Lighthouse Chiropractic Centre

The other night I was watching an interview with Barack Obama on the CBS show 60 minutes. I found the interview riveting.

In sure, like most interviews he has done in the last few months, he was asked about certain key issues regarding the U.S. political situation, however I found the questions regarding his uncanny ability to handle the stress of the campaign the most intriguing part of the interview.

The interviewer Steve Kroft remarked, “I’ve seen you in the morning, well knowing you’re getting 3-4 hours of sleep a night (during this campaign) and you look pretty good…”

Obama replied, “well I’ve been religious about getting my exercise, I work-out every morning and that definitely helps…”

I find that remarkable! I’m sure I will never relate to the pressure and the stress of a presidential campaign, however I find it truly inspirational that he has made the time to take care of his self through such demanding time of his life.

If anyone has an excuse to be “too busy”, or to “not have enough time”, to exercise or look after themselves, I’m sure Barack Obama would have hundreds of reasons.

Just the same, I am inspired when I hear stories of everyday people who have equally hectic schedules, who make the time to improve their health. I believe not only does it make them better mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, employees….(you get the picture) ….it dramatically impacts the quality and direction of their health in the future.

My suggestion – if you are like me – if I say “I should work out more”, things never get done! Pick the times (start with 3 days a week even) write it down, put it in your Blackberry or calendar, tell someone about it to keep you accountable and start moving forward. You’ll be surprised at the result!

Study: Four of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants, including Prozac, work no better than placebo sugar pills to help mild to moderate depression, says a study published in PloS (Public Library of Science) Medicine. Irving Kirsch of the department of psychology at Hull University in England and colleagues in the U.S. and Canada compared trial results for patients taking a sugar pill with those given the antidepressants fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Seroxat), venlafaxine (Effexor) and nefazodone (Serzone). They found that patients felt better but those on placebos improved as much as those on the drugs. The only exception: the most severely depressed did better on the drugs.

Method: Using freedom of information rules, researchers obtained a full set of trial data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including results the drug companies had chosen not to publish.

Background: Prozac has been used by 40 million patients since 1988.

Claim: “There seems little reason to prescribe antidepressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients, unless alternative treatments have failed to provide a benefit,” Kirsch says. Alternatives include talk therapy.

Source: The Guardian, BBC News.

What are your thoughts about this? I would like to know!

-Dr. Dean

As we near the Christmas season, and as we extend out to the community through our “Gift of Health” outreach, I wanted to touch base on one key question that some people have.

If you’ve ever wondered this: “I don’t know anyone that I can send a Gift of Health to because I don’t know anyone who is sick or has a bad back or needs help.”

If you’ve thought that….then let me apologize to you because I have not done my job in communicating the principle of chiropractic to you.

You see….everyone can benefit from a healthy spine and nervous system. Your nervous system controls how your body functions, heals and regenerates so it is important to ensure that it is working well.

So how do you know whether or not your spine is working well? How do you know how well your nervous system is performing? Think about that for a second…..

If we are using pain or how we are “feeling” as our only guide to health….we are being misled. You can feel great and have a massive cavity in your tooth burrowing it’s way to your nerve root. You can feel great, and have a heart that is only working 60 percent of normal (for many, the first symptom of heart disease….is a fatal heart attack). You can feel great, but have spinal damage which is choking your spinal cord and compromising your body’s ability to function, heal and regenerate.

This is why more people need to have their spine’s checked. Yes, not only is it to ensure their spine is healthy, but it is to make sure the nervous system is optimized. An optimized nervous system will move you towards health and vitality a million times out of a million.

Recently, I sat down with a patient that had some relatively “minor” falls in his childhood/teenage years. That early “minor” damage had turned into a serious degenerative condition 30 years later which was severely compromising the function of his body. This patient would agree that the unfortunate health circumstance he is now facing, could have been completely avoided if he knew what was happening in his body much, much earlier.

This brings me back to why it is so important to send a Gift of Health card out to people you know. It can literally change the direction of someone’s life. We have several patients who have a radically changed quality and outlook on life as a result of their body moving towards health, healing and vitality! That is what pumps us up!

Please take the time to think of those that have never had their spine checked. It’s about time they did…..they will thank you for it!