60 Day Turnaround

We will have Dr. Levi and our team of interns adjusting! So keep your adjustment appointment and stay on the track to good health.

Written by – Maximized Living

Birth control pills (BCP’s) have been cited by Doctors to protect against breast cancer, heart disease and depression.  Hundreds of millions of women worldwide have taken the pill since the 1960’s believing that they were “safe and effective”.  What was once thought to be protective for one’s health has now been found to be disastrous and produces an onslaught of new, more severe health conditions.

Birth control pills are very effective at contraception, but also very effective at producing disease in the body. The following health conditions are linked to the use of BCP’s:

A study from Ghent University in Belgium looked at 1,301 healthy women between the ages of 25 and 55. They found that the women had a 20 to 30 percent increase in arterial plaguing for every 10 years of BCP use. (1)  How many women take BCP’s for more than 10 years?

10 year Olds with Breasts and Pubic Hair

The hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drug PremPro can arguably be one of the greatest embarrassments in medical history.  PremPro was found to increase the risk of breast cancer, heart attacks and blood clots.  The bad news is that BCP’s dose of estrogen is four times as potent as PremPro. (2)

HRT is now widely accepted as poison, but a birth control pill is still “safe and effective”.  BCP’s have poisoned three generations of women around the world. The youngest generation is developing breasts and starting their menstrual periods at age 10. The solution given by the medical field is to put them on birth control pills younger and younger.

The Pill: Scheduled By-Pass and Chemo

Oral contraceptives and HRT both started in the 1960’s. Humbly, it took 40 years to figure out their damaging effects.  Unfortunately hundreds of millions of women were poisoned and maimed because of their side effects. What can we learn from this? Should we continue to wait until a disaster happens, or should we take a proactive natural stand for our health?

It was once stated that one should not be on BCP’s longer than three to five years.  What is happening in today’s society?  You start taking the pill at age 10 and end at age 40 with a hysterectomy, heart disease and cancer. There is a direct relationship to the length of taking birth control pills and the risk of developing severe health conditions.

The FDA: “Safe and Effective”

You can ask your Doctor about the problem’s that we have discussed, but they will say that the “benefits outweigh the risk”.  They would state that side effects to BCP’s are very rare and can easily be treated with other over the counter or prescription medications.  Are we forgetting something?  Health is reflective of the number of medications you take.  The less medications, the healthier you are.

Sadly many healthcare professionals say their pharmaceutical “cures” are not harmful until the drug industry or the FDA finally admits their ignorance.  Interestingly, drug companies spend more money on advertising to Doctors than they do on research.

Your Life, Your Choice

The topic of BCP’s is a difficult one. There is a multitude of factors that people use as justification for their use.  Their use is limited if health is the primary goal. The fewer chemicals you put in your body, the healthier you are.

The broken life path of today’s society needs to be reconstructed. This construction starts with a healthy family structure that is focused on incorporating health management versus disease management techniques. If the focus is relying on medications for health, we are focused on a system that will continually fail over time. By focusing on health, one will continually improve and strive towards greatness.

Family Homework

It is easy to state the inherent problems without presenting possible solutions. One of the primary ways of reducing the risk of developing heart disease or dying from cancer is to eliminate the contributing factors:
Get Adjusted
Quit Smoking
Lose Weight
Get off Medications
Keep Organs
Investigate Natural Progesterone
Improve Diet
Start Exercising
Abstain or Practice Natural Approaches

(1) http://abcnews.go.com/Health/CardiacHealth/story?id=3826856&page=1
(2) http://www.morningafterpill.org/is-emergency-contraception-saf.html

This weekend, the largest CrossFit competition outside of the CrossFit Games in California, will take place in your back yard.  At the Woodlands City Park (Woodlands subdivision, in the back).  This is the third year that we (myself and the partners of The Garage), have run this event, with an incredible amount of help from volunteers, athletes who show up to compete and sponsors.

This year we have an individual competition on Saturday, and a team competition on Sunday.  The competitions are CrossFit competitions, which mean they are varied functional movements done at high intensity, over varied physical platforms.  Such as – an obstacle course race over 2.5 miles to start the day, followed by a speed duel of pulling a weighted sled, running, broad jumping, and stone carrying.  Competitors will continue on to run a 40# sandbag up to the top of a steep and long hill, just to turn around and run it back down.  They will perform a workout of high intensity push presses (weight overhead), burpees (see my workout video), and kettlebell swings.  Lastly, they will have a clean and jerk ladder, olympic lifts that they will start at a low weight, and work up to a higher weight by lifting a barbell every 30 seconds until they fail.

This is just the people on Saturday… and some come back to compete with a team on Sunday.  Yes, you might think soreness.  It will be bad.  On Sunday, they do some different things, there will be some incredible feats of fitness, and they will end the day with a team dodge ball event!

So WHY am I telling you all of this?  Because it is worth you taking the time out of your weekend to come watch.  There is a spectator fee of $10, because it is worth it to see this.  If you have boys and you are trying to get them motivated to be incredibly fit and to workout and be motivated towards athleticism, this is the event to take them to.  On Sunday, Rich Froning, will be competing.  Rich won the Fittest Man on Earth title this past July in California, and along with it the main purse of $250k.

The World’s Fittest Man – he celebrates victory with a Galations 6:14 tatoo on his torso (May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world).

One of the great things that you get to see when watching an event like this, is that fitness is truly a measure of how magnificent the body is.  Feats of strength are cool, but when the same person who wows you with their feet of strength, turns around and wows you with their 5k run time, that is pretty cool.

I would imagine that all of this talk about feats of strength, and amazing fitness might have some of you feeling a little down, because your fitness is not there, or perhaps never was.  Or it might be that you are feeling the weight of your age, and using that as a reason why you don’t want to push too hard.  But I would recommend you try to push through and change your life.

The weekend will be inspirational at the very least!  So I hope you will take me up on the offer, and come check this out!

Be Blessed, Dr. E

I have written about cholesterol on occasion over the years.  It is always good to revisit.  I was speaking about it briefly Monday night at my Makeover talk, and realized that we have not really hit this one hard in a bit.  You need to first realize the reality of how statins (cholesterol lowering meds) have fared over the years at reducing heart disease.

So, I am going to give you the body of a recent Maximized Living Health Newsletter to chew on!  This is important, change your life by changing your choices.

Here is the post:

Cholesterol-lowering medications such as Lipitor, Zocor and Crestor are the #1 prescribed class of prescription medication in the United States. Over 215 million prescriptions add $26 billion to drug company coffers annually.  A recent report from the National Center for Health Statistics shows that 25% of Americans aged 45 and older takes statins. (1)
Heart Disease is the biggest silencer of Americans that is now estimated to be killing one out of every two people.  Heart disease kills one American every thirty-four seconds, more than 2,500 people per day. (2)  In the medical community it is believed that LDL cholesterol and saturated fats to be the cause of this national tragedy.  According to the Centers for Disease Control, 71 million or 33.5% of Americans have “bad” cholesterol levels. (3)
A staggering amount of money has been spent on research to conclusively prove the link between saturated fat, high cholesterol and the need for statin medication intervention.  It can be classified one of the greatest scams in healthcare today.

Low Cholesterol Causes Strokes
The Framingham Study studied heart disease indicators of nearly 15,000 participants over three generations.  Framingham researchers found no correlation for high cholesterol and heart disease in those participants who were over 50 years of age. (4)  In the study Cholesterol and Mortality: 30 Years of Follow-up from The Framingham Study found that high cholesterol levels not to be related to the incidence of strokes.  (5)
Participants in the study who were over the age 50 shockingly showed lower cholesterol rates were associated with a higher risk of death from heart disease. In fact, for every one mg/dl drop in cholesterol levels, there was a 14% increase in heart related death. (4)
A very large study spanning two decades in Japan concluded that low levels of blood cholesterol increased the incidence of stroke. (6) Supporting their findings was the MRFIT study in the United States of 350,000 men that showed death from cerebral hemorrhage to be six times greater if they had low cholesterol versus high. (7)

Low Cholesterol Causes Heart Attacks
Research from the University of Hull in England has linked low cholesterol with higher death rates.  A study of 10,701 patients with suspected heart failure found that those with low cholesterol were 1.7 times more likely to die within 12 weeks of being hospitalized. The study was based on the Euro Heart Failure survey, which involved 115 hospitals in 24 European countries. (8)
Researchers from Germany also found that the strongest predictor for death in patients with heart failure was the inflammatory process in the body.  Higher mortality rates were found in patients who had the lowest cholesterol, LDL and triglyceride blood levels. (9)
C4 Explosives in Your Arteries
C-reactive protein (CRP) is a substance found in blood that is the most reliable marker for inflammation in the body. Elevated levels of CRP have been identified as the primary indicator for the development of cardiovascular disease, not LDL cholesterol.
An eight-year study involving 27,939 women conducted by the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that more than half of the women who eventually developed heart disease had high CRP levels and their cholesterol values played a little role. (10)
A Cleveland Clinic study found ultrasound evidence that clogged coronary arteries had not gotten worse among 502 patients who were most successful at lowering their CRP levels. In a Harvard Women’s Health Study, results of the CRP test were more accurate than cholesterol levels in predicting heart problems. (11)
Call the Bomb Squad
Omega-3 fatty acids have powerful anti-inflammatory properties that can help disarm the bomb before it’s too late.  Omega-3 is found in flaxseeds, walnuts, cashew, olive oil, salmon, tuna, sardine, herring and other oily fish or cod liver oil.
Antioxidants help destroy free radicals that promote inflammation within your blood vessels.  Brightly colored vegetables have the highest antioxidant content.  Examples of foods include avocado, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, and peppers.
A recent study at Johns Hopkins showed that when fitness levels diminish, CRP levels go up. (12) This will explain how sedentary lifestyles promote the inflammatory response thus producing heart disease and other chronic diseases.
Chiropractic adjustments have been found to reduce C-reactive protein and normalize the inflammatory response. (13) The adjustment looks to restore the natural healing ability of the body by eliminating interference that causes the inflammatory response to be present.
The goal is not to rely on the lies and deception by the pharmaceutical companies.  You can effectively manage your health and reduce your risk of developing heart disease through lifestyle factors by making healthier choices.  You will never be the same when you take self-responsibility, learn the truth and take a stand for you and your family’s health.

(1)  http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/PublicHealth/24913
(2)  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,142436,00.html
(3)  http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/01/cdc-13-of-u-s-adults-have-high-blood-pressure-high-cholesterol/
(4)  http://www.framinghamheartstudy.org/
(5)  http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/257/16/2176.abstract
(6)  Takashi Shimamoto et al 1989; Circulation: 3
(7)  http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/459746_2
(8)  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=e8528d20-c97b-4a45-91d4-89eed2e11c2f&k=57682
(9)  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1768165/
(10) http://www.hearthealthyonline.com/heart-disease-overview/tests-treatments/crp-blood-test_1.html
(11) http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/heart-disease-c-reactive-protein-crp-testing
(12) http://www.hopkinsguides.com/hopkins/ub/citation/17495273/Diet_exercise_and_C_reactive_protein_levels_in_people_with_abdominal_obesity:_the_ATTICA_epidemiological_study_
(13) http://www.journalchiromed.com/article/S1556-3707%2810%2900065-9/abstract

Nope, just kidding. Actually, this is more of a “can I have more fat please”, conversation. You might trust me, you might not. If you don’t, I am not sure why you are reading this… if you say you do, but then you don’t listen to my advice, well, then I would say you probably don’t.

God has given us an incredible bounty of healthy fats on this planet, and it is important that we eat them.  I would stand confident in saying that on a daily basis the most important food we consume are dark green vegetables, and fat would be second.  The vegetables for their rich and diverse nutrients (vitamins and minerals), and the fat because of its importance in building healthy new cells, hormones and neuro-transmitters.

I know I have discussed this before, but you need to be reminded that you are creating hundreds of thousands of cells every day, and that these cells are wrapped in a blanket of healthy fat.  So as I prepare to speak about healthy fats to my Extreme Makeover group, I figured I would give all of you my top three!

Number 3-

Almonds (Almond Butter) – these little gems are packed with healthy fats that are just right to not only build tissue, but to build the hormones and neuro-transmitters too.  It is heavily a monounsaturated Omega-9 fatty acid (a lot like olive oil or grapeseed oil).  A quick reminder, fats do not stimulate insulin do to a blood sugar rise, thus fats do not stimulate storage of fat.  Fat DOES NOT make you fat.  It can’t.

Number 2-

Grass Fed/Pasture Butter – this butter is most commonly referred to as pasture butter because the cow is out to pasture, not in a feed pen.  And oh, how nice to have butter loaded with CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) which has been shown to prevent cancer, and to improve fat burning (when found in its natural form).  The other awesome benefit of this butter, is that it is loaded with Omega 3 Fatty Acid – AKA Fish oil, but obviously not from fish in this situation.  These benefits go on and on.

Number 1-

Coconut Oil – well, the top runner goes to the coconut.  It is loaded with CLA, and it has lauric acid (a fat otherwise found only in human breast milk… cool huh?)  In addition, it is very possibly the most rich source of medium chain fatty acids out there, which are an intermediary in fat burning.  You burn more fat as you utilize more of these fatty acids.  Which will give you incredible energy from fat over time.

Funny thing, currently the   Food and Drug Administration,^[2], World Health Organization,^[3]International College of Nutrition,^[4] United States Department of Health and Human Services,^[5] American Dietetic Association,^[6] American Heart Association,^[7] British National Health Service,^[8] and Dietitians of Canada^[6] all recommend diets lower in coconut oil because it is a saturated fat.  Sadly, they fail to look at the truth of the other cultures in the world who have lived forever off of diets high in saturated fat, and have been healthy because of it.

Eat fat, be healthy!  Dr. E

I figured we make it a week of good news.  Heather was the last in her family to come get adjusted, but she had some fantastic results given what she is preparing for!  Enjoy her story, and have an awesome, blessed weekend! – Dr. E

Dr. Eric,

I just wanted to share my story with you so that you could pass along to other patients or prospective patients who may be on the fence as to whether or not seek your chiropractic care while pregnant.

Let me start by saying, this is baby number 3 for us and I did not receive any chiropractic care or relief during my other 2 pregnancies, although in hindsight, maybe I should have! At 34 1/2 weeks of this pregnancy, my obstetrician told me that my baby was breech and we need the baby to flip head down before 37 weeks or they would need to admit me to perform an External Cephalic Version (ECV) which I’ve read has about a 50%-70% success rate and can be quite uncomfortable. My fear was that even if I got to 37 weeks and the baby was still breech, a C-Section could be forced either early because the baby could become distressed during the ECV procedure or later due to the ECV’s failure to work.

My plan was to get this baby to turn myself using the methods suggested online before hitting the 37 week mark. With 2 weeks to accomplish this, I spent the next few days trying several of the do it yourself methods: ice pack on the baby’s head position but not directly on my skin, flashlight or music at the pubic bone to encourage the baby to “move to the light”, and crawling on all fours followed by hips in the air above my shoulders, aka: “breech tilt exercise”. Running out of techniques and time, the baby had still not turned. I could almost hear the sharpening of the knives for my impending C-Section!

My next to last option to try on my list before I was forced to succumb to the ECV was the Webster Technique performed through Chiropractic. My only exposure I had allowed myself to Chiropractic Care in the past was Atlas Orthogonal Chiropractic which, while “gentle”, did not address my issue nor did it, based on my own conclusion, seem to incorporate the Webster Technique. I knew I needed to call you, because you were someone I trusted, but honestly, all of the cracking and popping that take place in an adjustment made me nervous. It was either swallow my fears or face an impending potential C-Section if this baby did not turn on its own. And given that I have a history of delivering bigger babies, I knew the baby was running out of room to accomplish that.

So, in I came to HealthSprout with all my skepticism and fear. I had 2 adjustments with you (which weren’t nearly as scary as I had convinced myself) and a self-elected prenatal massage with Mariah (because all pregnant mammas deserve that, you know). Three days from my first appointment with you was my appointment with my OB to check on the baby’s position. I am happy to report that the Webster Technique worked and well before my 37 week deadline! As an added benefit, I have a little better mobility due to some pressure being relieved on my left leg and nerve pain I have been dealing with for 3 plus months.

Please feel free to share this story with other pregnant moms out there who aren’t sure whether they want Chiropractic Care during their pregnancy. Now I think that even if I had not had the breech issue, just the relief from normal aches and pains is worth taking time out of my day to make time for my adjustment.

All the best,

Heather Arnold

Many of you might remember the joke I told a couple years ago, when I went down to San Juan PR for a week.  I kidded that I “Married my cousin”.   Dumb humor, I enjoyed the joke, most of you thought I was ridiculous for laughing at it so much.  The joke was simply that I really went to PR to “Marry” my cousin.  I officiated the wedding.

No, I am not an ordained minister, just a guy who loves God, and as such my cousin reached out and asked me to do this… what an honor.  They got a justice of the peace marriage here in the states, then all of the family that could, flew out to PR for a rainy week (same week as the Haiti earthquake), but still a whole lot of fun and laughs.

Over the last couple years, Abigail has followed our web site and facebook posts, and recently began following the Maximized Living Advanced Nutrition Plan/Healing Diet.  She sent this email to me, and of course I had to share it!

Eric,

Carlos, Whit and I have now been on the diet for 1 month. I have lost 9 pounds, Carlos has lost 15 pounds and Whitney has lost seven. We can’t believe not only the weight loss but everything else we have noticed, this is really exciting. I have had red eyes or dry eye for the last 8 years of my life and been to numerous dr.s for it. After 1 month it’s GONE!!!! I don’t have any digestive issues that I have struggled with my entire life. My skin is so clear and almost transparent looking. My focus is right on point like never before. Most of all what I am so thankful for is my energy. It is through the roof. I can’t tell you how much I was struggling with my energy level being in school for Nursing and having two babies under the age of 3! I really can’t thank you enough. I wanted to share with you how happy we are and if there was something to sell we would be the best people to sell it. We are so excited and enthusiastic about our new lifestyle.

I know the book says to stay on the Advanced Plan for as long as you need but I was wondering if you had a recommendation. We were planning to stay on the Advanced Plan for 3 months and then switch to the Core Plan and see how we feel. Would you mind making a recommendation for me?

Carlos has about 6 people at work on this program already. He works with all Dr.s and nurses who don’t like to take any kind of advice and they are banging down his door because they just don’t “understand” what is going on it is so funny. The Dr’s he works with are all old school and have absolutely no concept of nutrition which I guess isn’t that far off from most MD’s.

I just wanted to share with you how we were all doing here thanks to you. You are changing the world one by one!

Abby

– its good to see people take control of their lives and get huge change.  She did not include all of her health story here, but there were many profound changes that are still yet to come.  Be well, be Blessed – Dr. E

It has been a few months since I have written about love, and with Valenspines Day around the corner, it only makes sense to do it now (yes, Valenspine’s was hijacked by those trying to sell chocolate and gift cards to be called Valentines).  So my thought on love today, is to be in love with the world.

Now, I don’t mean those things of the world, that is just the opposite of what I mean.  I mean those who inhabit the world.  And I purposefully brought up this distinction because the world, culture, is pulling and pushing you in the wrong way with regards to so many things.  Treatment of one another is not the least of these.

Whereas, to actually have great love for all those who inhabit the world, is the second greatest commandment that God gave us (loving Him is first).  So I wanted to give some simple examples of how this can change your life, and in this HOPE that you will walk through your day today, a little happier, a little more outgoing, and a little more at peace.

Have you ever noticed that a moment of cheerfulness as you approach a stranger, can erase a look of concern, caution, fear, anger, malice… really anything… and turn a smile on?  It happens.  How about someone who you would expect nothing but an angry grimace.  People whom you don’t get along well with at work.  Perhaps a boss, or a co-worker who is always on your back… have you thought what could change if you acted like you loved them, all the time?

I wonder what love shown to a spouse looks like to so many of you.  You know, I think that sometimes I get caught up with the attempt at showing love to so many others, that sometimes I don’t give enough to my wife.  I try to exaggerate my love to her every day, but I know sometimes it falls short.  I can tell you that the first step to improving, is to always self critique, be honest, and then push for improvement.

It is a short sprout, there isn’t much more to say, than try.  I just want you to try.  I’ll do the same, I love you!  Dr. E

Quick read for you.

Kiefer = Grain Fed – loaded with A1 Beta Caseine

Amasai = Grass Fed Guernsey Cows – very little if any A1 Beta Caseine

Read this full article on the difference

Here is the Dr. Eric recap –

If you have an issue with dairy, and if you think dairy is bad (everyone who believes in the Paleo diet as being best, myself for many years – been teaching no dairy for 12 years now)… you are RIGHT, and you are because modern dairy is rich in A1 Beta Caseine vs. A2 Beta Caseine.

Many people who are not lactose intolerant, but who bloat with any dairy, you are realizing the A1 effect.  Highly inflammatory, and highly present in 99.99% of the dairy on the market.  However, if you are consuming grass fed guernsey cow milk products, in most cases you are getting NONE of that inflammatory molecule.

This is cool, I mean really cool stuff!  Our Amasai is $5.50 per bottle, drink 1/3 – 1/2 a bottle a day for an incredible probiotic boost, and all benefit with no negative.  Or you can buy it online for a better price here.

If you have a sore throat, I would jump on this immediately.  Indigestion, the same.  This stuff is awesome, and my whole family can attest to the miraculous aid in healing that it is.