(303) 794-1737 Directions Book Now

Category: Healing

Holistic Habits for Physical Health

Most people view physical health as a number on a scale or level of pain, but that only touches the tip of the iceberg. Physical health is how we care for our bodies through personal choices and habits that lead to long-term health.

So what holistic habits and choices can you make to improve your physical wellness?

Sleep

Sleep is a great place to start. Our bodies do a substantial amount of healing while we are sleeping. Dr. Kenneth Wright Jr., a sleep researcher at the University of Colorado, says that everything from blood vessels to the immune system uses sleep as the most effective time to repair.

Adequate sleep improves your mood, brain performance, and overall health. It is important for brain and cognitive function, including attention and concentration, problem-solving, and decision-making. Deep sleep is also necessary for your brain to send memories to long-term storage, learning, and memory recall.

Conversely, poor-quality sleep can raise the risk of many diseases and medical complications like heart disease, stroke, and even obesity. A chronic lack of sleep increases your chances of anxiety and depression. So a reduction in sleep means a reduction in the ability to handle stress and irritability.

Nutrient-dense foods

Eating nutrient-dense foods is also a great way to naturally improve physical health. Nutrient-dense foods are rich in vitamins, minerals, and other vital nutrients while containing fewer calories than processed foods. An overconsumption of calories, especially processed ones, can lead to weight gain and obesity.

Some nutrient-dense foods are also in water and fiber, like fresh fruit. Fruit has low-density energy, meaning you consume fewer calories in a more significant amount of food.

For example, two cups of sliced raw apple are roughly 100 calories, while one cup of unsweetened apple juice is approximately 113 calories. You will feel more full after the sliced apples because the volume of food per calorie outweighs the cup of juice.

The typical American diet is technically energy-rich, considering the high amounts of added sugars, refined grains, and processed oils. However, this diet is highly nutrient-poor due to being stripped of health-promoting compounds that we can find in whole foods.

Here are some examples of nutrient-dense foods: Seaweed, leafy greens (kale, spinach, collards), cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts), bell peppers, garlic, herbs, berries, bone broth, grass-fed beef, beets, green beans, lentils, pumpkin, tomatoes, black beans, cacao, sweet potatoes, yogurt, avocado, and even MORE.

Exercise

Exercise is another crucial element to staying physically healthy. It can increase strength, improve balance, sleep better, reduce depression and anxiety, help control blood pressure, and even give you more energy throughout the day.

We know it sounds silly that to gain more energy, you need to exert some, but it’s true! Changes begin to occur inside your cells when you are physically active, like the production of more mitochondria. Mitochondria create energy out of glucose from the food we consume and oxygen out of the air we breathe.

Exercise also boosts oxygen circulation in the body, which supports energy production and allows the body to function and use energy more efficiently. This is because we have two different ways of creating energy in the cell.

The fastest way to make energy in the body is through the Anaerobic pathway. This pathway is a 20-step process resulting in 2 units of energy. However, when we exercise, we pull more oxygen into the body. As a result, our cells can use this extra oxygen in what is called the Aerobic pathway. By simply adding oxygen into the equation, this 8-step pathway will produce 36 units of energy.

So what is the easiest way to get into exercise? Start walking. It improves mood, reduces fatigue, lowers stress hormones, and boosts endorphins. Walking for 30 minutes to an hour a day can kickstart that aerobic pathway and provide you with the energy you need.

Now that you know a little more about how to keep your body physically healthy, it’s time to set out for action! Exercise, nutrient-dense foods, and physical activity are great stepping stones to living a happier, healthier life.

March 3, 2023
Go Touch Grass: The Healthy Aspect of Being Outside
Have you been feeling exhausted lately? Have you been suffering from headaches that come and go? Maybe you have high blood pressure or are anemic? Perhaps your immune system has been suppressed, and you can’t seem to shake that stuffy nose? There are many places to turn to for advice on how to get back to the healthiest version of yourself. But have you ever considered just… going outside?

I know what you’re thinking, that there is no way simply spending time outdoors can fix anything! But there are numerous physical, mental, and emotional health benefits to going outside:

Benefits of Sunlight

An estimated 1 billion people worldwide are deficient in Vitamin D. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin known to help the body absorb and retain calcium and phosphorus; both are critical for building strong bones. Luckily, our body can make its own with the help of a bit of sunlight.

There are two types of Ultraviolet rays the sun provides for us:
- UVA rays have lower energy and longer wavelengths, meaning they can penetrate through glass.
- UVB rays have a higher amount of energy and a shorter wavelength. They cannot penetrate glass, but they do help with Vitamin D Production.
Both indoor and outdoor sunlight exposure can cause the skin to release Nitric Oxide into the bloodstream. Nitric Oxide is a compound occurring in the body that causes blood vessels to dilate, which can stimulate the release of hormones such as insulin and human growth hormone (HGH). It can also relieve high blood pressure levels, decreasing bodily stress.

Sun exposure can also lead to increased iron and carbon monoxide production. Now I know what you are going to say: Isn’t carbon monoxide deadly to breathe in? It absolutely is, but when it is converted in small amounts in the cells, it prevents the production of inflammatory cytokine cells. This means your body can actually produce its own anti-inflammatory effect!

The sun can help heal your skin too. UVB light has been shown to help improve inflammatory autoimmune-related skin conditions, such as eczema and psoriasis. The UVB rays help to slow down overreactive skin cells and calm inflammation.

The sun even aids in your sleep pattern. There is a direct line between decreased sun exposure and cognitive impairment. Natural sunlight impacts our circadian rhythm, which affects serotonin and melatonin production. Without proper light wave exposure, serotonin can’t produce enough melatonin to induce a regular sleep cycle later in the evening.

Benefits of Fresh Air

There are many proven health benefits of fresh air. Some of these include stress relief, boosted energy, reduced high blood pressure, reduced depression and anxiety, improved sleep, and even clear lungs.

When you breathe in, oxygen enters your lungs and then moves into the blood, while carbon dioxide moves out and is exhaled. Mold, pet dander, stale carpet, and bacteria can contribute to a poorer quality of air inside your house, so your lungs could use a break!

Breathing in the fresh air and smelling the outdoor plants and flowers has even been shown to relieve anxiety and stress-related issues. This is because oxygen aids in the release of serotonin, which is our mood-regulating hormone. More serotonin means a generally happier mood.

Many studies show that time spent outside has critical psychological effects on the mind, including decreased negative thoughts, reduced symptoms of ADHD and ADD, and improved cognitive development. Breathing in fresh air increases the amount of oxygen moving into your blood and brain, improving mental clarity.

Benefits of Grounding

Another way to reap the benefits of going outside is to engage in grounding, also known as earthing. Grounding is an exercise where you place your bare hands or feet directly against the Earth’s surface. It is prevalent in many cultures worldwide and has been shown to improve overall health and well-being.

Encounters with nearby nature help alleviate mental fatigue by relaxing and restoring the mind. Different parts of our brain activate in nature—our mind calms, leading to physical changes, like a reduction in heart rate and blood pressure.

Did you know 90% of chronic health conditions are linked to inflammation? The Earth is FULL of antioxidants, which help to protect healthy cells from inflammation damage. When we touch the surface of the Earth, free electrons are transferred through the skin and into our bodies. They then pair up with free radicals to act as antioxidants.

In the same way, grounding and its anti-inflammatory properties can improve wound healing. In fact, it is possible to feel a decrease in pain in as little as 30 minutes.

Physically connecting your body to the Earth can improve sleep, reduce pain, increase heart rate variability, increase wound healing, reduce blood viscosity, reduce stress, and so much more.

So what now?

GO OUTSIDE! Scientists have proven that simply looking at the color green can reduce stress levels, so the benefits of spending time outdoors speak for themselves. Not to mention going outside gets you engaged in physical activity. Whether you are walking, biking, golfing, gardening, or sitting, mother nature is ready to serve you.

“nature is not an amenity—it’s a necessity. We need to take it seriously.”

-Assoc. Prof. Marc Berman, director of University of Chicago’s Environmental Neuroscience Lab

Also to find other ways to get healthy and stay healthy for a lifetime contact our Littleton, CO wellness center.
February 6, 2023
Yoga and Spinal Health
When many of us in the western world think of yoga, we think of contorting our bodies into odd, seemingly impossible shapes. In reality, yoga has nothing to do with fancy poses or impressive flexibility. Yoga means to yoke or unite. At its core, the goal of yoga is to unite the breath with movement, which consists of moving the spine in six directions.

The six directions are:
- Flexion and Extension – rounding and extending the spine
- Right and Left Rotation – twisting the spine
- Right and Left Lateral Flexion – side bending
These ranges of movement will help prevent stiffness, improve flexibility, and promote longevity of the spine.

What Exactly Is A Healthy Spine?

The spine is designed to provide both stability and mobility through the core of your body, your torso, and your limbs. As you age, a healthy spine is essential to maintaining a vibrant lifestyle. By keeping the spine strong and flexible, it will increase your range of motion, promote better posture, a stronger core, and improve balance.

A healthy spine allows the nervous system to function effectively, ensuring that all systems of the body are communicating properly. A strong and flexible spine also activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which means that the body is in a state of rest. This state increases the body’s ability to endure and navigate stress more efficiently – physically, mentally, and emotionally.

What Yoga Poses Work Best for Spinal Health?

Yoga doesn’t have to be intimidating, it can be easy. Moving through a full set of spinal exercises can take less than 5 minutes. And they can all be done standing or even sitting at your desk.

It doesn’t matter what you look like or how flexible you are. Think Function over Form. Follow the guidance of your body and do what feels best.

Flexion and Extension

Cat and Cow pose

Rotation

Twist to the right, then left

Lateral Flexion

Side bend to the right then left

How Does Yoga Help Your Spine?

Moving your spine in six directions every day will not only increase spinal mobility and strength but improve the overall health of your spine. A healthy spine allows the nervous system to operate optimally and communicate effectively will all systems of the body.

How Does Chiropractic Care Help Your Spine and Your Yoga Practice?

At our Littleton, CO chiropractic clinic we specialize in a gentle, specific chiropractic technique call Koren Specific Technique (KST). Specific adjustments help with motion in the spine as well. Your spine has 2 major functions. First is to protect the spinal cord. Second is to keep you upright, also known as your posture. Stresses cause shifts in segments of your spine or even curvatures of your spine. These shifts are what we call subluxations.

Subluxations not only cause lack of motion, they can also affect the brain-body connection. Our goal is to find these interferences and correct them gently. Once your spine is moving properly it can help out your yoga practice.

The saying, “Motion is Life” could not be a truer statement. Keep your motion and enhance your life.

If you would like to find out if you have subluxations (interference) please schedule a consultation at our clinic today. We use state-of-the-art nerve system scans to find out exactly where your issues are at. Let us help you thrive!
March 8, 2022
How to Prevent Memory Loss
These days, you feel like your brain is in a constant memory-zapping fog, and you can’t shake it. If you’re feeling this way now, what do the next ten years look like?

Research shows that memory lapses may happen at all ages, although they become an increasing concern for people as they age. Still, while some people are more prone to memory loss than others are, there are ways to prevent it from happening.

Here’s a rundown on how to prevent memory loss. Let’s jump in!

Eat a Healthy Diet

Adopting a balanced diet is one of the best steps for preventing memory loss. That’s because healthy eating will reduce your chances of developing diabetes, which has ties with Alzheimer’s disease.

To eat healthy foods, choose fruits, olive oil, nuts, and legumes, including beans and lentils. Consider also consuming eggs, fish, and vegetables. Limit sugar, alcohol, red meat, and processed food if you’re serious about leading a healthy lifestyle.

Some supplements are great for brain health that can work alongside your healthy diet. One of the essential supplements for the brain is magnesium. However, you need a specific type of magnesium to cross the blood-brain barrier. We recommend OptiMag® Neuro supplement from Xyomgen. If you want to learn more, click here- <a href=”http://www.wholescripts.com/register/dodychiro-dody” target=”_blank”>Nutritional Supplements</a>.

If you pay little attention to what you’re eating daily, consider keeping your own food diary. This will help you to keep better track of what you’re consuming. Then, you can make adjustments to your diet to reach your health goals.

Remain Social

You can also prevent memory and thinking problems simply by staying social. That’s because positive interactions with other people stimulate your brain, thus keeping it sharp. Additionally, social engagement protects against depression and anxiety, which can stifle your brain’s function.

To maintain a healthy social network, take time to join groups and talk with other people. Stay involved in religious activities, organizations, and clubs.

Perhaps you’re the type of person who prefers to stay home. If so, make sure you still have a couple of family members or friends- or even a pet- with whom you can still have fun.

Give Your Brain a Challenge

Yet another way to prevent memory loss is to keep the brain challenged.

A wide range of activities can help to boost your cognitive functions, including your memory. These include, for example, learning brand-new skills, playing instruments, doing puzzles, reading, volunteering, and working. You can also play games like Scrabble, Sudoku, and crossword puzzles to challenge your mind.

Another way to enhance your memory is through neurofeedback theory, a treatment used to address the irregular function of the brain. Through this technique, which is non-invasive, your brain is re-wired through training.

The neurofeedback technique can enhance your brain’s performance and function without the need for drugs, which can have unwanted side effects.

Stay Active

You can also keep memory loss at bay simply by exercising. That’s because exercise may prevent health issues known to cause memory loss, including the following:
- Stroke
- Obesity
- High cholesterol
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
Exercise may also cause brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a protein, to be released. This protein promotes the health of your brain’s nerve cells, which may boost your memory.

To start, try to walk for half an hour each day, five days per week. You can track your progress using the United States Agriculture Department SuperTracker site for weight management.

Get Plenty of Rest

Getting adequate sleep is also paramount for preventing memory loss. This is because concentration and attention decrease when a person suffers from restless sleep. In addition, the mental function of people who don’t get restful, normal sleep tends to be duller.

When you’re sleeping, the brain is refreshed and cleansed. This is why getting seven to nine hours of rest each night is crucial for healthy living.

To improve the quality of sleep you get each night, you should avoid drinking alcohol or caffeine near bedtime. In addition, be consistent when it comes to hitting the sack and rising the next morning.

Also, don’t eat large meals before going to bed. That’s because food is essentially fuel, so when you eat before bed, you’re giving your body more energy when you’re supposed to be winding down.

Minimize Stress

Although avoiding stress in everyday life may seem impossible, minimizing your stress levels can help you to avoid memory loss issues.

When your brain is under stress, a stress hormone called cortisol is produced at a high level. This makes it more difficult for you to extract information from the brain’s memory.

Consider doing meditation, massages, or yoga to keep your stress levels low.

Visit Your Doctor

Finally, remember that some medical conditions might cause you to lose your memory. These include vitamin deficiency and thyroid disease. This is why you should visit your local doctor. Your physician can help you to address these health problems properly.

Also, note that some medicines, like anxiety and sleep drugs, may affect your memory. Your doctor can review your existing medication with you to determine if any of them are the culprit in your memory loss.

How We Can Help You to Master How to Prevent Memory Loss

If you’re wondering how to prevent memory loss, consider taking steps to minimize stress in your life and improve your sleep quality. You may also want to stay active and adopt a more nutritious diet daily.

Fortunately, at Dody Chiropractic, we take pride in helping health-conscious individuals to improve their health and wellness through chiropractic care and functional nutrition. We also provide neurofeedback services for individuals seeking help with depression, anxiety, ADHD, and memory issues.

Get in touch with us to learn more about our services and how we can enhance your mind’s health today!
January 30, 2022
The Broken Wrist

Can Chiropractic Help With The Healing Process?

The premise of chiropractic care is that the nervous system controls and coordinates all the processes in the body. Chiropractic adjustments remove interference in the nervous system thus maximizing the function of those processes. Let’s look at the healing process. I want to start with a story of Jann, our office manager.

How Jann Broke Her Wrist

Jann was leaving the clinic on a Thursday evening and was headed over to the Skate City just across the parking lot from the clinic. She had promised a neighbor girl that she would come roller skating for her class fundraiser.

As Jann left, I jokingly said, let me know if you break anything. Well as you can see by the title of this post, that was the wrong thing to say. About an hour after she left the clinic I get a text message that she fell and broke her wrist. Obviously, at first I thought she was joking, but later I found out it was no joke.

She managed to break her wrist in multiple locations. It was so severe she had to have surgery to pin all the bones back together. Needless to say, when Jann does something she goes full out, including breaking bones.

We started adjusting Jann after the accident to help her body heal as quickly as possible. The surgery went well and now the healing process was started. She had the surgery on February 21st and her surgeon said this process would take 6 months to get the full range of motion back in her wrist.

She did all the physical therapy and we were adjusting her on a regular basis. She was back to full function and range of motion by the end of April.

The body’s ability to heal depends on the system that controls and coordinates that healing process. That system is the nervous system, and that is what the chiropractic adjustments effect directly.

Is Breaking a Bone an Event or a Process?

If you fell and broke your wrist, would that be an event or a process? That would be an event. If we took you to the orthopedist and the doctor would take an x-ray of the bone, would that be an event or a process? Yes, that is another event. The doctor would set the bone, which again would be an event. A cast would be put on it, another event. Then, you would be sent home to heal, a process, not an event.

Healing is a process! This process is controlled by your nervous system. To maximize your healing process, you need to remove all interference of the nerve impulses in your nervous system. A study showed that chiropractic adjustments helped reduce inflammation which is a part of the healing process. That is what we do everyday here at Dody Chiropractic Center for Wholeness.

How long does it take to heal and can chiropractic help?

This depends on several factors: how bad the break was, as well as the age and health of the person. Let’s say it is average and would take an average amount of time which is roughly 6-8 weeks. If a person is healthy before the incident, this person will likely have a shorter healing period than an unhealthy person.

When would it feel better? For most people, it is usually within 5-7 days. What would happen if we removed the cast as soon as it felt better? Most would agree this is not a good idea.

So we wait for healing to take place. Do we simply go to the doctor at the appointed time and the cast is removed? No, a re-examination must be performed to determine if healing has, indeed, taken place. If it has, the cast is removed.

Then, we can go back to doing everything we had always done before, right? Wrong! The arm and wrist must go through a process of rehabilitation to strengthen and stabilize the system so that a re-injury does not take place. How long does this take? Usually, at least another 6-8 weeks.

What is the point? Most people view their health based on how they feel rather than using true healing as a criteria. Don’t make that mistake! Symptoms are usually the last thing to show up in the body’s attempt to let you know to do something, as well as the first thing to go away when the body is healing. Just because you are feeling well does not mean that you are healthy! Let us help you boost your healing process with chiropractic care.

Give us a call at 303-794-1737 if you would like to find out how healthy you are!

March 20, 2019