Lack of Sleep Can Make You Fatter

From the American College of Physicians issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine comes a study that suggests that there is a correlation between lack of sleep and weight gain. Chief author, Dr. Eve Van Cauter, Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago, states, "If you do not run a sleep debt, you will be able to curb your appetite more easily and maintain or lose weight."

A full article on the original research on the FitCommerce.com website notes that sleep deprivation increases levels of a hunger hormone and decreases levels of a hormone that can make you feel full. These 2 factors lead to cravings for sweets, chips, and starchy fare like bread and pasta thus setting up the scenario for weight gain.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, An estimated 63% of American adults do not get the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night. They report that the average adult gets 6.9 hours of sleep on weeknights and 7.5 hours on weekends, for a daily average of 7 hours. The researchers point out that the decline in time spent sleeping correlates to the rise in obesity in the U.S. Statistics show that less than one-quarter of young American adults sleep eight to nine hours per night -- down from about 41 % in 1960.

The article notes that this scenario sets up a downward cycle. Not having enough sleep leads to weight gain, then weight gain and obesity leads to sleep difficulties that can affect the quality of sleep and therefore cause even more sleep loss and therefore more weight gain.

"You're not healthy, unless your sleep is healthy."

The Importance of X-rays

In examining your spinal x-rays, your chiropractor hopes to find a normal healthy spine. However, there are several major conditions which may show up on radiographs.

Fracture Or Dislocations
A fractured or dislocated vertebra may be the result of a recent accident or previous injuries. Fractures can also occur spontaneously, due to hereditary factors, nutritional deficiencies, or degenerative processes. Fractures and dislocations may cause misalignment of the vertebrae, pinched nerves, and associated health problems.

Congenital Deformity
It is estimated that at least one out of twenty people is born with a significant deformity of one or more vertebrae. Such deformities may alter the dynamics of the spinal column, resulting in misalignment, pinched nerves and a wide variety of health problems.

Pathology
Pathology is the structural and functional changes produced by disease. Some pathological changes, affecting spinal dynamics include infections, tumors, degeneration, and inflammatory conditions such as arthritis. The presence of these conditions may cause misalignment of the spine, producing nerve interference, resulting in additional health problems in those areas serviced directly or indirectly by the affected nerve.

Disc Problems
The spinal discs play an important role in keeping the spinal column precisely aligned and balanced. That's why disc problems such as ruptured discs, slipped discs, and disc degeneration can have considerable influence on vertebral alignment and the nerve root passageways.

Neurothlipsis
The pinching or irritation of a nerve is called neurothlipsis. Although pinching or irritation can be the result of such things as slipped discs, ruptured discs, tumors and bony arthritic growths, neurothlipsis of a nerve root most frequently occurs when a misaligned vertebra alters the shape of the opening in the spine (foramen) through which nerve roots pass. Neurothlipsis can cause pain or disease in all areas of the body supplied directly or indirectly by the branches of that nerve root. Correction of the misalignment, before any permanent damage occurs, usually results in correction of the health problems associated with the pinched nerve.

Spinal Distortion
There are several common types of spinal distortions and curvatures. Examples of potentially serious conditions are;  Scoliosis (lateral curvature of the spine), Kyphosis (hunchback), and Scheuermann's Disease (inflamed growth centers of the spine). Usually less serious causes of distortions include muscle spasms, and soft tissue contraction, etc. However, any of these types of spinal distortions can lead to spinal disease, nerve root irritation, and subsequent health problems.

Spinal Imbalance
The head is located at the top of the spinal column and is normally positioned and balanced directly over the sacrum, which is located at the base of the spinal column. If your head is not properly balanced over the sacrum, our doctor is alerted to look for such conditions as misalignment of the pelvis, a shot leg, muscle spasms, muscle imbalance, pinched nerves, etc. An imbalanced spine creates enormous stress and strain on spinal muscles and ligaments, which may lead to misalignment of the vertebrae, which in turn can result in pinched nerves and associated health problems. Such stressors may also make an individual more susceptible to spinal injury.

Abnormal Range Of Motion
The human spine is designed to bend, flex, and twist; and withstand substantial strain and stress. But, adhesions and fixations can restrict the normal range of motion, reduce the elasticity of supporting tissues, and impair local circulation. Conversely, ligaments and cartilage may be over-stretched or torn, permitting excessive range of motion. This can lead to inflammation and degeneration of the joints.

Both restricted and excessive ranges of motion may lead to increased pathology, vertebral misalignment, and impinged nerves, resulting in pain or disease in the affected areas.

"Radiographs are a discovery of disease, or a map of a healthy person - RULE IT OUT WHAT COULD BE!"

Feel up When Life is Getting You Down

With about 19 million Americans suffering from depression, and with prescriptions for drugs to treat the disorder having doubled over the last 10 years alone, the problem is only growing without real healthy answers from the medical community. The reason is that most people don't have the first clue about what's really giving us the blues.

Why do most people go through life never identifying the true source of their feelings?

As children, we were not encouraged to share our feelings, we were told to put on a happy face and ignore how we really felt. These unacknowledged, buried emotions are feelings within us that are very much alive and active. They are the cause of many diseases and dis-harmonies in the body. 

What are the three things anyone can do today to help lift their mood?

First, acknowledge that you feel blue or down. Place your hand on your chest, this is a major energy center called your heart chakra, and repeat the following three times, "even though I feel down and blue I deeply love and accept myself." 

Accepting yourself in this downer state is powerfully healing. It will honor your feelings and in that honoring allow the emotional energy to begin to release.

Second, once you have acknowledged how you feel, take some time to write out how you might have felt as a child. The following is an easy and effective technique to help you get to those deeper feelings.

Forgive yourself and others for how you feel.  Do this by placing your hand on your chest (your heart chakra again) while repeating statements like:

"I forgive myself for feeling down and blue, I am doing the best I know how."

"I forgive my younger self for feeling powerless and unheard, they were doing the best they knew how."

"I forgive my mom and dad, they did the best they knew how with the knowledge and resources they had."

Forgiveness is an important step in releasing downer feelings.  Even if you are not ready to completely feel forgiveness, doing this process plants seeds that propel you towards more wellness and happiness.

Tell yourself you are feeling better and better each day and you probably will.

Learn more powerful steps to clear the emotional baggage from your childhood.  Learn powerful techniques to heal the emotional issues from your childhood.

Hearing Loss and Cigarette Smoking

Cigarette smokers are much more likely to develop hearing loss than non-smokers, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The findings are from a 5 year study that involved nearly 4,000 people between the ages of 48 and 92 years old, with an average age of 66 years. About half were smokers.

The study found that smokers were about 70% more likely to have significant hearing loss than non-smokers. Ex-smokers were about 30% more likely to have a hearing loss. Non-smokers living with smokers were also at significantly higher risk for hearing loss. Based on these findings, perhaps one of the Surgeon General's warning s printed on cigarette packages should be:

"Warning: cigarette smoking may be harmful to your hearing."

Smoking has long been suspected as a factor contributing to hearing loss because it can restrict blood flow to the inner ear. The researchers also believe that the nicotine in cigarette smoke may damage the cells of the inner ear directly. Other factors that can affect hearing include exposure to noise, hypertension, aging, genetics and physical injury.

And now we are introduced to E-Cig Vapor, another nightmare in the making ...

STAY TUNED!

Bottled Water or Tap?

The bottled water industry has exploded in recent years, and enjoys annual sales of more than $100 billion worldwide. Americans paid $13 billion for bottled water in 2014.

According to Co-op America, "as much as 40 percent of bottled water is actually bottled tap water, sometimes with additional treatment, sometimes not." The number one (Aquafina) and two (Dasani) top-selling brands of bottled water in the U.S. both fall in the category of purified water. Dasani is sold by Coca-Cola, while Aquafina is a Pepsi product. As U.S. News & World Report explains, "Aquafina is municipal water from spots like Wichita, Kansas."

There is a trade off with everything we choose in life and with bottled water there are several. There is an environmental issue to consider and often surprisingly a quality issue. A considerable number of used water bottles end up as litter, where they can take several hundred years or more to biodegrade. 90% of water bottles end up as either garbage or litter, at a rate of more than 200 billion bottles per year. When some plastic bottles are incinerated along with other trash, as is the practice in many municipalities, toxic chlorine is released into the air while heavy metals deposit in the ash. If plastics are buried in landfills, not only do they take up valuable space but potentially toxic additives such as phthalates may leak into the groundwater. This problem could be avoided simply by recycling used bottles regularly.

As mentioned above, some studies indicate that bottled water may be no safer, or healthier than tap water in many countries while selling for up to 1000 times the price.

There have been studies that have shown higher risk of certain diseases when regularly consuming city tap water and this is not likely to change in the near future. One of the best recommendations, and perhaps the best solution, would be the use of a home charcoal and reverse osmosis water filtration which will leave your water pure and tasting great.

This is one of the most important health habits you could possibly maintain. Water is essential and if you don't get enough clean water you will suffer health problems. Your exclusive beverage should be water. Try to have at least eight glasses of water a day.

The simple way to calculate the amount of water most of us need is to drink one half your body weight in ounces of water. The average adult is 150 pounds which would be two and one half quarts of water.

The bottom line is that you are better off not drinking unfiltered tap water. Chlorine used in most municipal purification processes is a toxic chemical and should not be consumed in large quantities. Avoid distilled water as it has the wrong ionization, pH, polarization and oxidation potentials. It will also drain your body of minerals.

When using bottled water, avoid purchasing the one-gallon cloudy plastic (PVC) containers from your grocery store as they transfer far too many chemicals into the water. The five-gallon containers and the ones in the clear bottles (polyethylene) are a much better plastic and will not give the water a plastic taste. If you have a question about the purity of the water call the company selling it and get an "independent lab assessment" of water quality and stick with the companies that can provide this information.

"About a quarter of the bottled water sold in the U.S. actually is just tap water."

Just Another Day

Today is just another day, as it will be tomorrow and the next day from now on until life's door has closed.

What of interest is going on? In Oregon, citizens protesting are being arrested by the government; ISIS continues to be the Islamic demon, the worst of all evil entities; floods in the east and south are and will be raging havoc over the land; horrible criminals have escaped their captivity and are now on the run; politicians are acting like juveniles in a quest for narcissist glory. What a wonderful record to start the day in this so-called modern, enlightened age. We are told that man is God's masterpiece created in His own image. Then, pray tell, why does man do such things?

Why the floods? It can be accounted for. Natural causes produce natural results and subsequent events. Man built his town in a hazardous place and the rain fell in super abundance moving everything in its path which accounted for the disasters. But why the man-produced tragedies? Why do some men regard life so cheaply as to destroy his own kind without cause? No other animal does so; they may kill for food to eat, but not as a game with little purpose or reason.

Somewhere in the Bible a psalmist exclaimed, "What is man that thou art mindful of Him?" What indeed!

We must consider God the creator of the universe including the plants, the Milky Way, the moon and stars, and all forms of life. Man being supreme in nature also does wonders. Even God would be without meaning if it were not for man and his intellect. Yet what a question mark when we consider His shortcoming on so many occasions.

"Remember when charity was a virtue, and not an organization.?"

Trouble To Yourself

Are you too much trouble to yourself? Do you take yourself too seriously, or do you just drift along the easy way with little concern?

There are different ways to consider yourself. You may be motivated by personal pride or just by ordinary habits, doing things that arouse the interest of others, or out of curiosity concerning the way you have of doing things that have a bearing on other people's lives.

Visualize if you will, a ragged hillbilly watching a man at a tourist court making use of a comb and brush, a toothbrush and nail file, and a whisk broom and shoe polish. The hillbilly boy finally, as he scratched his head, asked, "Hey Mister, are you always that much trouble to yourself?"

How much trouble are you to yourself? It is wise to have concern about appearance, all the while knowing there is a time and/or place for all things. Try to look your best on all occasions without too much public display. Be of service to others in a helpful manner without becoming subject to criticism.

Your body is "fearfully and wonderfully made" the Bible tells us; so you do not need to exercise too much trouble about yourself.

Have you thought of how wonderful your body really is? You become hungry and your appetite calls for food. You supply food of various kinds according to your taste. At once, the chemistry of your body begins to prepare the food for immediate use, exercising little thought on your part. In the process of time, common food is converted into flesh and bones, hair, skin, and nails; including blood, lymph glands, organs, and nerves with NO real trouble to yourself. It's nature's way of doing things, simple as that.

Be good to yourself without being too personal and others will love you as much as you love yourself.