Video Series Intro: What is Wellness?

So for a few years now this word ‘Wellness’ has been thrown around quite a bit, without many of us actually knowing what it truly is. Most of us think of it as having something to do with being healthy, but we also hear it used to promote things like flu shots, and over the counter meds. In the over 13 years I have been in practice, I’ve learned it can be simplified into 3 main points:

• How we Move

• What we put into our bodies

• How we think

We are embarking on a new project here at Wellness Pittsburgh: a video series that will focus on how to be truly healthy and well. Have a watch!

Can You “Mess-up” an Adjustment?

I get this question a lot. “Can I mess up my adjustment?” And I get it. Who’d want to mess up that great adjustment that they just paid for? People will leave trying not to turn their head, keeping perfectly still, afraid to do any activity afterwards. They ask if they should go home and lay down or rest.

The truth is, you can’t mess up an adjustment. And one of the best things to do after an adjustment is to MOVE!

Think about it like this. We all have stressors, physical, chemical, and mental/emotional, that can cause tension in our bodies (as well as our spine). These stressors can cause things to move out of alignment. This misalignment causes pressure on our nerves, and interferes with the signals that pass through them. That is what we call a subluxation.

When we remove the subluxations, our nervous system works better. Our body responds better to the stress it experiences. We are in a more ‘adaptable’ state. This is actually a good time to be more active, not laying around resting. When you are moving (with good posture and form, of course) you are sending tons of information into the brain, and this actually helps the solidify the good form and realignment in the body.

I also hear people say that they’ll come get adjusted after they have some kind of intense physical activity. A patient of mine recently said they were waiting to come get adjusted until after they finished a remodeling project. I totally understand that, but the best time to get adjusted is actually before intense physical activity. This is why athletes and performers see their chiropractor before their performance. With the subluxations removed, the body responds much better, and much more appropriately to the stress it experiences.

So remember, go out and move around after an adjustment. Go work out, take a walk, have fun! Your brain will thank you 🙂

WATER: THE FOUNDATION OF ALL LIFE

I often get the question, “What is the first thing I should change to get healthier? Should I take vitamins? Exercise? Meditate”

There are so many products, services, new technologies, superfoods, and healing methods out there that it can get pretty confusing. There is no “one thing’” that will give you perfect health, but there is one thing I find most people fall short on: water.

Think about this: the earth is made up of about 70 percent water. So are our BODIES! Water is one of the ONLY substances that actually gets LESS dense as it changes from a liquid to a solid. Pretty much everything else gets MORE dense as it freezes, because the molecules are more tightly packed. As a gas, things are less dense, and expand to take up a larger space. What would happen in our oceans and lakes if ice was more dense than water and sank? The ice would sink and crush everything! No water bound animals would survive. No plants would survive. Our oceans, lakes, rivers and streams would be lifeless if they froze. But that isn’t what happens. Pretty amazing, right?

Water is the medium for most chemical reactions in the body. It also cleanses, and flushes out harmful, destructive toxins as passes from our bodies. It is important for healing, for digesting our food, for our mood and energy, for our immunity, for… well, everything! We can go days without eating solid food, but how long can we go without water? After a few days we would be suffering from dehydration.  The blood would get thicker from lack of hydration, making the heart work harder to pump the blood to the brain and the rest of the body. Our energy would drop, and the body would slow. Within a week, we’d be dead.

So how much water do we need?

Follow this basic guide:

• Your body should get as many ounces as half of your weight (in pounds). If you weigh 100 lbs, you need 50 ounces of water. 200 lbs = 100 ounces, etc. You can’t substitute juice, soda, tea or other beverages, because the sugar or mineral content makes you need more water! You’ve got to drink plain water.

• For every caffeinated or alcoholic drink you have, you need an extra 8 ounces. Caffeine and alcohol are diuretics. They cause you to excrete more water than they give you, leaving you with a negative overall water gain.

• If you exercise or are are sweating a lot, you need more water. An extra 16-24 ounces is recommended per pound lost during a workout. An average, healthy person can produce as much as 32 ounces of sweat during an hour of moderate to intense exercise. You can weigh yourself before and after to find out how much water weight was lost, or you can just estimate.

• Look at your urine color. The is probably the easiest and most effective measurement of hydration level. If it is clear coming out, you’re all good. The darker the color, the more water you need. This is also a good way to measure your kids hydration level.

As soon as you wake up each morning, drink two large glasses of water before doing anything else. This will this make sure that you get a good start on your hydration for the day. This “primes-the-pump,” by kick-starting your metabolism and flushing out the digestive tract, and will give you a great start to your day.

Do this for four weeks, and you will feel like a new person!

Make sure that you are drinking purified water. While a Brita or Pur filter is much better than tap water, an even better choice is reverse osmosis. Home kits cost between $200 -$300, and will last for years. Replacement filters cost between $50 and $100 a year. It is one of the best investments our family has ever made.

So drink up. Cheers!