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Top 10 Wellness Tips from Dr. Zager
1. Start walking 20 minutes three times a week
2. Drink at least 2 glasses of water a day (in addition to your other liquids)
3. Make sure you get 7+ hours of sleep a night
4. Get a chiropractic adjustment to make sure your body is balanced and there are no Subluxations
5. Stop and smell the roses (slow down and relax for 10 minutes every day)
6. Use a smaller plate and bowl for your meals.
7. Strengthen up some of your Core Muscles daily
8. Improve your posture
9. Increase your portions of vegetables and fruit while you decrease your portions of carbohydrates.
10. Add 2 snacks a day (morning and afternoon). Great snacks include: yogurt (live active cultures), nuts, cranberries, small amounts of cheese and fruits, trail mix bars.
Ask about our individual wellness programs or our small group wellness programs, if you want or need help taking control of and improving your health and wellness.
- ¨ The older we become, the more we should take a good multi-vitamin/mineral supplement (our bodies just need the extra help as we get older), but remember that just because you are taking supplements doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat healthy.
- ¨ If you have lots of joint pain (arthritis, stiffness, disc problems, and/or back pain) you would most likely benefit from taking supplements such as glucosamine with chondroitin, Vitamins A, D, and E, and Omega 3, 6, and 9.
- ¨ If you have nerve problems such as sciatica, radiculopathies (numbness, tingling), headaches, and/or high stress you would probably benefit from taking supplements with Vitamins B Complex and Vitamin C, and Omega 3, 6, 9.
- ¨ To improve your immunity you should take Vitamins A , C, and B Complex.
Don’t hesitate to ask Dr. Zager about nutrition the next time you are in the office and her recommendations for good quality vitamins and supplements.
Vitamin A: is good for your skin, hair, teeth, eyes, bone growth, and reproduction. You can get it from carrots, green leafy (spinach), milk products, fortified cereals, fruit.
Vitamin Bs (more than one type needed B2, 6, 9, 12 etc.): are important for general body growth, red blood cell production, releasing energy from carbohydrates, many enzymes need the Bs to work correctly in protein metabolism, and for the nervous and immune systems. You can get it from lean meats (chicken, fish, pork), eggs, legumes, leafy green vegetables, dairy products, and fortified cereals.
Vitamin C: is important for the biosynthesis of collagen, certain neurotransmitters, the immune system, and is also involved in protein metabolism. Fruits and vegetables are the best sources of vitamin C specifically citrus fruits, tomatoes and tomato juice, potatoes, red and green peppers, kiwifruit, broccoli, strawberries, brussels sprouts, and cantaloupe.
Vitamin D: is essential for promoting calcium absorption, maintaining adequate serum calcium and phosphate concentrations to enable normal mineralization of bone and prevent hypocalcemic tetany. It is also needed for bone growth and bone remodeling. It is found in sunlight, cod liver oil, fish (salmon and tuna), beef liver, and some egg yolks.
Vitamin E: is important as an antioxidant to protect cells from the damaging effects of free radicals, and it is involved in immune function. It is found in nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils are among the best sources of alpha-tocopherol, and significant amounts are available in green leafy vegetables and fortified cereals.
Vitamin K: is important for blood clotting. Deficiencies can occur after long treatments of anti-biotics. The normal bacteria in the large intestine can also produce Vitamin K. People on blood thinners should talk to their physicians before taking Vitamin K. It can be found in cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, and other green leafy vegetables.
What you should be taking
- Basic Vitamins – Vitamins are fat-soluble or water-soluble organic substances essential in minute amounts for normal growth and activity of the body and obtained naturally from plant and animal foods. A, B Complex, C, D, E, and some K – I recommend Body Balance (a liquid whole food with vitamins and minerals), or Essential Basics (again with both vitamins and minerals)
- Minerals—Minerals are inorganic elements, such as calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, or zinc, that are essential to the nutrition of humans, animals, and plants. Trace minerals – same as above, but in very small amounts. A good mineral supplement has both macro and trace minerals—especially selenium , zinc, and magnesium—I recommend Body Balance or Essential Basics.
- If you have joint problems (arthritis, stiffness, disc problems) I recommend a good Glucosamine and Chondroitin supplement—either FlexeoPlus (a liquid) or Ultra Joint Forte.
- If you have nerve problems (sciatica, radiating arm pain, headaches, numbness or tingling, etc.) I recommend a B Complex supplement such as: Hypo-B-50 or Stress-Plex-Forte. Additionally, I recommend a supplement of Omega 3,6, and 9 fatty acids. These fatty acids are helpful for the brain, nervous tissues, and mind, but also for cardiovascular health and as a anti-inflammatory agent. I recommend Balance Plus for a proper balance of all three fatty acids. You can also get some of them in olive oil, salmon, avocados, and tuna.
Many of my patients ask me what kind of vitamins and supplements they should take. So I would like to go over some basic information and guidelines for taking vitamins. With future newsletters, I will talk more about individual vitamin and mineral requirements, how your body uses that vitamin or mineral and what are good sources of that particular vitamin or mineral.
- You should take vitamins as supplements, not as a replacement for eating and living healthier (more veggies, less carbohydrates, and exercise).
- Vitamins in liquid form have a higher absorption rate into your body than do pill vitamins. Liquid vitamins have an absorption rate of 80 – 90% of the vitamin versus 10 – 20% in pill form.
- Vitamins and minerals from whole food sources (less processing and no synthetics) are utilized by the body much better and you will typically get more trace and micro minerals with those types of vitamins.
- When you are under stress you should make sure you take your vitamins – stress depletes your stores faster than normal.
- As we get older, vitamins and minerals are even more important to our health. There are a number of conditions (hypothyroidism and fibromyalgia are just two), which respond very positively when a person takes particular supplements.
Headaches
Most people at one time or another get a headache. For some, simply taking a couple of pain relievers, such as aspirin, will knock the headache down and let you continue on with your day. That is fine for an occasional headache; however, if you have repeated headaches you should get checked by a physician or a chiropractor to determine the cause and a treatment plan to correct the underlying problem.
Kinds of Headaches
There are several different types of common headaches (that I will cover here) : tension headaches, sinus headaches and migraines. Read more in the newsletter to see various strategies to relieve these types of headaches, including chiropractic adjustments, foods to avoid, and exercises to do.
What is the Treatment
By gently adjusting the cervical (neck) and upper thoracic (midback) vertebrae, a chiropractor can take the pressure off of pinched nerves, restoring the normal nerve impulses, and helping to balance the surrounding musculature; thus, decreasing or alleviating the headache.
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Here are my Top 10 Wellness Tips. They can be easily implemented into your daily lifestyle. For more information on the individual tips, just look at upcoming blogs and articles that are already on our website.
1. Start walking 20 minutes three times a week
2. Drink 2 glasses of water a day
3. Make sure you get 7+ hours of sleep a night
4. Get a chiropractic adjustment to make sure your body is balanced and there are no Subluxations
5. Stop and smell the roses (slow down and relax for 10 minutes every day)
6. Use a smaller plate and bowl for your meals.
7. Strengthen up some of your Core Muscles daily
8. Improve your posture
9. Increase your portions of vegetables and fruit while you decrease your portions of carbohydrates.
10. Add 2 snacks a day (morning and afternoon). Great snacks include: yogurt (live active cultures), nuts, cranberries, small amounts of cheese and fruits, trail mix bars.
Ask about our individual wellness programs or our small group wellness programs, if you want or need help taking control of and improving your health and wellness.
Osteoporosis is a condition where your bones lose calcium (and other minerals) and they become very brittle and easily broken. It affects many older adults, but it is not necessarily detected by routine medical examinations. It affects women more than men, but men do also get this condition.
When we are young our bodies are in the mode of generating new bones and larger bones. We are also typically much more active as children and adolescents. As we get older and participate in less weight bearing activities, our bones lose the calcium, phosphorus and other minerals that is normally in our bones and which give structure and strength to our bones. When the bones have lost a lot of these minerals, they become brittle and fracture easily – even sneezing can fracture ribs or vertebrae in someone with severe osteoporosis. Hips, ribs, and spinal vertebrae are the most frequently fractured (broken) bones when someone has osteoporosis.
We peak of our bone mass at between age 25 and 35, and then we start to lose some of the minerals in our bones. In women, with menopause also comes decreasing amounts of estrogen which also contributes to accelerating the loss of bone minerals, which is why many more women are affected by osteoporosis.
How is osteoporosis detected?
Osteoporosis can be detected by bone scans or by plain x-rays, although once it is enough to show up on x-rays there has typically been bone loss for awhile. Your chiropractor may talk to you about osteoporosis if it is seen on your x-rays, and will typically use different techniques (low impact techniques) to adjust you.
Things that you can do to keep your bone mass up:
Be active – weight bearing activities such as walking, low impact aerobics, tennis, gardening and using weights while exercising all help keep bone loss to a minimum. When your bones are continually stressed, the body naturally realizes that they need to have more minerals in them for strength. Swimming or bicycling, non-weight bearing activities do not promote denser bones.
Nutrition – adequate amounts of calcium and Vitamin D (essential for the body’s uptake of calcium). Both of these items need to be included in your daily diet. Many dark green vegetables have calcium, as does milk and almonds. Vitamin D is also in milk and in sunlight. Your skin uptakes Vitamin D when you are walking or doing things outside. Vitamin D is not absorbed when you are using sunblock. If you don’t think that you are getting enough calcium and/or Vitamin D consider taking some supplements. At least 1000 ius of Calcium and 800 ius of Vitamin D are recommended.
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