Wellness: The Cohesive Cornerstone of Chiropractic
While manipulation is the hallmark of the chiropractic profession, there is much diversity among its practitioners. We each have our favored ways of delivering the chiropractic adjustment.   What is a more cohesive bond to our profession is the deep commitment for the innate ability of the body to maintain wellness within the body, if properly nurtured.  We look to natural preventive lifestyles first, and consider prescription medications as a distinct aternative, when natural remedies fail.  In this mindset, we have found ourselves at odds with organized medicine  who view the remedies we find wholesome to be distinctly in the category of alternative medicine.  It would be odd to find a chiropractor who smoked...even back in the 70's, when the medical staffs of hospitals and medical offices were found commonly to be smokers.  Chiropractors recognized the absolute benefit of vitamins and herbs during the same eras of the 60's and 70's when the media on every level was carrying organized medicine's warnings about the health risks of hypervitaminosis and quackery of those who would encourage supplementing the diet. Today, due to public demand for health care programs without the inherent risks associated with mainstream medicine, there is a growing focus on alternative health programs.  The internet, despite the  need to sift fact from fiction,  is making the latest health research information available from around the globe and there is no longer the 20 to 30 year gap between research and delivery as was the case before internet.  The patient who diligently seeks information on a specific health issue can become nearly as well informed as the physician who delivers the care. It therefore behooves all of us who deliver health care to do so with openness and with a spirit of humility.  Some patients are well educated and have done their homework well.  Of course, no amount of knowledge will substitute for the manual skills of the surgeon, the dentist or the chiropractor.  As a result of all this,  one sees a softening of the hard lines that used to separate mainstream medicine from alternative care. There is now not only tolerance for, but some beginnings of respect for some aspects of alternative care.  We are very encouraged by these leanings toward wellness and the alternative care programs that encourage wellness.

Take Responsibility for Your Own Health
You may have the greatest doctor in the world, but you can not fail to take responsibility for your health.  If you think you can smoke, drink, engage in multiple sexual contacts and eat whatever you want and then come running to your doctor for answers when things go wrong, you are deceiving yourself.  At some point, this system will fail you and you will pay a great price.  In general, health is maintained by obedience to certain rules. Disregard the rules long enough and no magic cure may be found at any price and some of the cures may cause unintended, unexpected iatrogenic problems.    What are the rules?  The ancient Greeks understood one of the rules:  Moderation in all things.  Even good things can be pushed too far.  Today, such emphasis is placed on exercise for health, that there exists a real potential for excess, especially true for seniors.  What are the consequences of too much exercise?   Mostly orthopedic problems.  Tendonitis and pre-mature arthritis of the feet, ankles, knees, hips, back, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrist and hands!  Impact is the culprit and avoidance of high impact activities is strongly encouraged.  Look at it this way, would you rather purchase a low mileage car or a high mileage car?  Your joints need to last you a lifetime and that might be 100+ years, in the present generation.   Another rule to follow:  Maintain a clean body.   Inhale clean air.  Ingest clean food.  Insist on a clean mouth and mind.   Walking on a sidewalk next to heavy traffic pollutes your lungs.  Purify the air in your house with HEPA filters and keep dust levels down with regular vacuuming to eliminate allergens as well as micro-organisms. Eating processed foods (most white foods) pollute your nutrition.  Fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and soy are examples of clean foods for daily consumption.  Consider buying a Vitamix, which has the power to liquify grape seeds and even the small seeds of the blueberries and strawberries, where significant nutrients are stored.   Use a mouth wash like Listerine morning and evening for at least a minute, swishing and gargaling to kill germs that can invade your body.  Rid your mind of malice and unwholesome thoughts towards others and fill it with daily readings from Proverbs, Psalms or the New Testament. (1 Peter 2: 1 -3).   The Bible has much to say about wellness:  "My son, pay attention to what I say, listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart.  For they are life to those, who find them and health to a man's whole body.  Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." Proverbs 4: 20 - 23.

An example of a natural preventive lifestyle
Prostatic Hypertrophy.  One very common problem among males is prostate enlargement.  If you do nothing to prevent it, it will most likely happen.  When the prostate enlarges, the free flowing water works we males were born with gradually slow to a trickle.  This will send a man, who has never been to a doctor, make his way for a solution.  The solution his doctor will offer, of course, is a prescription drug.  As a chiropractor, I assume the problem will at some point take place and take measures to prevent it naturally.    What would those natural products be and where would I find them? While I recommend The Vitamin Shoppe in Central Park, Fredericksburg, for local purchase, I also use Pure Encapsulations for myself and my patients.  The web site for Pure Encapsulations is www.purecaps.com.    Much good information can be gleaned from the site and their products are wholly reliable and of the highest quality.  Natural herbs and nutrients available to live a lifestyle that will help keep your waterworks trouble free are as follows. Saw palmetto has long been safely used to support  prostate and urinary function through the maintenance of healthy testosterone  metabolism. 
Pygeum africanum is thought to maintain healthy prostaglandin and prolactin metabolism in the prostate.  Pumpkin Seed Oil provides essential fatty acids and zinc, important for prostate health. Nettle Root (Stinging Nettles) is associated with maintaining within the prostate healthy enzyme and  hormone levels.  These three herbs can be found combined in a single formula.   Cernitin flower pollen has been used for decades in Holland for maintaining free flowing urine. It is available from Pure Encapsulations under the name ProstaFlo. One very important nutrient for prostatic health  found in tomatoes is Lycopene.    
   Remember these would be taken on a regular  daily basis before the problem ever shows up.   Will they help if you wait until symptoms arrive?  Yes, they will if taken soon,  but if allowed to get too serious, quick solutions with natural means will not be fast enough for the demand for instant results that drugs offer.   Please remember, we are not saying that there will never be a need of medical intervention, because, there will be many who will.  What we are talking about is reducing the odds by adopting a preventive lifestyle.  Whether it is hypertension, elevated cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, macular degeneration, arthritis, Alheizmer's or breast cancer,  the best way to avoid it is to educate yourself on the natural lifestyle that has proven to reduce the odds and adopt it before you have the problem.  There is much overlapping. The same things that help one problem may be also helpful for anothers.  Many studies have shown evidence that lycopene, for example, supports cardiovascular health as well as digestive, lung, cervical and breast cell health.  Lycopene has also shown potential for promoting retinal and macular health.   For most of us, we will win some battles and lose some.  When we lose and fail to keep one of these conditions at bay with the prevention wellness plan, we adopt the "Integrated Plan", whereby we maintain our wellness program in place, but add "minimum dosage" prescription medication for control.  We don't know how much worse the problem would be and how much sooner it would have shown up had the prevention program not been in place.
  What some people use as an excuse to do nothing nutritionally is to bring up the contradictory evidence produced by this study or that.  Such studies can be frustrating, but don't allow a single isolated study to side track you.  Sometimes studies are skewed for a variety of reasons that are not obvious when first released.   Unless the evidence is overwhelming, we stick with the body of evidence already in place.   Where can you receive good information on nutritional studies and products?   One company is the Life Extension Foundation. They claim their products are of pharmaceutical grade quality. Their web site is www.LEF.org.    A $75 membership with Life Extension will bring you the monthly magazine plus a copy of their  1,665 page Health Manual, Disease Prevention and Treatment arranged alphabetically by health condition.  

One Common Mistake
Change is difficult.  One common problem we all have is changing our lifestyle.  Don't just add nutrition to your lifestyle.  Change your lifestyle.  Swap the good for the bad.  If not in whole, at least in part. If you continue to eat all the processed foods in the same quantities and add nutritious foods for health.  You will be successful in adding some really good anti-oxidating foods and healing herbs, but you will continue to pollute your body at a level that will overwhelm the good and overall you will increase caloric intake, increasing your weight!   Achieving and maintaining low weight is a top priority for good health. Saying good bye to potato chips, sugar and Crisco products is essential to maintain weight and our good health.  Don't be discouraged if you totally blow it on any one day or weekend.  Every day is a  brand new day.  Just keep fighting. You are not alone.  Most all of us are  fighting this fight.

Obviously the topic of wellness is huge and we have just scratched  the surface.  It is hoped that these thoughts will  encourage and challenge you and ultimately bring continued health and blessing to your life and those close to you.