Inflammation: Most likely at the root of your problem

     Inflammation, which is simply a biological response of tissue to harm, is either acute or chronic. It can be beneficial in acute stages, and in fact is the natural response of the body,  allow healing to occur. Whether there is trauma to the tissue, causing swelling, heat, pain, loss of function, or tissue damage that persists over a long period of time, this is what leads to disease, health issues, and the body unable to heal.

     If you don't address the cause of the inflammation the problem doesn't allow the body to heal. Drugs and surgery don't address the cause. You need to do things or avoid things to address inflammation so the body can heal. Everyone is different and some need more of one thing than another; also there are many steps one can take to help.

I will go over the major steps everyone can take to reduce inflammation, allow your body to heal, and your health improve.

     The 5 main ways to reduce inflammation and pain are:

1) Chiropractic adjustments

2) Improve our diets

3) Avoid foods that cause inflammation

4) Take nutrients that decrease inflammation

5) Detoxify our bodies

     Receiving Chiropractic adjustments allows the tissue damage in the back, neck, hips, chest, arms,and legs to have a chance to heal naturally. The cause of pain in the mentioned areas is most often removed and prevented from coming back with Chiropractic care. 

     Eating healthy foods is another step we can take. By eating fresh, raw, uncooked vegetables and fruits, unrefined carbohydrates, fermented foods, apple cider vinegar, meats that are grass-fed, and not grain-fed, and fish. 

     Avoid foods that cause inflammation such as sugar, and other refined and processed foods, vegetable oils such as canola, corn, cottonseed, or palm, all  grains containing gluten (especially wheat), flavor enhancers such as msg, soy lecithin, and carrageenan.  

     Taking nutrients, especially whole food nutrients, is also beneficial. Especially helpful is omega 3 fatty acids, such as fish oils and flax seed oil. When we have a diet high in omega 3's and low in omega 6 fatty acids (such as vegetable oils), it naturally decreases inflammation in our bodies. Unfortunately, the standard American diet is the opposite. No wonder we have so many health problems and pain. We also need high amounts of vitamin D3. We get vitamin D through sunlight, but most of us aren't outside enough to get the amount we need. By supplementing D in our diets we aid in decreasing inflammation. 

     Another major step is to avoid toxins in food, environment, and water. By drinking fresh, fluoride-free and chloride-free water not only do you reduce toxins but, you help flush them out.

     These steps will help any health issue you have, reduce pain in any area you have, and greatly improve your overall health. The more you do the easier your body will heal, reduce or eliminate pain, and maintain health. I invite you to email me with any specific questions you have and hope to hear from you with comments on how decreasing inflammation has helped you.         

Less is Better

     When treating health issues or symptoms most people think they need to add "something" to their body; lifestyle, diet, exercise routine, or (fill in the blank). I've found that what we most often need to do first is remove things. This is the basic premise behind Chiropractic; namely by removing the interference to nerves and removing the cause of damage to joint, soft tissue and connective tissue, the body is able to start healing itself. Chiropractors have helped millions of individuals with musculoskeletal problems as well as other health issues because they are removing the source of the problems. I urge everyone to seek a Chiropractor for
problems they may be having and see if he or she can help them.
      The saying "less is better" is often true in all healing. Our bodies are capable of healing themselves of any condition as long as there isn't permanent damage and it is given time to do so. You too can do things on your own to help your body on it's healing process. One of the most important areas is what we eat. Taking away gluten(all wheat products, rye, and barley) has a tremendous health benefit. Taking away processed foods(foods that aren't in their natural state), fast foods, GMO's(genetically modified foods), artificial sweeteners, and foods containing the myriad of toxins out there can improve your health dramatically.
    In the future I'll be posting on numerous subjects and invite you to send me questions on specific issues you have.

Address the Cause, not the Symptom

      You've just been wakened from a restful sleep by blaring smoke alarms. The alarms are due to a raging fire in the floor below you. Would you rather have the firemen turn off the alarm so you can go back to your restful sleep or have them locate the fire and put it out? Of course, put it out! But, this illustrates the difference between allopathic medicine and natural health care. Medical care, although beneficial for first aid and emergency situations, treats the symptom, not the cause. Natural health care most often means correcting the cause of the health problem, not just the symptom.
     One of the challenges with healing naturally is that more and more today there are multiple causes to ones health problems. Some are more important to address than others, but the more causes we can eliminate the easier our bodies are able to heal. That is the goal of this blog: to give you a source of information you can trust based on researched and heuristic knowledge.