Pillow Talk
We tend to apply ergonomics when it comes to waking activities or sitting at a desk; utilizing the correct sleep posture is just as important as your waking posture as you spend 5-8 hours in that position every night. Our sleep posture often doesn’t get the attention it deserves and it is extremely important to pay more attention to our bodies when they’re not in motion. Whether you have felt every bone complaining or whether you are curious to see if you could be getting better sleep, make sure you know the correct sleeping posture.
The key to understanding sleeping posture is to think about where your body curves are. The two major ones that need to be supported throughout sleep are your neck and lower back.
What is the best position for sleeping?
The best lying or sleeping position may vary, depending on your symptoms or structure of your spine. No matter what position you lie in, the pillow should be under your head, but not your shoulders, and should be a thickness that allows your head to be in a normal position.
1. Try to sleep in a position which helps you maintain the curves in your neck and back. Sleeping on your back is the most ergonomically correct sleeping position, as long as you are using the right type of pillow. If you sleep on your back, you’ve won half the battle. Make sure to use a thinner but supportive pillow. If you use a think pillow or multiple pillows, they can stretch and strain your neck muscles. Your head needs to be in a neutral position for the 8 hours that you sleep, and multiple pillows under your head only bring your head forward and can cause a variety of problems.
2. If you are a side sleeper having a hard time switching to sleep on your back, all you have to do is use a few pillows to modify your sleeping posture for better and restful sleep, less aches, and more energy during the day. Use a thinker pillow for your head; since you sleep on your side, you want to create the most neutral position for your head with a thicker pillow to support your neck and head. Also add another pillow in between your knees to create symmetry and a better posture. This will help take any pressure off your lower back and hip
3. If you sleep on your stomach, do everything in your power not to. This is the worse sleeping posture and there’s not much to modify here. Keep in mind, it may take months to train your body to change and or modify your sleeping posture, but it is doable.
4. Finally, when standing up from the lying position, turn on your side, draw up both knees and swing your legs on the side of the bed. Sit up by pushing yourself up with your hands. Avoid bending forward at your waist.
Overcome your sinusitis today!
Forty million Americans suffer from sinusitis. You may have experienced acute sinusitis in which the nasal cavities of the nasal passages become inflamed, mucus is built up and it blocks drainage. This maybe following a cold, and you have symptoms such as painful pressure behind cheekbones, headaches, nasal congestion etc… For some people this is not a temporary problem. If you have chronic sinusitis, you spend majority of each year experiencing symptoms such as fatigue, facial pain, headaches, mucus secretion, bad breath, post nasal drip, and etc.
1. Get steamy
Take a hot shower or better yet try steam treatment to help rid you of the inflamed mucus. The steam you breathe can be enhanced with sinus-clearing essential oils. Try adding Eucalyptus, lavender, oregano or peppermint to a large bowl of steaming-hot water. Drape a towel over your head and the bowl, and breathe deeply for 10 minutes. You’ll feel relief within that time.
If you are short on time, apply a warm wash cloth over your eyes and cheekbones for relief.
1. Get fit
Aerobic exercises at least three times a week can help drain sinuses naturally, which then reduces inflammation and risk of an infection. Physical activity helps cleansing you of toxins and relieve accumulated stress. Dawn’s info or link?
1. Flush the sinuses
Make sure you use a saline solution that does not contain preservatives; they can impair your nasal function. To make your own preservative-free saline solution, add one table spoon of non-iodized salt to one pint of distilled water and rinse your sinuses, and nasal passages with it daily.
1. What to eat
Eating lots of fruits and vegetables and staying away from sugar, dairy products, wheat, alcohol, and foods that can increase mucus inflammation is key in staying healthy, and avoiding those sinusitis episodes all together. Take your natural anti-inflammatory (e.g. fish oil). Try adding garlic, onions, horseradish, hot pepper and ginger added to any soup broth to open up the sinuses. Drink lots of hot herbal tea.
1. Killer immune system
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you exercise, eat right and your nervous system is functioning properly, you shouldn’t be suffering from any aches, pains, tiredness etc…
Your brain controls everything and it communicates with all of your organs through the nervous system/spine. If you have an abnormal neck curve, you have a low resistance immune system which in majority of cases does not cause any symptoms. So get your immune system checked before it’s too late. Also check out this post about Immune System!
Is your sinusitis life-threatening?
In addition to being painful, a chronic sinusitis can be dangerous and in rare cases causes blindness or even death. You may have tried anti-biotics for your sinus infection; unfortunately antibiotics kill the helpful bacteria in your gastro-intestinal system and can cause a variety of other problems if taken frequently. Before your sinusitis becomes more than just a head and face pain, prevent it.
Call 949.387.1333 in order to avoid sinusitis being a detrement to your health! We serve Orange County, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, or Irvine.
How can Chiropractic Help with Blood Pressure?
Most people come to chiropractors in hopes of getting rid of the aches in their back and neck. In my office however, we educate patients on all other benefits of chiropractic. Your posture is a representative of your spine and your spine is extremely important; it holds and protects your nervous system. Your nervous system is THE MOST important organ system in your body because it controls EVERYTHING! one of the most VITAL things it controls is your heart. Sometimes due to the stresses that we have in our lives, some sudden, and some overtime, the spine will shift out of place and shuts down the nerve into a specific organ or musculoskeletal unit. Irregular heart beat, high blood pressure, or difficulty breathing often times are caused by these shifts in the spine. Most postural dysfunctions are asymptomatic, but often times patients who come in with high blood pressure with have an abnormal posture or misaligned spine in their neck and mid back area. Chiropractic care can help regulate blood pressure the natural way and without ANY medication! Check this video about natural ways of controlling blood pressure, and once you are ready to put your health first and help yourself to natural ways of lowering your blood pressure, give us a call at 949.387.1333 for a consultation.
6 natural ways to beat allergies
Here are top 6 ways to beat your allergies this spring:
1. Correct your ‘allergy posture’
Your brain communicates to every cell in your body through your nervous system. The information gets sent down into your neck and then the rest of your body. If you have a misalignment in your neck that is blocking life and energy into the rest of your body, the communication is stopped. The goal of chiropractic care is to located these blocks that are causing major stress on your body and thus enable the immune system to communicate more effectively with the nervous system.
2. Eat allergy-fighting food
Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids help fight inflammation and can be found in cold-water fish, walnuts and flaxseed oil. Garlic, onions, ginger, turmeric, citrus fruits like lemon and oranges also contain natural anti-histamines.
3. Aqua therapy
This natural allergy remedy simply involves drinking lots of liquids to help flush out mucus. However, when you hydrate, you also need minerals to hold onto the water.
Hot liquids can help rid your of congestion. Mint and Green tea work well and contain lots of anti-oxidants that will keep you young as a ‘side-effect’ too. Stay away from black tea, coffee, milk, alcohol and anything with preservatives and additives in it.
4. Beneficial Bugs
Healthy gut flora is essential for wellness of the immune system. Probiotics are the natural and beneficial bacteria in your gut that contribute to your overall health. Disturbed flora can deplete your gut of normal flow of good bacteria. Probiotics can replenenish your source of good bacteria in your gut, and stimulate your immune system in order to prevent you from developing allergies and treating them.
5. Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar contains many healing properties and is often used to ease the symptoms of sinus infection as well as to treat allergies developed from exposure to pets, foods, and various environmental agents. In addition to being rich in vitamins E, A, B1, B2 and B6, apple cider vinegar contains potassium, calcium, and magnesium. It reduces the amount of mucus in the sinus cavities, soothes sore throats, and will shorten the duration of colds.
6. Raw local honey
There are reports that eating honeycomb that comes from the area where you live can relieve symptoms of allergy. The theory is that by chewing a little honeycomb made by local bees you can desensitize yourself to local pollens. Try it daily before allergy season starts so that you build resistance against it. A spoonful a day will keep allergies away!
Call us if you have any questions 949.387.1333
Allergies and Immune System
Allergies are ‘abnormal’ responses of your immune system to substances that are typically harmless. Now why would your brain and nervous system send wrong information regarding these harmless substances to your immune system and most likely the rest of your body? The answer is miscommunication and interference with your nervous system.
Think of the immune system as a well-trained and disciplined bio-weapon that protects the body from harmful substances, with the help of a two-way communication from the brain/nervous system, it identifies and destroys foreign and trouble invaders. If your brain and nervous system are having a hiccup communicating which substances are harmful and which are not, you end up sneezing, coughing, and getting teary eyed every time a harmless substance enters your body.
There are many reasons why your immune system would not be functioning at its best. The main one is having a nervous system that is not functioning correcting. Your spine holds and protects your nervous system; thus make sure your spine is alligned and your immune system is communicating well with the rest of your body! At Wellness Choice Center, our Newport Beach office, we can determine if there is a lack of communication between your nervous system and immune system; and this is one of many ways we help patients with allergies on daily basis. Call us at 949.387.1333 if you have any questions.
Mid-back and ulcers…
Patients come into our Costa Mesa office asking if I can help them with their midback pain, only to find out that I’ll be asking them questions about their digestion and will be linking it to their middle back pain. You should know that your brain and spinal cord are part of the most important system in your body- your nervous system! Nerves go through the spine and then to EVERY cell in your body, all organs, muscles, joints, vessles, etc.. Most of the nerves that come out of the middle portion of the spine control and regulate activities of the digestive system. So if you come in with poor posture, hunched midback and or some midback pain, I will be asking you whether you are constipated or if you have regular and balanced digestive system. Call 949.387.1333 for a free consultation.
Disc Decompression Therapy
We treat hundreds of new cases of disc herniation and lower back pain that is associated with nerve entrapments weekly in our Costa Mesa/Newport Beach wellness practice. I spend a lot of time looking for and reading research articles as well as most modern health and wellness trends. Disc Decompression therapy is one of the most commonly used system and protocol for herniated discs, pinched nerves, sciatica, nerve entrapment and simple lumbalgia. The protocol includes decompression therapy, streches, exercises, physical therapy, chiropractic adjustments, as well as a nutritional guide.
Only a handful of physicians use exercise as part of therapy or healing protocol which is saddening. At our office in Orange County, exercise is a major part of healing, strengthening, and pain management. Patients who do Spinal Decompression in our office are on a specific and individualized exercise program to better help their progress. In a lot of cases, we work with personal trainers who are highly educated and trained in working with clients who are in pain or have disabilities.
To find out if you are a candidate for care at our office in Newport Beach, give us a call at 949.387.1333
Heart of a woman
Heart disease now has a new face – it’s young, fit and female. Journal of American College of Cardiology reports that deaths caused by heart disease in women under 45 years old have been increasing by 1.3 percent each year since 1997.
The typical cardiac patient has historically been a middle-aged or older male; females have been left out of heart disease research studies, which have led to the perception that it does not pertain to women. Female-oriented vascular conditions such as microvascular disease and pregnancy-related heart troubles are less understood than coronary-artery disease which triggers heart attacks in men. Meanwhile 4 in 10 women do not recognize heart disease’s most life threatening sign until it is too late – a heart attack!
The number of young women (under 45) who die from coronary heart disease each year is roughly comparable to the number of women who die of breast cancer, yet there are numerous breast cancer awareness organizations and little in the way of heart disease education. Thus this month’s article will investigate and educate women on risk factors and screening steps.
Doctors are not making the connection between suspicious symptoms and a significant cardiac event in female patients. A recent study presented 800 physicians with patient profiles in which the heart risk levels were identical, but the genders differed. Even when a woman’s risk was the same as a man’s, doctors were more likely to classify her case as low risk.
Women develop different type of heart disease than men and the symptoms and complexity is yet to be researched. Heart disease in women strikes multiple smaller arteries while men more commonly develop a single large plaque that clearly blocks a single artery.
Another reason women with heart disease are being inadequately examined and tested may have to do with the under-recognized connection between the reproductive organs and heart health. Irregular menstrual cycle and hormonal imbalances play a role in coronary vessels tightening and thus making you more susceptible to heart disease and heart attacks.
Pregnancy and pregnancy-related complications such as pre-eclampsia, eclampsia and gestational diabetes can trigger heart disease by increasing blood clotting and risks of high blood pressure. New moms are often told that these conditions are pregnancy-specific and are resolved after birth of their child. New research now shows that they can have an impact years after the pregnancy.
3 steps to prevention:
1. Know your numbers
By age 30 get your blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood sugar levels checked annually.
2. Know your risks
Abnormal cholesterol levels
High blood pressure
Drug or tobacco use
Diabetes
Family history
Obesity
Pregnancy
Birth control pills
Poor diet and lack of exercise
3. Get Checked
Based on your numbers, many doctors will use online tools to assess your risk level and determine what tests you need. Ask your doctor about female-focused Reynalds Risk Score (reynoldsriskscore.org) which accounts for all the risks as well as factors that can be particularly troubling in women, such as certain cholesterol types and inflammatory markers specific to females.
Signs, symptoms, and risk factors for heart disease can be subtle or seemingly harmless and prevention is extremely valuable. Educate yourself on risks, take care of your body, and ask your doctor for a checkup. Call us for a free consultation or to check your blood pressure at 949.387.1333
Cure High Blood Pressure Naturally
High Blood Pressure…
American Heart Association reports one out of three adults in the United States is suffering from high blood pressure or hypertension. Hypertension is known as the ‘silent killer’ and you may be suffering from it without experiencing major symptoms. High blood pressure pushes against the walls of arteries and veins and can cause stroke, heart attack, aortic aneurysm and death. Call us at 949.387.1333 to get checked and find out if you are at risk for hypertension.
The answer to the question of how to cure high blood pressure naturally and without medication is most commonly a low salt intake, exercise and a healthy diet. Most people don’t realize that there are various other treatment options that are natural and can help lower your blood pressure so that you can become medication free.
Truth about high blood pressure medication:
It is important to understand that hypertension medications will NOT change, modify, or address the underlying cause of high blood pressure. They synthetically lower your blood pressure by either causing the heart to beat slower or making your blood less thick so your blood pressure numbers are looking good, but not exactly healthy. You may be able to lower your blood pressure on paper but this ‘silent killer’ has not been treated- not to mention the deadly side-effects. New research is now showing some natural remedies are just as effective as their medication counterpart.
3 secrets to beat the ‘silent killer’ naturally and effectively:
Get Chiropractic Care:
Many of us consider chiropractic care a vital path to good health, but did you know that it has also been shown to significantly improve high blood pressure? New and exciting research was done by medical doctors in 2007 shows that chiropractic care can be as effective as high blood pressure medications with no side effects. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TTzKwvNbP0
Correct positioning of your neck vertebra is vital in optimal functioning of not only your neck but your entire body. A misaligned neck puts pressure on your nerve and contribute to accelerated aging, migraine headaches, aches, fatigue and last but not least hypertension. You may be a candidate for less medication and lower side effects! For a one-on-one complimentary consultation contact our office for an appointment 949.387.1333
Evaluate your Nutrition:
You already know about a low-salt diet now how about adding Garlic, Green Tea, Apple Cider Vinegar, and Olive Leaf Extracts to your list. Three Miracle Minerals: Calcium, Magnesium, and potassium as well as Fish oil and CoQ10 should also be added to your supplement list. There are multiple other herbal and nutritional supplements that can regulate your blood flow. For a detailed assessment of your diet or supplemental intake give us a call at 949.387.1333
Watch Your Weight:
It’s been shown that a 10% weight loss can normalize your blood pressure. A regular and effective exercise program specifically to regulate your weight, insulin levels, and high blood pressure is the way to go. The only side effect to this one is a fit and healthy body!
3 reasons why you’re not losing weight
Can’t lose weight? Jump start 2009 with a detoxification program!
If you are having trouble losing weight and it’s become more and more difficult to lose weight, you are not alone. Many people try few days or weeks of dieting without being able to keep the weight off, and or speeding up their metabolism. Each year by not taking the right steps, you gain a few pounds, and each year it becomes more difficult to lose the pounds; thus your body stays in a toxic-overload state. Here are 3 most common reasons why you are having trouble losing weight or keeping it off.
1. Eating Habits:
Obesity in America is no longer surprising news. Most of the food we buy and even fruits and vegetables that we consume are extremely overloaded with chemical toxins, dangerous artificial sweeteners, cancer-causing preservatives, and lots of unhealthy substances. If you’re not getting rid of this waste in your body, your cravings won’t go away; you will not be able to lose this extra weight. When you have a toxic system, you are fatigued day after day, can’t sleep properly, you have a low metabolism and therefore you can’t motivate yourself to exercise, all of which contributes to excess weight year after year. A toxic system is your worst enemy and cleansing yourself of the toxins can be the only solution to optimal health. Call 949.387.1333 to schedule a free consultation and see if a detoxification program can help you get your optimal health back.
2. Your Workouts:
If you eat super healthy, do a detoxification once a year, workout somewhat regularly and still difficult for you to lose weight, it is likely that you have hit a plateau. It’s not about going to the gym every day it is about the right kinds of cardio and strength training for your body and specific to your goals. Try www.WorkingYourBody.com
3. A Misaligned Spine:
Is your neck tight and does your upper back carry tension and stress most of the time? What you may not know is that not only your back muscles but also your nerves in that area are affected. The nerves in your neck control metabolism, immune system, thyroid, sleeping patterns, and a healthy brain. If you feel that you are not at your optimal health, it may have to do with a stretched spinal cord. Insomnia, stress, thyroid malfunction, and low metabolism all lead to over eating, lack of motivation for exercise, and thus weight gain and an accelerated aging process. Call us at 949.387.1333 for a consultation to check your nervous system for any interference.
It is my goal to make 2009 the healthiest year for all of my patients and the individuals I come across with.
