October Newsletter

Healing Hands
A FREE Monthly Newsletter for the Friends and Patients of: Dr. Mace Richter

Dear Friends and Patients,

Looks like it’s that time again already, time to get out pumpkin carving kit and bags of candy. Here’s a quick history on the second biggest spending holiday in the U.S., at $2.5 Billion dollars, yes that’s with a “B”. It’s second only to Christmas.

Halloween History:

- Halloween, referred to as All Hallows Eve, was originally a pagan holiday in which they honored the dead. It was celebrated on October 31 since this was the last day of the Celtic calendar. The celebration dates back some 2,000 years.

- The ancient Celts thought that spirits and ghosts wondered the streets on all Hallows Eve so they began wearing masks and costumes in order to not be recognized as human.

- The jack-o-lantern tradition comes from an old Irish folk tale about a man named Stingy Jack. It was said that he was unable to get into heaven and was turned away from the devil because of his tricky ways. So he set off to wander the world looking for a resting place. For light, Stingy Jack used a burning coal ember in a hollowed out turnip. When the Irish immigrated to the U.S. during the Great Potato Famine of 1845-1850, they found that turnips were not as readily available like they were in the homeland. So they started carving pumpkins as a replacement for their tradition.

- On Halloween, Irish peasants would beg the rich for food. For those that refused, they would play a practical joke. So, in an effort to avoid being tricked, the rich would hand out cookies, candy, and fruit – a practice that morphed into trick-or-treating today.

Now that you've smiled at least once today, it's your turn to give this newsletter to someone you want to bring a smile to (maybe even a chuckle.) Give this newsletter to everyone you know.

We all need to SMILE.

10 REASONS WHY HALLOWEEN IS THE BEST HOLIDAY…

1. I get to relax on my low-carb diet and eat candy until I or someone watching me throws up!
2. Trying to carve complex pumpkins that are beyond our artistic talent, then ruining them and having to go out and buy a new one to do the standard jagged mouth style…
3. Psychoanalyzing people’s costumes. Maybe someone wishes they were a woman, or a ghost, or… a serial killer!
4. You get to vandalize things. Actually, it is almost expected.
5. Scary movie marathons. Just lounging on a couch with someone who is really gullable always entertains me. Be forewarned, you may need to lay down newspaper on you sofa…
6. That fake spider web stuff that you tell your little cousin is “Halloween Style” cotton candy.
7. Giving the neighborhood kids fruit instead of candy. You wouldn’t believe the tempers those little runts have!
8. If you own a toilet paper manufacturer, your revenues will be great! [See reason number 4]
9. Things that would normally seem disgusting or scary in your neighborhood, such as rats and toothless drunkards, now seem to be appropriately festive.
10. On the 1st of November, candy prices go down fifty percent and having just given up your low carb diet, you decide to stock up for a natural disaster with butterfingers.

Your Health is your Most Important ASSET.

Take IT seriously.

We Do!

Lick Your Sugar Habit

By Al Sears, MD

A few months ago, a concerned mother asked me about her teenage son. He was having trouble concentrating in school and his grades were suffering. Her family doctor said the boy had ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) and prescribed drugs to "fix" the problem.

When I asked her about her son's diet, she admitted that he loves soda - drinking as many as four a day. I suggested that he cut out sugar entirely.

Now, three months later, her son feels much better and his grades are improving. Best of all, he doesn't need prescription drugs.

For years, I've been telling all my patients (not just teens) that sugar is deceptively dangerous. And new studies are backing me up. One, in the American Journal of Public Health, shows that teens in Norway who drank the highest amounts of sugary sodas suffered the highest rates of mental disorders, including ADHD.

Over the years, I've reviewed dozens of studies on the dangers of sugar. So far, sugar has been related to 76 clinically proven health consequences. A few:

• Sugar can cause premature aging.

• Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.

• Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder, and stomach.

• Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides, and bad cholesterol, and a decrease in good cholesterol.

• Sugar can cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity, thereby causing abnormally high insulin levels and, eventually, diabetes.

Needless to say, limiting your sugar intake is essential to good health. If you're considering a sugar substitute, stay away from products like NutraSweet, which are full of a dangerous toxin called aspartame. Stevia is your best bet.

Here’s This Month’s Unbelievable Image:

“Okay, NOW you can panic!”

My final thoughts on

Halloween…in a recession.

**********

SPECIAL NOTE:

SEND a copy of this newsletter to your friends& family in the area!

§ Please feel free to call the office and leave their name, address, city and state, plus their zip code and we’ll be more than happy to make sure they get a copy of our newsletter, each and every month.

§ Don’t forget to REFER your friends, co-workers and loved ones for a checkup. There health is their most important asset.

P.S. Have a great October!

Cut this certificate out and present it to my office for your October Health Check Up.

This is for NEW PATIENTS ONLY.

FREE

“October Health Check Up”

Schedule Your Friend or a Loved One For Their

FREE October HEALTH Check Up-NOW!

(all ages accepted, so call the office immediately!)

Give this certificate to your FRIENDS & LOVED ONES during the month of October and they’ll receive a FREE Health Evaluation at our office. We care about you and your loved ones and we don’t want to forget anyone, including the little ones. If you have a friend or family member that is currently “not” under our care, please take this certificate to them and have them call immediately. It’s FREE.

They are NO HIDDEN CHARGES and the purpose of this check up is to determine if they are a chiropractic candidate. As always, there are no guarantees we can help, but if we can, we want that chance. There is nothing more important than your HEALTH. If you need additional copies of this certificate, please call the office and we’ll send them to you-FIRST CLASS, or you can just pick them up at the front desk, on your next appointment. Just ask! You, your family members and your friends are always a top priority with us.

Dr. Mace Richter

3691 Via Mercado, Ste 15

La Mesa, CA 91941

(619) 670-7500

www.RichterChiropractic.com

“CALL NOW TO RESERVE YOUR TIME”

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11 Ways of Managing Health

Well Into Old Age

Remember when you got your first gray hair or noticed that first little crinkle around your eye? It wasn't a milestone marked with the same enthusiasm as, say, losing your first baby tooth.

But whether we like it or not, our bodies show signs of aging as we march through our 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond.

Some difficulties (such as bone-density loss or substantial hearing impairment) are more serious than others (like minor memory lapses). Still, almost all are, to some degree, correctable.

Read on to find out how you can successfully manage common age-related health issues — and enjoy a longer, healthier life.

Weight Training for Stronger Bones
Bone-density loss can begin as early as your 20s, when calcium and phosphate, which help form bones in childhood, can start to be reabsorbed by the body.

Without preventive measures, the re-absorption process speeds up after midlife, creating fragile, more easily fractured bones. "A simple weight-bearing exercise like walking can slow the rate of bone-mineral loss. Even the most frail person can benefit from a personalized regimen," whether it's walking, yoga, or using free weights.

Getting enough vitamin D, which is about 10 minutes of sunlight everyday and calcium is also crucial, he adds, and for a serious problem, bone-building medications are another good option.

Better Sleep, Better Days

If your bed doubles as a comfy place to snack, read, and watch TV, it can begin to impact your sleep, causing daytime fatigue as your natural sleep cycles change with age. "Keep your bedroom primarily for sleep". That way you will associate your bed with slumber and not with more lively activities that could interfere with relaxing.

It also helps counter the fact that as you get older, you spend less time in energy-restoring deep sleep, and you may have a harder time falling back to sleep if you wake up too early.

"It also helps to avoid sweets, caffeinated drinks, alcohol, and heavy meals at night, and get enough exercise each day." Another tip: Go outside in the natural light each afternoon, to enhance your body's natural sleep rhythms.

Keep an Eye on the Scale

If you gain weight more easily now than you did years ago, it's probably because, like most people, you tend to do less calorie-burning exercises. Your lean muscle mass then decreases — a process also exacerbated by age — and when your body has less muscle, it burns calories less efficiently.

Muscle burns calories, so it’s important to keep up your muscle mass. You'll also need to cut calories and increase your activity levels to reach the weight you want. Stay ACTIVE.

Make low-calorie fresh fruits and vegetables more central to your diet. (If your weight gain is dramatic and you're not overeating, have your thyroid function checked.)

Control Your Urinary Frequency

Feeling like you "gotta go" too often is quite common in men in their 50s and beyond, and in women beginning in their 40s. I recommend drinking as much pH alkaline water as possible. If you need more information on where to get this machine, just send me an email to RichterChiropractic@gmail.com

Urinary urge incontinence and overactive bladder were once problems rarely discussed in public. Recently, the stigma has declined with the airing of none-too-subtle TV commercials touting various anticholinergic (spasm-reducing) drugs, which have provided relief for many.

Behavioral treatments like doing Kegel exercises for women, measuring and carefully timing your fluid intake, and keeping toilet visits on a set schedule can also help.

Hair Loss: Truly Treatable

Whether you're male or female, if your hair is thinning "don't simply accept it as part of aging." Hair loss in older men and women is often caused by androgenic alopecia, a condition related to hormonal decreases, but you need to rule out other causes. That's another reason to see your doctor as soon as you notice more strands than usual on your comb.

Save Your Skin

This is a big one for women and should be a big one for men. Almost inevitably, your skin will naturally grow dryer and thinner over time. And sun exposure only hastens the process, because it damages COLLAGEN, a key protein that gives strength and structure to the skin.

The answer: Slather on protection. "I think daily moisturizers that include sunscreen are not that effective because sometimes people don't remember to apply sunscreen at all, or don't put on enough and they put on some types that actually can damage their skin." There are good sunscreens and bad sunscreens but I’ll save that issue for another BONUS in an upcoming newsletter. If you’re interested in some great Collagen, send me an email at RichterChiropractic@gmail.com. I’ll send you the flyer by email.

For those (often men) who may not enjoy wearing face cream, like me I recommend keeping a hat by the door for every trip outside. Along with sun protection, add some of the very best whole food supplements on the market today, Standard Process Labs. I recommend you take 6 tablets of a supplement called Cataplex F which is available by emailing me at RichterChiropractic@gmail.com and then supplementing your diet with foods that supply enough crucial vitamin D because avoiding the sun or always wearing sunscreen means you won't get enough of this vital nutrient from sunlight. Again you should have ten minutes per day minimum of the sunlight for your daily dosage of sunlight/vitamin D for the proper intake of vitamin D."

It's on the Tip of My Tongue...

So, where are your keys, anyway? Though frustrating, such momentary memory lapses are a relatively minor age-related inconvenience.

Recent research done by neuroscientists at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany, however, suggests that getting in shape physically may help your brain fight such blanks.

Using advanced MRI techniques, they found that regions of the brain linked to decision-making and focus were much stronger in older people who were physically fit than those who weren't.

You can fight memory lapses with food too: The antioxidants in walnuts and berries, for instance, can help boost mental acuity by battling free-radical compounds that damage brain cells, according to Tufts University nutrition researcher James Joseph, PhD.

Based on that information I suggest you go to a health food store and purchase some walnuts for your daily intake today.

Relieving Achy Joints

This is a big one. Oh, my aching…you fill in the blank.

Whether your back, fingers, or knees are affected, joint pain usually increases with wear and tear. As long as the pain is mild and there's no redness or pronounced inflammation, the commonly recommended treatments include mild stretching and exercise, weight loss if you're overweight, warm showers, and cold packs or moist heating pad (whichever feels better).

A landmark National Institutes of Health study of the dietary supplements glucosamine and chondroitin, widely touted as rebuilders of cartilage, showed that in high-quality form, they may also help to reduce moderate-to-severe knee pain.

Solving the "For Some Reason I Can't Read the Menu" Problem

If you're over 40, you may already be noticing that you can't always focus too clearly on objects close to you.

This is a natural symptom of aging called presbyopia, and it's caused by decreased flexibility in your eye's lens and the muscle fibers around it.

Luckily, there are a multitude of corrective options.

Eyeglass wearers may choose progressive addition lenses (PALs), which seamlessly provide correction for distance, intermediate, and near vision.

Contact-lens wearers might prefer monovision: One lens is corrected for distance and the other for near vision.

"It takes some getting used to, but can have terrific results," says ophthalmologist Jodi Abramson, MD, medical director of Laser and Corneal Surgery Associates in White Plains, New York.

And for permanent presbyopia correction, surgical choices include LASIK and CK (conductive keratoplasty) procedures, performed with lasers and radio waves, respectively.

What Did You Say Again?

Age-related hearing loss — an extremely common issue — remains "very emotional" for many people.

If you're a baby boomer, the good news is you're likely to be more comfortable with technology and more accepting of hearing aids.

Some devices are so tiny they're barely visible; just as important, they can be programmed to counteract specific kinds of hearing loss.

Universities across the country have audiology clinics that prescribe and fit hearing aids, often offering the most reasonable prices around.

Just "don't get hearing aids by mail order," even if they're inexpensive.

"They can't be properly customized that way."

I hope this short report has helped you in some way. If you really care about your health and your skin, shoot me an email. Get on my mailing list and receive my informative, fun to read emailed newsletter, each and every month.

You won’t be sorry. You can also have a hard copy mailed directly to you, by first class mail for just $7.95 per month. Whichever is most convenient, get on the mailing list. You won’t be sorry you did.

Dr. Mace Richter
3691 Via Mercado, Ste15
La Mesa, CA 91941
619.670.7500
www.RichterChiropractic.com
www.IonWays.com/drmace