Clinic Wellness Team. A key factor to spine or back pain conditions is staying healthy. Overall wellness involves a balanced diet, appropriate exercise, physical activity, restful sleep, and a healthy lifestyle. The term has been applied in many ways. But overall, the definition is as follows.
It is a conscious, self-directed, and evolving process of achieving full potential. It is multidimensional, bringing together lifestyles both mental/spiritual and the environment in which one lives. It is positive and affirms that what we do is, in fact, correct.
It is an active process where people become aware and make choices towards a more successful lifestyle. This includes how a person contributes to their environment/community. They aim to build healthier living spaces and social networks. It helps in creating a person’s belief systems, values, and a positive world perspective.
Along with this comes the benefits of regular exercise, a healthy diet, personal self-care, and knowing when to seek medical attention. Dr. Jimenez’s message is to work towards being fit, being healthy, and staying aware of our collection of articles, blogs, and videos.
For those millions of Americans with chronic conditions, naturopathic doctors are offering new views and treatment options which are quickly becoming a primary line of care. This popularity has led to license ND’s across the country.
Like chiropractic doctors, naturopathic physicians operate in outpatient, non-emergency centers. Naturopathic doctors work alongside medical doctors.
Combining the wisdom of nature with the rigors of contemporary science, ND’s are highly trained as thorough diagnosticians. Utilizing the body’s inherent ability to restore and maintain health, ND’s treat patients with the least invasive and least toxic treatments. These modalities that are noninvasive and gentle are among the several reasons why naturopathic medicine is safe for you and your family.
Naturopathic Physicians Treat Patients Using Noninvasive & Conservative Modalities
Naturopathic physicians specialize in preventative medication and are specialists in clinical nutrition and dietary interventions. They believe diet and lifestyle is the basis to health.
According to some 2014 National Health Report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, seven of the top ten leading causes of death are chronic ailments that could have been prevented or delayed, and quality of life could have been improved through lifestyle changes, including proper diet, physical activity, avoidance of tobacco, and other types of risk reduction. Naturopathic doctors help treat chronic diseases including heart disease and cancer, which account for roughly half of all deaths each year.
Research on naturopathic medicine treatments for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and stress reveal that treatments aren’t only safe but effective. The randomized controlled study regarding naturopathic care for anxiety involved the treatment of 75 participants that received nutritional supplements, deep breathing relaxation techniques, dietary counseling, and herbal medicine. According to the analysis, significant differences between groups were observed in mental health, concentration, fatigue, social functioning, energy, and quality of life. The treatments also resulted in no adverse responses in any group.
In addition to nutrition and lifestyle recommendations, naturopathic medicine utilizes other noninvasive modalities such as hydrotherapy, manipulative therapy, botanical medicine, and homeopathy. Every one of these modalities is gentle, safe, effective, and based on nature’s healing power.
Malpractice Claims In Naturopathic Medicine Are Unusual
Because naturopathic doctors treat their patients via conservative and noninvasive methods, malpractice rates are much lower for naturopathic doctors when compared with conventional doctors. Annual premiums for ND’s are about $3,800 compared to medical doctors with annual premiums of approximately $18,600, based on NCMIC, the largest malpractice insurance coverage for ND’s.
According to 2014 report from the California Naturopathic Doctors Association, because licensure was granted in 2005, nearly 500 practicing naturopathic doctors have a security record that is pristine with no cases of injury. The same report in Washington State says that from 2004-2014, there have only been 25 disciplinary actions against naturopathic doctors in ten years, in comparison to more than 20,000 disciplinary actions for MD’s.
Naturopathic Physicians Are Well Trained
Doctors attend licensed, four-year, on-campus, naturopathic medical colleges in which they study the latest advances in science and natural methods to illness prevention and management. Students gain a comprehensive knowledge of sciences by taking biochemistry, physiology, anatomy, pathology, and pharmacology classes.
Before graduation, students must complete no less than 4,100 hours of course and clinical training, which comprises over 1,200 hours of hands-on, supervised, clinical training. These doctors must also pass board rigorous examinations, to become a licensed practitioner.
ND’s are trained to work in conjunction along with medical physicians. Along with their two years of science coursework students spend 100 hours studying pharmaceuticals . ND’s know how to safely use their treatments integratively with conventional medicine and they understand their limitations.
ND’s Are Trained To Treat A Wide Selection Of Conditions And Populations
ND’s are rigorously trained to practice in a primary care setting in which they experience conditions of all sorts and age groups. A substantial section of an ND’s education is diagnostic training in order that they can treat or refer patients to medical professionals when necessary. This training involves diagnostic tools common in traditional medicine, such as detailed health, disease, prescription medication histories, physical examinations, and lab testing and imaging, according to the American Association of Naturopathic Practitioners.
ND’s consider diet, lifestyle habits and options, exercise history, and also social/emotional factors to evaluate patients’ needs. These approaches often open doors to new and effective treatment choices.
Currently 20 states, the District of Columbia and two U.S. territories license naturopathic physicians with three states gaining licensure approval in the last year: Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. More legislators have started to acknowledge the value of the naturopathic medicine profession that is growing.
“[Naturopathic medicine] has assisted lots of individuals suffering from chronic diseases get relief without chemicals and pharmaceuticals which may have unintended side effects,” Pennsylvania State Reps. Bryan Cutler and Steve Mentzer said in a statement.
New laws create ND licensing boards in each state, requiring that those who set up practice as an ND hold a graduate degree from an accredited naturopathic medical school.�ND’s must also pass national board examinations, which cover therapeutic and diagnostic subjects, fundamental sciences and clinical sciences.
At the NUHS Whole Health Center at Lombard, Ill, medicine doctors offer you a variety of mild and safe treatments such as hydrotherapy, nutritional counseling, homeopathy, botanical medicine, and more.
Even though the effects of overweight and obesity on diabetes, cardiovascular disease, all-cause mortality, and other health outcomes are widely known, there is less awareness that overweight, obesity, and weight gain are associated with an increased risk of certain cancers. A recent review of more than 1000 studies concluded that sufficient evidence existed to link weight gain, overweight, and obesity with 13 cancers, including adenocarcinoma of the esophagus; cancers of the gastric cardia, colon and rectum, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, corpus uteri, ovary, kidney, and thyroid; postmenopausal female breast cancer; meningioma; and multiple myeloma.1�An 18-year follow-up of almost 93?000 women in the Nurses� Health Study revealed a dose-response association of weight gain and obesity with several cancers.2
Obesity Increase
The prevalence of obesity in the United States has been increasing for almost 50 years. Currently, more than two-thirds of adults and almost one-third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. Youths who are obese are more likely to be obese as adults, compounding their risk for health consequences such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Trends in many of the health consequences of overweight and obesity (such as type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease) also are increasing, coinciding with prior trends in rates of obesity. Furthermore, the sequelae of these diseases are related to the severity of obesity in a dose-response fashion.2�It is therefore not surprising that obesity accounts for a significant portion of health care costs.
Cancers
A report released on October 3, 2017, by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assessed the incidence of the 13 cancers associated with overweight and obesity in 2014 and the trends in these cancers over the 10-year period from 2005 to 2014.3�In 2014, more than 630?000 people were diagnosed as having a cancer associated with overweight and obesity, comprising more than 55% of all cancers diagnosed among women and 24% of cancers among men. Most notable was the finding that cancers related to overweight and obesity were increasingly diagnosed among younger people.
From 2005 to 2014, there was a 1.4% annual increase in cancers related to overweight and obesity among individuals aged 20 to 49 years and a 0.4% increase in these cancers among individuals aged 50 to 64 years. For example, if cancer rates had stayed the same in 2014 as they were in 2005, there would have been 43?000 fewer cases of colorectal cancer but 33?000 more cases of other cancers related to overweight and obesity. Nearly half of all cancers in people younger than 65 years were associated with overweight and obesity. Overweight and obesity among younger people may exact a toll on individuals� health earlier in their lifetimes.2�Given the time lag between exposure to cancer risk factors and cancer diagnosis, the high prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults, children, and adolescents may forecast additional increases in the incidence of cancers related to overweight and obesity.
Clinical Intervention
Since the release of the landmark 1964 surgeon general�s report on the health consequences of smoking, clinicians have counseled their patients to avoid tobacco and on methods to quit and provided referrals to effective programs to reduce their risk of chronic diseases including cancer. These efforts, coupled with comprehensive public health and policy approaches to reduce tobacco use, have been effective�cigarette smoking is at an all-time low. Similar efforts are warranted to prevent excessive weight gain and treat children, adolescents, and adults who are overweight or obese. Clinician referral to intense, multicomponent behavioral intervention programs to help patients with obesity lose weight can be an important starting point in improving a patient�s health and preventing diseases associatedwith obesity. The benefits of maintaining a healthy weight throughout life include improvements in a wide variety of health outcomes, including cancer. There is emerging but very preliminary data that some of these cancer benefits may be achieved following weight loss among people with overweight or obesity.4
The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)
The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends screening for obesity and intensive behavioral interventions delivered over 12 to 16 visits for adults and 26 or more visits for children and adolescents with obesity.5,6�Measuring patients� weight, height, and body mass index (BMI), consistent with USPSTF recommendations, and counseling patients about maintaining a healthy weight can establish a foundation for preventive care in clinical care settings. Scientific data continue to emerge about the negative health effects of weight gain, including an increased risk of cancer.1�Tracking patients� weight over time can identify those who could benefit from counseling and referral early and help them avoid additional weight gain. Yet less than half of primary care physicians regularly assess the BMI of their adult, child, and adolescent patients. Encouraging discussions about weight management in multiple health care settings, including physicians� offices, clinics, emergency departments, and hospitals, can provide multiple opportunities for patients and reinforce messages across contexts and care environments.
Weight Loss Programs
Implementation of clinical interventions, including screening, counseling, and referral, has major challenges. Since 2011, Medicare has covered behavioral counseling sessions for weight loss in primary care settings. However, the benefit has not been widely utilized.7�Whether the lack of utilization is a consequence of lack of clinician or patient knowledge or for other reasons remains uncertain. Few medical schools and residency programs provide adequate training in prevention and management of obesity or in understanding how to make referrals to such services. Obesity is a highly stigmatized condition; many clinicians find it difficult to initiate a conversation about obesity with patients, and some may inadvertently use alienating language when they do. Studies indicate that patients with obesity prefer the use of terms such as�unhealthy weight�or�increased BMI�rather than�overweight�or�obesity�and�improved nutrition and physical activity�rather than�diet and exercise.8�However, it is unknown if switching to these terms will lead to more effective behavioral counseling. Effective clinical decision support tools to measure BMI and guide physicians through referral and counseling interventions can provide clinicians needed support within the patient-clinician encounter. Inclusion of recently developed competencies for prevention and management of obesity into the curricula of health care professionals may improve their ability to deliver effective care. Because few primary care clinicians are trained in behavior change strategies like cognitive behavioral therapy or motivational interviewing, other trained health care professionals, such as nurses, pharmacists, psychologists, and dietitians could assist by providing counseling and appropriate referrals and help people manage their own health.
Achieving sustainable weight loss requires comprehensive strategies that support patients� efforts to make significant lifestyle changes. The availability of clinical and community programs and services to which to refer patients is critically important. Although such programs are available in some communities, there are gaps in availability. Furthermore, even when these programs are available, enhancing linkages between clinical and community care could improve patients� access. Linking community obesity prevention, weight management, and physical activity programs with clinical services can connect people to valuable prevention and intervention resources in the communities where they live, work, and play. Such linkages can give individuals the encouragement they need for the lifestyle changes that maintain or improve their health.
The high prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States will continue to contribute to increases in health consequences related to obesity, including cancer. Nonetheless, cancer is not inevitable; it is possible that many cancers related to overweight and obesity could be prevented, and physicians have an important responsibility in educating patients and supporting patients� efforts to lead healthy lifestyles. It is important for all health care professionals to emphasize that along with quitting or avoiding tobacco, achieving and maintaining a healthy weight are also important for reducing the risk of cancer.
Corresponding Author:�Greta M. Massetti, PhD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Hwy NE, Atlanta, GA 30341 (gmassetti@cdc.gov).
Conflict of Interest Disclosures:�All authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflict of Interest. Dr Dietz reports receipt of scientific advisory board fees from Weight Watchers and consulting fees from RTI. No other disclosures were reported.
Disclaimer:�The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and not necessarily the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
References
1. Lauby-Secretan B, Scoccianti C, Loomis D, Grosse Y, Bianchini F, Straif K; International Agency for Research on Cancer Handbook Working Group. Body fatness and cancer�viewpoint of the IARC Working Group. N Engl J Med. 2016;375(8):794-798. PubMedArticle
2. Zheng Y, Manson JE, Yuan C, et al. Associations of weight gain from early to middle adulthood with major health outcomes later in life. JAMA. 2017;318(3):255-269. PubMedArticle
4. Byers T, Sedjo RL. Does intentional weight loss reduce cancer risk? Diabetes Obes Metab. 2011;13(12):1063-1072. PubMedArticle
5. Grossman DC, Bibbins-Domingo K, Curry SJ, et al; US Preventive Services Task Force. Screening for obesity in children and adolescents: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. JAMA. 2017;317(23):2417-2426. PubMedArticle
7. Batsis JA, Bynum JPW. Uptake of the centers for Medicare and Medicaid obesity benefit: 2012-2013. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2016;24(9):1983-1988. PubMedArticle
8. Puhl R, Peterson JL, Luedicke J. Motivating or stigmatizing? public perceptions of weight-related language used by health providers. Int J Obes (Lond). 2013;37(4):612-619. PubMedArticle
You’ve perhaps heard of functional medicine, the medical care strategy that requires a “systems” perspective of health by focusing on the sources of dysfunction in the body as well as also the interactions among genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors. Functional nutrition fits within this framework to analyze how food “functions” inside our own bodies to both provide nourishment but also to influence the body’s health (or disease) itself.
Beyond basic fuel, how does food help generate health each day?
Food is one of the most basic and potent inputs we provide our bodies, a clear and impactful message to our biochemistry. It’s one of several links between our internal and external environments. More than two thousand decades ago, the Greek physician Hippocrates offered the famous quote, “Let medicine be thy food and thy food be thy medicine.” Now it is a rallying cry for supporters of food nourishment. What should this mean for you?
Nutrition as a Part of Functional Medicine
If it comes to health care, too often we put energy, time and cash. We’ll never envision optimal health and well-being at this route. When we get to the underlying causes of our physical dysfunction (e.g. insulin resistance, high blood pressure, inflammatory conditions), we suddenly gain a panoramic view of what feeds (sometimes actually speaking) our dysfunction and that which, consequently, can nourish or excite it toward optimal operation.
Functional nutrition at its best both examines the balance of our personal dietary landscape to see how well we’re nourishing our bodies’ needs and targets specific foods that might have especially potent impact to tackle the delicate and not-so-subtle dysfunctions that we harbor.
As an example, if you have an inflammatory condition or your blood markers reveal higher than normal inflammatory amounts, you will not only need to be sure to steer clear of inflammation-promoting foods but also make the most of this anti-inflammatory effectiveness of certain foods (e.g. turmeric, omega-3’s found in fatty fish and caliber omega nutritional supplements, cruciferous vegetables, berries, etc.). Functional nutrition emphasizes that specific decisions can function to your own personal benefit and that your nutrition should get the job done for you.
Goals of Functional Nutrition
Functional nutrition should enhance your health status, improve vitality, satiety, and ability to heal from injury or illness. When our choices start to include fresh, fibrous, and minimally processed foods, our dietary patterns start to work in our favor in many respects when compared to diets of highly-processed, nutrient-poor foods. From there, proper individualized recommendations might help us incorporate targeted/therapeutic food choices that are additional.
Functional nutrition should foster resilience in spite of numerous challenges we experience as we age and accumulate stresses (i.e. physical and psychological decline, sleep deprivation, various kinds of psychological distress). Age-related functional decline is an inevitable part of the human life cycle. In the last few generations we’ve seen some of the biggest gains in average population life expectancy along with the fastest increases in debilitating chronic disease observed. For people to satisfy their quests to live a ‘better-than-average’ lifetime, they must stay more resilient than ever in the surface of the multiple stressors modern life gifts. Quality nutrition helps us avoid these conditions, and Practical Nutrition guidance/therapy can help us manage them or dial them back if we affected.
Maybe most powerful, comprehending functional nutrition can help us realign our relationship with food. When we think about food as medicine, our paradigm on eating may change. We can better appreciate the impact of our daily choices. We can examine the backdrop of these options with a different view we make the decisions we do. The range broadens to real life program, how functional nutrition can fit inside our lifestyle performance.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Wellness
Overall health and wellness are essential towards maintaining the proper mental and physical balance in the body. From eating a balanced nutrition as well as exercising and participating in physical activities, to sleeping a healthy amount of time on a regular basis, following the best health and wellness tips can ultimately help maintain overall well-being. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can go a long way towards helping people become healthy.
Migraine headaches, a clinical study involving 11 migraine patients and NUCCA care was recently conducted. Let’s take a look at the results and reveal the benefits of NUCCA care and how the study was conducted.
Method Of Study: Migraine Headaches
The 11 patients in the study had never experienced upper cervical chiropractic care before. All were subject to having migraine headaches and were required to have at least 10-26 days with a headache for the previous four months. Additionally, at least eight of those headache days per month required a 4 out of 10 or higher for pain. While many candidates had either a concussion, auto accident or both, candidates who experienced trauma in the past year were excluded.
NUCCA professionals used various kinds of testing to evaluate the patients. Supine Leg Check Screening tested patients� for visible signs of one leg being shorter, which may indicate atlas misalignment. Gravity stress analyzers were used, as well as, calipers for detecting asymmetry in the pelvis were used. A typical NUCCA radiograph series also includes three x-rays a lateral cervical film (side view), a nasium film (back view), and a vertex film (top view) to identify specific misalignments.
According to these diagnostic methods, the practitioner then prepares an alignment specifically designed for the patient involving the patient’s position, the stance of the practitioner, and the suitable force vector for atlas correction. Patients were given between one and five corrections.
Outcome: Migraine Patients
Headache days per month decreased for patients on average. 14.5 headache days per month was the norm. After one month of NUCCA treatment, patients experienced 11.4 headache days per month. At the conclusion of the two-month study, patients were down to 8.7 headache days per month.
Quality of life measurements in three categories also improved radically within the course of two months:
Restrictive enhanced from 38.4 to 73.5
Emotional improved from 53.3 to 81.2
Physical improved from 54.1 to 86.8
MIDAS score (which measures migraine headaches in the form of level of disability caused) improved from a mean of 46.7 to only 14.6.
While further studies are necessary to offer a quantifiable method of documenting the physiological changes which take place because of the corrections, the results speak for themselves as to the advantages of NUCCA for migraine headaches, especially those with a history of neck or head trauma.
Chiropractic & Headaches
Eliminate Headaches And Migraines Juice Recipe
Headaches and migraines. The only thing you want is for it to vanish. Here is a juice that immediately eliminates headaches and migraines! Try this juice recipe out, in addition to getting an adjustment!
Headaches and migraines are often the result of stress, poor diet, poor posture, emotional tension or exposure to environmental toxins. People reach for over-the-counter medications to help ease the pain, but there are much safer and natural ways of getting rid of headaches.
This juice is loaded with minerals such as magnesium and calcium, two crucial components in helping prevent and alleviate headaches. A juice as opposed to these foods in solid form will help nutrients reach the bloodstream faster, alleviating headaches and migraines in a jiffy!
5 stalks celery
1 cucumber
1 cup parsley
2 granny smith apples
3-4 cups leafy greens (ex. spinach, arugula)
Two inches ginger root
1 lime
METHOD:
Blend all ingredients in a juicer, blender, food processor and enjoy immediately to preserve freshness and antioxidants!
Dietitians at Integrative and Functional Medicine (DIFM) is a specialty clinic group of nutrition professionals whose center philosophy centers around a holistic, personalized approach to healing and health. Members incorporate many different nutrition remedies such as brain/body modalities in clinical practice supplements and whole foods.
How is nutrition a part of integrative and functional medicine?
Integrative medicine is the practice of medicine that reaffirms the value of the connection between professional and patient, focuses on the entire individual, is informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapeutic approaches, healthcare professionals, and areas to achieve optimal health and healing.
Functional medicine addresses the underlying causes of illness utilizing a systems-oriented approach and engaging both practitioner and patient at a healing partnership. Functional medicine involves understanding complex, chronic disease’s origins, prevention, and therapy. Hallmarks of a functional medicine approach include:
Patient-centered care. The focus of functional medicine is on care boosting health beyond the absence of illness; as a positive energy. By listening to the patient and studying his or her narrative, the practitioner tailors treatments that address the unique needs of the individual and brings the individual relief.
An integrative, science-based health care strategy. Functional medicine professionals seem “upstream” to think about the intricate web of interactions in the individual’s history, physiology, and lifestyle that can cause disease. The distinctive genetic makeup of each individual is considered, combined with both internal (brain, body, and soul) and external (physical and social environment) variables that affect overall functioning.
Integrating best medical clinics. Functional medicine integrates traditional Western medical practices with what is sometimes regarded as “choice” or “integrative” medicine, creating a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise; use of the latest diagnostic techniques; and prescribed combinations of drugs and/or botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, or stress-management practices.
Functional Medicine and Nutrition
Functional medication has, for years, been the promoters and teachers of using food as medicine. According to the Institute for Functional Medicine, “functional nutrition highlights the value of top quality meals and phytonutrient diversity to deal with clinical imbalances and move people toward the maximum expression of health. Advanced nutrition evaluation and a comprehensive functional medicine based history leads to a personalized therapeutic intervention made to promote optimal health and protect against diet- and lifestyle-related disease.”
Integrative and functional medicine nutritionists have been uniquely trained and have many years of experience incorporating the art and science of integrative and functional nutrition treatment. They understand that giving you a standard diet plan based on a diagnosis is just not enough to foster optimum recovery. After all, one size does not fit all and they strive to provide the maximum quality of individualized nutrition care to all of our patients.
Practice-Based Evidence for Nutrition
Practice-based evidence promotes the worth of their wisdom and evidence gained by the professional’s clinical observations and experiences. The Dietitians in the Integrative and Functional Medicine (DIFM) practice group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has developed Standards of Practice (SOP) and Standards of Professional Performance (SOPP) in Integrative and Functional Medicine. The SOP addresses the Nutrition Care Process (NCP) and actions related to person-centered care. The SOPP are statements that describe a level of behaviour in the role.
The Integrative and Functional Medicine Nutrition Therapy (IFMNT) Radial was established within an integrated conceptual framework to assist in IFMNT practice. The structure of this IFMNT Radial allows for the analysis of interrelationships and interactions. The Radial depicts that food is still a source of information that affects, and is influenced by, the five areas also as a factor in disease and health.
The five key areas include: lifestyle, systems (signs and symptoms), heart imbalances, metabolic pathways, and biomarkers. Surrounding the Radial are currently precipitating. The SOP, at the June 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, is along with the IFMNT Radial.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Wellness
Overall health and wellness are essential towards maintaining the proper mental and physical balance in the body. From eating a balanced nutrition as well as exercising and participating in physical activities, to sleeping a healthy amount of time on a regular basis, following the best health and wellness tips can ultimately help maintain overall well-being. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can go a long way towards helping people become healthy.
“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will teach his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease”. These wise words were uttered by Thomas Edison more than a hundred years back at the start of the 20th century, the century which could become the conventional system’s expansion we know today regarding alternative treatment options and functional medicine.
What is the future of health care?
The past century has been in many ways an entire departure from Edison’s words. Away from looking at the foods we eat and prevention and toward the Big Pharma, sick care system: diagnose a disease and match it with a corresponding drug. Despite spending more on healthcare than the next 10 top-spending nations combined, the U.S. has the most persistent illness cases and shortest life span of all industrialized nations.
In accordance with a comprehensive study by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, American men rated last in life expectancy, and women were ranked second to last. When it comes to the health of a pregnant mother or her child, the U.S. has the maximum mortality rate among all developed countries. The U.S. also has the third-worst mortality rate from nutritional deficiencies, and also the greatest total age-adjusted mortality rate among all developed nations.
Despite the wonderful progress in life saving surgeries and emergency care, when it comes to chronic health ailments and longevity, we are doing something abysmally wrong. Seeing the shadow surrounding the medical care system, functional medicine has been attempting to supply a solution to this issue.
Yet even today, a lot of people don’t fully comprehend what functional medicine is, or why they need to try it. Well, here are six compelling reasons to give functional medicine a try.
Functional Medicine Interprets Results Differently
On your labs there is typically a reference range that tells you what’s considered “normal.” Anything out of this reference array is typically labeled as “high” or “low” in bold font. A statistical bell curve typical of that specific lab’s populace determines that reference range.
If your laboratory is one number away from being out of the benchmark range, you’re still categorized as “normal.” But disease doesn’t start as soon as you’re out of that diagnostic range. Unfortunately, this means you’re either, trending toward disorder, outside of the benchmark array, or you’re trending toward health.
There are a whole lot of people who go to a healthcare professiona, only to discover why they are struggling with health issues, and their labs return “normal.” They leave without any answers or remedies and’re told there is not anything wrong with them. A medication lab analysis sheds light on unanswered health concerns that fall through the cracks of the standard model of maintenance.
Functional Medicine Provides More Diagnostics
In addition to interpreting the labs that mainstream medical professionals run, functional medicine goes past the label of this disease to check out the full extent of a patient’s physiology. So that it can be paired with a pharmaceutical drug, typically a disease is diagnosed by the labs at the standard model of care. They’re very incomplete from a functional medicine perspective, although the labs your doctor runs are adequate if he is prescribing medications.
Comprehensive labs to examine underlying deficiencies, imbalances, infections and dysfunctions, give excellent insight into these frequently overlooked portions of your health issues.
Functional Medicine Customizes Healthcare
As soon as you’re tagged with a disorder in mainstream medicine, you are given the very same medications everyone else with this disease is given. This cookie cutter strategy works occasionally, but more often than not, it fails miserably. Medication takes into account that we designed a bit differently, so what works for one person may not always be right for you. A detailed health plan that is tailored addresses that you are seeing results.
Functional Medicine and Patients
Mainstream medicine is really bogged down with symptom care. That is why every six months you wait an hour at your physician’s office for a regular visit. This system is failing millions of Americans suffering from chronic health conditions.
In terms of crisis care, emergencies and surgeries, we have among the very best health care systems in the world, but in regards to chronic healthcare, the U.S. is still one of the worst industrialized health care systems in the world.
Functional Medicine and Addressing Dysfunctions
While mainstream medicine is structured to manage symptoms, functional medicine is primarily concerned with addressing the underlying dysfunctions of the body that give rise to symptoms. If someone has high blood sugar, he’s typically medicines that stimulate the pancreas to produce more insulin, which attracts down the blood sugar.
Functional medication asks why a patient has high blood glucose in the first place. Very rarely is somebody sick from a medication deficiency. They may have cellular insulin resistance, brain-adrenal axis dysfunctions causing cortisol along with a gut disease leading to their own blood sugar dis-balance.
In this example there is nothing actually wrong with the pancreas, therefore while the medicine will make their blood sugar numbers seem nicer on a laboratory, it does not address the reasons they’re high in the first place. So functional medicine may be the missing link to getting healthy and getting off drugs and medications.
Remedies Are Essential in Functional Medicine
Functional medicine is not anti-medication, however, practitioners may ask what the individual’s most effective alternative is, and that which causes the fewest side effects. It’s maybe the smartest choice, if a drug fits that criteria. However, it often is not.
Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, said tens of thousands of years back, “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine thy food,” and practical medication agrees. Food is used as medicine in a state specific manner. Herbal and micronutrient medicines are used to address the dysfunctions found on the labs to encourage healthy function.
It’s important to not forget, though, that even with natural choices and foods, what works for one person might not work for the next. We need to tailor the program for the individual instead of being the alternative model of mainstream medicine, using its magical pills and “one-size-fits-all” approach.
This new era of evidence-based all-natural health care is providing hope for all. As a result of new technologies, webcam consultations with people give the exceptional opportunity to share functional medicine. Edison’s words are coming true. Let the future begin.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Wellness
Overall health and wellness are essential towards maintaining the proper mental and physical balance in the body. From eating a balanced nutrition as well as exercising and participating in physical activities, to sleeping a healthy amount of time on a regular basis, following the best health and wellness tips can ultimately help maintain overall well-being. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can go a long way towards helping people become healthy.
Chronic pain can pose many problems. Traditional medicine delivers a broad selection of treatment options, some more powerful than others. And these choices have a wide spectrum of benefits which may not always be best for everyone.
Should you consider alternative treatments for chronic pain?
There are a variety of traditional medicine treatments and procedures for treating chronic pain. For many pain management specialists, treatment may include steroid injections to decrease inflammation. For others, treatment might suggest procedures, such as narcotics, drugs or medications, to reduce the pain signals.
But, these remedies are only designed to temporarily relieve the symptom of pain. You must return again in a couple of weeks for one more prescription or shot refill. While these remedies can be effective at pain management,they also carry effects that can display as adverse effects to the patient
Common pain control drugs such as oxycodone and hydrocodone are known to have long-term unwanted side effects. Most commonly we think of this extremely addictive nature of the drugs, and our body becomes determined by the drugs to operate without pain. Research has also confirmed the cost that these drugs take in your liver and endocrine system. Levels are disrupted that can start a domino effect that disrupts you mood, metabolism, sleep, and sexual role, among other things. When these types of treatments are not preferred, other treatments should be considered.
How Functional Medicine Differs from Traditional Medicine
Functional medicine has proven tremendously effective at combating chronic pain because of its main focus: Concentrate on the underlying cause, instead of just masking the symptom.
When using medications to dull or numb pain, effectively you are disrupting the signals being transmitted to your brain so that your brain doesn’t feel the pain. But instead of numbing the pain, functional medicine focuses first on determining the source of the individual’s painful symptoms.
Functional Medicine doctors work with patients everyday who deal with chronic pain on a regular basis. Many of these patients believed that they would devote the rest of their lives on tablets and injections and surgical processes to temporarily alleviate the pain. When it is a patient who’s dealing with arthritis, that is truly an autoimmune illness, or somebody who is recovering from an auto accident and has been through numerous surgeries, functional medicine includes a regimen of non-invasive treatments that heal you from the inside out.
At precisely the exact same time, it has been recognized that there’s a time and place for more advanced medical care that may require invasive processes. This should not be your first plan of action.
Allow qualified and experienced healthcare professionals to design a customized program that unites their foundational understanding of chiropractic care together with the quickly-developing research behind functional medicine. Understanding how your system integrates with other body systems is the secret so that you can simply live pain free, breaking free from the cycle of chronic pain and find proper pain management treatments.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Wellness
Overall health and wellness are essential towards maintaining the proper mental and physical balance in the body. From eating a balanced nutrition as well as exercising and participating in physical activities, to sleeping a healthy amount of time on a regular basis, following the best health and wellness tips can ultimately help maintain overall well-being. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can go a long way towards helping people become healthy.
IFM's Find A Practitioner tool is the largest referral network in Functional Medicine, created to help patients locate Functional Medicine practitioners anywhere in the world. IFM Certified Practitioners are listed first in the search results, given their extensive education in Functional Medicine
Naturopathic Physicians Treat Patients Using Noninvasive & Conservative Modalities
Because naturopathic doctors treat their patients via conservative and noninvasive methods, malpractice rates are much lower for naturopathic doctors when compared with conventional doctors. Annual premiums for ND’s are about $3,800 compared to medical doctors with annual premiums of approximately $18,600, based on NCMIC, the largest malpractice insurance coverage for ND’s.
Doctors attend licensed, four-year, on-campus, naturopathic medical colleges in which they study the latest advances in science and natural methods to illness prevention and management. Students gain a comprehensive knowledge of sciences by taking biochemistry, physiology, anatomy, pathology, and pharmacology classes.
ND’s are rigorously trained to practice in a primary care setting in which they experience conditions of all sorts and age groups. A substantial section of an ND’s education is diagnostic training in order that they can treat or refer patients to medical professionals when necessary. This training involves diagnostic tools common in traditional medicine, such as detailed health, disease, prescription medication histories, physical examinations, and lab testing and imaging, according to the American Association of Naturopathic Practitioners.
Currently 20 states, the District of Columbia and two U.S. territories license naturopathic physicians with three states gaining licensure approval in the last year: Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. More legislators have started to acknowledge the value of the naturopathic medicine profession that is growing.
The prevalence of obesity in the United States has been increasing for almost 50 years. Currently, more than two-thirds of adults and almost one-third of children and adolescents are 
From 2005 to 2014, there was a 1.4% annual increase in cancers related to overweight and obesity among individuals aged 20 to 49 years and a 0.4% increase in these cancers among individuals aged 50 to 64 years. For example, if cancer rates had stayed the same in 2014 as they were in 2005, there would have been 43?000 fewer cases of colorectal cancer but 33?000 more cases of other cancers related to overweight and obesity. Nearly half of all cancers in people younger than 65 years were associated with overweight and obesity. Overweight and obesity among younger people may exact a toll on individuals� health earlier in their lifetimes.
The 
Implementation of clinical interventions, including screening, counseling, and referral, has major challenges. Since 2011, Medicare has covered behavioral counseling sessions for weight loss in primary care settings. However, the benefit has not been widely utilized.
Achieving sustainable weight loss requires comprehensive strategies that support patients� efforts to make significant lifestyle changes. The availability of clinical and community programs and services to which to refer patients is critically important. Although such programs are available in some communities, there are gaps in availability. Furthermore, even when these programs are available, enhancing linkages between clinical and community care could improve patients� access. Linking community obesity prevention, weight management, and physical activity programs with clinical services can connect people to valuable prevention and intervention resources in the communities where they live, work, and play. Such linkages can give individuals the encouragement they need for the lifestyle changes that maintain or improve their health.
The high prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States will continue to contribute to increases in health consequences related to obesity, including cancer. Nonetheless, cancer is not inevitable; it is possible that many cancers related to overweight and obesity could be prevented, and physicians have an important responsibility in educating patients and supporting patients� efforts to lead healthy lifestyles. It is important for all health care professionals to emphasize that along with quitting or avoiding tobacco, achieving and maintaining a healthy weight are also important for reducing the risk of cancer.
The 11 patients in the study had never experienced upper cervical chiropractic care before. All were subject to having migraine headaches and were required to have at least 10-26 days with a headache for the previous four months. Additionally, at least eight of those headache days per month required a 4 out of 10 or higher for pain. While many candidates had either a concussion, auto accident or both, candidates who experienced trauma in the past year were excluded.
Headaches and migraines. The only thing you want is for it to vanish. Here is a juice that immediately eliminates headaches and migraines! Try this juice recipe out, in addition to getting an adjustment!
