Principles of Health

I was traveling recently and while sitting on the plane waiting for takeoff, I started talking to the fella sitting next to me. He asked me what I did for a living. To tell him that I adjust babies and save lives didn’t seem appropriate! So, I simply told him I’m a chiropractor. He immediately said, “oh, no offense but I don’t believe in chiropractic”, as if chiropractic was a religion! It probably seems odd to you especially if you’re a patient at NGFC, but the notion that chiropractic is an unscientific “cult” is relatively common. But chiropractic and taking care of your spine and nerve system is based on principles not theories.

By definition, a principle is a comprehensive and fundamental law (think laws of physics, not running red lights). A law cannot be broken. If it is ever broken it is no longer a law! Take the law of gravity for example. When an apple detaches from a tree, it falls. Sometimes? Nope, every time. If an apple ever floated up to the sky the law of gravity has been broken and it’s no longer a law!

Chiropractic is founded on the Principles of Health. Over the next two weeks we will be diving into these principles so that you can better understand how God made you and how to take care of yourself so that you can be the best version of yourself possible! Here we go!

Principle 1: The Normalcy of Health

 The normal state of the human body is a state of health.

This is huge! Because it means that you were designed to be healthy and pain free! You were not designed sick, broken, in pain, or lacking ANYTHING. God created you to be healthy and well all the days of your life! That goes directly against what we are taught. From day one we are taught that babies and fragile and weak and that they require drugs and vaccines just to stay alive. Even birth is treated as a medical procedure in our country. Instead of seeing birth and babies as two of Gods most incredible creations we view them as problems that need human intervention. Principle 1 is a statement that you were created perfectly and lacking nothing. The notion that God’s perfect creation would require the feeble knowledge of man is ludicrous.

Principle 2: The Healing Nature of the Body

 The human body adapts and heals in reaction to outside forces.

This one is huge too! (I think they’re all huge) This means that when “forces” (traumas, toxins, even harmful thoughts and stresses) come into the body, it jumps into defense mode! Your body heals itself! Simple examples: if you cut your finger, your body heals it. No band aid, no disinfectant, nothing heals that cut except your body. Broken bones mend. Skin, organs, cells all replace themselves. Your body even fights disease through your immune system. Your immune system fights and kills germs, viruses, bacteria. Even chronic disease. Your immune system seeks out and kills cancer cells, heals clogged arteries, saves you from high blood sugar. Your body is constantly on guard from the moment you are conceived to the moment you pass away, fighting for you to keep you alive and get you back to that normal state of health!

Principle 3: Health Equals Function

 For there to be 100% health there must be 100% function.

Based no principles 1 and 2 we know that the normal state of the human body is health and wellness. When your body is anything less than healthy (sickness, pain, disease, imbalance) your body does everything within its power to heal, repair, restore, and balance you to get you back to being healthy. But that can only occur when your body is FUNCTIONING properly.

Think of the tires on your car. When the tires are properly inflated, and they are in alignment your car runs nice and smoothly. Everything is great! But if just one of your tires is flat your car will still drive but it will not drive very well at all! And it’ll lead to further damage to other parts of your vehicle! It will certainly screw up your alignment, the shocks will wear out. It’ll stress the transmission and engine. All because of that “malfunctioning” tire, your whole car has issues! But even if that tire wasn’t flat it was a just a little low, the damage won’t happen as quickly but sure enough the exact same issues will occur.

It’s the same with your body. If any part of your body is malfunctioning it simply cannot do what it’s supposed to do (repair, restore, rebalance). So slowly but surely that malfunctioning part of your body is breaking down leading to sickness, pain, disease. Ever wonder why smokers get cancer in one lung but not the other? Both have the same genes, are the same age, have been breathing the same air (and smoke). Why does one build cancer? Because one is malfunctioning worse than the other thus it cannot heal and repair!

So, to be able to adapt and heal from all of the outside forces of our world and to have perfect health, every part of your body must be functioning perfectly.

These principles are the foundation of how God made man.  We can use these principles to help guide us to make better decisions concerning how we view and manage our health!  Next week we will continue on with the remaining Principles!  Until then, I’ll see you in the bay.

If you live in the Colorado Springs, Monument, Palmer Lake area and you are ready to restore your health and reclaim your life, head to our website or give us a call to schedule you and your entire family an opportunity to start your health journey with us!

In Health and Faith,

Dr. Marc

Northgate Family Chiropractic

12245 Voyager Pkwy

Colorado Springs, CO 80921

 

Don’t Forget to Live, Too

When I was a kid, my parents built a house up in the Rocky Mountains on a hill of granite. I do not know about you, but what seems the perfect recipe for a dusty and dirty house is a hobby farm full of animals and four children constantly running in and out of the doors. It would have made perfect sense if our house was always a little dusty and a little dirty. The interesting thing is, I cannot remember our house ever being dirty. My parents liked having a clean house and every day they would sweep and vacuum, instruct us to take our shoes off, clean the dogs before they came in, and designate various household cleaning chores to us on the weekend. Living in a clean house was nice. But it was a lot of work – especially for my mom. Over the years, us kids grew up and became teenagers and young adults, we moved, we had a bigger house, my mom started working outside the home and going back to school– and cleaning the house became less of a priority.

My mom shared some wise words of a family friend with me – her friend told her that it was okay that she didn’t clean the house as often and that it was a little more “lived in” because the “house was there to serve my mom, not for my mom to serve the house.” Now, my mom still keeps the house clean, but she is not living to keep her house clean. Instead, she allows the house to serve her while being a good steward of it. So often we can get caught up in the motion of things we often forget the why. We keep immaculate houses, prioritize clean cars, lose sleep over the next job promotion, and obsess over being fit. And in the process, we can forget the reason why we started doing the things we do in the first place.

I have found that this can easily happen on a health journey; we become more focused on serving health, than health being there to serve us. We pursue health because it enables us to live our best lives, love those around us, and serve those we are called to serve. We like to call this our big why. The “big why” is the reason why we chose and continue to choose to do something and prioritize it. For example, I really love doughnuts. I love getting a doughnut from time to time on a special occasion – but I choose not to get them very often because it does not align with my life and what I want for it. I want to be healthy – for myself, for my family, my future children, and my community. And eating a doughnut every day does not align with my health goals. But from time to time, I forget my, we shall call it a little why, and become obsessed with eating healthy because I feel like “I should,” “I must,” or I failed myself if I did not. The reality is, most days it is serving your health and thereby serving you to eat a nutritious breakfast rather than a doughnut – but sometimes, it serves your emotional and mental health more to enjoy having a doughnut, or a piece of cake for a special occasion, or a bowl of ice cream.

Now, by no means am I suggesting you give up on eating healthy or any of the other essentials we teach in our office– only that you look at your decisions and see why you make those choices and if they are serving your goals and ability to love and serve those around you. Here are a few ways to evaluate health decisions and help you discern if those decisions align with who you are and your goals.

Ask yourself:

• Is this serving me and those around me?
• Is this giving me life and energy?
• Is this draining me and taking away from my goals?

I whole heartedly believe in our office and the 5 essentials – I think everyone should get adjusted frequently, eat whole nutritious food, move and exercise, grow a beautiful mindset, and reduce toxins. It takes wisdom and discernment to understand how to apply these concepts to you and your family’s lives. For instance, if you can never enjoy a piece of cake at a birthday party because you are so worried about it affecting your health, I challenge you to step back and ask yourself if you are able to enjoy those moments and have a healthy mindset surrounding special events. After all, anxiety about not doing well enough can be just as detrimental to your health. But if you really do not like how you feel after eating a piece of cake or know if does not align with your health goals, then never eating another piece of cake might be the best decision.

I want to encourage you – pursue health. But let health serve you. Make choices that are sustainable long term for your body, mind, and soul and adapt; as one season shifts into another, look forward with grace on yourself and with a desire to grow. As my mom’s friend said about the house “The house is not there to be served, it is there to serve you,” so is true about health, “Health is not there to be served, it is there to serve you.” Live healthy, but do not forget to live, too.

 

Anna

Question Everything

These days no one thinks for themselves.  We have been slowly trained to stop thinking altogether and just keep listening and believing what we are told.  We have largely even lost the ABILITY to think.  We are so bombarded with constant information and facts, and we are so caught up in the news and happenings of social media that our brains don’t even have a free moment to process (then you wonder why you can’t turn your brain off at night).  What it really boils down to is that we are over informed and under reflective.

When was the last time you just sat and thought about things?  I’m not talking about meditating or even quiet prayer time, just sat and thought.  I have to remind myself all the time!  It seems crazy doesn’t it?  We have to remind ourselves to think!  But the fact is that we have been trained to fill our free time with information.  For me, one of the most shocking realizations to this fact was a study that found that if you can see your phone, you think about checking it every 7 seconds!  You’ve probably even experienced the desire to check your phone WHILE ON YOUR PHONE!  We can’t even drive in our cars or sit in our houses without some amount of music our background noise.  We constantly want more!  More noise, more distractions, more information.  But information without reflection is dangerous.

The Greek philosopher, Socrates taught his students to question everything.  It didn’t matter who said it, where the information came from, or how right it seemed, he urged his students to dig to the bottom and find the truth in everything!  These days we have fallen far from the Socratic Method of questioning the things we hear.  In fact, the majority of our country doesn’t question anything at all.  They scroll through social media and read something they find interesting or agree with and believe it as truth never questioning where the information came from, what was the context of it all, and most importantly, does it make sense??  That can be dangerous.  If you blindly believe everything you are told, you will fall victim to the false information of our world.  Go back one year ago and look at what the leading doctors and scientists were saying.  Is it the same today?  Nope, they radically have changed their story a dozen times.  None of it made sense back then, and the things they are telling us now don’t make sense.  But, we believed it all the same.  Because we didn’t question it. 

In my men’s bible group, we have been talking about HOW to read and study the bible.  What I’ve learned is that most people read the bible out of context and thus misinterpret what was being said, then when they apply it to their lives, they inevitably fall short or become frustrated all because they didn’t first OBSERVE what was going on!  Who wrote the book?  Who did they write it to?  What was happening during that time in history? What was the context?  Who translated it?? The most important part of any information, whether it’s the bible, a post on FB, or stats from the CDC, is to first OBSERVE what is going on and then interpret from there.  Question everything.

This week I challenge you to do a few things.  Number one; find time in your week to sit and think.  It can be as simple as turning off your radio while you drive, sitting at lunch alone without your cell phone, or even waking up early just to sip your coffee in silence.  But that time of quiet reflection will give your mind the break it needs to reflect and process all of that crazy information that is constantly coming in.  Number two; start questioning the new information coming in.  When your read or hear anything ask as many questions as you can.  Who said it?  What was the context of saying it?  Do they have their own agenda?  Does it make logical sense?  Do this for the things that you agree with AND the things you disagree with!  Number three; ask yourself what you believe and why.  Start with the most basic things and work your way to more detailed stuff.  Ex: I believe there is a God.  What has led me to believe that?  You will be shocked at how little you’ve actually thought about why you believe the things you believe but that process will anchor you to your principles and morals thus making it even harder for false information or fear to hurt you. 

These times have been very trying for us all.  There has been misinformation and fear galore.  But the ones who knew what they believed and why stood firm.  Its time for all of us to do the same.  No more following the crowds like sheep.  Question everything (even this newsletter!)

In Health and Faith,

Dr. Marc

                                                                                                                                Life Will Find a Way

Jurassic Park is one of my favorite movies. For a lot of reasons but it was the first R rated movie I ever saw. My grandfather took me to see it in the theaters. I was 5! So, to say it impacted me is a grand understatement. But that one line, “life will find a way” has been a defining principle in my life. If you recall, the scientists were describing how they were able to bring dinosaurs back to life. They use the DNA and they breed all of the dinosaurs as female so they cannot reproduce in the wild. Then Jeff Goldblum expresses his concerns about “playing God” and he closes his argument that “life will find a way.” Truer words have never been spoken. Without spoiling the movie too much, life did find a way, and 6 movies later there’s dinosaurs running wild all over the world!

I am often in awe of nature. God truly made a miraculous world. It seems like every day we discover some amazing aspect of the natural world that we previously thought impossible. We used to think that germs like viruses and bacteria were all bad and deadly but we now know that they are essential to life on earth. And recently we found that plants communicate with animals via their genes. Plants can sense when the environment is changing, they alter their genes, the animals eat the plants and gather the information from the genes, and next thing you know, a million wildebeest are migrating across the plains of Africa because some grass told them to! But the most impressive part of nature is its ability to adapt.
Earth has gone through a lot since the beginning. It’s been hot, it’s been cold, there’s been floods, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, dinosaurs, humans. The Earth has seen it all. Yet it’s still here, because through it all, nature has adapted. It doesn’t matter what is thrown at it, nature adapts to survive. In our arrogance we humans think we are destroying the planet. It’s not true. We are definitely CHANGING it but we cannot destroy it. Life will find a way! Think of all the ancient civilizations. The people that lived thousands of years ago. They made a huge impact on the plant. They cut down forests, slaughtered animals, and built massive structures. Yet today there is barely a trace of them. Some are buried under layers of earth, some are under the sea, some are encased in cooled volcanic lava, and some are hidden deep if forests. Nature persisted long after the humans because it adapted.

2020 showed us Nature’s ability to adapt and survive in real time. Since we were forced to shut down our world, it shut down travel, shipping, and reduced pollution almost overnight. In just a few short months, without humans making matters worse, nature sprung into action. Rivers and lakes started clearing up, animals migrated across the planet freely, forests and animals started coming back from near extinction. Without humans to interfere the Earth was able to get back on track. Life found a way.

Its nice to know that the Earth will be just fine without us but what does that have to do with health? It has everything to do with health! That same incredible ability to adapt lives inside each and every one of us! And just like the Earth, if humans would just get out of the way our bodies would heal and thrive exactly how God intended them to. We live exactly the opposite of how we were created. We were meant to be upright, moving around, eating God made food, and breathing fresh air. Instead, we fill our bodies with man-made garbage and chemicals, sit all day, staring at screens under artificial light. BUT your body is so incredible that it adapts to all the harm you do to it. Life finds a way! So next time you feed yourself that toxic chick fil a sandwich and a coke laden with sugar and chemical colorings, while sitting on your iPhone, thank your body for adapting and keeping you alive for another day! See you in the bay!

In Health and Faith,

Dr. Marc

Survival of the Fittest

Humans by nature are survival experts. I’m not talking about the Survivor Man or Bear Grylls type of surviving. I’m talking about getting through the day type of survival! We are hardwired for self-preservation. Our minds are always on guard trying to protect us from harm trying with all their might to get us from this moment to the next with all limbs intact! That was very helpful when our biggest threats were bears attacking us or running out of food before winter was over. But times have changed. We no longer need to fear bears (at least not daily!) or lack of food. But our minds have not changed. We are still hardwired for survival.

The simplest example of self-preservation is our fight or flight response. When our minds perceive a threat, we go into either fight or flight mode. Our bodies quickly adapt to the threat. All nonessential processes are turned off. Things like, digestion or sex hormones are not very helpful when a bear is chasing you. Your immune system, while extremely helpful most of the time, does no good when your house is burning down. So your brain shuts off all non-essential activities! Ever heard of someone pooping their pants from fear?? It’s real! And it’s because your body is getting rid of all excess baggage so it can flee faster.

At the same time your body ramps up all of the lifesaving processes! Your heart rate and breathing shoot up sending loads of blood and oxygen to your muscles to run or fight. Your brain becomes hyper focused on the problem at hand. You don’t want to be worrying about what’s for supper while your car is spinning out of control. Your eyes dilate to see better. Adrenaline is pumped out to give you what seems like superpowers! Think of a mom lifting a car to free her trapped child.

The problem is that our threats in life no longer come from bears or avalanches. They come from emails from your boss or unpaid bills. They are the daily stresses of life. But your brain doesn’t know the difference. It senses a threat and takes immediate action. Your babysitter cancels on you! Stress! Your brain, not knowing any better still turns off digestion, reproduction, immune system, all “no essentials” and still ramps up heart rate, breathing, brain activity, adrenaline! It starts to make a lot of sense why chronic stress is so harmful. Instead of living in a state of rest and digest we live in fight or flight all because of our hardwiring.

Our minds are so good at self-preservation that we’ve even developed a search engine for things that are harmful. Your brain constantly scans the world for threats. That’s good when you’re in the woods picking berries and you don’t want to be eaten but not so good in daily life. Your search engine is 3 times better at finding negative bad things than positive good things. We are wired to see all the bad things in life! Ever had a day where lots of great things happened but there was that one small negative comment that some stranger posted on your social media? Despite all of the good, the one tiny bad ruined your day! It’s just your brain looking out for you!

Then there’s your comfort zone. We’ve all dealt with it. It’s uncomfortable stepping outside of the box, trying something new, talking to a stranger. Your mind builds up this barrier. It looks at all of your past experiences and says “these are the things that we’ve done that went well. Let’s keep doing those things. If we try something new it could be harmful. Let’s not risk it.” Your mind holds you back from acting because stepping outside of your zone of comfort is a major potential threat! Your mind resists anything that is potentially uncomfortable. Ever had a hard time getting out of your comfortable bed? Now you know why.

“Great, not only do I have to worry about my to-do list today I also have to fight my brain to get it done!” That’s kind of true! We do have to deal with our hardwiring but just knowing how your mind works can be empowering! Just knowing that when you wake up at 5 AM to work out your brain is going to try and stop you, can be helpful. It’s not that you’re lazy or unmotivated. It’s your brain trying to keep you in its “safe” comfort zone! Or when you get a stressful email, and your heart rate goes up and your stomach churns you can acknowledge what is happening. Or when you feel like you’re having a bad day you can remind yourself that there was probably way more good than you saw that day. Just knowing how you work is very helpful.

But there’s a few more things you can do!

To see more good: start every morning by writing down 3 things you are grateful for. This will help you focus on what is going well in your life, not wrong. Also, when you feel yourself thinking negative thoughts or complaining, quickly say 3 positive things. This will start to retrain you negative search engine!

To feel less stressed: if you can minimize the stress in your life that’s great but often you can’t. You can’t make your boss be nicer to you. But you can change how your body reacts. When you feel stress rising and your body going into fight or flight mode take a step back and breathe. Research says that if you breathe in for an equal amount of time that you breathe out it lets your brain know that you are safe and there is no need for fight or flight. I like “box breathing”. Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold it in for 4, out for 4, hold it out for 4. Repeat till you’re chilled out. Also, every adjustment resets your nervous system. Ever feel flushed, have a rush of energy, or have sweat on your brow right after an adjustment? That’s your nerve system switching from fight or flight to rest and digest mode!

To get out of your comfort zone: your brain will always hold you back from taking action to keep you “safe”. But often we want to act! We want to talk to that stranger or wake up and work out. So, to push through your comfort zone give yourself a countdown. Start at 5. 5-4-3… and by the time you hit zero you better be on the move. This does a few things. By counting you are silencing your inner voice that’s telling you no! It is also giving you a very short deadline to act. Get moving now! Try it next time you’re about roll over and NOT wake up or the next time you want to speak up or say hi to a stranger. Just start the count down and go.

Just knowing how your brain and body works can be very empowering but with that knowledge we can build tools and tricks to get the most out of our lives! And before you blame your brain for all that is wrong in your life, just remember that without that hardwiring that God put inside of you, your ancestors might not have survived to enable the day that you were born!

In Health and Faith,

Dr. Marc