Love this quote

The diaphragm is so under valued in the correct function of the body.
1) stimulates liver, gallbladder, stomach and spleen when working effectively
2) maximizes cardiovascular function
3) enhances energy
4) helps blood flow to important parts of the anatomy (brain especially)
5) promotes self soothing especially required in babies to sleep well
6) strengthens the connection between the stomach and oesophagus
7) calms you down despite your stressors
8) supports lympathic circulation

How well does your diaphragm work?

MHM Magazine

ihpublishing.com

I have written an article for this publication page 30; I hope you enjoy...

https://ihpublishing.com/documents/mhm-volume-8-issue-5/2/

The simple basics of taking care of the spine:
1)    Have great posture
Send us a picture of your work-station and we will guide you

2)    Stay active
12 000 steps per day

3)    Great balance between flexibility and strength
Lie on your back, bring your knees to your chest…gently hold the knees; do not pull. Try to flatten your back rather than rounding your back. 
When you breathe out can you pull your belly button inwards?

Vietnamese Chicken rice noodle salad

Moroccan Spiced Couscous with brinjal or chicken

1st cooking class with Chef Barry

Be strengthened this week

In the mad rush of the day most people never really have the time to think about their health problems. 

Most patients get to their next appointment, sheepishly not having time to do their homework or focus on their exercises. Certainly not for lack of desire just merely the mad rush of life. 

If this resonates with you...a simple practice is called "Mid Set Break"

Between every change of scenery in your life, stop for a conscious moment and do something positive for your health. 

For example, you wake up in the morning before you get out of bed take a moment to connect to your body and stretch. While you brushing your teeth balance on one leg. As you get into your car take a relaxing breath in and out. When you get to the office stand up and engage your spine in great posture. When you go to the toilet during the day do a stretch...and so on!

Good luck with your conscious moments

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The spine is comprised of 26 vertebrae which have the ability to move in 6 different directions. 

What is significant is the cause of balance -
Can you bend forward equally to how you bend backwards? 

Can you bend to the right as equally as you can to the left? 

Can you twist to the right as far as you can to the left? 

When you observe movement compare range and quality.

A very cute diagram; how do you measure up?

How do you know you have good energy management: 
1) you are still full of energy at 2 to 4pm 
2) you are sound asleep at 1 to 3am
3) you wake up fresh
4) you are resilient to the daily challenges
5) you recover well

Quick question -

Your metabolism is about:
1) weight management 
2) energy management

4 categories of health problems
- acute: very recent injury, infection, disease etc. Generally your body can heal this within 7 to 14 days
- subacute: these are the layers of issues, dysfunction, disorders and pre-exisiting conditions that often sit silently under the "water level". Issues that have not been dealt with correctly or at all previously. These make acute situations last longer because they prevent healing. Healing time - 6 to 12 weeks minimum. 
- chronic: problems that have been in existence for 3 weeks or longer. Usually a degree of damage is present and the body has got stuck in a habit of maintaining the problem(s). These pose a difficult challenge of healing because you have to change habits and provide a healing environment to reverse the damage. 
- chronic/degenerative: are problems that are getting worse drastically, damage is progressive and affects more areas and systems of the body. They severely limit and hinder activities of daily living. The outcome of these are not great and one wishes that earlier and correct intervention was initiated.

It is such a very common conversation - "Doc, can you suggest what supplements I should take?"

"What is your diet like?"

"Fair"

In this case my answer is always the same...rather do not waste money on supplements; rather spend the time and effort cleaning up your diet. 

Please let us know if you need nutritional direction?

"The neurobiology of stress is the same brain chemistry pathway is the neurobiology of pain." - Dr Heidi Haavik

This is to say that stress and pain affect each other constantly in a, sometimes, never ending loop causing deeper pain and deeper stress. 

For many the solution to their chronic pain is only finding the solution to their chronic stress.

We will be starting an online healthy cooking class with a guest Chef. It will be targeted at the normal human who perhaps struggles to: 
1) eat healthy
2) plan and prep meals for the week
3) Cook well, easily and healthy

Please direct message me in you interested to find out more. 

Spread the word!

A normal sleep patterns is 
1. falling asleep
2. move into a deep sleep 
3. come into light sleep 
4. finally REM sleep 
 at that point you will go back into the next cycle and continue throughout the whole night. Ideally, you want 3 to 4 cycles per night and that gives you the maximum amount of rejuvenation / recuperation.

Sleep dysfunction occurs when you 
- struggle to fall asleep or 
- you struggle to stay asleep. 

If you struggle to fall asleep you may not go into deep sleep or you go to deep sleep and you do not go into light sleep or REM sleep. 

Not following the cycle of deep sleep through light to sleep to REM sleep is dysfunctional and leads to a variety of health issues. 

Waking up in the middle night is because you have not gone into deep enough sleep or you REM sleep is too light. 

You can diagnose your sleep challenges based on a few simple observations:
1. how long do you feel your sleep lasts? does it feel like you sleep quickly through the night or it takes a long time to get from bedtime to wake up
2. do you feel that you hear the noises around you while you’re sleeping at night or do you find that you were aware of the happenings around you while you’re sleeping 
3. do you dream; do you have good dreams or bad dreams and do you remember your dreams 
4. do you feel that your dreams are very real or that you hear things in reality that I incorporated within your dreams

"Health is being honest with yourself" - Barry Farnan