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We’re in the middle of several deadly epidemics in the United States. Obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are affecting more and more people every year. Recent statistics show that two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Thirty percent of American children are obese. Approximately 21 million Americans have diabetes. One child out of every 500 has type I diabetes. In America, 72 million adults have high blood pressure. These are shocking statistics, considering that U.S. health care expenditures totaled $2 trillion in 2006. That’s 2 TRILLION dollars.

As Americans, we’re getting less healthy by the day. The good news is there are many things we can do about these trends. There is real action that every American, young and old, can take to support and protect their health and well-being. These action steps all focus on lifestyle – the choices we make each and every day.

The first step is an honest self-assessment. When was the last time I exercised? Does my clothes size increase every couple of years? How many times during the week do I eat fast food? When was the last time I ate an apple instead of half a box of cookies?

Regardless of the answers, it is possible to become healthy and fit again, whatever your current circumstances. You CAN lose 10 or 20 or 30 or however many pounds. You CAN climb stairs without getting out of breath. You CAN regain the youthful glow of vitality. You CAN be vigorous and proud of your body, rather than worrying about what’s going to be the next thing to break down.

Healthy eating and regular exercise are essential parts of the solution to combating obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.^1,2 These practices have the magical effect of resetting your metabolic clock – your body shifts from a pattern of storing fat to a pattern of burning fat.³ Over time, with a nutritious food plan and consistent exercise, you even burn fat while you’re resting! Your body is very smart. You just have to treat it right.

Your chiropractor is a wonderful asset – both as a health care practitioner and as a guide – on your journey toward fitness and wellness. Your chiropractor has extensive resources available on practical nutrition and how to design a supportive food plan. He or she has deep knowledge regarding the types of exercises and activities that will be right for you. You and your chiropractor can design an exercise program that will be both fun and rewarding. Working together, you’ll be maximizing your health and vitality. You will begin to fulfill a way of living that will support you in being healthy and well for years to come.

¹Lindstrom J, et al: Sustained reduction in the incidence of type 2 diabetes by lifestyle intervention: follow-up of the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study. Lancet 368(9548):1673-1679, 2006.

²Orchard TJ, et al: The effect of metformin and intensive lifestyle intervention on the metabolic syndrome: the Diabetes Prevention Program randomized trial. Ann Intern Med 142(8):611-619, 2005

³Yannakoulia M, et al: A dietary pattern characterized by high consumption of whole-grain cereals and low-fat dairy products and low consumption of refined cereals is positively associated with plasma adiponectin

Fit For Death

I hope by entitling this article the way I did I was able to get your attention.  As Summer begins this week, many of you will be motivated (or I will encourage you if you haven’t already started) to go out and begin to exercise in an effort to help shed that excess weight you amassed over the Winter.  But before you go off and try to make up for lost time, I wanted to help you appreciate how you can actually hurt yourself and create less health by exercising.  This occurs of course when you begin to exercise in an inappropriate fashion.  For it has been seen that too many people, with good intentions, end up creating bad results that lead to injuries and poor health through exercise.  For there have been plenty of instances where an Elite Athlete suffers a life ending Heart Attack while training or competing.  Yet how is that possible with an Athlete who trains all the time?  This, and other injuries occur because very few people, including your trainers and athletes, seem to truly appreciate the importance of creating health while improving their fitness levels.  Watching Sports Center, like I do every morning, there is a commercial for a new channel on Direct TV called “Fit Channel” which is devoted to programs related to improving your fitness.  And I’m sure there are various guru types who lead the different programs offered who have great looking physiques and magnetic personalities and do everything they can to motivate you to exercise.  And ideally, this is a great idea.  Unfortunately, the concept of improving ones fitness level before developing a proper base of health could lead to serious health consequences.  As mentioned above, if one exercises too hard, and the body isn’t healthy enough to support the effort, conditions such as a Heart Attack can occur.  This is because most people think of Fitness and Health as synonymous, or at least closely linked.  I’d like to help you appreciate the difference between the two, and then give you some pointers on how to Improve Your Health, While Increasing Your Fitness at the same time.

Fitness can be defined as “the ability to perform physical activity.”  As long as you can complete the desired activity, you can be said to be physically fit.  The more you condition your body to perform the physical activity, the better your body will become at doing it.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that you are now healthy because you can do the specific physical activity.  Health on the other hand can be defined as “a state of optimum physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being, and not merely the absence of sickness, infirmity, or symptoms.”  And if you appreciate the definition, one can be quite healthy, yet be unable to perform some physical activity in an efficient manner.

Picture someone who lifts weights all the time and has big bulging muscles.  Obviously that person is physically fit related to lifting weights because they lift weights all the time.  Now ask that same person to run 3 miles, and they aren’t able to do it.  And you ask, why is that so?  It’s simple.  The person’s body is conditioned to lift the weights, as the body has been trained to do that activity.  Yet when you ask their body to perform a different activity, such as running 3 miles, the body is unable to because the body is not conditioned to do so.  Now, you could have the same person who lifts weights all the time and has big muscles, yet they eat crappy food, drink alcohol regularly, and maybe even smoke.  Or perhaps that person also participates in using performance enhancing drugs.  That is a person who obviously can lift the weights and has a great physique to show for it, yet their body really isn’t healthy on the inside.

Likewise, picture a person who eats organic food, drinks only the most natural spring water, and doesn’t participate in putting anything into their body that isn’t natural, and has a perfectly balanced blood chemistry.  One could say this person is quite healthy.  Then ask them to go out and run 3 or 4 flights of stairs and see that they are gasping for air at the top of the second flight.  This person has plenty of health, but no real fitness.  It becomes a question of balance.  But how should one create that balance?

If you truly want to get your body functioning in both a healthy manner and a more fit manner, you will have to do the following.  Begin by doing the physical activity that builds both health and fitness.  Ideally you would have wanted to have started this earlier then now, but it’s never too late to begin.  The activity I’m writing about here of course is walking.  Walking as an exercise is an activity anyone can do, and it helps to build both.  You will want to walk on a daily basis for a minimum of 30 minutes, but more ideally 45 minutes to an hour.  Maybe you will have to start out doing it for only ten minutes or less due to poor health and fitness.  The point is, begin by getting used to the activity of walking on a flat surface.  Don’t worry about trying too much too quickly, as you will set yourself back, rather than moving forward.  And as you feel your body improve, you can add more time first, rather than speed.  Speed is the last thing you should be considering when you first start.  I can’t emphasize enough that you simply want to get the time in, which will translate to distance, and worry about the speed after you have established a good base.  This will usually take a good 6 to 12 weeks for people who are beginning.  And don’t be down on yourself because you are beginning.  If done properly, you will improve faster and eliminate the need for soreness and injury.

Once you have accomplished doing the walking for a minimum of 30 minutes for at least 6 weeks, you’ll want to now get an idea of how you are doing, and if you are building both health and fitness.  This is done by employing a heart rate monitor.  If you utilize a heart rate monitor during your walking activity, and pre-program it to monitor your specific heart rate zone (designed to help you create more health while building fitness), a funny thing will happen along the way.  You will actually lose weight.  That’s right, you will start losing all the weight you could ever want.  All of this is explained in my audio program, “Strategies To Restore Your Health And Wellness Through Understanding Nutrition And Exercise.”  In the program I outline specifics for determining your personal ideal heart rate zone, and how to feed the body so you can eat more and lose weight.  I also cover the reasons why you are fat, why people get infections, why you crave sugar, along with how to read a label properly and how to properly shop for foods. 

As offered before, I will be making my audio program available for anyone who wishes to purchase it at the introductory rate of $75.00 through the month of July.  But you must act fast.  As of August 1, 2013, the price will officially return to $90.00.  Appreciate that the cost for this program is the same as a 1/2 hour consultation, yet you will be getting over 4 hours of “Strategies To Restore Your Health And Wellness Through Understanding Nutrition And Exercise.”  In this I will walk you through the necessities for determining your specific “Fat Burning Rate,” as well as help you to understand how you will have to begin eating more if you want to maintain that weight loss.  And once you have that understanding, you can then not worry about exercising and causing yourself health problems.  No more soreness or exercise related injuries because you will have the new understanding of Improving Your Health While Creating More Fitness.

So if there is anything here that interested you and you would like to begin exercising your way to improved Health and Fitness, call the Office at (845) 561-BACK (2225) and tell her you’d like to purchase “The Real Deal: Strategies To Restore Your Health And Wellness Through Understanding Nutrition And Exercise.”  Don’t be Fit For Death!  Begin your Summer by starting to exercise the correct way, and start creating a new

We are often asked questions about various treatment options and which ones offer the best outcome and chance for success. Over the last several years Spinal Decompression Therapy has become one of the most popular treatments that patients ask about. Is spinal decompression therapy a good treatment option? Well the answer is that it really ...

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Is it possible to create a new personal reality? So-called unscripted television shows say you can – “The Biggest Loser” being one of the more popular of these tell-all and show-all programs. But most of us realize that these shows don’t closely represent reality as we experience it. What causes us to tune in anyway? The answer is that even though reality shows may be scripted or controlled in some ways, they do contain an element of reality regarding the actual problems of the participants/contestants. We empathize with their struggles, and hope to discern some new knowledge that may help us overcome our own hurdles. But can a real person, in real life, make long-lasting changes in lifestyle, health, and wellness?

The provisional answer is yes.^1,2,3 A real person can lose significant weight and keep it off. A real person can become physically fit, even though she hasn’t exercised for 20 years, or ever. A real person can create a nutritional food plan that covers all the basics and also tastes great. A real person can sleep seven or eight hours a night, most nights, and have the ongoing experience of feeling well-rested. A real person can enjoy meaningful and fulfilling relationships with family and friends. In short, a real person can design and have a real life, even though from today’s perspective such a rewarding life might seem an impossibly unattainable goal.

Your new reality is possible, but it doesn’t come for free. If no effort were involved, every person in the developed world would be living happy, creative, self-fulfilled lives right now. You can see that is not the case when you look around at your workplace, the local market, or the shopping mall. How many people appear to be happy and engaged? How many appear anxious or stressed? Many times, anxiety and stress far outweigh happiness and enjoyment. For many, our default way of being seems to include worry, disorganization, disorder, and breakdown. These conditions lead to anxiety, which leads to stress, which leads to more worry and anxiety. When they form, these negative habits of thinking and action are habitually ineffective; they continue to be negative influences on our lives until we abolish them. In terms of health and well-being, our negative habits lead to the opposite conditions – we aren’t healthy and we don’t feel good about ourselves.

The world around us works the same way. Every moment, the universe is tending to greater entropy – the breakup of organized energy patterns and greater disorder. On the other hand, life has the power to reverse the natural tendency toward entropy. Life creates structure. Life creates organization. Think of honeycombs. Think of dams. Think of skyscrapers.

Why then do human lives often seem to fall apart so easily? The missing secret ingredients include intention, planning, and effort. And not only the effort required to keep the whole thing operational. Extra effort is called for to really make a difference. Extra effort that we take on our own behalf. In order for us to create a new personal reality, extra effort will be required. Weeks, months, and years of extra effort. This sounds like a lot. It is. The good news is that the payoff can be huge. The real payoff is the person you become as part of this process of renewal. You become your authentic self.

¹Totsikas C, et al: Cardiorespiratory fitness determines the reduction in blood pressure and insulin resistance during lifestyle intervention. J Hypertens 29(6):1220-1227, 2011

²Lohmann H, et al: Fitness consultations in routine care of patients with type 2 diabetes in general practice: an 18-month non-randomised intervention study. BMC Fam Pract 11:83, 2010

³Ryan AS: Exercise in aging: it’s important role in the aging process

Did you know that the smallest vertebrae in your spine supports the most vital organ in your body- the brain?   Incredibly, the cervical spine supports the full weight of your head, which is on average about 12 pounds.  Your neck, also called the cervical spine, begins at the base of the skull and contains seven ...

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Earlier in last month’s issue, I discussed the importance of evaluating your stress in the most up-to-date and accurate way in an effort to determine if your Adrenal System was suffering from the effects of the accumulative stresses of life.   And if so, what would be the best approach to balancing those health issues that would result.  I shared with you the recent cutting-edge technology of the testing procedures presented at the Standard Process Nutritional Lyceum held last month.  The presenter for the Adrenal Stress material was Angela Hywood, ND from Australia and I covered her information in that last newsletter.  I also eluded to the information on balancing your hormones delivered by the presenter, Dr. Janet Lang.  I also promised to discuss in this month’s issue the topic of Balancing Female Hormones, and what is the most accurate way to determine precisely what is causing the hormonal imbalances with a woman and her monthly cycle.  Whether you still get your monthly period or not, the information will be of equal value to both situations.  And if you know of someone who suffers with a hormonal imbalance (and which of us do not?), please forward them this e-newsletter and I’m sure they can be helped too.

Hormones As Messengers

Hormones are biochemical messengers that exert profound and specific metabolic influences throughout the body.  The Endocrine System produces a multitude of hormones that work together as a synergistic whole.  The Endocrine System along with the Nervous System are the control systems of the body.  When hormones become imbalanced, the biochemical symphony plays out of tune.  Since the Endocrine System is probably the first system impacted by nutritional imbalances and deficiencies, it is important to make sure you are consuming good high quality whole foods, and avoid the refined processed ones.  Likewise, since nutrients are needed to make and replace hormones, and the metabolic functions performed by hormones are nutrient based and mediated, it makes sense to pay attention to the quality of your food.

Hormones function like two-ended keys.  The “R” end, or receptor end, fits precisely into a cell receptor and “unlocks” the metabolic door to initiate an action.  The “E” end, or enzyme end, fits precisely with cellular enzymes that transform the hormone into another hormone, or into a metabolite for excretion.

The Problem With “Synthetic Hormones”

When a “synthetic hormone” enters a cell receptor, its “R” end is similar to the real one, but it’s not an exact fit.  Like the wrong key in a lock, this jams the cell receptor or alters the action initiated.  This is known as side-effects.  The “synthetic hormone” does not have the correct “E” end, so it cannot be properly cleared from the receptor, transformed into other hormones, or properly metabolized and excreted.  This is known as more side-effects.  If you wish to disrupt the delicately balanced Endocrine System, giving “synthetic hormones” is an excellent way to do so.  The disruption is even more pronounced with “synthetic steroid hormones” because the steroids have their own delicately balanced melody within the overall symphony.  *NOTE: All steroid hormones can be made in a bio-identical form to our own.  These are easily and inexpensively made from plant sterols, usually from wild yam or soy.  Being exact versions of human hormones, they cannot be patented. IN ADDITION: Synthetic steroid hormones are also made from plant sterols, and then chemically altered by pharmaceutical companies so they can be patented.

The Two Chief Hormones For Women

Estrogen is a general term used for the several types of estrogen hormones made by the ovaries, and to a lesser degree the testicles.  Estrogens are steroids, derived from cholesterol, and come in three major categories.  Estrone, 5 – 10 % is considered a strong estrogen because of its ability to cause cell proliferation.  Estradiol, 5 – 10 % is considered the strongest estrogen because of its ability to cause cell proliferation.  Estriol, 80 – 90 % is considered a weak estrogen because it does not cause the cells to proliferate, but it does balance the proliferating effects of the other two thereby conferring protection against their cancer-causing ability.

Symptoms of Estrogen Deficiency:

Hot flashes, Night sweats, Insomnia, Mood Swings, Mental fogginess, poor memory, Vaginal dryness, Vaginal/Bladder infections, Incontinence, Urinary frequency, Headaches, migraines, Decreased Sexual Response, Loss of ambition, Depression, Lack of stamina, Decreased Breast size, Wrinkling of Skin, Osteoporosis, and Increased risk of Heart Disease.

Symptoms of Estrogen Excess:

Heavy bleeding, Clotting, Cramping, Water retention, bloating, Breast tenderness, lumpiness, cystic breasts, enlarged breasts, fibrocystic breasts, weight gain, Headaches, migraines, Emotional hypersensitivity, Depression, irritability, Anxiety, Anger, agitation, Decreased Sexual Response, Thyroid dysfunction (resembling hypothyroidism) Cold hands and feet, Blood sugar instability, Sweet cravings, Insomnia, and Gall Bladder Dysfunction.

Progesterone is a steroid hormone produced in the ovaries (corpus luteum) and Adrenal Glands.  One of its main roles is to balance estrogen.  Progesterone is also produced by the Brain and the peripheral nerves, and possibly other locations.  Normally, women have much more progesterone at any given time, then estrogen.  This is important to know.

Symptoms of Progesterone Deficiency:

PMS, Heavy bleeding, Clotting, cramping, Inability to concentrate, short-term memory impairment, Muscle tension/spasm, Fibromyalgia, Water retention, bloating, Insomnia, Breast tenderness, lumpiness, cystic breasts, weight gain, Thyroid dysfunction (resembling hypothyroidism), Headaches, migraines, Anxiety, irritability, nervousness, moodiness, Hot flashes, Depression, Decreased sexual response, Osteoporosis, Amenorrhea, spotting, Endometriosis, and Fibroids.

Symptoms of Progesterone Excess:

Sleepiness, Bloating or constipation, Candidia, Mild depression, and Exacerbated Estrogen deficiency symptoms (see list above)

Note:  Progesterone only functions correctly when it is in the right proportion with estrogen, it’s primary partner and synergist.  Estrogen is necessary to create Progesterone receptors, and Progesterone regulates Estrogen receptors.

Isn’t it curious that some of the symptoms are common to all the different imbalances?  No wonder why women have such a difficult time in knowing what is really going on with their hormones.  The obvious choice would seem to be consulting your Gynecologist.  Unfortunately, the usual solution is one of two artificial hormone treatments, either Birth Control Pills (BCP’s) or Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).  But since we know that using synthetic hormones is the quickest way to create an imbalance, with no control over the side effects, wouldn’t it be much better to use all natural solutions designed to restore balance without all the side-effects?  Of course it would.  But how would we be able to accurately determine which of the different scenarios is occurring for each person?  That’s where the Saliva Testing comes in.  By collecting samples of Saliva at regular intervals throughout the day, your specific rhythm can be determined.  Comparing that to a balanced and healthy profile, we can accurately determine what the hormone levels are doing and what All Natural Nutritional/Herbal protocols are needed in an effort to return the body to balance.

What To Consider

If you are a woman, or are married to one, and you suffer from any of the symptoms listed in the above four imbalances, you (or your wife) would benefit from getting a Saliva Test Kit and performing a test on yourself.  What you will discover is the specific imbalance you suffer from and then have a true place to start restoring your health.  In other words, it won’t require you to “try” something to see if it works, all the while you could be creating more imbalances in the process.  It also won’t require that you take artificial hormones.  Along with the interpretation offered by Neuroscience, the company who supplies me with the Saliva Test Kits, there also are proven solutions offered that will help to restore balance to your whole hormonal system.  So you would have everything to gain by doing one of these Saliva Tests.  Can you imagine what your life would be like if you were able to finally get a handle on your hormones and all the systems they influence?

My Offer To You

To ALL Current Practice Members:  If you, or someone you know, suffer with any of the above mentioned symptoms, you owe it to yourself to call the office.  Tell us you want us to hold a Saliva Test Kit for you and you’ll be in to pick it up.  If you stop in and pick the Test Kit up before June 30th, the consultation to discuss the results, normally $75.00, will be given for FREE.  But you have to act fast.  Call the Office TODAY at (845)561-2225 and hold your Kit. After you come in to get the Kit, you’ll simply collect the four samples of saliva, place them in the proper containers, place them in the box and mail it back to NeuroScience (who pays for postage) and in about 10 days NeuroScience will have the results sent to me.  It’s totally painless, and you will finally discover why you feel the way you do.  But remember, after the 30th of June, the regular fee of $75.00 will apply, so call NOW!

For All Potential New Practice Members, I will offer you the opportunity to come in for a consultation to discuss your results.  This is normally a $75.00 service and for taking advantage of this offer, I will do it for FREE.  Absolutely no charge with any obligation for treatment.  But let’s be honest…if you have an imbalance, won’t you want to receive treatment?  So call today at (845) 561-2225 and ask us to hold your Test Kit TODAY!

As always, we offer FREE Health Care Classes where you get to bring all your health related questions and have a chance to have them answered for FREE.  This occurs every Tuesday evening at 6:30 pm located in the Pooler Office at 320 Robinson Avenue.  Since seating is limited, reservations are required. If you have a burning health question and would like me to answer it for you, call the Office and ask us to hold your spot in the class.  There is no charge for this class, but seating is limited.  Call now at (845) 561-2225 to reserve your seat.  This is a FREE service offered by Dr. Huntoon for the community.  If you belong to an organization and would like Dr. Huntoon to come and speak to them at no charge, please let us know and we will arrange for that to happen.

Plenty of people go through plenty of suffering trying to lose weight. But why does it have to be that way? Surely there’s some discipline involved, but the process can actually be empowering and personally fulfilling. Weight loss doesn’t need to be about suffering. Losing weight can actually be fun.

The fun part of losing weight is the fulfillment and personal satisfaction you get out of doing what you said you’d do. The fun part is seeing the pounds come off, week by week. The fun part is seeing yourself get back in shape. And, the very fun part is the free day that you enjoy each week. The free day is built-in to your losing-weight food plan.

What’s a free day? You want to be on a food plan that changes your body’s metabolism – one that flattens out your blood glucose levels, one that flattens out your blood insulin levels. The result is a body that knows how to burn glucose for energy, rather than a body that’s out of synch and stores glucose as fat.^1,2

The best way to normalize your metabolism is to eat five or six small meals per day. This is not news. This powerful approach to maintaining optimal body weight has been around for many decades. And the multiple small meals food plan works just as well today.³

This approach has a surprise bonus – a built-in fun factor – the free day. The free day fulfills two important functions. First, your body needs to know that it’s not in starvation mode. If your body thinks it’s starving, you’ll begin to store fat. So you actually need to have a free day once a week.

Your free day also has a very important psychological purpose. You’re doing work and following a plan. A break from the plan is necessary; otherwise it’s going to become boring. It’s great to look forward to your free day and the opportunity to break the routine.

On your free day you can eat anything you want. After a while, you become less exorbitant on your free day. You still eat more pure-fun foods, but you find you’re eating less in terms of mass quantities. You just get more normalized, naturally, as you find yourself listening more to what your body really wants and needs.

Your free day, combined with the ongoing positive feedback from your bathroom scale, makes it possible and realistic to continue on the multiple small meals per day plan.

Over time your weekly weight loss decreases and eventually you stop losing weight – you’ve reached your body’s natural weight. This is a major accomplishment. Your food plan has become a way of life. You’ve learned how to eat so that you’re healthy, fit, and well. Make sure you celebrate!

¹Otani H: Oxidative stress as pathogenesis of cardiovascular risk associated with metabolic syndrome. Antiox Redox Signal 15(7):1911-1926, 2011

²Brietzke SA: A personalized approach to metabolic aspects of obesity. Mt Sinai J Med 77(5):499-510, 2010

The apparent dangers of high blood pressure and the frequent recommendation of prescription drugs to reduce the problem create a seemingly constant flood of both media warnings and advertising. Now, the results of a recent study could shed an entirely different light on the source of the problem. A study recently concluded in Chicago found that ...

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The numbers of individuals undergoing total hip replacement and total knee replacement are increasing significantly.¹ Annual rates in the United States for total hip replacement have increased more than 50%. In Denmark, rates have been increasing by 30%. Annual rates in the United States for total knee replacement have increased by more than 170%.² In Sweden, rates have increased 500% in the last 20 years.³ With the aging of the population and increased lifespan, these rates will continue to increase.

Advanced surgical procedures are invaluable, if you need them. Of course, many persons have unrelenting, daily pain which may require radical surgery. For everyone else, though, the best way forward are the old reliables: regular exercise, as vigorous as is appropriate; a healthy diet containing plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables; and sufficient rest on as consistent basis as possible. Regular chiropractic care is also a key component of helping to keep your weight-bearing joints in peak condition.

Most hip and knee replacements are done because the person has severely painful degenerative joint disease – osteoarthritis. Hips, knees, and ankles are all weight-bearing joints. These joints are big and strong and have many surfaces on which to distribute the substantial mechanical loads which are placed on them throughout the day. But these joints don’t last forever and, like all living systems, they will eventually begin to age and break down. Serious problems ensue, however, when these critically important joints start breaking down long before their “warranty” expires.

Many hip and knee problems are a result of chronically poor posture. Almost none of us are taught how to use our bodies properly. We don’t come with instruction manuals. So as time goes on, the inefficient habits we develop as children and teenagers become permanent. People slouch, they let their abdominal muscles sag, they stand with all their weight on one leg, and their heads stick out in front rather than being centered over their chests. One result is chronically tight and painful neck, shoulder, and lower back muscles. Another result is chronically uneven distribution of the weight of the body, ultimately causing degeneration of hip and knee joints.

Lack of a healthy diet prevents the lubricating tissues of the hip and knee joints from receiving key nutrients. Lack of proper joint lubrication causes osteoarthritis. Lack of regular exercise inhibits normal joint motion and normal joint nutrition and lubrication, leading to the development of degenerative joint disease. When you add up faulty biomechanics, lack of a healthy diet, and lack of proper exercise, the result is a prescription for chronic hip and knee problems.

It’s very important to address these issues when you’re young. When you’re not as young as you were, the time to begin making healthful changes is right now. Chiropractic care directly helps improve a person’s biomechanics. Chiropractic care also helps people make the best use possible of the good food they’re beginning to eat and the regular exercise they’re beginning to get.

For most of us, the best way to prevent the need for a hip or knee replacement is to take consistent, healthy actions on our own behalf. If a hip or knee replacement turns out to be the way to go, all of these healthy actions will help ensure a quick recovery and continued good health from this point onward.

¹Singh JA: Epidemiology of knee and hip arthroplasty: a systematic review. Open Orthop J 5:80-85, 2011

²Kurtz S, et al: Prevalence of primary and revision total hip and knee arthroplasty. J Bone Joint Surg Am 87(7):1487-1497, 2005

Oh those teenage years of frustration If you have ever wondered why the teenage years are so difficult for parents (and often the teens themselves) you need look no further than their brain. The brain undergoes rapid and profound development during the teen years, much more so than during most of childhood. It is a time ...

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