Dr. Krieger's Health Tip of the Month

Happy New Year!! If it's good for my business it is bad for your health. The word doctor means teacher and it is a part of my job as your doctor to educate you about good health. Perhaps the easiest way to help patients to avoid a healthcare crisis is too teach them prevention. The simplest lifestyle change that I know of to prevent illness is MODERATION. Moderation is a common sense approach to finding just the right amount of exercise, sleep, eating, drinking, work, spending, studying and hobbies. Moderation relative to your own health consists of understanding that your body has limitations at both ends of the spectrum, too much or too little. There are times when we have to overdue it because we have to finish a task that has a time limitation. When we do overdue it to often we eventually pay a price. The body breaks down. We go into crisis.

The crisis is caused when tissues in the body, be it muscle, ligament , blood vessel, organ tissue or nerve break down. For example to much exercise may cause your quadriceps muscle to undergo microtearing (microsopic tears in the muscle). Microtearing is normal and this is what happens during normal exercise and when the microtear heals the muscle gets stronger and bigger. When we do to much exercise and the muscle has to much microtearing the body cannot heal the muscle fast enough. Imagine if this happens with other tissues such as when we overeat and the body stores everything as fat instead of burning it off. What happens if we drink too much alcohol, we passout, we get a DWI....but if we drink the right amount we may benefit with decreased heart attacks. If this were to happen because of too much lifting, doing a repetitive motion, or overexercisiing then chiropractic can help.

Moderation also helps when it comes to reducing stress. It is important for us to find our individual limitations. I may be able to adjust and treat 10 new acute lower back patients in a week while my colleague maybe able to only handle 5. I can accomodate 12 in a week but if I spend to many weeks at 12 my staff and I become overworked by paper work and becoming behind in our regular patient load. The average person has their own acute lower back new patient, maybe for you it is dance practices for your children,sports practices, visits to the in-laws, business trips, meetings with the boss, trips to the grocery store, fast food and many more. It is important to find just the right number of stressors you can handle and try to stay below that number.

Eating and exercise are 2 of the easiest lifestyle issues that moderation can improve. In the long run these 2 areas of lifestyle changecan prevent many problems. When it comes to eating it is important to remember that we can loose weight if we adjust are portions and the number of servings. By just cutting our caloric intake by only having one serving a person can loose weight. We can also decrease the size of our meal, for example we can skip french fries with our fast food. A couple can share an entre' at a restaurant and each have a salad. Combining exercise with moderation in our eating can improve are chances for better health even more. Muscle burns more calories than does fat. We have to build the muscle and then use it.Our goal is to find the right exercise that is fun and something we will do regularily. Start with walking by parking your car further away from the entrance of a store or a business. Walk for 15 minutes during lunch. A bad choicewouldbe to attempt a marathon on day 1of a new exercise program. Moderation may start at one number but has to be adapted to a new numberbased on age, health and fitness.

Remember their are some things that their is no moderation. This would include smoking, and alcohol for an alcoholic. Remember you have to be responsible for your own health. If not you may go into crisis.

When you go into crisis due to overuse injuries, too much exercise or stress Chiropractic can help. Chiropractic helps by restoring normal motion patterns to spinal joints with a spinal adjustment. When the normal motion is restored the nerves that exit between the bones of the spine can now provide normal nerve information to the rest of the body. The proper nerve information allows the body to adapt to the stresses of life.The injuries to the muscle tissue are helped with trigger point therapy, stretching and strengthening. Remember the muscles are attached to the spinal bones.

Thank you for your referrals as it is a most gratifying to know you appreciate the care in my office enough to tell others.

Which mineral does your thyroid gland need to function ( and it is found in kelp)? A. Lead B. iron C. chocolate D. chromium E. iodine

The correct answer is iodine and in WNY our soil is depleted of iodine and we have some of the highest rates of thyroid disease in the country.

IN PAIN Contact Dr. Krieger at 633-6044 or docbillchiro@juno.com

Website: Kriegerchiropracticofwny.topchiro.com