Stressed Out?

Stress is probably the most single biggest health complaint in our country. Especially in a faltering economy, stress wreaks havoc in people's lives on a daily basis. What people do not understand is that stress is a function of our bodies. Stress is a hormone response that effects all of our body systems: nervous, circulatory, immune, digestive, etc. What people may not know is that those hormones are easily measured in the saliva. What if you knew just how stressed you were and how it was affecting your bodies? What if there was a treatment plan to help you balance your stress hormones so that you could take back control of your life? On Tuesday I did a self-test on my own stress hormones, and I'm now waiting patiently for the results. Stay tuned for once I get them I will definitely publish them.

Food as Medicine?

I just finished listening to a conference call where a woman chronicled how she reversed her three-decade long bout with psoriasis just by changing her diet.

Psoriasis is a "systemic inflammatory" disease that affects the skin. Systemic refers to the fact that it occurs throughout the whole body, and Inflammatory refers to the fact that it causes symptoms such as swelling, redness, pain, and increased temperature.

Other systemic inflammatory diseases are Rheumatoid arthritis, Chrohn's, and Lupus.

Changes in diet can safely result in 85-90% reversal rates on such inflammatory diseases in as little as six months but requires time, persistence, and patience.

It's common that people who suffer from these problems have some sort of food allergy and sensitivity.

Keys to using diet as a form of medicine includes the following points:

• eat a plant based diet
• avoid refined flour, sugar, and artificial ingredients
• avoiding Gluten (refined flours and grains) has been linked specifically with skin disorders such as psoriasis
• in addition to a diet rich in plant based fruit and vegetables, other top health foods include:

1. hummus
2. berries
3. organic vinagrettes
4. gluten free hot cereal
5. mixed nuts
6. organic vegetable juice

If you or anyone you know have any of these issues and are interested in dynamic food sensitivity testing, please contact me at dr.agoodman@yahoo.com.

Go Heart Yourself

During the month of February, people undoubtedly see hearts everywhere they go. Cupid pulls his trusty arrow out of his quiver, sets a lovestruck soul in his sights, draws back his arrow and "POW," a relationship is born. Of course, this is what we imagine, want, get sick of, etc. as it relates to Valentines Day. But what about our own hearts? I'm not talking about the proverbial heart of conscience, heart of emotion, or even Neil Young's Heart of Gold. I mean that thing on the left side of our chest that pumps oxygen-rich blood to all of our tissues (including itself) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, without exception. What about that heart, and how do you know yours is working okay. Here's a quick list of alternative non-invasive tests that can be performed by myself or your alternative health care practitioner to help evaluate the status of your heart and cardiovascular system:

1. Hip-waist ratio
   
2. Ankle-brachial index
3. Heart rate recovery time

Of course palpating and listening to the heart valves as well as a blood pressure test is still the gold standard for a physical exam, these tests can easily be complemented by the aforementioned tests before jumping into more time-consuming and costly diagnostic tests (stress test, EKG, echocardiogram, etc.)

If there is a blood test to be performed, levels of homocysteine and C-reactive protein are very good indicators of possible heart disease. Please let me know if there is any questions that you may have regarding these tests or interpreting tests that you have already had. Thank you.

First post

Hello. My name is Andrew Goodman and this is my first blog post. I earn my livelihood as a chiropractor and own my own chiropractic clinic in Plano, TX. I enjoy studying anatomy, physiology, and neurology and believe that proper joint motion and an active lifestyle are critical in today's world. In addition to manual therapies, such as adjustments and soft-tissue rehabilitation, I also utilize alternative lab testing to help patients with a variety of health complaints. You might ask yourself, "what does alternative lab testing mean?" What that means is that I test people's stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline and test for a variety of food and environmental allergies in a natural and non-invasive manner. The purpose of my blog is to chronicle the growth of my practice as well as inform people of the advantages of alternative health care. If you have any questions, whoever you are, please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you for your time.