Take the pressure down

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Did you know that a specific Chiropractic adjustment can significantly lower blood pressure? The effect of an adjustment on the C1 vertebra (the very first one that holds up your head) is just as effective as taking not one but TWO blood pressure medications at the same time and the bonus? No nasty side-effects (such as fatigue, dizziness, depression, impotence, respiritory distress or kidney damage) like those high blood pressure drugs! Not only can a qualified Chiropractor administer this adjustment but they can also point you in the right direction to modify your diet and exercise to help you get more out of your life. See? Not just back pain...

Surving the silly season the fourth

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Christmas is stressful. No doubt about it. There's parties to attend, menus to plan, gifts to buy, outfits to be put together. So how do you stop yourself from tearing out you hair? Simple.
Chapter 4: Mind

Light hearted look

I love this Japanese ad, just gives you yet another reason not to skip that all important Chiropractic appointment.

Dairy and Calcium

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"If I don't eat dairy, how will I get Calcium for my bones?"
A common question I get asked.
Now a small amount of organic dairy is not too bad for you, for example I would choose real butter over margarine any day (I trust cows more than I trust scientists) but too much of anything (other than green vegetables) is not good for you.
But lets look at dairy and its claims to being so benificial to health.

Carbohydrates

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Now that I have explained the problems behind the modern day food pyramid, I wanted to answer some of the questions I get asked about the food "pie" I advocate to my patients.
First up is Carbohydrates. Or more correctly, Complex/Produced/Starchy Carbohydrates. Lots of vegetables such as carrots have a decent amount of carbohydrates as well, but I'm not so concerned about them.

Tales of the misunderstood: Low Fat Diets

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Low Fat, is there any other word combination I hate more? I think not. The idea of decreasing your fat intake is based on the lipid hypothesis which states that a high fat diet is the major contributor to cardiovascular disease. This idea was based on poor scientific evidence from the start and in recent years has been heavily criticized (for an informative and funny look at the situation, watch the documentary Fat Head).

Emotional Health

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I've talked about the detrimental effects of stress on your health before, and with Mr. Ox and I up and leaving our jobs, home and friends to move overseas, I feel like I have had my fair share of physical, chemical and emotional stress this year. Now while I keep the physical in check by being adjusted once a week (the perks of marrying a Chiropractor!) and taking care of the chemical by diet, I have always had trouble with the emotional stress, and I think that this is the case with many of us. We just take emotional stress and it's effect on us as a part of life, until one day we burst into tears for no reason. So I thought I would share some things that I found help to deal with emotional stress:

Tales of the misunderstood: RDI

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Strolling through my local Tesco's the other day, I was struck by the amount of packaging that has RDI's displayed on them. RDA (or Recommended Daily Intake) are the amount of nurients required to keep an individual healthy. Or so we all think. In actual fact, RDI's are the levels of nutrients require to meet the requiremnets of 97%-98% of the population.
What does that mean?

Couldn't have said it better myself

I realised that I have neglegted to explain what it is I do (silly Chiropractor!)

So what is Chiropractic?

This excellent video explains it better than I can, so have a watch, its worth it, promise

Tales of the misunderstood: The Food Pyramid

Few things erk me as much as the Food Pyramid does. There are so many things wrong with it, yet it is advocated as the "gold standard" in nutrition and the path to healthy living.
So what's my beef with this type of diet?
First of all, let's look at how the pyramid came about. It was first published in 1978 in Denmark, but in 1992 the United States Department of Agriculture adopted it. That's right, it wasn't put together by doctors or nutritionists, but a government department who's aims are to meet the needs of farmers and promote agricultural trade and production determined what we should be eating.

Thoughts on Health Care

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I was reading one of Dr. Chestnut's books the other day and he brought up an interesting point.
He said:

If you want to be happy, you study happy people,

If you want to be rich, you study rich people,

If you want to be healthy, you study health people

Chiropractors study Anatomy, Physiology, Psycology, Neurology, Nutrition; they study health.
Medical Doctors study Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Pharmacology; they study sickness and disease.
So Medicine and Chiropractic are totally different. Medicine in sick care, Chiropractic is health care.
So you need to pick your practitioner for what you require. If you need an expert in sickness and disease, you need a Medical Doctor, but if you need and want an expert in HEALTH, then what you need is a Chiropractor. You wouldn't get a plumber to wire up your house, he wouldn't have the right tools, so why would you get a sickness expert to fix your health?

Funny 'cause it's true

A Chiropractor friend of mine posted this on Facebook from this Chiropractic Clinic. It had this caption with it:

FDA approved, prescription drugs are the 3rd leading cause of death right behind heart disease and cancer. All three of which are largely preventable

 I laughed at it, but the sad part is that this is too true for so many people. I think it's time to take a step back and look at our daily routine. Are we doing things that make us sick? Have we forgotten the true power of the human body to heal? Do we really believe that health comes in a bottle from a pharmaceutical company? Or are we just too lazy to care for our greatest asset, our health?

That old devil called Stress

I read today that Mad Men star, Jon Hamm (he plays Don Draper) is suffering from a skin disease called vitiligo, which is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the cells that cause skin pigmentation. He says that it is due to the stress involved with filming the show. And you know what, he may be on to something...
We chiropractors talk about 3 types of stresses: