This is the most wonderful time of the year, right?!

Well, I know I sure am excited, and my kids are loving the thought of Christmas being right around the corner.

I’m not sure everyone knows this about me, but this time of year I really started getting into the Christmas spirit 2 years ago…

Do all of you know what the Elf on the Shelf is???

If not, here’s a quick explanation-

Basically, it’s a little doll about a foot tall that you set out on a shelf. Each night, magic appears, and the elf goes and reports to Santa whether or not your kids have been well behaved. Then the elf comes back and sits in a different spot the next day.

Kids love it, parents hate it…

Pretty much every night, we lie in bed at 10 o’clock and then remember as we’re dozing off “Oh shoot, I’ve gotta move that darn elf!”

So 2 years ago, I was frantically looking for it on the night of November 30th (it starts appearing on Dec 1 and goes through Christmas).

I was so annoyed, and then I finally found it buried deep in the garage. I set her out, and then the next day my whole thought process changed…

The look on my son’s face was PRICELESS! He just had this look of awe and excitement, and I finally thought to myself “I’m gonna embrace this.”

I started getting more creative with the elf. She even got mischievous- wrapped the toilet completely in wrapping paper, dumped out rice on the counter and made snow angels, made mini pancakes in the kitchen, roasted mini marshmallows over a fake candle…

Then I started a tradition of my own.

I bought an adult sized Elf on the Shelf costume and went down to the corner of my kids’ elementary school and posed, pretending to roast marshmallows! I thought I would possibly get arrested or something, but wow- the community was awesome!

I had people crying tears of joy, thanking me for doing this for the town. Even families posing with me to use as their Christmas card photos!

And thus, and new tradition began.

So every year, I plan to go down to the school and do this.

So this morning, I decided to go down and sit in a shopping cart. You see, it has become a HUGE issue in our little town about people not returning their shopping cart to the return area. I had no idea it was such a pet peeve for people! You should see the complaints…

And then there’s the people who feel like they get dirty looks from other people if they are in a huge hurry, baby has a poopy diaper, have to rush home, and leave the cart out.

So, I went down and sat in a shopping cart with a sign that said “Santa left this here. Return to North Pole!”

I was up all night last night thinking about this. And while it was fun, it was actually quite stressful for me, and I even lost sleep over it!

Add that to the stress of fighting holiday crowds, having to get shopping done, my kid’s expensive softball bat just broke, but I already got her main gift, hustle and bustle, the list goes on and on!

All of this adds a lot of unnecessary stress to your adrenal glands!

What am I talking about?

These glands sit on top of your kidneys and are the “Fight or Flight” glands. To learn more about them, check out a blog post I did in the past and go here to learn about Adrenal Fatigue and how you can manage it.

Other than that, today’s shopping cart pose was a huge hit for a lot of people, and while my 2 older daughters were so embarrassed and even walked ahead of me like a quarter of a mile, my 7 year old absolutely LOVED it!

Check out the goofy pic below, and enjoy your holiday season!

 

“5 Fixes for the Adrenal Downward Spiral”

 

• Eliminate caffeine, sugars and energy drinks– all these items affect your blood sugar levels and throw your adrenal glands out of whack. Every time you take caffeine, you’re activating your body’s fight or flight response. Same is true of energy drinks. So rather than having a true stressor cause an adrenal response, these types of stimulants actually create an un-natural adrenal response. Too many of these and your adrenals won’t be able to respond when they’re truly needed.
• Eliminate alcohol, cigarettes, recreational drugs and unnecessary medications– first of all, alcohol contains a decent amount of sugar, and we already know that’s not good for the adrenals. But alcohol and other unnecessary drugs depress the function of the adrenal glands. Over time, this leads to poor immune function and increased inflammation, as well as disruption of sleep.

“Oh, but how about just 1 drink?” We all know that means 3 or 4, but even still- none of this stuff is going to help poor adrenal function.

• Drink water throughout the day– dehydration causes several problems for those people with Adrenal Fatigue. One of the biggest issues has to do with Aldosterone, a hormone produced in the adrenal gland. This hormone’s main job is to regulate water and sodium levels in your body. Adrenal Fatigue causes reduced production of aldosterone, and actually explains why people with poor adrenal function oftentimes crave salt.

To help your aldosterone issue, aim for half your body weight in ounces of water each day. So if you weigh 150 pounds, drink 75 ounces of water daily.

• Avoid watching TV or using the computer in bed, so you can get a good night’s rest– you’ve GOT to get the electronics out of the bedroom. Get to bed when it’s bed time, and don’t be distracted by the lights from your laptop or from the TV. There is a certain amount of relaxation and unwinding that takes place during that time when your head hits the pillow to when you actually fall off to sleep. But if you’re searching the internet or watching TV, your mind will still be racing and your sleep will be disrupted. This is Adrenal Fatigue waiting to happen.
• Practice yoga or stretching, or another form of exercise that you enjoy– yoga and stretching are VERY therapeutic and help to not only rest those sore tight muscles, they also are fantastic for relaxation which will help give those adrenal glands a rest. And mild to moderate exercise is great for your stress as well, but be sure not to over do it. If you are in a state of severe adrenal fatigue, exercising at too rapid a pace can make things even worse. But mild to moderate exercise activity helps mental clarity, helps put you in a happier mood (once it’s over!), and helps increase your overall general health. Cardiovascular and aerobic type exercise is going to be much better for your adrenal health than higher-intensity anaerobic type training.

 

Well there you have it. Stay disciplined on these 5 FADS, and you’ll be able to keep that adrenal stress under control.

Stay Healthy!

-Dr. V

So my whole family recently got blood work and a physical- I like to do this every year and go to my primary doctor so that I can get another set of eyes looking at it and maybe have them offer a different point of view.

Well, this time I had a bit of a scare…

The doctor’s office called me and said the doctor got my results and needed to see me.

We didn’t get a call for any of the rest of my family, so you can imagine what was going through my mind.

Is it cancer? That was probably the biggest worrisome thought, among many others. But I still figured it would be something else. At least I was hoping…

Of course, I couldn’t get in to see him for days. I just tried to block it out of my mind and not worry.

Well, when I went in to the office, I noticed how his clinic name had the word “Wellness” in it. He’s got displays up about gut health and building a healthy immune system. This is the whole reason my wife chose this MD to be our primary. She figured he’d offer a more wholistic approach, rather than just giving us pills for everything.

So he sat me down (after a long, long wait of course!). He started going over the results. And the biggest thing he talked about was that my thyroid wasn’t working properly. One of my hormones was elevated.

This can cause fatigue, sensitivity to cold, weight gain, high cholesterol, etc.

Well, rather than talk to me about what this means, possible scenarios, options to do about it- this goon just went into saying “I’m just going to give you a medication to take for the rest of your life…”

Huh?

What are you talking about, Dr. Wellness? That’s really your wholistic plan? You’re just going to give me medication FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE? And all because I had a slightly elevated TSH level?

Oh and of course, like all medications, this one came with a lengthy list of side effects, too- fever, hot flashes, sweating, headaches, irritability, nausea… And I’d probably then have to take new meds for those side effects!

This guy didn’t even want to monitor things, give me some supplements, retest in a couple months!

His idea of wellness was that we were going to give drugs early. Wow.

Well, I’m still glad I got the blood work done. I was able to catch this early and now I’m taking the proper steps to get these levels back on track before they become a real issue.

Oh, and it also made me realize that I need to come up with a thyroid and energy boost program to help kick start a sluggish thyroid or to help people with thyroid symptoms like:

• Exhaustion
• Muscle cramps and pain
• Cold intolerance
• Hair loss or thinning
• Dry skin
• Weight gain
• Constipation
• Abnormal menstrual cycles
• Decreased libido
• Mood swings

If this sounds like you, be on the lookout for my new program that I’ll be launching. Shoot me an email at drv@healthybackandwellnessinstitute.com titled “I’ve got thyroid symptoms”,  and you’ll be one of the first to hear about it when it comes out!

I’d love to help if you’re falling down that road.

Have a great healthy day, and keep making good choices!

-Dr. V

I’m at my daughter’s softball practice for her game last week, and I’m looking around for something when all of a sudden something comes and hits me in the face. I didn’t know what had happened…

The head coach had been warming up the girls by hitting balls off the bat, and I was standing sort of near him, but definitely far enough away to stay out of his way.

My first thought was: “Did he just hit me in the face with the bat?” It hurt really bad.

I had been hit in the nose and top part of my mouth a little over to the left side. I immediately had a TON of pain in my right temple. I bent down and was holding my nose and face. Then I noticed blood on my hands and I was tasting blood in my mouth. Now I’m starting to think I broke my nose…

Well, I couldn’t see it, but people rushed and got me an ice pack. While I had a little bit of a cut on my cheek, the majority of the damage was to the inside of my mouth. I’m very lucky to have not lost any teeth or have gotten hit in the eye.

But still a couple days later, not only did I have a headache, but it was almost as if I had gotten whiplash!

It hurt to sleep at night, my head was bothering me, I was tossing and turning, and now the right side of my head and neck was killing me too.

The ironic thing was that I was planning on posting a blog post to talk about the posture in the EXACT area that was now hurting me! But for about 2 days, I had a splitting headache, swelling in my face, and I was feeling pretty out of it and spacey.

While my wife was telling me to go to the doctor, I was of course stubborn and knew I had most likely suffered a concussion and just needed to rest. After a couple days of doing my best to stay off electronics (I definitely wasn’t perfect), I got through it and was able to get caught up last week.

Well, caught up except for wanting to send out the latest in my blog series about that posture of the upper back!

So, here you go- sorry for the delay, but better late than never!

Now we can finally talk about those rhomboids…

These are the muscles in your upper back that attach onto your spine and insert onto your shoulder blade. They are SO important in holding your shoulders back so they don’t round forward.

They act as an antagonist to the tight pec muscles in the front, and if you didn’t get a chance to see my other post about the pecs, you’ll want to go here and check that out.

Now while we want to STRETCH the pec muscles to pull those shoulders back, it’s important to STRENGTHEN the rhomboids. Here’s a video that shows an exercise you can do around the house to get those rhomboids firing properly and correct that posture:

The pectoralis muscles aren’t just for show. This is a super important area of the body which we often think of in the wrong way.

Most guys go to the gym and want to work their chest, chest, chest. “How much can you bench?” is probably the most common phrase of meatheads in the gym.

However, this area is often too overworked and PULLS DOWN on the shoulders, rounding them forward, and creating poor posture and poor movement patterns. Especially in those people who sit at a desk, in the car, or on the couch all day long…

This muscle gets shortened and tight, rounds your shoulders forward, and then causes you to have the classic “caveman” posture we all dread.

Here’s the anatomy of the pec muscles:

1. Pectoralis Major- this muscle has 2 divisions of it, and even is oftentimes separated out into separate muscles. The 2 divisions are the pectoralis major sternal division and the pectoralis clavicular division. The sternal division originates on the sternum and rib cartilage in the chest, while the clavicular division originates on the medial portion of the clavicle, or collar bone. They both insert onto the upper portion of the humerus (upper arm bone) at the shoulder. This muscle adducts the arm at the shoulder, and it also internally rotates the shoulder.
2. Pectoralis Minor- This muscle is a short muscle. It originates on the front surfaces of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th ribs and inserts onto the coracoid process of the scapula (shoulder blade). Its action is to elevate the ribs and protract the scapula.

These muscles counterbalance the action of the rhomboid muscles- when the pecs get shortened and tight, the rhomboids get lengthened and weakened- and this combination causes the forward head carriage and poor posture that leads to the awful tension in the neck and shoulder blades.

You also have lymphatic drainage that travels right underneath these muscles. If they’re tight, they can restrict lymphatic flow and you won’t flush out toxins from your body as efficiently. This can lead to a weakened immune system where you get sick more often.

Check out the video below to see how you can stretch those pec muscles and correct that bad posture. Doing this will make your head less heavy and relieve tension.