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True Health Insurance
Are you one serious illness away from bankruptcy? Many are.
Those of us with “health” insurance policies think we’re protected from the burden of huge medical bills. You may be surprised to learn that’s just not true. In a Harvard University study of almost 2,000 Americans in bankruptcy court, half said that illness or medical bills drove them to bankruptcy. Every 30 seconds in the United States, someone files for bankruptcy because of a serious health problem. Surprisingly, more than 75 percent of those filing for bankruptcy had insurance, losing their coverage during the course of their illness. Thus, they face the double disaster of illness and bankruptcy.
"If you're sick enough, long enough, you're likely to be financially ruined," cautioned Dr. David Himmelstein the lead author of the Harvard study. Once thought largely the result of bad business deals, out of control credit card debt or just bad luck, bankruptcy is increasingly accompanying serious health problems. In fact, people who go under from medical debt are mostly middle-class or working-class people who own their own homes. The solution? Don’t get sick, of course. But how? Keep in mind, health is our normal, natural state. Many people neglect their health, paying attention to it only when their symptoms become unbearable. By then, problems can be well advanced, often becoming irreversible. That’s why I sometimes sound like a broken record, constantly suggesting preventive and wellness visits. Visiting our office when you’re feeling great, may sound a little strange to your health insurance provider. It may even sound strange to you. But preventive measures may actually provide more “insurance” than your insurance.
Strengthen Your Defenses: Tips to Improve Your Immune System Inside your body is an amazing defensive mechanism called your immune system. It prevents billions of bacteria, viruses, fungi, chemical toxins, and parasites from invading your body and taking it over. To illustrate how important your immune system is, just think of what happens to an animal when it dies and thus its immune system stops working. Within minutes the animals body starts to decompose or break down. This is the work of invading microorganisms and is an essential part of nature. Just think, if microorganisms didnt decompose organisms that have died, we would have dead animals and plants everywhere. So your immune system is obviously very important. So here are some tips to strengthen you defenses: o Eat a healthy well balanced diet. You must provide proper fuel for your body and your immune system to function well. o Avoid or limit sugar consumption. Your immune system efficiency is reduced by nearly 75% for up to 7 hours after ingesting sugar. o Supplement your diet with a quality multivitamin, omega 3 fish oil, and probiotics. Because of lessening food quality, it is much harder to obtain all the essential nutrients from food alone. o Get 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night. o Expose yourself to 20-30 minutes of sunlight per day. When exposed to sunlight your body produces serotonin, which is converted to melatonin at night, which is vital for sleep. o Exercise for at least 30 minutes per day 5 days a week. o Drink plenty of good clean water. Drink water and only water when you feel thirsty. o Manage your stress levels. Chronic emotional stress lowers your immune function. Say to yourself, will this event affect my life five years from now? Most of the time the answer will be no. o Practice deep breathing exercises. Because of chronic stress levels many people have a tendency to take short shallow breaths, which doesnt allow adequate oxygenation of body tissues, which in turn affects the function of your immune system. o Avoid lowering a low-grade fever with drugs. As body temperature increases so does your bodys ability to fight infection. There are times when it is absolutely necessary to reduce your body temperature with drugs. Please consult with your doctor if you have questions. o Chiropractic Care. Chiropractic adjustments remove imbalances within your nervous system, which controls your immune system. Chiropractic adjustments have been shown to increase your immune response. Happy Healing, Dr.
Back to School Success Back-to-school time draws near! Though it seems it just began, summer break will soon come to an end, which means it is time to begin planning a successful transition from summer time to school time. Here are some tips for a smooth transition. o Bedtime / Wakeup time: Adjust your childs bedtime and wakeup time by 10 to 20 minutes per week to avoid a rude awakening on the first day of school. Between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night minimum. Sleep well, think well, be well. o Breakfast: Plan a well-balanced breakfastnothing complicated. Smoothies are great and theyre easy to make. Protein in AM is a must! o Communicate expectations: Ask your children what they are planning for their new year, help them set goals, and continue to support them on the way to achieving their goals throughout the year. o Friends: Encourage your children to see how many people they can meet each day and/or new things they can learn about those people they already know at school. Encourage your children to celebrate their similarities and differences. o Activities: Encourage your child to discover multiple different activities and help them experience a wide range of possible interests early. Remember, our children are the best gauge of what fits their skills and interests, not us. o Physical Health: Set the tone of the morning with light exercise, mind and/or body, make sure to choose a proper back pack, instruct your children on proper stretching, and recommend physical activity after school before homework. o Wellness Development: Have their spinal system, posture, and nervous system evaluated for pattern of stress or imbalance to ensure your child has the opportunity to create a successful year and a proper foundation of health for life. These are the years where the patterns of life begin. We want to work with you to make sure we help todays children become the leaders of tomorrow. If you need help with childrens health tips and more information to support the health of your family, contact Power of
Organic: What Does It Mean? Youve likely noticed a change in your local grocery store over the past few years. More and more organic fruits, vegetables, and other products are showing up on the shelves, as consumers are making the conscious choice to live healthier with more environmentally friendly lifestyles. As a result, markets are stocking larger selections of organic products to meet these rising demands, so it has never been easier to incorporate these choices into our day to day lives. Why are so many people choosing to go organic? Here are just a few reasons: · Taste. Ever bite into a big, juicy strawberry, only to discover that it doesnt taste like much of anything? This may be because a lot of produce is bred and fertilized for optimal size and color, which can result in the flavor being bred right out of it. A smaller, organic berry may taste a whole lot sweeter.
· Food Safety. Genetically modified foods (GMOs), the presence of antibiotics in our meat, and the links between some food additives and chronic diseases like asthma and heart disease, are all reasons people are turning to organic foods. · The Environment. The growing practices of organic farmers are designed to have minimal impact on the planet. Crop rotation, soil and water management, and less reliance on chemical pesticides and fertilizers all help to maintain the delicate balance of our ecosystem. · Animal Welfare. The accepted practices for raising organic livestock requires them to be placed in more natural environments and fed healthier diets. So now we know why more people are buying organic, but what does organic really mean? Websters Dictionary defines organic as: of, relating to, yielding, or involving the use of food produced with the use of feed or fertilizer of plant or animal origin, without employment of chemically formulated fertilizers, growth stimulants, antibiotics, or pesticides. But what does this mean for us? It means we can have more confidence that the foods we eat, and the products we consume, are better for us and for our environment, than similar items produced without the organic label. By purchasing organic we can limit the amount of chemicals we take into our bodies. Many of the acceptable fertilizers and pesticides used in commercial farming are known carcinogens (cancer causing agents), and most commercial livestock is bred and cared for using massive quantities of antibiotics. Every time one of these chemicals is introduced into the environment it decays the natural soil quality, damaging or killing the nutrients crops need to thrive. This means they need more fertilizer, which decays the natural soil quality, damaging or killing the nutrients crops need to thrive. . . . Do you see the pattern here? Then theres what these chemicals are doing to our water supply. Chemical agents can seep through the ground, into the water supply, leaving it contaminated with high levels of nitrates and phosphates, heavy metals and drugs. This can cause dead zones in areas of high density run off, in which oxygen concentrations are so low that aquatic life cannot grow. If it can kill off an entire area of ocean, what do you suppose it can do to us? Its clear that making the choice to move toward organic products is a sound one, but dont be too hasty. The organic market is under constant pressure to loosen its standards, and many food producers are striving to be included in the current market boom. What may technically be legal under current governmental guidelines may not be acceptable to other organic growers organizations. There are a number of products approved by the USDA for organic growers that are allowable in certain amounts, or under special circumstances, that are in no way good for us. Check out www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOP/standards/ListReg.html for a complete list of whats allowable under the law. In the end, you have to do your research. Check into the companies you buy from to make sure they meet your standards, not just the governments. Be aware of changes in the industry, and how they can impact your choices. Read labels, ask questions, and whenever possible, buy locally. Ultimately, if you cant pronounce most of the ingredients on the box, you may want to make a different choice.
Food for Thought Recent studies have found a link between physical fitness and academic performance in children. Studies have also shown that children, who eat breakfast daily, do better in school. But there's surprisingly little research focused on the link between a child's overall diet and his or her performance in school. One Small Change Cinnamon! The use of Cinnamon as a spice and as a medicine dates back to 2000 BC. Just half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day significantly reduces blood sugar levels in diabetics, a study has found. The effect, which can be produced even by soaking a cinnamon stick your tea, could also benefit millions of non-diabetics who have blood sugar problem but are unaware of it. The discovery was initially made by accident, by Richard Anderson at the US Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland. "We were looking at the effects of common foods on blood sugar; one was the American favorite, apple pie, which is usually spiced with cinnamon. We expected it to be bad. But it helped," he says. The active ingredient in cinnamon turned out to be a water-soluble polyphenol compound called MHCP. In test tube experiments, MHCP mimics insulin, activates its receptor, and works synergistically with insulin in cells. To see if it would work in people, Alam Khan, who was a postdoctoral fellow in Anderson's lab, organized a study in Pakistan. Volunteers with Type 2 diabetes were given one, three or six grams of cinnamon powder a day, in capsules after meals. All responded within weeks, with blood sugar levels that were on average 20 per cent lower than a control group. Some even achieved normal blood sugar levels. Tellingly, blood sugar started creeping up again after the diabetics stopped taking cinnamon. In the volunteers, the Cinnamon also lowered blood levels of fats and "bad" cholesterol, which are also partly controlled by insulin. And in test tube experiments it neutralized free radicals, damaging chemicals which are elevated in diabetics. Cinnamon's essential oils also qualify it as an "anti-microbial" food, and cinnamon has been studied for its ability to help stop the growth of bacteria as well as fungi, including the commonly problematic yeast Candida. The Sunny Truth With springtime here and summer time right around the corner, many people are once again becoming concerned about exposure to sunlight, but the latest research may really surprise you. A recent study by researchers at the University of California found that solar ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation can significantly reduce the risk of 16 different types of cancer by naturally stimulating the production of vitamin D in the skin. The study's authors are Cedric F. Garland, Dr.P.H., from the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and William B. Grant, Ph.D., director of the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center (SUNARC) www.sunarc.org/about.htm "Enhancing vitamin D status appears to be the single most important simple thing people can do to reduce their risk of cancer, apart from avoiding tobacco and moderation in the intake of alcohol," say Cedric Garland and William Grant. It has been frequently reported that those who work outdoors have a reduced risk of developing melanoma [Garland et al., 1990; Kennedy et al., 2004]. The reasons appear to be twofold:
The researchers recommend that people get their vitamin D from exposure to natural sunlight. Fair-skinned people who live in sunny regions of the country can produce about 1,500 IU of vitamin D in 20 minutes of exposure at noon if only 10 to 20 percent of their body is exposed -- such as chest, back and arms. People should try to expose more of their skin surface for a shorter amount of time, rather than stay in the sun longer with minimal skin exposure, the study says. Darker-skinned people may need up to four times as long to make the same amount of vitamin D as fair-skinned people. The study recommends wearing hats to avoid prolonged sun exposure on more sensitive parts of the body, such as the face, and to keep moving when in the sun. Garland and Grant caution fair-skinned people to avoid over-exposure, since the skin produces sufficient vitamin D in just 20 minutes a day.
Milling is the process that turns brown rice into white rice by removing the outer layer known as the bran layer - this alters the nutritional value of the rice. The complete milling process that creates white rice from brown rice destroys 67% of the vitamin B3, 80% of the vitamin B1, 90% of the vitamin B6, half of the manganese, half of the phosphorus, 60% of the iron, and all of the dietary fiber and essential fatty acids. In short, brown rice is a fiber-rich whole grain whereas white rice is simply a refined and nutritionally depleted processed food. At the University of Utah, in a study of over 2000 people, a team led by Dr. Martha Slattery found that high intakes of whole grains, such as brown rice, reduced the risk of rectal cancer 31%. They also found that a high-fiber diet, 34 grams or more of fiber per day, reduced rectal cancer by an impressive 66%. The findings were published in the February 2004 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In a Study presented at American Heart Association Conference, March 2006, overweight children, age 9-15, spent two weeks on an all-you-can-eat diet of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and lean protein, while exercising 2.5 hours each day. University of California researchers led by Dr. James Barnard reported that in just two weeks the children's cholesterol levels dropped an average of 21%, while insulin levels fell 30%. One small change you can make is serving whole grain brown rice in place of processed white rice. Even though this is a small change to make it offers tremendous benefits to your family and children. The habits your children learn from you while young will stay with them for a lifetime. Learning to eat more whole grains like brown rice offers lifelong health benefits to your children. Are you one serious illness away from bankruptcy? Many are.
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4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
Rock or kosher salt and pepper to taste
4 oz. low-fat mozzarella
4 large pieces roasted red pepper (roast yourself or if you buy it pat dry with a paper towel.)
4 whole wheat pitas
Greens (arugula, romaine, whatever you like!)
Low-fat mayo or store-bought pesto, if desired
Instructions:
Lightly coat your grill with cooking spray. Grill mushrooms, covered, for approximately four minutes; turn and grill another three minutes, or until tender.
Place flat side of mushroom up on the grill, and top with a thin slice of mozzarella and a nice juicy piece of red pepper. Cover and cook one minute more, until the cheese is melted. At same time place your pita on the grill until lightly toasted.
Put a layer of greens in the pita and top with a mushroom cap. Add a bit of low-fat mayo or prepared pesto sauce.
Serves 4
