 With the change of seasons at hand and the ongoing COVID pandemic, one of the most important things we need to be aware of is how to make our immune systems as strong as possible!
Hey, everybody! It's Dr. Bob Salamon here with Lowcountry Chiropractic. I hope you're all doing well out there! Today we are going to be discussing the immune system. This is the important system in your body that keeps you healthy against colds, flus, COVID, allergies, and all sorts of other ailments. I want to talk about how, practically speaking, you can keep your immune system healthier so you can defend yourself against some of these outside agents that are floating around in the air and that can make you sick. With COVID, everyone has been talking about washing your hands, wearing masks, and practicing social distancing. This is all great to do; however what I think is missing in this equation is a message from the surgeon general that we need to be proactive about increasing our individual immune function. This will help you defend against COVID and anything else out there. How do you keep your immune system strong and powerful? That is what we are going to be talking about today! #1 - LET'S EAT! Let's start with the basics that you need to be doing to keep yourself healthy and your immune system strong. The first step you need to be thinking about and putting effort into is your diet and what you're putting into your body every day. You need to be eating properly. If you're not eating right every day, your body isn't getting the correct amount of nutrients that it needs nor is it getting the correct energy source it needs to keep your body functioning at its highest capacity. If you aren't getting the proper nutrients, your body won't be able to defend itself well. A poor diet will impact your immune system very negatively. #2 - TUCK IN! You have to get enough sleep at night. It’s a must. When you sleep, your body is repairing itself. All the systems in your body need time to heal from all the work they do throughout the day, and those 7-8 hours of sleep every night are crucial for that healing. If you don't give yourself enough sleep, all of your systems will be affected, and you will be more susceptible to getting sick. #3 - PROPER SUPPLEMENTATION! We've talked about this many times and people still think I'm crazy! If you're not currently taking any supplements, you need to start thinking about adding vitamin D3 to your diet. Vitamin D3 is an essential vitamin, which means you can't get this supplement naturally from the foods you eat. The only way to get vitamin D3 naturally is to be out in the sun, and most people can't be out in the sun all day because they're inside working, at school, etc. Vitamin D3 is incredibly important because it boosts your immune system. It gets your body working better and defends it against outside agents. I am a strong proponent that everyone should be taking this vitamin. It's going to help you fight against colds and the flu, allergies, and even COVID! If you get your body working better and you get your defenses on the attack, when any virus or outside agent tries to come into your body, your white blood cells are geared up to go attack it and kill it! If your immune system is not working right, that's when these viruses and opportunistic diseases can take up a home in your body, and wreak havoc on you. I take 5000 International Units (IU) of D3 every day, but during the pandemic, I have doubled my daily dose to 10,000 IU! As a general rule of thumb, you want to take 1000 IU for every 35 pounds of body weight. If you're not taking this vitamin, you will need to get some natural sunlight every day to replace it, at least 15 to 20 minutes of full-body exposure to be exact. A lot of people don't want to do this because of the associated skin cancer risk. The easiest and safest thing to do is just to take the vitamin. #4 - CHIROPRACTIC! The next important step to keep your immune system strong is chiropractic! How does chiropractic help with your immune system? Well, your brain, spinal cord, and all of your nerves that come off your spinal cord regulate every single function and system in your body. The brain is the master controller; it regulates every other system in the body. The immune system, of course, is one of those important systems. If your nervous system is not working at 100%, your immune system will not be working at 100% either. When your body isn't working at its full capacity, you are leaving your health to chance. How does chiropractic help with building up your immunity? Let's talk about it! Your spine is very complex; it is a series of bones called vertebrae. Each vertebra is separated by a disc which is flexible but very strong. In between each bone is an opening (foramen) and a spinal nerve comes out of that opening. The spinal nerve comes off the spinal cord, which is an extension of your brain. Every one of your spinal nerves relays information from the brain to your body and vice-versa. In a perfect world, your vertebrae are lined up, the openings for every nerve are open, and there is no irritation on any of the nerves. This allows your brain to communicate perfectly with the body, and the body can communicate perfectly back to the brain. When this happens, all functions of the body are working optimally, including your immune system. But, life hits us; we get into a car accident, we fall, we pick something up that's too heavy, we sleep wrong at night, we eat the wrong kinds of foods that negatively affect our muscles, or we carry emotional stress. All of these factors affect our body, our spine, and our nerves. This stress can cause the vertebrae to shift out of place. When the vertebrae get shifted out of place, the nerves can get irritated and pinched (subluxated), often causing some pain. More importantly, once this subluxation has occurred, the communication between your brain and the rest of your body is not working as it should. All the systems at the end of that pinched nerve are going to be affected negatively. It could be a muscle, an organ, blood vessels, a gland, or a critical system that is affected by this strain or pinch. The nerves in the upper neck specifically play a huge part in your immune system. When you free up your nerves from subluxations, your body gets to go back to work and do what it's there to do to keep you healthy. That is how chiropractic care can help enhance your immune function. If you can incorporate all of these changes into your life, you are going to be much healthier as we go into cold and flu season with COVID, and you're going to be much healthier in general. You're not going to get sick as much, you're not going to feel run down as much, and you're going to be able to be the best version of yourself. My goal is to educate as many people as possible and to show everyone that your health is in your hands. It's not in a doctor's hands, it's not in a pill or prescription, and it is not in a potion that comes off the shelf. The doctor is inside of you, and you have the responsibility to take care of that! These are some of the best ways to take care of your body effectively and to stay healthy. I hope all of this information helps. If you or anyone out there is suffering, if you're getting sick all the time, you're having sinus issues, allergies, or you're just feeling run down, come and see us! All of these issues can be corrected with chiropractic care and all the other steps I have mentioned in this blog today! Remember, all of these steps are also all-natural ways of taking care of your body. I look forward to the next blog and seeing you soon. Take care!
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 The world, the media, and our daily lives have been deeply impacted by the coronavirus and the threat that could be heading towards the Lowcountry. With the panic and worry that comes from these types of situations, I wanted to take a moment to put the virus and the current state of things into perspective for you. Let's just take this one day at a time.
Hey everybody, Dr. Bob here from Lowcountry Chiropractic. Today we are going to talk about a very hot topic; the coronavirus (COVID-19). What I want to do today is explain a little about it, about viruses, infections in general, and what you can practically do to protect yourself so you don't get infected. The coronavirus is a respiratory infection and is very similar to the flu. I want to start by saying that there is a lot of hype about the coronavirus. There is a lot of panic out there, and people are very worried about this situation. What I want to do is to try and be practical about all of this and put your fears to rest. I'm not trying to minimize how you might be feeling about it at all, but I want to put everything that's going on right now into perspective. How I plan on putting everything into perspective is by comparing coronavirus to the flu virus that we get in the US every year. Right now, roughly, there are about 140,000 coronavirus cases worldwide with 5,000 deaths. Just to put that into perspective, this year so far 35+ million people have been infected by the flu virus in the US alone and 20,000+ people have died. In the United States, the coronavirus has infected 1,800 people and 40 people have died. If you put all of this into perspective, the flu virus we get every year that no one really talks about anymore that has a vaccination, is much more deadly than what we are seeing so far with the coronavirus. I want to urge everyone to stay calm and to take precautions and that is what we are going to talk about today. What can you do to put yourself in the best place possible so you don't get infected? The CDC has a bunch of practical advice for anyone looking to prevent and prepare. I'll go through those points quickly with you. I'm sure you've heard all of these recommendations before, and many of them are no brainers.
Now, I'd like to talk a little bit about vaccinations. Right now there is no vaccination out there for the coronavirus. Until then, we need to be careful and apply caution. When there is a vaccination, how does a vaccination work? A vaccination is putting a dead virus into your body, causing the body to create antibodies to defend itself against the real thing if you ever come into contact with it. We've talked about vaccinations before. I'm not a big fan of them because at best they are on average about 33% effective. This is because the virus vaccination is made by taking three of the most common strains that we would most probably get, and the vaccination is made out of that. Sometimes a new strain appears that we have no vaccination against, and that is when those death numbers rise. Plus, you're putting a virus into your body, along with bacteria and other things like detergent and other questionable things that are found inside vaccinations. Absent from doing vaccinations in general, what I want to suggest is the fact that you can't kill viruses with antibiotics. They are very resilient. What you can do is get your immune system working better. You can strengthen your immune system and there are a couple of ways to do that! Supplements D3 is one of the best supplements you can give your body. The only place it occurs naturally is from direct sunlight. The only way it can enter your body is from direct sunlight or from taking this supplement. You can't find it in food or anywhere else. This particular supplement is small and inexpensive, and you can take it at a high dosage. What this supplement does is increase your immune system's response to things. It helps to fight off colds and flus, infections, and things of that nature. Right now you can take large doses, even double up on it. That is what I'm personally doing right now (5,000-10,000 IU/day). Taking a double dose won't hurt you. The body will get rid of anything extra it doesn't need or can't use. The Wellness Formula This supplement is chock full of immune building vitamins and nutrients. This you only want to take when you feel like you're coming down with something. You take this for a short amount of time to get your immune system into hyperdrive to defeat whatever it is that you're fighting off. Chiropractic Care Chiropractic care is very important. Why? How does it help in this situation? Remember the nerves in your spine control every organ, gland, blood vessel, skin cell, muscle, tissue, and system in your body among which is the immune system. That's the big one, especially in this particular situation. This is the system that helps keep you healthy. By keeping your vertebra in alignment, and your nerves functioning well, it keeps all other systems in your body working optimally. So, by going to a chiropractor regularly, even if you're not in pain, it's going to help keep your body healthy and prevent things like the flu, colds, sore throats, and other maladies that you might come into contact with. You know, we are all exposed to germs. Some people get sick, and some don't. What's the difference? There is only one. That one difference is how strong one immune system is compared to the other. If you have a strong immune system the likelihood of getting sick is less. Not to say you can't get infected, but it's going to be less than someone whose immune system is compromised. That's why most of the people who are dying from the coronavirus (and the common flu) are the elderly, or people who have a respiratory condition, or have a compromised immune system. The average age of someone falling prey to the coronavirus is around 80 years old. Their immune system is not strong. So if you are healthy and get infected with the coronavirus you will likely fully recover after getting some flu-like symptoms. This is the bottom line. You need to follow the practice steps the CDC has laid out, wash your hands, but on top of all that, the most important thing is to get your immune system working more efficiently and stronger. Following the three steps I provided can help you achieve that goal. I hope this blog has helped. If you feel like your body is not working at 100%, please come see us and we can chat, take a look at your spine, and help you get started to get to optimum health. Chiropractic care is extremely effective and it's all drug-free and surgery-free. I hope that helps! I'm Dr. Bob, and I've got your back covered!  The next cold and flu season will be here before we know it. Do you have all the information you need on how to take a holistic or over the counter approach to avoid getting sick? The fall temperatures might not have reached the Lowcountry just yet - but they'll be here before you know it. Dr. Bob is here to talk about the upcoming flu season and what you can do to keep yourself healthy!
Hello everyone! Dr. Bob here to talk about the cold and flu season. Pretty soon the cold and flu season will be the only thing you're going to hear about. I want to chat with you about this topic so you can pick the best way for you to prevent getting a cold or the flu this season. The biggest thing I want to impress upon you is that you need to research what your best options are. Don't just do what someone else tells you to do. Make sure that if you decide to put anything into your body that you know what it is and what the possible side effects are. There are two ways to approach this topic of combating the flu. The first is a medical approach which is a vaccine against the virus. The other options are more natural and don't include a vaccination. Before we dive into these two options, I want to talk about the germ theory. The germ theory says, that is if you believe in this theory, that germs are what get you sick. As a chiropractor, I believe a little differently. I believe that it is your body's inability to fight those germs that make you sick. In this situation the medical world will look around and ask how are they going to kill these bugs, how are they going to get them out of your body, and how are they going to prevent them from getting there. The chiropractic approach is a little more holistic. We tend to focus on what can we do to help the body naturally boost its natural defenses against these germs. Building up the body's natural defenses helps it defend itself against viruses and bacteria. So let's continue talking about the flu shot. Me personally, I am not a fan of it for a few reasons.
Those are the main two reasons why I don't personally get a flu shot. But you still need to prevent the flu from coming, so what do you do? There is a more holistic approach that I prefer to follow.
As a chiropractor, I believe in a holistic and natural approach to the cold and flu season over medications or vaccinations. If you have any other questions, please give us a call. We'd love to talk more with you. Come in and talk with us if you'd like, there is no cost to talk! If I can help anyone out there stay healthy then I have done my job! I'll talk to you next time. Take care! |
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