Monday, March 28, 2011

Change in Office Schedule

My Schedule has changed for the end of the month.  I WILL be in the Office on March 31, April 1 and Saturday April 2.  I will be closed Thursday April 14 for an eye doctor appointment in Lubbock.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Losing Weight Eating Healthy

OFFICE SCHEDULE FOR MARCH
Saturday 3/12/11:  the office will open at 11 AM instead of 10 AM.  Dr. Riggs has to do a relicensing teleseminar from 8-11
Thursday 3/31/11 and Friday 4/1/11 and Saturday 4/2/11:  The office will be closed.  Dr. Riggs will be out those three days.  If an emergency go to the emergency room:

HEALTHY EATING
Eating healthy is a challenge in modern society with all the fast food restaurants, our busy lifestyle and our time constraints.  However, the highly processed food market appears to contribute heavily to our national obesity epidemic.  A recent article by Dr. Alex Vasquez (DC, ND, DO) has suggested a supplemented form of the paleolithic/mediterranean dietThe paleolithic diet is the diet eaten by our ancestors when they were hunter/gatherers.  The mediterranean diet is considered to be very heart healthy.

What does the diet recommend?  Here are the components.  As a side note, I have been following the diet and have lost 23 pounds since January.

Paleo-Mediterranean Diet:
  • Emphasis on fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and berries and lean proteins such as chicken, fish, lean meats, soy, and eggs.  This is a high anti-oxidant, high fiber and anti-cancer oriented diet.
  • Soy and whey protein isolates (anti-cancer, heart protective, mood enhancing).
  • Avoids:  potatoes, starchy vegetables, wheat, grains including rice (due to high glycemic index and load).  Avoid wheat, barley, rye (high glycemic index and gluten sensitivity)
  • Forbids:  colas.sodas, processed foods and manufactured foods.
Supplementation:
  • Supplemented with multi-vitamin and minerals with limitation of 10000 IU of vitamin A in childbearing age women.  Helps reduce inflamation and is health promoting.
  • Vitamin D3:  4000 IU although some respond better to 10000 IU.
  • Fatty Acid Supplementation: 
    • ALA (omega 3 flaxseed), EPA (omega 3 -fish oil), DHA (omega 3 fish oil, algae), GLA (omega 6-borage oil), EPO (black currant seed oils),  Oleic acid (flax and borage seed oil).
    • Olive oil for salads and cooking (omega 9- oleic acid + other anti-inflammatory/anti-cancer phytonutrients).
    • Improves diabetic neuropathy, respiratory distress, Chron's, lupus, RA, cardiovascular disease, eczema, migrains, depression, osteoporosis, musculoskeletal pain, MS.
PROBIOTICS for gut flora modifications:
  • Good bacteria and yeast (probiotics), prebiotics (fiber, arabinogalactin, inulin), and fermented foods (kefir and yogurt if not allergic to milk).
  • Advantages-restores the gut microbial balance.
Iodine and Iodide:
  • 12mg/d is consistent with intake in countries like Japan
  • Antioxidant, antimicrobial, mucolytic, immunosupportive, anti-estrogen and anti-cancer.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Balance- March Blog

Balance

   We all seek to achieve balance in our lives.  Excess tends to invite problems in many ways.  Excessive waste invites pollution, degradation of our environment and leads to things like a break down of the ecosystem.  Excessive intake of bad food can lead to a multitude of health problems:  diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, and many degenerative diseases.  Excessive cell production is of course cancer. 
   Achieving balance can be difficult.  We are inundated with opportunities to engage in excess:  fast food restaurants galore, fast cars, drugs and alcohol, and media overload.  Balance on the other hand requires discipline.  The ability to temper impulses and desires with what is healthy and safe, right and wrong, dark and light, etc.  This is much the ying yang concept of the orient.  In the health area, balance can be a very difficult challenge.  We are busy as a society:  rushing, rushing constantly.  It is far too easy to grab a fast food burger or a donut than to fix a healthy breakfast or prepare some fruit.
   Some thoughts on balance:
  1. Take the time to find quiet.  Find or set up a special place in your house where you can just sit and have quiet with no interruptions, no phones or internet, no noise, and minimal light.
  2. Breathe.  Learn to breath properly and practice breathing.  There are many types of breathing exercises available from yoga, chi qong, tai chi and martial arts that have rejuvenating abilities.
  3. Clear the mind.  Practice prayer or meditation or whatever your method of getting in touch with the ethereal or energy of your spirit.  This is a good place to practice breath as well.  Learn to get all the noise that courses through our minds to be quiet.  One person said a long time ago that "all of mankind's ills come from the inability to sit quietly in a room and be alone."  Or something to that effect.
  4. Practice relaxation.  Relax the mind, relax the body, relax the breath.  Let all the tension progressively release from your body.  You can lie or sit and start with an area of the body and relax it totally.  Then move to another area and work through the whole body.
  5. Learn to make balanced decisions.  Help your body function best by choosing positive alternatives to fat, sugar laden fast food meals.
   Balance can also be addressed other ways in the body.  Often times musculoskeletal injuries are a result of imbalances in the function of muscles.  Over time muscle imbalances cause joints to break down and cause pain and dysfunction.   An example is low back pain caused by weak hip flexor muscles.  I find almost all the time in women with low back pain, for example, that either the major hip flexors or secondary hip flexors on one or both sides are weak.  The result is the body has to recruit other muscles to walk and perform normal activities.  Like a misaligned wheel on your car, over time your start having problems (breakdown) due to repetitive stress. 
   Muscular imbalances can be treated with the laser to restore the energy connections, unless there is severe nerve injury.  By fixing the connections further or future injuries can be prevented.  It allows balanced stressors and minimizes wear and tear.  Maintaining balanced muscle function is essential to an effectively functioning musculoskeletal and nervous systems.