Enhance Your Health

Health Tip of the Week: Collagen

Are you worried about getting wrinkles or sagging skin?  Are your joints achy and sore?  If so, it’s time to look into collagen.  Collagen is the body’s most abundant protein.  Its job is to hold together tissues in the body and allow them to stretch and spring back and forth.

Collagen is found in the connective tissues of the body such as muscles, bones and tendons.  Collagen is also in our blood vessels and digestive systems.  Collagen contains an ingredient that plays a role in skin health and repair.  Collagen has been shown to increase skin suppleness and prevent wrinkles.

A systematic review of 11 peer-reviewed collagen studies found that oral collagen supplements were beneficial for the skin and wound healing. Other benefits of collagen were reducing joint pain and stiffness, improving blood pressure and cardiovascular damage, strengthening bones and improving osteoporosis and lastly, helping with glucose (sugar) tolerance which is a benefit to type II diabetics.

Collagen is a compound of essential amino acids and cannot be produced by the body. The only way to get collagen in the body is through diet.

In the old days, traditional diets of chicken and beef bone broth provided collagen to our daily diet.  Making your own bone broth from the bones of organic grass fed or pastured animals is one of the best and inexpensive ways to get healthy collagen into your diet.

If you've ever made homemade bone broth, you'll find it forms a layer of gelatin at the top when it cools. That's the collagen from the bones and cartilage that has turned into gelatin, a formidable superfood.  The other way to get collagen in you daily diet is through organic collagen supplements.

"Tests of collagen supplements that were non-organic revealed the presence of contaminants that included: antibiotics, drugs and endocrine disruptors that will affect hormone function and increase your cancer risk."  So, to avoid contaminants, you'd be wise to read labels thoroughly to make sure that what you choose is 100% organic.

Hyaluronic acid, an important compound for collagen in the skin and can be found in bone broth, organ meats and root vegetables, or taken as a supplement. Hyaluronic acid has been shown to improve skin moisture and suppleness and reduce wrinkles when added to the diet.

In addition to alleviating joint discomfort, hyaluronic acid supplement is essential for maintaining moisture which benefits the skin, eyes, and mucosal tissue. Provide support for joint lubrication and bone strength for optimal comfort. The best hyaluronic supplement I have found is called Baxyl. It has been clinically proven to relieve joint discomfort and naturally support, promote & enhance joint health.

Chiropractic Thought for the Week

Pain relief? Yes. More mobility? Yes. Enhanced performance? Yes. Improved health? Yes. Increased quality of life? Yes. This is what chiropractic care can do for you. Not sure about the how or the why? Here it is.

Spinal adjustments realign your spinal joints, balancing your neck and back musculature. This increases mobility and relieves aches and discomforts. Most importantly, spinal adjustments improve nerve flow to all of your body’s internal systems and organs. Doing this improves the function of your body’s insides, thus enhancing health. The outcome of less pain, more mobility and improved health leads to a greater quality of life for you!

Pregnancy Prenatal Chiropractic Care Information

Schedule your first prenatal care checkup as soon as you think you're pregnant. Your provider can make sure you're healthy and you can find out your due date. Go to all your prenatal care checkups, even if you're feeling fine. Prenatal chiropractors are practitioners trained in techniques of stretching, applying controlled pressure and making specific joint adjustments to the hips and pelvis.

With expecting patients, they may use the Webster Technique, a method specifically developed for pregnant women that relieves tension on the pregnant belly supporting round ligaments. Typically, pregnant women will schedule an initial chiropractic prenatal appointment at some point during the first trimester. It's common to see a chiropractor once per month during the first trimester and more frequently as the pregnancy progresses.

 

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