Unfortunately, this is only one of the potential side effects of statin medications. Other side effects include neuropathy, fatigue, memory loss, aggression, irritability and cognitive defects to name a few. But isn’t it worth it if we can use these drugs to prevent a heart attack? After all, research indicates that taking statins will decrease the risk of a heart attack by 50%. Nobody wants a heart attack, so it seems reasonable until you take a closer look.

The popularity of treating high cholesterol with statins is based on a study known as the JUPITER trial. According to Dr. Ridker, the primary author of the study…”being on a statin can lower your risk of having a heart event by half.” What they found in their research is that those patients taking a statin had a 1.6% risk of having a cardiovascular event while the placebo group had a 2.8% chance of having a cardiovascular event. According to my math that is a difference of 1.2%. However, the way they look at it is that the statins cut the risk by half, hence the 50% reduction of a heart attack for the group on statins. After all, 57% of 2.8 is 1.6.

So now that you understand how the numbers work, would you be as willing to risk the side effects of taking a statin drug knowing that it only offers you a 1.2% potential benefit? The better alternative is to eat right, exercise, manage your stress, and avoid smoking. If you have been experiencing unusual muscle pain and are on a statin, contact your medical doctor immediately and talk to your chiropractor about how to make lifestyle changes that will support a healthy heart.

*Thanks to LearningCurves for this useful information

There is a lot of scientific evidence to support that laughing is good for you. If you do a web search for “Laughing Therapy,” you will find millions of web sites touting the benefits of laughter. It releases stress reducing hormones in the body, lowers blood pressure, and improves immune function, to name a few.

However, we don’t need to go into all the science of laughter to understand its benefits. Think back on your own experiences. Have you ever laughed so hard you broke out into a sweat and your stomach hurt when you were done? Not even a sore stomach can interfere with the euphoric feeling of a big belly laugh. Have you ever been in a bad mood and had someone come along and do something to make you laugh or at least smile? You might go right back to being grumpy again, but at least for a moment you feel better. Moms are great for doing this with their children.

Another great thing about laughter is that it’s contagious. Have you ever been around someone who was laughing hysterically and not know why, but you end up laughing along with them anyway? Even if you’re not laughing, you still get many of the benefits by observing other people laugh. I love having children in my office. They have the best, most pure laughs. You can’t help but feel good when you hear them.

We all have a lot of serious stuff going on in our lives—bills to pay, schedules to maintain, chores that need to be done, and on and on, not to mention the tragedy displayed on the evening news every night. With everything going on, it’s easy to find a reason not to laugh.

Here’s the point. That stuff is not going to go away, so we have to find positive ways to deal with the stress in our lives, and one of the best things we can do is laugh. So go to a comedy club, see a funny movie, and hang out with that friend who always makes you laugh, or just play with some kids. It’s true, laughter is the best medicine.

*Thanks to LearningCurves.us for this article!

Osteoarthritis, affecting more than 27 million Americans, is characterized by pain, stiffness (especially in the morning and with certain activities), and break down of joint cartilage. OA can lead to joint deformation and bone spurring especially in the hands. There are two types of OA, Primary and Secondary. Primary osteoarthritis is what we tend to associate with getting older. Contrary to popular belief, OA is not a side effect of aging. If it were strictly age related, all joints in your body would be affected equally. However, you are more likely to develop OA the older you are due to more wear and tear on joints. Secondary osteoarthritis occurs in a joint that has been injured either from direct trauma or obesity. Either way both forms of OA are caused by increase stress on a joint.

The Arthritis Foundation lists five risk factors for developing OA:

• Age: As we age, there are more opportunity for wear and tear
• Obesity: An increase in one pound of body weight adds four pounds of pressure to the knees and six times the pressure on your hips
• Injury and Overuse (and even Underuse): Previous injuries and repetitive motions increase your risk of developing OA, as does an overly sedentary lifestyle; your joints require motion in order to stay lubricated and healthy
• Genetics: There is evidence to suggest that genetics may predispose someone to developing OA.  However, that does not mean that it is inevitable.  If OA seems to “run in your family”, living a healthy lifestyle and following the recommendations in this edition of Wellness News You Can Use may help you to avoid OA
• Muscle Weakness: Some studies suggest that weak muscles surrounding a joint may increase your chances of developing OA, which means that outside of all the other obvious reasons, it’s important to engage in weight bearing strengthening exercises

A look at a healthy joint, free from arthritis

The symptoms of both OA and RA may be medically treated with analgesics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and corticosteroids. However, RA may be treated even more aggressively with immunosuppressive drugs that decrease the body’s immune response, thus limiting damage to the joints and other affected tissues. In some cases, especially with OA surgery and joint replacement may be necessary.

Standard medical treatments are harsh, especially those for RA. Because RA is an autoimmune disease, the drugs used to alleviate symptoms will hinder the body’s immune system, thereby making your body much more susceptible to illness, disease, and infection, compounding the strain on your body’s ability to function and heal properly. Before those measures are taken, many safer and effective treatments can be used:

1. Exercise– weight-bearing exercise can be done with many states of arthritis, and in some cases, can stop or reverse damage. Try circuit training, swimming, walking, and other activities with low impact
2. Massage Therapy– improve the relationship between bone and muscle with regular massage therapy. This will relieve tension and uneven distribution of weight and pressure, and help flush fluid build-up around joints
3. Acupuncture– this all-natural method of pain relief reduces many other sources of inflammation (the “itis” in “arthritis”) by balancing all energetic pathways in the body
4. Dietary Changes– many foods either cause inflammation or will make it far worse. Grains are the biggest culprit. Try eliminating them from your diet for at least 30 days
5. and of course, Chiropractic!– who better to work with joints and the skeleton than a doctor trained to do just that? Dr. Ranae does adjust extremities, including ankles, knees, wrists, elbows, and more, so be sure to discuss your symptoms with her during your next adjustment!

*Thanks to LearningCurves.us for portions of this article!

Oh, if paychecks could stretch like this...

With the economy stuck in a rut and with no end of that rut in sight, people have a tighter, almost vice-like, grip on their finances. Understandable; when money is tight, you want that dollar to stretch like a contortionist!

When finances are restricted, where do you want your money to go to keep good health? Let’s look at the differences:

Conventional Treatments:

• -usually part of a bureaucracy that involves HMOs and private insurance companies that influence the cost of treatments and sometimes even dictate what treatments are allowed (without understanding what they are or their effects)
• -primarily focus on treating symptoms rather than addressing the cause, effectively keeping you unhealthy (think of weeding a garden, but only pulling the weed and not getting the roots… that weed will come back every time)
• -tend to involve tools/drugs/procedures that have damaging short term and/or long term side effects, which, over time, often lead to increased and/or different illnesses

Now the really important statistic…

Conventional treatments cost an annual average of 89% more than Alternative treatments!

The US has the highest costs for prescription drugs in the world. Combine that with incorrect or over-diagnosing diseases like Autism, ADHD, breast cancer, and much more, and the system is revealed for the big swirling whirlpool of cash that it’s become.

And there it goes...

We’re spending an average of $307 billion for Conventional treatments verses $34 billion on Alternative treatments!

Does that seem like a cost-effective use of our national income?

Think of how much money we’d save by investing more of our attention on preventative measures which, though they may not receive the same sensationalized media attention as their more common counterparts, are safe and effective, and would give us greater flexibility in both our personal and national expenses– it might be easier to address larger problems when the majority of our society isn’t constantly fighting diseases!

It’s your money, after all; spend it wisely!

What a powerful system!

Beyond keeping your upper thoracic spine in proper alignment with regular chiropractic adjustments, there are many natural ways to keep this amazing organ working in its prime, including and especially when it comes to nutrition. The right foods make all the difference; they help lower blood pressure, reduce risk for diabetes, and make maintaining a healthy weight easy when combined with frequent activity… all important things for a fully functioning heart.

Snacking Myths:

1. Don’t snack: WRONG. Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re not, and eat good foods; it really is that simple
2. But I can lose weight that way: NO. It may take time to understand your body’s cravings, but denying yourself food leads to overindulgence the next time you eat, making it easy to gain too much weight
3. Fats and oils are bad: NOPE. Good fats and oils are necessary for proper muscle function, and the heart IS a muscle! Eating foods drenched in processed fats (like partially hydrogenated vegetable fats) makes digesting those foods much harder, and the human body was not built that way. The less processing the fat or oil has undergone, the better it is for you; avocados, coconut anything, and grassfed meats are great sources of the right balance of fats
4. “Snack” means “junk”: NUH-UH! If you think snacking means eating cheap foods (we’re talking quality too, and not just monetary value), then you’re mistaken. Healthy foods are just as convenient and inexpensive as that bag of greasy potato chips you stare at in the grocery store

 Healthy Snacks:

• Tree nuts like almonds and walnuts— good sources of  protein and/or Omega 3 oils*
• Carrots— try brushing them with olive oil & black pepper and baking them on higher heat for 20 minutes until they’re browned and crispy
• Berries— they’re tasty and versatile, and can be added to salads, entrees, trail mixes, shakes, and more!
• Sweet potatoes— slice up as fries, and these are a simple and tasty snack anytime! Also good for helping active muscles recover, so if you’re working out regularly, load up on these

*Omega 3 oils are one of the more important components of a heart-healthy diet. A balance of Omega 3s and Omega 6s keeps blood at the ideal consistency, making it easier for the heart to pump, which reduces strain on the most valuable organ in our bodies. Please click the link above to read more about Omega 3s.*

Foods to Avoid:

• anything in processed fats or oils! Fats and oils get an unfair reputation; if they’re processed like crazy, then yes, they are bad. If they’re coming from quality sources and go through incredibly limited processing, then they’re not nearly as bad as you’ve been lead to believe
• cereals: some of the most common breakfast foods are drenched in sugar and made up of simple carbohydrates– cinnamon buns, cereals, strudels and pastries– and some of these are somehow considered to be “comfort” snacks. “Oh, I can eat it for the most important meal of the day, so I can eat it as a snack too!” So very wrong. These foods aren’t really good for you any time of day
• replacements: cooking alternatives like margarine and Crisco were supposed to be so much better for us than butter and lard, but it turns out the human bodies work better when NOT loaded up with artificial sugars and refined carbs… like those found in, you guessed it, margarine and Crisco! Eat the real thing in the right portions, and you’ll be amazed at how much easier things process through the body
• soy: soy undergoes a tremendous amount of processing, especially in forms like tofu, because in its raw state, it’s poisonous! One of its effects is clotting, making blood much thicker than it should be, and therefore more difficult for the heart to pump

It’s important to understand that snacking is not a substitute for regular quality meals, but rather a way to keep your blood sugar consistent in between those meals.

Learn how to listen to your body’s messages!

What does YOUR posture look like?

Sit up straight, chin up, chest out/shoulders back….. ever heard any of those sage words of wisdom? Chances are you have and chances are even greater that the person telling you to follow those orders was slouched over with their head down and their shoulders rolled forward!

Posture is more than a tag phrase thrown around by well-intentioned authority figures. It is an essential part of living a fully functional and well life. Ever seen a house with a saggy foundation on one corner, or a badly rotted sill? Doesn’t look good or age well, does it? In fact when you look inside, you see windows that don’t open and close, doors that stick, and floors that are un-level, and eventually the exterior begins to deteriorate as well.

The same goes for the body; however, in the body there are more important considerations than the structure to be concerned with. For instance, when your spine is out of “alignment” or balance, the nervous system immediately tries to correct it through muscle contraction, joint fixation and/or hyper mobility, circulatory changes, and eventually chronic scar tissue development. This is just the effect on the bones and muscles. What about the organs and glands?

Question: Can a lack of proper posture affect your heart, your digestion, your thyroid gland, or any and all other tissues in the body?

Answer: ABSOLUTELY!

Question: Would you know if you had “bad” posture that was affecting your health?

Answer: Probably not!

Question: How would I know if I had “Bad” posture?

Answer: Seek the advice of an expert in the proper balance and structure of the spinal column and nervous system… a chiropractor!

As a chiropractic office, the most common postural issues we see are:

• -forward head posture
• -hyper kyphosis
• -hip/shoulder/ear height imbalances

All of these issues stem from the body’s natural and proper attempts to adapt to gravity, and all can be corrected if detected before permanent structural damage is done (usually in the form of degenerative arthritis or, better put, wear-and-tear arthritis).

The best advice: get checked as soon as possible by Dr. Ranae for spinal and nervous system imbalance, and then follow the appropriate corrective measures to get your spine, nervous system, and muscular system to a place of balance and integrity.

Once you have done this, it will be easy to maintain; your health and future well-being will be a blank canvas on which you can paint a masterpiece!

*Thanks to LearningCurves.us for this article!

That being said, tolerance is not something that is always healthy. There are many things that we tolerate as a matter of course in a day that don’t have anything to do with the above mentioned traits; things like noisy neighbors, gossipy co-workers, pushy relatives, and the list goes on. Being a strong assertive person might not always cause you to gain friends, but do you really want to be friends with the guy in the copy room who talks behind everyone’s back?

Believe it or not, some people drink this EVERYDAY! Ewwww!

There are also things about ourselves that we tolerate. The best example that I can think of is headaches. I have met so many people who have complained about headaches, but when I ask them about it they shrug and say “it’s just a normal headache.” They have become tolerant of their headaches. They don’t like them, but they put up with them because they don’t know life without them. There is no such thing as a normal headache, my friends. If you have a headache there is a reason for it. Your body is not putting you through misery for no reason. How about that achy sore back that keeps you stiff and makes it difficult to get your socks and shoes on in the morning? You guessed it; not normal either. Think taking Tums on a daily basis is normal? Absolutely not!

These are some of the common health issues that many people learn to tolerate, and I would like to give you permission to STOP TOLERATING them and do something to rid your life of these issues forever. I believe you can take a stand, give up on unnecessary issues that take away from the quality of your life, and banish these tolerations once and for all. One way that you can address personal tolerances is by visiting our office for chiropractic care. Dr. Ranae deals with these types of problems on a daily basis, and knows the best way to treat them without putting anything into the body or taking anything out of the body. Soon you won’t believe that you ever put up with so-called “normal” aches and pains!

*Thanks to LearningCurves.us for portions of this blog!

If you are reading this, you have made a choice!

There, wasn’t that easy? One of the things that make life so interesting is the fact that we have endless opportunities to make new choices. Our lives can change with dramatic speed and take a completely different course in the blink of an eye. What I find to be incredibly liberating is the idea that if there is something that I don’t like, I can choose to change it. If I am unhappy with my level of fitness, I can choose to get in shape. If I don’t like the direction of my career, I can choose to learn more, work harder, and/or develop new skills that will create greater opportunities for me and my family. If I don’t enjoy the state of my relationships, I can choose to be more attentive to the needs of others and ask others to be more attentive to my needs. If I want to be healthier, I can choose to live a proactive balanced lifestyle that will build health and well being, or I can choose to react to sickness and disease when it appears.

The power to choose is the power to create a meaningful experience in life.

Our lives today are the culmination of all of the choices we have made in the past, and our lives tomorrow will be created by the choices we make going forward from this moment. Now is the time. Life must be lived in the now, yesterday is gone, and tomorrow may never come, so as I see it, there is no other moment for you to make a choice than right NOW.

What have you been putting off, what do you want to change, and are you ready to make the choice to change it? One of my favorite quotes about choice came from Geddy Lee of Rush when he said “if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice”. So don’t think it is safe to stay the same; don’t wait, make the choice; choose a direction that is fulfilling and will create greater possibilities for you to grow!

*Thanks to LearningCurves.us for portions of this blog!

See Fact #5

If you’re already benefiting from chiropractic care, send this along to all your friends and family:

Start your new year with this in mind:

1. Your entire life started off (for about 30 minutes) as one cell, after fertilization has occurred, but before reproduction begins
2. Your eyes have been the same size (not necessarily the same color) since birth, while every other portion of your body has changed as time has passed
3. Your nose can remember 50,000 different scents, many of which are associated with memories and emotions
4. Your liver is capable of around 500 different functions, including the production of bile and detoxification
5. Your arms, spread straight out in a T shape (your wingspan) is the same measurement as your height
6. Your thigh bones are stronger than concrete and steel
7. Your body completely regenerates itself once every 7 years, replacing every cell that makes up your bones, your blood, your organs, your muscles, and your mind–                                                how many regenerations have you completed?

… and most importantly, all you need to make your body do all this is the best possible nerve function!

Innate Intelligence

Your brain and nervous system influence every ounce of your body, every impulse and action, every everything! The human species has survived and even thrived for thousands of years, through plague, natural disasters, and the creation of the Twinkie. It has done so without needing to drown itself in an ocean of pills; if humans truly needed pharmaceuticals to survive, we’d have died out a long time ago. It has done so without treadmills, “super foods”, genetically-modified crops, and Zumba class. The human body, like every other living organism on this planet, has within it the capacity to function properly… if only we’d get out of its way and just let it! This doesn’t mean you can get away with not eating good food, exercising right, and getting quality rest every day– it means that if you are using your body the way it was intended to be used, then you’re preventing a myriad of problems in the future, all without needing to resort to drastic and ineffective measures.

The biggest difference between chiropractic doctors and pretty much every other mainstream professional in the health care industry is the approach to treatment of diseases. So much of the commercial, promoted, hyper-advertised part of “health care” relies on the product they’re selling and not the body you’re using.

“Food” Producers: ”Why yes, you can consume nothing but Lean Cuisines and zero-calorie Vitamin Water and be healthy… provided you enjoy developing more severe health risks in the future because you spent all your time and money avoiding at all costs the intake of anything anywhere close to real food. After all, calories were made by the devil, as were proteins, fats, and carbs… never mind the fact that the human body uses calories as fuel, and is comprised of proteins, fats, and carbs… so ignore the buttload of artificial chemicals and additives we’ve thrown in to make the wood pulp and and glass you’re really eating resemble food!

Exercise Industries: ”Oh, you’re not fat! You’ve just been barely living as a human because you’re not using The Terrific Total Toner!… which happens to be available for 7 easy payments of $49.99. It does all the work for you! It makes you lean and pretty and happy just by looking at it! Hey, even if you just spend 5 minutes a day thinking about using it, you’ll see inches disappear from your waistline! But… you know… be careful when you get this thing in the mail and have to set it up, because that requires… well, using muscles… and we don’t in any way advocate using muscles because that feels like exercise, and we wouldn’t want that, now would we?!”

Remember THIS gem?

Pharmaceutical Companies: ”Why eat good food and move your body when you could be taking this magic pill? It will regrow hair exactly where you want it to grow in the color you want, shrink the bum you can’t get rid of by eating only “healthy” microwave dinners and keeping your high-priced piece of miraculous exercise equipment in the closet, whiten your teeth, prevent any cold or flu ever, get rid of your acne, and make you taller. By the way, some of the side effects include excessive gas and bloating, nausea, acid reflux, joint inflammation, bone loss, depression and/or thoughts of suicide, blindness, an increased urge to gamble, itching, and death… but you should take it anyway…”

So What Makes Chiropractic Different?

Chiropractic will probably never become the hottest celebrity-endorsed craze. Chiropractic will probably never appear as a late-night infomercial with an enthusiastic spokesperson and a seizure-inducing graphic blitz. Chiropractic is not glamorous or as dramatic as an episode of “ER” or “Grey’s Anatomy”.

Chiropractic IS, however, the most effective method of removing stress placed on your nervous system.

Life is complicated, and results in patterns and situations that create unnecessary stress for our spines to handle. The spine that was built to protect the flow of information throughout our bodies then becomes that flow’s primary source of interruption. If left unchecked, that interruption will result in an organ/process/structure that must work incorrectly… in a state of dis-ease.

Chiropractic’s focus is the health of the entire body and its natural ability to heal and regenerate. That health is achieved by correcting those spinal imbalances (subluxations) with gentle and consistent adjustments; nothing foreign goes into the body, and nothing is extracted from the body. There are no side effects, no contaminants, no food dyes or artificial sweeteners, no flashy bells-n-whistles pieces of equipment. It’s just (quite literally) turning your power on!

Why waste your time and money reacting to what happens after your body has been neglected? Why not save yourself all that hassle and prevent those problems?!

Does your diet look more like this...?

... or more like this?

Now that the major holiday season is behind us and all the delicious sweets and treats and large quantities of food have been consumed we can relax a little, right? It’s interesting how over the holidays, even though many of us tend to eat way too many unhealthy foods we are acknowledging the fact and thinking about what we should be eating to be healthier or at least what we shouldn’t be eating. However, when the holiday season passes and we go back to eating our standard diet, are you looking at the foods you eat with such a watchful eye? With all the clever marketing of foods these days it is difficult to know what is good for you and what is not. So here are some general rules to eat by:

• -Never shop hungry– we tend to make poor food choices when hungry
• -Avoid foods with artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame
• -Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup
• -Avoid foods with large numbers of ingredients– if you can’t pronounce a name on the ingredient label, chances are it’s not good for you (found primarily in highly processed foods)
• -Try to do most of your shopping around the outside perimeter of the grocery store where most of your fresh foods are kept
• -Buy organic when you can (Look up the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen as a guideline for economical organic eating)
• -Make sure 70 to 80% of your plate consists of fresh raw or lightly steamed vegetables or fruits
• -Eat reasonable portion sizes and slow down your eating, if you tend to be the first one done at the dinner table
• -Drink mostly water and avoid sugary drinks like soda
• -Take interest in the food you prepare! Learn to prepare healthy foods by reading books or watching cooking programs on healthy cooking!

And remember these two important rules!

• ~If you put garbage in, what can you expect to glean from it?  You probably guessed it…garbage!
• ~If you want to be more alive than dead, then eat foods that are more alive than dead!

By following these simple rules you will greatly increase your ability to be healthy and well all year long, especially when the holidays come around again!

*Thanks to LearningCurves.us for this article’s content!