that attach to it go into spasm creating a structural blockage to one or both Eustachian tubes leading to poor drainage of the ear and sinuses. Compared to an adult, a child's Eustachian tubes are more horizontal which adds to drainage problems (that's why it's more common in children). In addition, the part of the nervous system that bring messages from the brain to the ear, eye, nose, sinuses and back to the brain is located at the atlas. Subluxation of atlas is detrimental to the proper function of the body and is disruptive to normal regeneration/repair of the tissues, resulting in symptoms or dis-ease in those areas. The dysfunction in these cases is repeated infection of the related tissue. Lastly, an atlas subluxation can decrease your overall immune system function and research shows that chiropractic care increases your immune system function. These are the reasons chiropractic care is the most critical in this process. I typically recommend starting chiropractic adjustments at 3 times per week for anywhere from 4-12 weeks depending on the severity of the subluxation and how long it has been present, then tapering off to a maintenance schedule.

Another issue that adds to the buildup of fluid in the ears and sinuses involves the diet. Holistic practitioners agree, dairy foods cause mucus and inflammation. It is very important to reduce the amount of mucus the body is producing. Thus, the second key to healing these issues is to remove of ALL dairy from the diet (cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream, whey, casein, etc). The reduction of sugar in the diet will yield faster results as well so I recommend less sugar, candy, pasta, processed flours, grains, fruit juice and other concentrated forms of sugar. Drinking a lot of water is highly recommended too.

If antibiotics were ever used then I strongly suggest a 3 month round of high quality probiotics taken daily on an empty stomach. This replenishes the good bacteria that were destroyed by the antibiotics the person has been on. Science is discovering that 80% of your immune system is in your gut. Chiropractic and probiotics together help to heal the gut, therefore the impaired immune system.

When following this protocol most will have ear infections cease and tonsils reduce in size quickly. There is commonly some draining from the ear or nose as the body is ridding itself of the excess fluid/mucus. It can be brown or green and can last a few weeks. Some people go through retracing when they are healing. Retracing basically means they have to go backwards in time and re-experience symptoms in order to thoroughly heal. The patient can go through one or more symptomatic episodes. I have never seen more than one retracing episode occur in these types of cases. As long as antibiotics are avoided, the protocol is continued and the person is adjusted, it is usually short lived if it occurs. Antibiotics prevent the body from learning how to heal itself and will destroy valuable gut flora. If antibiotics are used while doing this protocol, then we have to start all over in this process. Instead I recommend natural remedies for comfort such as Gaia Herbs Ear Oil or Highland Earache Tablets. Homeopathic belladonna tablets can be used if a fever is present. For excessive mucus or phlegm I prefer Gaia Herbs Sniffle Support (kids formula). Adults can take herbs such as eyebright and black elderberry for the same effect. A few drops of olive oil or hydrogen peroxide directly in the ear helps as well.

When following my protocols, I see results 100% of the time. I have only had one case since 1998 that the child continued having problems and it was because the parents were not following the recommended chiropractic care schedule or the dietary recommendations. I even bumped into the family one day and the child was eating cheese crackers.

Surgery and drugs are not the answer to these problems. The human body is expressive when something is wrong and quieting that expression with medication or surgery is not real health. Surgery and drugs merely treat the symptoms and do not address the cause.True healing is from the inside-out!

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Kent, Christopher. Models of Vertebral Subluxation: A Review. Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research. August 1996, Vol 1:1. Pg 4-5

Sternberg EM, Chrousos GP, Wilder RL, Gold PW. The stress response and the regulation of inflammatory disease. Ann Intern Med 1992; 117 (10):854

Brennan PC, Triano JJ, McGregor M, et al. Enhanced neutrophil respiratory burst as a biological marker for manipulation forces: duration of the effect and association with substance P and tumor necrosis factor. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 1992; 15(2):83

Go to http://icpa4kids.org/Chiropractic-Research/Ear-Infection-Otitis-Media/ for more research

FDA Reverses Position on Aspirin

The idea that we should take a drug as prevention is crazy!  Some of the side effects are kidney destruction, digestive tract destruction, stroke and more. Aspirin has now been proven to not prevent heart attacks.

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