Reclaim Your Health Chiropractic Care : Health Topics

Sign up for Reclaim Your Health newsletters from Dr. Lei.

Seasonal health tips and news

Upcoming events

Patient success stories

Send an email to reclaimyourhealth@gmail.com to sign up today.

Newsletters

October 2004 Issue:

Hello Friends,

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Reclaim Your Health's monthly Chiropractic newsletter. The goal of the newsletter is to provide a resource to holistic health care options and provide answers to commonly asked questions about Chiropractic. It is also an opportunity for patients to share their own personal Chiropractic success stories.

This issue includes:
I. Dave's Chiropractic Story
II. What Can I Do to Protect My Health During the Flu Season?
III. What's New With Tamara?

I. Dave's Chiropractic Story:

** I have transcribed Dave's original hand written letter to me below. I have added information in brackets [ ] to clarify some points. Definitions (*) for terms used in his letter can be found at the end of his story. Thank you for sharing your story Dave. **

"My Chiropractic story…hmmm…where to start?

My whole life I had been troubled by various illnesses and conditions. I had horrible seasonal allergies my entire life…allergies so bad that I would literally be sneezing all day, every day for weeks on end. It was debilitating. In addition to allergies I also suffered from frequent bouts of pneumonia, bronchitis, ear infections and even had mono[nucleosis]. Finally, and probably the worst…I suffered from depression and tortuous mood swings that only got worse as I got older. It was becoming very difficult to live with the depression, which was essentially destroying my life.

In addition to these 'natural' symptoms. I was also involved in a car accident about ten years ago that left me with chronic neck pain and frequent headaches that sometimes developed into migraines.

I started Chiropractic care about four years ago. I was moving around a lot and jumped from one doc to another. I received care that would alleviate my pain temporarily. My allergies did start to improve over time. My neck pain would return a day or so after adjustments. My depression did not subside.

I met Tammi about three years or so after I started receiving Chiropractic care. She was still a student at Life Chiropractic College West. I was amazed at how thorough and detailed she was. She had an understanding of Chiropractic that my other, professional, doctors did not have. She found that most of my problems were in my pelvis, and not in my neck where all my other doctors had been focusing.

Tammi focused my care around my pelvis and surprisingly my neck pain and headaches went away almost immediately. She also found that my coccyx* was subluxated*…just doing her job she adjusted it and just like that…literally within minutes my mood balanced out. She continued adjusting my coccyx during care and my moods stayed stable. It was totally amazing! Twenty eight years of depression and mood swings ended just like that!

Today, four years after receiving Chiropractic care and one year after having met Tammi, I no longer get recurring headaches. I haven't had a migraine in over a year. My mood has been stable for almost a year and I have not experienced depression in that time. My neck pain is totally gone. I have no allergies. I can walk outside in the middle of Spring and not sneeze once. I've been sick twice in the past four years…both times I recovered in under a day.

My life has totally changed over the past years, especially since I started receiving care from Tammi. I can't imagine where I would be if I had not found Chiropractic and had not been guided to Tammi's care.

-Dave "

* Coccyx - The tailbone. A small triangular bone at the base of the spinal column in humans and tailless apes, consisting of several fused rudimentary vertebrae.

* Subluxated - Misalignment of adjacent bones causing neurological, physiological, and kinesiological dysfunctions. A partially dislocated joint.

II. What Can I Do to Protect My Health During the Flu Season?

The dreaded Flu Season is upon us. There are several ways we can easily and naturally support our immune systems to prevent or help us heal from the inconveniences of a seasonal cold. Try these two simple, but powerful suggestions.

(1) Stay Hydrated!!! The first line of defense of our immune system is our skin, a highly selective layer of protection that works to keep the bad guys from getting in, but more importantly works to keep internal fluids and moisture from escaping. Water accounts for 60% of a young adult's body weight and 50% of an elderly person's body weight. Water is essential to all biological processes in the body. To maintain these water levels the USDA recommends drinking at least 1.5 liters of water a day. This is WATER, not coffee, sodas, or other caffeinated beverages.

NOTE: Caffeine is a diuretic and prevents the body's absorption of water. Caffeine's half-life, the rate at which it is metabolized and excreted from our bodies, is 6 hours. During this time period your body is not absorbing water efficiently. A Starbuck's regular drip coffee contains about 200 milligrams of caffeine per 8-ounce serving. This means that a Tall (12oz) would contain around 300mg and take around 12 hours for our bodies to process the caffeine, and a Venti (20oz) 500mg of caffeine that takes 18 hours to process. Soda's contain much lower levels of caffeine. A 12oz of Coca-Cola Classic contains 34mg of caffeine and 12oz of diet Coke 45mg. These levels of caffeine would affect water absorption for about an hour. To view caffeine levels for beverages produced by The Coca-Cola Company, Dr Pepper/7 Up, Inc., Pepsi-Cola Company, or Snapple beverage Group go to http://www.nsda.org/WhatsIn/caffeinecontent.html.

I suggest cutting back on caffeine consumption as much as possible, but if you are going to drink coffee in the morning try to consume at least 2 liters of water between noon and bedtime, by noontime the caffeine's negative effects on water absorption should be fading. And for all you soda drinkers, remember that 12oz of soda does not equate 12oz of water. Only water consumed one hour after finishing your soda should count towards your 1.5 to 2.0 liters of water a day. Getting your 1.5 to 2.0 liters of water a day is essential for a healthy and functioning immune system.

(2) Hydrate your Air. The second line of defense of our immune system is our mucous membranes. Mucous membranes are the gatekeepers of our body. They stand guard at all body openings attempting to filter out, trap, and prevent infectious agents from entering. Locations of mucous membranes include the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. You might notice that in the cold months you wake up from sleeping with a dry mouth and throat. This is a sign that your mucous membranes are drying out and that your immune system's second line of defense is failing due to dehydration. Why does this happen in the cold months? Heaters. The heaters that warm our houses also dry out the air. Breathing this warm dry air constantly puts tremendous strain on our hydration levels, works to dry out our mucous membranes, and depletes our essential water reserves needed for normal body function and protection. Solution? Purchase a cold humidifier for your bedrooms. These can be purchased at any drug store. Cold humidifiers rehydrate the warm air very effectively and help prevent dehydration. Why cold vs. vapor humidifiers? Vapor humidifiers, if not maintained properly, can become breeding grounds for bacteria and other infectious agents that love warm standing water. Additionally, cold humidifiers are safer around children because there is no hot steam pouring out of them, nor do they have hot water that can spill out and cause burning. If you cannot afford a $25 cold humidifier for each bedroom you can help hydrate your air by putting out bowls of water in front of your heater vents and a bowl of water on your nightstand. The water will naturally evaporate into the air, rehydrating it. This is not as effective, but it is better than nothing. The more bowls you have out the more you will rehydrate the air.

III. What's New With Tamara?

I am currently in my last quarter of Chiropractic school and will graduate this December. I was recently notified that I was named Valedictorian of my class. Unfortunately this means I have to face my fears of public speaking. J

What excites me more is my new internship at Kingman Holistic Center located in San Francisco's Marina district. I am currently taking new patients so please take advantage of my new San Francisco location to start Reclaiming Your Health through Chiropractic.

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you feel could benefit from it. I welcome any and all feedback or suggestions for improvement of future issues. I am also happy to answer any questions that you may have pertaining to information contained in this newsletter or on Chiropractic in general.

With Love, Health, and Happiness.

Your friend,

Tamara Lei
Chiropractic Intern