Halloween in Moderation

Lessening The Impact Of A Treat Oriented Holiday

     Dr. Alex and Dr. Hannah had a great time serving apple cider and hotdogs to the Metamora community along side the Metamora Lions Club last night!  

     As we all wind down from Halloween and look around at the piles of candy collected by the kids, this is a great time to remember that the key to a healthy life is MODERATION! Over indulging in anything (including fun-sized Snickers) can negatively impact your health and have long term consequences. Teaching this lesson to our children early on can help set them up for good health in the future.  Be sure to place reasonable boundaries on your children (and yourselves) to make the candy last longer and give you all a better chance at a healthy November! We have heard of parents placing a 1-2 piece limit on candy packed in lunches or a 1-2 piece after dinner dessert rule. The point of these limits isn't to suck the fun out of Halloween, its to ensure your children understand that the decisions they make have a very real impact on their health.

     Looking for a way to get the candy out of the house all together? Consider checking with your local dentist offices to see if any of them offer a candy "Buy-Back" program where kids can turn in their candy for cash and the office will donate the candy to American service men and women. If this isn't available in your area, you can always consider "buying back" the candy yourself to help your child pay for that toy or game that will last them much longer than a pillowcase full of Gobstoppers ever could. This is also a great way to earn some brownie points with your coworkers as you stock to office candy dish for a couple of weeks. 

     However you decide to address the Halloween candy craze, know that the doctors and staff at Wolfe Family Chiropractic are here to help you and your family achieve you maximum health potential!

Taking Control of Your Health

     For as long as we’ve been walking the earth, humans have craved control over their situation. We see this desire for control in the magnificent buildings and machines that dot our country’s landscape from coast to coast. We have overcome and tamed the forces of nature with dams, airplanes, bridges and boats. Modern medicine is no different in its ultimate goal but rather than taming stone and steel, the medical researchers of the modern ages have been on a quest for control of the human body through the use of drugs and surgery. There is no doubt that through centuries of trial and error we have accomplished some amazing feats that have saved millions of lives. Unfortunately, the train of thought behind most of this advancement has its basic premise rooted in the delusion that we, as humans, are more capable than the in-born power of our bodies that has been sustaining life since the very beginning. Instead of asking the question, “how can we make the body submit to our will?” what if we were to ask, “how can we embrace and support the natural healing potential which ALREADY exists within our body?” Any one of you reading this is intelligent enough to know that headaches are not cause by pharmaceutical deficiency in the body and yet societies best solution for years has been the medicine cabinet!

     Every minute of our life, from before our birth until our dying breath, our nervous system orchestrates a master symphony of physiological processes that exceeds the complexity and accuracy of any machine or software program ever conceived. When we smell warm pastries or freshly brewed coffee, our perception of that smell is integrated by our brain and the physiological process of salivation instantaneously begins while thousands of other bodily functions continue without interruption and without our conscious participation. This is just one of hundreds of thousands of environmental responses that occur within each of us throughout any given day. The efficiency and integrity of these actions as well as the vital functions of our major organs is reliant upon a properly functioning nervous system that is free from any interference.

     Chiropractors recognize the existence of three categories of opposition to nervous system health: Thoughts, Traumas, and Toxins. Exposure to these “Three T’s” is unavoidable in our daily lives but with a concentrated effort, we can reduce our vulnerability to their effects. Each of our bodies has a threshold of tolerance to negative health factors that it is able to deal with. The occasional (weekly) soda, for instance, is generally not enough of an insult to our bodies to cause a rapid fall from health. When we exceed our threshold of tolerance by dumping large amounts of toxins into our bodies (daily sodas, tobacco, alcohol, etc.) we weaken the body and lower our resistance to disease. This is just one small example of how our behavior affects our health. Everything we choose to expose ourselves our bodies to including, but not limited to: unhealthy foods, polluted air, bad ergonomics, falls, addictions, and long periods of inactivity, takes us one step further from health or one step closer to sickness. In contrast, when we consume healthy foods, exercise regularly, and maintain healthy relationships we advance towards health and leave sickness behind us. 

     One of the clearest indicators of poor or declining health is the presence of subluxations in the spine. A subluxation is a misalignment which negatively impacts the proper function and motion of the body. Subluxations occur when a toxic/traumatic/thought threshold has been exceeded and the body succumbs to the “something’s gotta give” laws of nature. Subluxations in the spine create interference within the nervous system and decrease the ability of our brain to send and receive messages regarding body function. With so much of our health depending on constant, clear, efficient, and precise communication between the brain and the rest of the body, subluxations can negatively affect our health in a dramatic way. You may have never heard the word "subluxation" before but the vast majority of the world's population is being negatively affected by them. Chiropractors are the only health professionals in the world trained to detect and correct subluxations of the spine.

     In our office this week, our welcome board reads, “Your body’s ability to heal is greater than anyone has permitted you to believe.” We regularly assist our patients in rediscovering the natural healing capabilities of their bodies through regular, specific chiropractic care and through teaching basic healthy lifestyle choices. Your body is capable of healing most everything on its own, you only need to provide it with the proper ingredients and ensure your body systems, especially your nervous system, are operating at full efficiency. 

If you would like to have your family’s and your own spine checked for subluxations by a chiropractor that focuses on specific correction and whole body wellness, give our office a call at (810) 212-1200.

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Back to School: Lightening the Load

As parents and children prepare for the end of summer and a return to school schedules, now is a great time to make conscious decisions that can help protect the ones you love most. If you are like us, your mailbox and email inbox has likely been jammed full of back to school advertisements trying to spur you into a last minute shopping spree of pens, pencils, highlighters, binders, notebooks, rulers, scissors, glue sticks, and so much more. With the lists of suggested back to school items at many office supply and department stores extending to multiple pages, it can be tempting to over-buy as an instinct to give our children everything we are told they need. While some of those items might be necessary, take a moment to consider the added strain which unnecessary weight can place on a child’s body throughout the school year.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that a child’s backpack weigh no more than 10-20% of their body weight. For example, a 60lb child’s bag should weigh no more than 6-12 lbs. and for a 120lb high school student, 24 lbs is still the upper limit! Overloaded backpacks can contribute to back pain, poor posture, muscle strain, and can negatively impact healthy growth and development over time. The best way to check the weight of your child’s backpack is to have them step on a bathroom scale wearing the backpack and then again without the bag, subtracting the smaller number from the larger. It is important to check the weight of the bag throughout the year as school work and projects begin to be transported back and forth between home and school.

Limiting backpack weight can be a tricky task as the workload for students increases and heavy textbooks find their way home. One of the most basic ways to ensure that book bags don’t become overloaded is to buy smaller bags with multiple storage compartments, thereby limiting the storage capacity and evenly distributing the weight. Another thing to consider is that some textbooks are available online for free or for a small fee depending on the publisher. This eliminates the need to carry heavy textbooks to and from school. Parents should also encourage their children to use lockers or desks to store materials/items that are not necessary to complete homework assignments. A monthly purge of folders and binders also eliminates unnecessary paper weight and gives parents an opportunity to review schoolwork to check for missing/incomplete assignments.

Once you have ensured that your child’s bag is not overburdening them, it is important to check the way they are carrying the bag to make sure the weight is being appropriately distributed across their body. Bags should be worn with both straps evenly tightened, with the bottom of the bag at or above the waistline.

Despite all of these changes, it is still important to make sure your child is evaluated regularly by a chiropractor that has additional training in pediatric care. Specific and gentle chiropractic care throughout childhood can help ensure proper growth and development, strengthen the child’s immune system, and improve cognitive function!  To schedule an appointment with Dr. Hannah for your child(ren) and yourself, give us a call at (810) 212-1200!