Key Ingredients For Optimal Health

By Marcia B. Levi, DC

Optimal Care Chiropractic

More Beauty Skin Care & Gorgeous Smiles Articles

Key Ingredients For Optimal Health

When preparing a new dish you usually follow a recipe to make sure it comes out perfect. If you leave out even one of the “key” ingredients, your food won't taste right. In fact, it could be downright nasty.
The same is true of your health. Certain “key” ingredients need to be incorporated into your wellness “recipe” if you want to stay healthy, avoid illness and increase your odds of living a long life, free from pain and debilitating disease. Without these key ingredients, your quality of life will certainly suffer and you might feel “sick” when you should be feeling vital and fully alive.
One key ingredient in the wellness recipe is a healthy weight. The effects of obesity are devastating, starting with the heart and branching out to every organ and function in your body. Osteoarthritis, a degenerative condition also known as “wear and tear” arthritis, results when too much physical stress (weight) bears down on the lower back, hips and knees. Excessive weight on these joints erodes the cartilage that protects them, causing pain, tingling sensations and loss of function, making movement of the affected joint difficult.
One way to maintain a healthy weight is through exercise. Another key ingredient in the wellness mix, exercise boosts your metabolism so you burn calories while you build muscle strength and endurance. Aerobic exercise (running, walking, swimming, biking, hiking, “step” classes) raises your heart rate, burns calories, strengthens your heart, lowers your blood pressure, releases “feel good” brain chemicals, and burns excess body fat.
Strength training and conditioning exercise (sit-ups, lunges, barbells, weight machines, sculpting classes) builds muscle strength and adds support to joints and ligaments so that they are able to resist injury. Weight bearing exercise also lowers the risk for osteoporosis, a common condition that affects older adults and causes bones to become porous and brittle so they are easily broken in an accident or fall. In addition it also helps to keep your joints flexible and your muscles, bones and cartilage strong, providing proper support to your entire body.
Nutrition and healthy eating is a critical ingredient in the wellness lifestyle recipe. The key to healthy eating is lots of organic (no pesticides and toxins) fruits and vegetables. Choose good old H2O (at least half your body weight in ounces every day), green leafy vegetables, Omega 3 fats found in fish, and high protein meat and poultry, peas and beans.
Since your nervous system controls all your body functions it is important to schedule a chiropractic examination prior to starting a specific workout schedule. Chiropractors locate specific areas you should target through exercise to correct postural imbalances and improve body function and motion.