Wellness Lifestyle Action Steps 3/7/10

Book Of The Week: Timeless Healing - The Power and Biology of Belief by: Herbert Benson

Recipe Of The Week: Barbequed Spicy Honey Chicken

3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
2 scallions, finely chopped
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh tarragon
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh sage
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, toasted and crushed
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 boneless, skinless, chicken breast halves (about 1 pound)

In a large bowl combine honey, lemon and orange juices, herbs, scallions, pepper and fennel seeds. Put the chicken in the bowl and marinate for 1-2 hours. Fire up the barbeque and grill the chicken, turning constantly while basting with the marinade until the breasts are cooked.

Quote Of The Week: "If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn't ask me, I'd still have to say it."
-- George F. Burns

Goal Of The Week: Exercise at least 30 minutes a day for the entire week. Be creative and change it up. Take and activity you enjoy doing and make it an exercise. The key is to get that heart pumping and sweat, the way that you do that does not matter.

Top Article From This Week

GABA Reduces Stress Read Here

Doctor's Soapbox

As this article states, GABA (Gamma Amino Butyric Acid) is an inhibitory neurotransmitter found in our brain and spinal cord. Its purpose is to inhibit messages from the outside world from traveling up to our brain and causing negative physiological effects (symptoms and disease). The opposite of inhibitory is excitatory. Excitatory neurotransmitters, like Adrenaline (aka Norepinephrine) function to stimulate the brain and spinal cord and get a given message across. Neurotransmitters are responsible for most body functions, including emotions, movement and the ability to experience pain.

Adrenaline is the neurotransmitter released during the Fight or Flight Response, i.e. Stress. The purpose of the stress response is to save our life in a dangerous situation, like being chased by a tiger. It is meant to be an acute response to provide you with immediate energy to allow you to run away from the tiger and save your life. In our society, where stress is a 24/7 thing for most people, the stress response has become chronic. Chronic stress is caused by poor diets, lack of exercise, lack of sleep, negative attitude and poor self-esteem, and spinal misalignments called Subluxation. This is very dangerous because chronic stress leads to chronic diseases like Cancer, Heart Disease, Stroke, Depression, Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, Asthma, etc.

One way to oppose the stress response, or decrease stress levels, is to increase the production of inhibitory neurotransmitters such as GABA. This is where your Chiropractor comes in. GABA is found exclusively in the Central Nervous System (your Brain and Spinal Cord). The best way to stimulate GABA is by getting spinal adjustments from your Chiropractor, who is trained to correct spinal misalignments (i.e. Subluxations). The adjustment decreases stress in a couple of ways. First, the adjustment corrects the misaligned vertebra, this de-stresses the nerves at that level and normalizes the communication between the Brain and that area of the body. Second, the adjustment causes a burst of GABA in the spinal cord which inhibits the stress signals entering the cord at that level. Lastly, the adjustment decreases stress by increasing spinal range of motion, which triggers the release of the feel-good neurochemicals, like endorphins ("runner's high" chemical), in the brain.

The key to health is balance. We must have equal stores of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters available at all times for the body to function correctly. If one side dominates the scene day in and day out, bad things happen in our bodies. The way to prevent this is by living a balanced lifestyle, consisting of good nutrition, daily exercise, proper amounts of sleep, a positive attitude, and a properly aligned spine.

A long, happy life requires TLC