If your New Year resolution was to be healthier it should include these 5 factors: exercise, good nutrition, quality rest, a positive attitude and a healthy nervous system achieved through chiropractic care.
New Year Resolutions usually include lose weight, exercise and eat healthier. Why should people include see a Chiropractor to their list?
Dr. Scott Gardner: Well, there are a couple reasons. Number one, if the person has not been exercising on a regular basis, they are going to be more at risk of injuring their neck, their lower back, or maybe even their shoulders, so being injury-free would help them to really maximize any type of exercise program. The second is that there are really five key factors to being healthy. Number one is exercise. Two, the choices that we make for the foods that we eat. Three is getting good quality rest. Four is having a positive attitude and the fifth one is really having a healthy nervous system and that healthy nervous system is really the glue that holds those first four factors in place, and that is the one that we can really help directly with, and then indirectly by giving advice on the first four that I had given you.
How do you explain what chiropractic corrective care is?
Dr. Scott Gardner: Chiropractic corrective care is very similar to Orthodontics, so if somebody’s teeth are not exactly straight, they go to an Orthodontist, they put braces on them and over time, the Orthodontist is able to realign the teeth back to the normal position. The same thing is true with what we do with corrective care. We take a spine that is not positioned the right way, and over time, we are able to change it back to that normal position and by doing that, we can really restore the body’s ability to function at it’s highest level.
How can chiropractic care help improve someone’s immune system?
Dr. Scott Gardner: The way our body works is really complex, but simple at the same time. We have the nervous system, which is really the master control system of the body, so the brain sends messages down the spinal cord, out the nerves, to every cell, tissue, and organ in the body, including the different organs that make up the immune system. By making sure that the areas of the spine that have the nerve supply that go to those specific organs of the immune system, making sure that there is no pressure on those nerves, the brain is then able to communicate to the organs of the immune system to allow that immune system to function at it’s highest level.
A health resolution might be to decrease the amount of medication we take. What are some natural ways people have reduced the amount of medication they take?
Dr. Scott Gardner: Well, really getting back to those five key factors. When you put exercise in place, a solid nutritional program, getting good quality rest, having a positive attitude and a really healthy nervous system, most people find that the need to take medication dramatically decreases. Then there are other things that we can do, as well, adding in different supplementation and vitamins, but there are definite ways of decreasing the medications to make sure that the person is allowing their body to really function at the highest level and really begin to depend on those medications less and on their body’s ability to function at a much higher level.
What type of exercises should most people be doing to maintain good health?
Dr. Scott Gardner: Number one, some kind of cardiovascular exercise and the one that we always recommend is really simple. Just get out and walk. There are a couple of guidelines that we want to stick with. Number one, you want to be able to do that activity at a minimum of three times a week. You want to be able to do that for at least 20 minutes and we should be able to do what we call a Talk Test. If you and I were walking next to each other for our cardiovascular exercise, we should be able to have a conversation while we are doing that activity that does not leave us breathless. The other part of exercise is going to be some kind of strength or resistance training and that could be done with either weights or resistance bands. Number one, to strengthen the muscles of the body, but number two, to really strengthen our skeletal system.
Learn More
If you are interested in speaking with Dr. Scott Gardner visit www.gardnerfamilychiro.com or call 973-614-9256 to schedule an appointment.
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