Scratchy throat, fever, stuffy nose and the host of other symptoms that come along for the ride… here are 15 ways to survive the cold & flu season naturally.

THE REMEDY METHOD

When you or your kids are feeling down in the dumps, the only thing you want is to feel better!

The Remedy Method includes any intervention that will help mitigate the effects that come from “processing” a cold or flu. It may be the body itself that is responsible for healing and repair, but most of us do not demonstrate patience as a primary quality.  The Remedy Method addresses the question “What can I do in the meantime?”

Many of these steps may not necessarily increase your health, but that’s not the point with this approach.

The point is to FEEL BETTER while you HEAL.

1. Rest.
2. Gargle with salt water.
3. Drink hot tea.
4. Garlic.
5. Take a hot bath.
6. Try a saline nasal rinse.
7. Steam your face.
8. Use zinc acetate lozenges.
9. Put Vicks on your chest and feet.
10. Echinacea.
11. Sleep with your head elevated.
12. Take some Vitamin C.
13. Hot water with lemon.
14. Drink apple cider vinegar.
15. Use a humidifier.

THE HEALTH-BUILDING METHOD

Whether it’s a cold, the flu, or any illness for that matter…the one common thread to prevention and recovery is the strength of the immune system.

The Health Building Method is by far the best approach to follow as the result of your efforts will save you more pain and suffering than any remedy ever could!

1. Eat real food. 

Keep it simple. Healthy animal protein & fats, vegetables & fruits, safe starches. Everything else, either reduce to a minimum or remove entirely.

2. Train.

Lift weights and sprint. Sure, you can add in some other stuff but don’t expect results without the fundamentals.

3. Fill in the gaps.

Omega 3s, vitamin D, and probiotics. Thousands of additional supplements can be found on the shelves but very few will yield much impact. Start and stick with the basics.

4. Get quality rest.

Turn off your phones, get to bed prior to midnight, and wake up early.

5. Build your brain.

Have your spine and nervous system examined by a Corrective Chiropractor. Sounds odd, but it’s not…once you understand how the body works.

WHICH METHOD IS BEST?

It depends.

What are you trying to accomplish?

Are you interested in only feeling better or would you prefer to heal well and recover?

There’s no need to choose…

These two methods can be combined, just be sure to make The Health Building Method your primary, day-to-day approach.

What remedies have helped you? Let us know!

Dr. Steven Gall has been offering exceptional chiropractic care to infants, children and adults for over 25 years. He has spent his life learning, and improving his knowledge, skills and ability to provide his care. As a public speaker and health coach he strives to assist people in seeing and attaining a life of extraordinary health. Contact the office to join others who have started the same journey.

With the divorce rate nearing 50% and a “healthy” relationship charting at the top of almost every wish list…it only makes sense that anything we can do to improve the chances of success should be expedited to the front of the line.

A reasonable body of research is beginning to paint a favorable picture. Those who workout together stay together.

Here are 10 reasons why:

Deeper connection.

Training together fosters your connection. It will give you both an opportunity to watch the other be challenged and succeed. It can build empathy and appreciation.

Reduced stress.

Research shows that those who workout regularly are better able to handle the normal daily stresses which we all face. Finding a productive release for stress vs. bringing it home makes the interaction with your loved one more peaceful and enjoyable.

Increased self-confidence.

Setting goals together like improved body composition or completing a Tough Mudder can give you a sense of empowerment and excitement about what might be possible when working as a team.

Improved intimacy.

More energy, an improved body image, and overall enhanced physical function which comes from training can lead to improvements in the physical aspects of your relationship 🙂

More quality time.

Having trouble finding time to spend with each other. Carving out a training schedule that works for both gives you a guaranteed “date” to look forward to multiple times each week.

Successful dieting.

You are likely following the same or similar eating plan. What can be an extremely difficult endeavor, now becomes a team effort and exponentially easier to stay the course with. Have you tried eating By Design?

Less fighting.

Taking your aggression out on the weight instead of projecting your anger into your relationship means fewer fights, less disagreements, and more time focused on what matters most.

Enjoy your downtime.

With a busy life that now includes a regular fitness schedule, you’ll be much more appreciative of the down time you have.

Enjoy shared values.

One of the most overlooked requirements for a successful relationship is shared values. It’s amazing how many relationships fail not because there’s a “lack of love” but instead because there’s a shortage of values both partners care deeply about. Training together gives a couple one more value they can fully engage in together.

Grow stronger together.

No question lifting together will make you physically stronger but it’s the sum all the components that are encompassed into a regular training program that will make your relationship stronger as well.

Make the investment in yourself by committing to a workout program right away and for a boost to your relationship, up the ante by adding your partner into the mix.

Dr. Steven Gall has been offering exceptional chiropractic care to infants, children and adults for over 25 years. He has spent his life learning, and improving his knowledge, skills and ability to provide his care. As a public speaker and health coach he strives to assist people in seeing and attaining a life of extraordinary health. Contact the office to join others who have started the same journey.

There’s little question measuring posture can be a helpful assessment tool, but what can bad posture tell you about your child’s future health?

THE MASTER CONTROL SYSTEM

The spine is the central protective casing for the delicate and vital communication system within the human frame. This makes its structure and function paramount to the health of the body in general.

Your Neuro-Structural System (spine and nervous system) makes up the primary input-output pathways for information to and from the brain, coordinate complex movements, as well as play a unique role in the health of your brain.

Damaging one’s posture can come from many individual sources, but more likely, it’s a combination of many or all of these potential factors ranging from child birth, car seats, back packs, sitting, injuries, inactivity and chronic stress just to highlight a few.

HOW DOES BAD POSTURE AFFECT CHILDREN?

While we recognize the fact that bad posture will affect us as we age, most overlook its origin and the opportunity to correct it long before it becomes a major source of dysfunction and increasingly difficult to alter.

Here are some of the outcomes bad posture in your children today could lead to in their future.

1. ABNORMAL BONE GROWTH

Wolff’s Law states that bone in a healthy person will adapt to the loads under which it is placed. Simply put, abnormal postural stress and current loads will alter bone development.

This is one of the reasons a postural problem now could easily become a structural problem in the future and with that, become far more challenging to correct.

One study of 154 10 year olds showed 9% were already demonstrating disc degeneration in within their developing spines.

Osteoporosis and arthritis aren’t conditions a child should need to worry about but with excessive spinal stress and the high level of youth inactivity…it’s starting to be the case.

2. MENTAL HEALTH

In a 2015 study from Health Psychology, researchers noted participants with poor posture were more fearful, hostile, nervous, quiet, still, passive, dull, sleepy, and sluggish.

A survey published in 2012 in the journal Biofeedback indicated there was a link between posture and mental health, particularly mood, anxiety, and stress.

Whether it’s the chicken or the egg, posture seems to influence how feel about ourselves, how we handle our stress and how happy we ultimately are.

3. LUNG FUNCTION & LIFE SPAN

Uncorrected postural problems can play a role in age-related postural issues such as dowager’s hump and excessive kyphosis.

The long-term effects of these conditions may include reduced pulmonary function and even a reduction in life span!

4. HORMONES

In a Ted Talk well worth watching, researcher Amy Cuddy explains how changes in our position affect us at the deepest levels including our hormones. Altering our posture dramatically impacted both testosterone and cortisol, two key hormones in controlling our long term health.

The long-term implications of excessive cortisol production alone are dramatic…destruction of healthy muscle and bone, slowing down healing and normal cell regeneration, impairment of digestion, metabolism, and mental function, interference with healthy endocrine function, and a weakening of your immune system.

Dr. Steven Gall has been offering exceptional chiropractic care to infants, children and adults for over 25 years. He has spent his life learning, and improving his knowledge, skills and ability to provide his care. As a public speaker and health coach he strives to assist people in seeing and attaining a life of extraordinary health. Contact the office to join others who have started the same journey.

The more time that passes working in the health field the more I see the same 5 training mistakes that cause people’s fitness routines to fail.

No one plans to fail, but that doesn’t negate the cold hard fact that most people do not achieve the results they’re searching for.

You want to lose body fat but you’re not.

You want to get stronger but you’re not.

You want your clothes to fit better but they don’t.

You’d love to have more energy but are more tired than ever!

You wish you felt better but you’re still in pain.

Reality exists and the sooner you accept that this is where you are the sooner you can start figuring out what the heck is going wrong and begin the process of getting it fixed.

MISTAKE #1 | WALKING JUST ISN’T ENOUGH

When I ask our practice members about what they do to keep in shape, they often reply “I walk”.

Now, don’t get me wrong… walking regularly at a brisk pace for an extended time does have some health benefits such as reducing your chance of dying from anything (all-cause-mortality) by around 10%.

While I’ll take the 10%, walking doesn’t have the dramatic health benefits including strength development, increased metabolism, and efficient fat loss that other forms of training have.

Walking is a good start or “extra” activity but it shouldn’t form the foundation of your fitness routine.

MISTAKE #2 | NO STRENGTH TRAINING

It may sound like I’m beating a dead horse.

Learning why you should and how to train for strength is a central component of Life By Design.

However, there’s a reason it needs to be discussed regularly… that’s because very few people are actually doing it!

Strength development is THE central piece to attaining most of the goals you’re attempting to achieve. If you’re exercising at home, in a gym by yourself or even trying some bootcamps there’s a good chance you’re not training for strength.

In fact, a very big misconception is that if you’re using “weights” you must be strength training and that’s simply just not true.

MISTAKE #3 | YOU’RE NOT EATING ENOUGH

Yes, I said “not enough”. You did read that correctly.

Every time someone has a goal that includes losing body fat, the natural inclination is to eat less. When I review the results of a food log from someone “not getting results” it’s almost always a case of 1. Not enough food. 2. Not enough fat. 3. Not enough protein.

How can you let go of body fat if you don’t have enough nutrition to support your body’s optimal function? You can’t and you won’t. Your body is smart enough to know when it’s time to just survive and when it’s time to thrive.

Take away calories and nutrients, it’s survival mode for you. Good luck losing any body fat until you get this fixed.

MISTAKE #4 | LOW OR NO INTENSITY

This mistake is an extension of #2 but common enough to make it a separate conversation.

Do you know what high intensity means? It doesn’t mean working hard. It means working at a higher percentage of your maximum.

Now anyone who’s done this knows it’s challenging but you could also do 100 arm curls which will definitely make you sweat and breathe harder, but it won’t give you the results you’re looking for (unless those results are sweet beach biceps!)

To develop strength & build a body that uses energy (aka fat) to sustain itself all day long, you need use resistance near your peak capacity. This means if you can squat 100 pounds 1x, you’re best to use 80-90 pounds and squat that weight 2-5 times for 3-5 sets.

MISTAKE #5 | YOU HAVE NO PROGRESSION

I saved the best for last.

Even IF you had some of this figured out such as the diet & training for strength…make this last mistake and you’ll be stuck where you are forever.

The difference between a fitness routine and a training program that will get you the results you’ve been dreaming of is the principle of progression.

Most are doing the exact same thing they’ve always done. Walking, treadmill, elliptical, a few circuits on the machines, or a class.

Without a strategically planned program with detailed progressions built into it, how can you expect to see any change in your outcomes?

You can’t simply repeat the same exercises, at the same difficulty level, in the same order as you’ve continued to do every time you follow your fitness routine.

If you want results like strength, flexibility, fat loss, less pain, and more energy, it won’t be easy but if you know what you’re doing or have experts who do, it’s also not rocket science.

Dr. Steven Gall has been offering exceptional chiropractic care to infants, children and adults for over 25 years. He has spent his life learning, and improving his knowledge, skills and ability to provide his care. As a public speaker and health coach he strives to assist people in seeing and attaining a life of extraordinary health. Contact the office to join others who have started the same journey.