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.

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.

The kids are screaming, you’ve had less than 4 hours of sleep, your work deadline is approaching fast and you haven’t had time for yourself in weeks! To add insult to injury, now you have a raging headache blasting away at your skull like a jackhammer…how are you going to make it through the day?

It’s time to pull the trigger on your pre-set plan to stop this headache dead in its tracks and get back to feeling human again. You need the Headache Survival Guide!

WHAT IS A HEADACHE?

Headaches are one of the MOST common types of pain experienced by the population with 90% experiencing a headache at some point in their lives, 13% in the past year, and 3% suffering from chronic and debilitating headaches.

A headache is defined as pain arising from the structures and tissues that surround the upper neck, brain, and skull.

Types of headaches include migraines, cluster, tension, and 14 other classifications, while the pain can be throbbing, sharp, dull, aching, constant, intense, or mild.

Regardless of type or character, one thing remains true… HEADACHES SUCK!

YOUR HEADACHE SURVIVAL GUIDE

Here are five things you can start doing right away to reduce your headache pain and stop the suffering. Let the healing begin!

Drink Water

This sounds too good to be true. “I can get rid of this throbbing headache by just drinking some water?”

Yes.

In fact, one CBS news report claims up to 75% of the American population could be chronically dehydrated.

When you experience a loss of fluid, the brain itself can shrink and pull away from the skull causing irritation to the structures and pain in your head.

Once re-hydrated, the brain returns to normal and the headache disappears.

Take a Nap

In addition to all of the other benefits of napping, like more energy, better moods, and enhanced memory, participants in some studies have noted that going to sleep was the MOST effective strategy for reducing or resolving a headache.

Get Your Spine Checked

A cerviocogenic headache is characterized by pain perceived in the head but from a source in the tissues of the neck. Those sources could include the discs, ligaments, soft tissues, and blood vessels.

Distortion in the spinal column can exist for years affecting all of these components without presenting any symptoms…much like a cavity can deteriorate a tooth without causing pain.

The best way to determine if a structural problem could be contributing to your headaches is via a detailed analysis by a Life By Design Chiropractor.

Break a Sweat

It’s a common myth that you shouldn’t exercise when you have a headache.

Truthfully, I think it gets perpetuated as more of an excuse than anything else as running around and lifting weights are probably not high on the list when you feel like garbage.

However, if you can muster up the will power, exercise releases endorphins which are the body’s natural painkillers. They can help you reduce the severity of most headaches and impact the frequency of your future episodes.

Eat Well

It’s not new to attempt to reduce headaches by removing food “triggers”, however, it makes more sense to approach nutrition with respect to headaches from a different perspective.

Eating By Design naturally leads to a lower inflammatory response which means less irritation in the brain and an increased capacity for the body to self-repair.

HOW TO GET STARTED

Start with any or all of these five steps as a guide to survive your headaches and better yet, maybe even get rid of them for good.

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.