Chiropractic Care; Fasting; Potato Hash Brown Patties
Health Tip:
Have you tried fasting before and didn’t get the results you wanted? You may want to look at it a little different. Oftentimes, we are told to just skip breakfast to extend our fasted time from overnight and eat lunch and dinner. But this may result in additional stress for some individuals, especially women. If you have tried skipping breakfast and it didn’t work as well as you’d like, try skipping dinner instead. Front load your day with healthy proteins and even some starchy veggies that are full of fiber and nutrients. Then stop eating after lunch (or an afternoon snack) and don’t eat again until breakfast. This may result in less hormonal stresses and puts the morning as when your cortisol will be high in response to wanting more food which is when we want cortisol highest anyway! Skipping evening eating also cuts out the greatest temptation to snack and eat junk food which is in the evening. Try it and see how your body responds. Don’t like it? Keep trying to learn what your body likes!
Monthly Article:
Let’s Talk Chiropractic
I love talking about roots….and this month I want to go back to my roots and talk about chiropractic.
Chiropractic is great for back pain and neck pain but it has the potential to do so much more! Let’s go through the ways that chiropractic can help a body.
First, the one that often comes to mind when people think about chiropractic: back and neck pain relief. Chiropractic care helps put motion back into joints that are not moving appropriately. When those joints don’t move correctly, inflammation starts increasing and can contribute to pain and dysfunction. Pain is not always a symptom in the beginning though, which is why you often have an adjustment in an area that is not currently bothering you. If you have back or neck pain, chiropractic care is a great first step to getting relief now and preventing further issues in the future. When joints don’t get corrected, they will continue to degrade over time and end up much worse than at the beginning. One common result of misalignments that go uncorrected for a long time is arthritis. Using pain medication may seem like a quick fix but it only covers up the problem for the short term. Even if the pain seems to go away, oftentimes the body has attempted to compensate for the short term and may eventually need assistance if it is unable to correct it on its own. We don’t have a good way to check each of these joints on our own to see if they corrected themselves outside of a chiropractic assessment. (Even chiropractors have chiropractors!)
Pains outside of the spine but still in joints (i.e. extremity pains). The same thing goes with joints outside of the spine but many people don’t think about chiropractic care for these. I will list a few just to give you an idea of things chiropractic care can help: jaw pain and TMJ, biting tongue or cheeks, headaches, shoulder pain, elbow pain, wrist and hand pain, finger pains, hip and knee pain, foot and ankle pain, toe pains. These are all about those “quality of life” areas! It’s so much nicer to live your life when these smaller areas don’t hurt!
The nervous system and organs. This is where long term chiropractic care shines! Your nervous system starts at your brain, goes down your spinal cord and then out to every organ and cell of your body. If your spine has an issue, it can cause problems with the organs on the other end of those nerves. This means, for example, that a misalignment in your lower back can cause gut and digestion issues. Sometimes midback misalignments can even cause heart palpitations or chest pain. Because of this connection with nerves and your whole system, misalignments can also affect our emotions and mental wellbeing. The interesting thing about nerves is that they are a two-way street…the spine can affect the organs but the organs can also affect the spine! This means that a nutrition problem can cause spinal issues like back pain but that’s an article for another day!
So, chiropractic care is great for back pain and neck pain but long-term wellness care is where it really shines and has the potential to help you feel better now and in the future. I want everyone to have the opportunity to have the best quality of life for as long as possible. For me, that includes chiropractic care as part of my long-term strategy. Do you have a long-term strategy?
Recipe of the Month:
Potato Hash Brown Patties
Sometimes we miss those foods we used to eat that are convenience foods. But those convenience foods are often made with ingredients that are questionable in quality and for some, our bodies just don’t like the ingredients! This was my case with hash brown patties. Not the greatest oils used in them and the latest ones at the store all have corn and this body despises corn! I decided to see if I could make something at home and came across “iamhomsesteader” pin on Pinterest (link below!). Perfect, simple recipe that can be made gluten free however you’d like! And pretty simple to make. I have made a few batches and keep them in the freezer for the times we want that convenience food. I personally bake mine with some oil instead of frying on the stovetop (have used avocado, coconut and bacon fat…all good). My personal tip: get a form to push your potatoes into so it is faster to make. I used a burger patty press that happened to be in the cabinet already. Let me know what you think! – Dr. Llana Call Smith
Upcoming Activities and Announcements:
Roots to Health talk: Please sign up at the front desk. Bring a friend and write a question! This is a casual time to learn about the real Roots to Health!
-Tuesday May 12 at 6:15 pm
-Saturday May 16 at 10 am
We have a new service! The Nutrition Lab Assessment takes values from current lab results (CBC, Metabolic, Lipid, Thyroid, Iron, Urinalysis, B Vitamins) and screens for values that are outside of the Optimal Range. Standard lab assessments are looking for the Clinical range but we want to look at Optimal ranges so we can aim for Optimum health. Our program can use these values to find potential problems before they become larger or even symptomatic. These can be incorporated into your nutrition protocol at your next visit. The program also provides a printout for you of all the lab values. Total cost for Nutrition Lab Assessment is $30. If you are interested, please send your labs to DrSmithFrontDesk@gmail.com with BLOOD LABS in the subject line.
Are you happy with your care and progress? Please tell others! We love getting online reviews to spread the word. Not happy? Please tell us so we can fix it!