Nutrition and Chiropractic

I have always considered myself a fairly healthy person and one of my goals has been to present myself to the patients of my San Diego Chiropractic Clinic as such. That being said, I do have some health concerns.

To begin with, since I am a chiropractor I will declare that I have my bouts with neck pain, back pain and the occasional headache but for the most part I am pain free. Since college I have suffered from a mild case of office hypertension - meaning that my blood pressure was borderline high but I attribute that to the anxiety I get from taking my blood pressure. Another thing worth mentioning is that some days I would get a little spacey from mild hypoglycemia, but this would only happen on days where my diet suffered from poor planning. Overall, for my age (44) my health compared favorably to most of those in my age group.

One day here about two months ago my assistant Linda told me that she had a representative from Standard Process coming to the office to discuss nutritional products. At the time of this appointment, I really had no expectations of where this would go. I figured that since I exercised and ate right (for the most part) that we would be discussing products for my patients.

By the time the appointment with the Standard Process representative ended both Linda and I had committed to doing a 21 day purification program. It was at this point where I really started looking at my diet. What I found was that vegetables and fruits were a good part of my diet but so were bean rice and cheese burritos, occasional cheeseburgers, potato chips, an occasional soda pop and lots of coffee. All of this stuff would have to go under the guidelines of the purification program.

Basically, the purification program involves taking whole food supplements to stimulate the kidneys, liver and intestines to eliminate toxins, supplementing whey protein for animal protein sources and eliminating all caffeine, dairy and processed foods.

Today is the thirteenth day of our purification program. I am embarrassed to say that even as a doctor with extensive schooling in nutrition that I have been taken back by the dramatic positive changes in my health as a result of this purification program. To begin with, what I thought was office hypertension is gone. Since the third day of this program my blood pressure reading has ranged from a low of 115/74 to a high of 121/80. This reading is accompanied by a calmness that I have rarely if ever felt as an adult. In addition to lower blood pressure, my digestion is significantly better - no more bloating, my blood sugar has been stable and my sleep is much improved.

I attribute these improvements in my health to three simple changes that seem so elementary. Stop putting junk in, eat a clean healthy diet and get the toxins stored in my body out.

I have been asked what I plan to do after the 21 day program is over. At this point, I can't imagine not continuing with a healthy diet and taking whole food supplements. The taste of that BRC burrito or that morning cup of coffee will not be missed in the least.