60 Day Turnaround

Great response on WOW #1, so I am back with more for you.  And as always, for those who have not heard me say it repeatedly, or ever… you need to try a CrossFit gym  and if you are a patient of mine, you have mine, The Garage, you also have Holly Springs (CrossFit Refuge) and Canton (CrossFit Canton) right here in your back yard.

OK, so what are we going to have you do today?  Well, the time domain will stay pretty short, but in most cases longer than the last one.  We are going to throw in some running/jogging/walking (the fastest form that you can do), burpees (be sure to click the link for demo, you need windows media player), and stair jumps/step-ups.

The work will require that you know how far 400 meters is, or a quarter of a mile, or best, if you drive away from your home at 30 mph, start with an odometer reading of 0, when it turns to 1, count “1 one thousand, 2 one thousand, 3 one thousand” and stop.  Find a landmark, this will be your turn around point when you leave from your house.

WOW #2 –
3 times through as fast as you can
Run 400M (if run/jog/walk is not an option, then run in place and count 400 steps if running, 600 if walking)
25 Burpees
15 stair jumps/step ups to second step on a set of stairs (modify and only do first step if necessary)

Start working this in with the other WOW, to avoid boredom.  Record your time and compete with yourself.  Or post your results here and see how you stack up against others!

Be well!

I need to share this, because I have become so much more in tune with so many of you, and I hate it!  I am a chiropractor because I had low back problems that were disabling at times.  They started when I was 17, and came to a serious debilitating condition at 24.  I started into the chiropractic lifestyle, and I have slowly improved ever since (get that “slowly” word, I have literally seen health improvements every single year, slowly progressing in all areas over time… not immediately overnight).

So to say this the most complete way, I have had a  lot of sympathy for my low back pain patients over the years.  The thing is, for all of you headache people, I had kind of forgotten the feeling of a headache, light headed, sinus problem condition.  Don’t get me wrong, I know headaches.  I had them in my pre-teen years, that were so bad I would come home from school and sleep.  They were awful, and I was so happy when they stopped (randomly, I changed nothing).  And how about when I ruptured my eye (I know, some of you who are new to my practice don’t know that I am blind in my left eye… yes, completely); when that hockey puck hit me, it literally exploded my eye.  I bled from it for over an hour, and everything around it swelled up significantly.  My sinuses felt overfilled for six months, headaches were daily from the pressure; not to mention the dizziness from trying to absorb the world through one eye.  Oh, I surely know headaches… but not the kind that you can only point your finger of blame at nature.

I have had mild sinus irritation over the “Atlanta” years, but nothing that ever lasts.  Usually the spring provides me with a horse voice for the first hour of the day over a 4 week period, but only once before did it hit me with a head symptom, and then it lasted about a week.  Right now, looking back, I have about four straight weeks of head pressure/headache, and it has only just now subsided since returning from my vacation.  So let me tell you how it all happened.

I was at the gym (The Garage) on a Sunday, working out with Wes, one of the other owners.  We were doing push presses (pressing the weight overhead, but using a little push with a dip and rive of the legs) along with double unders (jump ropes).  I was about half way through the wokout when I suddenly had a severe headache in the left side of my head, with a sharp pain in my neck at my atlas on the left.  This pain in both my head and neck continued for about a week, regardless of the repetitive adjustments that I received (though I would get a reduction of symptoms following adjustments).  The pain in my head would ramp up significantly during exercise, and would then stay for hours afterwards.

This all made perfect sense to me, as the relationship between vascular sufficiency and the atlas is a direct relationship, and it had been compromised.  What also made sense to me, but absolutely frustrated me (just like all of you who have dealt with these issues for years), was the sinus pressure that started to build as soon as the pollen count increased.  Why does it make sense, your immune system and subsequently the mucous membranes of your immune system (present in your sinuses), is under the control of nerves from atlas and axis (C2).  What I found to be interesting however, was that as I started to accomodate to the local pollen (last Thursday before leaving for New Orleans), I was completely unable to cope with the stress of a new pollen in Louisiana (had an immediate increase in pressure on my way to the B&B from the airport).

Oh how frustrating, when you are just overcoming the symptom, then to have it return.  Well, the last day in NO I started to feel a bit better.  Then I flew home (which I don’t really handle well anyways since messing up my eardrums years ago in a diving incident), but within an hour of being home, I was feeling better.  Then I got in the car and drove to Orlando, and sure enough… BOOM, it was back!  Try taking your kids on spinning, twirling rides with a head full of pain and pressure… not good.  Thankfully, I have a wife who loves that stuff to, so she saved me from the worst of it.  I did hit a few rides, and I paid.

So the culmination, is the celebration.  Got back and home, and viola, it is all good!  The good news, is that my neck went from being in constant pain, to no pain, and my atlas palpates (feels) about 90% better.  So though the subluxation was a Sinus Subluxation (which is also a subluxation that if it had lasted would be wrecking my immune systems ability to fight cancer too), it was a very temporary subluxation.   For some of you, who have had these subluxations for thirty years.. it will not likely come so easy, and there will be times of regression, but the path to healing is there, and it lies right at the bse of your skull!

Peace and blessings!  Dr. E

If you have read my material over any length of time you know I do not eat shellfish or pork.  I do this because I first believe in God’s law, and though I don;t believe in earning my way into God’s grace (that was given), I do believe that he has called me to be obedient.  And though I can’t always accomplish his other requests (seems that I fail multiple times a day every single day); this is one area that I know I can adhere to!

So in New Orleans, it is pretty much bend your will, or starve to death!  Well, actually, I am doing ok.  But would you believe that of about 40 restaurants that we searched menus for, only two of them had items listed on the menu that I could eat “as-is”.  So night one, we were so late, that we went to a tapas restaurant, and they had little plates they were fine, ended up going with some bruschetta (yes I eat grains, just not when I am doing the full healing diet, and I never eat many) as well as the lamb sliders (on a bun, more grains, but ohhh tasty).

The next day I was able to navigate my way through lunch with a large spinach salad, and snacking on nuts that I had brought throughout the day.  But for dinner… well we walked with our friends, who really don’t get me, so I have had a chance to talk to them about how Biblical truths (don’t eat pork and shellfish) are also modern technology truths; as you know many people get sick from shellfish every day in coastal areas because of the high levels of toxins in the meat (they clean our toxic waters with their GI tracts), and we have seen sutdies that show that pigs are able to survive extremely high toxic levels because their system is designed to store those toxins away harmlessly in their fat, which people seem to love to eat!  So it has been cool having a chance to discuss this… however, we had to look (walking relatively aimlessly through the French Quarter checking Yelp the whole way) for over an hour checking menus as we went, with me saying “no, not here” the whole way.

When we finally found a place, my wife was able to settle on a swordfish (which is a rareity for us because they are ridiculously polluted too in most cases), and I had a salmon.  I was forced to have them leave off the crawfish topping, and as i asked for the goat cheese crepes with no crawfish topping, the waiter paused and exclaimed “they will be awful without a topping”, so I switched to the romaine salad… “just hold the bacon vinagrette please.”  So what do you do when you get the feeling that you are insulting a waiter, or possibly the chef when your request comes back?  Acknowledge that your beliefs, have created a sensitivity, and tell them… “I have a sensitivity to pork and shellfish”. 

The good news is that it is true, when I consider eating those, I actually get a little nauseated because I have studied their uncleanliness enough to really not be comfortable with them (kind of like those of you who have seen Food Inc, and your inability to be comfortable with any food!)  A waiter and chef will be much less likely to be offended if they are concerned with your potential “food sensitivity”, than if you are a picky eater unwilling to try the chef’s beloved creation!

So the dying question… did i go to Cafe Du Monde?  Of course I did, got a large Cafe Au Lait and a bag of three Beignets… and shortly after had one of the worst sugar headaches ever… though it was short lived.  Actually, it wasn’t too bad because it hit and disappeared FAST… probably a testament to the fact that I haven’t been the cleanest eater in the last several weeks.  I problem I plan to resolve as soon as this vacation is over!

So I am sitting in a room in a bed and breakfast in New Orleans.  My wife is sleeping, and I am heading that direction real soon, but thought I would reach out to share my travel experience trying to get here on Saturday.  My wife and I had booked these tickets in October, so we were well planned.  12:30 departure, 1pm arrival (cool chasing the sun across one very close timezone).

So we got up very well prepared on Saturday AM, the car was mostly packed (we are heading to Orlando within hours of getting back home on Tuesday, so the car needs to be ready), we had the kids ready early, everything was a clear “go”.  So we drop the kids off with no issue on time, made great time to the airport (took the 285 to avoid the mess on 75 South), and got to the check in counter without issue… but this is when the problems started.

The check in kiosk could not get us checked in, and advised we use an agent.  When the agent said, “where are you going” and when we said “New Orleans”, he immediately shot back a sideways glance, and said “when”.  “12:30”.  “Hmmmmmm. I don’t think we have a 12:30 flight”

So this is where panic sets in, and I really don’t like the idea of stress, but we have a couple coming from Buffalo to meet us for the weekend.  Sure enough, we missed our flight, by hours!  As we sorted through the disaster of our missed flight, we figured out that Airtran had changed the flight on us… multiple times.  And it was ok that the flight changed once… I had followed that without issue, but then when more email notices came in, I should have looked.

You see, sometimes we get busy, real busy, and certain things become less than priority.  So when I was fully aware that my flight time had changed (very moderately, by a few minutes), I was fine, and really unconcerned.  So I ignored the rest of what I had assumed to be simple “reminder” emails.  Well, those reminders had very timely FLIGHT CHANGE information.  The next flight was hours later, so we ended up leaving the airport and heading to Atlantic Station where we took a movie in, then drove back to sit and wait on standby for the next flight… no good.  So we went to the next flight’s gate and waited. 

This one looked good, three seats were still available, and we were listed as #2 and #3 on standby.  I checked at the customer service desk about 40 minutes prior to flight time, and Oh No!  They were down to 1 unsold seat.  Well we were fortunate, 6 people failed to check-in, so they got us, and a whole slew of standby’s on the plane.  We missed our dinner reservation, but hooked up with our friends, and now the weekend is going great!

So, there is a significant point I want to make.  Being busy is not a bad thing, I beleive it is what helps me acheive success, and makes me a better steward of my time in so many ways.  Being too busy to open emails from the airline you are flying on, well that is not good.  And the reason is because that affects my health.  As soon as I let this situation occur, I introduced stress into my life, and that affects my health, and worse off, the stress was do to the effect on my relationship with my wife.

Many of you are similar, in that you let busy-ness affect your health.  You miss adjustments, you miss work-outs, you eat poorly and you sleep poorly.  All of these are so important, yet you probably miss them on a weekly basis, and rarely can recall exactly what was so pressing that caused you to miss them!

It is now 11:46 local time, I am going to go to sleep, and if I can force it on myself, i will not wake up until 8am.  8 lovely hours of sleep, aaaaah.  I usually target 7, but man it is nice to get that extra hour… and to share with you honestly, I do not get that hour as often as I should.   Perhaps together we can make a commitment to get more sleep this year, while still not missing workouts, diet plans or adjustments! 

See you in a week, be blessed! – Dr. E

In a recent article available on the NY Times Health Web site, the discussion of the decline in medical practice was taken head on.  In this article, the author explored the issue of doctors spending more time in front of a computer, and less time alongside a patient.  She discusses the growing dissention among some doctors in following this model, and their desire to bring back the old school, “sit by the bed and look at the patient” method of doctoring.

The real dilemma, in my opinion, is not that docs don’t sit by the bedside, or that they spend time on a computer.  I find little fault/value in either.  The real problem, is that the doctor’s of today, have had a good deal of their freedom stripped from them, and that in turn makes it less likely that the doc will be able to provide a solution for health, but more likely that they will provide an insurance supported treatment for disease.  They have been pushed into a systematic approach, that might provide greater decision making in the diagnostic arena, but lack of freedom on the treatment side.

The author (Pauline W. Chen, MD) provides an argument on both sides of the story, and presents the opinions of a Dr. Karlawish favoring the direction that we are headed, while not giving a primary spokesperson to the dissenting side.  This alone is a sign that she favors the direction we are headed, and doesn’t truly have interest in entertaining the idea of trying to find more time for a doctor to sit an LOOK at and TOUCH a patient.  To some extent, I would believe this author has no idea of the healing potential in touch.  As a chiropractor, I have seen it first hand, repeatedly in my life.

When you read the article, you can see how it would be easy to trust the opinions of Dr. Karlawish (professor at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School of Philadelphia), as he portrays this new method of medicine as being the best solution for our culture.  He talks about how treatment options for a patient can be crunched, and then the patient is only treated if the outcome looks good.  The problem, is that in our system of medicine, their is no time to get to those details.  The reason why we are faced with a new medical system, comes down to the fact that medical costs are a major problem, and the best way for a doc to keep up and make some good money, is to follow the most likely paths of treatment.

Furthermore, the author has this comment:

 One example of a disease in the new desktop medicine era is dyslipemia, or abnormal blood cholesterol and blood fat levels. Cholesterol-lowering drugs were initially used to treat patients who suffered from inherited diseases that prevented them from processing cholesterol, putting them at risk of hardening of the arteries and heart attacks. Over time, though, clinical trials revealed that the same drugs could reduce heart attack risk in some otherwise healthy individuals who simply had high cholesterol.

The issue here, is that by taking the admin of medicine out of clinical judgement, and into formula writing, the medical community at large has faile to see that 24 years of treating with statin medications, has resulted in NO less heart disease, and actually more of it.  IF, the drug was an effective way at reducing heart disease, it would have had an impact by now.  But docs are blind to this, because they are following the formula, and what they see as a lab result, and then a series of assumptions about morbidity and risk leaves them to believe that treating cholesterol is actually working.  Sadly they are mistaken.

So my big culminating point in all of this, is that docs are better served to sit with their patients, get to know their lifestyle, and start to crack away at those small daily changes that would result in better health.  The only problem is, they haven’t done this as a whole in thirty plus years… so it isn’t going to happen anytime soon.   Best make your own decisions to be healthy!

God Bless, Dr. E

Before Vacation!  Dr. Eric will be gone after 4/1, not returning until
Wednesday April 13th.  Coverage will be available everyday!

For any of you who have attended my Stress Management/Peace Building workshops over the last five years, you have heard me “preach” about forgiveness.  As I have reviewed the ten rules for peace management from the “Body By God” book, I ALWAYS take extra time to tell a compelling story about Aurora, and her story of forgiveness, as it blew me away!

So what is this forgiveness thing all about?  Well, it is such a powerful part of well-being, that I cannot say enough about it.  When we feel wronged, it is so easy for us to hold on, to want revenge, and to hope for bad outcomes to befall the person who has hurt us.  But I am reminded that wanting bad outcomes for others, only increases the bad outcomes that befall us.

In the story “Unbroken: A WWII Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption” , we see the life story of Louie Zamperini  a famous runner from University of Southern California, turned to the military, and crashed on a military plan in the Pacific Ocean.  47 days adrift and finally rescued by a Japanese Navy ship landed him into a covert prisoner camp, where he was held without the distinction of prisoner of war… which led to 2 years of torture.

Zamperini is currently 94 years old (3/2011)

Years after his release, Zamperini’s life was in shambles.  His heart was riddled with anger and hatred, and his life was committed to feelings of bitterness and hopes of revenge.  He was at odds with the world, and he had no way of escaping it.

What is absolutely amazing about this story is that the tangible truth, that forgiveness serves yourself more than the person you forgive; that allowing yourself to love as you are loved, is a gift that you give yourself.  Zamperini, after receiving Christ into his life, traveled to Japan and was able to directly address many of his captors (who had been imprisoned as war criminals) and in so doing he hugged them, and told them he loved them.  In this opportunity he shared his forgiveness for them, and according to accounts of witnesses, the prisoners were shocked and became emotional by his display.

I had the opportunity to hear about this story, and to become finely tuned to Zamperini’s life, by a great sermon that was preached by a member of the Northpoint Community Church pastoral staff, Jeff Henderson.  The message did not come to me live, but by streaming video, so sure enough, if you want to learn more about this man’s amazing life, and journey towards forgiveness, you can do it by clicking here. 

For those of you reading this in my office, just go to http://www.healthsprout.com/daily-sprout/ when you get home, and you will be able to access this link.

I have found over the years, many times when I have wanted to be vengeful, or hold a grudge.  I have had other times when forgiveness has come as second nature.  I can tell you, looking back, I am so grateful for the times when forgiveness came easy, and sad when I look back at the times that I let a grudge hold me back for years at a time.  If that is you, I hope you will find a way to release it now.  Thanks, and God Bless!  Dr. E

Fortified foods are a staple food in our society… not in my household, but in our society.  Actually, I don’t think we eat any fortified food on a regular basis other than the Almond Milk.  As you are likely aware, fortified suggests that vitamins and/or minerals have been added to a food, to insure that you are getting what you need in your daily intake of vitamins and minerals.

And on that point, do you realize that the US RDA (recommended daily allowance) was established to rid the world of rickets, scurvey, beri-beri, etc… the diseases of malnutrition.  It was not established to provide optimal function, nor was there an understanding of long term disease from less than optimal function.  If you want to acheive optimal function, you really need to be eating well beyond the RDA, and finding ways to mix up those NATURAL foods that supply those vitamins and minerals.

So where do most of these fortifying minerals come from? Our best hope would be plants, which provide the name “citrate” after a specific mineral. For example, calcium citrate, magnesium citrate, etc. If you buy a cheap one a day vitamin/mineral product, you will notice that the minerals come with the name carbonate. Carbonate, lets us know that the minerals were not harvested from plant, but rather mined from rock. Interestingly enough, there is a significant amount of research based evidence that suggests that you CANNOT assimilate minerals from rock very readily. But that plants have been designed to do this very well, allowing you to then absorb that mineral from their luscious green leaves.

So if you are sitting in my office reading this Daily Sprout, I must impress upon you the importance of getting to your computer, and watching this video. It will help you understand why FORTIFIED really means, “useless garbage with a marketing strategy attached”. We want you to consider all of the ways in which you can pursue greater nutrition in your diet. If you are interested in knowing more about growing healthy foods, let us know that you want to be placed on the aquaponics newsletter list, and we’ll be sure you get some awesome information on growing your own healthy vegetables! Be Well! Dr. E

We will be offering this movie for free viewing, shortly after it becomes available on DVD (which is currently unknown).

In an article entitled, American Cancer Society – More Interested In Wealth than Health, Dr. Mercola states this:

The 130-page document linked below explains in detail why the American Cancer Society may be far more interested in accumulating cash than curing any disease.  The ACS has close ties to the mammography industry, the cancer drug industry, and the pesticide industry.  It is riddled with conflict of interest.

And in fact, according to the report, the ACS has a reckless, if not criminal record on cancer prevention. Over and over again, they have promoted drugs and screening while ignoring environmental causes.

The report states, in part:

“The ACS … [has] long continued to devote virtually exclusive priority to research on diagnosis and treatment of cancer, with indifference to prevention, other than faulty personal lifestyle, commonly known as ‘blame the victim,’ … Not surprisingly, the incidence of cancer over past decades has escalated”.

 

In order to view the report, you will need to link from our web-site to Dr. Mercola’s, then to the report.  It is interesting.  And it is very spot on.  Even if there were no “conspiratorial” links between ACS and mammograms, cancer drugs, etc; the fact that there has been a plethora of recent research bringing environmental factors into the equation at approximately 95% of the cause behind cancer, leaving a paltry 5% for genetic reasons.  The ACS should be stripped of their unearned position as “cancer experts”.

The obvious problem is that MD’s learn what MD’s learn.  And unless they are really driven by purpose outside of their industry, they are typically blinded to the reality that surrounds them.

This is the reason why we respond the way we do when you ask us to support a run for this, or a walk for that.  The ACS is like so many other large “disease researching” organizations, in that they have lost an eye for real answers, and they continue to charge down the same path, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the pockes of already rich pharmaceutical companies, chasing treatment strategies, and not unearthing reality about prevention.  I look at the health of my children, and I think “If I can only help them to stay this course, so that they will in turn have healthier children then themselves, and in turn have healthier children”.  I don’t know if God’s plan is to allow three more generations, but under the assumption that His plan is to let this thing roll for a bit, I am going to pursue health for them, so that my kids grandkids can be in the best possible place to be cancer free.

Be well, God Bless! Dr. E