Want to Scare Me?

Good Morning Everyone!

       If anyone ever wants to scare me, you could do so with this statement:  "I was in a car accident, but I feel fine."  I'm truly worried for the health and well-being of anyone that says that.  My experience and research has seen that even the smallest impacts can have life changing effects on the body.  The most concerning effects are to the spine (most commonly the neck).  The neck can undergo structural changes that will lead to accelerated degeneration (arthritis).  Once this degeneration advances, it will bring neck pain, arm/hand pain, headaches and stiffness.  If left untreated, this can eventually result in chronic constant pain and the possible need for surgery. 

For those that need a little proof that this can happen from a small impact, please take a look at the following videos of a 6 mph rear-end collision (one that almost all of us has been in or may be in at some point):   

    

That was the collision from the outside (doesn't seem like much does it?).  Now lets take a look at what happens to the person inside the car:

Very traumatic for only a 6 mph collision!  Now lets take a look at the bones inside the neck to see what is

happening: 

This is what a normal cervical curve (pre-accident) looks like: (notice the nice "C" shaped curve)

Now lets look at what can happen initially following even the most minor accident: 

*Notice the reversal of the curve in the neck when compared to the one above.

Now lets take a look at what this looks like if left untreated for years:

*Notice the break-down of the vertebra in the mid-neck area.  At this point, we are limited to what we can do and this is not reversible.  Chiropractic can only provide symptomatic relief at this point (maybe limited with symptomatic relief also).

      So the obvious message this week is to make sure that you come in to get checked if you've gotten into even the most minor accident.  Also, please make sure that your family/friends come in to get checked if they've been in an accident.  The rule with you or anyone you know is to get checked as soon as possible after the accident.  Also, if you or someone you know has been in an accident months or years ago without care, make sure you or they get checked (that process that I showed above may be already happening to them).  Lastly, the condition that I showed above is NOT something that the hospital is going to go over with you after an accident.  The hospital will tell you that nothing is broken and that the pain you are feeling (if any) should go away with medication or rest.  

So be careful driving out there!

Yours in Health,

Dr. Jeff  

       

Any medical information provided in Doctor Jeff's Blog is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her health professional. Any information provided is not meant to diagnose, treat or manage any specific disease/condition.Doctor Jeff's Blog respects the confidentiality of individual patients and site visitors. All clinical anecdotes are compliant with HIPAA regulations.

Do You Know Any Onions?

Good Afternoon Everyone!

       Do we know any onions?....Alright Dr. Jeff, what the heck are you talking about this week?  Well, you might suspect that I'm not talking about the actual onions that grow from the ground and you'd be right!  In fact, if you do know or talk to actual onions then you may need a little more than a good chiropractic adjustment .  

      When I speak of onions I use them to describe the majority of patients that come in for care.  If you peel an onion you'll begin to see that it has layers and that you'll go through a series of layers before getting to the core of the onion.  That's how patients come in.... they have a main complaint that usually changes as they go through care.  They say to me... "Now I hurt here," and I say "GREAT....that means that we are working through the layers (onion layers) of your problem!" 

      So, the point of this week's blog is to remind you that it's normal (and almost always a good thing) when your pain starts to move to different areas of the body.  Also, if you do know any onions... please let them know about us, and that we'd be glad to peel off their layers (onion layers that is :)).  

Yours in Health,

Dr. Jeff

Any medical information provided in Doctor Jeff's Blog is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her health professional. Any information provided is not meant to diagnose, treat or manage any specific disease/condition.Doctor Jeff's Blog respects the confidentiality of individual patients and site visitors. All clinical anecdotes are compliant with HIPAA regulations.

Can you help me with ________?

Good Afternoon Everyone,

       To tell the truth, this is a question that I don't hear enough!  Most people (99%) come to me for help with something related to the spine, but chiropractic can help any part of the muskuloskeletal system.  I have helped patients with pains or conditions in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands, hips, knees, ankles, TMJ, and  feet.  I'm excited to help with those areas in addition to the original spinal complaint, but far to few patients ask me about a pain or condition they are having in other joints/muscles of the body.
       For those that are reading this and thinking...."I do have a problem with my ________," then please do not hesitate to bring it up to me.  There's a good chance that I'll be able to help and possibly prevent you from having to get unnecessary medication, shots/injections or surgery!

So the Challenge for this week is to just ask me to help!  Also, don't worry if you haven't been into the office for a while...Everyone is ALWAYS Welcome!

Yours in Health,

Dr. Jeff 

Any medical information provided in Doctor Jeff's Blog is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her health professional. Any information provided is not meant to diagnose, treat or manage any specific disease/condition.  Doctor Jeff's Blog respects the confidentiality of individual patients and site visitors. All clinical anecdotes are compliant with HIPAA regulations.

Artificial Sweetener is the Answer. WRONG!!!!!

Good Afternoon Everyone!

       If you read the past two blogs on sugar and thought that Artificial Sweetener is the answer, then you would be making an even bigger mistake!  Everyone must be getting annoyed with me at this point, but I have to let you know about the dangers of artificial sweeteners (all kinds of artificial sweetener...NutraSweet, Equal, MSG, Spoonful).  The most basic reason for avoiding artificial sweeteners is that they are man made chemicals that your body has no idea what to do with.  If your body cannot process these chemicals then they become a poison to your body that results in many adverse effects.  The negative effects are listed below:

1)  WEIGHT GAIN!!!  But Dr. Jeff, they say that these sweeteners are calorie free...  Yes, but what they don't tell you is that these sweeteners still produce a very strong insulin release from your pancreas.  This lowers your blood sugar, which makes you want to eat more to raise up your blood sugar.  So... Eat More & Gain Weight.
2)  WEIGHT GAIN AGAIN!!!  Wait Dr. Jeff, you just said that...  Well, artificial sweetener also causes your body to store fat.  Artificial sweetener is made of Aspartame, which is made of Aspartate, Phenylalanine and methanol.  All three of these ingredients cause very bad things, but the methanol will make your body store fat.  Short Explanation:  Methanol is broken down in the body to formic acid and Formaldehyde (yes, the stuff they preserve bodies with... GROSS!).  Formaldehyde makes our cells want to store fat, and this fat is much harder to get rid of.
3)  BRAIN CELL DEATH!!!  The ingredient aspartate causes this (MSG or monosodium glutamate also causes it).  These substances are excitotoxins...which means that they cause over-stimulation of specific nerve cells and eventual nerve cell death.  So long-term exposure to artificial sweetener may aggravate many nervous system disorders/diseases (such as:  Multiple Sclerosis, Memory Loss, Hormone Disorders, Epilepsy, Hearing Loss, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ect...).

So what the heck do we eat and how do we know if the food we are eating has these dangerous chemicals in it?  Well, I would rather you just eat less sugar in your diet (avoiding high fructose corn syrup though), and not have artificial sweetener at all (unless diabetic and that is all you can have for sweetener..., but even then I would limit it).  Ingredients to avoid are:  Aspartame, Glutamate, Monosodium Glutamate, Monopotassium Glutamate, Textured protein, Hydrolyzed protein, Glutamic Acid, Autolyzed Yeast, Sodium Caseinate, Calcium caseinate, Yeast extract, "Natural Flavorings," Flavorings (all kinds), and Seasonings. 

Sorry for the depressing stuff, but avoiding these poisons will make you feel better and that's what I'm here for.  One more thing....Splenda is also bad!!! It is a hydro-carbon (same chemical family as DDT).  Splenda was also first developed as an insecticide!!!  Splenda also has the same effects on insulin release and weight gain.

Yours in Health,

Dr. Jeff

        

Any medical information provided in Doctor Jeff's Blog is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her health professional. Any information provided is not meant to diagnose, treat or manage any specific disease/condition.Doctor Jeff's Blog respects the confidentiality of individual patients and site visitors. All clinical anecdotes are compliant with HIPAA regulations.

WHITE TRASH Blog Continued....

Good Afternoon Everyone,

        So I hope that everyone did well on last week's challenge!  At the end of this week's blog, there will be another challenge that you can add to what you are already doing.  It's OK if you were not able to get started with last week's challenge, because you can do both challenges together for this week.

        Now for the continuation on WHITE TRASH (again...we are talking sugar here) and what it does to your health.  First, lets talk again about the Adrenal Glands and what they can also do to your body if they are always running.  We already talked about their effect on the pancreas (resulting in poor digestion), but now lets talk about what the adrenals can do for weight gain and aging in your body.  This is simple, the constant adrenal activation results in the release of cortisol into the body.  Cortisol is a hormone that causes the body to store FAT, which is stored usually in the mid section of the body.  Now that the adrenals become exhausted, they will then stop producing DHEA which is your body's youth hormone....resulting in accelerated aging! 

       Moving on....Lets now talk about what excess sugar in the diet does to the stomach.  It lowers the acid level in the stomach which is a BAD thing!  Low acid levels in the stomach will not allow you to properly digest proteins.  This results in then having blood that is more acidic, and acidic blood will then pull minerals from your body's tissues (minerals are also pulled from bones which is a concern for osteoporosis!).

This week's take home message: 
1)  Excess Sugar = adrenal gland activation/exhaustion = increase in FAT storage + Accelerated AGING!
2)  Excess Sugar = low stomach acid = poor protein digestion = acidic blood = Mineral Deficiency resulting in conditions such as Osteoporosis + Overall Poor Digestion

This week's CHALLENGE:
      First continue with what you were doing from last week which is to cut at least 50% of known sugar from your diet.  Second, is to then write down everything that you eat during this week.  Then, try to find the gylcemic index and load for every food that you write down.  This can be done fairly easily by using google or any other major search engine.  Example:  banana -- glycemic index = 53 & glycemic load = 18

So what does that mean?  Glycemic index is good for anything under a rating of 55 & under and Glycemic load is good with a rating of anything 10 and under.  The glycemic index is a chart of how fast foods convert to sugar in your body and the glycemic load is the amount of carbohydrates that are in a portion of the food that you are eating.  Both are very important to understand how much sugar you are getting in your diet.    

Good Luck to everyone!

Yours in Health,

Dr. Jeff

P.S.  Comments can be left now without having to sign up for anything.

Any medical information provided in Doctor Jeff's Blog is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her health professional. Any information provided is not meant to diagnose, treat or manage any specific disease/condition.Doctor Jeff's Blog respects the confidentiality of individual patients and site visitors. All clinical anecdotes are compliant with HIPAA regulations.

WHITE TRASH Results In Poor Health

Good Afternoon Everyone,

        For those of you who think that I'm being politically incorrect, give me a chance to explain.  When I talk about WHITE TRASH, I'm talking about SUGAR!  Too much of it in our diet can result in many health issues, digestive upset and overall poor health/well being.  The majority of Americans consume too much sugar for their own good.  The most obvious effect of too much sugar is weight gain, but there are other effects which can be just as serious.  Additonal effects of too much sugar are:

1)  The Pancreas becomes exhausted and cannot properly regulate blood sugar.  This can result in Very Poor Digestion and here is why:
          -  Your body now uses it's Adrenal Glands to help regulate blood sugar (Adrenals raise up blood sugar when it becomes too low) (this should only happen in panic situations).  Having your adrenal glands constantly working can be compared to using turbo boosters on a 4 cylinder Chevy Cavalier (the engine will break down faster).  With you, the adrenals are the turbo boosters and your body is the 4 cylinder Cavalier.
          -  The exhausted pancreas now cannot perform its other function which is releasing digestive enzymes into the small intestine to help break down food.  These enzymes are used to help break down carbs, proteins, fats and acids.  This results in poor digestion in the small intestine.  Poor digestion in the small intestine then results in poor large intestine (colon) digestion (possibly causing many of the colon conditions that many people suffer from).

There are additional negative effects of having too much sugar that we will go over next week, but until then I have a challenge for everyone:

                The challenge is to look at your diet and try to eliminate 50% of the sugar from what you are eating until next weeks blog.  This will be hard at first, but will get easier each day.  As a result, you may notice an actual increase in energy levels.  The easiest way to make this quick change is to change what you are snacking on and also eliminate your desserts.  (besides having better energy levels, you may also begin to notice that you do not feel the need to snack as much!)  

Good luck until next week!

Yours in Health,

Dr. Jeff

P.S.  Any questions that you have about this week's blog can be sent to drjeff@brucechiropracticonline.com

Any medical information provided in Doctor Jeff's Blog is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her health professional. Any information provided is not meant to diagnose, treat or manage any specific disease/condition.  Doctor Jeff's Blog respects the confidentiality of individual patients and site visitors. All clinical anecdotes are compliant with HIPAA regulations.