Mick’s up With Germs

Have you noticed lots of people out sick at work and school, during this past couple of months?  I have.  In fact, at our office, we've all noticed.  I overheard one of my coworkers ask, “Why is everyone sick right now?”  So, I decided this would be a good topic for a Mick’s up Life.

Let’s think about it for a minute. 

With all the many different celebrations going on over a 2 month period, candy and desserts are everywhere!  Not many of us can say we didn't sneak a candy or two from the Halloween bowl.  At Thanksgiving time, so many wonderful homemade desserts surround us (not to mention the carbs ingested before we even reach dessert), and then during Christmastime, we are bombarded from both sides, with candy in the stockings and punch and pastries on the table.

My neighbor friend and I were just talking about this.  Sugar is the main ingredient of those beloved confections, and as we know, sugar is an inflammatory, dragging down our immune systems.

Next, let’s step outside to take a look at the temperature.  With the chill in the air, some of us get scared inside to snuggle up (with a sugar-laden hot chocolate and/or latte, perhaps?), cozily soaking in the glow of the lights of the season… when we’re not scrambling for time to run the kidderz to their new school-year events, shopping for all those aforementioned celebrations, and running to parties, plays, and just plain busy-ness of the holiday season.  With all that happening, how many of us are keeping up with our exercise routines?  Plus, we are trying to cram so many activities into a day, we might not even be getting the amount of sleep (or at least not good sleep!) that we need.  Again, our immune systems are jeopardized.

Oh, can you step outside with me one more time?  When you feel that chill, what do you notice yourself doing?  Do your shoulders tense up?  Are you rubbing your arms to keep warm?  I am!  (In fact, I was doing that at my desk at work for a while, until the temperature got regulated.)  You know what else?  The season, along with my job, keep me at the computer longer.  Do I have perfect posture at the computer?  No!  Do you?  Maybe for a short period of time, but if you’re there, or in any position, for an extended length of time, you just might find your upper back and neck getting tight, stiff, and uncomfortable.

When we are tense in our upper backs and necks, do you know what might be going on inside?  There is more opportunity for our vertebrae to shift out of place.  Do you know where the nerves serving your sinuses and face and throat are directed from?  That’s right!  Those vertebrae that are being affected by the tight muscles have a very close relationship to those nerves.  Hmmmm… yes, you probably guessed it.  If there is pressure on the nerves in that region, you could be finding yourself having sinus issues, headaches, throat problems, etc.  For that reason alone, a visit to your chiropractor would be a wonderful gift to yourself, not to mention a boost to your immune system.

Yes, those things did happened to me this season, too.  I fought off a nasty cold and fever, but it was a quick, easy fight.  I got myself back on track (and drank lots of extra water!), keeping the immune system enemies at bay, especially sugar.  It’s really amazing how much quicker the healing process is, when sugar is taken out of the equation.

So, let’s try to be sure this is a jolly season. 

• Let's reduce stress during these months, no matter how crazy things get, and that includes minimizing physical stress (you know, the posture thing we were just looking at)… and remember to sleep… sleep well.
• Say “Merry Christmas” to you our chiropractors more often at this time of year.  (In other words, schedule more visits.  This can help with the sleeping, too!) 
• Make better choices of what snacks we enjoy, foods we prepare, and drinks we consume, in order to eliminate (or at least minimize) sugar (look for alternatives, and be sure to read all ingredients!).
• Enjoy our coffees (again, look for alternatives for flavorings)  healthier hot chocolate (make your own mix), but in moderation, because as we know, nasty things thrive in an acidic environment, which these yummy concoctions do, unfortunately, promote. 
• Finally, let’s remember to take time to do some quick interval exercising (only 15 or fewer minutes of your day!), and be sure to fit in stretches.  (The stretches can help with that upper back/neck tension thing we previously touched on.)

As it is said, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

"When it snows, 

she has no fear for her household."

Proverbs 31:21 (NIV)

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Mick's up with the Cold Results

Hang on!

“The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?” Proverbs 18:14 (NIV)

We made it through the week!  Yay!  It’s the weekend!  Did it feel like you’d never get here? 

Maybe you feel like the Praying Mantis that went along for a ride to the store… on the outside of our car!  That tough guy hung onto the side-view mirror that entire 5-mile drive.  My daughter, even though a little afraid of the idea of the bug getting close to her, kept a close watch on it, cheering it on.  “Hang in there, little guy!”  We encouraged it, and it would look at us through the window, like it understood, but at the same time communicating, “What have you done to me?!”  Even while we ran in to the store, it stayed in its temporary home.  So, of course, the drive home again included, “Hang on!”

That’s our encouragement to you, too.  Hang on!  You’ll make it!  It’s not much further!

I can encourage you, because I’ve been encouraged.  We made it!  Remember the experiment in Monday’s post, Mick's Scoop on Sugar?  (I promised you an update.)  Even though our household started off the week with a bunch of sickies, feeling like we couldn’t be more miserable, we kept up with the Vitamin D3, increased water intake, soothing hot tea, sunshine when we could get it, sleep, and decreased sugar intake.  We made it!  We’re feeling better!  Our experiment certainly was not scientific, nor was it planned.  However, since over the past year we have been so faithful with our chiropractic care, nutrition, and overall healthier lifestyle... and have not felt this sick for this long during this same year, until our recent hiatus, we can now, even more confidently, say the 5 Essentials make for a healthier, happier family.

Enjoy a mom's perspective in this Mick’s up Life’s collection of blog posts, to get a handle on the 5 Essentials.  Then do your research and make the choice to live life as a healthier you... and have fun truly living with your healthy family!

Hang in there!  You can do it!

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Mick's in the D3

OK.  Are you ready?  Get those mouse buttons prepped for clicking.  I told you I'd get Vitamin D3 information to you, and today's the day!

A source solely dedicated to getting us information about Vitamin D3 is the Vitamin D3 Blog.  The posts there tell about Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Myriad Diseases as well as Vitamin D3 and Influenza, among other very important topics.  It is mentioned in the "Influenza" post that the recommended daily allowance of D3 is much lower than we truly honestly need, and so a higher dose for maintenance is suggested, as well as a higher dose for giving your immune system a boost.  I've heard it suggested that at the sign of a sniffle or cough, increasing your daily D3 intake to be 1000 IUs per pound of body weight will help in the fight.  It can be summed up at this page about Vitamin D Therapy Protocol.  Personally, in our household we take 5000 - 40,000 IUs for daily maintenance (since we have a variety of ages and sizes), and then we follow the 1000 IU/lb protocol when necessary.  (As you can figure from yesterday's post Mick's Scoop on Sugar, this has been one of those protocol weeks.)

"VitaminD reduced flu by 50% vs 8% reduction using antiviral drugs."  This statement is from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and it is also sited in an article by Maximized Living and The Times.

Would you rather watch a video and listen to the information?  Check out what Maximized Living has to say about it.

We cannot get D3 from food.  It's best to get it from sunshine.  However, as I sit here indoors, typing on my computer, and you sit reading this, most likely indoors, also, we are not getting our daily dose of sunshine.  The sources I like to use for getting Vitamin D3 to my family are Maximized Living (with probiotics) and Vitamin Shoppe (liquid form is handy).  Wherever you shop, be sure to pay attention to the type of Vitamin D (needs to be D3), the number of units per dose, and what's in the ingredients.

Please leave any comments and/or additional information in the section at the bottom of this post.  Also, remember to mix it up with the poll in the left margin.


Until tomorrow...
Enjoy the "shimmering heat in the sunshine" Isaiah 18:4 (NIV) and be "like a well-watered plant in the sunshine." Job 8:16  (NIV) 

Well, OK, maybe not just like the descriptions in those verses when read in context... but a least get out and enjoy some sunshine!

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Mick's Scoop on Sugar

"Sugar... aww, Honey, Honey.... 
Honey... aww, Sugar, Sugar...."
Sugar Sugar (Original 1969 Music Video) - The Archies
Do you want to know how hooked on sugar my honey used to be?  That song for the opening to this post was "our song..." well, one of them, anyway.  What was another of "our songs?"  Here it is: 
Sugar Shack (1964)
Written by: Keith McCormack & Faye Voss
Performed by: Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs
"There's a crazy little shack beyond the tracks,
And everybody calls it the Sugar Shack.
Well, it's just a coffeehouse and it's made out of wood,
Espresso coffee tastes mighty good."

Hmmmm... Do you see a pattern here?  Yes, sugar was his thing.  He wised up, though.  He's doing amazing at staying away from sugar, because he knows the consequences involved.

One of those consequences is a sluggish immune system.  I've been hearing this for the past year, but I want to get some more scientific information for you.  So, here are some links:
Sugar as Immune Suppressant:  "Sugar eating... decreased their responsiveness." - quote found in Mark's Daily Apple, and based on the following study:
Role of sugars in human neutrophilic phagocytosis: "These data suggest that the function and not the number of phagocytes was altered by ingestion of sugars. This implicates glucose and other simple carbohydrates in the control of phagocytosis and shows that the effects last for at least 5 hr." - The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 
Better Life Unlimited summarizes the study really well in their "Sugar And Immune Function" article.

We have a bit of an unscientific experiment going on in our household this week.  Unfortunately, too many variables changed recently to make it any more scientific than it is... not to mention, we're not scientists in this house... yet.

My daughter started getting the sniffles last week, and then the other three of us began feeling a little bit of something happening in our sinuses, too.  We ate well during the week, staying away from sugar and foods high on the glycemic index.  Then the weekend hit.

We splurged big time!  We had lots of different foods, sodas, coffee treats, snacks, etc. with sugar.  Not only that, but our chiropractic care has been put on hold, while we are transitioning to a new doctor.  Right there, we've changed more than one variable.  Not very brilliant, I assure you.

What foods contain sugar?  It's just in things like candy and desserts, right?  Check out Sugar Stacks. 

My daughter seemed to do OK with healing from the cold during the week, but her healing process was slowed down a bit from the weekend's events.  So, she still sounds stuffy.

My son, on the other hand, had a scratchy throat from sinus drainage at the end of the week.  Then he lost sleep Friday, due to his participation in our church's teen all-nighter lock-in, which of course, involved no sleep.  (So, that is a third variable that was changed.)  He informed me this morning that he feels he's healing just fine, even with the weekend sugar splurges.  Mom has a different opinion.  Obviously, he would have healed a lot faster without the sugar and without the messed up sleep schedule.  So, he still sounds stuffy, too, is grumpy, and has a cough... a productive one, but a cough, none-the-less.

On the other hand:
My husband and I are barely moving around the house, moaning and groaning and acting like babies.  Our heads are pounding.  We're grumpy, and my husband needs extra prayer this morning, for his brain to kick in to gear, so he sounds sharp and at the top of his game during his phone meetings today.  (Variables reach a total of no less than 5 for us, because besides the decrease in chiropractic care and the increase in sugar, add in stress and poor sleep, as well as poor sleep schedules.)

More on our progress later this week!  In the meantime, take our word for it (and that of the resources in the links mentioned above), and stay away from sugar, if you know what's good for you!

Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple summarizes it well:  "So, sorry, Poppins. Keep your spoonful of sugar. It may very well help your spoiled wards choke down their medicine, but it could also make the problem – a weak immune system – even worse."

PS ~ I think my kidderz are catching on to this sugar vs. the immune system stuff.  Yesterday, my daughter was going to share her extra lollipop with her brother, but his answer was, "That's OK.  I'm sick, and I want to get better, so I don't want the sugar."  That makes a mom's heart happy!  I dedicate this song to my kidderz.  (It is actually the song we sing for my daughter, since her nickname before she was born was Baby Lollipop.  Yes, more sugar references.):  Lollipop (1958) - The Chordettes

~

"Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks...”

Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV)

This is what we did this weekend with our splurges,

eating sugary foods and drinking soda.

I don't recommend it,
when your immune system is already weak!
Blech!

~

You may also find interesting:  Mick's up on Your Immune System

Mick's up on the Sniffles

This seems to be sniffles week, so we'll finish it off strong!

You know how it goes.  Kidderz are the ones blamed for getting the sniffles and fevers and bringing them home (or from the teachers' point of view:  to school) for us adults to end up sick, too.  As the old saying goes, "Misery loves company!" 

It seems we're doomed.  It's just part of the process.  It has to happen… but isn't there a better way?

In my research, I found an awesome site:  International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA, Inc).  This site is all about helping your kidderz be at their 100%.  Remember from Mick's Signals: Central Nervous System at 100% = Immune System at 100% = Kidderz at 100%.

When is it best to start kidderz under chiropractic care?  You'll find the answer at the above ICPA link.  If you want to read more, check out the article on Chiropractic: The Answer for a Healthy Pregnancy and Healthy Baby!

"If a woman is pregnant her needs are increased, because the nervous system of a woman directs the creation of the fetus and the embryo to begin with. When a woman receives adjustments during her pregnancy, there is also better delivery, less back pain, healthier children, and less chance of a miscarriage" - Sir Jay Holder, M.D., D.C., Ph.D., of Miami, Florida

Are your kidderz beyond that stage already?  Well, have no fear!  Get them started today!  It's never too late for chiropractic to have a positive impact on a life.

Kids Having Fun
at the Chiropractor's Office

Look for a principled, corrective-care chiropractor near you, and get your family on your way to combatting those sniffles!

In the meantime:
Remember to load up on that Vitamin D3 over the weekend, and then we'll touch on it some more next week, as we get into the family's nutrition!  Have a restful, healthy, fun, family-oriented weekend!


"Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD."  Psalm 102:18 (NIV)

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Mick's up on Your Immune System

Is the weather turning colder where you are?  Are you fearing the unknown, as the kidderz are all being bombarded by the vast array of sicknesses at school, and as we enter the infamous cold and flu season? 

Click on the picture for
great information from
EnCognitive.com on
how the immune system works!

 
Have no fear!  Here is some useful information to help you combat what's flying around out there.  Can you imagine getting through this winter with no illness?  Take time to check out these links! 

Function of the Immune System:  "During an immune response, the brain and the immune system 'talk to each other' and this process is essential for maintaining homeostasis or balance in the body.  If the Nervous System is not functioning properly, then the Immune System cannot function at 100%, thus the body becomes fertile ground for bacteria, viruses, and illness."  http://www.immunesystemremedies.com/benefits-of-chiropractic-care.html

Is your immune system stronger than the bugs?  This article from Maximized Living will give you the answer! 

Check out more information on BOOSTING YOUR IMMUNITY THROUGH CHIROPRACTIC. 

Watch this Maximized Living video to see how to avoid the impact of flu season.  It states that immune systems are 200% stronger in chiropractic patients who have been under care for 3 years or more.  *See Pero research link below.  It also states that studies show a 48% increase in the immune system's T-cell counts.  This study was performed at the Sid E. Williams Research Center of Life Chiropractic University: (Source) Selano JL, Hightower BC, Pfleger B, Feeley-Collins K, Grostic JD. "The Effects of Specific Upper Cervical Adjustments on the CD4 Counts of HIV Positive Patients." The Chiro Research Journal; 3(1); 1994. 


*Pero study sited:  The chiropractic patients also had 200% greater immune competence than those who had not received chiropractic care, and 400% greater immune competence than those with cancer or other serious diseases.  Despite a wide range of ages in this study, immune competence did not show any decline with age; it was uniform for the entire group.  Pero concluded that "chiropractic may optimize whatever genetic abilities you have" so that you can fully resist serious disease.  "I'm very excited to see that without chemical intervention... this particular group of patients under chiropractic care did show a very improved response," he told CBSRF.  "These changes occur from chiropractic treatment."  Source: East West Health Magazine, November, 1989. 

Would you rather watch a video about how you can boost your immune system by 200%?  Click on this link. 

Drs. Murray, Irwin, and Reardon:  Sympathetic activity has been shown to release immune regulatory cells into the blood circulation, which alters immune function.  This was reported by Drs. Murray, Irwin, and Reardon.  The authors stated:  “Growing evidence suggests that immune function is regulated in part by the sympathetic nervous system.  Sympathetic nerve endings densely innervate lymphoid tissue such as the spleen, lymph nodes, and the thymus, and lymphoid cells have beta 2 adrenergic receptors.”  Murray DR, Irwin M, Reardon CA, et al.  "Sympathetic and immune interactions during dynamic exercise.  Mediation via a beta 2 - adrenergic-dependent mechanism."  Circulation 1992 86(1): 203 

"This is one of the most exciting areas of chiropractic.  More and more research is pointing to an immune system enhancement effect of the spinal adjustment."  The effects of chiropractic on the immune system: a review of the literature.  Allen JM, Chiropractic Journal of Australia, 1993; 23:132-135.  

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."  Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV) 

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