Chiropractic and Nutrition Continued

Ever since I started practicing chiropractic in San Diego I have had trouble sleeping. I addressed this issue in several blog posts over the last few weeks.

As many of you know, lack of sleep makes days difficult and nights dreadful.

I had always assumed that my lack of sleep was secondary to stress from my business / practice. It seemed like a reasonable assumption. I spend my days treating patients who I truly care about for neck pain, back pain, headaches and other aches and pains. While I love my job, having patients depend on you for their well being is stressful and I do think of these things at night.

There was also a time when I decided that my lack of a good nights sleep was due to caffeine. As a result of this assumption I completely weaned myself off of coffee for about five years. This didn't really help me sleep any better but I was much calmer in fact until I eliminated caffeine from my diet I didn't realize how anxious it made me.

As you may have read in my prior posts, I ended up having a hair mineral analysis that had really interesting results.  The Mineral Analysis showed a deficiency in several nutrient minerals that can have an impact on sleep.

For the last six weeks or so I have been supplementing these minerals and have been experiencing some exciting results. As of last night, I have been sleeping for three or four hours per night longer than I used to.

What a huge difference!

Instead of feeling run down and tired I actually have energy. My anxiety has decreased and my paper work shuffle at work is much more efficient.

I still have great concerns about my patients' neck pain, back pain and headaches, but I think about them during the day now, not at night.

Last night I had a horrible sleep and today I feel wiped out. It made me wonder how I used to live with nights like that on a regular basis.

Nutrition and Chiropractic Update

Back in the early part of April, I posted a blog article regarding chiropractic care and nutrition, specifically, my own nutrition. Being the owner of my San Diego Chiropractic office, I spend most of my days treating patients with neck pain and back pain. While neck pain and back pain are very important to resolve, there are other health concerns that must be addressed if we expect to be truly healthy.

Several months ago, I had a hair mineral analysis performed on myself. The results of that test were surprising to me. Aside from my calcium and magnesium levels, every other nutrient mineral was deficient.

Even iron!  This is normal for women but not so common in men.  Without the analysis, I would have never thought this finding was a possibility.

As I had indicated in prior posts on this topic, one of my primary health concerns over the last 10 years has been lack of restful sleep or insomnia.

As I read up on the minerals that I was deficient in, insomnia was a side effect in two of them in instances of deficiency.

That bit of knowledge was not enough to quiet the skeptic in me. After all, the company that does the hair mineral analysis also makes the vitamins and minerals that they recommended to me. In addition, I also indicated on my paperwork that insomnia is one of my health concerns.

In order to test these results, I bought mineral supplements from a local source and began taking them as directed on the containers. It took about 11 days before I could say for sure that the quality of my sleep had improved. Within a few more days the improvement was dramatic. Prior to taking these mineral supplements, a good nights sleep was limited to two or three nights per month.

As I write this blog post, I have slept well, over 7 hours per night, for the past month or so. Despite all this quality sleep, I still feel like I am playing catch-up with my rest. I suppose that is the result of 10 years of poor sleep.

I will do future posts on this topic. In the mean time, remember that you are what you eat! Poor dietary habits definitely create a need for dietary supplements. Maintaining your health is work but it is worthwhile.