Painful Periods: They're NOT the Norm

Photo Credit: Megan Lewis

Today I want to talk to you about a topic that gets lots of attention, but often makes millions of women feel hopeless: painful periods. It seems that we’ve come to expect that all women struggle with painful periods, with no solution in sight. I want to tell you that they are NOT the norm and you absolutely do NOT have to live with them any longer! You know how I know?

I help patients resolve this problem all the time.

Here are a few items that we address in regards to painful periods:

1. The Connection Between Stress and Liver Function

Did you know that your liver processes estrogen? Most people don’t. If your liver is struggling to maintain normal function due to stress from diet, emotions, etc., you might have a more painful period. With patients we look at different stressors that might impact the liver. This includes diet adjustments, mental/emotional work to address the root cause of emotions and removing any physical blocks to healing through doing adjustments and muscle balance.

2. Hydration is a really big deal.

This is pretty straight forward and simple. If you do not drink enough water, and most people don’t, you will have more painful periods. If your smooth muscle (which your uterus is made up of) is dehydrated, it will have a tendency to spasm more.

3. Inflammation

We address any and every avenue that might be causing increased inflammation in your body; any mental/emotional, chemical (think foods) or physical stressors. You know why your anti-inflammatory medications work so well for your periods? Yes, they cut down the inflammation. However, there are always drawbacks like stress on your liver and kidney. It's vital to address these things naturally.

4.Gut Health

It seems like gut health touches all aspects of our health, doesn’t it? It's true. By stabilizing and ensuring that your gut is properly functioning, you can naturally address painful periods. For example, if you're chronically constipated, you are holding onto too many toxins. These disturb hormone balance, cause inflammation and result in painful periods. To read more about how to naturally balance your gut health read my blog post here.

5. Spinal Alignment

Did you know that the nervous system, which is protected by the joints of your spine, helps to control the function of every organ system in the body? That’s right! If your spine isn’t moving your internal organ function suffers. We always address the spine, and specifically the pelvis, to ensure that all of the reproductive organs receive healthy input.

6. Vitamins

Most of the patients when they first come in with this complaint need some form of natural anti-inflammatory support whether that’s for the gut, for hormone balance, for adrenal support etc. In my office, I muscle test to make sure we are supporting the proper system that’s stressed out. It's imperative to give just the right supplement at the right time. Giving everyone the same supplements doesn’t work. We all have different needs and should be treated INDIVIDUALLY based upon our needs. (Click here to read my post on proper supplementation.)

These are just some of the areas that I address with patients when it comes to painful periods. I have been very successful with patients who deal with this complaint. There is NO need to continue to suffer every single month from painful periods!

So if you or someone you love struggle with these, give us a call or click the link below to schedule your appointment. There is no sense in living with them any longer!

If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.

5 Areas to Evaluate Before Taking Any Vitamin or Supplement

Photo Credit: Valerie Elash

See my first post on supplements (and why you should use quality supplements) here.

There is a big myth floating out there that supplements/vitamins/herbs/oils, because they are natural, are safe. That is just not the case. The reality is that every supplement impacts your body in a specific way. Why should you care? Well, let me give you a few examples:

·       Iodine - while iodine is an excellent thyroid support, giving it to someone who has antibodies (aka Hashimotos Thyroiditis) could cause the person to flare up, making them feel horrible and possibly leading to severe consequences.

·       Garlic - we can all agree that garlic is a great immune supporting herb. But did you know that if you’re taking blood thinners, garlic can also produce severe side effects if taken inappropriately?

There are just two of many, many different examples that come to mind when evaluating different substances. But let me give you a bit of an insight of what I do to evaluate and assess my patients when it comes to their supplements.

1. Take a look at diet - the first area that I look at with every patient when assessing their need for vitamins is their diet. Let’s be honest, not everyone has a perfect diet. As I always say, “supplements should be SUPPLEMENTARY to a good diet.” That means we should always strive to get as many good vitamins and minerals from our diet as we can. This is important because natural food is both absorbed and utilized BETTER by our bodies than any type of supplements. no matter how good they are. Therefore, I always evaluate and balance a patient’s diet first to make sure we have a strong foundation instead of giving them 10-15 different supplements, which, if they just altered their diet, they wouldn’t need or need as many.

2.  Assess health history - this is critical. Even if supplements are natural, they can interact with your body in potentially negative ways. Also, certain medications require you not to have too much citrus in your diet as the medication will be processed too quickly through the system. That’s why assessing health history including any disease processes and any functional deficiencies is essential. For example, we have all come to know that most of us have adrenal fatigue, if you don’t, you probably should consider looking into it. But did you know that if you also have high blood pressure, certain natural substances (vitamins/herbs/supplements) should not be given? So, if you just go into a drug store and pick something off the shelf you can be making yourself sicker, NOT better. In the office, we evaluate for the underlying CAUSE of the disease, helping the body to heal by balancing health factors. If you do not have this proper evaluation you can be making yourself sicker by simply not knowing this information.

3. Evaluating blood work - this goes with number 2. If a patient has very obvious pathology/disease you want to be careful of the products that you are taking because you can make those worse not better. Getting regular blood work done, while it doesn’t fully evaluate the whole patient, is critical to ensure that you’re monitoring for trends in your health. For example, Vitamin D is a very important vitamin for our health. But if someone has liver/kidney stress, you want to be careful in giving it as it can also stress out those already stressed systems.

4. Drug/herb interaction -this is critical and needs to be given serious consideration. If you are on any type of medication you cannot simply say that taking a random vitamin is safe as it may not be. You could be causing a serious reaction without knowing it just by taking a very normally safe, natural substance.

5. Need/use - it’s important to evaluate all of vitamins/supplements/herbs/etc., not only on their safety, but also on whether or not a patient can metabolize and use them. While there are thousands of products out on the market, you, as an individual, do not need all of them, that would be so silly! It’s important to have a professional evaluate whether you need a specific substance or not. With my patients, I muscle test all of the products that they take not only to see whether their bodies need them but to make sure they can metabolize and absorb them because after all, if your body cannot metabolize and absorb a substances it’s a waste of your time to even take it. This is also why I recommend that my patients do not take multi-vitamins. We can assess your individual vitamin needs so you only take what’s necessary and don’t risk becoming sick from something you don’t need. I don't recommend or give multi-vitamins because your body should only have specific types of vitamins at specific times. Just like you wouldn't take a medication if you don't have a specific health issue, you shouldn't take a vitamin without a specific reason to take it. 

Take away message:

Make sure you find a reputable Functional medicine doctor who can not only assess your health needs in general, but who can make sure to find the products that you need and your body can use. It’s important to have your health evaluated and treated by a licensed health care professional (please don’t take advice from someone who doesn’t have this training). who knows your health history, can evaluate any products in light of any medications/products that you’re already taking and who can make sure that it’s the product that will help you fight disease and promote health. You can find some of my favorite products in my online store, click here. As always, talk to your doctor to make sure anything you are taking is appropriate for your health needs.

If you are interested in learning more about your supplements and want to make sure they are helping to promote true health and healing, please click the link below to schedule your appointment.

If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.

Not All Vitamins are Created Equal

Photo Credit: Toa Heftiba

This week I’m doing a blog series on supplements. Today’s post is about the importance of high-quality supplements. Later this week I’ll post about how to know which supplements to take.

I’ll start this blog with a funny, true story. My first year in practice I had a little, sweet old granny ask me for an evaluation of her supplements and vitamins. I evaluate every patient’s vitamins to make sure they:

1. Are necessary

2. Strengthen patients and help them get the results they’re looking for.

 The next visit, she ROLLED IN A SUITCASE of various supplements that she has “taken over the years.” I cringed inside knowing that a part of why she wasn’t feeling well was that she was taking too many low-quality supplements that were irritating her system. She heard that certain supplements were good for everyone to take, so she kept adding more to her regimen.

 Unfortunately, taking too many supplements has become the norm!

I will be the first person to admit that I’m a minimalist when it comes to giving vitamins to my patients. Later this week I’ll talk about why taking so many supplements can be bad for your health. I’ll also discuss how you can best determine which supplements you need.

First, though, I want to talk about why the TYPE of supplement you take matters.   

The Best Way to Get Vitamins and Nutrients is in Food

Supplements should be supplementary to a good diet. Let me explain. Diet is king in all aspects of our health. Healthy, natural foods will utilize and absorb vitamins into your body better than any over-the-counter supplement.

The old saying goes “you are what you eat.” I want to modify that with “you are also what you absorb.” Some well-meaning practitioners give their patients a lot of supplements. These may actually be the correct vitamins, but it’s possible the patient is not able to absorb them (leaky gut, poor adrenal/thyroid health, etc.). It’s clear that the best way for us to get our vitamins is directly consuming them through food. For example, it’s best to get iodine eating wild cod. Or you can get minerals and nutrients from eating bone broth. You get chlorophyll from green, leafy vegetables. And so on.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to absorb a supplement the same you absorb food? Well, that leads us to my next point.

Supplement Type Matters…a LOT

The type of supplement that you take MATTERS. I’m so sorry to pick on run-of-the-mill drug store supplements. Although they seem inexpensive, most will not produce the results that you ultimately want. The reason for this is that most of the over-the-counter supplements only contain a fraction of the active vitamin. That’s like going to a car dealership and only getting a fraction of the car that you want. You will only get a fraction of what you desire.  

Instead of the active vitamin, the rest of the supplement is rounded out with fillers, chemicals, and other synthetic ingredients. So, why does that matter? Those other products were added alongside of that vitamin to fluff it out and make it cheaper to produce and sell to you. So, you get what you pay for.

I want to offer two better solutions when it comes to supplements:

Eat your vitamins in food – it’s more important to eat a clean, healthy vitamin-loaded diet than to load up with supplements. If you are taking 5-10 types of supplements, ask yourself the question: are you having to make up for something that’s lacking in your diet? Most of the time, the answer is YES! Remember, that you only need supplements to help SUPPORT what you’re working through (hormone balance, headaches, digestive disorders, joint pain).  

Take whole food-based supplements - there are many good quality supplement companies that do a great job of quality control on supplements. They have very strict testing and production measurements to ensure that only the purest and cleanest products are sold to their customers. The line that I use in my office meets those standards. It’s called Standard Process. They create whole foods-based supplements. Take a tour of their Wisconsin farm sometime. You’ll see where they grow food and make their vitamins/herbs. I’ve done this and was impressed at how strict they are with the quality of their products. You should be that strict too! Why? When you take whole food-quality products, the active vitamin is at 100% of what it says in the bottle. It's the closest thing to getting your vitamins from food. Oftentimes in the office, I have patients say “I took that supplement and it didn’t work for me.” Well, it could be that you took a synthetic chemical-filled supplement that didn’t have enough active product in it, so your body couldn’t digest and metabolize it. But taking a whole foods approach where your body can recognize and absorb the nutrients will produce profoundly different results. You can find some of my favorite products in my online store, click here. As always, talk to your doctor to make sure anything you are taking is appropriate for your health needs.

So, I just want you to know that what you put into your body matters. Food should be first, and a food-based supplement can help too. The saying “you get what you pay for” definitely rings true in the world of supplements! Although you might think that paying more for high quality supplements is not worth it, it’s more expensive in the long run to potentially suffer the side effects from bad supplementation.

If you are concerned that the vitamins that you’re taking may not be helping you and you’d like a full evaluation on your health needs, click the link below to schedule your appointment!

If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.

5 Ways to Naturally Restore Gut Health

Photo Credit: Tyler Nix

Thank you for those of you who have tuned into my gut health blog series this past week. If you’ve missed any of these here are the links below:

·       How your gut impacts your moods: anxiety and depression

·       How your gut impacts your skin health

·       How leaky gut can predispose you to autoimmune disease

Finally, today we will be looking at natural, practical ways of addressing and restoring gut health.

Here are my 5 ways to naturally and simply restore your gut health (which you can do today):

1. Remove allergens from your diet – alright, most of us if we are very honest with ourselves, know that when we eat dairy or wheat or sugar we get a belly ache. Although we might not like it, we know that it upsets us. Although the foods I mentioned above are common irritants, these allergens will also be very different from one person to another. We are all different and have individual needs and genetic makeup. Chronic food allergens, which our bodies are sensitive to, can cause low grade inflammation and leaky gut. These allergens can ultimately disrupt our gut health, leading to joint pain, thyroid issues, hormone imbalances, and mood swings, not to mention the painful symptoms of gas, constipation, diarrhea and inability to digest our foods.

Also, when our gut is irritated by allergens, we are not able to absorb healthy food. If we don’t digest and absorb healthy foods that we’re eating, we receive no benefits from eating it. If you have an irritated/inflamed gut and struggle with any of these symptoms you most likely have a leaky gut problem and should seriously consider gut restoration as it impacts every single cell in your body (so that’s pretty important). So, by simply removing the allergens from your everyday diet that goes a long way to start healing your gut. In my office, we muscle test for different foods that your body responds well to and foods that are aggravating to find a specific individual plan for everyone.

2.  Stop eating processed foods - this is probably the easiest and most practical of my 5 ways of healing your gut. The rule of thumb is that if it’s in a box or a can, do not eat it. Seriously, that’s it! The more processed the food the more it will upset your body. So, eat fresh organic foods whenever possible. Processed foods have added chemicals, food preservatives, allergens, etc., which will disrupt the gut lining. These type of foods are made to increase shelf life, not increase nutrient value. In short, processed foods leaky gut. However, just by simply avoiding processed, boxed or canned food will go a long way to help restore your gut. Here’s the question you can ask yourself: “can I find this food in nature?” if the answer is no, don’t put it in your mouth.

3.  Drink water – okay, this one is also pretty easy. Drink water so you have better digestion. Honestly, it’s that simple. Your body cannot produce proper enzymes (the little chemicals that digest your food) if there are not enough fluids in your body. Drinking your water will not only improve your digestion but also eliminate toxins from your gut, leading to a healthier, happier digestion.

4.  Vitamins/supplements - supplements should only be supplementary to a good diet. As much as you can, try to get your nutrients through the foods that you eat. By getting your nutrients naturally, your body will get way more benefits from it than by supplementing/taking vitamins. However, once you do remove offending foods form your diet occasionally people still need a temporary gut support until your gut heals enough to do it by itself. READ: NOT EVERYONE NEEDS PROBIOTICS. While a probiotic might help you with your digestion (and in and of itself is a very good product-I do prescribe probiotics from time to time) not everyone needs it. Probiotics can often mask the underlying issue going on instead of fixing the problem. They can even aggravate leaky gut. This is why seeking professional opinion is so necessary; find a medical professional who will help to identify, address and resolve your gut stressors instead of putting you on a probiotic indefinitely. Not everyone is the same so not everyone will need the same types of vitamins all the time, and your vitamins should change with seasons and throughout your lifetime because your needs change. So, while probiotics are helpful, there are a ton of different products out there which might be BETTER suited for your specific needs.

5.  Getting adjusted – yes, I am quite biased on this point, but there is a lot of truth here. Your nervous system (which is housed by the joints of your spine) helps to regulate all of the organs in your body, INCLUDING your digestive organs. I often times find that people who have struggled with digestive system issues for many, many years feel incredible relief after a treatment, simply by restoring their nervous system functioning. It’s like this: have you ever played a game of telephone with your friends? By the time the message hits 10th person it is most of the time way different than your original message? It’s like that with our body. If there are obstructions and barriers to the messages being relayed from your brain through the highways of your nervous system, your organs will get improper signaling and won’t function to their optimum capacity. So, by getting adjusted you’re removing the barriers which allow your nervous system to relay the signals better and quicker. This leads to a healthier digestion process.

I hope these 5 tips helped you today to start brainstorming ways that you can restore your gut. If you have any questions or want a gut health evaluation, give us a call. We’d love to help you restore your gut and your health through simple and natural ways! Even if you’ve been struggling for years, and many people do, you don’t have to continue! Click the button below to schedule your appointment!

If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.

How Bad Gut Health Leads to Autoimmune Disease

Photo Credit: Caleb George

Earlier in our gut series we talked about how moods can be impacted by our gut health, including anxiety and depression. If you didn’t get a chance to see it read it here. 

We also talked about how our skin can be impacted by poor gut health, read that blog post here. 

Today, I want to discuss a very hot topic that we often hear about but don’t often understand the underlying implications. 

These are conditions that impact immune system health such as Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Disease. What do these words mean? 

Imagine that your gut is like one long garden hose, or a tube that attaches at two ends (your mouth and by your tail bone). This garden hose keeps the digested foods inside and separates it from the rest of the abdomen and the blood stream. 

 So what happens in the leaky gut?

Basically, you get holes in this hose/tube and the contents (food particles) begin to “leak” out into the blood stream (much like water escapes a hose if there are holes in it). Your body doesn’t recognize them, so it tries to protect itself from the invasion. So, your body sends out white blood cells to the area to mount an attack. 

 Normally, white blood cells are released to help fight bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. In this case, however, the white blood cells are attacking harmless substances (i.e. food particles). If particles continue to leak into the blood stream, more white blood cells, which produce an inflammatory response in the body, are recruited to fight them. These antibodies and inflammatory messengers travel to other parts of the body and attack and destroy healthy tissues such as thyroid and your joints, etc. Your body thinks it is responding well and protecting itself; in reality it is destroying its own healthy tissues. This is known as an autoimmune process and it all starts in the gut.

So what causes this leaky gut?

 Another famous word: INFLAMMATION. Or inflammatory chemicals which are produced when we eat the wrong foods, come in contact with chemicals, are exposed to high stress levels, etc. These factors irritate the gut lining (think about re-opening scraped skin over and over). 

What can you do about it?

The simple answer is: address your inflammation. Address any factors that might be negatively irritating your gut lining. In my final post in this series we will delve into more detail about what that means and what we can do about it. 

However, here are a few ideas, identify allergens that you know (even if you ignore) irritate your digestive system. For example, if you eat dairy and end up with diarrhea and constipation, it’s likely that you’re sensitive to it and it’s causing inflammation in your gut. Make sure that you drink plenty of water, as your food will not be able to be digested if you don’t have enough watery substance (your body doesn’t produce enzymes when there is lack of water in the system). 

 Stay tuned for my last post this week in which I will discuss on how to identify and come closer to healing your gut and your body naturally (read here)! 

If you are struggling with gut related issues and would love to feel better click the button below to schedule your appointment!

If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.

How Gut Health Impacts Skin Issues

Photo Credit: Eduardo Dutra

So far in this gut-related blog series we have discussed how our gut impacts our moods (anxiety and depression, as you can read here).

Today I want to discuss a topic that is often hard for people to follow, not because it’s complicated, but because we often times don’t want to think that our skin and our gut are linked. Well they are. Sorry about that, I didn’t do it!

Here goes.

One of the purposes of your gut (along with digestion and absorption of nutrients) is also elimination and detoxification. Which means, that if your gut is too stressed with inflammation and irritation and isn’t functioning properly, other organs have to take on the burden.

 Skin our biggest detox organ

So, skin tries to help the organs. When our gut is overtaxed and overloaded by toxins, or stressed out due to diet, emotional load, chemical exposure or environmental stressors, we often see that the skin starts to break out. This presents in the form of acne, eczema, psoriasis, hives, etc. This is because skin is our biggest detox organ. So, while the skin tires to help the body eliminate toxins, it doesn’t help our appearance to have all of these toxins rearing their ugly heads externally.

While there are other factors that can come into play with skin issues, gut health is number one in helping patients to get clearer, long lasting relief, which not only impacts our self image but also can be irritating, painful and embarrassing.

Although we spend we spend millions a year on skin treatments, true lasting healing and clear skin occurs by addressing out health from the inside out. 

The reality is that by addressing gut health you can change so many health-related issues you might be struggling with, including your skin. And that carries a lot of hope!

Stay tuned for the last blog post of the series to learn how to identify and address gut related concerns!

If you are struggling with any skin related issues and would like to find and resolve the underlying issues, click the link below to schedule your appointment. There is hope!

Also check out, how poor gut health can cause autoimmune issues, how gut health can predispose you to anxiety/depression, how to naturally restore gut health and commonly asked gut health questions.

If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.

How Gut Health Impacts Anxiety and Depression

Photo Credit: Max Rovensky

Many common health conditions are tied directly to the health of your gut. While addressing the gut may not cure you from every disease, it is often the missing piece of the puzzle!

 When patients demonstrate symptoms related to anxiety and depression, there are various ways we can help them. While talk therapy, for example, can be extremely helpful, there are other things we can do on a physiological level to help support their treatment.

 Why is gut health linked to anxiety and depression?

 Happy chemicals such as serotonin are used by your brain to make you "happy." Guess what? These chemicals are produced in the gut!

 90% of your serotonin (a neurotransmitter) is made in the gut by enteroendocrine cells(which line your intestines) along with neurons and immune cells. The amount of chemicals produced is so high that your gut is often known as your second brain. This means that if you are experiencing any mood disorders, including anxiety and depression (people suffering usually have both), it is very likely that you also have digestive issues due to this direct link.

 How is depression/anxiety impacted by gut health?

 Our bodies cannot create serotonin without proper nutrients and minerals from the foods that we eat. In my practice I address various nutritional deficiencies which can correlate to the healing and restoring gut health. We utilize supplements (vitamins), minerals, herbs and homeopathy along with emphasizing a healthy diet. We also address various foods that inflame (irritate) the gut making it more difficult for proper function( digestion and absorption to occur). If you cannot digest and absorb the healthy foods that you're eating you won't get the benefits of them. Foods such as sugar, wheat, dairy and nuts are often irritating. However, there is no one size fits all protocol to gut health; what may irritate one person can be absorbed by another. This is why doing full medical evaluation, history and physical exam is so important! You are a unique person and should be treated as so! Not everyone should follow the same protocol or take the same products. So, if your gut isn’t working properly, then it won't be able to produce serotonin. Consequently, the levels in your brain drop and you feel sad, anxious, depressed, blue, cranky, crabby, etc.

So, what's the moral of the story? If you balance and fix your gut health you will be much happier.

Stay tuned for my next blog post which will discuss how gut health impacts the health of your skin and how poor gut health can predispose you to autoimmune issues.

In my last blog post of this series I will talk about different ways that natural medicine can balance and restore your gut. Often times patients, by simply following extremely basic steps, can not only improve their digestive health but also their moods.

If you are interested in learning more and want to find out how your health and moods are impacted by your gut health click the button below to schedule your appointment!

If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.

Staying Healthy for the Holidays: My favorite Ginger Lemon Tea

Photo Credit: Drew Coffman

Well friends, the flu and the cold season is in full swing. My family, friends, patients and students are all getting the sniffles. In order to keep the cold and the flu away naturally, I do a number of different immune boosting treatments throughout the season which I’ll post throughout the winter. That said, I want to share today one of the easiest and simplest recipes for a warm, delicious, immune-boosting tea:

Ginger Lemon Tea! 

This tea is incredibly easy to make and tastes great (added benefit: your house will also smell amazing).

Ingredients: water, fresh ginger root, one lemon.

5 simple steps:
1. Boil a pot of water for 10 minutes.
2. Add peeled and sliced ginger root (the more ginger you add, the stronger the taste).
3. Boil for 20 minutes.
4. Ladle ginger water into a cup and add some fresh squeezed lemon juice.
5. Enjoy!

Here are some natural health benefits of ginger and lemon:

Ginger:
1. Improves digestion.
2. Reduces nausea.
3. Boosts immune system.
4. Anti-inflammatory.
5. Anti-oxidant.

 6. Great for morning sickness.
7. Helps with blood sugar control.
8. Detoxification.

Lemon:

1. Helps to boost the immune system
2. Helps with indigestion
3. Helps to balance the gut health
4. Helps to balance pH in the body
5. Helps to promote weight loss
6. Can help with infections
7. Helps with blood pressure regulation

Stay tuned to many more health tips this winter season on how I keep my doctor away. And if you’re ready to get to the bottom of your health and immune difficulties you can click the link below to schedule your appointment!

If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.

Staying Healthy for the Holidays: Sacrificing Sugar

Photo Credit: Roberto Nickson

The holidays are here. Christmas is just around the corner and New Years Eve is not far behind. This means we’ll be spending lots of time with family and close friends, enjoying cozy movie nights, holiday cookie exchanges, and Christmas parties. It's also the heart of the cold and flu season. 

I often get asked by my patients, “why am I always sick at the turn of the season?” While a lot of the items listed above are fantastic and often get us in the holiday spirit, some may weaken your immune system. Why? Because of all the sugar we consume.

Americans, on average, consume about 150 pounds of sugar per year. For some of you, that means you’re eating your body weight in sugar. 150 pounds is the average, which means some of you are eating MORE. Here are some downsides that come with sugar intake:

1.     Joint aches and pains (on the bright side, you might not be that old)  

2.     Increased cold/flu susceptibility (instead of a holiday party you’re getting take out and having a party for one)

3.     Headaches (as if shopping wasn’t bad enough)

4.     Bad moods (as if the holidays aren’t stressful enough, we get all anxious and depressed)

5.     Weight gain (hello holiday 15)

6.     Poor sleep (also lowers your immune system)

7.     Bad digestion (less happy chemicals produced in your gut; see number 4)

8.     Increase in dental cavities (growing up your mama told you this, and it’s true)

9.     And many more

Now I get it, you cannot fully and completely cut of all of your sugar intake for the holidays, and that’s fine. As I say to my patients, “it’s not what you do once a month that gets you, it’s what you do the other 29 days.” There is a lot of wisdom in this. A holiday treat on Christmas or New Years can absolutely bring delight and all the warm feels. So just pick and your choose your treat times carefully. By staying healthy, we’re able to enjoy the most important thing about the holidays: spending time with the people we love most.

As one of my mentors always says “You don’t need sugar, you’re already sweet enough.”

If you’ve been experiencing sickness (frequent) or want to stay healthy for the holidays and beyond, click the link below to schedule your appointment and find out what else you could be doing to stay healthy.

If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.

How Can Neuro-Emotional Technique Help You?

Photo Credit: Amadeo Muslimović

Do you ever overreact to simple life situations? Like a small conflict with a friend or a loved one? Do new relationships and commitment intimidate you? Do you tend to retreat when you should engage? If any of this sounds familiar it is because your body and brain have learned patterns of behavior, similar to a roadmap for cars, on how to proceed with life based upon your past experiences. So when something similar happens you get triggered. Which not only affects you emotionally but can have physical impact. But Neuro-Emotional Technique (NET) can help.

Not only do I use this technique as a doctor, but my doctor has used it on me in the last few years, which has both changed my physiology and my life.

How does it work?

This technique works with the body’s nervous system and neurological pathways to help relieve stress in both the present and from the past. The Limbic System (which is located in the brain) is comprised of several brain structures, which help to regulate our basic emotions (sadness, fear, pleasure, anger, etc.). It also stores or encodes memories from our past emotions. Whenever our brain thinks that we are in danger (whether we actually are or not), or whenever we come face-to-face with a similar stimuli to something negative that happened to us in the past, our Limbic System lights up. (This noted by functional MRI studies.) In response to this, it causes an outpouring of stress chemicals to flood our bodies. If we experience these emotions over time it can lead to disease formation and a lot of different illnesses.

So what does that look like practically?

If you’ve ever had any sort of emotional or physical trauma this technique will help. Most of us have something in our past that qualifies and can be helped by this, even if we don't consider it to be categorized as "trauma." Let's say you were bit by a dog when you were 5 years old. That memory of pain and fear is encoded or stored in the Limbic System of your brain. So, as a 30 year old, every time you encounter a dog, that brain center is activated and not only do you remember that trauma that happened when you were 5, but your brain also relives it and sends a lot of stress hormones throughout the body which puts you into fight or flight response. Long term stress surges in your body (even if its just perceived) can lead to development of disease.

We are all familiar with the Pavlov’s dog example. Whenever you ring a bell and give the food the dogs salivate. After awhile if you just ring the bell and even in the presence of no food the dog will salivate just at the sound of a bell. That’s called classical conditioning in psychological terms. However, if you continue to ring the bell and don’t show the food to the dogs, the salivation rates will drop off and eventually cease. That’s known as extinction.

NET works very much like that, by performing the technique over and over without the negative affect which previously occurred (insert some emotional trauma that happened to you in the past) associated with the traumatic event the pattern goes into extinction much faster than if it were just left alone.

How does NET come in?

NET helps to practically and simply identify the underlying stress patterns and utilizing acupuncture systems and allows the practitioner to help to neutralize the stress pattern. This leads to extinction of the stress response at the stimulus (old memory). NET not only helps you with emotional patterns and trauma, but often times it helps with physical pain that is related back to an emotional event that might have happened years ago.

Why this is a life changing technique:

We, all of us, in some way or another, have had both physical or emotional or both experiences in our past which have changed the way that we perceive and respond to the world. The trauma might be something very small to something that’s very significant, from being bitten by a dog, having a difficult family life to being abused, experiencing a death of a loved one, losing your health, experiencing war, or many other difficult circumstances  but it changes the way that we relate to other people and to the environment around us.

For example: we’re afraid to have healthy relationships because of a unhealthy pattern we saw in our parents, we are afraid to apply for that job promotion because growing up we were "never good enough," we repeat the same type of relational patterns because we think that those unhealthy patterns are the only ones which are safe and familiar, we eat unhealthy foods in order to cover our emotional or physical pain, we beat ourselves up over and over again over patterns that we can’t break.

Sound familiar? We ALL have them!

NET can help you break of those patterns and pain and give you more freedom.

And the greatest part about it is that there are functional MRI studies, conducted by Neuro-Emotional Technique Corporation, which demonstrates this technique. They demonstrate before and after of the brain (limbic system) light up when the brain perceives the "stimulus" or threat, and after the technique is performed another MRI is done to see how the patients respond. The results demonstrated that the Limbic “stress system” didn’t kick in even in the same presence of the stressful stimulus.

If any of these sound familiar to you and you’re ready to make a change and feel better—not only emotionally, but physically —give me a call or click the button below.

If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.