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Optimal Fueling For Young Athletes (Karate et al)

July 27, 2018 by Claire Fitzpatrick

The following is a copy of my notes from a presentation I gave at my favorite karate dojo in the world, Ryokubi Karate Dojo in Stamford, CT, in 2012. The information is still relevant, and for adults as well as kids.  Enjoy!

Karate, along with requiring strength, speed, skill and agility, requires endurance

You need to train right and eat right. Building a body equipped for strength, speed, skill and endurance will require plenty of protein, good fats, fruits and vegetables. You and your child need to lay off the junk food 90% of the time.

Optimal Fueling Notes
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/peta-de-aztlan/3519424024

Example: Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee’s height and weight:  5’7 ½” (1.71 m) tall and 140 lbs (63.6 kg).

Don’t have to be large to be strong and fast.  Bruce Lee had a strong interest in healthy eating, especially when it came to high protein drinks and nutritional supplements. He is reported to have drunk 1-2 protein drinks every day, along with homemade smoothies made from fruit and vegetable juices and plenty of fresh green vegetables.

Bruce Lee’s waist was between 26 and 28 inches (66-71 cm) throughout most of his adult life.  The average male’s waist size today is about 38 inches (97 cm).

By the way, the most telltale (and worrisome) indicator of diabetes and heart disease is a preponderance of abdominal (gut) fat.

Problems with inadequate energy

World Champion team in 2014 – Demonstration of a perfect Kime. Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kime#/media/File:Karate_WM_2014_(2)_173.JPG
  • Problem maintaining existing lean mass
  • Lowering of metabolic rate
  • Lower energy / nutrient intake
  • Reduction in athletic performance
  • Increased risk of injury

Energy inadequacy clearly has problems associated with it.

Inadequate energy intake reduces the benefit athletes derive from training.

Energy inadequacy also makes it difficult for athletes to maintain existing lean mass, probably because muscle is being consumed by the body to provide some of the needed energy that was not consumed through food. A lower metabolic rate is commonly seen in people who consume inadequate energy, and is probably linked to a lower lean (metabolic) mass.

The less you eat, the lower the nutrient intake and, for young developing athletes this could dramatically increase developmental problems.  A poorly developed skeleton from inadequate calcium intake is at far greater risk of developing, for instance, stress fractures now and osteoporosis later. There is ample evidence that shows that inadequate energy consumption is associated with reduced athletic performance.

Finally, athletes who consume too little are at increased risk of getting injured.  Some studies suggest that these injuries are most likely to occur at the end of practice or competition, when energy inadequacy causes both mental and physical fatigue.

First and Foremost: WATER!!!

Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/clean-clear-cold-drink-416528/

Water is a food.  We do not get enough of it, especially during workouts

  • Fluid loss during exercise can equate to weight loss just after the workout. You do not want to lose water weight directly post-workout! If you weigh 2 pounds less just after exercise, you have lost 2 pounds (907 grams) of water.
  • Sweat rate is heavily influenced by:
    • exercise intensity
    • ambient temperature (rm. temp)
    • humidity

Proper Mineral Balance and Hydration

A direct threat to heart health is electrolyte imbalance, which can occur when your child is dehydrated and not eating enough of the right nutrients.  Muscle, including the heart, is over 75% water.

The heart, in particular, has its own electric circuitry that is regulated by proper hydration and electrolyte balance.  Children become dehydrated much more quickly than adults, and the dehydration and electrolyte deficiency that can occur during athletic training and sport events can be dangerous, even life-threatening.

Water levels and minerals like sodium, chloride, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and phosphate in proper quantities and ratios are all necessary for the heart to function properly.

Normally, we should drink ½ our body weight in ounces of water a day.  For example, a kid who is 86 pounds should drink 43 ounces (1.22 kg) of filtered water a day – not juice, not coffee, not sports drinks.

In both children and adults, higher exercise intensities slow the rate at which fluids and fuels are digested. However, this occurs to an even greater extent in children who are exercising at high intensities, and the maximum amount of fluid that a child can absorb per hour while training will be about 20-24 ounces.

Sweat losses during 2 hours of exercise can equal 2 liters (68 ounces) of fluid or more.  For this duration, your child should drink 8 oz (1 cup) of filtered water every 15 minutes!  The child needs to replenish during training in order to keep hydration at proper levels.

A good rule of thumb for your child athlete is the following chart:

Water Intake

  • 2 hours before exercise      2-3+ cups
  • 15 minutes before exercise        1-2+ cups
  • Every 15 minutes during exercise              1 cup
  • After exercise                                                      2-3 cups for every pound lost

Source: American College of Sports Medicine Position Paper, 2006

Keeping Up with Hydration Status

Monitor urine color (should be a light straw color).

Focus on fluids all day, not just during workouts and practice.

Adequate Fueling:

  • Adequate macronutrient / micronutrient intake daily – fresh, locally grown organic raw foods as well as cooked foods
  • Portion sizes! Look at your fist. No more 3 huge square meals: 5-6 servings of food/day the size of your fist. Eat every 2-3 hours.
  • Do I have a balanced plate for my training cycle needs? Good fats, useful carbohydrates, and useful proteins!
  • Is the way I am eating going to support my body so that I can accomplish my goals well?

After exercise, it is important to eat the proper combination of nutrients during the first 30 minutes. The meal following exercise should be very easy to digest and provide amino acids to help building and repair of muscular tissue and optimize uptake of the nutrients and minerals to the muscles, including the heart (remember: the heart is a muscle!).

A good example of a post-workout meal would be a good whey, egg, or pea/hemp drink with a teaspoon of sea salt or dulse thrown in.

Following are examples of electrolyte-rich foods (all should be organic and in the case of dairy, raw):

  • Sodium: dill pickle, tomato juice/sauce/soup; sea salt (1 tsp = 2300 mg sodium), dulse
  • Chloride: sea salt, dulse, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, olives
  • Potassium: red potato with skin, plain yogurt, banana
  • Magnesium: cacao beans/dark chocolate, halibut, pumpkin seeds, spinach
  • Calcium: raw dairy (yogurt, milk, ricotta), collard greens, spinach, kale, sardines
  • Phosphate( available in suitable quantities along with the other electrolyte foods) egg yolks, milk, nuts, wheat germ, peas, beans, legumes, mushrooms, cacao beans/dark chocolate

Carbohydrates

  • Primary energy source for high-intensity activity
  • Nutrient-dense carbohydrates provide:
    • Vitamins & minerals
    • Antioxidants & phytochemicals
      • Contribute to healthy immune system
    • Fiber
      • Helps control appetite
      • Helps stabilize insulin levels
      • Helps resist chronic diseases

Healthy Carbohydrates

Make sure they are organic, locally-grown, bright colored, and in season

Daily Carbohydrate intake for Young Athletes (under 16)

(Key: 2.2 kilograms in 1 pound)

4 grams/kilogram for girls

7 grams/ kilogram for boys

Ex: 90 pound young female athlete would need to eat around 165 grams of carbohydrate daily, or about 660 calories of carbohydrate (165 x 4).  A 90 pound boy athlete would need 289 grams of carbohydrate, or about 1155 calories.

Calorie Chart

4 calories per gram of carbohydrate

4 calories per gram of protein

9 calories per gram of fat

Make sure your child eats calorically-balanced, healthy meals consisting of lean proteins, healthy carbohydrates like leafy green vegetables, and healthy fats like omega 3 fish oil supplements, flaxseed oil, and nuts every two hours for four-to-six hours followingexercise.  BTW:Children do not require extra carbohydrate intake prior to exercise lasting under 75 minutes.  They require water!

Fat

Fat is very important for the development of appropriate muscle-neuron development in the young athlete, as well as in very hardcore adult trainers. Children and high-intensity trainers use 10-40% more fat stores than adults who exercise only moderately. Parents should be very considerate to provide meals that contain healthy omega-3 fats for proper muscle/neural development.

  • Dietary fats
    • Supplies energy to the body
    • Needed for structure of cells, hormone production, etc
    • Regulates metabolic processes
    • Transports fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E & K through the body
    • Contributes to healthy immune system

*Fats should be avoided by moderately-active adults prior to exercise; they will drag them down.

Good Fats                 

Polyunsaturated:

Omega-3         Omega-6

Oily Fish         Corn

Flaxseed          Safflower

Canola oil        Soybeans

Leafy greens   Sunflower

Cottonseed

Monounsaturated:

Olive, Peanut oils, many nuts, avocado

Saturated:– animals, some plants:

*Make certain the animals lived a happy life free of antibiotics, genetic modification, and pesticide intake.

Game Birds, Wild Fish, Deer, Boar, Grass-fed beef, Free-range chicken, Free-range eggs, Raw milk/cheese/butter

Trans Fat/Bad Saturated Fat (DO NOT EAT):

Processed food, Factory Farmed Animals, Genetically-Modified Animals/Plants/Dairy —

If you see/hear about it on a commercial, DO NOT EAT IT!

Sad, Scared, Angry, Unnatural Animals/Plants + Human Belly

= Unnaturally Sad, Scared, Angry, Unhealthy Human

Protein

  • Provides building blocks for muscle
    • Growth
    • Maintenance
    • Repair
  • Contributes to healthy immune system
  • May help with appetite control

Nature is smart!  Many foods you need contain carbs, fats, and proteins all in one!

Avoid/limit intake of these proteins:

Okinawa Health

A very good model for eating can be found in Okinawa, the birthplace of Shotokan Karate

Okinawans Have:

  • Very little sickness
  • Longest, disability-free life expectancy on planet
  • Mean age of 81.2
  • Highest percentage of centenarians (40 per 100,000)
  • Use nutrient dense diet, cultural traditions, elder care, and Reiki (Healing Art) for wellness

Compared to Americans

  • Okinawa death rate from heart disease is only 18% that of Americans
  • 80% less breast and prostate cancer
  • 50% less ovarian and colon cancer
  • 60% less hip fracture
  • 50% less dementia
  • Heart attacks are only 20% as common as in the U.S. and the survival rate is twice as great

Diet and Nutrition

  • Diet is considered the “key” to their longevity
  • Plant-based diet
  • 78% of entire food intake is comprised of vegetables
  • Wide variety of foods
  • Vegetables, rice, seaweed, sweet potatoes, fish, legumes, and turmeric
  • Protein comes from: fish, nuts, tofu, chicken or pork
  • Omega 3 fatty acids
  • Americans daily consume 3 times the avg. amount of meat eaten by Okinawans

Food Preparation

  • Meals prepared with care
  • Main method of cooking: stir frying using expeller-pressed Canola oil (Omega-6)
  • BTW: if an oil smokes when heated, the oil has become carcinogenic. Heat oils carefully!
  • Many garnishes such as turmeric are used that offer numerous health benefits
  • Meals are enjoyed, not rushed through

Hints for Meal Timing

  • Spreading same food intake out over 5-6 meals and snacks rather than 3 large meals or preventing the “Backlog Effect”
    • More even blood glucose levels
    • Lower blood fat levels
    • Stimulation of metabolic rate
    • Reduces “hunger spots” when on a lower energy diet

Once Again:

  • After exercise, it is important to eat the proper combination of nutrients during the first 30 minutes.
  • The meal following exercise should be very easy to digest and provide amino acids to help building and repair of muscular tissue and optimize uptake of the nutrients and minerals to the muscles, including the heart (remember: the heart is a muscle!).
  • Good examples would be a good whey, egg, or pea/hemp sports drink with a teaspoon of sea salt or dulse thrown in.

Fueling your child properly for training can provide your child with a performance edge and help your child develop into a strong, smart, balanced, confident adult!

Filed Under: Health and Fitness Tagged With: aging, children, fat, fitness, health, longevity, natural, nutrition, organic, science, sports

Yes, Virginia; there ARE Biologisch Hot Dogs

July 11, 2018 by Claire Fitzpatrick

Yes, Virginia; there ARE Biologisch Hot Dogs…even here in the Netherlands!

I was on my way home from my morning shift at the office, and I was very peckish for lunch (the auto correction on my Word doc just corrected it to “puckish,” which I am…but I digress).

So when I got off at my stop and saw a new snack stand nearby, one that says it has biologisch snacks (organic fast food), I was thrilled.

There were a man and a woman who were working that stand. They did not look like teenagers; meaning, I think they knew each other and that this was their venture.  The manner in which others were hanging around chatting with them also lent itself to the impression that this was their business.

I am all about supporting local businesses who want to add to my mission to make the world as natural and clean as possible. I made my way over.

First of all, there was a sandwich board by the bikepad to advertise the stand. The arrow, supposedly there to point toward the stand, was pointing the other way.  That should have been my first clue.

But being who I am, I turned the sandwich board around, so it actually pointed to the snack stand, and trotted over.

It is a Dutch stand, not far from a hospital.  I am trying to learn Dutch, so I can read the signs pretty much.

The friets (fries) are biologisch.  The suiker (sugar) is biologisch.

Not much else.

Still, I remained hopeful. There were hot dogs rolling away on a hot dog cooker/roller thing, and I like hot dogs.

So I asked the woman behind the counter, “Zijn de hot dogs biologisch ook (are the hot dogs also organic)?”

She answered me back, in English, “No. They don’t make biologisch hot dogs.”

She chuckled, as if at the thought, and repeated louder, “They don’t make them.”

While its true that I have, up to now, not had a hot dog in the Netherlands – I don’t normally eat fast food – I have, indeed, had many organic hot dogs back in The States.

Maybe they don’t make organic hot dogs here.  I don’t know. All I know is that I didn’t want fries, so I went off home.

As soon as I got home, before I fixed my lunch, I looked up on the Internet, “biologisch hot dogs.”

Hear ya go.

With links, just because they exist, and I WANT TO SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESSES THAT GIVE A DAMN.

Holy Dogs, http://www.holydogs.nl/
Holy Dogs, http://www.holydogs.nl/
Hans Worst.nl http://www.hansworst.nl/
Hans Worst.nl http://www.hansworst.nl/

Yes, Virginia; there ARE biologisch hot dogs…even in the Netherlands!

I hate it when people in positions of authority (and if you own a snack truck that says “biologisch is lekker” on it, it implies that you are an authority in organic fast food) just SAY THINGS THAT AREN’T TRUE.

Not only is it not true, it’s not true that she even looked.

And it’s only midday.

My day, up to this point, has been full of hearing reports of these so-called, “authoritative” opinions.

Before I left for home, I ran into one of my ex-patients.  He told me that the hand brace he’s been wearing for 6 weeks for De Quervain tenosynovitis (no imaging – standard of care says it’s not “necessary”) is not working, so “they” are going to try surgery.

I asked, “Have you worked with a physical therapist? Have they tried ultrasound? Laser therapy? Mobilization? Anything like that?”

No, he answered. But he trusts them. They only do hands.

“They only do hands.”

This is why he’s my ex-patient.  As much as we like each other and as much as I care, he trusts people who deal with the body like it is a machine with separate, mechanical parts.  I treat the body like it’s a whole being that works synergistically. Our world views are different.

Still, I care, so I referred him to a very good sports medicine center in Amstelveen.  Here they are, because I CARE.

Ibis Medisch Centrum http://www.mcibis.nl/
Ibis Medisch Centrum http://www.mcibis.nl/

And then before that…

Before that, I have a patient who has been dealing with debilitating back pain for a few weeks.

He’s been visiting me and a physiotherapist, and we both agree there’s probably a herniated disc or two in his low back.

If I was in The States, I would order imaging to rule out herniation and spondylolysis. But I can’t do that here. I have to rely on his huisarts (primary care physician) specialist to make that call.

I wrote a nice note to the doc, hoping it would help.

It did not help.

The huisarts specialist said he didn’t need it because “its really something that is not that.”

???????? First of all, what does “that” mean in that context?

Second of all, HOW THE HELL DOES (S)HE KNOW THAT WITHOUT TAKING A F*@&ING PICTURE?

It drives me CRAZY when people, who we are supposed to trust with our health – and that means, with our lives – say and do things to influence their patients without even trying to find out what’s going on, and whether or not they are saying and doing the right things!

We have a responsibility to say, “I don’t know.”

More: as humans, we all have these responsibilities:

  • To say, “I don’t know,” when we don’t know.

At this point, we are obliged to either:

  • Find out
  • Send them to someone who knows
  • Send them to someone who might know, or
  • Admit we don’t know and we don’t know anyone who might know, but we will try to find someone who might know

As health care providers, we are doubly responsible to do so.

And above all else:

Stop acting like an authority in EVERYTHING just because you are an authority in SOMETHING.

The snack stand owner may know how to run a snack stand, but she doesn’t know how to please her supposed-target customer.

When you put, “biologisch en lekker (organic and tasty)” on your sign, you’re calling to me. Biologisch food is very, VERY important to me.

When I ask you about your product, and your branding is all about biologisch, you better bet that I know something about it too, or I wouldn’t be interested at all.

Stop branding with my values.

If I am not your target, stop calling to me.

It’s insulting to me that you’re branding with my values, and they are not your values at all.

It is INSULTING.

If you brand yourself as a health care provider, and you do not provide health care, it is insulting to me that you are branding with my values when health is not your value at all; and, in the process, mishandling our patient, who wants help.

If you brand yourself a health care provider, provide health care.

This evening, I am going back to the office to see my late afternoon-evening patients, and to host a monthly event called, the Functional Forum Amsterdam Meetup.

It is an event for medical and other health care providers who are interested in incorporating functional medicine into their practices.

I, personally, am not interested in incorporating functional medicine in my practice.

That’s not why I am holding these monthly events.

I AM interested in partnering with health care providers who share my values, so I can refer my patients to them when I need to.

What is my brand?

I am a chiropractor who loves to deliver chiropractic.  Chiropractic is my product.

My BRAND, though, is living well in harmony with nature, connected to your body and to Source.

It is VITALISM.

Vitalism takes into account the whole of human experience — body, mind, and spirit.

I want our spiritual beings who are having human experiences to have the most effective, vitalistic human experience possible.

Chiropractic can help that happen.

When it comes to health care delivery

I am not the whole. I am part of the whole – a vital part, to be sure; but not the whole part.

I need you for that.

Does this all resonate with you?

Be real. Be human.

Filed Under: Health and Fitness Tagged With: biologique, chiropractic, functional forum, functional medicine, healing, health, health care, hot dogs, integrative health care, knowledge, natural, organic, philosophy, synergistic, vitalism

Skin Care Review: Squalan Natural Skincare

May 22, 2018 by Claire Fitzpatrick

Skin Care Review: Squalan Natural Skincare

Upshot: I like this brand.
Favorite: The Eye product
Least Favorite: N/A
Overall: Feels great, sinks in, not oily, ingredients are nourishing, non-toxic, don’t expect miracles.
Reveal: Ioanna and I are partners with Alive Cosmetics.  If you purchase from them and you tell them where you found them, we get a small percentage of commission.

Just a Customer

As much as I like natural products, I actually use very few skin care products.

When I was a teenager and a young adult, in order to control breakouts, while my friends used all manner of acne wipes and creams, I used to just wipe my face with warm water. Worked fine for me.

As I got older, I just used whatever natural body lotion I had lying around to put on my face. I never had a special “facial” line. I didn’t think I needed that.

Taking risks

About 15 years ago, I decided to go rogue and went red with my hair. I won’t tell you what brand I used. Sufficed to say it was commercial and bad for me.

It was a departure from my usual “go natural” approach, but my husband loved it and I thought it was fun.  But it was really harsh for my hair; and, at exactly the same time, I began to experience contact dermatitis on my temples.

I lived with it, which was probably stupid (it was stupid). During the ensuing years, my naturally brown hair began graying, so I stayed with the red less for rogue purposes and more of an, “I’m not ready for gray,” attitude.

In an effort to find a balance, I switched from nasty chemical red dye to henna about 4 years ago.  I thought if I used a natural product, my contact dermatitis would go away.

But no, it did not go away; it actually spread.  I now have it on my forehead.

It’s really embarassing for me; but lately I’ve been practicing stepping into uncomfortable territory.  I have pictures that I’ve been taking as I test the Squalan, so I’m going to show you a progression of pics below as I go through the review.

So anyway…

When I came to Amsterdam and started the practice last summer at Nieuwe Achtergracht 61, I rented the space from Daiva Luksyte, owner of Alive Cosmetics.

We shared our mutual love of natural products. Hers was particularly focussed on skin care, and she decided to start her own business selling her favorite skin care products.  It was in this capacity that she let me know that if I sold any of her product in my capacity as chiropractor, I could earn a commission.

That’s nice, I thought. However, I didn’t want to sell the product to my patients without knowing anything about it, so I put the offer on the back burner, so to speak.

I met a cosmetic expert

Time rolled on, and the winter holidays came around. Daiva had a holiday party for her renters: me, massage therapists, and a skin care specialist named Ioanna Tsaousidou, an absolutely charming beautician from Greece.

Ioanna and I got to talking, and we decided to test some of the products that Alive Cosmetics sells so we could recommend them with authority.  She published the results of her review on her blog, The Colourful Bouquet.

The next post here will be a guest post from her on the subject, as a Part II of our review of Squalan. Hers is more from a beauty expert’s point of view. Mine is more of a natural health geek point of view.

Squalan[TM] Skin Care

Squalan’s primary ingredient is squalane, an hydrogenated (therefore, oxidatively stable) form of squalene, Squalene is an isoprenoid compound similar to beta-carotene in structure[1].

It is found a variety of both animal and plant products; in Squalan’s case, according to their website, they derive theirs from sugar cane approved by Ecocert.

Squalane is an intermediate metabolite in the synthesis of cholesterol. Topically, it can act as a natural protection from UV rays. Clinically, it may help lower overall cholesterol and is thought to be a potential treatment in anti cancer therapies[2].

According to the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetic Database — a MUST for your natural health care resources —  the ingredient is minimally toxic  (see this link)[3].

Squalane is an emollient, which means it can act like an anti-inflammatory on certain types of skin conditions such as papulosquamous disorders, which, for me, would differentiate my skin irritation with contact dermatitis.

In the latter case, a protein rejuvenator like keratin or collagen would probably be more appropriate [4].

But for me…

But for me, I wasn’t sure what was causing my rash.  Evidence of henna causing contact dermatitis, until recently, was considered a very rare event if it was not mixed with other chemicals or when minimal pesticides are used [5,6].  Because that seems to have changed a bit, I will research more pure forms and more information.

But for now, not only did I want to see if Squalan helped my skin feel better and look younger, but did it help my rash?

February 2018

Before photo.

Ugh. I hate looking at it.  Sidesweep is a good thing.

I started by using the Eye serum and the Moisturizer facial oil.

 

 

 

 

The Eye serum is awesome. It was light, it only took a tiny bit to nourish my eyes, and it didn’t sting if I messed up. Look at the bottle. It’s 3 months later and I still have this much.

The Moisturizer was a bit heavy, though certainly not as heavy as my body lotions/oils I’ve used in the past.  I mostly used it at night and after a shower, because in the morning I looked like I’d been running around the neighborhood once or twice.

April 2018

I used the two of these for two months, before I met up with Ioanna again in April to go over our findings.  At this point, my skin looked like this:

Not much better. My eyes look a little brighter, though.

So, I added these two products to my repitoire a month ago: Pure and the Cleanser

I’m not used to a cleanser, so it felt okay. It took a while to remove my eye makeup with it, but my skin did feel tighter.  I continued to use the Eye serum, but I switched the product on my face to the Pure facial oil.

I definitely liked it better on my face. I started using the Moisturizer on my shoulders and arms, upper chest, and it was much better there. Not so well on my legs — too light.

May 2018

So, here’s how my skin looked yesterday:

Maybe I’m looking too long at it, but my forehead looks a bit better, I think. My face and eyes look about the same, but I like the way they feel.

I am sticking with the Eye serum. I love it. The Pure facial oil is also nice, and deserves more of a trial, I think.

The Cleanser? It’s not bad, but I’m not a cleanser kind of person. However, I’m going to also give it more of a trial before I settle on mensa-mensa status with it.

Moisturizer, for me, too heavy for my face, but as a light moisurizer for chest, back and arms, not bad! If you don’t need much moisturizer for your legs after shaving, it’s okay. But I need more.

Tomorrow, I’m going to a local dermatologist to get a second opinion, and I may have to stop using Henna on my hair.

Oh, gosh. I know I like natural, but I don’t think I’m ready to go gray yet. Let’s see…you’ll know when I know! Will she go white?

Stay tuned!

I’ll post Ioanna’s review next time. In the meantime, you can read it for yourself on her blog, here.

If you want to help support Ioanna and me in our business efforts, and you’re moved to purchase any of these products, do us a favor and go here to Alive Cosmetics.  Daiva is a true blue merchant anyway; its a nice mission she’s on.  Be a hero and let them know where you heard about their products.

Talk to you soon!

 

Footnotes:

[1] Kelly GS. Squalene and its potential clinical uses. Altern Med Rev. 1999 Feb;4(1):29–36. [PubMed]

[2] ibid.

[3] this is not to construe that the EWG Skin Deep database endorses the product in any way, shape or form. I am simply reporting on the feature ingredient.

[4] Sethi A, Kaur T, Malhortra SK, Gambhir ML. Moisturizers: The slippery road. Indian J Dermatol. 2016 May-Jun; 61(3): 279–287. [PubMed]

[5] SCCS (Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety), Opinion on Lawsonia inermis (henna), 19 September 2013. [SCCS]

[6] National Center for Biotechnology Information. PubChem Compound Database; (accessed May 22, 2018). [NCBI]

Filed Under: Natural Beauty Tagged With: beauty, face, hair, hair care, health, henna, moisturizer, natural, oil, organic, science, squalan, squalane, toxic

Sometimes Healing Hurts, Pt. 2

May 1, 2018 by Claire Fitzpatrick

“May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
May the rain fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.”

— An Irish Blessing, author unknown

 

My aunt was a nun.  She was Sister Theresa Fitzpatrick, from Garden City, Long Island (New York).

As a child, and into adulthood, I knew her as Aunt Rita.

Aunt Rita once gave my family a wall plaque with that prayer on it.

I used to stare at it and consider it, thinking that it was a beautiful wish, created by a beautiful someone among my cherished ancestry who had a flair for poetry.

The Irish love their poetry

As a child and a young teenager, I fell in love with the English language, and started to write every chance I got.

It made me feel connected to the Earth and her creatures, to God and to mankind.

As a budding young writer, I became a keen observer; and as I observed, I became aware of that which is not pleasant in human nature.

And as I later researched what I observed, I realized horrible truths that the Bible did not immediately reveal to me, but became self-evident upon observation:

That mankind was both God and The Devil, that we chose to act the way of The Devil, and that, because of our tendency for greed, visciousness, apathy, fear, and cruelty, we were making Hell out of paradise here on Earth.

I began to see my writing as a mission. I was going to be a great novelist, a great poet, a great playwright…my words were going to move the masses of sleepy destroyers into woke (before that was a thing) saviors of humanity and our planetary home.

It was all about communication

But as I passed into high school, as a nerdy, cerebral, emotional teen, I experienced cruelty, shunning, viciousness and apathy from my peers and adults outside my home.

My optimism for my and our collective future waned.

Truthfully, the only reason I did not commit suicide in those days was the Catholic belief that that there was something worse beyond this planet for those who took their own life. So later, when I no longer counted myself among those who call themselves Catholic, my faith system served its purpose for me at the time.

Instead, I searched for ways to “get in front of death.”  I drank, I smoked, I took drugs. I took unnecessary risks with my mind and my body.

I hung out with angry, violent societal misfits who were frustrated like me, but more on a micro level. Their home lives and careers were their hell, so I felt like at least on that level, I had it better than them.

That would change.

My anger became both micro and macro.  It turns out, when you hang out with people who give up on their loved ones, chances are, you lose faith in loved ones, too.

As I grew older, as an angsty teenager and a frustrated adult, I kept Aunt Rita’s plaque above my door out of a strange sense of loyalty to the child in me who once who saw beauty in those words.

But I would scoff at them as I passed under it to face another day of disappointment in life. I thought them fairy tale wishes, from a people who feasted on fairy tales, who were beaten into submission, almost to extinction, by centuries of usurpers who had nothing but contempt for my people, usurpers who had other ideas for the innocent.

The wounded Irish, the wounded me

Still, my inner child still wanted the beauty. She still believed, somehow, that life could be beautiful.

She was still alive, and she wanted to live.

And as I moved into my twenties, I tried to reclaim the passion for life and my dreams of poetry that I once had.

But,

The road seemed long and seemed to move farther away.
The wind seemed to push against my chest.
The sun seemed to burn my face if I dared to turn it upward.
The rain seemed either rare, or flooded my dry fields.
When I met those who loved me, I turned away.
God was a lie. I was on my own.

Fear breeds lonliness

For a long time, I shunned a life of service. I abandoned hope, so I created my own hell.

I became that which I feared most: angry, resentful, poor in spirit and home, and afraid.

All the time, afraid.

Why am I telling you all of this?

Because the mind follows the body, and the body follows the mind.

I ended up with pain from my reckless lifestyle, and that’s how I found chiropractic.

And that’s how chiropractic found me.

Moving from a pain model to a healing model

I was a pain patient for years before I realized that chiropractic was helping connect me to my inner child again, helping her cry out for life, helping her claw for hope.

This has not been an easy, nor a fast, healing process.

My home and career life fell apart three separate times before I decided to take a right-hand turn and become a chiropractic student.

I became a chiropractic student, and then a chiropractic doctor, long before I realized that my career choice was helping me heal myself, and that with every adjustment I received AND delivered, I was reconnecting my spirit with my body.

Only happy while serving is not enough

For a long time, the only time I was happy was when I was learning how to help others through chiropractic care.

Later, the only time I was happy was when I was serving through chiropractic.

But I still struggled for years with anxiety and the health consequenses to my body and life, and therefore, to my family and community.

Reclaiming my health one adjustment at a time

It has only been in the last few years I have begun to reclaim my inner and outer health, and the beauty I once saw in the world. It has only been in these last few years that I have been able to see through the clouds of my hopelessness to my own power and purpose.

Now, on this May Day 2018, I emerged from the Metro to a cold, windy, rainy Amsterdam day.

It was a short, inviting trek along the road to my office.
The wind was at my back, merrily quickening my pace.
The sun shines in my smile at my day ahead
The rain is falling softly on these fields ahead of me
My inner child and my wiser self are walking side by side
God is in my healing hands, and I am in Hers.

I was, and am, still healing.

I still see the mysery. I see it more, actually.

But thanks to years of reconnecting my nervous system with my physiology, I have reconnected to something I lost a long time ago.

I have faith.  I have hope. I have joy. I have love.

Because of this, I have reclaimed a great deal of my physical and mental health.

You are not alone. Neither am I.

In my office, I see in others the hell that I created for myself on a micro level.

They walk into my office with shoulder pain, with low back pain, with neck pain. Of course.

They also walk in with flawed neural patterning that began years and years ago, when something happend in their lives that they couldn’t integrate.

Maybe it was abuse. Maybe it was sorrow, disappointment, or the terrible realization that life is not what they thougth is should be.

If we are lucky…

If they are lucky, their imbalance expresses itself in pain, and they find the right help.

The pain is a cry for help. It is a sign that your neural system is not firing properly, that there is improper feed to your body due to a buildup of stress.

Chiropractic helps you repattern your body and mind so that our bodies AND our minds are more flexible, more adaptable, more able to heal properly.

But sometimes healing hurts.

Many times, we think that if our pain goes away, we are healed, and that the goal of their chiropractic care is to go back to our desperate lives, pain free at least.

But they sometimes find something else. They sometimes hurt more after an adjustment.

Awareness brings consequences.  As we heal, as our brains reconnect with our bodies, we can sometimes become aware that there is a bigger problem than the pain.

Awareness also brings us choices.

We now have a chance to face life full on, with awareness of the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.

Many cannot stomach this awareness right away, and blame everyone and everything for the way they respond to their inner and outer environment.

We must be patient with ourselves and others during this healing process.  While we must ultimately take responsibility for our choices, while we are subluxated (i.e., in a state of less light, less awareness, inflexibilty, inadaptability, holding nerve system interference), we often cannot make the right choices right away.

While we are subluxated, our ability to access our full capacity is still limited.

We must be gentle with ourselves while healing

We musn’t be hard on ourselves during the healing process, just as we musn’t be unduly harsh to others during this time.

It’s the people who are “painless,” who are disconnected from their bodies, yet who have a sense of dis-ease and dissatisfaction with their lives who are often the most dangerous to themselves and those around them.

Pain as a blessing

People who have pain symptoms at least have the blessings of awareness.  There is a chance at reorganizing their patterning. But this patterning happened over a lifetime. We must have faith in the process and give ourselves the love we need to heal.

It also gives us the chance to grow in ways that we would never have been aware of without the pain.

We need inner connection desperately. That’s what chiropractic offers us.

The state of the profession

Chiropractic has earned the dubious reputation as a pain-reducing modality.

That’s because, sometimes healing reduces pain, and it looks like chiropractic is doing that.

It is actually you that is doing that.

Chiropractic is just helping your nervous system reorganize so that you can do that.

Early on, on a professional level, we lost our way.

Without going into too much history, almost form the beginning, we had egoistic infighting.

We lost faith in one another

Because we lost faith in one another, we allowed our environment — in this case, other health professionals and insurance companies — to define us.

Because of this, many of us, myself included, were and are confused as to the true benefits of what we deliver.

That’s why our messaging is often so confusing.

We are still subluxated as a profession.

Yet, with each adjustment to our profession, with each voice within us communicating the truth, we gain strength in the system that is chiropractic.

When we understand the power of the chirorpactic adjustment, when we start to have faith that we are helping facilitate healing on a profound level, we are better able to communicate with others the real promise of chiropractic.

When we do this, others respond with the innate wisdom that they need this.

The state of the world

On the supermacro level, our planet is crying out in pain. Animals are crying out in pain. Plants, rivers, mountains, are crying out in pain.

Our planet is responding like a body in a dis-ease state.  She’s running a temperature. She is raising her immune system defenses (methane, ancient microbes, new, complex viruses) in order to destroy a pathogen that threatens all her life systems.

In this case, the pathogen is a cancer, a set of cells that is in runaway expansion, that is aggresively and recklessly using up all of the resources that she has evolved over the millenia  that sustain life for the whole.

Guess what — or who — that pathogen is?

The state of humanity

Humanity is crying out in pain. We are cruel with one another and with ourselves. We are in denial of our sickness, and lash out angrily when confronted.

However, thankfully, we are finally waking to the realization of what we are doing, and how we can can repair the damage to ourselves and our posterity.

There is no more time to not know what chiropractic can do for us.  We have to get in front of this crisis now.

Chiropractic is crucial to this process

Chiropractic care is essential to this process of healing.

We have to heal ourselves now so that we have the inner capacity to heal our planetary home.

We have to face who we are, what we are, and our power now.  We have to wield our power wisely now.

Wisdom — healing — sometimes hurts. The pain is sometimes a necessary aspect of our evolution.

Chiropractic is an essential tool for speeding up this healing process, and helping us evolve into the creatures that we need to be in order to fix this hell that we have collectively created.

What ever happened to Aunt Rita?

You know, I never really knew my Aunt Rita well. She lived hundreds of kilometers away from me. I only ever saw her on summer holidays or at weddings.

But my Aunt Rita lived a life of service, one in which she cared for hundreds of children nad families in the school systems and churches of Garden City. She touched many lives whom I only know from witnessing the staggeringly long line of mourners that wrapped around the block of the school gymnasium in which her wake was held.

Aunt Rita died of skin cancer in 1998.

She she didn’t know she had it until pain got in the way of her service. By the time she felt pain, it was already too late for conventional medicine to help her.

In the absence of pain we must be vigilant

Maybe if chiropractic care played an additional role in her life, she would still be here today to serve.

It’s a question that is academic at this point; however, knowning what I know now, I have a pretty good idea that she would.

Now you know like I know

But I didn’t yet know that each chiropractic adjustment builds on the last to help the brain reorganize its patterning in order to give the mind and body the energy and resources to heal and evolve.

But now I do. And you do, too.

Spread the word, the love, and get checked and adjusted. Today.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Thoughts and Opinions Tagged With: beauty, chiropractic, environment, failure, faith, fear, healing, health, health insurance, humanity, knowledge, love, natural, opioid addiction, organic, philosophy, poetry, rage, science, success, toxic, wisdom

Sometimes Healing Hurts, Pt. 1

January 30, 2018 by Claire Fitzpatrick

“There is no process that does not require time.” — 6th Chiropractic Principle, Ralph W. Stevenson, D.C.

Did I ever tell you how I came to chiropractic? I actually think I have, but I’ll tell you again.

I was a dumb teenage kid and I got into a lot of car accidents. I walked away from them, but my car did not.

Unlike a car, I have the ability to heal. That’s why I took for granted that I was okay.

But I wasn’t okay. I had jolted my spine into misalignment. I just didn’t know it because I didn’t have pain.

High school gave way to college, and college in North Carolina meant that I had to run two miles in twelve minutes in order to graduate.

“Um…what?”

Two miles in twelve minutes. Running.

That was PE 101. We called it PE run-oh-run.

(I actually just went to my alma mater’s web page to see if this is still the case. Oh my gosh; you kids have it so lucky. You get to do everything from shag dancing to integral yoga to fencing now! https://uncw.edu/shahs/facetofacelabs.html)

In 1984, at 18, I was a pack-a-day smoker who imbibed beer, wine, and double Big Macs and Whoppers on a regular basis. My regular breakfast was Captain Crunch on a pillow of soft-serve ice cream.  My idea of a healthy lunch was chicken salad on toasted white bread. My idea of fun was head-banging at the local live rock bar, watching General Hospital and Mighty Mouse, and playing drinking games with the other meatheads like me.

I most certainly didn’t run.

I barely walked. Needless to say, I had a damn hard time moving my rear-end.

Something began happening to me, though.  My left leg went numb.

It was the darndest thing. There was no sensation in a section of my left lower leg. I could pinch and punch it, but nothing.

I went to see the doctor about it, who recommended an orthopedist, who recommended a physical therapist.

Wrong target. Wrong therapy.

Three times a week for three months, I received electric stim and ultrasound on my leg.  For three months, there was no change.

Then, it was winter break. I went home to New York and all was well.

One day during the trip, I took a bus to the City with my mother. We were going to visit my sister, who managed a Pizzaria Uno on 2nd Avenue at the time.

My back was achy.  I remember it getting worse and worse all the way to the City. By the time we got to the restaurant, my pain was so great that I had to go to the bathroom. I was hyperventilating. Then my legs gave out.

I was face down on the black and white tiles of a Pizzaria Uno bathroom in New York City, 1985. That’s when chiropractic came into my life.

When You First Realize How Much You Need A Healthy Spine

My mother gave me some ibuprophin; eventually, I could stand — wobbly — again. My mother brought me to her chiropractor, who took xrays of my spine.

I had something called an L5 spondylolisthesis. Spon-dee-low-lith-s-thees-iss. It most likely began with a pars interarticularis defect that occurred on L5 left lamina earlier in life. A-pars-inter-arti-cu…

Basically, I had a break in one of my low back vertebrae — might have happened when I was a kid — that contributed to an instability in my low back. Eventually, one of my vertebrae moved a bit forward over my other one.

Here’s what a spondylolithesis looks like.

Thank you, Medtronic, Inc.

I had that picture on the right.

Because my vertebrae was so far out of alignment, the nerves that come out at that level and go down my legs were impinged. Hence the numbness in my leg that the orthopedist and the physical therapist missed.

The problem wasn’t in my leg.  The problem was in my spine.

The break in the vertebrae was an old break. The misalignment occurred over time. My chiropractor let me know that this fix was going to take time.

What kind of time?

Months. Maybe even over a year.

My youth would help me beat it, but I had to clean up my lifestyle if I wanted it to be quicker (unfortunately, I didn’t clean up my lifestyle. It took longer).

Because I was a student in North Carolina, he found a chiropractor for me near the college and referred my case there.

But before I did, because it was scheduled, I went for a follow up to the orthopedist and told him what the chiropractors found. He said, “Chiropractors are quacks. Don’t listen to them. They don’t know what they’re doing. I’m going to set you up for six months of traction.”

Hmmm.

Chiropractic adjustments with people who found the cause of my problem or six-months of traction with someone who didn’t even think to look at my spine, who had made no difference at all before I lay face down on a bathroom floor in New York City?

I said TTFN to my orthopedist and began a nine-month journey of 3 times a week care with my chiropractor.

It wasn’t easy. Some days were more painful than others. Some weeks there was no change. Some weeks were all right.

Eventually, I noticed that sensation had returned to my leg.  Then my spine got stronger and felt better.  I had finally graduated to maintenance care.

Years went by.

Life happened, life happened some more — in fact, 15 years of life happened, and finally I decided that I wanted to be a chiropractor.

That’s a WHOLE other story. More years, more life.

I’ll tell you about it next time.

 

 

Filed Under: Health and Fitness Tagged With: art, chiropractic, faith, healing, health, longevity, low back, low back pain, lumbar spine, medicine, natural, organic, orthopedic, pars interarticularis defect, philosophy, physical therapy, science, spondylolithesis

Holiday Food Washing: Make Your Own

December 18, 2017 by Claire Fitzpatrick

Holiday food washing. You went out of your way to buy the freshest, most delectable, foods for your holiday recipes.  And you’re going to use…what?…commercial food wash to clean them?

Noooo!

Commercial fruit and vegetable washes often contain harmful ingredients and are no more effective at killing bacteria and microbes than fresh water mixed with 9% vinegar.  It is easy and probably better for you to clean you fruits and veggies using natural “Do-It-Yourself” items that you probably already have in the cabinet at home. Natural cleaners lack the harmful chemicals found in so many commercial washes and soap.

However, you have to use different methods for different items. Fortunately, these fall into three easy-to-identify categories and solutions.

FOR FOODS WITH A SKIN: WHITE VINEGAR

Plain white vinegar is C-H-E-A-P and easy to find.  If your produce has a skin, white vinegar is the perfect cleaner.

Clean your sink, put the stopper in, add your fruits and veggies. Fill your sink with filtered water – not tap.  Add 1 cup of white vinegar. Let it soak an hour, use a gentle scrub brush on them, rinse.

Be sure you let them dry completely on paper towels before putting them back in the fridge.

FOR GREENS: SALT, LEMON JUICE, THEN VINEGAR

Dissolve 2 tablespoons of salt in 2 cups of filtered water and add the juice of one lemon. Using a spray bottle, spray the greens, let it set 1 minute then put them in the “vinegar water” in the sink.  Let them soak for around 15 minutes, rinse, and dry completely before putting in the fridge.  A salad spinner can help get the water off.

HINT: put a dry paper towel in the greens container to help soak up humidity and moisture.

BERRY CLEANER: LEMON JUICE AND WATER

Berries have sensitive skin and soak up flavors.  Lemon is probably the least nasty-tasting cleaner that berries can absorb.

Spray the berries in a mix of 2 parts filtered water to 0.5 parts fresh lemon juice. After they are well coated, soak in filtered water (NO VINEGAR! UGH!) for about 15 minutes. Again, let them dry off before storing in the fridge

Now you’re good to go!  Make your masterpieces!

 

Filed Under: Home and Garden, Kitchen and Bath Tagged With: cleaner, diy, glass, health, lemon, longevity, natural, organic, recipe, salmonella, science, toxic, vinegar

A Lesson For Us All

August 26, 2017 by Claire Fitzpatrick

The following story illustrates one of two huge reasons why it’s hard to change our eating habits:

  • We talk ourselves into believing we are addicted to them.
  • We actually are physically addicted to them.

In this blog post, I am going to address #1.  I’ll address #2 in a future blog post.

Food is an easy comfort.

All we do is reach for it and consume it.

Food becomes a reward we give ourselves for putting up with, and making it through, yet another dissatisfying day.

it’s the same attachment that some of us have with alcohol and drugs.

To ask ourselves to give up our eating habits is asking us to give up the one pleasure that we allow ourselves.

We are so attached to that addiction that we actually tell ourselves that our eating habit is our choice, and we actually embrace the addiction.

We submit.

We succumb.

We release the struggle for a better way, and we accept — for better and for worse — the way we have.

I want to tell you a story.

It is a terrible story.

Last week, a man I know lost his girlfriend to heart disease.

She was not obese. She was not “obviously” ill.

She was relatively young, she was financially successful, and she died — shockingly and instantly — in her lover’s arms.

Let me fill in the details.

I’m going to change the names.  We’ll call him Paul.  We’ll call her  Joyce.

Paul is 43 years old. He is an acquaintance.

He is in the “acquaintance” camp because he’s kind of unbearable.

He’s judgmental. He makes ugly jokes that are designed to hurt, then he says he didn’t mean anything by it.

He’s sneaky. If he can get away with manipulating a situation to his benefit, he will.

He talks about people behind their back, and then when that person is in front of him, he will shower that person with praise.

We all have our stories…

He has a story about that. He suffered abuse at the hands of an ex-spouse, who took everything – his money, his child, his dignity – and moved to another state.

Since then, he’s become a bit unbearable.

Don’t get me wrong. I am sympathetic.  However, that doesn’t mean that I am willing to suffer his abuse.

So I don’t.

About two years ago, Paul re-met an old lover of his from his college years, Joyce.

Joyce had her own story.

She was smart – too smart for her life choices.

She had once worked as an editor for her local newspaper. The newspaper was purchased and went in a direction in which she didn’t agree, so she moved on.

Eventually, she got a job that paid very well but was extremely unrewarding.  She was the director of a bunch of managers at a company whose mission she disagreed with.

She made a lot of money but was never satisfied with her life.

She had had long-term lovers but never married. She was sensitive about what people thought about her, but she didn’t hesitate to tell others what she thought they were doing wrong with their lives.

If you tried to engage her in discussion, she accused you of being insulting. If you tried to respond to one of her criticisms, she told you that you were being defensive.

Joyce and Paul had one thing in common.  Food.

They each had allergies. He has allergies to dairy and wheat. She had allergies to nuts and legumes.  For their allergies, they listened to their respective doctors and were on a great deal of many different drugs.

They also both hated vegetables and they both loved sugar.

So, they spent a great deal of their time and energy together searching for and sharing sugary, starchy foods that met their allergic profiles. When they ate meat, it was processed meat, as cheap as they could find.

That’s actually quite a niche, isn’t it? That’s not easy – finding sugary, starchy foods that are dairy free, wheat free, nut free, and legume free, while at the same time avoiding fresh vegetables. That takes effort!

Neither smoked; that’s one good thing.

However, neither exercised. They didn’t even like to walk around the neighborhood. They drove to the corner store.

They complained of this ache and that ache, of this or that trip to the doctor.

They complained that the doctor could never “find anything,” and would take the pain killers that were prescribed.

But, whenever I tried to tentatively suggest natural, lifestyle changes in answer to Paul’s complaints, he would chuckle at me and say, “I know that’s what you do for a living, but I don’t want to be bothered; and sorry, but I just don’t believe in that stuff.”

So, we didn’t see much of Paul after he started dating Joyce.  When they were together at a party or a function, we chatted politely for a few minutes and moved on.

On the few times we saw Paul when they weren’t together, Paul would grumble about Joyce.

He would complain and tell unflattering stories about her habits.  Afterward, he would declare, “Well, it doesn’t matter. She’s as good as I’m getting. But I’m sure as hell never getting married again. She can forget that!”

It is difficult being close to people like that. It is not emotionally rewarding.

Time went on.

I haven’t seen Paul – or Joyce – for the better part of a year.

Last week, it was reported to me that Paul and Joyce were in the kitchen, putting together a meal.  According to Paul, they were having an argument. “Nothing out of the ordinary,” he reported. “We were just pecking at each other, you know,” when she stopped short and grabbed her chest.

He ran to her and caught her in his arms, just as she was falling.  They both tumbled to the floor.

She died in his arms.

She was 42.

Friends say that Paul is a wreck right now.

The last thing I understand he said to a group of people he visited was, “I wasn’t very nice to her. I wish I had treated her better.”

Was it her eating habits that killed her?

Given that she had seen doctors on multiple occasions to get evaluated for “serious diseases,” I could guess yes.

But I would hazard a more nuanced guess that her eating habits were only part of the story.

You see, food habits, like any habit that hurts us, are symptoms of bigger problems.

Those problems are inside.  They require self-reflection and a willingness to see oneself honestly.

So, the way we relate to food is often a reflection of the way we feel about the way we live.

You never know when the result of a life not-well-lived it’s going to happen.  But in retrospect, you can always say that you saw it coming.

You never know when you’re going to die, but you can often have a direct influence on its length and quality by intentionally living well.

I am 51.  These things are becoming very clear to me in my own life.

As Claire Fitzpatrick, private citizen, I have been to too many funerals of forty- and fifty-something friends and acquaintances to not notice these patterns.

As a chiropractor and nutritionist

I have seen people turn themselves around.

It is the most gratifying thing in the world to know that I have been a small part of their successes.

However, when I have a patient in my office who wants something I don’t offer – a “quick fix” – someone I can’t reach, someone who is a lot like Paul or Joyce, I shake my head and sadly move on.

I can’t help anyone who doesn’t really want help.

I can’t “walk the walk” for them.

Sometimes, the patient isn’t like Paul or Joyce.

Sometimes, the patient is someone who lives with, and takes abuse from, people like Paul and Joyce — someone who has no kind, loving support.

Sometimes, the patient is sweet, giving, lovely, shy, and lonely. Food is their intimate friend.

Sometimes, the patient is sad, depressed, anxious, and suspicious; someone who want to believe in themselves but ultimately sabotages themselves with excessive food (and, very often, with drink).

Sometimes, they want something better for themselves, but they don’t try.

Or, when they do try, when it becomes emotionally difficult to sustain the effort (as it always does), they lack the will to continue and they quit.

These are the cases that break my heart.

I have all kinds of tools to give. I can show how to use them.

For instance, as of this writing, I am hosting a 28-Day Rapid Reset Challenge (click here for details).

But ultimately, any tool I offer will fail if it is not used.

 

I’m not a psychologist.

I am a chiropractor.  I’m sort of a “neuropsychologist” for the body.

However, I do work with psychologists, and I recommend them often. We tend to see a lot of the same people.

You know, I have seen this over and over: Physical pain is worse when we have emotional pain.

Pain — physical and emotional — is frightening and isolating, and so it often becomes part of one’s self-identity.

Physical discomfort is easier to manage and eliminate if one has faith in oneself.

I wish I could reach into your heart and fill you with self-love and belief.

We walk beside you as you heal; but ultimately, we all walk the inner road by ourselves.

The best I can do is be here, continue to tell you how much I believe in you; and that, when you’re ready, I am honored to help.

Filed Under: Healthy Aging Tagged With: addiction, aging, failure, faith, fat, fear, food, food addiction, healing, health, healthy choices, healthy lifestyle, knowledge, love, natural, organic, rage, toxic, weight loss, wisdom

Here’s Five (Plus A Bonus!) Ways to Healthify Your Hair

July 6, 2017 by Claire Fitzpatrick

Want to healthify your hair?

I know, healthify isn’t really a word. But why would you not want to healthify your hair?

I was questioning if I should chime in on this whole hair thing and all.  I don’t have naturally long, luxurious, thick hair.  My hair is very fine, and as the years pass, I find I have less of it than I once did.

But I have to tell you: the hair I have now is WORLDS healthier than the hair I had when I was younger. It’s not even close.

I figured out these well-earned secrets like I have learned most of my hard-earned lessons in life: from 40 years of doing the wrong thing.

I am GIFTING YOU my 40 some odd years of trial and error here.  So, save yourself a couple of decades and read on!

1. Don’t wash your hair every day

My friend on Instagram, who has GORGEOUS hair, by the way, validated this for me last week. If you wash your hair every day, you’re asking for breakage.

Do you remember the movies in which the actress would say they can’t do anything that evening because they were “washing their hair?”

That used to kill me, because I used to wash my hair every single morning. I was so paranoid that my hair would look greasy and oily that it became just the opposite.

I used to have ridiculous split ends that no amount of conditioning could fix.

It wasn’t until I became an entrepreneur that I figured out that washing my hair less frequently helped it stay healthy.

When you work for yourself, you delegate all your time very judiciously. There’s no one else to do it for you, so you have to really regiment your time well…right down to the amount of time it takes to make a meal, to work out, to commute to work, to get ready for bed.

In the beginning, when I wasn’t yet very good at it, my choices started to look like this:

I can either shower or eat breakfast.

When faced with that choice, if I showered/washed my hair the day before, unless I did something extremely body-intensive that morning, breakfast won.

My hair started to get healthier without my even noticing.

I wash my hair two…maybe three…times a week now. I actually schedule my high-intensity exercise around my wash days so that I don’t have to wash my hair more.

2. Make sure your diet is healthy and includes healthy fats and proteins.

I know. So obvious, but it has to be stated.

If your body doesn’t have proper fuel for its nervous system, your bones, muscles, etc…It’s going to conserve its energy and allocate resources from “expendables,” like your hair.  Less effective nutrition = nasty hair (skin and nails, too).

Before I really knew something about nutrition, back in the 80s and 90s, I used to get my eating tips from popular books and vegetarian magazines. It’s not that they were wrong all the time – a lot of their advice I still use today. But back then, fats – all fats — were considered evil.

The covers of these magazines almost always featured a big plate of pasta tossed with colorful nightshade vegetables and silken, “low fat” tofu.

Make sure you get a healthy balance of Omega 3-6-9-7, fats and foods rich in proteins in your diet. If you work out, use undenatured minimally processed whey protein or, if you’re a vegetarian, use an appropriate pea-hemp protein.

Run from saturated, processed, hydrogenated fats and deep fried carbs.

Here’s an overall lifestyle tip: if you’ve seen it in a commercial, chances are that you shouldn’t eat or use it.

3. Use hair products that are all-natural, and sourced organically.

You have to do your homework here. It’s hard to find products that don’t have cancer-causing chemicals in them.  Two brands I can recommend off the bat are Acure and Aubrey Organics.

[thrive_text_block color=”blue” headline=”Thrive Market”]Quick commercial: you can find both of these brands at Thrive Market, where you can get 25% off your favorite healthy brands every day, and have them shipped right to your home or office. Get free shipping with your first order.   [thrive_link color=’blue’ link=’http://thrv.me/BMyxRV’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=’aligncenter’]Get Your Very Own Thrive Market Account Now[/thrive_link][/thrive_text_block]

If you want to geek out on this stuff like I do, this is a MUST USE source: Environmental Working Group.

I refer to this site all the time. They have a database that details exactly how toxic a chemical is, so you can go to the store armed with knowledge.  YOU MUST make this one of your go-to pages!

4. When you wash your hair, towel dry it BEFORE putting conditioner on.

This has been huge for me.  I don’t know why, but one day it dawned on me that my hair was so wet, the conditioner just thinned out.  So I towel dried my hair before I put the conditioner on, in the shower.

While my hair was in a towel, I shaved my underarms.  I took the towel off, I saturated my hair with the conditioner, and I went about shaving my legs while the conditioner was on my head.

That leads to # 5:

5. Leave the conditioner on for 5+ minutes, then rinse for 10 seconds.

Don’t just do the 60-second wait. Schedule your shower tasks around the conditioner. Leave it on for at least 5 minutes, and when you rinse, don’t rinse your hair until it squeaks! Rinse for 10 seconds (give or take a second).  You know… one Mississippi…two Mississippi…etc…

Here’s a bonus round:

**Bonus**:

[pullquote align=”normal”]Let your hair dry about 85% before you put a dryer to it. Use a high-powered ionic hair dryer and dry it completely. [/pullquote]

When you’re out of the shower, towel-dry, brush your wet hair, and go about putting your lotion, deodorant, perfume, makeup…let your hair dry on your head.

When its about 85% dry, use a hair dryer that is over 2000 watts strong. If you want straight hair, use the flat head funnel adaptor; if you want curls, use the round knobby adaptor.  Dry your hair COMPLETELY. Then use the cold-shot button to set your hair with the cold air.

If you do these things, you’re going to see immediate improvement and obvious results in 3-6 months.

I know you have a tip. Please share!

Filed Under: Natural Beauty Tagged With: acure, aubrey organics, beauty, fat, hair, hair care, natural, organic, thrive market

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