Dr. Mark and Dr. Chip's Healthy Blogs

            I hope that you really enjoyed the weekend. It sure was nice weather for the middle and end of December. Doesn’t look like much of a chance for a white Christmas but we have got to see snow several times already. It’ll be nice for those who are traveling to not have to worry about bad weather. I hope that you and yours can get together over the holidays, have lots of fun and good conversation, and try not to eat too much sugar and junk!             As the topic for this month is handling stress, I’ve included an article that looks at 3 major nutritional support supplements that help the body handle stress. Omega 3 oils, vitamin D, and magnesium are all great health promoting nutrients. We have much better ways of determining your need for this than Dr. Mercola and his surveys with our Nutrition Response Testing technique and the supplements we use are whole foo...

At Natural Health we are excited for our 2020 Health Shops. Every Monday night at 6:00 pm CT, we will be having a Health Shop that will be touching on the Physical, Nutritional and Emotional aspects of health depending on the Health Shop topic. These Health Shops will all be online for those who can not make it in-person. The Health Shops will be the backbone of our marketing efforts with social media posts, blog posts, emails, in office promotions and much more forming around the concept of the Health Shops. This organized format will allow you to achieve Natural Health by understanding the basics behind each topic. Below is our monthly themes that the Health Shops will be based from: January - Energy February - Heart Health March - Diet April - Allergies / Sun Health May - Women's Health June - Men's Health July - Hydration / Breathing  August - Brain Health / Back To School September - Chronic Illness in America October - Chiropractic Month November - ...

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.

Nervous System 101 Something that’s great for your nervous system? Plenty of exercise and water! The nervous system in your body is made up of two parts: the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The brain and the spinal cord make up the central nervous system. The spinal cord transmits sensory messages to the brain and motor messages from the brain. Sensory nerves carry messages from receptors to the brain. If you touch a hot stove, pain receptors tell your brain to move your hand. Motor nerves send signals from the brain to the muscles in the body. These nerves help us to do things, like walk, kick a ball or pick up an object. The peripheral nervous system transports the messages between the central nervous system and the body. It consists of cranial and spinal nerves that carry messages to and from every cell in your body. The Autonomic Nervous System Part of the peripheral nervous system is called the autonomic nervous system. The actions of the...

What is ADHD?             The letters ADHD stand far “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder”.  It is a diagnosis given to many school-aged children who have a hard time sitting still in classes and being able to focus and retain what is taught.  Most of these children are put on medications which slows them down but does nothing for the underlying cause or causes of the condition.  Modern medical science doesn’t really look into causes as they are into treatment.  In the natural health world, we find the causes to be varied and include heavy metal toxicity, allergies to food coloring and other chemicals, EMF sensitivities, food sensitivities due to overuse of antibiotics, and lack of a good nourishing diet-meaning not enough vitamins and minerals and too much refined sugar and carbohydrates. Parents need to discover that their child can be helped by changing the diet and lifestyle and not relying...

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...

Here are 5 proven ways to reduce or eliminate bloating. 1.  People who experience bloating often have increased sensitivity to food in the stomach. Therefore, eating smaller meals can be very useful. 2.  Food allergies and intolerances are common causes of bloating. Common offenders include lactose, fructose, wheat, gluten and eggs. 3.  Swallowed air can contribute to bloating. A major cause is drinking carbonated beverages, which contain gases that are dissolved in the liquid. 4.  If certain foods make you feel bloated or give you gas, try cutting back or avoiding them. Eating fatty foods can also slow digestion and may  contribute to bloating  for some people. 5.  Probiotic supplements can help improve the bacterial environment in the gut, which can help reduce symptoms of  gas and bloating . If you have chronic bloating that causes severe problems in your life, or becomes a lot worse all of a sudden, definitely call and make your appointment t...

Heartburn and Hiatal Hernia             At Natural Health, we are always concerned with preventative and causative actions. The current medical treatment for heartburn is the use of proton pump inhibitors, and/or antacids, that reduce the stomach acid and helps with the symptom. The problem with this is that it does nothing for the cause and makes it hard for the individual to absorb any nutrients from the food they eat. It also causes pH problems downstream in the gut, leading toward Leaky Gut, and can affect the whole body and how it functions. If the pH is not correct in the stomach, this can lead to the pylori bacteria getting a foothold which leads to ulcers. Our society is also geared to a fast pace which does not allow the digestive system to work correctly as the nervous system is always overstimulated. We must look at the causes to relieve the condition permanently.         ...

The 3 reasons you should NEVER eat wheat -- Yes, even "whole wheat" There are 3 main reasons why wheat is a terrible food for your body and does more harm than good... Reason #1 -- Wheat causes blood sugar disruption, Glycation of your cells, increases AGING, weight gain & boosts Diabetes risk Before I tell you why wheat can actually speed up the aging process in your body, let's clarify some simple biochemistry in your body... This deals with "glycation" in your body, and substances called  Advanced Glycation End Products  (AGEs). These nasty little compounds called AGEs  speed up the aging process  in your body including damage over time to your organs, your joints, and of course, wrinkled skin. So with that said, what is one of the biggest factors that increase production of AGEs inside your body? This may surprise you, but  high blood sugar levels  over time dramatically increase age-accelerating AGEs in your body. This is why type 2...

Salt is good for you?! Perhaps you’ve heard some of the buzz in the health blog world about salt. Perhaps you are asking yourself, salt is good for me? Yep, it is! The idea is contrary to the pretty blatant lies told to us by the American Heart Association… and thank goodness, because salt makes food taste amazing. There is no need to suffer through bland, unsalted meals in the sake of health.   Here are  12 reasons why salt is good for you : 1. The premise that salt leads to hypertension has never been scientifically supported. On the contrary, studies show that a reduced-sodium diet leads to health issues.  In one study, subjects consuming less than 2300 mg. (the recommended daily allowance) of sodium per day had significantly higher mortality rates  (meaning a higher risk of death) than the subjects consuming 2300 mg. or more sodium per day. 2.  Salt aids blood sugar control by improving insulin sensitivity . A low-salt diet  increases ...

What is normal Blood Pressure?             For all the years of my professional career, the normal blood pressure number that we’ve known about is 120/80. To be clear, this number was meant to be the average of the population. This means that some people’s normal blood pressure could be 150/90, and some people’s normal blood pressure could be 100/60. The thing to remember about blood pressure is that it is meant to be taken in a resting state. This means that you can’t rush into your doctor’s office after waiting for 2 hours in the waiting room, and being upset, have your blood pressure taken and it’s higher than 120/80, and then being told you have high blood pressure. A person needs to be in a resting position for at least 10 minutes without any stimulating stressors on the body, like coffee or caffeinated drinks or watching the news, and then have the blood pressure taken in both arms and see what the number is. Then do the...

Where Is My Health? Knowing where to look is the fastest way to find something. We help so many people recover their health because we know where to look. One of the key tenets of chiropractic is that health is our natural state. When someone isn’t healthy, we look for what could be interfering with this natural ability by looking for the underlying cause of the symptom. Typically, we find a disturbance in the controlling or regulating impulses of the nervous system, producing a myriad of conditions that go by thousands of different names. The most common source of compromise in this brain/body communication is from the moving bones of the spine. Headaches? Look to the spine. Acid reflux? Look to the spine. Inflamed tonsils? Look to the spine. Asthma? You get the idea. Does that mean chiropractic can cure everything? Of course not. But to regain your health, it’s a great place to start looking! Call today so we can check your health -- 217-228-2040

What causes Hiccups? As you may or may not realize, hiccups are symptom due to a spasm in the diaphragm. In the world of natural healing, we feel that anything can cause anything.  There must be some trigger though, for that individual to have the hiccups. This could be due to food allergies, indigestion and bloating, excitement, stress or other emotions, and subluxation in the cervical spine. The nerves that come from the spine at the C4 spinal level innervate the diaphragm.  We have had very good success in stopping hiccups by adjusting the upper cervical spine, especially the C4 area if it is subluxated. The T6 spinal level is involved with digestion and adjusting this area can also alleviate digestive problems that can stop the hiccups.  We have also found that using nutritional supplements to help with digestion, i.e. enzymes and betaine hydrochloride, reduce the indigestion and bloating and help to alleviate the food allergies which could lead to the sympt...

Can you imagine a machine that could heal your condition? Type in the right combination and cells react, repairing tissue and broken bones. A machine that regulates how many breaths you need for healing or one that beats your heart just enough to circulate the blood to areas in demand. A machine this advanced could also send signals to its operator to slow it down or enter a sleep mode so updates could be downloaded. It would be an amazing machine, cutting healthcare costs for millions. Undoubtedly, people would invest large sums just to have one and would go to great measures to take care of it. The demand for such a machine would be so great that suppliers could not keep up. Want to know something more amazing? This machine exists within you. In fact, it is YOU. You were born with natural healing ability—you just have to take care of it! At Natural Health we can help you take care of your body, finding what it needs nutritionally to stay functioning correctly.  Call tod...

            “From baby in the high chair to grandma in the rocker, the axial bones (spinal vertebra) are as liable to be displaced by noxious substances which enter the system in our food and drink or by inhalation, as they are by accident direct (trauma).”-DD Palmer, 1910             DD Palmer talked about primary subluxation by injury our accident, and secondary subluxation caused by toxicity, nutritional deficiency and stress. The reoccurring, or secondary, subluxations were not emphasized in my training, yet the majority of patients we see today are affected by them. In the past 50 years, and increasingly poor diet, greater toxic burden and the stress of modern living have moved us past the point where-in far too many patients-chiropractic adjustments alone are not enough to fully restore health.             As...

Do You Need Nutritional Supplements?                         The answer is that each person is very different in their daily nutritional needs.   It depends a lot on what they eat every day and the nutrition they absorb from that food that determines what nutrients they have in their bodies to handle that stress. The food they eat not only gives them the energy they need to move and think but needs to be used to help the body repair the damage done by moving and doing their jobs and activities. The problem comes is when the body doesn’t have the nutrients it needs for correct repair and must use what happens to be there.             A good analogy that I use is, you’re going to build a house and have a set of blueprints. If you use good building materials, you will end up with a good, strong, house. Using t...

Chiropractic is the drugless, nonsurgical way of helping the body to not only relieve neck and back pain, as are the popular notions of this time, but also to open the neural pathways to all the organs and glands of the body and allow the natural innate healing energy of the brain to flow unimpeded, thereby promoting true natural health. The Activator adjusting technique is a way of moving the misaligned and fixated spinal and other bones of the body that are impinging upon nerves leading to lack of normal function, and causing dis-ease. The Activator instrument restores the bone to its normal position quickly and painlessly because of its speed, accuracy, and light touch. Removing this nerve interference allows the innate healing energy of the body to flow to the organs and glands allowing the body to function normally at optimal levels, and alleviating the symptoms of pain from inflammation, which the body produces to ask for help. At Natural Health, Dr. Mark uses the activ...