Monday, November 24, 2008

Cancer-"The C word"

This weekend a cousin called me to tell me that she has been recently diagnosised with breast cancer. It seems that in the last couple of months I have heard many family, friends, and patients having to face the barrier of bad news with reports of cancer. The question is do you do nothing about your health until a mysterious delivery of a disease diagnosis shows up on your doorstep or do you look for ways to become healthier today?

Let's first look at what cancer is defined as in medical terminology. Cancer is when a cell begins to have abnormal growth. Our cells experience exposure of up to 10,000 free radical attacks per day. It is when our bodies are unable to destroy and attack these mutations that cancer cells accumulate and can spread. These mutations are heavily regulated by our lifestyle. As much as 60% of cancers are lifestyle related. External or internal signals of stress caused by thoughts, toxins, or traumas activate the protective proteins around the DNA to be disrupted.

Toxin and trauma sources may be easy to understand but for many we haven't evaluated our thoughts or mental health. Take a look at your internal conversations that you have with yourself for 24 hours. Do you find alot of negative self-talk? Some of this negative talk may be programming from fathers, mothers, teachers, and other influences that you had in your life before the age of 7. This rhetoric became ingrained in your subconscious mind. It is now time to work on this self-talk by adding in positive optimistic statements. Statements of affirmation that you are a beautiful, intelligent, successful person. Visualize your ideal day and begin to mentally play out your future as your would like it to be.

If you have a disease such as cancer, visualize your body attatcking the cancer cells and producing a healthy organ and body! Post a picture of a healthy colon, pancreas, breast, heart, or any other organ that may be currently challenged. Also, begin to journal gratitude and forgive any heartfelt situation that has been lingering in your life.

As for the toxin factor of disease please review the top 10 tips for Remaining Healthy During the Holiday Season blog entry on November 16, 2008. Alot of the same tips apply to this topic. Here are a couple of additional things to think about adding or eliminating from your body.

1. Take High Quality Fish or Krill Oil- This allows your body to normalize Omega 3 and Omega 6 ratios. Also be sure to reduce the intake of most processed vegetable oils.

2. Reduce Exposure to Environmental Toxins- such as pesticides, air pollution, household chemical cleaners, and synthetic airfreshners.

3. Eat lots of Fruits and Vegetables- Eat them in the raw form. This provides the needed antioxidant vitamins and minerals.

4. Eliminate Eating Processed Foods-They increase free radicals in the body. For eg. eliminate MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) and aspartame. Aspartame is in the artificial sweetners of Nutrasweet, Equal, and Spoonful.

5. Get Regular Exercise

6. Vitamin D Levels- Get plenty of sunlight exposure.

7. Nervous System checked by a Chiropractor!- The nervous system controls and coordinates all of the sytems in the body. If there is pressure on your nervous system do you think that you will be sicker or healthier? If there is pressure on a nerve that goes to a vital organ such as your pancreas when you have pancreatic cancer would this be a concern?

I ask you , what changes can you make in your health to make it just 1% better today than it was yesterday? Enjoy life as the best version of you and don't settle for anything less than peak perfomance!

Dr. Jenn Anacker

P.S. If you or someone you know has cancer, please read Dr. Mercola's information on an alternative therapy of infiltrated sodium bicarbonate at http://www.mercola.com/

Information was gathered for this blog entry from these sources:
http://www.mercola.com/
http://www.brucelipton.com/
"Health And Nutrtion Secrets That Can Save Your Life" by Russell Blaylock, M.D.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Remaining Healthy During the Holiday Season

As the holiday seasons are upon us, we wonder how we will balance the demands of parties, buying gifts, and traveling to see our families. I will be sharing the 10 tips sheet of "Remaining Healthy During the Holiday Season" with my patients this week. This tip sheet provides many things to think about during the hectic holiday season but these tips are also good think about during the rest of the year. I hope that you will find one or two to focus on as you enjoy being healthy during this holiday season.

"Remaining Healthy During the Holiday Season"

1. Be Realistic
Food is a big part of the holiday season so be practical about setting your weight goal. If your goal is to try to loose weight during this holiday season, it may be an uphill battle. So instead, set your goal to be to maintain your weight.

2. Don't Starve Yourself
Do not skip meals to indulge at a holiday party. Instead eat light meals every 4-5 hours. Eating a lot of fruits and vegetables will provide needed vitamins, minerals and fiber. Infact, if you eat a light meal before the party you are less likely to overindulge in fatty foods.

3. Limit Sugar and Processed Foods
These additives will decrease your immune system. If the body does not use the food it will store it as unwanted fat. For recipes that call for sugar you can think about reducing the amount of sugar or using apple sauce or plain yogurt to replace it.

4. Make Time for Exercise
Exercise is a nutrient that you body needs on a daily basis. If you walk for even 30 minutes/day this can give you up to 80% of the needed cardiovascular exerise. You could also park your car far away from the store, walk during your lunch hour or walk to deliver a message instead of emailing a co-worker for added exercise.

5. Rest for 6-8 hours/night
Your body does a large percentage of its repair during the night. It is best to have your bedroom be completely dark because if it is not, it can change up the hormone cycle of your body.

6. Limit Alcohol
The recommended limit is 1-2 for women and 2 drinks for men.

7. Drink More Water
Drink water that has been filtered. A carbon filtered with reverse osmosis is the best unit. There is two theories about the amount of water you should drink per day. The old standard is 8 glasses of water a day. Current reports show that you should take your body weight divided by 2= the # of ounces of water that you should be drinking. If you find this to be a much larger amount then what you currently drink start to transition slowly because you do not want to overload your kidneys. Also, if you drink caffeinated beverages, for eg., for every cup of coffee your drink add another cup of water.

8. Be A Social Butterfly
The holidays are all about enjoying the company of family and friends. If you talk more, you will find yourself eating less.

9. Deal With Your Emotions
Many people use food as comfort in order to handle their stresses.

10. How to Handle Your Stress
Schedule down time for yourself to sit back and relax, reflect, prayer, meditation, yoga, and GET NERVOUS SYTEM ADJUSTED BY A CHIROPRACTOR!!!

The nervous system accumulates the stress related to your exposure to toxins, thoughts, and trauma. The nervous system controls and coordinates all systems in your body. If you have interference to the nervous system, do you think that you are SICKER OR HEALTHIER? Right, you're sicker!!! This time of year can be very stressful and so keeping up with your chiropractic care to relieve this stress on the nervous system is critical to remaining healthy in order to enjoy the holiday with your loved ones!

May you enjoy a healthy holiday season!

Dr. Jennifer Anacker