Save the Turtles

I often walk around the park that is next to our office.  There’s a small pond in the park.  I have no clue how they got there but there is a bunch of crawfish in the pond.  But over the past couple weeks I’ve noticed over a dozen crawfish leaving the water and trying to walk away from the pond!  If you don’t know much about crawfish, they don’t do well on land and the only reason they ever leave the water is if their current home is unsuitable for them (lack of food or oxygen, or the environment is too dangerous) and they go in search of a new place to live.  So, knowing there is no other place for them to go, I’ve been putting the little guys back in the pond because otherwise they would die!

The crawfish reminded me a lot of my mission to save the turtles when I was younger.  If you don’t know, Dr. Lauren and I grew up in Florida.  In Florida there are lots of turtles.  There’s land turtles, fresh water turtles, sea turtles.  They are everywhere!  But the problem with turtles is that they often get themselves into trouble.  It should be no surprise that they are very slow and are not great at jumping!  That’s not a big deal when they are in their natural habitat out in the woods or in a lake.  It’s when they come into our human world that trouble ensues.  Regularly in Florida you’ll see a turtle that has found himself in the middle of a busy road, impossibly stuck trying to climb a curb, or even a water turtle miles from any water.  It was always my mission to save the helpless little guys (even the alligator snapping turtles) because they didn’t know how to help themselves!  I am proud to say that I have saved hundreds of turtles in my time!

Animals, turtles and crawfish included, don’t have the ability to have conscious, rational thoughts.  They are guided by instinct and instinct alone.  They have an inborn intelligence that keeps them from danger, tells them where the best source of food is, where to find a good mate, etc.  Animals are great at surviving and even thriving.  That is until humans get involved.  Humans and the world we have created have interfered with the natural inborn intelligence that tells a turtle to move elsewhere in search of food, or a crawfish to leave the pond because there isn’t enough oxygen in the water.  The animal’s instinct remains the same, but because we have destroyed their natural environment they are often lead into an even worse situation!  So when a turtle is found in the middle of a highway, or a crawfish is on a hopeless journey that he won’t survive, it becomes our responsibility to save the little guys! 

The crazy thing is that we humans have that same intelligence within us that keeps us alive and well.  It’s not so much an instinct but our body’s ability to adapt and heal.  And thank goodness! Could you imagine trying to coordinate 70,000,000,000,000 cells every moment of every day for your entire life??  It’s hard for us to even pat our heads and rub our stomachs at the same time! Try digesting, breathing, pumping your blood, detoxifying, fighting germs all at the same time.  And that’s just the simple stuff, not to mention things like cellular respiration, or DNA replication.   Given the way God designed us, all we have to do is give our body the bare essentials that it needs and your body takes care of the rest!  But, the problem comes when us humans interfere.

As a race we have learned a lot.  We’ve done some pretty incredible things, and research has brought to light many wonderful theories, but we are still woeful ignorant to how our world and our bodies actually work.  We have barely begun to scratch the surface.  But in our arrogance we think that we know better than the incredible intelligence that God put inside of each of us, that is able to turn 2 cells into a 70 trillion cell living human who can heal cuts, mend broken bones, fight germs and diseases.  We have interfered with our inborn intelligence. We have filled our world and our bodies with toxic chemicals, junk foods, lack of natural motion and oxygen, stressed ourselves out to the max, and neglected our spines and nervous systems!  With all these things interfering with our body’s intelligence and ability to heal, we are no better off than the turtle hiding in his shell in the middle of the road.  We are lost, waiting for the impending disease, drugs, and surgeries that inevitably await us UNLESS something changes. 

What if instead of filling our body with junk food, we ate healthy meats, fats, and veggies?  What if instead of sitting all day we got up and moved constantly?  What if we filled our lungs with fresh air, removed the toxins, and learned healthy ways to manage our stress?  What if we prioritized our spines and nervous systems because we knew they were the source of life and health? What if we removed the interferences and trusted the intelligence that God put inside of us?  We would become the happy turtle living out in the wild, moving about freely, surviving and thriving just the way God intended us to. 

Here at NGFC, the solutions for sickness, pain, and disease are clear.  Give your body the things it needs and it will heal.  But that is not clear to most people.  I’ve asked thousands of people over the years if they would rather be healthy or sick.  The answer is ALWAYS the same.  We all want to be healthy!  But the fact remains that 5/6 people will die from either heart disease or cancer.  Over 80% of our country has a chronic disease and that includes children.  1/33 children today have autism.  We are sick even though we WANT to be healthy.  The problem is that most people think that the only solution they have is drugs or surgery, but no one wants more drugs or surgeries because we know those are not solutions!  They are merely cover-ups.  That is why my mission has changed from helping turtles to helping people.  Everyone needs and deserves to know HOW to be healthy!  But I cant reach our entire community alone.  So the next time you see a turtle, a crawfish, or a person that is lost, it is your responsibility to help them. 

My question to you then is this, who do you know?  Who are you close with that is far from health and how can you help them learn about health?

If you or someone you know here in the Colorado Springs, Monument, Palmer Lake area are ready to get started on your health journey we are here to help! Schedule a consultation today or give us a call for more info!

 

In Health and Faith,

Dr. Marc

Northgate Family Chiropractic

12245 Voyager Pkwy, Ste 124

Colorado Springs, CO 80921

Where is Your Focus

We all have a lot going on in our lives. Places to be, things to do, people to see. It seems like everything, and everyone is demanding our attention! Your child tugging at your shirt trying to show you something, your friends wanting to hang out, your car needs new oil, the bills need to be paid, everything requires a piece of you. The things of our world are set up to be the loudest, seemingly most important thing at that moment. Just scrolling through social media it’s clear that people are trying to grab your attention by any means necessary! So it becomes essential to predetermine what it is that you are going to focus on in your life, because whatever you focus on, grows!

Your subconscious is a powerful tool. It is working for you constantly whether you know it or not. I like to think of it as a search engine. It is constantly searching for whatever you ask it to. And it is VERY good at it. One easy example is your name. In a sea of thousands of people, with loud noise coming from every direction, you don’t hear much, just the constant clamor. But if someone even whispers your name, BAM! Your brain picks it up out of the 10,000 voices, all because your subconscious has been trained to search for your name! Another easy example is a new car. Let’s say you see a new car that you really like. You say to yourself (and your subconscious hears) “wow, I like that car”. Next thing you know, you see that car everywhere! It’s not that everyone around you actually bought that car, it’s your subconscious searching for what you told it to!

Now, your search engine doesn’t stop at names and cars, it seeks to make everything you say true. If you say, “today is going to be a terrible day”, all day long your brain is going to give you proof that it really is a terrible day! It could’ve been the best day ever but all you saw was the bad because that’s what you told your mind to search for! The opposite is true as well. Even in the face of the worst day ever, your brain will show you all the good if only you ask. Simply by focusing on the things that you want out of life instead of the things you DONT want, your brain will make it true.

So, what are you focused on? Intentionally focusing is a new concept to many. Like I said before, the whole world is trying to steal your focus so most of us simply wander through life being pulled and pushed by others into what they think we should focus on. So, stop for just a moment and ask yourself what do you really want out of life? I’m not talking about more stuff, what truly matters to you in life? What would bring you more peace, joy, and wholeness?

Maybe you’ve noticed in the office that we have a new monthly Victory Board. That little board has changed the office for us. Since the very beginning, all we’ve ever wanted at NGFC was to help people get their lives back and start living healthier more whole lives. But as chiropractors and health professionals nearly everyone who comes in is dealing with pain and sickness! And slowly, pain and sickness became our focus. It seemed like the whole office was full of people who were telling us about how they hurt or how they were sick even though that wasn’t true at all! It was just what we were focused on. But when we hung the Victory Board, we did so with the intention of celebrating the good things that were happening right in front of us. So, we started listening and searching for nothing but the good. We shifted our focus. These days it feels like the entire office is full of people who are experiencing miracles in their lives! All because we changed our focus.

So, whatever is going on in your life, I urge you to make a shift. Focus on what matters. Focus on the good things, the abundance you have in your life and watch as your life becomes full of joy! I believe Paul said it best, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

If you live in the Colorado Springs, Monument, Palmer Lake area and are ready to reduce your pain, restore your health, and reclaim your life give us a call and let us help you on your health journey!

In Health and Faith,

Dr. Marc

Northgate Family Chiropractic

12245 Voyager Pkwy

Colorado Springs, CO 80921

 

Be Still and Know

 

Have you ever wondered what people did before TV or radio? How did they not lose their minds from boredom?? Better yet, what did people do before electricity and lights? It’s hard to even conceive of living that way given our current society! We live in a world in which our minds are constantly distracted. We go from distraction to distraction without ever pausing to reflect and process. Here in lies the problem. We require stillness!

When was the last time you sat and did nothing? I’m not talking about vegging out in front of the TV for hours or mindlessly scrolling through social media. I’m talking about sitting and doing NOTHING. Setting your mind free of distractions allowing it to wander and reflect. To some who have been around long enough this idea isn’t completely foreign but to the younger generations many have been distracted for their entire lives! Many children these days grow up staring at screens day in and day out. There is a reason every religion on earth talks about quiet prayer or meditation. It’s because we all need stillness to be the best, most whole versions of ourselves.

We are living in the most informed time in history. Any information (right or wrong) is available to us at our fingertips. We can search any question and get an answer. But we need not search for it because we are constantly being bombarded with information every moment. From your TV, phone, and radio to billboards and marketing galore we are being told what to think and who we are constantly, and that way of living has turned us into people who are no longer able to think for ourselves but instead blindly follow along with the mainstream thoughts of the moment. It’s time to take back control of our thoughts and our minds and the first step is to do nothing.

I believe that God lives in our stillness. So often we pray for answers or solutions in life but then we rush off to find them in a book, a podcast, or a Facebook post from some famous pastor. Imagine asking a teacher a question then instead of listening for the reply we jumped on google for the answer. Even if the teacher did respond we’d be too distracted to hear. Now don’t get me wrong, God works in all sorts of ways, but we can always find Him in our still moments. This is evident in how He designed our minds to work. Pauses and breaks from input are required for proper mental health and processing. For memories to go from short term to long term requires input breaks. To truly learn something requires time to reflect. To fully understand ourselves and the world we live in, time to sit and ponder is absolutely necessary. You might be aware, but desperation and anxiety are skyrocketing in our world today largely because we never stop! It’s always go go go, jumping from distraction to distraction. When we live that way, of course we feel stressed an anxious!

It’s an easy thing to want to be still, it’s another thing to do it and that takes practice and effort! The easiest first step is to be still while you are driving. When you’re alone in your car turn off the radio. It’ll feel weird and awkward at first but soon you’ll start noticing the world around you. You’ll think deep thoughts and reflect on your day. The fact that you’re still doing something (driving) makes it a much easier transition.

The second step is to take a walk or a jog again with no music. Even better than driving you’re moving your body (and there’s no other people zooming around in their cars). Let your mind wander but also try to notice the things you see and hear.

The third step is to sit and notice. I love sitting with my eyes closed and using my other senses. Notice every sound that you can hear. Then notice everything you smell or everything you feel, even the weight of your clothes or the different temperatures you feel. Our world is so much more beautiful than just the things we can see. Try to quiet your thoughts and just sense the world.

From there you can go deep into the world of meditation and prayer but for most of us just turning off the TV or radio or putting down the cell phone for 15 minutes is a good first step. As you get better and better at it, you’ll be able to use stillness as a way to find answers or to process and understand the world we live in for ourselves or even just to find peace in your crazy life. So do your mind some good. Take time today to simply be still and know.

If you live in the Colorado Springs, Monument, Palmer Lake areas and you are ready to start your health journey, give us a call and let us help you and your family! 

In Health and Faith,

Dr. Marc

Northgate Family Chiropractic

12245 Voyager Pkwy

Colorado Springs, CO 80921

The Principles of Health: Part 3

Then there was one! It’s been a journey but as we come to the final part of the Principles of Health it is important to remember WHY any of this matters.  It is all about FREEDOM!  Think back to when you were a child.  You didn’t know much of the world.  You ran around without a care!  You had adults around to tell you what was right and wrong, what was dangerous and safe.  They took care of you because you couldn’t take care of yourself.  In that scenario you had very little freedom because you had very little knowledge of the world.  You see, the more you know about HOW the world works the more freedom you have because you can make better decisions about your life!  If you start playing chess and don’t know the rules, you will make bad decisions and likely lose.  BUT if you know the rules in and out, you can start to strategize and master the game.  Just like chess, when you know the rules of life (and health) you can use that knowledge to your advantage! 

Most people have no clue how health works.  You know you should eat more salads and less sugar but you don’t know why.  You know you WANT to be healthy but you don’t really know HOW.  Then, when you inevitably fall into sickness, you become a slave to the medical system all because you lacked the knowledge to free yourself.  With that in mind, let us free ourselves with knowledge!

 

Principle 6: The Primary Cause of Malfunction

Subluxation of the spine is ALWAYS the primary cause of malfunction in the body.

“One cause, one cure” has been a motto in chiropractic since the early 1900’s.  Back then chiropractors weren’t viewed a back poppers and neck pain specialists.  Chiropractors were known for getting sick people well even when medicine couldn’t.  The reason being was that chiropractors found and removed subluxations and were VERY good at it.  If you’re not a patient at NGFC let me catch you up to speed.  A subluxation is an area of the spine with dysfunction – that dysfunction of the spine interferes with the nervous system resulting in the body’s inability to function properly. 

Most people are woefully unaware that the spine’s job is to surrond and protect the spinal cord, which is your brain’s only way of communicating with your entire body!  Seems important.  That is why God protected it with bone!  More than that, every nerve in you body exits from the spine to go out and run/ heal your body.  But, when outside forces come in and damage or misalign the spine, that dysfunction will either interfere with the spinal cord itself or any one of the trillions of nerve fibers that exit through the spine.  NOW, all because your spine is misaligned, your brain can no longer tell your heart, your lungs, your immune system, your gut how to function and heal the way they were designed.  This then is the PRIMARY cause of malfunction in the body. 

Think of it this way, you can eat nothing but kale and broccoli for every meal, but if your digestive system cannot properly break down and use those good nutrients its all a big waste.  Or lets say you exercise like a mad man but your lungs and your muscles only have 70% nerve supply from the brain, your body is still breaking down!  The flip side is true as well.  If you do everything wrong!  If you are stressed to the max, never exercise, eat nothing but processed sugary junk, BUT your brain and body are fully connected, you will still be healthy!  How is that possible?? Because it doesn’t matter how many bad decisions you make, if your body is FUNCTIONING at 100% it will HEAL from the damage.

So, if you have headaches, stomachaches, irritable bowels, hormone imbalance, neck pain, back pain, numbness, tingling, asthma, eczema, high blood pressure, diabetes, what ever ails you, the PRIMARY cause is subluxation.  Because, if your body could have healed it, it would have healed it! 

Please hear this well.  There are an infinite numbers of secondary causes.  I am NOT saying that you can get adjusted and then live like a slob and expect to be healthy!  Like we saw in Principle 4, the body has requirements and if you are missing any of those requirements you cannot be healthy.  What I AM saying is that subluxation is ALWAYS a factor with any malfunction or lack of health. 

One interesting point to bring up is that when harmful forces come in from the outside, they impact the spine and cause subluxation.  When we think “outside forces” we often jump to falling on your back, or a car accident.  But outside forces can also be too much sugar, toxic chemicals, lack of fresh oxygen, a sedentary life, micro traumas from bad posture, even emotional stress can subluxate the spine!  So, while your excess stress is bad, it is not the cause of your tight shoulders and headaches.  Your stress is the cause of your subluxations, and your subluxations are the cause of your headaches.  The same is true across the board.  Your poor life choices lead to subluxation and subluxation leads to sickness, pain, and disease ALL because your body is not able to heal the way God intended.

 

Principle 7: Correct the Cause, Restore Function

When you correct the cause of malfunction, the body restores itself to full function

Principle 7 is the key to health.  If we all understood this we would be living in a different world.  We would no longer be living in a world where 5 out of 6 people die of chronic disease, where fathers forget their children’s names due to mental impairment, where young families lose loved ones to cancer or heart disease.  Children wouldn’t have diabetes, asthma, eczema, and autism.  We wouldn’t waste trillions of dollars on harmful drugs, vaccines, and surgeries.  We would live in the world that God intended for us.

Bold statements but its true.  By now hopefully you understand that you are designed for health!   Your body is constantly fighting for you to get back to health when you make bad choices.  When you are functioning properly your body always heals, BUT your body requires certain things to function properly, PRIMARILY to be subluxation free.  When there is enough malfunction, your body warns you through symptoms to make a change! 

It all seems so simple when you put it in those terms but without this basic understanding we become slaves to a system that does not utilize these principles, these laws, these fundamental truths about where health and healing comes from. 

Back to our car!  You ignored wisdom.  You didn’t take care of your vehicle.  It’s breaking down slowly and finally it warns you.  Check engine light comes on.  You are too busy.  It’s too expensive to fix.  You cover up the check engine light.  You cover the warning instead of fixing what caused it.  The problem can only get worse!  A short while later down the road and your car is ruined! You have to buy a whole new car! 

This is the problem with our “health” system today.  Every drug, every surgery, every vaccine is a cover to an underlying problem.  There is no correction of what caused the problem.  Every time you cover as opposed to correct an issue, it leads to a break down, a crisis later on.  BUT unlike your car, you only get one body. 

But, no matter how bad it is, how long its been there, when you find and correct the cause; you remove subluxations, you give your body everything it requires and eliminate the garbage from your life, your body goes back to functioning properly and it will be restored back to health.  Correct the cause and the body heals, every time.  This is the way God made you, and it is the second most freeing thing I know of.  Jesus is the first 😉

In Health and Faith,

Dr. Marc

The Principles of Health: Part 2

If you will recall from part 1, in the first 3 Principles of Health we learned that the normal state of the body is health, that the body heals and repairs itself in an attempt to restore health when forces come in from the outside, and for there to be 100% health the body must be functioning properly.  Let’s resume!

Principle 4: Requirements of Proper Function

For there to be 100% function certain requirements must be met.

For your car to work properly, it has a ton of requirements. It needs gas. Not just any ‘ol gas. It has to be the exact right type. Ever tried putting diesel fuel in your gasoline engine?? What if there’s water in your fuel? It gets ugly quickly. What if one of the bearings in your drive train is busted? Or if you have a flat tire? Even the timing of the engine has to be perfect or else it won’t run! There are 10,000 things that your car requires to run at all much less run perfectly. Now, your car with its 100,000 parts is nothing compared to your body with its 70,000,000,000 parts! To say that your body is more complicated than your car is a wild understatement BUT the concept is true. Your body has requirements to run properly, function at 100% and be healthy!

“Dr. Marc, what does your body require??” I’m so glad you asked! Humans have been investigating this question since Adam and Eve got themselves booted out of the Garden. And while science and research have over complicated the subject the answer has been the same since the beginning.

You require, oxygen and movement, proper nutrients, zero toxic chemicals, full nerve supply from the brain to the whole body, and a healthy understanding of WHO made you and HOW. More on these later on!

When your body has all of its requirements met it can function at 100%. If any one of these requirements are NOT met malfunction occurs. Next thing you know, your heart is only functioning at 70% because you chose sleep over exercise and you ate donuts instead of a healthy smoothie. Here lies the problem. People think that living the 5 Essentials is extreme. Eating zero sugar or grains is radical! Exercising 5 days a week is too much! Getting adjusted 3 times a week “doesn’t fit my schedule.” I’ll tell you a hard truth: living the 5 Essentials is THE MINIMUM! The 5 Essentials are called essential for a reason. They are plain and simply the starting point to health. You MUST do them to give your body everything it requires just to function properly. They aren’t “good” for you. They are “required” for you.

 

Principle 5: Signs of Malfunction

When function in the body has dropped below a certain threshold, warning signs are utilized to provoke a change in behavior.

Back to our car. This poor guy has been through a lot! We put the wrong fuel in it, didn’t change the oil or replace any filters, we have 2 half inflated tires, warn out bearings and belts all over, and we are now using starter fluid to get the engine going every morning! He’s had enough! The check engine light comes on.

People have come a long way when it comes cars. It used to be that you had to wait until the thing started smoking or a wheel fell off to know if something was wrong. Now a days there are sensors everywhere! If the washer fluid is low: boom – light comes on. Tire is flat: boom – light. Need an oil change – lights galore. Your car will even let you if it’s in a bad mood! Maybe not just yet but there are sensors and warnings for every important thing in your car. Your car lets you know if any vital thing is off even just a little so that you can fix it right away to ensure your car lasts as long as possible.

The same is true of the human body. Your body is so smart that it warns you when something is wrong! Dehydrated: boom – headache. Pinched nerve: boom – pain. Hormone imbalance: boom – low energy. Your body is constantly warning you of malfunctioning parts! But what do we do? Either we ignore the warnings, or we cover up them up. What happens if you ignore your cars check engine light or even worse, you cover it up?? You are way too busy to deal with such things! Places to go, things to do. And if you do get a free moment you are just too tired. Eventually you find yourself on the side of the road calling for an emergency tow truck! You wait until you’re forced to take action. The same thing happens with our bodies. The body gives us warnings signs and symptoms. Doctors call them “symptoms of disease”. They are NOT symptoms of disease they are symptoms of NEED. Your body needs you to do something different! Either start or stop something, often both. Gut issues? Stop eating donuts and start eating kale. High blood pressure? Cut out sugar and grain and start exercising. Headaches? Fix your spine. Your body is warning you to make a change or else things are going to break and you’ll find yourself on the side of the road calling for an emergency tow truck to the hospital!

It makes sense! Thank goodness for signs and symptoms so that we can make changes BEFORE emergencies strike! But most people still wait for the warning. Isn’t it better to maintain your car BEFORE the warning lights come on? Give it the right fuel, change the oil, keep air in the tires. It’s called preventing instead of reacting! This is so important for your health! Guess when your body warns you? When function has dropped to only 90%? Nope, that would be nice though. 80%? Yeah right. 70%? No dice. Your body gives you symptoms only when you drop to 60% function. You’ve lost 40% of your body’s proper function all because you waited until you FELT the warning!!  So, it seems wise to take care of your body and your health BEFORE the warnings come because once you’re being warned, the issue has been building a long time and the longer you wait the harder and more costly it will be to correct.

One more week of the Principles of Health to come!

In Health and Faith,

Dr. Marc