Fighting Tiger, Fleeing Rabbit

Posted by: The Balancing Center

A rabbit might flee if something startles it. A tiger might fight. Adrenaline is what provides both with the energy to either run or attack; both enter a defense mode where their senses heighten and not-essential-to-survival systems, like digestion and procreation, power down. The rabbit doesn’t have time to eat if it is on the run. The tiger isn’t concerned with sex in the middle of a battle.

While the kinds of threats to humans have changed since we hunted and foraged, our physiological responses to those threats have not. When a driver cuts you off in traffic or when someone verbally assaults you, your body enters the same defensive system as the rabbit or tiger. Your adrenaline increases, your senses heighten, and your body’s not-essential-to-survival systems shut down. You too cannot focus on eating or procreating if you think you are under threat. But once the threat is gone your body can return to its normal state: at rest but ready to spring into action.

What if you suddenly found out that your body has been operating under a low but constant threat for days, weeks, months, or years? That your adrenaline has been pumping at a low but steady rate for all that time? That the systems not necessary for immediate survival--digestion, circulation, elimination, recreation, and procreation--have been operating at reduced efficiency?  

Did you know that when you are out of balance, this is exactly what happens? If your spine is out of alignment, your body cannot get a good grip on the ground and your finely tuned physical sensors think that you are about to fall over at each and every minute. Your body goes into a mild defense mode to protect you from the perceived threat that you are about to trip or topple over.

 

As anyone who has ever been frightened knows, being in defense mode with your adrenaline pumping and your heart racing and your senses on overdrive is incredibly stressful. Mild but prolonged stress can take as large a toll on your body as short but intense bursts of stress. And because your body thinks it is in a mild emergency, your body thinks that this stress and defensive strategy are normal. It’s not looking to correct itself. And while it might seem like nothing is wrong, it also seems undesirable to walk around in a constant state of distress.

No need to fear, however! (No need to stress about it!) The doctors and practitioners at The Balancing Center offer a simple solution: get balanced.

If your body gets balanced, your body can actually, finally, and fully relax. You can breathe, rest easy, and take your time to go about your day. You’ll be able to stop defending and start digesting, stop protecting and start procreating! (If that’s what you want, of course.) Run into the office today to see how you can get out of defense and into health!

Connect to Health, Connect to Life

Posted by: The Balancing Center

How many connections did you make yesterday? Not only in the networking sense, but how many times did you seek out a way to connect to something or someone? Yesterday, my attempts to connect to the Internet easily ran into the double digits. I also texted several different people, caught trains, chatted with family, and basically spent my entire day, in some fashion, making connections.

This is how a day goes for many (if not most) of us because humans have an almost innate need for connection. We are born crying out, waving our hands in the air in the attempt to make a connection. As we grow, we seek to sustain and enhance the connection we initially craved.

When we lose our connections, whether to people or places or the Internet, it is frustrating or sad or painful. Considering how easy it is to lose the most obvious connections, it is no wonder we often overlook one of the most understated, yet important, connections we have ever wanted and needed: our connection to the ground beneath our feet.

Often we’re not even aware that we have lost connection to the ground. An accident or trauma, (whether physical or emotional), can cause damage to our spine so that our nervous system becomes locked, tight, or confused. Such trauma might be painful or uncomfortable, but underneath the pain and discomfort lies something even more harmful. When our spine is locked, damaged, or confused, the rest of our body compensates to make up for the trauma. This compensation often, if not always, causes our body to fall out of balance. For instance, if your neck becomes locked, your hip might tighten and your leg might shorten to keep you standing upright.

An imbalanced body means we have an uneven connection to the ground. Losing this connection causes our body to become even more confused as it seeks out an even and balanced relationship with the earth. But our bodies have amazing abilities to adapt to uncomfortable situations and we come to accept this imbalance and disconnection as normal. Our body has to now fight against gravity to maintain its locked position; we have to fight to keep our hip tight and our leg short.

And this is how many (if not most) of us go about our day! We’re generally not frustrated with this loss of connection because we’re not even aware of it. But even if we don’t notice it directly, that disconnection interferes with our energy and health in many significant ways.

Are you connected to the ground? At The Balancing Center, we help you answer that question. Whether you are or you aren’t, we work to improve your balance to get you even more connected to the ground. What was once a weak signal, one flickering bar, can become a full broadcast, five strong bars of connection.

So come on in, get balanced, and satisfy your lifelong search for connection!

Spring has Sprung!

Posted by: Dr. Fedeli

    

June is such an energetic month and we see a lot of our patients increasing their activity levels as they enjoy the good weather. That’s why we thought it was time we had another conversation about...

Foundational Movement Practices!

You’ve heard about them. You’ve worked on them. And you love them...right? The truth is that many patients could use a refresher. There is so much new information to digest at The Balancing Center and something as compelling as the FMP program is definitely worth extra study. It’s our hope that this month we can all renew our commitment to Foundational Movement Practices in order  to maximize our energy, stay balanced, and get the most out of our workouts.

What are Foundational Movement Practices?

They are movement patterns and sequences that encourage your body and nervous system to re-calibrate and stay balanced. They teach you to navigate and move your body as it is anatomically designed to move so that your nervous system creates new and more balanced muscle memories. You will also gain a new sense of proper posture in everyday activities, such as sitting at your desk, standing in line, lifting things, and working out.

How do I learn them?

Your third visit to The Balancing Center is your introduction to FMP. In just ten minutes your doctor can teach you the exercises and help you practice them. Many of our patients enjoy such fabulous results that they schedule an FMP session for every visit. Any time you stop by our office you can request an illustrated packet describing the exercises in detail. These will help you practice at home.

Any additional resources?

So glad you asked! The doctors have created short videos demonstrating and explaining each exercise in the FMP sequence! These are incredible visual tools for patients who want to get the most out of their care at The Balancing Center. You can find these videos in the FMP section of our website.

What’s so great about these exercises?

Another excellent question! Foundational Movement Practices have helped many of our patients achieve breakthrough results, whether they are trying to get out of pain or maximize their day-to-day performance. Check out what some people have said about how FMP have helped maximize their care: Whitney's testimonial!

Experience amazing results by scheduling your Foundational Movement Practice session today!

During the month of June, refer a Friend and receive a FREE Foundational Movement Practice session on your next visit (a $45 value)!
Offer Ends June 30, 2013. 

Blood Sugar - Take Control!

Posted by: Dr Ken Bennett

A patient of mine, let’s call him Doug, came in primarily for help with anxiety issues, but also some pain and discomfort in his back and body.  He is also floating between pre-diabetes and diabetes.  In about six weeks or so of treatment with Barry’s bodywork and my care (primarily B.E.S.T. treatments) Doug’s spine and alignment are better and his nervous system is functioning with more ease.  As a result his anxiety and discomfort has improved a lot and he’s very excited with his progress.  

Last week, I encouraged him to try using Orenda’s Balance Spray.  The herbal ingredients in this spray have been shown to have a ‘balancing effect’ on blood sugar and insulin; both are issues for those with diabetes, and cortisol, our stress hormone that goes up when we’re anxious or stressed.  People like Doug with anxiety and pre-diabetes can greatly benefit from this ‘balancing effect’.  

It’s been less than a week since he started using the Balance Spray and the first words out of Doug’s mouth this week were, “What in the @#$^% is in that Balance spray?!”  He said he’s never seen his blood glucose numbers this low in the 3 years he’s been checking it 4x’s a day.  He’s also lost 5lbs in a week after being stuck at a weight plateau for the past 3 years.  

Of course, you don’t have to have anxiety or diabetes to benefit from our care.  We help the nervous system, which is the master control of your body, to function optimally.  When a healthy nervous system is combined with the right supplement, amazing results are possible.

Flu Shot: Are 50/50 Odds Worth It?

Posted by:Dr Dan

A recent article from USA Today, stated that the flu vaccine was effective in only 9% of adults 65 years and older.  Stated more clearly, the flu vaccine was 91% INEFFECTIVE.

In all age groups, it was said that the vaccine was 56% "successful".
Where in the world are 50-50 odds considered successful except in the weather department of the newsroom?!

The flu shot is definitely a big money maker for the pharmaceutical industry. At its worst, it fills your body with toxic chemicals which ironically weaken your immune system, making you more susceptible to the flu and other germs. Check out our previous blog from November where Dr. Ken covered this topic.

There are better ways to improve your immune system than with a faulty vaccine system. We recommend the Orenda products such as Immune and of course we provide chiropractic support for the immune system as well.

Here are a few highlights to help your immune system work properly. (Read the full blog here.)

#1 Way to Boost your Immune System - Get adjusted and let your nervous system do its thing.
~ The nervous system runs the immune system.  Adjustments allow the nervous system to function better.  The more your nervous system is able to function as it is designed to function (healthy and well) the more resilient and vital every system in our body is, including the immune system.

#2 Way to Boost your Immune System - Eat a healthy diet and take quality supplements.
~ What we eat and drink and the vitamins and supplements we take either support us or hinder us. Eating plenty of organic, fresh fruits and vegetables and organic, free range meat gives our body the vitamins, minerals, protein and good fats necessary to be healthy. A few supplements we carry in the office are great for immune system support.

Orenda Immune, Vitamin D, Detox Essentials, Orenda Balance, 
Alka Green, and Arabinogalactans (Larch Tree Extract).  

#3 Way to Boost your Immune System - Sweat.
~ There are two ways to sweat that support your health in different ways. First, passive sweating is sitting in a sauna or hot bath, it’s almost like giving yourself a fever.  As your internal temperature raises your body detox’s from the inside out. Second, active sweating is exercise.  You really don’t have to exercise until you are dripping wet. Just getting up and getting your body moving helps to increase circulation throughout your body but especially the circulation of your lymphatic system.

Posted by: Barry Krost

Over at HuffPost we found this amazing article describing the negative effects of stress on our bodies. We know that a little stress can be good for you, but when you're constantly feeling under pressure -- overwhelmed, anxious, totally frazzled -- the effects can actually add up to something dangerous. As if a clear, peaceful mind wasn't incentive enough to de-stress, we rounded up some of the scariest ways stress can wreak havoc on our bodies -- from fueling cancer to raising the risk of heart attacks.

For tips on beating stress, read this, this, this and this.

This link will take you straight to their article. Enjoy and live stress free!

Is the Flu Vaccine Right for You?

Posted by: Dr. Ken

Just the other day I had a patient, Laura, email me asking for my opinion on flu shots. So I thought I’d share my response because it’s an important topic and something that all of us at The BC are passionate about.  So many places have flu shots available these days that it seems like Starbucks might start offering free flu shots with every Grande Mocha Latte…

Here’s my email:

“Thanks for asking. I do indeed have an opinion.  I think flu shots are pretty useless. The bug slightly mutates every year and the shot is nothing more than a mix of previous years’ bugs.  It seems to me that people commonly get the flu after the shot…

In general, I’m not a fan of vaccines.  Bugs, diseases, etc. rarely get into the body directly through the blood.  Our immune system has skin, mucous, hair, digestive enzymes, white blood cells, etc. set up in defense.  Shots bypass all of our natural defenses and go straight into our blood.  This leaves the immune system at a loss and trying to play catch up.  On top of that, they are mixed with many toxic chemicals and fillers that do more even more harm to the body.

My biggest issue is that nowhere in nature is anyone ever exposed to measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, hepatitis and more all at one time and then again a few months later…it’s not natural and not safe.  A much slower and smaller schedule is much safer.

I know this is much more than you asked for but it is a topic I’m passionate about. There’s so many chemicals we intake daily without much choice as is.  Why bother adding another that is from last year’s bug…”

There’s a lot of evidence supporting Vitamin D as a great way to strengthen your immune system and fight the flu.  I actually blogged about the importance of Vitamin D last year, check it out here: The "D" Defense Against the Dark 

Regardless of what you choose to do, we take it as our responsibility let you know that there are plenty of safe and effective alternatives to keeping yourself healthy; Alternatives that don’t involve needles, pill bottles and side effects."