Dr. Mark and Dr. Chip's Healthy Blogs

  Hello Everyone in Natural Health Nation -       Did you enjoy your weekend? There was a little different weather for everyone. We had some sunshine, some cold weather, some warmer weather, and some rain. Thankfully no snow! Everything is growing up so nicely and the trees are finally getting their leaves growing out so everything is looking beautiful. I know many of the ladies are getting their flowers in and hopefully no more freezes. The spring allergy season is in full bloom though and we're going through a lot of Albizia  Complex for that purpose. Another  great product that I have found that works very well for spring colds and lung congestion that hangs on is our product called PulMaCo. It has many interesting ingredients but one that I found that is most interesting is the fennel seed extract in it and these are great to help the body rid itself of viruses in the respiratory tract area. There are other sources, like certain pine need...

  Hello Everyone in Natural Health Nation -      What a great weekend! It sure is nice to have warmer weather back and we're starting to see those lawn mowers work. It's hard to beat the smell of fresh-cut grass on a sunny day. I hope you were able to get out in the sun and activate some vitamin D. We always recommend getting good sunshine and tanning as much as possible but not getting burnt. Use coconut oil on your skin to help keep it from drying and burning from the sun exposure but realize that  sunshine on your skin activates vitamin D and will help you get rid of cold symptoms left over from the winter, and many other benefits. Vitamin D is in all good fats and oils and your body can convert them into an active form with sunshine. That's why it's important to eat good oils and fats in the diet and have a healthy liver that can digest and absorb them. It's not only about what goes in your mouth but how the body utilizes the nutrition. We do a lot...

  Analysis by  Dr. Joseph Mercola STORY AT-A-GLANCE Your body uses multisensory mechanisms to monitor what you eat, each of which may be impacted by processed foods and environmental toxins; they also play a role in your response to food antigens Other potential factors that impact the development of food allergies include your vitamin D level, overuse of antibiotics or antacids and a delay in feeding children typical allergy-related foods until later in life Food allergies are triggered by the immune system, while a food intolerance is a gut reaction to something you've eaten. Although most food allergies start in childhood, it is not uncommon for people over 18 years to develop them You may reduce your potential risk for allergies through protecting your gut health by avoiding medications or toxins that alter the balance, and by eating fermented foods to repopulate beneficial bacteria and optimizing your vitamin D level A paper published by Yale University scientists propose...

  Hello Everyone in Natural Health Nation-             Another great weekend and we finally got some more rain. It’s definitely looking more and more like Fall and the tree leaves are coming down faster. Still a lot of green leaves so Fall is just getting started. It’s a great time of year as were getting rid of the high heat, just as long as we don’t get into the cold too fast. A lot of people are having problems with allergy symptoms due to all the Fall flower pollen and farmers in the field. We use a lot of our Albizia Complex product as it helps the liver to drain faster and remove the cause of these symptoms. Just let us know if we can help, that’s why were here at Natural Health.             I’ve included an article today talking about the lack of liability of the companies who are producing these vaccines that will be released soon. If you get a chance to watch t...

            I hope you had a great weekend despite all the hubbub. At least it’s starting to warm up and look more like Spring all the time. We have gotten plenty of moisture to bring up the May flowers and the grass is greening up so will hear those lawnmowers starting again soon. We’re starting to notice some of our patients developing some Spring allergies and we have great products to help the liver detox the body so that these pollens don’t bother. This goes right along with all the other immune system strengthening that we do, helping the body to detoxify itself so that the liver can handle any foreign invaders that may show up.             Of course all you hear on the news now is about the coronavirus so I’ve included an article from the New England Journal of medicine that shows the actual statistics and that the coronavirus may be no more of the problem than th...

             Well we had a great weekend for December. We had some warmth and sunshine and not rain or snow. It’s great to get dried out a little. Looks like the leaves are mostly down now and we can get that final raking done. The increased number of Christmas lights on the houses are telling us that season is coming soon. Hopefully you’re not stressing out too much with the coming holidays.             That’s a great lead into the topic of this month here at Natural Health, which is handling Stress and Fatigue and getting good Sleep. The article that I’ve included this week is on as SAD, or seasonal effective disorder. This is basically about getting stressed and depressed during the winter months. There’s a lot of good nutritional support that we can help with and I like to have my patients go to the suntan bed once a week, to get sunshine type light which activates the vitamin D which hel...

Why is the Nutritional Testing We Do    So Important?             The answer to this is simple. People spend millions of dollars per year on vitamins, oils, super foods, super drinks, etc. and yet our health in this country is getting worse. This is because these people, who are trying to help their health, are listening to marketing and advertising information rather than knowing exactly what nutrition they need and how they need it. There is a lot to know in the nutrition field on the right kinds of nutrition so that it nourishes the body and helps the body to heal, and being able to get the patient’s body to a state where it will absorb the nutrition and utilize it correctly.             In doing our Nutrition Response Testing technique, we are able to learn from the body what state it is in. We can then determine what steps are needed to get the body workin...

The Need to Be Right             I’m sure that you have talked with people and discovered their need to be right. Everyone wants others to emotionally feel close to them and that what they are doing, whatever it is, is the right way to do it or is best. Many people we have talked to, have been doing things a certain way for years, or decades, or even for generations. In their mind all that time makes it seem right. The question to ask though-is it? Many of these notions are based on outdated or uninformed ideas and may have even worked well for a while but the end result is not turning out as expected. It may also take some time, as in years or decades, to see the results of a wrong idea or a wrong action. You may have heard the expression about being “happy in your misery” or “being dead right”. These are expressions about people thinking they are doing the right thing but in reality, they’re not.     ...

Low Carb and Keto Diet Explained Go to -    www.dietdoctor.com           This is a great website that has simple videos to help patients get started on a low-carb and/or keto diet. This is especially important if you’re a visual learner, you’ll love the visual guides for navigating optional food choices.           On this website are low-carb recipe alternatives for Everything! This goes for pizza, cookies, chocolate, You name it! Find interesting and great tasting low-carb options for all the food you thought you had to give up on a low-carb diet.           So why does everyone seem to feel better on a low-carb/keto diet? Simply put, it replaces an inefficient fuel source (sugar) with a highly efficient fuel source (fat/keytones). This means that your trillions of cells have a cleaner fuel source to burn, and everything just work...

·          Why would a newborn get adjusted?           As the baby develops during the nine-month term, the uterus gets pretty crowded. The spine is in a big C curve and the middle of this curve is around the 6 th thoracic vertebra. If this vertebra is not in correct alignment, the nerve there gets irritated and this nerve controls how the stomach works. This problem can lead to colic in the newborn and is easily remedied by a chiropractic adjustment. The biggest need for a newborn adjustment, though, is when forceps or clamps are used in the delivery process, along with twisting or pulling on the newborns head and neck. As you can imagine, this can cause all kinds of misalignment issues in the cervical and upper thoracic vertebra. Not getting these subluxations corrected will lend towards later symptoms and spinal problems, like headaches and asthma.

·          Will adjustments make my spine too loose?           Putting the vertebra back in place and getting the ligaments to hold the vertebra in correct position actually helps the spine to tighten and strengthen. If a person has spinal subluxations, or misalignment , it means that the ligaments are already loose and are allowing the vertebra to move to far or misalign and get stuck out of place. This misalignment causes joint inflammation and disc height reduction which can then cause the resultant spinal nerve pinching or irritation. The chiropractic adjustment helps to restore normal nerve function by realigning the vertebra and getting the ligaments to strengthen. There may be a need for nutritional support as well is this may be the reason why the ligaments have weakened in the first place.

Medical Opposites             There is an interesting trend that I have noticed from our many years of clinical practice which I call medical opposites. What I mean by this term is that the mainstream medical advice we hear seems to be the opposite of what the human body actually needs nutritionally or diet wise. There are many of these and I will try to explain them as sensibly as possible. Let’s start with a simple one.             For decades now, the mainstream medical wisdom has told us not to eat salt because it supposedly causes high blood pressure. I would agree that the use, or overuse, of refined salt can cause problems. Our bodies need sea salt or mineral salt to work correctly and that distinction is never made. Sea salt is necessary for our kidneys to work correctly, for good adrenal function to handle stress, for lymphatic fluid drainage and cerebral spinal...

Natural Health and Autoimmune Disease             At Natural Health, we’re always looking for the cause of a disease process. Autoimmune disease seems to be a mystery in the medical world and the treatment for it are drugs that suppress the immune system and drugs that reduce inflammation. These may be good treatments for pain relief, but they do nothing for the cause of the problem. And actually taking these drugs makes the problem worse as the body is never able to heal itself plus their side effects.             The underlying cause of autoimmune disease is a chronic degeneration of whatever organ or system is being affected. The dead tissue from this organ or system gets into the lymphatic system and the body starts to develop antibodies to fight what it thinks is an invasion of foreign protein, somewhat like the cause of food allergies with leaky gut syndrome. Once ...

What Causes High Blood Pressure?             There are many causes of high blood pressure. In the natural health world, we find this is very particular for the individual patient. Most of these problems come from bad diets that lend towards nutritional deficiencies, over eating refined carbohydrates which causes inflammation in the body-especially in the cardio vascular system, lifestyles that include high amounts of stress and anxiety, and even overuse of over-the-counter medications. Some sources will talk about genetics being a factor but we look at the science of epigenetics’ as a cause, again diet and lifestyle turning on certain genes.             The important factor to remember when treating high blood pressure is to get to the cause, not just treat it with a medication. Medications are great for short-term prevention of further problems like stroke, but do nothi...

5 "health foods" that can actually be pretty harmful You will find bold health claims for all kinds of foods, most often based on zero evidence.  Here are the top 5 "health foods" that can actually be pretty harmful. 1.  Most fruit juices  contain the same amount of easily digestible sugar as sugar-sweetened soft drinks. It is best to eat whole fruits instead. 2.  Whole wheat  is rich in gluten and can cause digestive problems and various symptoms. It may also cause Vitamin D deficiency and elevated small, dense LDL cholesterol. 3.  Agave nectar  is loaded with fructose and therefore causes all the same problems as regular sugar and high fructose corn syrup. 4. If you're not doing super intense workouts, then you should avoid  sports drinks . They are not needed and contain sugar. 5.  Vegetable oils  are unhealthy and lead to inflammation. They are potential key players in the epidemic of Western diseases. If the packaging of a food te...

The healthier my gut is the more spiritual and emotional growth I experience.  I feel more alive.  I want to be inline with that which created me.  If you feel alone, anxious, sad, tired, empty, depressed or angry please take a look at what you are putting into your body.  F igure out what you are deficient in so you can start living.  Y ou truly are what you eat, drink, think and who you surround yourself with. At Natural Health; we have the technique to find out what you need nutritionally, we also have great information on how to eat healthier.  So call us today to start feeling better too.  217-228-2040

With the holiday coming up and people traveling to different events, I thought this might help Healthy Tips for Eating Out 1.      Probably the most important thing is to just choose food items that are mostly protein and/or vegetables. Most restaurants and servers will allow you to pick and choose certain items or sides with your entrée but realize there may be an up charge. 2.      You don’t have to take the bread. Many restaurants bring bread before the meal and you can ask them to not do that. Yes it taste good but you don’t need the cards. 3.      Stay away from the deep-fried items as the oil that they used to fry the food is probably hydrogenated and then reused many times. This would include french fries and many of the fried appetizers. 4.      Always have a salad. Most of the better restaurants have a salad with the entrée or have good salad choices as the entrée. This is a great ...

15 Powerful Ways To Fight A Sugar Addiction   1.      Eliminate processed foods -Sugars are added to processed foods to enhance their flavor. Even the ones that you wouldn’t expect to be a sugar snack are often loaded with it. Make sure to read the labels and try to eliminate all processed and junk food from your diet.   2.      Eat regularly -If you wait too long in between meals your blood sugar drops and you are more likely to binge on sugary, fatty foods to satisfy your hunger. Opt for 3 healthy meals and 2 snacks or 5 smaller meals at regular time intervals. Choose fresh, whole foods high in protein and fiber like whole grains, seeds, nuts, fruit, and veggies.   3.      Fruit and Veggie Detox -When you feel up for it, do a whole food fruit and veggie detox. Eliminating all sugars for 5 to 10 days often decreases the need for sugar and will stop sugar cravings.   4. ...

How long does the flu last?             Although the average may be listed around 5 days, this would depend entirely on the person’s immune system and what kind of stresses their under. It may also depend on the strain of flu the person has been exposed to as well. This is a good example of why it is important to keep your immune system in good shape through good diet and exercise and a lifestyle that is as low as possible in stress. If your immune system is in good shape, flu symptoms from exposure can last a couple hours but if your immune system is in not so good a shape or your exposure through injection, which bypasses major parts of the immune system, symptoms can last for days, or weeks or longer. In a natural health world, we are more concerned with keeping the immune system in good shape rather than worrying about the bugs as the bugs are always out there and unless you want to live in a bubble, you will be exposed. A...