The General

A general is put in charge of protecting the land.  He has a strategy to ensure that invaders will not be able to conquer.  To do that he ensures all his defenses are strong.  An early warning system will be put into place.  A wall of defense, either physical or invisible, will be erected.  Then there are the defenders who will fight any invaders to the death.  Knowing there will always be attempts, the general is ever vigilant and forever upgrading his defense systems.  He never knows for sure when or from where an attach may come.

Your body has such a general on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  He is ever vigilant.  He is your immune system.  Your body is constantly exposed to invaders who seek to weaken you and take over your resources.  These invaders are harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, radiation, and toxic chemicals.  They want to destroy you. 

For the general to successfully defend the land, he needs adequate resources.  Without the intelligence, the weapons, the manpower, and the strategies he will fail in his duty.  Your immune system also needs resources if it is to successfully defend you.  First you need to provide an environment that supports the immune system.  This involves getting adequate rest, controlling stress levels (physical, emotional and chemical),  drinking plenty of fluids especially water, and eating healthy foods.  Foods high in sugar and added chemicals have been shown to depress immune function.

Nutrients such as Vitamins A, C, D, & E have all been documented to boost the immune system.   Zinc and magnesium are necessary for your body's defenses.  Probiotics provide a first line of defense in the intestinal tract. Herbs such as myeclial mushrooms, echinacea, oil of oregano, goldenseal, green tea extract, elderberry, and astragalus have long been used to enhance immune function.  Other natural products such as colliodal silver, L-lysine, or colostrum can also be beneficial.

The nervous system has a profound effect on the immune system.  Chiropractic adjustments assure that the nervous system can function optimally. 

Not all the attacks on the body are the same.  Sometimes one type of support is more beneficial than the others.  Like a military general has as many options in reserve as possible, our immune systems work best when they also have many options available.

Your protective general, the immune system, wants to protect you against all invaders.  Does yours have the resources to do its job for you?

Chiropractic Adjustment

When chiropractors work on the spine it is called adjusting the spine.  It irks me when what we do is referred to as spinal manipulation.  There is a big difference between an adjustment and a manipulation.  It's not just a matter of semantics.

The problem in the spine chiropractors focus on is the vertebral subluxation.  It is a very subtle entity not at all like a gross dislocation.  As a subtle problem it requires a subtle, precise correction.  A dislocation may need to be manipulated, but a subluxation needs an adjustment to be corrected.  Manipulation implies to handle, control, or influence, often deviously.  It has connotations of being rough and crude .  Adjustment on the other hand implies fine tuning, regulating, or bringing about harmony.  It is a procedure of controlled precision.

A chiropractic adjustment works with the body's innate healing abilities.  It restores subtle joint motions to reduce inflammation, improve nerve function, and allow muscles and ligaments to work as they were designed.  By adjusting even a single vertebral subluxation, the entire body functions better.

Personally, I want my spine adjusted not manipulated.

Outdoor Sports for Kids

You can tell I'm excited about spring finally arriving.  Following up on my gardening post from last week, I want to talk about kids starting outdoor sports.  The focus for injury prevention in youngsters is a little different than in adults.  The Alberta College and Association of Chiropractors has posted an information sheet on their website for preparing children for outdoor sports.  Navigating to it may be a trick so here is the Dr. J. synopsis of what to do.

Warm up before running:. A good warm up routine prevents injury to muscles and joints.  The child should do a slow jog followed by a stretching routine that focuses on the muscle groups most used in the sport the child is participating in.

Keep hydrated: It's important that children consume plenty of fluids before, during and after their sporting activity.  Despite all the product promotions, water is still the best thing for kids to drink.


Eat proper foods: Calcium and magnesium are necessary for healthy bones and to reduce injury risk to both joints and muscles.  The child needs to eat a good breakfast and a healthy meal at least 1 hr before the activity.  After the event they should have a healthy snack to replenish nutrients that were burned up.


Suitable clothing: Clothing designed to allow mobility along with proper equipment that fits the child correctly are essential for both injury prevention and performance.


Plenty of rest. Children need 8 - 10 hours of sleep every night. This is particularly important before a sporting event.  Lack of sleep decreases performance and increases chance of injury.

Before starting any sport, a child should have a chiropractic check up to ensure they have no vertebral subluxations which could be aggravated by the new activity.  If children are subluxation free they will also perform better.  At the first sign of injury be sure to have the child check by a chiropractor to ensure proper healing.

Pain is the Great Motivator

The one symptom that brings more people to our office, more than all the others put together, is pain.  Pain is the motivator that gets people to schedule an appointment.  Pain pushes them into their cars to get to our office.  Pain is the factor that forces them to do something about their situation.  If we are honest with ourselves, pain is the motivator for most of the significant changes we make in our lives.

Other than in traumatic circumstances, when we have physical problems pain is usually not the first symptom to appear.  Stiffness, numbness, weakness, restlessness, fatigue, or swelling may come before pain.  In heart conditions digestive problems, shortness of breath or fatigue will usually precede chest pain.  Constipation, diarrhea, bloating, or food sensitivities often come before abdominal pain when a person has digestive system problems.  Pain is the body's most powerful way to get our attention.  The loudest alarm is saved for last.  If we ignore all the more subtle symptoms, the body will give us pain we cannot ignore.  Pain gets our attention and persists until we do something to help the situation.  It is designed to motivate us into action.

Emotional pain can be as great a motivator as physical pain.  It is the tough situations in life that cause us to reflect and decide to do things differently; to take a new path.  A health crisis for ourselves or someone we deeply care about can motivate us to change our lifestyle for the better.  A financial crisis can cause us to re-evaluate our spending and saving methods.  A family crisis can help us to see our own shortcomings and to appreciate the value of those around us.   Without the emotional pain, seldom do we make any significant changes to our lives.

Pain is not the problem, rather it is given to us to tell us there is a problem.  Its purpose is to motivate us to make changes.  Sadly, pain is too often seen as the problem.  We try to numb the pain, block the pain, or ignore the pain without finding out why the pain is there.  By doing these things we miss the opportunity to fix the cause of the pain.  When the physical or emotional cause is not corrected, the pain just keeps coming back.  It's simply the body's loudest alarm to get our attention and motivate us to make some changes.

There's a familiar saying, "Don't waste the pain."  Don't ignore it or block it.  Use it to determine the cause and then make changes that will improve who you are physically and emotionally.  Correct the cause and the pain doesn't have to come back.  Chiropractic is about finding the cause of the pain and correcting it.

Gardening Season Has Arrived

It seemed like it would never happen, but spring finally seems to have come to Medicine Hat.  Better late than never, as the saying goes.  With spring comes gardening!  

Gardening is fabulous exercise.  Walking, bending, lifting, raking, digging, planting, pruning; a great variety of activities to stretch and strengthen most of the body.  The heart and lungs also get a good workout.  The fresh air is wonderfully beneficial.  Listening to the birds chirping lifts the spirits.  Gardening is an almost perfect activity.

Sometimes gardening can be so enjoyable, we forget that it is exercise.  It must be treated like any other exercise regime.  Always keep in mind that gardening can be very strenuous.  Many of the muscles used in gardening have been dormant since fall, just like the flowers.  These muscles need to be worked gradually to get them back into shape.  Start gardening slowly.  Do short sessions to begin with.  Vary your activities.  There are so many of them to do.  Rake for a short period, do a little pruning, plant a few things, do a little digging, take a break, then go back to the raking.  Repeat as necessary.  It doesn't all have to be done in one day!    Watch the lifting.  Get help for heavy objects and make sure to use good lifting posture.  Always stretch before and after each time in the garden.

A visit to the chiropractor is crucial before starting to garden.  Any vertebral subluxations that may be present will make you susceptible to injury.  An adjustment or two will assure your spine is ready to garden when you are.

Me playing in the dirt

Keep gardening enjoyable this year.  Don't injure yourself!  Now ... to take my own advice.

It's Dangerous to Feel Good

Most people are motivated to come to our office because of pain.  They have pain in their head or their neck or their back or their shoulder or their leg or somewhere.  Pain is the driving force at this point in their lives.

If we've determined we can help a person and they start receiving chiropractic adjustments, pain often begins to subside fairly quickly.  The improvement of course is dependent upon the precise nature of their condition, how long it's been there, and their overall ability to heal.  As pain levels become more tolerable for the person, I'm usually compelled to give them "The Lecture".  They've entered the danger period.

"The Lecture" is pretty brief:  When we have problems, pain is usually the last thing to come and it's the first thing to going in rehabilitation.  The pain reduction is a sign that irritation is coming off the nerves.  It does not mean that the other soft tissues, muscles and ligaments are healed.  That takes time and until they are healed the problem and the pain can return very readily.  People have often put off doing any number of activities due to the pain and are anxious to return to them.  They need to keep in mind that doing too much too soon can be dangerous.  When rehabilitating injuries it's important to use the area, but not abuse it.  That's always a fine line.

The goal of chiropractic care is to help people to be healthy.  Health is the ability to do the things in life that we both need and want to do.  The road back to health can be an up and down process.  Try to make it more ups than downs by learning to use but not overuse injured body parts.  When the pain subsides, remember it's dangerous to feel good.

Second Law of Thermodynamics

Before you roll your eyes and exit from this post, be assured I'm not going to be doing an in depth review of high school physics.  My goal is to point out how understanding this very basic law of how the universe functions can help you have better health and a better life.  That's a pretty bold statement!

There are various ways to express the 2nd law of thermodynamics, but in simple terms it states that without the application of external energy systems will become less energetic.  So unless we apply energy, deterioration will occur.  There is a tendency over time for things to become more chaotic.  Although the law was specifically applied to heat systems, over the years it's been observed to be applicable in virtually every system imaginable. Physicists even apply it to the universe itself.  I certainly see applications in health and life.

From a health standpoint, it indicates that without the application of energy our health is going to deteriorate.  If we just leave our health to chance, we will become less healthy.  Muscles must be exercised for them to remain strong,  Proper motion must be maintained in joints or they will degenerate.  Challenging our brains keeps our mental functions sharp.  Even all our internal organs need to be used in order to be healthy.  Heart and lung function decreases rapidly when they are not used vigorously.  Energy needs to be applied to all these body systems for them to remain healthy.  There is an even broader application.  Unless we put energy into our overall health, it will deteriorate.  Eating properly requires energy.  Handling stress requires the application of energy.  When we fail to apply energy to our overall health it deteriorates.  Just leaving health happen on its own results in poor health.  Sickness just happens.  Health requires energy.

The 2nd law of thermodynamics also explains why marriages and all relationships fail without the application of energy.  Businesses don't succeed unless the owners are constantly putting energy into improving products and services.   Without the energy of maintenance our homes and autos deteriorate.  Everything moves toward chaos unless energy is applied.

In my mind this is also the greatest stumbling block to the theory of evolution.  Without the application of outside energy how can life move from less complex to more complex?  We see no examples of this happening in science and the 2nd law of thermodynamics states that things become less efficient, less complex over time.

Want to be healthier?  Want to have a better life? Apply energy!  It's a law of physics.

Vitamin C

April 4 has been designated Vitamin C Day, apparently to honour the 1928 isolation of Vitamin C by Hungarian chemist Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi.  His discovery resulted in the use of Vitamin C to readily prevent scurvy, which had plagued mankind since ancient times.


Although Vit. C, also called ascorbic acid or ascorbate, is not talked about a great deal in nutrition circles any more, it is still just as important a nutrient as it always was.  (There always seems to be something newer and cooler available.)  The human body does not produce it's own Vit. C so we need to consume it from outside sources.  Fresh fruits and vegetables are the foods that contain the highest levels although many foods including some meats contain Vit. C.   For the prevention of scurvy adults need a minimum of 40 - 90 mg/day, depending on the source quoted.  This is just for the prevention of scurvy and not for the support of optimal health.


Vit. C has many uses in the body.  The first is the synthesis of collagen which is necessary for the formation and maintenance of scar tissue, blood vessels, tendons, ligaments and cartilage. Scurvy is the inadequate production of collagen.  Vit. C is also necessary for for the production of energy in the mitochondria of individual cells.  The neurotransmitter, norepinephrine, requires Vit. C for to be formed.  Vit. C is a powerful antioxidant and has been shown to have a positive effect of cardiovascular health.  It is also necessary for metabolism of certain minerals in the body as well as for removal of toxic minerals.  The immune system is highly Vit. C dependent and Vit. C is also a natural anti-histamine. 


The government's recommended daily dosages will prevent scurvy, but these levels will not allow the body to function optimally.  Because Vit. C is used in so many different capacities in the body, it is necessary to consume it in significant quantities if we want to be truly healthy.  For most people that is at least 2000 mg/day.  Vit. C is not stored in significant amounts in the body, so we need to consume it daily.  The easiest way to do that is by taking supplements.

Even though Vit. C is not talked about every day, we need to be sure we are taking it every day.  Vitamin C Day is just a reminder of its importance.