Great podcast with Fiona Hardie tonight; her suggestions to taking care of yourself:
1) feel your posture and centre of gravity
2) speak kindly about your body
3) stay hydrated
4) 10 minutes morning and evening barefoot outside
5) feel your breathing consciously

I was asked this question today about pulse oximeter - how accurate and what level should you be concerned?

My answer is - we should always base our decisions as comprehensively as one can. In this situation based on full vitals (Blood pressure, pulse rate, respiratory rate, body temperature), clinical presentation and if needed further investigations.

Chronic pain affects up to 50% of a population and has a massive burden on the person, physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. Work abilities are impacted; simple activities of daily living are hampered. Medical costs are high and relief is low. 

To affect change in Chronic pain you have to address the cause at a multidisciplinary level. You have to deal with the layers of causes and compensations. You have to be diligent and patient. 

However, we believe that their is hope! They body is able to heal itself provided you clear the interference and you give it what it requires.

One of the strongest hindrances to full spinal correction is creep. In this instance, creep is not some strange person but rather the mechanical deformation that occurs under strain over time. 

To give a practical example; bend a ruler and maintain it in the bent position for a long period of time. When you release the force, the ruler will maintain the bent position because of creep and that is likened to sitting in a bad posture for long periods of time. The muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones undergo creep (the deformation) and maintains the posture in the new bent state. 

As a Chiropractor, I should be able (theoretically) to give one adjustment to correct the spine. However, if there has been a large amount of creep (deformation) over a long amount of time then the one adjustment will have no lasting impact. 

This is when the spine feels like concrete because the muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones are holding the spine in that deformed shape. 

The only way through this is repetition; repetition of adjustments and repetition of movement or exercises to unwind that creep over time.

https://influencr.me/event/thrivinar-rise-and-thrive/

I have been invited as a speaker on this international webinar. Great line up of different speakers.

The most important aspects of health are:

1) you life the quality of life you wish to live
2) you know how to take care of this daily

How healthy are you?

The easiest way to think about your metabolism is like building a big fire. 

You always have to use something like matches, flint, tinder, fire-lighters or fuel to get the fire started. 

Once the fire is started, use small sticks that are consumed quickly to build power in the fire. 

Now that there is power in the fire you can use larger and larger logs to get the intensity of the fire higher. 

You can always suffocate the fire by putting on too many big logs too early. 

The intensity of the fire gives freedom for whatever you wish to put on the fire...even green logs will still be consumed if the intensity is high enough. 

Once the fire has power and intense you can leave it for sometime to do its work. However stoking the fire often allows the fire to last. 

Choosing the right wood allows the fire to last longer. 

The intensity and power of the fire helps you to consume through whatever you put onto the fire quicker and quicker. 

A strong metabolism takes time and effort to build! Have a great week

The end of the year is near. This is great time for reflection: 

What did you do well this year? 

What were your victories? 

What did you learn? 

Where are you proud of yourself?

As you finish the year, finish strong! That means, finish strong in the belief that you did the best that you could with what you had.

Take the challenge and see if your body is compensating or adapting. 

If it compensates - do something that helps the body recover and reset! 

If it adapts - keep challenging

Page 1 to 4 helps you to determine your sleep chronoType... basically are you best suited for mornings or evenings and help you to plan your day better to maximise your energy throughout the day

I often get asked what supplements to take; for example if you go to Dischem or similar pharmacy you can get vitamin A to Zinc in various shapes, forms and concentrations. 

For the average consumer this can be very confusing; to simplify: 
1) start off with correcting your eating habits; a well balanced diet requires a lot less supplements
2) know that vitamins and minerals work in conjunction and therefore supplementing for just one or random choice based on an article read is not beneficial. 
3) there are many ways functionally to determine where you are deficient and why; rather spend time and money knowing before guessing. 
4) read the labels of your supplements; minimise fillers, flavourants; preservatives and ensure that you are consuming the vitamin and mineral in its natural form as much as possible. For example - ascorbic acid is not vitamin C; it is a component of and in isolation is synthetic. 
5) it is better to be on supplements for a season and not permanently; generally you have missed something deeper if you are on permanently.

There are two types of muscles; 

Those that provide stability to the frame. 

Those that move the frame. 

Stability is more important than movement and therefore takes precidence. This means that if your stability muscles are not active as per expectation then a large degree of movement muscle capability will be directed to stability. 

Stability muscles are in active from either injury or poor posture. 

Movement muscles that are providing stability will: 
- create pain / inflammation for you to know that they are unhappy doing work that does not belong to them
- weaken in strength quickly and fatigue in movement; predisposing to further injury and minimising healing. 

How is your stability?

In chiropractic we beleive in 3 causes of dis-ease - physical, chemical and emotional. 

For many the chemical cause is difficult to understand. Here is my explanation. 

- we require great quality macro and micro nutrients in order to function normally
- however our body has an ability to use less than optimal forms of these to sustain function. 
- the outcome of using less than optimal macro and micro nutrients is the body creates byproducts which need to be eliminated out
- the elimination system of the body is designed to effectively collect all that does not serve and clean it out entirely. This includes all the internal and external pollutants we come in contact with on a daily basis.
- the elimination system works effectivity when you supply the body with the quality macro and micro nutrients it requires. 
- the less quality of supply leads to a slowing of elimination which leads to an accumulation of toxicity in the cells and around the cells. 
- the cells have to protect themselves to this accumulation of toxicity and this leads to:
1) cell dysfunction
2) cell inflammation
3) cell mutation
4) cell damage
5) cell death

Chronic pains and aches that people feel can simply be as a result of cell inflammation and the other effects of cellular toxicity. 

How toxic might you be?

Our next book to read at AHC BookClub is - Sleep by Nick Littlehales. 

This book certainly validates the philosophy and practical advice that we give to our patients to help sleep better. 

Here is a great presentation summary
https://youtu.be/kvo5vF1g20E

How do you sleep? 

Let me know if you interested in joining the BookClub

I had an interesting question - what would my order of priority be for these mechanisms...
1st – Stillness and mindset
2nd – movement
3rd – Sleep
4th – Nutrition and hydration

6 mechanisms of optimal health; 
1) nutrition
2) hydration
3) stillness
4) sleep
5) movement 
6) mindset

Where do you need to focus?

Stability against gravity is so important especially as you age...

Falling is one of the greatest causes of disability in the agreed populations due to prolonged healing time. 

To prevent against this start proprioceptive exercises - 
1) while standing lift your foot up and try to hold your foot with your opposite hand
2) if you cannot balance use the other hand to hold onto a wall or counter top
3) if you can balance like that, then close your eyes and see if you can still balance
4) to make it harder still bend the knee of the leg to balancing on.

The reticular activating system of the brain makes you conscious of whatever you want / need / desire to be conscious of. 

For example... When a couple fall pregnant they suddenly notice how many pregnant people are around them. There is certainly not an increase in pregnant people just rather that they are conscious of it.

This fabulous part of the brain can either work for you or against you depending how you train it! 

For example you wish to get active, but realise that you do not have time to be active... Your reticular activating system will show you how limited time in the day you have and you will sabotage your desire to get active. 

Or you decide that you will try find 5 minute segments frequently during the day to be active... And your reticular activating system shows you the small snippets of time that you have. 

What do you want to be conscious of?

The body image is how the brain visualizes the body... How the brain percieves the body from a sensory perspective and the brain directs the body in movement. 

The body schema is the actual sensory arrangement of the body. The actual sensory information that is sent from the body and the movement patterns that occur in the body. 

In order for correct function and great quality of life the body image and body schema must replicate each other. They must be in alignment with each other!

Any injury traumatic or sustained will create the misalignment between the body image and the body schema. This leads to constant dysfunction in how sensory information is perceived and processed. Further to that, it leads to inappropriate direction of movement patterns. 

Further pain and inflammation; decreased healing and setting up the conditions for chronic pain. 

Get your body image and schema back in alignment