 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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 With the state of emergency possibly coming to an end, and the Governor allowing more restaurants, shops, and businesses to open, we need to continue to stay safe and prepare for what's to come.
Hello everyone! I'm Dr. Bob Salamon with Lowcountry Chiropractic. For this blog, I want to talk about routine and rhythm in your life. If you're like me, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have turned our lives upside down. Some people are working from home for the very first time, some people are working a limited schedule, and some people aren't working at all. But, it's very clear that all of us have gotten out of our routines. In my office, we're only working Monday, Wednesday, and Friday right now and off Tuesday and Thursday. It's been a strange schedule to get used to. So I wanted to talk about the things we should be doing from a rhythm and routine standpoint right now that will help us be mentally and physically ready to get back into our normal 9 to 5 routine. I think we can get complacent because we now have all of this extra time right now and we get less efficient in what we're doing. The worst thing that could happen once things get back to normal is that we can't maintain this new level of inefficiency, because we won't be able to get everything done. At my practice right now, I have a little more time during my workday. So, I'm spending more time talking with my patients than I normally would. This is a great thing, but it might not be the best thing because when things get busier I won't have that time to spend with them. So, I think having a rhythm and routine is a really good thing to focus on getting back to now to help once we do get back to a sense of normalcy. Let's start by chatting about a few things that make up our rhythm and routine and those are nutrition, exercise, rest, and chiropractic care. 1. Nutrition A lot of people are cooking more at home now, due to the pandemic. On the other hand, a lot of people are getting sick of cooking at home so they're getting a lot of take out. I would highly suggest staying on your routine when it comes to nutrition during this time. Try and continue to eat well with a diet filled with lots of greens, veggies, and fruits! Try to eat at the same times of the day as you did before all of this set in. Try not to change your eating times too much because your body does like a routine. It is used to it, and some routine is good in your life. Make sure to take your supplements, like Vitamin D3, on top of your balanced diet to keep your immune system strong. Life goes on, and your body doesn't know about COVID-19 and it doesn't understand the changes you may be putting it through because of it. Be good to your body, and stay on track with your nutrition. 2. Exercise This is an extremely important factor that you need to maintain in your rhythm and routine. My Crossfit gym has been closed through all of this, so on the days that I would normally go to the gym, I am still allocating the same amount of time I would spend at the gym doing exercises that are similar to that of Crossfit. Instead of doing them at the gym, I'm at the track, at home, and in other safe locations. If you're not in a routine of working out, this is a great time to get started! You want to do something aerobic like walking, running, or biking in your exercise routine but remember to switch it up with some cross-training exercises and keep pushing your body. Add in high-intensity interval training and similar workouts. If you have kettlebells or dumbbells at home, that's a great additive to your workout and is perfect for what you need. But, if you don't have these objects lying around, you can use plenty of others that are very commonly found in your houses like paint cans, laundry detergent bottles, or milk jugs! If you're used to working out in the morning, even if you're not working, still get up to work out. Your body will thank you for it. 3. Rest and Relaxation On the same note, in terms of routines, we need to continue to get enough rest and sleep. Maybe some of you have had plenty of rest and sleep through this, but it is still important. Many of us, when we know we don't have to get up in the morning like we normally would, tend to stay up later than normal and watch a few more episodes on Netflix. We end up going to bed much later and getting up much later than normal, which messes up our sleep schedule and sleep patterns. Our bodies are like that 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night. 4. Chiropractic Care Then, of course, the last thing you need is what we specialize in, and that is chiropractic care. I have many people who have continued to come in and get chiropractic care with me for multiple reasons:
Come see us! Get to your chiropractor! Please stay in your routine as best as you can. Whether you're getting adjusted weekly or every two or three weeks, stay in that routine. Try to maintain that schedule and rhythm. I can tell you this, I've had people who've come in recently who have not been adjusted in well over a month when they normally come in regularly, and they have noticed a difference in their bodies:
 The current state of the world is the hot topic that everyone is talking about right now. It's a topic I have been discussing, and I have some more tips and suggestions to keep you and your immune system healthy and strong.
Hey everybody! It's Dr. Bob Salamon here with Lowcountry Chiropractic. We're in the middle of this coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic. It's sweeping through the US right now, as you know. I wanted to re-reiterate some points from my previous blogs about the coronavirus that I have been talking about over the last couple of weeks. These are a few things that you can do as an individual to keep your immune system healthy so that you can better combat this virus. If your immune system is healthy, you may still get the virus, but your symptoms are going to be less severe. The risk of anything serious happening is going to be minimized. I wanted to reiterate a couple of things. The frequent washing of your hands, not touching your face and covering your mouth when you cough are all practices that we should be adhering to. In addition there are two supplements we need to be taking and sharing with others as much as we can! Our health, remember, is our responsibility and not somebody else's. So while you need to be listening to the government and local officials about social distancing and all of that, you still need to be worrying about your body as a whole. You need to be helping your body's immune system stay healthy and strong. IMPORTANT VITAMINS Vitamin D3 is produced by the skin when exposed to the sun. It is not plentiful in foods, so you have to take it as a supplement or be out in the sun to get it in your body. It's very inexpensive and I would recommend everybody start taking this supplement right away. I will tell you what I am taking right now. Normally, I take 5000 IU every day, but right now for added protection I am doubling that to 10,000 IU. The general rule of thumb is to take 1000 IU for every 35 lbs of body weight, or more if you are deficient. In my opinion, everyone should be taking a very strong dosage of D3. It has proven, in my body, to be amazing with my immune system. It helps defend against colds, flu, and allergies. If I were telling you guys what to do, that would be the first thing, vitamin D3! You can get it at any local vitamin shop, pharmacy or even Walmart. WELLNESS FORMULA If you do start developing symptoms of a cold, the flu, and so on, the next supplement you need to look into and start taking is The Wellness Formula. It's an amazing concoction of all kinds of vitamins like D3, echinacea, olive leaf extract, zinc, copper, elderberry extract, and more. It's amazing. It will get your immune system into hyperdrive to fight whatever it is that is attacking your body, including helping with symptoms of the coronavirus. CHIROPRACTIC CARE I want to emphasize that you need to get your body to a chiropractor. Why? Because chiropractic care has been proven to increase immune health by removing nerve interference in your body (since your nerve system directly controls the immune system). Enhanced immune function is the key to staying healthy. So what can we do practically to enhance our immune system so we can better defend against outside agents trying to attack our bodies? Chiropractic care! I hope these three tips help. I don't want people to go out there and panic. This is not a panic situation. You just need to take some practical actions. For as long as I have been taking vitamin D3, I have been talking to all of my patients about it. You will be amazed at how few people know about this amazing vitamin. But, I can guarantee if you take it, your immune system will thank you. If you are suffering, if you're hurting, or you just want to be protected, please do all the things I've suggested, and please come see me. We can get your spine right which will get your immune system healthier. Everybody take care out there. I'm Dr. Bob and I'll talk to you next time! Follow the links below to order some Vitamin D3 and Wellness Formula online! https://www.vitaminshoppe.com/p/vitamin-d3-5000-iu-100-softgels/vs-2823 https://www.vitaminshoppe.com/p/source-naturals-wellness-formula-45-tablets/sr-4041  We are still open for business and are considered essential. I also have a few tips and suggestions on how to keep your immune system healthy, so you can be as healthy as possible right now!
Hey everybody, it's Dr. Bob Salamon here at Lowcountry Chiropractic. By now all of you know that we are all going through some very difficult and stressful times. Emotionally and economically difficult times. So, I wanted to get a little preachy on you in this blog. Not too preachy, I just want to hopefully help you guys get through these trials that we are going through in our lives right now. We are all in this together, and that is one of the good things. No one's immune to this. We are all dealing with this. There is a scripture in the bible that I like, and it is very appropriate right now. It says, "In all things, God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose." What does that mean? Does that mean that every day we wake up it's going to be a good day? No. Does it mean that nothing bad is going to happen to us? No. It doesn't mean that at all. But, what I believe it does mean is that in the many different trials of our lives, that there is something good that God will use that trial for in our lives and in our communities. He will turn the bad into good. Unfortunately, sometimes we can't see that because we're not God, we are just human. But ultimately, at the end of it, we will see that there will be good things that come out of it. A couple of good things that are coming out of it right now are families growing closer. Parents are spending more time at home with their kids. There is more time to be a family unit. That's a good thing! Maybe that's what God is trying to do. He's wanting us to really get back into our community and get back into our families. The other good thing that is coming out of this is the support of the community. We just gave a bunch of food out at my church. People drove up and were given supplies. We are doing that every Tuesday morning from 9 AM to 11 AM at The Dream Center at Seacoast in North Charleston. If you need anything, please come. We have opportunities and should look to find opportunities to help or to serve somebody or do something good right now. All we are hearing right now on the media and in print is a lot of negative. I just challenge you all to do a few things.
The second thing I want to talk about is how do you defend yourself in these times? How do you ensure that you're as healthy as you can be? If you're as healthy as you can be, it doesn't mean you're not going to get infected. But, the odds are going to be a lot less. Even if you do get it, and you're in great health, you're going to get over it a lot quicker. We've talked about this before, and I will continue reiterating these things. But, I think it is always important enough to say it again that your health is your responsibility and no one else's. It is in your hands. So, you've got to do certain things to improve your immune function, especially now.
 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! |
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