Earlier this week my husband and I were closely watching the health care debates in the news. I realize that there are many different issues that need to be addressed on this topic, but what struck me as odd was that no one was talking about personal responsibility for our health! Then it hit me, people haven’t realized that the rules for taking care of your health have changed. We are trying to fix a system that was based on doctors and medicine keeping us healthy. A large part of this system is now harming us, not helping us.

Currently, the top three causes of death in our country are cancer, heart disease, and the practice of medicine. People always assume that I must have made a mistake when I tell them the third cause. I would love to be wrong, unfortunately close to a million people die every year from proper & improperly prescribed drugs & surgery. This has become a serious epidemic in our country. The first two causes as scary and mysterious as they are could greatly be reduced by changes in lifestyle.

This point brings me back to the woman in the grocery store. What if she knew that soda is being called the new cigarette? What if she knew that drinking soda would increase her chances for obesity, diabetes, and cancer? What if she made the connection that the foods she ate today, would greatly effect the quality of her life tomorrow. Most importantly, what if once she was educated on these issues she decided to make changes in her lifestyle so that she didn’t have to rely on traditional medicine to save her in her later years.

I think it’s time for all of us to become aware of THE NEW RULES OF THE HEALTH CARE GAME. There isn’t a manual to list the steps you need to take to care for your family’s health. There are a lot of theories that can be overwhelming and difficult to follow. That is why I have made a decision to bring those new rules to you in a simple and easily applicable way. As we entered a new decade this year, I entered my 14th year working with the health of our community. I am rededicating myself to improving people’s lives through better health. A healthy life is one where a person feels energetic when they wake up, where there is no pain, no drugs, no surgery; where colds are few and far between, where people know that as they get older they don’t have to get sicker and where our focus is not fear of disease, but possibility of each new day bringing more joy & happiness.

Each week I will be bringing you a new rule. I hope that you find them inspiring, eye opening, and easy to follow. Take the ones that you like and try them on. Not every rule is going to be one you can implement, but if you follow 80% of them, that would be a huge step forward on your path to health.

As always, I am so grateful to serve you and your family. Please take the time to pass this information on to the people in your life. Together we can make this world a healthier place.

The actual definition of blood pressure is, “The pressure exerted by the blood against the walls of the blood vessels, especially the arteries. It varies with the health of the heart, arterial walls and a person’s physical condition.” However, what this definition doesn’t include is that the whole process is controlled and maintained by your nervous system. This means that hypertension (high blood pressure) is completely dependant on how your nervous system regulates your blood pressure based on the health of your heart and arterial system. However, this process can work in reverse. A subluxated spine can inhibit the nervous system and therefore CAUSE hypertension. The May 2007 Journal of Human Hypertension reported on a double blind, placebo-controlled study (can’t get better than this) that a misalignment in the cervical spine (neck) can cause hypertension, which can be reduced after a chiropractic adjustment. The study stated, “restoration of [neck] alignment is associated with marked and sustained reductions in blood pressure similar to the use of two-drug combination therapy.” In conclusion, WOW! I hope this inspires you to get your family and loved ones checked for spinal subluxations.

Spinach often conjures up images of parents forcing their children to eat a pile of mushy green slop. It was with good reason too. Calorie for calorie, spinach provides more nutrients than any other food and therefore should find a way into everyone’s diet.

Spinach contains at least 13 discovered compounds that act as antioxidants and anti-cancer agents, which help protect against osteoporosis, heart disease, colon cancer, and arthritis. Moreover, the vitamin E and the antioxidant compounds are known to decrease free radicals in the brain and protect against age – related decline in mental function. Spinach also contains lutein which is a compound that protects against age – related eye diseases such as macular degeneration and cataracts.

Spinach is best eaten fresh because it retains all of the nutrients that are lost when cooked or processed. In addition, raw spinach has a much milder taste than cooked spinach. So, not only was Popeye making himself strong by eating spinach, he was protecting his heart, colon, and bones. Pretty smart after all.

If you read my other article on soda pop and thought, “it’s a good thing I drink diet soda,” this article is for you. There is a very common and dangerous misconception that diet soda is better for you than just plain soda. Through mass marketing, soda companies have convinced the public that low or no calorie diet soda is a healthier alternative. However, this healthy alternative isn’t so healthy after all. Multiple studies have shown that the artificial sweeteners used in diet soda can stimulate your appetite, increase your carbohydrate cravings, and stimulate fat storage and weight gain. In addition to gaining weight, artificial sweeteners can pose real life dangers.

One common diet soda sweetener is aspartame (NutraSweet). Aspartame is a known neurotoxin (toxic to brain cells) and can cause many side effects such as birth defects, brain tumors, diabetes, emotional disorders, and epilepsy. Sucralose (Splenda), another sugar substitute, is not much safer. Animal studies have demonstrated that sucralose can cause a decrease in red blood cells, increase male infertility, and cause brain tumors. The bottom line is that you may be saving calories by drinking diet soda laced with artificial sweeteners but at the cost of eating more and ingesting chemicals with dangerous side effects. Drink water…it’s safer than soda (carbonated sugar water) and diet soda (dangerous carbonated chemical water).

Some call it soda, some call it pop, nevertheless, it’s slowly stripping years off of your life. Soda accounts for more than a quarter of all drinks consumed in the U.S. with a heavy portion consumed by kids. Roughly 60% of private and public middle schools sell soda in their cafeteria with a large number giving them away to students who purchase their lunch. Soda companies, much like cigarette companies, discovered that marketing to children can create lifelong soda drinkers. This is evident by the statistical fact found on Mercola.com, “fifty-six percent of 8-year-olds down soft drinks daily, and a third of teenage boys drink at least three cans of soda pop per day.”

What can soda do to a healthy person? Harvard researchers discovered that for every serving of soda, the risk of obesity goes up 1.6 times. In addition to the cavities caused by the large amounts of sugar in soda, the acids begin to strip tooth enamel within 20 minutes of taking one sip. The phosphoric acid content in soda leaches calcium from bones. Since calcium is the “cement” of bones structure, without it the bones become very porous and weak. Additionally, the caffeine found in many sodas is a stimulant that can cause an addictive dependence as well as cause headaches, increase blood pressure and heart rate, and irritability. Maybe we should think twice before ingesting a substance that can loosen rusty bolts and clean the dirt from tile grout!

Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin is one of the greatest breakthroughs of our civilization. If not for this discovery, certain types of bacteria would undoubtedly get the best of us. However, as with most things, antibiotics fall under the category of “too much of a good thing is not good.” Currently antibiotics are being over utilized as a “cure all” for any sniffle, cough, or discolored mucus. This is a dangerous trend that creates drug resistant bacteria.

Bacteria, both good and bad, reside in our bodies usually posing very little problems. In fact, most common conditions (like colds, the flu, most coughs, bronchitis and sore throats) are caused by viruses which are routinely treated with prescription antibiotics despite their ineffectiveness on viruses. Bacteria are one of the fastest reproducing organisms in existence which enables them to easily mutate their genes to resist antibiotics. Therefore, over prescribed antibiotics will not only destroy beneficial bacteria in our bodies but weak bacteria, thus, leaving the drug resistant bacteria (super bugs) to reproduce. So, the next time you come down with a sniffle be judicious with your use of antibiotics. Strengthen your immune system instead with proper nutrition, adequate exercise, and optimal nerve function by getting chiropractic adjustments.