The start of a new year often brings big goals and big aspirations of making this year your best year yet! Often when I ask someone, “Did you set any new goals for this year?” I frequently get the answer, “No, I used to do that stuff, but not any more.”
I look at my life as a book. Each year is a new chapter that brings new experiences, new stories to share and of course, lessons learned from the previous years. A few years back, Mary Ann and myself found it to work best for our growing family to focus on simplicity… thus leading us to describing our focus for the upcoming year with one, two or three words for the year. After much discernment and prayer starting in October 2017, I came to realize that the perfect word for my year in 2018 would be GROWTH! Now, for those that know Mary Ann well and for how much she loves babies, NO, it does not mean that we are planning on growing our family. This year, growth to me is about growing deeper in relationships with God, Mary Ann, my kids and of course you, growing in understanding how this wonderful and crazy world works, growing in making better health decisions and growing to be a better chiropractor. One of my chiropractic mentors wrote a book a couple years ago and labeled his first chapter The Trajectory of Life. That chapter has really put life into perspective for me as it is easy for us to get wrapped up into the day to day life experiences, but often we forget to re-assess the overall affect each day has on the long-term outcome of our lives. With the type of care we provide in our office with NeuroStructural Correction (NSC), we get to focus on the technical sides of detecting and correcting the NeuroStructural Abnormalities (NSA) in the body, but we also get to appreciate and assess (you get to experience the effects of) the overall long-term outcome of your health and the importance this has to do with Trajectory of your Life. As Brian Tracy is famous for saying in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, “Keep the End in Mind.” So to ask again in a different way, “What does this year / chapter have in store for your Trajectory of Life?”
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There is an old saying that goes when you step on a dog’s tail, it barks out the other end. In Chiropractic that means, when you perceive a symptom (the bark), it isn’t necessarily where the problem is (the tail). Many times the pain (secondary condition) you feel in one area is actually a referred symptom from somewhere else. For example, someone with sciatica may feel pain traveling down their leg, but the source of their problem is a NeuroStructural Abnormality in their spine (primary condition).
NeuroStructural Chiropractors recognize that if you remove the cause (primary condition), the body will no longer produce an unwanted effect (secondary condition). This is why during your Chiropractic visit, we focus on detecting and then correcting the NeuroStructural Abnormalities of the body. Chasing after secondary conditions is like stepping on a dog’s tail and muzzling it or disciplining it so that the dog doesn't bark. It’s a much smarter and more effective process to address the underlying cause. Obesity is a major issue in the United States today. In fact, as of 2013, 25-30% of Minnesota adults were considered obese according to the CDC.1That’s every 1 in 4 adults! And, let’s face it – losing weight can be difficult. According to the Monte Nido Eating Disorder Treatment Center, “95% of diets fail and most will regain their lost weight in 1-5 years”.2 So that begs the question – what are we to do? How can we go about losing our excess weight and living healthier lives?
According to Gary Taubes in his book, “Why We Get Fat”, the answer to losing weight is quite simple – ditch the carbohydrates.3 Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t fat that is making humans fat, but those pesky carbs. But how can this make sense? The answer lies in a little chemical called insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced by our pancreas. The main purpose of this hormone is simple – to stimulate our body cells to take up the extra glucose in our bloodstream after a sugary snack. Insulin is surely our body’s friend – continually keeping our blood sugar in balance. However, this hormone has other very important functions related to fat metabolism, or fat burning, in our body.3 Insulin also affects two other hormones in the body, namely lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL). The first, LPL, is a cell membrane protein responsible for pulling the fat in our bloodstream into fat cells. Insulin activates this protein, especially in our abdominal regions, which causes more fat storage in the body. The second hormone, called HSL, is inhibited by insulin activity. HSL is responsible for breaking fat down from an unusable to a usable form so that it can be burned for energy. Therefore, when insulin is around, two main things happen - we store more fat and stop the body from burning fat.3 It seems that avoiding carbohydrates could surely help our body in burning its fat stores. Therefore, a great way to shed some excess weight would be to avoid foods that spike our blood sugar (and insulin secretion) such as bread, cereal, pasta, beer, fruit juice, soda, potatoes, rice, and corn.3 Furthermore, don’t be afraid to eat fat and protein – they have no effect on insulin secretion and will keep you from feeling hungry for a longer time period. If you want to lose weight, it may be time to change that breakfast cereal for a little bacon!
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