by Angela Mott | May 22, 2020 | General, Health, Nutrition, Wellness
No supplement or pill is going to cure or prevent COVID-19 at this time. What we need to do is be smart. Social distancing is important. They now believe that we need to be at least 13 feet away from people to prevent the spread of the virus. Also, if we are in the area of the virus, it can settle on our shoes. These also need to be cleaned. It is now being suggested that we wear masks wherever we go. Some stores will not let you in without a mask. We also need to keep our hands clean (washing with soap 20 seconds or more) and keep them away from our face.
Another important thing to keep in mind is to keep the immune system strong. Excessive sugar is never a good thing for anyone. Because most of us do not follow a good diet, in spite of what we think, taking quality supplements, along with eating fresh fruits and vegetables, will help boost the immune system. Some of the supplements recommended include the following:
- Vitamin D- It has been found that vitamin D may decrease the risk of respiratory infections. It has been suggested that people take 1000-5000 IUs per day. Those with major deficiencies will need to take more.
- Zinc- Zinc is helpful to the immune system. Zinc can prevent respiratory infections. A safe amount to take is 20-40 mgs. Too much zinc can affect copper absorption. Too much zinc can also cause nausea, vomiting, headaches, diarrhea, stomach cramps, and loss of appetite.
- Vitamin C- Vitamin C supports the immune system and is also an antioxidant. Taking vitamin C can decrease the time and severity of an infection. A recent study out of China found that those taking 1500 mgs/day had less severe symptoms of the COVID-19 infection. Vitamin C is best taken throughout the day and not all at one time.
- Selenium- This is an important mineral for immunity and it may enhance antiviral defense against influenza strains. It has antioxidant properties. You should not take more than 400 mcgs/day.
- Garlic- Garlic has anti-inflammatory properties and antiviral properties. An excessive amount can cause liver issues.
- Curcumin- It is an anti-inflammatory and may help with the immune system.
- Colloidal Silver- It can kill certain germs by binding to and destroying proteins. It is unknown exactly how it works, but it is believed that silver ions pass into germ cells where they interfere with the germ’s metabolic processes and damage its DNA. This leads to the cells death.
- Green Tea Extract- It is anti-bacterial and anti-viral. It helps the body fight respiratory and digestive infections such as influenza and diarrhea. Ingesting too much green tea can cause stomach problems, heartburn, diarrhea, headaches, palpitations and arrhythmia, anemia, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis. Someone with low caffeine tolerance will suffer these symptoms.
Stomach problems will occur from the high tannins that increase stomach acidity. This can cause nausea or constipation. Beware of this, green tea is not consumed on an empty stomach in Japan and China. Green tea decreases the absorption of iron in food. By adding lemon into the tea, it will increase iron absorption.
Headaches occur with those people who have chronic daily headaches. Because it has caffeine, it can cause anxiety, nervousness, and sleep issues. It can cause an irregular heart beat.
Caffeine increases acid in the stomach and can cause heartburn. Caffeine has a laxative effect.
Dizziness can occur because caffeine can decrease blood to the brain.
Caffeine can increase ringing in the ears.
Caffeine can increase the risk of bleeding.
Green tea extract supplements can affect liver damage. Drinking it can also increase the amount of calcium flushed out in the urine.
These are just a few of the things you can take and follow to protect yourself in these difficult times.
by Angela Mott | Sep 11, 2019 | Health, Injury, Nutrition, Therapy, Wellness
We all know that when we have a headache, neck pain or back pain there are many options to help relieve that pain. Our initial response is to take a pill, but which one. There are Tylenol, Advil, Aleve, Motrin, Excedrin, Aspirin. All these pills have side effects, some will affect organs like kidney and liver. Some may cause upset stomach or create ulcers if taken to long or incorrectly.
There is an alternate way to help with these pain symptoms. Chiropractic care and body work (various massage techniques, stretching) are natural ways to help decrease pain, inflammation and spasms. Best of all they will not have the harsh side effects like pills. These techniques used in conjunction with one another help to facilitate the healing process of the body. Here is a copy of an article written several years ago that states this fact.
MASSAGE THERAPY SUPPORTS CHIROPRACTIC FOR BACK PAIN, NECK PAIN, HEADACHE
Molly Kallenbach, D.C., says that the use of massage therapy enhances the effects of chiropractic spinal adjustments in the treatment of back pain, neck pain and headache.
Citing several recent studies from the American Massage Therapy Association demonstrating the effectiveness of massage against musculoskeletal pain, stress, and inflammation, Kallenbach says that her patients report that their conditions improved faster when massage and chiropractic care were combined.
The clinic offers several different types of massage designed to treat different conditions, including massage tailored toward helping expectant mothers, and also for patients going through rehabilitation for many types of injuries.
—Chiropractic Economics, nationwide, April 29, 2012
by admin | Mar 6, 2018 | Health, Nutrition, Wellness
Hardening of the arteries can affect any artery in the body and can contribute to heart disease and stroke. Stiffening, which is more than plaque formation, can damage capillaries which not only contributes to high blood pressure but can also contribute to heart attacks, strokes, cognitive decline, dementia, kidney failure, and other disorders as well. Vitamin D and vitamin K both contribute in slowing and even preventing arterial stiffening.
It has also been found that arterial stiffness can also contribute to kidney disorders, liver disorders, type II diabetes, cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, etc. The causes of arterial stiffness include diabetes, ageing, and calcification. Vitamins D and K both play an important role in calcium metabolism. Vitamin D helps in the absorption while Vitamin K keeps the calcium out of the arteries. Vitamin K also allows the proper deposition of calcium into bone which can help with osteoporosis.
In a study of middle-aged type II diabetics, subjects received either a placebo or 1000IU of Vitamin D daily for a year. After a year, the supplemented patients had a decrease in the measure of arterial stiffness; the placebo group had no change.
In another study, adults with high blood pressure and a Vitamin D deficiency were studied. After taking 4,000 IU of Vitamin D3 daily for 6 months, they had a 12.3% reduction in arterial stiffness. No changes were noted in the control group that only took 400 IU/day (the standard recommended dose).
A Danish study done in the winter months showed how 3000IU of Vitamin D3 reduced both the systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number) blood pressure in subjects who were Vitamin D deficient.
There is a protein called matrix Gla-protein that exists and Vitamin K is required to activate it and cause an inhibition of calcium from being deposited in artery walls. In a lab study involving diabetic rats, they were found to have a reduction of matrix Gla-protein of 36% compared with nondiabetic rats. This led to an increase in major artery calcium deposits of up to 56% and ultimately produced a 44% increase in arterial stiffness.
A recent human study that involved 244 healthy, post menopausal women ran for three years. Half received a placebo and the other half received Vitamin K2 in the form of MK-7. The study showed that supplementation of MK-7 significantly reduced (by 50%) levels of inactive matrix Gla-protein. This study showed how the Vitamin K supplemented women had significant reductions in arterial stiffness. An added benefit was that those with the highest stiffness at baseline experienced significant improvements list of other arterial parameters related to arterial suppleness as well.
Overall, Vitamins D and K are involved in how our bodies manage calcium, mainly with keeping it in our bones and out of the arteries.
To read the full article, please read Life Extension Magazine, March 2018, Reduce Your Risk of Arterial Stiffness by Celia Stanton, pp. 46-53.
by admin | Nov 5, 2015 | General, Nutrition
It is important to realize that vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that the body needs and must be obtained outside the body. As we age, we tend to have lower levels of vitamin C which can lead to impaired immune function. A deficiency in vitamin C has been associated with colds which can lead to pneumonia and other respiratory diseases. A deficiency can make us more vulnerable to infections. Reasons for a deficiency in vitamin C include aging, stress, and various disease states including diabetes, gastritis, cancer, arthritis, pneumonia and pancreatitis.
One of the most important functions of vitamin C is to support and energize the immune system. Studies have shown that the amount of vitamin C can not only reduce the duration and severity of the common cold, but it can reduce the incidence of developing a cold. Because all common cold studies do not produce consistent results, other nutrients may be needed to fight the common cold. The use of zinc lozenges when the cold first appears is one suggestion to follow.
Studies have shown that vitamin C can reduce the duration of colds from 5-21%. Studies using 1,000 mg or more per day have shown the incidence of a cold being developed being reduced by 50%. There is growing support for the use of vitamin C in the areas of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, anemia, periodontal disease, and osteoporosis.
For more information on this subject, please read “The Link Between Vitamin C and Optimal Immunity” by Chad Robertson in the 11/15 issue of Life Extension Magazine, pp. 56-64.
by admin | May 18, 2015 | General, Nutrition
Remove grains from your diet and your brain is released from the control of their mind active components. It is liberating, wonderful, and empowering. Your brain can be restored to its normal alert, energetic, calculating, and creative state. After withdrawal, the benefits that can be experienced include:
1. Improved mood
Once the depression that can accompany withdrawal is past, there is typically a substantial lifting of mood. This develops due to the removal of gliadin and other prolamin proteinderived exorphins, as well as increased levels of brain serotonin. People are happier and more optimistic, and they become better engaged with the people and activities of their lives.
2. Reduce anxiety
Many people are plagued by constant low-level anxiety, the sort of pointless and unwarranted unease that makes daily life an unpleasant experience. Typically, such anxieties recede with grain removal. For some, the effect can be dramatic and life changing, sometimes even providing relief from years of phobias such as agoraphobia or claustrophobia. For others, it may be a more subtle change, with relief from frequent or pervasive anxieties that darkened your life. Like suicidal thoughts, anxiety is easily reprovoked with any grain exposure, so avoidance is key.
3. Lifting of mind fog
Like the lifting of mood, a lifting of mind fog is also a common grain-free experience. People report that they are better able to concentrate for prolonged periods and are able to think more clearly, make decisions more easily, and speak more effectively. Writers are able to write for longer periods; artists are able to draw, paint, or compose more easily; business people can engage in discussion, perform at meetings, and prepare documents more effectively; and athletes are able to sustain concentration for a longer time and become less reliant on performance crutches such as energy drinks and protein bars. This effect applies to children just as much as adults. Some of the most dramatic stories I’ve heard have come from parents who report that their children’s school performance skyrocketed when they were freed from the fogginess of grain consumption.
4. Enhanced learning
Restoration of the capacity for prolonged concentration, clearer thinking, and reduced distractibility add up to an enhanced ability to learn. People listen more effectively, retain more with reading, acquire and synthesize data and concepts with greater ease, and enjoy enhanced recall. They are more focused, more creative, and more effective.
5. Reversal of seizures
As seizures have been associated with grain consumption, especially consumption of wheat, removal of grains can be associated with relief from seizures if grains were the initiating cause. Most commonly, sufferers of temporal lobe seizures experience a marked reduction or complete relief from these episodes. Although the causal association between grains and grand mal seizures is more tenuous, I am hearing from more and more people who have experienced marked relief from these dangerous events, as well.
6. Reversal of neurological impairment
People with cerebellar ataxia usually experience a slow, gradual improvement in coordination, balance, capacity to walk, and bladder control, or at least experience no further deterioration, after grains are eliminated. Because the nervous system is slow to heal and may do so imperfectly, the process can take months to years, so a long-term commitment is required to gauge improvement. Even multiple sclerosis, which results from autoimmune destruction of the myelin covering of nerve tissue, can slowly improve or reverse. It’s also critical that you simultaneously correct vitamin D deficiency, as preliminary studies suggest a powerful relationship between vitamin D and this condition.
7. Prevention of dementia
High blood sugars that occur day in and day out, many times per day, due to habitual grain consumption are reversed when grains are removed. Clinical trials have demonstrated the powerful association between blood sugars that are around 110 mg/dl — which is below the cutoffs for prediabetes and diabetes and considered just above normal — and the development of dementia, with even higher risk presented by the higher blood sugar levels of prediabetes and diabetes. Grain elimination is a powerful means of reversing high fasting and after meal blood sugars. Some people are also prone to the autoimmune process triggered by the gliadin and prolamin proteins that leads to dementia; it is likewise turned off with elimination of theinciting grains.
Excerpt from Wheat Belly Total Health, by Dr. William Davis. Published by Rodale Books, in 2014.
by admin | Apr 30, 2015 | Children, General, Nutrition, Sports, Therapy
Are your chocolate cravings so intense that you feel like it screams your name? Do you ever jump out of bed in the middle of the night because of a muscle spasm? Or, no matter what you try, do you have difficulty sleeping? There’s a good chance you’re deficient in magnesium.
Substantial numbers of Americans are deficient in the mineral magnesium. However, most people have no idea that they’re missing this vital mineral. Nutritionists often call magnesium the master mineral because it affects over 300 different enzymatic processes that help your body function properly. As a registered dietitian, I’d like to share seven of the most common symptoms of magnesium deficiency — backed up by research — I see when clients come for nutrition counseling:
1. Muscle cramps or spasms
If you’ve had one of these, you know how awful they can be whether you’re sitting at your desk or awakened in the middle of the night with a painfully tight calf! Muscle cramps are a result of muscle spasms, which are involuntary muscle contractions. Magnesium helps relax muscles throughout your body, so when you’re deficient your muscles will contract involuntarily.
2. Trouble sleeping
Millions of Americans have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. Magnesium plays an important role in the function of your central nervous system. Without sufficient magnesium, you may experience insomnia. Also, magnesium levels drop in your body at night, leading to poor quantity and quality of REM sleep, which is the most critical sleep cycle to recharge your body and mind.
3. Chocolate cravings
Dark chocolate is high in magnesium, and one square provides about 24% of your daily value of magnesium. Intense “I have to have it” chocolate cravings are another sign of magnesium deficiency. Your body actually craves what it needs sometimes.
4. Anxiety
Magnesium is the most powerful relaxation mineral. If you experience anxiety, this is a common early symptom of how your central nervous system is affected by magnesium deficiency. When you feel anxious, taking 200mg of magnesium may make you feel more relaxed.
5. High blood pressure
Many people wonder why they have high blood pressure even though they follow a healthy, whole food diet. Magnesium may be the answer; another important function of magnesium is relaxing and dilating your blood vessels. When you’re low in magnesium, your blood vessels constrict more, causing high blood pressure. Adequate magnesium levels also help balance your electrolytes. Unbalanced electrolytes can create high blood pressure as well.
6. Irregular heartbeat
It has become common for people to develop heart arrhythmias, then be put on medications. Your heart is a muscular organ, making the cardiovascular system highly dependent on magnesium to properly function. If your heart is deficient in magnesium, it can’t contract properly, which may cause irregular heartbeats.
7. Constipation
If you experience constipation regularly, that’s another sign you’re deficient in magnesium. When you’re low in magnesium, your intestines contract more, making it harder for stool to pass. Not only will magnesium relax your bowel to create a more regular bowel rhythm, but it also has an osmotic effect. Magnesium pulls water into the bowels, softening the stool. Choose magnesium citrate to help constipation. Most of my clients have at least one of the above symptoms and have found great relief after increasing their magnesium levels.
How can you increase your magnesium levels?
First, stop eating foods that deplete nutrients, such as flour and sugar. Instead eat foods high in magnesium, such as meat, avocados, leafy green vegetables and nuts. If you’re eating chocolate to restore some of your magnesium, make sure it’s at least 70% cocoa, and keep your chocolate intake to one ounce or less per day.
Even if you eat a healthy diet, you will likely still need to supplement with magnesium. Look for a good-quality magnesium supplement in the form of magnesium glycinate, which is one of the most absorbable forms. Most people need about 400 mg, but you can go up to 1,000 mg per day if needed. Take magnesium at bedtime for best absorption and to provide deep, rejuvenating sleep!
Here at Exum Chiropractic Clinic we sell top quality magnesium. It is through a local company called Xymogen. Call us at 407-423-0038 to discuss any questions you may have about magnesium and your health.
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