60 Day Turnaround

All that is left is for the staff
To drive through the night, then
the docs need to spend a day digesting
and analyzing to figure out how
to input and bring about change!

www.maximizedliving.com

Check it out!!!

Thursday hours added from 8am – 9:30am to accommodate patients.  We will be closed from 9:30am Thursday until 8am Monday.  Massage hours will still continue as normal.

Granted, I love the taste of a pastured cow vs a stall held grain fed sloth.  But that isn’t the key to why we are screaming at you to get on board!  The benefits of grass fed beef are so plentiful, it is almost like you don’t have a choice.  We need to literally stop farmers from being able to raise grain fed beef, and the only way to do that… is to stop buying it.

Recently Dr. Mercola (www.mercola.com) had an awesome newsletter on the benefit of grass fed beef.  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/07/18/why-do-exvegetarians-outnumber-current-vegetarians-three-to-one.aspx

I want to include the full link, to be sure we are giving credit where credit is due, please take the time to visit Dr. Mercola’s site to read the full article.

Now, back to the meat of this (pun fully intended).  This is the important piece of it for my article:

Grass-based feeding is a very efficient and ecologically sustainable method of farming. Instead of producing tons of grain for feed — which requires extensive land, fertilizer, pest management, and large equipment for cultivating, harvesting, drying, storage and feeding — pasture-based farming lets the cows do the work. They harvest, fertilize, and feed themselves, overseen by the farmer in a carefully managed system. The net result is significantly less fuel consumption, less erosion, less air and water pollution and greater soil fertility. The animals also get to live a natural life outdoors, grazing off the land as they were intended to.

Most importantly, this natural and harmonious way of raising animals also leads to a superior food product.  Grass-fed beef, for instance, is lower in fat than regular CAFO-raised beef. It also contains three to five times more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty acid. The milk from grass-fed cows is also higher in many nutrients, including CLA, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and omega-3 fats.

Health benefits of CLA include:

In addition, other reports have shown that the ratio of omega 3 fatty acid that is present in grass fed beef is the what science currently believes is the best ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids that you can have.  A 20-1 ratio is what most people in our society have, a disaster of a situation, where every hormone, every neuro-peptide, and every new cell is being made with a fatty acid that is NOT what your body wants to use.

The need for healthy fatty acid consumption is the most paramount dietary need in our society.  The continual pursuit of “low fat” just might be the number one causative agent of disease in today’s world.  This problem is compounded by the fact that when we go off point on our “low fat” craze, we go crazy for high fat garbage (the fat used in every commercial food prep out there).

Indian Creek Angus is our favored supplier, we have tried others, but have been very pleased with their beef.  This is a blurb from their website: Indian Creek cattle are fed on the rich grass of Northeast Georgia and are Certified Naturally Grown. They are given no growth hormones or steroids; they are not fattened on grain; they are not fed antibiotics.

When looking for a farm that we could go back to, over and over, we wanted to make sure that we had a farm with a cleanly appearance, true grass covered fields, not manure rich mud fields.  And with the kind of processing that gave you quality cuts, minimal fat ground beef (even though the fat is healthy, we also follow the Biblical advice to not directly consume the fat from animals – there is enough fat within the meat already).

This last time, we had 7 full beefs (the industry term vs saying cow) pass through our office to you, our patients.  It was $14, 700 of beef.  Which was at an average around $5.50/lb.  A good price for grass fed ground beef, an even better price for grass fed steaks when compared to Harry’s filet’s at $23/lb!

We are working to make your dietary choices easier and easier, this is just one of the ways.  This week, I am taking the staff to Orlando for a Maximized Living seminar.  I have been part of Max Living for 7 years, and they have paved the way to making this truly a life lived to the max.  While we are gone (the office will be closed Thursday afternoon, Friday, and Saturday); we will be introduced further into Jordin Rubin’s (author of The Makers Diet) new farm, Beyond Organic.  I have been reading about his plans, and look forward to sharing them with you as well.

Lastly – some of you know that this is my 5th anniversary of the day I was hit in the eye with a hockey puck, and lost site in my left eye.  I have been, and continue to be faithful that God has a plan of healing for me.  I do not know what that is, but as I pass the fifth year, I can say without a doubt, that losing my site in my left eye has been a blessing.  I have had opportunities to impact many people over the years as i have spoken of the incident, life afterwards, and the faith testing that goes on through that.  Recently I met with a professional to help coax me along to finish the book that I had started shortly after the incident… hopefully we will see that completion in this next 12 months!  Thanks for caring about your health, be blessed!

Dr. E

My father and I took a 35 mile bike ride yesterday (well days ago when I finally post this).  The distance is not too spectacular to a cyclist, but my father is 68 years old.  We took off to Akron NY to see my grandmother, some cousins, and their children.  We didn’t plan much, just took off riding.

My father set the pace for the first 6 minutes, then we turned into some wind, so I took the lead and told him to try to stay “on my wheel” so that I could pull him along a bit.  We were averaging over 18MPH for almost the entire ride, hitting 19.5 regularly, even with some wind in our face.  When I asked my father afterwards about the ride details, he told me he usually rides around 13MPH these days.  But that it felt good to be pushed.

Consider that statement, “it felt good to be pushed”.  Are you allowing yourself opportunities to be pushed?  When it comes to your physical activity?  How about your diet?  Have you considered what it would mean to be pushed in your pursuit of a better life all around?  My father pushed me over 25 years ago when he put my older brother and I on our bikes with some sleeping bags, a couple changes of clothes, a few pots and pans, and a tent.  We started in Lockport NY, ended in Lockport NY, and went through Toronto ON, Kingston ON, the Thousand Islands, Watertown NY, Rochester NY… we rode around Lake Ontario.

It took us seven days of riding, maxed out at 104 miles in one day, on our way to covering 530 miles of road.  I wonder how different I might be had I not done that bike trip at 13 years of age.  I always like winning, so I constantly set the pace, at times I would look back and couldn’t see my dad and brother.  But part of me was crying to just get off the bike, while the other part was saying “get there faster, get there faster”.   Today, I have the same battle in most of my workouts.  “I just want to be done… SO get there faster, get there faster”.

It feels good to be pushed, and being pushed is what allows us to do more.  In life there are those who are driven and those who are led.  Being pushed is neither, and it is both.  It is the thing that makes us act, but then our actions are based on being driven or being led.  I was driven for most of my life… by a series of events in my past, desires for my future and hopes and dreams.  When I switched to being led, it was like there was nothing driving me, but rather I push simply to push, because I am called to push.  To be better, and to do more… for Him and others.

I have a great hope that ALL of you will understand what it is to be led, and by so doing, will achieve so much with your lives.  None of us are stuck where we are, none of us are limited to do no more than whatever it is we are doing now.  We have life, therefore we have opportunity and time to do it.  I don’t care who you are and where you are in your life.  Great potential lies within and in front!  Go get it!

-Dr E (PS – I will be back in this afternoon. Taking the office staff to an important seminar at the end of the week, then back to normal next week).

Dr. Levi

Occasionally a patient might think, “If chiropractic was so important, how come it wasn’t around hundreds of years ago? What did people do back then?” Well, it has been. It may not have been as scientific (neither was medicine) but forms of manipulation have been around since the beginning of recorded time.

• Chinese Kong Fou Document written about 2700 B.C. is the earliest indications
• A Greek papyrus dating back to at least 1500 B.C. gave instructions on how to maneuver the extremities to relieve low back pain.
• Ancient American Indian hieroglyphics demonstrated “backwalking”
• Some Indian tribes used manipulative therapy
• Tissue manipulation was practiced by the ancient Japanese, Indians of Asia, as well as the Egyptians, Babylonians, Syrians, Hindus, and Tibetans

The famous surgeon, Sir James Paget, wrote in the British Medical Journal  January 5, 1865, an article entitled, “Cases that Bonesetters Cure.” He reflected on the economic threat these bonesetters were to medical doctors when he wrote, “Few of you are likely to practice without a bonesetter for a rival; and if he can cure a case which you have failed to cure, his fortune may be made and yours marred. Learn then to imitate what is good and avoid what is bad in the practice of bonesetters.”

Hippocrates, who lived between  460B.C. – 357B.C., wrote over 70 books on healing including, Manipulation and Importance to Good Health and On Setting joints by Leverage. He said “Get knowledge of the spine, for this is the requisite for many diseases.” He stressed the importance of rest, fresh air, sun light, proper diet, exercise in moderation, cleanliness, tissue manipulation, and minimum usage of drugs.

Claudius Galen 130 to 200 A.D. was given the title “Prince of Physicians” after he corrected the paralysis of the right hand of Eudemus by treating his neck, apparently by adjusting the neck vertebrae. Galen, like Hippocrates, said  “Look to the nervous system as the key to maximum health.”

The Bible-  The importance of massage procedures for maximum beauty and health are emphasized in the  Book of Esther.

The importance of cleanliness in both physical and moral well-being is mentioned over 200 times in the Bible. Cleanliness of water, food, clothing, bathing, and proper latrine methods are stressed. The Book of Leviticus stresses these measures with leprosy and veneral disease, and cautions against omens and magic.

Current medical literature will tell you that medical science has increased the longevity of people in recent years. The credibility of that statement is challenged by the fact that the life expectancy during Biblical times is given in the Bible as “three score and ten”- which is 70 years of age. Thus people are not living much longer today than they did in the Holy land 2,000 years ago.  However, the people of Biblical times observed proper hygienic  and sanitary measures.

With the fall of the Roman Empire and through the dark ages that followed, proper hygiene and sanitation became nonexistent. Ignorance, pestilence, and filth prevailed while logic and science took a back seat. Great masses of people died and, of course, longevity took a severe drop, too.

The physicians of the middle ages did not perform surgery, considered it beneath their dignity, and felt it belonged to the barber or executioner.

Ironically, the principles of proper hygiene and sanitation as taught in the Bible, were ignored until the turn of this century. These basic principles were rejected and violated by the physicians, many of whom would condemn anyone who tried to tell them otherwise.

Thus it was not any miracle pill which restored our longevity back to the Biblical days, but proper public health and sanitation measures.

I will be hitting workouts all next week in Buffalo.  I have limited supplies there compared to my home or my gym, but much more than most of you would have at your homes, so I figured I would come up with a workout that is good for everyone, that I can choose to do next week.

We are going to introduce the overhead squat in this one.  An exercise that will bring out all of your joint inflexibility and possibly some strength issues (even though we are only going to use a PVC pipe or broomstick for most of you).  As always, these workouts that I create for you are going to have some running whether it be straight ground, or up and down stairs, today will be ground.

So the overhead squat.  Start by holding your broomstick or pvc pipe over your head, widen your grip so that your arms are wider than your shoulders (you can adjust width when you attempt your squats (a wider grip will allow you to keep this “bar” over your head, and not have it forced out in front of you.  Now, while maintaining your “bar” overhead with arms straight, shoulders engaged (meaning you ware pushing the bar out, keeping your elbows locked, not letting it drift down onto your head or shoudlers), perform a squat.

If you remember the squat rules, I want you to go as deep as you can, with a goal of having the top of your thigh completely parallel to the ground at the low point.  You achieve this by pushing your butt back, keeping your weight over your heels, with your knees pointing outward at 15 degrees (or possibly more when doing this movement).  When you return to standing, that is one rep.

Once you have practiced that  a few times, you will be ready for the workout.

3 Rounds – Run 200 meters (this is .125 miles, so half of a quarter mile, or a quarter of a half mile, if that helps you out.  On your car, It would read just beyond the .1 to get that distance.  I think a good way to guess, is if you live in a planned neighborhood with half acre lots, 100 meters would likely be three mailboxes from your own.  So you can make some estimates off of that).  30/60 overhead squats, 20 situps.

The 30/60 is going to be dependent on how comofrtable you are with high volume squats.  It will be a total of 90 squats for three rounds if you choose 30 per round, or 180 if you choose 60.  If you are still getting into doing squats, then I would go with the 30.  No sense in being too sore to do anything else for a week.

The sit-ups, as always, are full sit-ups if you can do them.  Legs bent, feet flat on the ground, with your knees up.  From your back on the ground to your chest touching your knees.  Do everything as fast as you can, timing yourself from start to finish.

Fortunately, I have a meter wheel in NY that I can use to measure out my 200M, so I will be able to try this one out as written.  When I do, I will post my result to this blog post on our daily sprout page.  Feel free to do the same.  Be well, Be fit – Dr. E

I know many people read this blog from other parts of the country or world, so I apologize if this won’t seem relevant.  But for those who are here in the Atlanta area, this is for you.  Even though the EPA has called Atlanta one of the top 15 most toxic cities in the country… and Forbes listed it as number one, in one of their articles.  You should still be glad you live here.

The why, is because there is an incredible access to health pursuit here.  And I surely hope you don’t take it for granted.  First, the glaring reason for this sprout, the food!  Between Trader Joes, Harry’s (Whole Foods), Life Grocery, the Natural Food Market in Alpharetta (brand new one in Crabapple), and other local health food stores such as Good Nutrition and Harvest Moon, and others in different suburbs, we have an incredible access to healthy foods.

In addition, living in the Northern suburbs, we have direct access to farm fresh eggs, organic field grown chickens (literally pecking whatever they can find for their food), raw dairy, grass fed beef… its amazing!  My parents have all the farm access that we have, but without Trader Joes, Harry’s, etc.  They are missing out on other items.  It is hard to hunt down a package of xylitol in the Buffalo area, and I couldn’t find a jar of raw almond butter anywhere, not to mention crunchy vs creamy.

Organic vegetables are difficult at best, with the most critical organic vegetable being celery (ewg.org – dirty dozen list), you have to hope your timing is just right, or add an extra 20 minutes one way to your drive to a different grocery store.  We get to find organic celery at every grocery store.  There are vegetable stands along many road sides, but when you ask, you will find they all use chemical pesticides, so there is no happiness in that.

Beyond food choices, we have access to great chiropractic.  And I am not just referring to our office, there are four Maximized Living Offices in the area, with one in Kennesaw, West Cobb, and Crabapple now.  There is great opportunity for corrective chiropractic care, but also outstanding health leadership.  I have never met a chiropractor outside of Maximized Living, willing to go the extra mile to educate their patients.  It is simply th culture of our community.

In my hometown of Lockport, there are no Maximized Living chiropractors, and there are none in Buffalo at all.  My family get adjusted regularly, but when I prod about educational efforts in the offices that they visit, I am always saddened by what I hear.  Good chiropractors for sure, but not leading the charge to change every aspect of someone’s life towards greter health.

And of course, we are loaded with CrossFit gyms.  Atlanta is the second hottest city in the country for CrossFit, with the LA metropolis being the leading one (this is where it started).  This gives so much potential for fitness, and fitness goal setting, that we really have an awesome opportunity in front of us.  Couple that with some of the greatest trails for mountain biking, hiking and trail running, all within such a short distance.  We are blessed!

So, forget about the SMOG, or the water pollution for a bit, and be happy that you have such an opportunity to choose wisely, and to have those wise choices actually be easy!  Be well, Be happy – Dr. E

Selecting a pillow is one difficult task.  I have had patients tell me stories of having entire linen closets full of their attempts at finding pillow luxury, only to be failed attempts leading to a side business of pillow wholesaling.  Mattresses can be the same, its just that there aren’t too many people stashing the “wrong” mattress in a closet somwhere in the house.

But you know what I am talking about.  You can test a pillow at the store, squish it, fluff it, lay your head sideways on it while its still in its packaging, and eventually come to the belief that you have found the perfect pillow, only to discard it to “the” linen closet after a few nights use.  It took me years to find my pillow, and then recently it seemingly turned on me.  After 7 years of love, it had found its way to the top shelf of the linen closet.

So what goes into finding the right pillow, and why would the right pillow go wrong at some point?  Well, it first starts with your sleeping habits.  The poisition you sleep certainly has the greatest impact on what pillow is right, or wrong for you.  And arguably, sleeping on your back is the absolute best position for your spine… but how about your breathing?  It is thought that almost 70% ofadults will snore throughout the night when on their backs, and I agree, I have seen it thanks to my years in collegiate hockey (4 players to a room) and overnight stays before an adventure race (not naming names here Andy).

But, research has also shown that if you put somone on their back, on the right pillow, that the snoring will go away.  I have slept for years ona very thin, and soft pillow.  It has about 3” of thickness in the middle of it, with two curves, one that reaches about 6” og thickness, and the other that is about 4 ½” of thickness.  So soft though, that both sides compress to about half their thickness when you lie on it.  This pillow has served me well as a back sleeper, for many, many years.  But why not now?

Well, as many of you know, I have some beat up shoulders.  Hockey has left its mark on me, and four shoulder separations on my right, and three on my left, has had a considerable impact on the comfort that I can achieve with my shoulders.  About 17 months ago, I hurt my right shoulder in consecutive months with a rotator cuff injury, followed by a mountain bike fall, that misaligned my shoulder girdle.  Sure enough, it was about four months later that I started to dislike my pillow.  I found that my neck would bother me in the night, my arm would be throbbing, and sometimes my hand would fall asleep.

Back sleeping became uncomfortable, and right side sleeping unbearable, so I had to move to mostly left side sleeping with some back sleeping, and occasionally a stomach position (not at all receommended for adults).  In so doing, my ultra thin pillow became too thin.  Though great for back sleeping because it allows the neck to maintain the cervical curve, and it opens the airway for normal breathing, it was causing my head to tilt/angle too much on my side.  This was hurting my sleep, and my shoulder all the same.

So I moved to a feather pillow with more thickness, but the ability to be squished down to nothing.  This new pillow helped me achieve full nights of sleep, and to quickly get to a place where I could comfortably sleep through the night without shoulder pain.  My arm was better, and life was good; until…

The shoulder was finally getting to full resolution.  Suddenly my neck longed for a new position, and my arm was no longer an issue.  I wanted to sleep on my back, but this feather pillow wouldn’t let me.  Too thick.  So it was just a few weeks ago that I pulled out the old pillow again, and man it was beautiful.  Life restored!

So how do you pick a pillow?  Well, you should try to train yourself onto your back, it might take some time, but it is worth it.  Then go for a thin pillow (there have been many vacations were I failed to bring my pillow, so I have simply slept without one), one that allows your head to be positioned looking straight up, not forward.  An orthopedic curve helps, as it follows the arc of your cervical spine (reminder – this is referred to as the arc of life because it is so important).

If you see side sleeping as your only ally, then make sure the pillow can support the space between your head and the mattress.  A pillow that will contour with you is good, but honestly, I think the old fashoined feather pillow works best for side sleeping.  Be prepared for some time to get used to a pillow, I wouldn’t discard it until you have had at least three weeks of effort trying to get used to it.

So… why this pillow talk?  Well, I am returning from Buffalo, where I just drove my family to spend time with my extended family.  I packed my thin curved pillow, to make sure I had some good sleep.  Well, I never told my wife I had packed my pillow, so she happened to pack the feather pillow that I had been using for the last year… leaving me with none of my favored choices at home!  I will be in town for only three nights, as I leave late Thursday night to return.  I think I can handle it, but it is surely on my mind!

Be well, sleep tight – Dr. E

It has been hot.  Its always hot.  Since the first southern summer for me in Charlotte, to here 15 years later, the heat is stifling.  But it is a love/hate relationship.  I love working out in the heat, love working out in my yard in the heat, and enjoy doing anything where getting sweaty and dirty is accepted in the heat.  I do however, hate working in my office in the heat (I still love you guys, i just don’t like being sweaty when I do it)!

So what to do?  Well, the cool thing about the heat, is that you burn more calories when you exercise in the heat, just like you burn a lot more calories when you exercise in the cold.  Body temp regulation is hard work, and that hard work turns into calories burned.  Calories burned (caloric expenditure) is only one of the output measures of whether your exercise is providing value (you get more value out of a 4 minute maximum burst – likely no more than 100 calories than you do out of running a marathon – burn over 1000 calories), but it is one that we are all very familiar with.

So one of my greatest recommendations is to get out there and exercise hard when it is hot out, take advantage of what the heat gonna do.  Try to avoid the hottest time of day, because even up here in Woodstock, the air quality gets bad at that time of day.  I would avoid running along a heavily trafficked area too… no sense in breathing in that garbage if you can avoid it.  So what else do we think of when the heat is on… sun exposure.

So a great question brought up by the latest Maximized Living (that is the group that we are a part of) Newsletter,(http://www.maximizedliving.com/Home/MaximizedLivingBlog/tabid/772/Article/397/are-your-sunscreens-really-protecting-you.aspx?utm_source=Patient+Newsletters&utm_campaign=Maximized+Living+Newsletter+-+July+12%2C+2011&utm_medium=email)  “Are Your Sunscreens Really Protecting You”.  Of course most of our culture believes that sunscreen is extremely necessary, because they are saving us all from skin cancer.  However, I agree with the point made in this article, and made so well by so many scientists before this, that at the very least the chemicals in sunscreen are equally as damaging to you as the sun.

Consider beyond that; the sun has been here from the beginning of creation.  We are well adapted to it, and all we have to go off of is the knowledge that over-exposure is damaging.  So from there we take A plus B = C, where A is the sun, B is exposure and C is skin cancer.  Where the reality is that we have A+B+C+D+E+F+G+H+I+J+K+L+M+N+O+P+Q+R+S+T+U+V+W+X+Y+Z+AA+AB+AC+…. = Skin Cancer.  And in this case, we have decided to look at all other variables.

Variables like, chemical irritants on the skin, chemical irritants in the body, from eating, drinking, breathing, etc.  In addition, diet, exercise, sleep, nervous system function, immune suppressant medications, and a host of other possible variables.  When we begin to layer in other variables, that may, or may not play a greater role than simply sun exposure… the only thing that becomes really clear, is that we need to be considerate of all of our choices.

The thing that really bothers me, is that we have used the ozone weakening as our major reason to blame the sun for the increase in skin cancer.  Yet according to NASA scientists, the ozone hole is over Antarctica, and though it varies in size, the NUMBER ONE determinant for why it varies in size is not the amount of CFC’s released into the atmosphere every year.  It is determined by the temperature of the upper atmosphere, which when cooler leads to greater damage.  So if the ozone depletion does not exist over any populated land mass, and if temperature fluctuations have shown to be significant determinants of the size of the layer, why has it not effected more people earlier, and why is it effecting so many people in the Northern hemisphere, all the way from the Southern!?!?

Read this excerpt from the Maximized Living article:

This list of toxic chemicals includes but is not limited to avobenzone, homosalate, octisalate, octocrylene, oxybenzone, octinoxate, benzophenone, benzophenone-3, diethanolamine, triethanolamine, and many parabens that begin with the prefixes –butyl-, -methyl-, -ethyl-, and –propyl-.

In the list of chemicals above, that are commonly found in sunscreen, there are several cancer correlations from the above group.

I think you should strongly consider avoiding sunscreen, and utilizing clothing, or invest in the safe stuff with these ingredients: Coconut oil, Jojoba oil, Sunflower oil, Shea butter, Vitamins D and E, Eucalyptus oil.  Building up a tan, and a strong tolerance to sun over exposure is the best option.  15-30 minutes a day will do that over time.

Do your best to stay cool, but use the heat when you can!  Be well, God Bless! – Dr. E