.Welcome to the Main Event

Mega- FLU – Mania.

Since the only topic in the office is…

#1 The weather or

#2 The Flu

We can’t change the weather, so let’s go with talking about the flu and what it means to be healthy. Whether you get the flu shot or not is really up to you. But, every year for as long as I have been writing about the flu shot it has been a dismal failure. Meaning it doesn’t prevent any more flu than any other year.

Need more info?

If you still want more info on vaccines, just go to www.mercola.com. There is a new article that may shock you. Talking about people who get the seasonal flu shot are TWICE as likely to get the swine flu. If you get my emails, you had the chance to see Dr. OZ on national T.V. saying that he WON’T vaccinate his kids or wife for H1N1. The risks of being in a GIANT social experiment are too great.

Sick people will die of the flu, no matter what you do. Why?

The flu is not the danger, it is your immune system that determines whether you get sick or not. Every day you get exposed to millions of germs. Sure, taking precautions will help, but the ultimate decision lies within you. How strong are you? If you are sick for weeks on end, you aren’t very strong.

Here is an outline of what I consider strength.

against the flu and other nasties in life:

#1 Stress... unmanaged, it will beat you down like nothing else. We all have stress, but how you handle it makes all the difference. When you are feeling like life is bigger than you, it is time to step back and read something inspirational. Start a simple morning mediation to let your brain relax and work on problems. Find a quiet place for 5 minutes and listen to NOTHING but the sound of your breathing and let your mind wander.

And for heavens sake…the more you worry about getting the flu…the more likely you are to get it.

#2 Adrenal health…these little dynamos are heavily responsible for your front line immune system that keeps those little viruses at bay. Problems is they are also responsible for your energy and response to stress.

If you are tired a lot and especially if you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, take heed, your adrenals are in trouble.

• Immediately start prioritizing life and only do the 3 most important things for that day.

• Take a vacation-doesn’t have to be exotic.

• Stop working so hard. No one wishes on their deathbed that they would have worked harder.

• Eat less sugar, more protein, and Celtic Sea Salt.

• Astragalus Complex from Mediherb helps with stress and the adrenals.

Side note…a hyperactive nervous system often contributes to a person’s ability to handle stress. I am a living example. When I started getting adjusted, I could handle amazing amounts of stress, where prior to that I no ability. Ask me in the office for the full story. The health of the nervous system is king, and a chiropractic adjustment helps the nervous system better than anything else.

#3 Sleep...The holy grail of health. Your body heals while it sleeps. Do everything you can to get a good night’s sleep.

• Get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night.  Why?  They have done longevity studies, and those were the ideal amounts of sleep.  So sleeping too much can be detrimental as well.

   

• Sleeping recharges the immune system.  I can speak personally on this.  Some of you may remember emails from last year on my sore throat.  I almost never ever get sick.   When I feel any type of illness, it is almost always because of having too many irons in the fire (stress) and not sleeping multiple nights in a row.

   

• “Warm hands and feet induce sleep quickly”-Mayo sleep clinic

   

• Get up at the same time everyday.  This is probably the most important aspect of regular sleep.  If you are not sleeping well, this would be a great place to start.  You should not need an alarm clock.  If you need an alarm clock and you are not working shifts, you have sleep problems, lifestyle problems, or adrenal gland problems.  Once again, I’ve been on that path, and I know when I don’t wake up easily I need to slow life down.

   

• Go to bed at the same time

   

• The room should be quiet and dark, the  darker the better.

   

• No caffeine within 6 hours of going to bed

  No alcohol before bed

  No exercise before bed

  No naps over 20 minutes

   

• Don’t face the alarm clock out if you tend to wake in the middle of the night.  You will stress about the time and fret about not sleeping.  Don’t watch the clock at all.  Just lay back down and start counting backwards from 100-1.

#4 Sugar…this has so many implication for bad health, I could fill the whole newsletter just on sugar. Just remember that sugar wrecks the immune system.

#5 Exercise…get some at least 3 times per week. The benefits for your body are infinite. A simple fact: exercise helps burn and use sugar, so exercise will help your immune system.

Which is more disgusting? A stagnant backwater bug-filled pond or a swiftly flowing river? Exercise keeps the fluids of your body moving.

#6 Negativity Kills

This topic is very important. I see patients struggling with, living with, or spending time with, someone who has nothing positive to say.  I call them “energy suckers”  You feel drained and lifeless after spending time with them.  They are the opposite of the energy givers.   An energy giver will give you energy and make you feel better after spending time with them.  One of the most positive experiences I have ever had was sitting in a room of 10,000 high-energy, positive chiropractors.  For your long term health, start eliminating energy draining people. 

Our friends should be companions who inspire us, who help us rise to our best.

-Joseph B. Wirthlin

#7 Lack of vitamins…All food is not created equally. For more than 100 years, food has been stripped of vital nutrients.

This is from the foreword of “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration”-by Dr. Weston Price, and I think it sums up today’s problems.  “Food–fresh from fertile soil or the sea–has been replaced, for the most part, by refined, processed and preserved produce of far different nutritional qualities….Against his better judgment, the modern farmer has been forced to use monoculture, artificial fertilization, pesticides, herbicides…production for ‘quantity’ rather than ‘quality’.“  -Granville Knight M.D. (1970)

Our food supply is much worse for quality today.  With processing and preserving foods for shipment all over the world, it is no wonder that people are literally starving for vitamins. 

My Winter Program

The hype about the flu this year is very impressive.  Last year I never got sick, and I don’t plan to again this year.  This is how I do it with 5 simple steps.

1. Chiropractic Adjustment - the most influential thing on your immune system isn’t a shot, it’s your nervous system.  If your nerves are not functioning at 100%, your immune system can’t function at 100%.  If the spine is misaligned,  it only takes a little pressure (~approx. the weight of a quarter) to shut a nerve down 60%.  Just think if you did your job only 60% of the time, or only ate 60% of the time, or only filled your car 60% full.   I used adjustments exclusively for years with great success.

    

2. Immuplex - Standard Process’s long-term supplement that feeds the immune system with the vitamins and minerals it needs.

    

3. Probiotics - Those good bacteria that make your intestines hum along.  Second to the nervous system, your intestines are the next biggest contributor to the immune system.  Good bacteria = good health.  The probiotics we use have been tested through our office to be the most effective ones we’ve used in 11 years.  The good bacteria take a beating with antibiotics and processed food.  Most people need some. My whole family takes these, even our 5 year old.

    

4. Cod Liver Oil - Besides an adjustment this is one of the most important things I take all winter long.  The Vitamin A is critical for a powerful immune system. 

    

5. Astragalus Complex - This is a powerful combination of Astragalus root, Echinacea, and Eleuthro.  It is made by Mediherb, so the potency is stronger than anything else you can buy.  This trio helps the general immune system, promotes feelings of well being, and helps the body cope with stress.  Stress will crash your immune system faster than anything.

There are 5 very potent immune-enhancing ideas. A strong immune system is key to ignoring the crazy hype over the flu.  You WILL be exposed to the flu, no matter how careful you are not to shake peoples’ hands.  The only thing that determines if you get sick or not is the power of your immune system.

“I felt terrible, coughing and sneezing, no appetite and no energy to do anything. Ran a slight temp. I went to Dr. Altman on a Wednesday at 8:50. I left , I felt better, he told me to be back around 11:00 and then at 12:20. I think it was after the first adjustment that I felt better.

I can’t believe it, now I feel like myself. I feel great and I think I will be getting better right along.”

-Shirley Drexler

Dr. Royal Lee (the founder and genius behind Standard Process) had always been susceptible to colds until…

He discovered a potent B and C vitamin concentrate made from food. After taking it he found his immunity was increased. Soon after his mother became ill with a disabling heart condition. He gave it to her and her recovery was phenomenal. He completed the formula into what we now know as Catalyn.

The spin off formula for illnesses is Congaplex. This is the primary whole-food vitamin concentrate we use for illnesses.

If you are struggling with illness,these 5 things have tremendous power. Chiropractic adjustment of the upper neck, digestive system health, sleep, Congaplex and Immuplex. There are many, many things that help or improve the immune system, these are the big 5. Kind of like the big 5 wild animals in Africa.

Yes many of you saw that I was up at 4:45am. There is a reason for that. I wanted to be ready to go in the office by 8:00am. So what was wrong?

I woke up at 4:00 with a sore throat. Shocking, I know, but I thought I’d share why, so you can learn to avoid them, and what I did to get rid of 90% of it in about 1/2 hour. Some of you may have this little nuisance sometime.

Lets back up a moment. For me to get any kind of illness is rare, but there are certain circumstances that can collide to bring me down. These are things to consider if you start feeling ill.

I was on vacation with my family this past weekend and I got very little sleep. We were in a huge complex at Wisconsin Dells, and my kids wanted to hit every water slide available, and there were a lot. The second thing that contributed to my sore throat was lack of vitamins. Which I forgot because I was in such a rush to get going. The third thing that contributed was the tremendous amount of stress I’m currently under. Stress makes your immune system weak.

In summary:

1. Lack of sleep

2. Lack of vitamins

3. Too much stress, going into vacation

So anyway, I wake up at 4:00am with a sore throat. I have two options.

Number one…do nothing and lay there and pretend it doesn’t hurt and try and go back to sleep.

Number two…get up and do something. I chose the latter. So here is what I did to get rid of about 90% of my sore throat in about 45 minutes.

…

#1 I started heating up water for “Throat Coat Tea” by Traditional Medicines. You can find it in the natural food sections.

#2 I took a spoonful of cod liver oil. The natural vitamin A is a powerful vitamin for the immune system, perhaps more so than vitamin C.

#3 Next I took 6 Congaplex from Standard Process. By the end of the day I had taken at least 20. This is a special formula that gives the immune system a shot in the arm and kicks it into high gear. I have used this to help get over the worst infection I ever had in 3 days. I got that nasty infection in my mouth from the dentist. I wasn’t too happy about that.

#4 I left just a little water in the glass and added a teaspoon of high grade licorice from Mediherb. I then gargled with that and let it cover my throat. The herbal licorice has natural antiseptic properties. It felt good. Plus, the licorice helps the adrenals, which in my case are shot. The adrenals control your mucus membrane immunity, like in your throat. One of the worst sore throat cases I have ever seen, he took the licorice straight and couldn’t wait to take it because it felt so good. A warning though, if you don’t like the taste of black licorice candy don’t try this. You will probably gag. If you don’t have high grade licorice at home or don’t like the taste of black licorice, just try some salt water.

#5 I took some hydrogen peroxide and put it in a dropper bottle and put some in my ears. I learned that trick from Dr. Mercola. The ears are often overlooked sites of infection and entry points for problems. Since I was swimming for the last 3 days and sitting in a hot tub, which I know is a no-no, but hey I was really cold. I figured I’d tackle my ears also. I’m glad I did, they fizzed like I was in an Alka-seltzer commercial.

#6 I grabbed some Olbas oil and put some under my nose to help clear it up a little. In the morning, I put a few drops in a coffee cup of steaming water and inhaled it. it feels good in the nose.

#7 A few extra vitamins I threw in for good measure.

… A 5000mg garlic tablet

… Standard Process vitamin C. Your white blood cells need this to fight.

… A Rhodiola & Ginseng tablet to further help my struggling adrenals.

… 6 Calcium lactate. This is the most soluble and easiest to use form of calcium for the body. It is also ionized. Blood levels of ionized calcium is a strong predictor of illness. This was echoed by an American Journal of Medicine study in 1988.

… If you get chronic reoccurring infections a good combination to help fly through the winter would be cod liver oil from Green Pastures, or Carlson’s, All Organic Trace Minerals from Standard Process, Cataplex C from Standard Process, Calcium Lactate from Standard Process, and above all stop eating so much sugar. The immune system isn’t to be taken lightly. If you get sick easily your body is weak and is going to need some help rebuilding. Antibiotics don’t rebuild your body, they make your immune system weaker over time.

#8 The first thing I did when my wife got up in the morning was to get adjusted. I felt better immediately. One of our tricks in Chiropractic school was to get adjusted 3-4 times ina day and almost any illness would be gone or almost gone by the next day.

#9 One more bonus… to clear up a stuffy head. Make a super guacamole. Add as much fresh garlic, onions, and cayenne pepper as you can stand. After a few chips your nose will start to run.