I have some exciting news here at Life Symmetry Chiropractic! I have started a YouTube channel! In the blog today I wanted to let you know a little about what I was thinking and hoping to do with our new YouTube channel and encourage you to check it out and please subscribe.

What Will Be on the YouTube Channel?

I am planning to use the YouTube channel as a place to share important health information in a video format. This would include talking about certain health topics and some how-to health tip videos with exercises or other things to do to help keep your back and you balanced and healthy. We have also acquired some short videos about chiropractic in general to help explain what chiropractic is and how it can help you, your family, and friends. I am also considering recording some of the various health talks that I have put together over the years. I hope to make the channel an important and beneficial source of health information that will help you balance body, mind, and soul!

The First Video: 250,000 Back Surgeries

As I mentioned about I recently got several videos that were put together to help people ‘Get To Know Chiropractic.’ The first video is up and will be embedded below. The subject of that video is back surgeries and I wanted to talk a little about this as well.

Did you know that hundreds of thousands of back surgeries are performed every year? Unfortunately, the majority of these are considered unnecessary and/or conservative treatments were not tried first. Surgery is a major medical procedure, especially back surgery. When you have surgery, there is no going back. Once it is done there is no undoing it.

Now there are definitely times when surgery is necessary, but it is done much too frequently. Surgery really should be a last resort after all other more conservative treatments have not been successful. If you are considering back surgery and have not tried chiropractic, you need to give our office a call. If you have tried chiropractic before without relief, I would invite you to give it another try with Life Symmetry Chiropractic. I have a different approach than many chiropractors and have had several patients tell me that they have gotten better relief and results than previous times they have tried chiropractic. Now I cannot guarantee you will get results, but I definitely give each patient my very best.

Conclusion

I am excited about the new YouTube channel! Again, I think it will be a great resource for health information, but it will take some time to get all the things up there that I would like so please be patient. Please go check it out and let me know what you think. If you have any suggestions for topics that you would like to see on the YouTube channel leave a comment below or contact me with your ideas. I would love to hear them.

For those new to the Colorado Springs, Colorado area or those that need a chiropractor for the first time, it can be difficult to know where to start to find chiropractic treatment. A patient should choose a chiropractor that develops a personal rapport with patients to improve their health and reduce their pain. Life Symmetry Chiropractic can treat patients that may have experienced a recent injury or have been suffering with chronic pain and want some relief.

We can help with a number of conditions and chronic sources of pain, including whiplash, ankle pain, irritation and pain caused by allergies, scoliosis, arm aches, chronic pain that interrupts sleep, recent or chronic sports injuries, knee pain, recent or chronic work injuries, shoulder aches, children experiencing pain from puberty and growing, constipation pain, headaches, pregnancy aches, sciatica pain, neck pain, and backaches.

Patients who visit Life Symmetry Chiropractic will receive their care with a number of treatment options. No matter what the problem the patient is experiencing or what the treatment will eventually be; all patients must visit our office for a consultation and chiropractic exam, which may include x-rays if needed, first to determine the root cause of the problem. From there, we can begin treatment, which may include hand adjustments, adjustments using drop pieces on chiropractic tables, and instrument adjustments. We can even treat babies and younger patients by using low force chiropractic adjustments that are safe and gentle on growing bodies.

Patients at Life Symmetry Chiropractic can also take advantage of spinal decompression, which helps with back pain conditions like sciatica, bulging or herniated discs, and other chronic pain. With this treatment, we use traction on the spine to take pressure off the disc which helps muscles to relax and the patient often experiences less pain and an improved quality of life. We can also offer nutritional counseling so that patients can learn to be healthier which many times will lead to losing weight, which can also affect pain levels. For those that need a means of reducing stress, Life Symmetry Chiropractic also offers massages and can teach other stress-reducing techniques.

For patients that have never visited us before, they can visit our website to download and print several forms. These include a patient demographic and health history form, a HIPAA consent form, and the Life Symmetry Chiropractic financial policy. By filling these out ahead of time and bringing them to their appointment, patients save some time in the office.

Patients that want to reduce their pain through chiropractic care can call us to receive a free consultation today where we at Life Symmetry Chiropractic can discuss potential treatment options. Patients can contact us via phone, text message, or through email.

Well last week I wrote a blog “Thoughts on the Flu Shot” that gave some of my thoughts on the effectiveness of the flu shot. For being universally recommended, I really feel the research showing effectiveness is severely lacking. If you want more details on that go check it out.

This week I wanted to go on and talk a little more about my thoughts as to why the flu shot is so widely recommended if the evidence does not support it being very effective. And my personal conclusion is that it makes money. Now there are those that would argue and say that vaccine manufacturers do not make any money off of the flu vaccine. Here is an article in Yahoo’s finance section that basically says that. However, there is no evidence that the vaccine manufacturers don’t make money on the flu shot. All the article really says is that the flu shot does not sell for as much as other vaccines, which is true but does not mean they don’t make a profit from it. I would contend that the pharmaceutical companies are not interested on taking a loss on something like the flu shot. And besides just not taking a loss, that vaccines including the flu shot actually make them a lot of money.

Here are some other articles that paint a different picture. On CNBC this article states that in 2012, Sanofi Pasteur the “world’s biggest supplier of flu vaccines, generated flu jab sales of 884 million euros ($1.43 billion).” Now granted I do not know the cost of producing the flu vaccine but I imagine that there was probably some profit made at least that year with $1.43 billion in sales. Also from that article we find this:

Several pharmaceutical companies made a conscious decision to chase and develop the vaccines market towards the end of the last decade, as it became clear that the traditional blockbuster drug treatment model for the industry was changing. Vaccines were seen as promising from a business perspective because they could be applied to huge swathes of the population, and because the economic case for payment could be made to governments.

So taking an active role in developing a vaccine market does not sound like something you would do if it did not offer any profit. While I do not have the exact numbers of profit or loss, I feel confident that drug companies do not lose money on flu vaccines or at least not regularly if they ever do.

And as far as the regular doctor’s office, do they make any money off the flu shot? Well in this article we learn that at least one doctor, who happens to be a speaker for companies that make vaccines, seems to think that it is financially savvy for doctors to give flu shots: “Giving influenza vaccine is also good for the financial health of your practice.” He estimates that a doctor with 2,000 patients may expect to bring in from $25,000 to $42,500 due to business generated from giving flu shots. Now I don’t know if this would be the same in every practice, but making money is at least a reason that some doctors consider when giving the flu shot.

And here is one more article where someone crunched some numbers using average prices for vaccines and vaccinations rates and births in the US. The article basically looks at on average what sort of money is being made by pharmaceutical companies, doctor’s offices, and even the government from vaccinations. What they found using these averages is that including the well-baby checkup and administering vaccines that an average doctor’s office would make $3,032.87 on one child over their first five years of life. The pharmaceutical companies collectively can expect about $1,379.45 per child in their first five years of life. And finally the federal government getting excise tax from vaccines comes to $33.75 per child over the first five years of life. Now some of these numbers may not sound like much but when you consider that each year millions of children are born in the US and overall high vaccination rates and you are talking about some big money. Now this was just someone working with averages, but it does give you an idea what kind of money can be made on vaccinations.

In my mind there is ample reason to believe that vaccines are not simply produced because drug companies are simply concerned with our health. The main reason I am writing this is to give you an opportunity to hear ‘the other side of the story’ that is not commonly heard. I leave it to you to decide and make your own choices about vaccination.

References and Resources

Here are the references from the blog and also a few links that were not referenced in the blog itself.

http://www.wnd.com/2009/12/118262/ Accessed Nov. 7^th, 2014

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101123545#. Accessed Nov. 7^th, 2014

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-pharmaceutical-companies-dont-money-180200431.html Accessed Nov. 7^th, 2014

http://healthimpactnews.com/2014/how-much-money-do-doctors-make-from-flu-shots/ Accessed Nov. 7^th, 2014

http://vaxtruth.org/2011/09/how-can-it-be-about-the-money-immunizations-are-free-right/ Accessed Nov. 7^th, 2014

National Vaccine Information Center: nvic.org

Today I wanted to talk a little about a reason I occasionally hear as to why people don’t go to the chiropractor or any other doctor for that matter. And to be honest, I hear of this more commonly among women than men, though I believe men have the same feelings as well but may not verbalize them. The reason basically comes down to that they don’t go because it makes them feel like something is wrong with them, that their body is ‘broken’ in some way. And if they don’t go to the doctor then everything must be okay. I would like to come at this subject from a couple of different directions.

First, I want to say that our bodies are amazing! They were designed marvelously and do what they are designed to do. When they get stressed, the body adapts to those stresses the best it can. If the stress is great enough, the body will alert you by experiencing symptoms of some sort so that you can make a change to your surroundings/situation. Symptoms are not the issue, but instead show that the body is experiencing a stress and is dealing with it. Often the symptom is the way the body handles the stress. For example, if you get a cold, you may have symptoms of a fever, runny nose and a cough. The fever helps the body increase its metabolic rate and inhibit the growth of many germs. The runny nose and cough are ways that the body clears wastes and helps ‘flush out’ the germs. So the body is not ‘broken’ but doing what it is designed to do and handling the stress. Now sometimes getting outside help enhances the body’s ability to process the stress. With a cold, getting advice about extra rest and getting plenty of fluids are ‘outside’ help to allow the body to function better.

As a chiropractor, I am not looking for how I can ‘fix’ the body, because the body does not need fixing. I am looking for ways that I can enhance the body to do what it does and that is heal itself. I personally think this is the biggest difference between chiropractic and other holistic approaches to health versus traditional medicine. Medicine seeks to take control over the body by stimulating or depressing certain functions of the body with drugs because it views the body as not able to properly regulate itself. Chiropractic and other holistic approaches seek to find what is stressing the body so much that it is interfering with what the body is designed to do and knows how to do. I am looking to work with the body, not against it.

The second thing I would like to touch on is optimizing health. Now health is not something that you have or you don’t. Health is a continuum with infinite levels or degrees of health. And in fact what many people would consider being ‘sick’ is really the body showing that it is appropriately handling a stress, which is a healthy thing. Health is more than just the absence of disease or symptoms: it is optimal physical, mental, and social well-being.

Now many, many professional athletes use chiropractic care on a regular basis. Do you think it is because they are unhealthy? Or that there is something wrong with them? Or they are ‘broken’? No, they use chiropractic regularly because they know it helps them to be their best and perform better. Most of us are not professional athletes, but chiropractic can help you function at your best whatever you are doing. I truly believe that regular chiropractic care, even when nothing is ‘wrong,’ is very important and will help you and me to function better than we would otherwise. This is the reason that I love checking and adjusting little children, again not because they are ‘broken’ and need fixing but to help them develop and grow their best!

So remember that your body is amazing and not ‘broken’ and chiropractic is a great way to help it express its full potential. So don’t let fear stop you from achieving better health each day. We look to forward to working with your body to help it continue to be amazing, the way it was meant to be.

Well it may be a little late for this year if you have already carved your pumpkins and gotten rid of all the pumpkin ‘innards’. But if you are yet to carve your pumpkins this year, what do you do with all the pumpkin seeds that you take out of the inside? Well if you are like most people, you probably just throw them away. But there is a much better and healthy thing to do with them: you eat them!

Now if this seems weird or like a lot of work to you, don’t worry. It really isn’t difficult, and eating pumpkin seeds is not uncommon. In fact, you can get pumpkin seeds at most grocery stores though you may not recognize them because they might be labeled pepitas. Pepitas and pumpkin seeds are the same thing and have several health benefits.

Health Benefits of Pumpkin Seeds

Like most seeds and nuts, pumpkins seeds have omega-3 fats, which are often called ‘healthy fats’. Now there are several different fats that the body needs that it cannot make and all of those could be termed ‘healthy’. But those essential fats should be in proper proportions to each other, which is why omega-3 fats are important since most Americans are not getting enough omega-3 fats.

Pumpkin seeds are also a great source of magnesium. Magnesium is used as a cofactor for more than 300 enzymes. It is especially important in enzymes that use ATP, or basically the energy source used for most chemical reactions within the body. Magnesium also plays an important role in proper neuromuscular function. Unfortunately most Americans are not getting enough magnesium.

Pumpkin seeds are also rich in another important mineral— zinc. Zinc again is important for the function of many enzymes within the body. It is important for proper growth and immune function. Zinc deficiency can lead to poor wound healing and even loss of taste.

Besides the many important nutrients, pumpkin seeds also contain many phytochemicals. Phytochemicals are chemicals found in plants that may have some health benefits. Pumpkin seeds contain many phytochemicals that have been shown have anti-diabetic, antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-inflammatory activities.

How to Prepare Pumpkin Seeds

So after you get all those pumpkin seeds out of the pumpkin what do you do next? Well if you really wanted to you could eat them raw. There are definitely some nutrients that are preserved in the raw seeds, but I prefer to roast them. Following is a recipe that my family came across a while ago but unfortunately we cannot remember where we found it originally. We have used it and think it makes the pumpkin seeds into a yummy treat.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

• Wash pumpkin seeds (you don’t let them dry after you wash them)
• Measure out pumpkin seeds by the half cup into a pot
• For every 1/2 cup of seeds, add 2 cups of water and 1 T of salt
• Bring to a boil then simmer for 10 minutes
• Remove from heat and drain
• Toss with olive oil
• Bake at 400F for 5-20 minutes or until seed begin to brown
• Cool completely before eating

I hope you enjoy this recipe and look forward to each year of having the opportunity to eat some nutritious pumpkin seeds. But you also don’t have to wait. Pumpkin seeds are available at most grocery stores for a healthy snack year round!