Forgetfulness

It's very frustrating that as a person gets older, it gets hard to remember even simple things.  Where did I put my keys? What did I come into this room for?  What did I have for lunch yesterday?  The list of what I forgot just gets longer and I'd tell you all the things that are on it, if I could just remember where I put it.  It's frustrating.

However, our memories don't have to get bad with age.  There are things that can be done to prevent, slow and even reverse age related memory loss.  Like so many problems that show up as we age, memory issues are best dealt with when we are young and before there are any signs of forgetfulness.

Memory is dependent on the proper functioning of a series of complex chemical reactions in the brain.  These reactions occur within the nerve cells and between the nerve cells.  First these reactions need to take place in order for the memory to be encoded.  Then there needs to be another series of reactions to retrieve the memory.  Any disruption in either process and we cannot remember what we wanted to.  As we age there is a tendency for the brain to produce memory related neurotransmitters which allow one nerve cell to communicate with other nerve cells.  There can also be a decline in the chemical make up of the cells themselves resulting in less efficient processing of information.  Memory is an indicator of not only how well the brain is working, but the entire nervous system.  Nervous system health is the primary focus of chiropractors.

In his book, "Brighter Mind", Kyl Smith D.C. has a four step program to prevent mental decline or to improve mental performance in those already experiencing problems.  Dr. Smith uses many scientific studies to illustrate his approach to boosting brain function.  He references over 1500 peer reviewed scientific studies.  The bottom line is that there are simple action steps that anyone can take to improve their mental capacities, including memory.  I like Dr. Smith's approach because it fits in with a healthy chiropractic lifestyle that I think is beneficial for everyone.

The four steps are to nourish, support, improve, and protect your mind.

1. Nourish -This means to feed, maintain and support.  To function properly it is absolutely essential that the brain has adequate amounts of all the B-Vitamins, Vit. E, Vit. C, Vit. D, beta carotene, potassium, magnesium, zinc, iron, essential fatty acids, and CoQ10.  The best way to get these nutrients is from a diet consisting of unprocessed foods with an emphasis on vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts.  Wild fish, free range poultry, and grass fed animals are also recommended.  While it is necessary to consume foods which contain the necessary nutrients, it is equally important to avoid foods which deplete those nutrients.  In the simplest term, this means no processed foods.  Processing destroys essential nutrients while adding many chemicals which interfere with brain function.  Dr. Smith says, "A diet high in processed foods can literally starve your brain."  Inadequate brain nutrition results in poor concentration, mental fatigue, depression, learning disabilities, disturbed sleep, and loss of memory.
2. Support - This means to assist, help and maintain.  Closely related to nourishing, supporting the brain means selecting slow release carbohydrates over sugars or carbs that are quickly converted to sugar.  Most refined grains fit into the latter category.   Consume  good quality amino-acid rich protein. Such proteins are best found in whey, dairy, eggs, fish, and beef, Yes, red meat is good to support brain function.  Omega 3 fatty acids are essential to support the brain.  These can be either plant derived or marine derived.  Those from marine sources are better because they are already in the form your brain utilizes.  A healthy cardiovascular system also supports the brain.
3. Improve - This means to enhance or make better.  There are naturally occuring substances that will actually improve the function of the brain and they have no side effects.  These include phoshadylserene (PS), GPC (L-alpha-glycero-phosphorylcholine; yikes! Just call it GPC.)  ALCAR (acetyl-L-carnitine), and DMAE (dimethyl-aminoethanol),   Of these supplementing PS and ALCAR show the most brain improvements.  Exercise, both mental and physical, is very beneficial for improving the mind.  Good sleep is also essential.
4. Protect - Means to guard, shield and defend.  The brain is particularly susceptible to damage from toxins and oxidation.  Oxidation is a product of metabolism in the body and is amplified by stress of all kinds.  Nutrients which protect the brain include: CoQ10, Vit. C, Vit. E, R-Lipoic Acid, ALCAR, resveratrol, grape seed extract, anti-oxidant rich berries and beans, vinpocetine, ginko biloba, rhodiola, and green tea,   This is a long list and not every person needs to consume all of these.  It is best to get most of them from a diet consisting of natural foods and then supplement with those that will specifically address an individual's situation.

The bottom line here is to improve one's diet by eating less processed foods and more vegetables and fruits, supplement to get hard to obtain nutrients and omega 3 fats, and exercise both the mind and the body.  Do this and your mind will work better.  You won't be as forgetful. 

Co Q10

There are a few supplements that I think just about everyone can benefit by taking.  One of them is Coenzyme Q10 (Co Q10), also called Ubiquinol in it's active form.  Co Q10 is a fat soluble anti-oxidant and micro-nutrient.  It protects cell membranes from oxidative damage.  It is also absorbed into cells where it is a vital component in the production of cellular energy in the mitochondria.  A properly functioning body produces the Co Q10 that is needed.  However due to increased demand, illnesses, interference from medications, stress, nutritional deficiencies, and inadequate intake of Co Q10 building blocks, a huge segment of our society is Co Q10 deficient.

Without adequate Co Q10 people tend to have low energy levels.  They are also more likely to suffer from heart disease, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, migraine headaches, periodontal disease, Parkinson's Disease, Type 2 diabetes, and a depressed immune system.  They are also unable to properly recover from physical stress. Heart muscle has a particularly high need of Co Q10. That's a pretty extensive and varied list of conditions.  Most of the conditions listed are ones I personally want to make every effort to guard against.   

The best dietary sources of Co Q10 precursors are organ meats, red fleshed fish, sardines, soybean oil, olive oil, and grapeseed oil.  They are found to a lesser extent in dark green vegetables and nuts.  Unfortunately these are not foods that we consume in large quantities so many people simply don't have the necessary elements to make adequate amounts of their own Co Q10.  A further complication is that as we age our bodies become less efficient at producing Co Q10.  Some studies indicate that Co Q10 production starts to decrease in people in their 20s.  That's not good news for someone my age.

A very significant problem in that past couple of decades is that a number of medications interfere with Co Q10 production and absorption.  These include some beta blockers, blood pressure lowering medications, and statins.  Statins are a class of cholesterol lowering drugs that include Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor, and Livalo.  These statin drugs are known to produce many side effects and one of the reasons for these is the great interference they have on Co Q10.  Many specialists believe all people taking statin medication should be supplementing with Co Q10.

Supplementing Co Q10 is not straight forward.  It is fat soluble and not easily absorbed.  Unfortunately many people are simply wasting their money by taking Co Q10 supplements that they simply aren't absorbing.  It doesn't matter how low the price on the bottle is, it's expensive if your body can't utilize it.  The supplement should be all natural and free of toxins.  The product we most often recommend in our office is Nanocell Q from Metagenics.  This is a nanomicellized form of Co Q10 which converts the fat soluble product to become water soluble.  Once water soluble it is easily absorbed.  It is also in a great tasting liquid form which makes it easy to take.

Co Q10 is absolutely essential to be healthy.  Supplementation is the best answer for most people to help prevent many serious degenerative diseases.

3 Day Diet

Loss 20 pounds of fat!  Boost your metabolism!  Gain more energy!  Fast, efficient, effective!  Minimum work for maximum results. There is nothing like the 3 Day Diet!  Read on.

Sound too good to be true?  It is!  The scale may show a loss of a few pounds after a couple of days.  But no one really believes that being on a diet for 3 days can be effective.  There is simply no way that years of poor eating and lifestyle habits can be overcome in such a short period of time.  A person gains weight and loses their health over a long period of time and a takes time to both take weight off and restore health.

So why is it that people think that 3 chiropractic adjustments will remove the pain and restore the health of their spine?  That makes no more sense that a 3 day diet.  In most cases spinal problems are months, years and even decades developing.  Although, chiropractic adjustments can be very effective in relieving pain, to truly restore the proper functioning of the spine takes time.  Often a considerable length of time.

Changing your lifestyle to eat better and exercise more to loose weight and become healthier takes effort.  It also takes commitment to sustain the changes over a long period of time.  It is an established fact that crash dieting doesn't work and unless there are permanent changes in a person's life the weight and health problems return, only worse than they were before.  Correcting spinal problems, known as vertebral subluxations, is just the same.  Simply getting rid of the pain, with chiropractic or drugs, is just a short term fix.  The problem inevitably comes back ... only worse.

To successfully correct vertebral subluxations, and restore spinal health, repeated chiropractic adjustments are need.  As well exercise, nutrition and lifestyle changes are usually required.  A healthy spine is needed to have a healthy body and a healthy body is needed to have a healthy spine.  This takes time and effort.

Forget about 3 day diets.  There is no way they can work.  Forget about trying to get a healthy spine in 3 visits.  It simply can't happen.

Thanks

It's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada.  We celebrate this holiday a month and a half earlier than our American friends, probably because we need to be done our harvesting earlier than they do.  Certainly the farmers around Medicine Hat have gotten their crops in.  Other than carrots to dig, our garden has given up it's abundance for this year.  The frost and even snow that we've had has made sure that the growing season has come to an end.  So we give thanks this weekend for the blessings the land has provided this summer.

But Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for more than just the produce of the land.  It is a time to reflect on the all the good things we have and we are certainly a people who have truly been blessed with great abundance.  Compared to most of the world our society has material wealth and possessions that the majority of earth's inhabitants can only dream of.  But we need to be thankful for more than just our bank accounts and stuff.  There are the things we cannot buy: family, friends, health, peace, freedom and life itself.

There is something very powerful about taking time to reflect on what a person has as opposed to what we don't have.  To give thanks for the blessings that are ours today.  It helps us to live in the present; to be more content with our lives knowing what we really have.  

I know from personal experience that when my life and circumstances have been difficult, reflecting on what I have that is good has been very beneficial.  Even more so when I have specifically been thankful for those blessings. The Bible tells us "... give thanks in all circumstances ..." (1Th 5:18).  It doesn't tell to give thanks for the circumstances we find ourselves in, but to look for the good in the circumstances.  Even in difficult times there are almost always some bright spots or some valuable lessons we are able to learn.  Some of our greatest personal growth takes place in our toughest times.  We need to be thankful for that.

Thanksgiving is not just about the turkey and fixin's.  It's about reflecting on what we have been blessed with, material and more importantly non material. 

Something that we are very thankful for at Powers & Jans Centre are the loyal patients who have entrusted us with providing chiropractic care to them and their families.  We know what a great blessing it is to be able to serve the needs of others.  Thanks!  

Habits

A habit is defined as an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary.  Habits allow us to do the majority of our actions without putting a lot of mental effort into them.  This is a good thing.  We don't have to put effort into how we are putting our clothes on or each step that needs to be done to start the car to go to work.  Instead we can put our mental energy into picking an outfit with colours that don't clash or what our day's activities are going to be.  By committing the many little things we do over and over to habit allows us to perform activities while freeing our mind to focus on other things.  Consequently, if the habits we develop are "good" habits, we become more efficient and effective.  If however we develop "bad" habits they will cause us to be less effective and even self destructive.

Each person has developed both "good" and "bad" habits.  We can be happier and more successful in life by changing our "bad" habits to "good" habits.  Sounds simple doesn't it?  But just ask someone who has an alcohol habit, or a sugar habit, or a procrastination habit if it's easy to change the habit and they will tell you it is not.  Even changing a small habit can take a tremendous amount of effort.  In order to change a habit a person needs to understand how habits work.

There are three components to each habit: a cue, a routine, and a reward.  I'll let Charles Duhigg explain how these habit components work together.  Take a look at his video "How to Break the Cookie Habit" posted on the New York Times website.

Changing a habit requires that a person recognized all three components.  That's easier said than done.  Personally I think determining the reward is the hardest part.  What we truly gain from our bad habits is usually not obvious.  In many instances a person really needs to be a sleuth to pin down the reward and sometimes the cue as well.  

This is a very brief overview of habits.  If you are serious about wanting to change your habits please read  "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg.  This very readable book will give you a comprehensive understanding of how habits work, how we develop them, and very importantly how we can change them.

A Time for Resolutions

Around New Year's there is usually a lot of talk about resolutions for improving oneself.  September is perhaps a better time to be looking at making changes in one's life.

Here in Southern Alberta, summer is fast and furious.  We try to do as much as we possibly can in the weekends of July and August as well as during the long summer evenings.  It's the time when everyone goes on holidays to see and do something new.  While we endevour to experience so much of what the world around us has to offer, we often neglect the things that are really important to our health.   Routines for healthy eating, exercise, and rest are often cast to the side.  Frequently people neglect their spinal care as well.

Then September arrives.  Back to school; back to routines; back to reality.  The lazy (or not) days of summer have come to an end and it's time to return to normal activities.  It's also time to return to healthy routines.  Because September is a time when we are changing from summer mode, this may be a more logical time to make healthy lifestyle changes than the beginning of January.  So many of the routines people are returning to are healthier than what they have been doing over the summer.  (Think about that old song about "sodas, and pretzels and beer" during "those lazy, hazy days of summer".  That's a description of many people's summer.)  While people are already making changes, perhaps they should take it a step further and make some real significant lifestyle changes.

September is a great time to make healthy diet changes.  There is an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables, many of them locally grown.  A commitment to ditching the simple carbohydrate foods and drinks for good would be a wonderful step to take.  Eat enough of the good stuff and you'll want less and less of the bad stuff.  Fortunately quality fruits and vegetables are now available year round, so a habit started now can continue through the winter.

Because the weather is still warm, but no longer swelteringly hot, September is a great time to get outdoors to exercise.  Exercising in the fresh air is good for body and spirit.  Get in the habit of exercising now when it's easy to do and you'll be more likely to continue even when the weather becomes less than cooperative.  It takes much more effort to start an exercise routine in January.

As you get back to routines, it's important to once again commit to getting regular chiropractic checkups.  Or if you haven't done so in the past this is the time to start.  Vertebral subluxations can creep up silently and have a profoundly negative impact on a person's health.  The best time to have them corrected is before they become symptomatic.  Regular visits to a chiropractor will assure that your spine is working as well as it can be.

This fall don't just get back to the same routines of spring but add some new, better ones.  Improve your sleep routines. Commit to taking high quality supplements on a regular basis. Embrace techniques to reduce stress. This may be the ideal time to start a new hobby. Rather than watching more TV this fall, look for more active ways to spend your time that will benefit you both physically and mentally. This time of year many organizations are looking for volunteers and committing some time and effort to helping others is very rewarding.

Take advantage of the season and make some resolutions to be a better you.

In It for the Short Term

My wife and I have a small cabin that's been in her family for the past 50 years.  In the village where the cabin is located there a currently a number of cabins for sale.  (One is pictured here.)  There is definitely a pattern in cottagers I've noticed over the years.  People buy a cabin and they are so excited by the new adventures and opportunities they see in their new purchase.  They have wonderful dreams of family times and development projects.  The first year they are at the cabin every opportunity they get and they are busy renovating and making the place their own.  The second season again sees a flurry of activity at their cabin.  Come season three there is usually a significant decline in both attendance and projects as the reality of both how time consuming, costly and labour intensive a cabin can be sets in.  After that many cabins are either used sparingly or go up for sale again.  The cost to reward ratio becomes too great in the minds of many cabin owners.

This phenomenon reminds me so much of what I see in people who embark on changing their lifestyle to either exercise more or improve their diet.  They start out gung ho on their new diet or exercise program with great dreams of being healthy.  Once they realize how much work is involved in changing their lifestyle they abandon the changes that held such promise for them.  It takes emotional effort to make and stick with healthy lifestyle changes.  Time must be committed to exercise and good food preparation.  Maintaining a healthy lifestyle when those around you and most of society drift toward ill health can be a challenge.  Unfortunately, short attention spans and short term goals seem to be an ever increasing norm in our society.  Too often people never stick with one thing long enough to see the true value in it.

To enjoy a cabin for the long term a person has to have a clear goal of what the retreat will be for them over time.  They have to count the costs not only in dollars, but also in time, physical and emotional terms.  The rewards have to out weigh the costs or the dream will be abandoned.

It is the same with making lifestyle changes.  The rewards of improved health, weight loss, etc. have to be worth the financial, emotional, and physical costs.  Long lasting results will never be obtained by making short term goals or by making goals that do not have a big enough reward to make the effort worth while.  A committment level needs to be established that will sustain a person through the tough times that will inevitably come.

My wife and I have enjoyed our cabin for many years and plan to enjoy it for a long time to come.  We also realize that the ability to continue to have pleasurable cottage experiences we need to be prepared to pay the costs in time, money, energy and emotions.  Likewise anyone wanting to experience long term good health must be prepared to pay the costs.  It is worth the effort.