ellevue WA – It looks like there is a simple secret to living longer and feeling better while you do it - and it’s something just about anyone can do. At least, that’s what the findings of a new study suggest.

But before we talk about this simple longevity tactic… you should know about this…

Swine Flu Mania!

I’m sure you’ve heard… there is something called the swine flu going around. The scientific name is now H1N1. And H1N1 is not the only thing “going around.” A lot of hysteria is traveling with it.

When they first reported on this flu several months ago, some news programs hyped it up to the point you thought the human race was going to be wiped off the face of the Earth!

Well, as it turns out… that’s not even close to the reality…

H1N1, so far, hasn’t been the death sentence the media prophesized. Most people with H1N1 get flu-like symptoms and are perfectly fine in no time.

Why is that?

It’s because most people who contract H1N1 have normal and healthy immune systems. And when you have a normal and healthy immune system, you can fight off just about anything known to man (or woman).

Just like the “regular” flu… people with compromised immune systems are the ones at risk… and that is why it is important to keep your immune system functioning at its highest genetic potential.

This includes: eating right, exercising, reducing stress and visiting your doctor for routine check-ups. This includes Chiropractic care to keep your spine working properly and alleviating any unnecessary stress and strain on your system.

Here’s something you should know about taking anti-viral medications like Tamiflu and Relenza…

On Saturday, August 22, 2009, Reuters reported that a new study published in the Lancet Infectious Disease suggests treating H1N1 in normal healthy adults may not be worthwhile.

“Recommending the use of anti-viral drugs for the treatment of people presenting with symptoms is unlikely to be the most appropriate course of action,” wrote Jane Burch of the University of York and colleagues.

According to the Reuters’ article, the results of this study also support an already existent advisory from the World Health Organization (WHO): “healthy patients who get H1N1 swine flu without suffering complications do not need to be treated with anti-virals.”

The WHO, however, strongly recommends both drugs for pregnant woman and children under 5 because these two groups are at risk for greater illness.

Do Tamiflu and Relenza Work?

The research team in the above study reviewed several published studies. With healthy people, flu symptoms usually last one week untreated. Treated with either Tamiflu or Relenza, symptoms were cut by HALF A DAY.

People with a higher risk, like diabetics or asthmatics saved a day with Tamiflu, and three-quarters of a day with Relenza.

Due to fear, people have been hording these two drugs for months. This research suggests it is not a good idea to take these drugs if you are healthy. In fact, researchers concluded that the drugs should be saved for those who need them most.

A Little Can Go

A LONG Way…

Enough about H1N1. Now would be a good time for a little longevity secret, right?

Well, here you go…

A new study in the Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise suggests people who stay even moderately fit as they age may live longer than those who do not.

According to an August 21, 2009 Reuters’ article, “Our findings suggest that sedentary lifestyle, rather than differences in cardiovascular risk factors or age, may explain (the) two-fold higher mortality rates in the least-fit versus slightly more fit healthy individuals,” lead researcher, Dr. Sandra Mandic of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, noted in an email to Reuters Health.

She pointed out that nearly two-thirds of the least-fit study participants were not getting the minimum recommended amount of exercise — at least 30 minutes of moderate activity, like brisk walking, on five or more days a week.

“These results emphasize the importance of improving and maintaining high fitness levels by engaging in regular physical activity,” Mandic said, “particularly in poorly fit individuals.”

And here’s something of MAJOR importance!!!!

The study showed a history of exercise was not a factor. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you used to be in shape. What matters is RECENT activity.

This helps explain why a professional athlete, who was in phenomenal shape for years, can die young from heart disease.

The study suggests you only get protection from RECENT physical activity.

This may be disheartening for many since so many people look at “exercise programs” and “diet,” as temporary things… doing them just long enough to get in the desired shape or lose a certain amount of weight.

This approach will NOT make you healthy. What will help make you healthy and possibly live longer is making the commitment to change your lifestyle. Committing to eating right and exercising FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.

That is exactly what Chiropractors believe and have been teaching for years - - health is the result of what you routinely do now and for the rest of your life.

That’s why it is also important to commit to getting and keeping your spine working properly with Chiropractic care. If you stop exercising, you lose the positive effects. If you stop brushing your teeth, you lose the positive effect. And, if you neglect your spine, chances are, you will eventually end up in rough shape again. Staying healthy and living longer is in YOUR hands.

And don’t forget, if you ever have any questions or concerns about your health, talk to us. Contact us with your questions. We’re here to help and don’t enjoy anything more than participating in your lifelong good health.

This morning I was scheduling a patient and realized that the next time that I would see him would be in November. My oh my, how the year flies by! It has been a great year though, and I want to give you a quick update on what’s going on in my life. If you wonder why I am taking the time to write to my patients about what’s going in my life, it’s because when you become a patient here in my office I consider you a member of my extended family. I am always so excited to hear what is going on in your lives when you come in for your visits, with vacations, family, and work. So I want to give you a chance to hear what is going on in my life.

As many of you know from the “Starfish” letter that I sent you a few months back, (oh, by the way, if you didn’t get my starfish letter just ask me next time you are in and I will get you one. It’s very powerful!) I got engaged to the most wonderful woman in this entire world, Angela Fay (I’m not biased, I swear!). Now as a male, I had absolutely no idea how much work planning a wedding is. I figured you rent a church, send all of your family and friends an invitation and “get hitched”. Well I was utterly wrong! It is amazing to me how many details there are to a wedding. It has been a lot of fun to help Angela do the wedding planning thing, and prepare for this great celebration.

Now I get to brag a little bit about my amazing fiancée. (Now just remember I’m not biased) Angela is a Washingtonian through and though, having grown up in Snohomish. She has never lived out side of our wonderful state. We met at church (Overlake Christian Church) one week and the rest has been history. Angela works in the telecom industry supplying internet to big businesses and loves her job. It’s great to find not only a spouse but truly a best friend! We love to be with our families and friends. Angela is a huge Seahawks football fan so we watch a lot of football together and root for the home team!

One of my passions and hobbies is learning new things and I am always reading some kind of book or going to a seminar to keep my skills sharp to be the best chiropractor that I can for you! Right now I am learning some new functional moving stretches and exercises and I am excited to show you some of these “movements” to help enhance the care you get here. One of my other fun hobbies is to play fantasy football with the guys I went to college with. When I was in school, the class room hours were extremely intense, (7 AM to 6PM and many times on the weekends) so “fantasy football” was our way to have fun and relax when we were not in class and the tradition has carried on as we are all now in practice. For those of you who care (I realize this may be only a few) Payton Manning is my quarterback and so far my team is winning!

One of the things that I tell you is how important exercise is, and this is a very important part of my life. I must be honest with you though, I get bored with the same old exercise routine very quickly and I am always looking for ways to keep fitness fresh and fun for myself. I have started a new routine recently called YRG (Yoga for Regular Guys) and am finding that it is a fun new way to stay fit. It is also for women, ladies, and you can check it out at http://www.yrgfitness.com. All in all it is so important to find an exercise routine that fits YOU and that you are willing to stick to.

Until next time…

Dr. Weir

When I met my wonderful girlfriend, Angela, she suffered with headaches on an ongoing basis. I found that the top bone in her neck (which I refer to as the “headache bone”) was out of alignment and was pinching on the nerves in her neck, causing her headaches. After correcting the alignment of this “headache bone”, her headaches have almost completely disappeared. Now she only gets them if she sleeps in an awkward position. I have had many, many cases just like Angela’s over the years and get amazing results. Because I want to get the word out about how powerful chiropractic is for treating headaches I have made July, “Freedom From Headache” month!

All month I will be holding events to help people understand how chiropractic care can help them get rid of their headaches. On July 16th and the 23rd I will be holding complimentary, no obligation headache evaluations consisting of a headache consultation, and a ProAdjuster scan to assess if someone’s spine is causing his/her headaches. Also on July 23rd at 6pm here at Back in Action I will be holding an informational headache class, on the different types of headaches and how to fix them.

•When bones of the spine lose their normal position or motion, sensitive nerves and blood vessels to the head can be affected.
•When spinal nerves and related tissues are stretched or irritated, they can produce throbbing headaches.
•Aspirin and medications may cover up these warning signs, but do not correct the underlying structural cause.
•90% of people that come into Back in Action Chiropractic suffering from headache have a misalignment in their upper necks.

While I have seen amazing results in my own patients, there is also a growing body of other research that shows that chiropractic treatments are very effective for headaches.

“Researchers found that chiropractic patients experienced fewer side effects (than medication) and while both were effective during the treatment phase of the study, only the chiropractic patients continued to report fewer headaches when treatment ended.” [Boline, PD, Kassak, K, et al. “Journal of Manipulative and Physiological thereapeutics.” March/April 1995; Vol 18, No 3, pp. 148-154]

“Based on literature review of several headache treatment options, a panel of 19 multidisciplinary experts concluded that spinal manipulation resulted in almost immediate improvement for cervicogenic headaches and had significantly fewer side effects and longer lasting relief of tension type headache than a commonly prescribed medication.” [McCrory DC, et al. “Evidence Report: Behavioral and Physical Treatments for Tension type and Cervicogenic Headache.” Duke University Evidence-Based Practice Center, Durham, North Carolina, January 2001.]

Now that you know that there is an answer for debilitating headaches, don’t let your friends and family continue to suffer. I am providing an easy and painless way for your friends and family to find out if chiropractic care would be beneficial in correcting their headaches. I am offering multiple informational events completely FREE of charge to give people an opportunity to find help for their headaches. I am sick of seeing people suffer with headaches and I hope you will help me tell as many people as possible that there is hope. I have also developed a free headache report which goes into much more detail about chiropractic treatments for headaches. You can download this report at www.bellevueheadachereport.com

Through out the month I will also be posting headache related articles to the Back in Action blog at www.backinactionchiropractic.com/blog. If you have any questions or if there is anything we can do to help you please do not hesitate to call us 425-635-0495

Calendar of Events
July 16th and 23rd: Complimentary headache evaluations at Back in Action Chiropractic. Evaluations consisting of headache consultation, physical evaluation and ProAdjuster scan. Please call and schedule as these appointments are filling up fast 425-635-0495

July 23rd 6PM Back in Action Chiropractic Center: ”Freedom from Head aches - An in depth look at Headaches and what to do about them” with Dr. Weir

Sources:

  Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain May 2006, Vol. 46, No. 5: 766-772

  Yahoo News June 21, 2006

By Dr. Michael Weir

Do big muscles lead to the prevention of cancer?  That would be great wouldn’t it, get buff and cancer free!  Unfortunately studies have yet to show a direct correlation between muscle size and if you will get cancer.  But,they have shown that exercise does help with reducing our cancer risk. We all intuitively know that exercise and activity is vitally important to our health, but did you know that exercise plays an important part in cancer prevention?  Some of exercises cancer preventative effects include an increase in cardiovascular capacity (or how well our hearts are working), increased pulmonary capacity (how much air our lungs can hold), increase in bowel motility (how freely our digestive system flows), normalization in hormone levels, balances in energy levels, and increase in immune function, providing antioxidant defense, as well as repairing damaged DNA. If you are exercising now, keep it up! If you are not doing an exercise routine, start out small and work your way into a daily habit.  And then, yea, maybe you will get some big muscles while reducing your cancer risk.

You finish all your vegetables of course!  But dont worry, I wont
force feed you like your mom used to do.  Just remember to get all
your servings of vegetables.

Have you ever wondered what a “serving” of vegetables is?
Well here you go… A serving of vegetables consists of one half cup of raw or cooked
veggies, and one cup of raw leafy vegetables such as lettuce or
spinach.

Ever wonder why you need to eat your vegetables?  Here is a good list
of reasons:  http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art49323.asp

“Don’t feed that to the dog, it’s not good for him!” I found myself
thinking this before I went to give my dog a piece of bread. Then,
instead of giving it to the dog, I ate it myself. The standard
American diet has gotten so out of control that we eat things that
we know are not even good for our pets! We can take a lesson from
our pets. For the most part our dogs and cats eat to live, not live
to eat as we as humans have gotten so good at doing. Animals eat as
much as they need for their bodies to survive. We usually eat till
that giant serving of lasagna on our plate is totally gone. We know that
we need to always have water for our pets and yet we rarely drink
enough water to keep us from dehydration.

Lets start to rethink our eating habits. Anything that you would not
feed to your pet probably should not be in your mouth.

Have you ever put together a puzzle only to find that you are missing one piece. What does it do? It ruins the entire picture doesn’t it? I tell my patients every day that they have to view their health as a puzzle. If you are missing one piece to the puzzle of wellness it leads to disfunction in the body, and that disfunction will eventually lead to disease if not addressed.

We are going to look at 4 pieces of the wellness puzzle although their are many more which I discuss on my website. The first is NUTRITION. You are what you eat! Or more correct would be your health and wellness are dictated by what you eat. Be proactive in learning what is good and what is not good for your body.

The second piece is Exercise. Suprise, suprise huh? But it is true! “If you don”t loose, you WILL loose it!” I always tell my patients that the day that they stop moving will be the day that they stop moving…in the ground! Motion is vital for the health and well being of the body.

The third is a healthy functioning nervous system. The NS is what runs the entire body. How long do you think you would live with out food? How about water? Now, how long do you think you would live if I took away your nervous system? Thats right, you would die instantly! It vitally important that the nervous system is running at 100%, 100% of the time!! Chiropractors are the only doctors that work to help optimize the nervous system. We take away any interference so that your brain can communicate with the rest of your body!

Forth is Positive Mental Attitude. With out PMA it is impossible to acheive wellness. The stress that is involved with a negative mental attitude will one day kill you, and it sure isn’t quite as fun as PMA either!

So go out and put your Wellness Puzzle together and make sure not to leave out any pieces!

By LINDSAY LARIN
Bellevue Reporter Staff Writer
Sep 03 2008