Omega 3: Preventing Mental Decline

An important new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry reveals that fish oil supplements beat mental illness. An article in the Wall Street Journal reported on the recent study for a natural supplementation treatment option for children and young adults with severe mental disease.

Researchers in the new study identified 81 people, ages 13 to 25, with warning signs of psychosis, ... Forty-one were randomly assigned to take four fish oil pills a day for three months. The other patients took dummy pills.

After a year of monitoring, 2 of the 41 patients in the fish oil group, or about 5%, had become psychotic, or completely out of touch with reality. In the placebo group, 11 of 40 became psychotic, about 28%.

With larger studies already planned, this one reveals another component to the wide-ranging benefits that omega 3 oils have. Although this information is already accepted in the natural health community, many studies continue to shed light that natural supplements provide many benefits with little danger of negative side effects.

The truth is we already know that omega-3 fatty acids (polyunsaturated fatty acids -PUFAs) help protect people against cardiovascular disease. We also know
they can play a role in preventing diabetes and cancer. It's little surprise that they also protect against mental illness, given the importance of healthy fatty acids for the functioning of the nervous system. NaturalNews

Read more about benefits of fish oil at fishoilbenefit.net

I feel the biggest point to be taken from these articles is this... providing a natural source is a safer more effective choice.

You're probably saying, " I know that already!"

Good, now you know what the final destination is, it's up to you to ask more questions and discover more information about how to know what's pure and sufficient so you can give yourself what you deserve, good health.

A great way to get started is to sign up for our fish oil workshop on February 15th at 6:45 in the Glen Mills office. Contact our office for more details.

The Metabolism Buster

What if you were to learn that every day, 25 percent of your calories came from a poison, disguised as a food?

What would you think if this poison actually is encouraged and allowed by the agencies set up to protect you and I? (American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, the USDA and the FDA)

And what if you discovered that this chemical impostor was responsible for your insulin resistance and weight gain?

And elevated blood pressure ... And elevated triglycerides and LDL ... And depletion of vitamins and minerals ... And even gout, heart disease and liver damage?

Would you be angry?

We now know without a doubt that sugar in your food, in all its myriad of forms, is taking a devastating toll on the health of this nation.

(Thank you to Dr. Mercola for stating these ideas! I have to admit, I took them directly from his blog post... It was too good to change.)

The fact is, a vast majority of Americans and many up and coming nations in the world are eating huge amounts of processed sugar. It is currently estimated that 90% of money spent on food is spent on processed unnatural foods and 25% of all the calories you consume are from fake sugar.

Below I am including some of the amazing stats from the article. If you would like to really know what is happening regarding this topic so you can make better choices, have more personal power, and add quality to your life and life to your years read the entire article here.

Okay, here are some of the stats from the article:

On average, men are consuming 187 more calories per day, and women 335 more calories. People who were never heavy before are becoming overweight, and the obese are becoming more so. We are now a “supersized” population.

Today, 55 percent of sweeteners used in food and beverage manufacturing are made from corn, and the number one source of calorie in America is soda, in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). In fact, the average American drinks 60 gallons of soda every year.

Corn syrup is now found in every type of processed, pre-packaged food you can think of. In fact, the use of HFCS in the U.S. diet increased by a whopping 10,673 percent between 1970 and 2005, according to a report by the USDA.

The current annual consumption of sugar is 141 pounds per person, and 63 pounds of that is HFCS.

There is much more information but it would make this a very long post, so reserve some time, read this entire article, and empower yourself by adding knowledge!

Do You Need More Celery?

You may be thinking.. Celery?.. I don't wanna eat more of that! ... Unless you have some onion ranch dip to go along.

When it comes to this vegetable, sometimes taste is left to be desired. But there is more than meets the taste buds.

An article on Natural News by Brett Brown, researched some of the proposed benefits of this healing food, in fact it has been used for centuries to treat colds, flu, water retention, poor digestion, arthritis, liver, and spleen ailments.

Here's some of the opening lines from the article:

Celery has a long history of use and is truly an ancient healing food. At first glance celery may seem rather unimpressive, but the more you look into its background and medicinal uses the more you realize that we must have been misinformed on the usefulness of this plant...

We have been led to believe that celery does not have much to it when in fact celery truly contains a wealth of health improving nutrients that we can obtain from it. Celery has a profile that is much more than water and fiber!

Read the entire article here, it's very brief and informative.

If your wondering how to incorporate more celery into your diet here's a piece from the New York Times provides five healthy recipes that seem very simple to put together. I'll be sure to give some of these a try!

Keeping making positive strides in adding good things to your daily routine and your body will thank you!

Chiropractic: The Law of Cause and Effect

For every action there must be a reaction. For every cause there is an effect.

These universal laws apply everywhere to everyone, all of the time. Here's a great article describing these Laws

In chiropractic terms the cause is subluxation and the effect is sickness and disease. Simple put, when a subluxation occurs in your spine, it interrupts the normal flow of signals from the brain to the body, which in turn, leads to a symptom.

Shown below, I stumbled across this Youtube video with a great way to explain how a subluxation of the spine can interfere with the function of the human body.

In this video a series of news clips are provided showing the positive benefits in human function including: eyesight, infantile colic, ADHD, brain function, pain, arthritis, and headaches through the use of chiropractic.

In its purest application, chiropractic is not concerned with treating single medical conditions, when the nervous system is functioning at 100% it is inevitable that symptoms disappear.

How's Your Brain Fitness

Have you heard the phrase "Use it or lose it"? This statement holds true for many facets of life, but most importantly applies to your brain! We all share concerns of mental decline, especially among an aging population.

The common assumption is after our early 20's the human brain stops developing. This may be true for brain size, but for learning, developing, and creating, this assumption doesn't hold true.

Not long ago, most scientists believed the brain became “hard-wired” during childhood, and that there was little you could do to improve its function once you entered adulthood. Not anymore.

Brain plasticity

It's a funny sounding concept, but refers to the brain’s ability to change—for better or worse—throughout life. It’s an incredibly important and personal process: by defining our brain development, it shapes each of our distinct personalities. You can read more about brain plasticity here.

This information comes from the Brain Fitness Channel, it is a dedicated website to informing you about the most important part of yourself.

I first found about this website through this great article from the New York Times. Here's a couple paragraphs that I found made the point:

Brains in middle age, which, with increased life spans, now stretches from the 40s to late 60s, also get more easily distracted. Start boiling water for pasta,go answer the doorbell and — whoosh — all thoughts of boiling water disappear. Indeed, aging brains, even in the middle years, fall into what’s called the default mode, during which the mind wanders off and begin daydreaming.

Given all this, the question arises, can an old brain learn, and then remember what it learns? Put another way, is this a brain that should be in school?

As it happens, yes. While it’s tempting to focus on the flaws in older brains, that inducement overlooks how capable they've become. Over the past several years, scientists have looked deeper into how brains age and confirmed that they continue to develop through and beyond middle age.

The Brain Fitness Channel is a great website, I spent some time reading and doing the interactive tests. It includes games, puzzles, recipes, and a ton of great information. Give your brain something that it will enjoy!

Foods to Watch For

It's about that time for the New Years celebration and I know I've been asking about resolutions. There has been a lot of mixed answers to this question, but the most popular one is.... " I don't do New Year Resolutions."

After thinking why this may be, I came to the conclusion that, like many people, the will power may be there in the beginning but old habits come back around. So who would want to fail at something else?

There's a lot to consider about successfully improving your quality of life, so I would like to make a simple suggestion that I feel can be very impactful and easy to maintain.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, CSPInet.org, put together a great 10 best and 10 worst foods list. I challenge you to go the web page and choose one food item to avoid from the worst food list and one food item from the best food list.

The key, from this point forward, is to consistently eat the added good food and avoid eating the bad food. (By the way, if you chose one of the bad foods to avoid, and you regularly don't eat that food in the first place, you are only cheating yourself)

Additionally, I came another great article titled "The 7 Food Experts Won't Eat" by Shine from Yahoo. This is one of the best main stream media articles regarding this topic that I have come across, so I recommend taking 5 minutes and learn something new today!

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays!!

Since Thanksgiving there as been a feeling of urgency with everything. Everyone saying they are to busy to do one thing or another, all the shopping that has to get done, all the baking, the list goes on and on. Amongst all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season what have we forgotten?

For me, the holiday season is a time to remember, a time to have fun, a time to let go, a time to center myself. That may not be the case for everyone, but let's take a moment, step outside yourself and see what the holidays truly mean for you.

Below is a forward I received from someone and it got me thinking, so I want to pass it on to you.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep... you are richer than 75% of the world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace... you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness... you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation... you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you choose to attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death... you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you hold your head up with a smile on your face and are truly thankful.. you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can hold someones hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder... you are blessed because you can offer a healing touch.

Have a good holiday, count your blessings, and pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are.

Wishing you Happy Holidays

Is Your Tap Water Safe?

Have you ever wondered where your drinking water comes from? A river, creek, or mountain snow run off?

We live in an era where all we have to do is turn the tap on and magically the water appears. No longer do we depend on walking down to the river or lowering a container down the well and carry buckets back to our home. Yes, we are very fortunate. I believe there are still many people in the world in which this is a daily chore that is required for survival.

In a special report recently released by the environmental working group, a multi year review of the nations water companies and the pollutants discovered in them has been released. You can read the full report here.

Below, is the opening two paragraphs from the email notice that I received:

"Since 2004, testing by water utilities has found 316 pollutants in the tap water that Americans drink, according to drinking water analysis of almost 20 million records obtained from state water officials...

More than half of the chemicals detected are not subjected to health or safety regulations and can legally be present in any amount. The federal government does have health guidelines for others, but 49 of these contaminants have been found in one place or another at levels above those guidelines, polluting the tap water for 53.6 million Americans. The government has not set a single new drinking water standard since 2001." EWG.org

So what's the good news? When the Environmental Protection Agency sets mandatory water quality standards, the tests show that local water suppliers meet them 92% of the time. The bad news? The standards need to be much tougher to protect children and pregnant women, and the EPA hasn't set a single new drinking water standard in 9 years.

To find out what's in your tap water click here.
(On the right hand side of the page there is a gadget to either enter your zip code or water company)

To find out what water filter is right for you and your home click here.

To review a guide for safer drinking water click here.

An additional water filter resource is wellnessfilter.com

The Magic Bullet For Life

Today, I came across an article titled "Finding Your Health Magic Bullet" and the opening lines well stated the expectations that many people have about their health. In fact, this is exactly what I thought before I was introduced to chiropractic !

Here's some of the opening paragraph:

Everyone is looking for the health "magic bullet". We all want to be
well and not plagued with sickness or infirmity. We are looking for that one
thing that is both simple and effective and above all requires little effort on
our part... there is a magic bullet and that magic bullet resides within each and every one of us." (NaturalNews.com)*

*Contains strong descriptions

The article is quick to the point and goes through many concerns regarding our desires, habits, and thoughts. The media, your nutrition, our food supply and the ties they have to our health.

Now after reading that article, you may be slightly alarmed, maybe more?

What the author is trying to explain, is that your body was made with blueprints (genes) that were designed to use pure natural elements, and we get these elements through eating. (This article only talks about food, but exercise, spinal movement, and mental health all fall under this line of thought)

Throughout all history there has never been any synthetic, chemical, processed, hydrogenated or genetic addition to our food supply. Not until recent history, 50 years or so.

Our blueprints, or genes, have become inundated with unnatural forms and substances. The only way to deal with these issues is to change the way the immune system, cardiovascular system, endocrine system, digestive system, muscular system, nervous system, respiratory system, and reproductive system act and function.

We see and experience this as Syndrome X: Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, obesity, mental disorders, fatigue, and the list goes on and on.

Now, where does that leave you? There's lots I can tell you, there's a lot our office can show you, but it stems from your desire.

Where do you want to be in 20, 30, or 40 years? What does it look like? How do you get there?

All tough questions, but I am holding a workshop on December 21st at 6:45. I will be going over exactly how I began to turn my life around and some information from some of the greatest minds on health, life, planning and motivation. My hope is to begin to answer some of those questions for you and help direct you on the right path.

Exercise Prevents Cell Aging

So the proof is in the pudding. I think most people knew that if an individual exercises regularly there are positive health benefits. It's pretty evident to see who has been committed and who hasn't.

But if you're like me, you enjoy reading some of the scientific evidence behind these assumptions. A recent article released by Live Science revealed that regular physical activity has an anti-aging effect at the cellular level.

That's a remarkable statement! A cellular level! That means the millions upon millions of cells that you depend on, but never think about, do a better job and live longer when you decide to exercise. I'm 100% certain that there is also a correlation between how much health is expressed by those cells compared to the consistency and amount of exercise performed.

Here are two paragraphs from the article, but I recommend reading the entire piece here.

The research found that intensive exercise prevents the shortening of telomeres — the DNA that bookends chromosomes and protects the ends from damage — much like the cap on the end of a shoelace.

The shortening of telomeres limits cells to a fixed number of divisions and can be regarded as a "biological clock." Gradual shortening of telomeres through cell divisions leads to aging on the cellular level and may limit lifetimes. When the telomeres become critically short, the cell dies.

Vitamin D Prevents...

And for part two of today's double feature...

If you have been following any type of health news recently there has been a wealth of information being released about the many wonderful benefits of the sunshine vitamin.

In fact on November 7th I will be putting on a workshop about vitamin D. Check out this link for more info.

An article in The Times of India reports that even vitamin D may be considered "nature's antibiotic." Here are a few quotes from the story:

"Right from the health of your immune system to prevention of heart disease and even vulnerability to influenza, vitamin D is now seen as one of the most critical nutrients for overall health."

"About 70 percent of the population of the United States has insufficient levels of vitamin D. This is a critical issue as we learn more about the many roles it may play in fighting infection, balancing your immune response, helping to address autoimmune problems, and even preventing heart disease..."

You can read the full article here at The Times of India website.

If you are interested in reading more, there is a great article that has over 20 quotes from different sources about vitamin D and some of the recent findings. You can find it here on NaturalNews.com.

CBS Reporter Blows the Lid Off the Swine Flu Media Hype

Today I'm going to be posting two articles. The first is an addition to a blog that I posted on November 11th. Information about the swine flu, FDA and CDC just keeps pouring in and I want to make sure that everyone reading this blog is seeing this important information.

This interview was originally aired on CBS News and was posted on Mercola.com.

To give a little background, the reporter on this story is Sharyl Attkison. She is a well-respected CBS news anchor and is known for going the extra mile in reporting. The connections she is finding between these for-profit industries (pharmaceutical corporations) and government regulatory agencies is appalling.

See for yourself in the video below.




For a more detailed audio interview go to Mercola.com and watch the first video that is on the web page. It's a one-on-one interview between Dr. Mercola and Sharyl Attkison and goes into a lot more detail of what she has been uncovering.

Eating Healthy for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year. Spending time with my family, watching football, eating all the great food, then falling asleep usually because I ate too much, it's all a great time. Not to mention, giving thanks for the positives in my life.

Since becoming a chiropractor I have become much more aware of what happens to my body during the holidays, and the official holiday season begins next week!

Today's post is not going to be about what to avoid or how to counteract everything that you consume, but more on sensible tips to monitor yourself and setting some guidelines to direct your focus. As the old saying goes "Fail to plan and you plan to fail."

Some of the information for today's article comes from Healthcastle.com, read the full article by clicking on the link, but I will highlight a few of the key points.

A Healthier Thanksgiving

Don't go to the Thanksgiving dinner hungry: we often eat faster and more when we are hungry - therefore eat a wholesome breakfast and lunch on the day to avoid overeating at dinner time.

Thanksgiving dinner is not an all-you-can-eat buffet: Fill your plate half with vegetables, one quarter with a lean meat and the rest with a starch of your choice. Eat slowly and stop when you are full.

Side Dishes - watch your portion size: go for smaller portions. This way you can sample all the different foods. Moderation is always the key.

Make a conscious choice to limit high fat items: high fat food items can be found in fried and creamy dishes as well as cheese-filled casseroles in a traditional Thanksgiving meal . For instance, mashed potatoes are usually made with butter and milk; green bean casseroles are often prepared with cream of mushroom soup, cheese and milk and topped with fried onions; candied yams are loaded with cream, sugar and marshmallows. If you cannot control the ingredients that go in to a dish, simply limit yourself to a smaller helping size. Again moderation is the key.

One of the most important things to remember is that it takes time for your stomach to signal your brain that you are full. Some other useful tips to keep things in moderation are to put your fork down between bites, make sure your chewing your food thoroughly, and sip some water between courses or bites. These three tips will allow your body to adapt to all the wonderful foods you'll be eating this holiday season.

For some additional tips on how to maintain a fitness schedule and eating habits during this years holiday season check out this Womenfitness.com article (Yes, it even applies to men).

Vaccinations for Swine Flu, Seasonal Flu and More

Today's post I decided to go a little more in depth with some very informative interviews.

The first video is an interview done by Dr. Mercola with Dr. Russell Blaylock reviewing all the key data collected from the CDC's own information regarding the flu and vaccination. The CDC stands for the Centers for Disease Control and is considered the authority of health information and statistics.

This is a highly intriguing set of YouTube videos, there's 4 of them, that answer many of the questions that Dr. Wilkins and myself get everyday.

The following is the first video, I will then include the other three links to review the rest.



Video 2
Video 3
Video 4

The second part of today special post is very similar in content, but is a YouTube video of a testimonial by Gary Null performed in the New York State Assembly on October 19th of this year. The testimonial is an address of the current state of safety and effectiveness research by the pharmaceutical corporations and the results of injecting these inadequately studied chemicals into our bodies.



Part 2
Part 3

I encourage you to find some time to watch these video's. You will benefit by hearing expert information, which will allow you to make informed choices, show people where you heard accurate and unbiased information, and feel confident that you are making wise decisions with your health.

Your job doesn't end there. You are on this forum for a reason. Take advantage and learn great stuff, but pass this on to people you care and love, don't they deserve to have a high quality of existence?

Cereal that boosts immunity?

Recently I came across this story reported by Mike Adams on NaturalNews.com regarding health claims made by Kellogg's stating that their cereal now boosts your immunity.

I took a double take when I read the headline.

Take a look at the original story found on USA Today here.

The fact is the first few ingredients contain sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and partially hydrogenated oils. Regardless of the other ingredients, these three make it an immunity suppressant!

Kellogg's claim is that the added vitamins make the cereal a healthy choice... but how can synthetically made vitamins sprayed on the cereal take the place of naturally occurring vitamins found in fruits and vegetables?

If you would like to read a great opinion piece regarding this same topic I highly recommend this article from NaturalNews.com. He poses some important questions and lays down some facts about cereals marketed for children.