Thursday, December 27, 2012
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
My take on avoiding future tragedies.
As I sit here reflecting on the day of my birth on the tragedy in Connecticut, the deep sadness I feel is immense. My heart is so heavy, not only for the families directly affected, but for our country. While I am grateful that I still have my daughter to hug, the pain I feel in my heart is so deep, like a knife has gone through it. How could this tragedy have happened, or better yet, why do these tragedies keep happening? Like many problems, we tend to focus on the symptoms or the superficial aspects and not look deeply at the cause (s).
I didn't seek to have a child, it just happened like a miracle. I had felt for a long time that the world was becoming so dangerous that it wasn't a place I wanted to bring a child into. To me, it seemed like people were becoming increasingly disconnected from their families and communities. Life was becoming crazy, from the increased cost of housing to goods and services. Vacations were minimal in most people's lives and it just felt that there was not a sense of balance or ease in the world. Then the miracle happened at the age of 44. I was pregnant and I was so thrilled. While I was still worried about raising my daughter in a crazy world like this, I was hoping that I could, at least, provide some safety net for her.
I don't claim to be an expert on these matters but I have some strong feelings about what has happened to our country...and why we keep seeing these tragedies. Not only the mass shootings, but the horrific murders that occur regularly.
There is no doubt that we must change our gun laws. What is the purpose of being able to carry a semi-automatic weapon except for mass murder. Limiting ammunition rounds is a great start but if someone wants to protect themselves, do they really need to have more than one gun? Maybe there are exceptions that could be looked at on a case-by-case basis for those with "real" needs. Of course having more extensive background checks and re-licensing, like you do with your car, sounds like a great idea.
But, limiting guns is still only treating the symptom. If not guns, the assailant might use knives or a bomb. What is the reason that these people are becoming so violent? While we certainly need to limit the types of guns people can possess, let's take a look at the "why" this has become such a problem.
One area that I think we need to address is the gratuitous violence we see, not only in TV shows and the movies but in video games. There becomes a numbing effect and desensitization when someone is exposed to violence regularly. It becomes to some, acceptable. Even young children are exposed to violence in animated shows. And, it has been shown that extended use of screens (TV, computers, etc.) can be linked to behavioral changes. Check out this video for more info. Watching the news on TV can also be very depressing. I stopped watching the news after 9/11, and greatly reduced watching the TV in general since that time. If you have a tendency towards depression, being glued to the tube can put you into a black hole that is hard to pull out of.
Look at the food that is offered. So many chemicals in most store bought items that are toxic to the brain. MSG, refined sugar, food dyes, etc., can cause damage to the brain. Even grains and gluten can cause inflammation. You know that foggy feeling you have after eating grains, that is inflammation. It might be subtle at first, but if you eat a really healthy diet for a few weeks that is whole food based and then eat something "bad", you will notice how horrible you feel. Having a regular diet of processed foods and soda can cause behavioral problems including anger and rage. One of the first things I do as a pediatric chiropractor working with a child with ADD/ADHD and behavioral problems is clean out their diet.
Harris Coulter, PhD, a medical researcher and historian, discusses in his book, "Vaccination, Social Violence, and Criminality", how vaccines can change the brain. Through his extensive research, he describes the range of neurological damage that can occur from mild to severe inflammation of the brain, aka encephalitis. It can express itself from the child having staring spells, difficulty crawling, eye problems (cross eyed or repetitive eye movements), ear infections to convulsions. Other effects can be a disruption in their sleeping, hyperactivity, lowered resistance to infection, and allergies (food and otherwise).
Dr. Coulter describes certain personality changes that occur after the damage and some people that have had inflammation of the brain may be fascinated by burning buildings, given to outbursts of rage, and have a tendency towards impulsive behavior, including suicide. They rarely show remorse for what they have done as they probably see it outside of their ability to control it. "Vaccination, Social Violence, and Criminality develops the thesis that the "sociopathic personality" which has emerged on a mass scale in recent decades -- and which is responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime and social violence -- is causally linked to the childhood vaccination programs. In other words, vaccination causes encephalitis which in turn leads to these post- encephalitic states and conditions." For more info on this subject, check out this online article.
Then we have to look at the narcotics regularly given out to our children for depression, ADD and ADHD. It's criminal when you think about how over prescribed these medications are that cross into the brain. Do you know that if your child has been on Ritalin, they can never serve in the military? It's because it is a Class II Narcotic and having received this medication as a child will change the blood chemistry of the brain.
The side effects from Ritalin include: agitation, nervousness, anxiety, insomnia, depression, craving cocaine, aggression, hallucinations and more! Side effects from Prozac include: mania, loss of one's own self of reality and thoughts of suicide. Gwen Olsen, a woman who worked as a drug rep for 15 years learned the hard way about the problems with anti-depressants. Not only did she have severe side effects, her niece committed suicide from the roller coaster she was on in connection with these types of drugs.
I was listening on the radio to a report about one mom whose teenage son had depression. It was recommended that he start an anti-depressant by his doctor. They started the medication and he started having behavioral problems and his depression greatly deepened. When they realized this, they slowly withdrew his medication. One of the problems with SSRI's is that you just can't stop taking the medication. After the drugs were out of his system she realized that he was just going through normal teenage "stuff" and just working through these issues with talk therapy.
We have some major work to do as a culture and country. Taking a pill for every ill does not get to the root cause of the problem, and can create new ones. Vaccinations need to be examined by people that do not have a vested interest. Countries like Japan that don't vaccinate until a child is 2 years old has a much lower Infant Mortality rate than the U.S. and much lower crime rate. Even the CDC has people making recommendations not based on science but personal interest. TV "personalities" and politicians need to ratchet down their hate speech. Movie and TV studios must have less gratuitous violence in their productions. And, there must be stricter gun regulations.
Getting more connected with your family, neighbors and community and spending less time in front of the "boob tube", computer and video games are great starts. Increased exercise and time outdoors, less homework, and a focus on the arts for children will reduce their level of anxiety and depression and will allow young children a way to get out that excess energy they have. Even decreasing the after-school activities will reduce your and your child's stress. Running from place to place increases anxiety in many. Teaching your child how to reduce stress through deep breathing and not running away from their problems through being connected electronically will help them to resolve conflict. And realizing that some problems take work to resolve that a pill won't. There are a lot of wonderful natural healing therapies that are appropriate for children such as Chiropractic, massage therapy, acupuncture, homeopathy, yoga therapy and more that get to the root of the problem and not just treat the symptom. With the support of our communities and our government (with input from us) taking the appropriate action,.we can have a brighter future for our children.
I didn't seek to have a child, it just happened like a miracle. I had felt for a long time that the world was becoming so dangerous that it wasn't a place I wanted to bring a child into. To me, it seemed like people were becoming increasingly disconnected from their families and communities. Life was becoming crazy, from the increased cost of housing to goods and services. Vacations were minimal in most people's lives and it just felt that there was not a sense of balance or ease in the world. Then the miracle happened at the age of 44. I was pregnant and I was so thrilled. While I was still worried about raising my daughter in a crazy world like this, I was hoping that I could, at least, provide some safety net for her.I don't claim to be an expert on these matters but I have some strong feelings about what has happened to our country...and why we keep seeing these tragedies. Not only the mass shootings, but the horrific murders that occur regularly.
There is no doubt that we must change our gun laws. What is the purpose of being able to carry a semi-automatic weapon except for mass murder. Limiting ammunition rounds is a great start but if someone wants to protect themselves, do they really need to have more than one gun? Maybe there are exceptions that could be looked at on a case-by-case basis for those with "real" needs. Of course having more extensive background checks and re-licensing, like you do with your car, sounds like a great idea.
But, limiting guns is still only treating the symptom. If not guns, the assailant might use knives or a bomb. What is the reason that these people are becoming so violent? While we certainly need to limit the types of guns people can possess, let's take a look at the "why" this has become such a problem.
One area that I think we need to address is the gratuitous violence we see, not only in TV shows and the movies but in video games. There becomes a numbing effect and desensitization when someone is exposed to violence regularly. It becomes to some, acceptable. Even young children are exposed to violence in animated shows. And, it has been shown that extended use of screens (TV, computers, etc.) can be linked to behavioral changes. Check out this video for more info. Watching the news on TV can also be very depressing. I stopped watching the news after 9/11, and greatly reduced watching the TV in general since that time. If you have a tendency towards depression, being glued to the tube can put you into a black hole that is hard to pull out of.
Look at the food that is offered. So many chemicals in most store bought items that are toxic to the brain. MSG, refined sugar, food dyes, etc., can cause damage to the brain. Even grains and gluten can cause inflammation. You know that foggy feeling you have after eating grains, that is inflammation. It might be subtle at first, but if you eat a really healthy diet for a few weeks that is whole food based and then eat something "bad", you will notice how horrible you feel. Having a regular diet of processed foods and soda can cause behavioral problems including anger and rage. One of the first things I do as a pediatric chiropractor working with a child with ADD/ADHD and behavioral problems is clean out their diet.
Harris Coulter, PhD, a medical researcher and historian, discusses in his book, "Vaccination, Social Violence, and Criminality", how vaccines can change the brain. Through his extensive research, he describes the range of neurological damage that can occur from mild to severe inflammation of the brain, aka encephalitis. It can express itself from the child having staring spells, difficulty crawling, eye problems (cross eyed or repetitive eye movements), ear infections to convulsions. Other effects can be a disruption in their sleeping, hyperactivity, lowered resistance to infection, and allergies (food and otherwise).
Dr. Coulter describes certain personality changes that occur after the damage and some people that have had inflammation of the brain may be fascinated by burning buildings, given to outbursts of rage, and have a tendency towards impulsive behavior, including suicide. They rarely show remorse for what they have done as they probably see it outside of their ability to control it. "Vaccination, Social Violence, and Criminality develops the thesis that the "sociopathic personality" which has emerged on a mass scale in recent decades -- and which is responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime and social violence -- is causally linked to the childhood vaccination programs. In other words, vaccination causes encephalitis which in turn leads to these post- encephalitic states and conditions." For more info on this subject, check out this online article.
Then we have to look at the narcotics regularly given out to our children for depression, ADD and ADHD. It's criminal when you think about how over prescribed these medications are that cross into the brain. Do you know that if your child has been on Ritalin, they can never serve in the military? It's because it is a Class II Narcotic and having received this medication as a child will change the blood chemistry of the brain.
The side effects from Ritalin include: agitation, nervousness, anxiety, insomnia, depression, craving cocaine, aggression, hallucinations and more! Side effects from Prozac include: mania, loss of one's own self of reality and thoughts of suicide. Gwen Olsen, a woman who worked as a drug rep for 15 years learned the hard way about the problems with anti-depressants. Not only did she have severe side effects, her niece committed suicide from the roller coaster she was on in connection with these types of drugs.
I was listening on the radio to a report about one mom whose teenage son had depression. It was recommended that he start an anti-depressant by his doctor. They started the medication and he started having behavioral problems and his depression greatly deepened. When they realized this, they slowly withdrew his medication. One of the problems with SSRI's is that you just can't stop taking the medication. After the drugs were out of his system she realized that he was just going through normal teenage "stuff" and just working through these issues with talk therapy.
We have some major work to do as a culture and country. Taking a pill for every ill does not get to the root cause of the problem, and can create new ones. Vaccinations need to be examined by people that do not have a vested interest. Countries like Japan that don't vaccinate until a child is 2 years old has a much lower Infant Mortality rate than the U.S. and much lower crime rate. Even the CDC has people making recommendations not based on science but personal interest. TV "personalities" and politicians need to ratchet down their hate speech. Movie and TV studios must have less gratuitous violence in their productions. And, there must be stricter gun regulations.
Getting more connected with your family, neighbors and community and spending less time in front of the "boob tube", computer and video games are great starts. Increased exercise and time outdoors, less homework, and a focus on the arts for children will reduce their level of anxiety and depression and will allow young children a way to get out that excess energy they have. Even decreasing the after-school activities will reduce your and your child's stress. Running from place to place increases anxiety in many. Teaching your child how to reduce stress through deep breathing and not running away from their problems through being connected electronically will help them to resolve conflict. And realizing that some problems take work to resolve that a pill won't. There are a lot of wonderful natural healing therapies that are appropriate for children such as Chiropractic, massage therapy, acupuncture, homeopathy, yoga therapy and more that get to the root of the problem and not just treat the symptom. With the support of our communities and our government (with input from us) taking the appropriate action,.we can have a brighter future for our children.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
How can the body heal itself?
We are born with the wonderful wisdom called Innate
Intelligence. Innate Intelligence is the “thing” that allows a sperm and an egg
to come together and form a zygote. It then divide thousands of times before
differentiating into the cells that make up our brain and nervous system. From
the creation of the brain and nervous system, the body then “creates” all the
cells that make up our organs. Since the brain is the master computer and the
nervous system is how the body communicates between the brain and the rest of
the body, it only makes sense that it is created first.
It is this Inner Wisdom that allows the body to create a
fever when the body has been invaded by a viral or bacterial infection. This
intelligence allows our body to eliminate either through the bowels or orally
when we’ve ingested food that has gone bad. When we eliminate in this fashion
our body is working well to keep us healthy.
Innate Wisdom teaches our body to heal from a wound, to
create the best flora in our gut that allows our immune system to work. It’s
what causes the tickle in our chest that prompts a cough and it’s what creates
mucous in our sinuses that allows us to discharge a virus or bacteria that is
trying to find a home.
This wisdom not only created us from two cells but it also
created a “system” to keep us healthy.
Symptoms are ways that are body knows it is time to go into
action, to destroy or eliminate invaders. A high fever is designed to kill
bacteria while a low grade fever kills viruses. By suppressing these symptoms,
we go against nature, against the natural healing ability of the body.
Our Innate Intelligence allows our body to create whatever “drug”
our body needs to heal. When it does so, the immune system gets stronger, not
weaker. Each time we get sick and we allow our body to heal itself, just like
exercise makes us stronger, so does allowing this Wisdom to do the healing.
I’m not suggesting that there is not a time or place for
medications. Sometimes there is but remember that drugs do the work for your
body. They don’t create health and in many instances, you might find that you
are sicker longer. Because most drugs have side effects, you can create new
problems. For instance, when you take an antibiotic, you wipe out the good
bacteria that are an integral part of our immune system.
When you allow the nervous system to work as it should,
unimpeded, it will release the natural healing ability of the body. The first
cells that differentiated when the sperm and egg united created the nervous
system (and brain) because it is the nervous system (and brain) that created
all the other cells and organs of the body. While the brain directs the healing
activities of the body, it’s the nervous system that carries out the orders for
healing.
So, how do you keep the nervous system working optimally so
the body can heal itself? How can you allow the Innate Wisdom of the body to
continue to function so perfectly that you can get healthy? Easy. Chiropractors
are trained in finding and removing interference to the nervous system allowing
your body to not only heal itself, but stay healthy. When the interference
(subluxations) are gone, the Innate Wisdom is free to start doing her job. By combining Chiropractic care with lifestyle modifications (stress reduction, diet, exercise, rest), you and your family can start getting healthier today. Chiropractic
care is extremely safe and people love the way it makes them feel. Give your Innate Wisdom an opportunity to fully express itself and let the
healing begin!
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Move-a-ment is Life!
As I was walking on Thanksgiving morning and enjoying the feeling of moving my body on a beautiful day, I started thinking about a clinician during my internship who used to walk the halls saying, "move-a-ment is life". He was an Italian man with about 50 years experience as a Chiropractor and was revered by the staff and interns. During my internship, I had the opportunity to observe him adjusting tiny little babies with ease and confidence. He had shared his wealth of knowledge and experience in seeing all sorts of health problems turn around with Chiropractic care.
And while we all know how important it is to move our body regularly to stay healthy, you might not realize the significance that movement plays in other areas of our body. First of all, when we move our body, we are helping our blood to get oxygenated which helps our cells to get healthier. Since our cells comprise the essential components of everything and make up our organs, keeping them healthy is critical.
And while we all know how important it is to move our body regularly to stay healthy, you might not realize the significance that movement plays in other areas of our body. First of all, when we move our body, we are helping our blood to get oxygenated which helps our cells to get healthier. Since our cells comprise the essential components of everything and make up our organs, keeping them healthy is critical.
As Chiropractors, we put movement in areas of the spine that are restricted. The "adjustment" that Chiropractors perform to free up these restricted areas (also called subluxations), allows the spine to become more flexible. Increased flexibility = less degeneration (arthritis) in the spine = increased vitality and the ability to enjoy life.
While improved flexibility is fantastic as it will help us to enjoy (and become better at) our athletic endeavors and experience less pain, there is so much more. The real miracle occurs when this increased flexibility also allows the nervous system to work better. Since the nervous system is the part of our body that controls and coordinates the functioning of all of our organs, when we get the nerves to work better....life becomes better. Our organs can begin the healing process and our health improves.
Taking care of your spine is as important for living a long, happy, healthy and pain-free life as moving your body daily to keep your cells full of fresh oxygen. Remember, "Move-a-ment IS Life"!
To find out more about how Chiropractic can help you get healthy, visit our website at www.TarlowChiropractic.com.
To find out more about how Chiropractic can help you get healthy, visit our website at www.TarlowChiropractic.com.
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