Enhance Your Health
Health Tip of the Week: Exercise your Body for your Brain!
Scientists have linked physical exercise to brain health for many years. In fact, there’s compelling evidence that physical exercise helps build a brain that not only resists shrinkage, but increases cognitive abilities by promoting neurogenesis, i.e. your brain’s ability to adapt and grow new brain cells. In essence, physical activity produces biochemical changes that strengthen and renew not only your body but also your brain — particularly areas associated with memory and learning.
The converse is also true. Researchers have shown a sedentary lifestyle correlates to brain shrinkage, which increases your risk of memory loss and other cognitive problems.
As recently reported by Newsweek: “A new study published ... in Neurology links low levels of physical fitness in midlife to lower brain tissue volume two decades later. These findings affirm the role physical fitness plays in protecting the brain as we age. ‘Brain volume is one marker of brain aging... and this atrophy is related to cognitive decline and increased risk for dementia,’ says neuro science brain researcher Nicole Spartano ... ‘So it is important to determine the factors — especially modifiable factors, such as fitness — that contribute to brain aging.’”
Chiropractic Thought for the Week
Research by chiropractor, Dr. Dean Harrison and others suggests chiropractic treatments can help prevent progressive spinal degeneration, i.e. osteoarthritis or disc disease. Just like regular dental care will prolong the useful life of your teeth, getting regular chiropractic treatments can do the same for your spine.
Your spinal column, the vertebrae, and the discs, also protect your most delicate and important system — your nervous system — and impingements can contribute to a number of health problems and ailments. According to Dr. Bill DeMoss, chiropractic lecturer, anything you do to protect and nurture our spine will promote “greater expression of nerve intelligence” and “a higher vibrancy in health.”
“Healthcare is really about doing everything you can to get the body back in alignment, not only chemically but also spiritually and mentally. Where I think chiropractic shines is that we address the cause of the problem. Somebody might have high blood pressure. Their high blood pressure is not due to the fact that they [lack] high blood pressure medication. Your child might have asthma, but it’s not because he’s got a shortage of albuterol; an ear infection is not a shortage of amoxicillin. Those things have their place in a crisis situation. But [chiropractors] don’t look at the symptoms; we look at what caused the symptoms. Many times if there’s nerve interference lowering the expression and function of organs, it can contribute to the body not functioning at 100 percent, which leaves it more susceptible to, as we in chiropractic say, ‘Dis-Ease’ and then the body becomes sick or symptomatic. What we like to do is look at the individual holistically and see what’s going on with their nervous system.“