Dr. Mark and Dr. Chip's Healthy Blogs

 Hello Everyone in Natural Health Nation- I hope that you enjoyed the weekend as things are warming up. It’s good to see a warming trend as I just returned from Florida, being on a vacation for two weeks. It sure went fast, had lots of activities but didn’t get much rest in. When I left Florida to return to Illinois, the temperature was 64 that morning and when I got to Springfield, it was 9. I’ve had several patients thank me for bringing some warm weather back-ha. There’s lot’s going on here at Natural Health that I hope you’ll notice when stopping by for visits or nutrition. We are working on getting things cleaned up and more usable. Working on changing our web site to make that easier to navigate. We’re changing the software that we use for scheduling to make that easier for people and having paperwork available online to complete before coming into the office. All kinds of things we’re trying to improve here at Natural Health for patients to have an enjoyable as well as a hea...

Welcome back Natural Health Family. February is still heart month for us at Natural Health. Heart health is an important topic because we can see that heart dis-ease is responsible for the most deaths in this Nation. Let’s talk about how we can flip this around so that we can help our hearts stay strong and healthy.  Have you ever had to do something that might have scared you or maybe you thought it was impossible for you to do? Maybe it was a certain activity like free falling out of a plane, giving a speech, being the leader of a group, or just telling someone how you feel about a certain circumstance? When you look back I’m sure you have had an experience like this likely more than once. Many times we are quick to forget how powerful and courageous we can be. We can get caught in being comfortable in the fear of not doing something or experiencing new possibilities. Imagine if many of the people who have created many helpful inventions, started positive movements, led people to...

  Happy February Natural Health Family!  Did you watch the big game? If you did, I hope you enjoyed it or at least enjoyed time with others. If not, it’s really no big deal, it’s just a game. Although a great game, we know that it will end and a new game will begin. This month is about heart health. The heart can show us a lot about the health of a person. Let’s talk about the importance of the heart and what it does for us.  Did you know that the heart pumps around 2,000 gallons of blood per day to the many parts and systems of the body? The heart beats around 100,000 times per day allowing the blood that moves through it to replenish and provide oxygen to all the cells of the body. That blood travels through approximately 60,000 miles of blood vessels. It is fascinating to think what all the heart goes through in a single day. More studies and research also show that the heart has electrical properties as well just like the brain. We are more familiar with these propert...

Welcome back Natural Health Family!  I imagine everyone had a great weekend and got to do something fun or checked off a task you wanted to accomplish. This February has shown us what Midwest weather can do. From one extreme to the next, you never know what it can do.  Life has a way to bring unexpected turns of events and being open to change can help allow life to unfold more. February can be a month for fresh starts and new beginnings.  We have talked about it in recent posts about how change can seem scary at times and that the brain can be wired for survival which makes the change seem fearful. However, when we choose to see life differently we can realize that many times in life we have gone through changes both big and small.  Many times we may feel overwhelmed or anxious because we try to think and control everything that happens in life.  Of course, it is okay to plan for different events that may happen in life but to worry about it chronically can aff...

 Hello Everyone in Natural Health Nation- I hope that you enjoyed your weekend even though there were still some snow around. It’s not Spring yet but at least we're out of the deep freeze from the week before. I always like to see the snow that we have melt so that if we get more, it doesn’t turn into big piles and cause more trouble. We need the moisture because it was dry last year, but I’d rather have it in nice warm rain. With all this change in weather, we’re getting a lot of patients complaining of sinus congestion. We’re using a lot of Antronex which is a nutrition to help the liver drain lymphatics. Antronex is actually a food product that is good for the body rather than using over the counter medications that actually make the liver more toxic. This of course makes the trouble worse and you keep having sinus congestion and not fixing anything, and you keep buying the medication-just what they want. The article that I’m sending along this week looks at the use of tart cher...

  Buenos Dias Natural Health Family! Buenos dias means good day. A little change for everyone. This week's healthshop topic is hypo/hyperthyroidism which means that the thyroid for whatever reason is not functioning the way it is supposed to be. When we think about our health we can choose to change the way we think about it. In today’s world, we have been accustomed to thinking that we are destined for illness and issues as we get older, that sickness is normal, that people's symptoms are due to having a certain diagnosis, etc. Today I want to welcome you to explore another option and to see health differently.  Did you know that our brain is hardwired for survival? This is not a good or bad thing because at times it can be very helpful. Think about a time when you needed to watch your step, know when to stop such as at an intersection on the road, be able to hit the brakes when needed, or not walk over the edge of a cliff, etc. These scenarios can help us see that our brain ...