Preventing Bone Loss the Right Way

Using Drugs for Osteoporosis makes your body keep low quality, low strength old bone.  It makes the next bone density test look good but does much less in terms of preventing fractures.  As with all drugs they also have side effects.
Dr. Genuis from the University of Alberta has some great ideas from his research.  I've combined his research with some of my own to come up with a better way for those who want to prevent bone loss.
It comes down to getting enough weight bearing exercise (sorry swimmers) and the right nutrition.

Yes you need calcium but you also need Vitamin D (supplement), strontium, vitamin K, and essential fatty acids.

The sun around here is not going to cut it for Vitamin D.  The wavelength of light we get is fine for giving you a burn but apparently is not great at converting to Vitamin D3.  This is one you will need to supplement.  I like the Vit D3 drops for convenience.

Strontium is found in spinach, whole grains, and seafood.

Vitamin K is in green leafy vegtables, broccoli, Kale, cabbage, asparagus and olive oil

Omega 3 fatty acids are good for so many things.  You can add bone strength to the list.  Fish or fish oils in supplement form are "essential!" Omega 6 will do the opposite so stay away from safflower oils, corn based chips and snacks, potato chips and pork.  Foods like nuts also have Omega 6 but they have off-setting benefits as well so go ahead and eat them in moderation.

Dr. Genuis has also come up with the heel drop exercise to stimulate bone strength.  You get up on your the balls of your feet and let your heels drop.  100 a day oughta shake a few fillings loose!
I prefer a run or weight training but in a pinch a few heel drop sets can fill the gap.

Get Strong!  Dr. D.

Morin's Morning Smoothie

A great protein and veggie hit to start your day!

1. 1/2 cup Frozen Berries 
2. 1/2 frozen Banana or preferable 1/2 of a Avocado
3. Bunch of organic Kale 
4. 2 Tbsp. Flax oil
5. Protein powder or Plain greek yogurt 
6. Almond milk (enough to make it smooth)

2017 is going to be Great! 

Your WellnessDoc team is here to Educate, Empower and Encourage you to achieve your Health & Wellness goals.  Lots of great information on getting active, healthy eating, chiropractic care, positive living & more on our WellnessDoc Pinterest page.

https://www.pinterest.com/wellnessdoc0944/

Bone Up!!

I've got a bone to pick with current management of osteoporosis! It's always a drug with medicine. For some reason, when you suggest something other than a drug or surgery for problems it's seen as primitive or un-sophisticated. Either that or the medics think that it's just too hard for someone to do. 

OK so drink milk right! Wrong. Large scale studies have shown that milk slightly increases osteoporosis! WOW, and how long did milk producers feed us that! It's white and looks like bone but it has omega 6 which increases bone resorption. Omega 3 on the other hand decreases bone resorption. Yes, fish oils which don't look at all like bone and have no calcium are better for you than milk for your bone density. The best thing in milk is the Vitamin D3 that they add to milk. You are better off just taking your own supplement instead. 

Drugs do a great job making your bone density tests look good but not as good a job actually preventing fractures. Your bones are always being replaced by new strong bone (slower as you get older) and removing old bone. Drugs work by reducing the rate at which your body removes the old bone. In other words, you get a build up of old bone which make the re-test of density look good but does little to prevent fracture risk. The old bone is brittle so it's acutally not great at preventing a fracture. Drugs also (and always) have side effects. Softening of the jaw bone, etc.

Next week I will go over how to prevent bone loss in a natural, effective way. 

Yours in Health, Dr. D., The Wellness Doc

Part 3 of 3: Emotional Stessors

It got darker quicker than you expected, you're in the woods. Now you feel like something is watching you. You whip your flashlight around to see if there's something behind you but nothing there. You start thinking, "I'm being childish, smarten up!" Suddenly a snarl, white eye's and the flash of teeth! Your hair is on end, your heart is thumping and you feel your legs flying under your body. You are running hard. You feel the branches whipping your face until you finally emerge onto the streetlights and finally the road and even houses. Yes! You're safe; out of breath, sweating but safe. 

Chiropractors and neurologists call this a sympathetic nervous system response. It's the fight or flight mechanism that we were born with. It's part of the limbic system in your brain. It's cortisol and adrenalin that shut down blood to the higher reasoning centres of the brain and open up blood to the heart and skeletal muscles so we can run away from the bear in the woods. It kept our ancestors alive when a bear or lion tried to eat them. It gave hunters more power and endurance to capture prey.

These days we don't get chased by lions and we don't do a lot of hunting with spears. However, we still get this kind of stress when we think we might get fired, when your computer does not work or your spouse and you are not getting along. Instead of an occasional lion it's constant mosquito's of life giving us the same fight or flight stress. The problem is that we are not running off that cortisol and nervous energy. The stress therefore stores in our nervous system and causes brain and spinal problems. Remember, if your higher reasoning centres are deprived of blood because your under stress all the time it's even more difficult to get out of those stess cycles.

One of the goals of our office is to not only release those stores of nervous system stress but also to help you get out of those cycles. We adjust the spine for the physical and also the attitude for the brain. Be grateful, get exercise and get adjusted regularly. Stress will always be there, it's our method of coping with it that counts. 

Put another way, it's not our situation that determines our outcomes how we react to that situation.

All the best, Dr. D.

Part 2 of 3: Physical Stressors

Genetics change over thousands of years. We adapt from generation to generation to our environment. The strong survive and reproduce. The weak have died before reproducing. It all goes back to Darwin and his book "Evolution of the Species". Obviously, our ancestors of the last several thousand years lived very differently than we do and adapted to the environment along the way over thousands of years. 

In the last couple hundred years our lifestyles have changed dramtically but our genetics have not caught up to the change (not even close). We are not designed to sit in front of computers, do such repetitive activities, and eat so many empty calories. That's the prime reason we are seeing the rise of so many chronic diseases. Keep in mind that the increased longevity we see in our population is largely due to decreased infant mortality as that makes the average lifespan increase. It's not due to the miracles of modern medicine as is often cited in the media but mostly attributed to simple hygine, i.e. hand washing.

So there are the dramatic causes of subluxation such as falls, car accidents and lifting incorrectly but this represents a mere fraction of the causes of subluxation. A vast majority of subluxations come from the stress of not living according to our genetics. We stress our bodies when we eat processed foods, sit for prolonged periods and do not exercise away our stress hormones.

What can you do? 

1. Move it, every day as if you are foraging for food or trying to catch it! 

2. Eat whole food. I'll make this simple; if it has a fine print label it's probably not a whole food. 

Yours in health, Dr. D.

(July22.2016)

Part 1 of 3: Food Stressors

1. High fructose corn syrup (HFC's), found in pop and lots of sweet processed foods. eg. BBQ sauce

2. Hydrogenated fats

3. Trans fats

4. MSG or anything with hydrolyzed...protein. It's a tricky way of hiding MSG

5. Aspartame

6. Food additives and colours

Some examples are fried foods like donuts, chips and white flour (the only grains should be whole oats or wild rice) sprayed early harvested fruit and vegtables, smoked or cured meat, farmed fish and pork fat. 

Avoid using non-stick pans, use stainless steel or cast iron. Too high of temperature frying with oils (see further down this page for the topic), gently steam vegtables or eat them raw. Avoid burning or at least cut off burnt parts of cooked meat (esp. chicken). 

Yours in Health, Dr. D.

(July 11, 2016)