Exercise of the WeekLumbar stabilization (stage 3)Difficulty: Moderate

(Consult your chiropractor before starting this or any other exercise.)

Start: On hands and knees. Be aware of position of spine – start with a neutral spine or a flat back. Engage inner abdominal muscles by bringing belly button inward.

Exercise: Keeping spine steady, reach one arm over head, elbow straight, with thumb pointing up to ceiling. Then, extend opposite leg out behind until knee is straight. Try to hold arm and leg at same height, preferably in line with spine. Balance and hold for 10-15 seconds. Switch arm/leg,balance and hold for 10-15seconds. Perform 3-5 sets of thisexercise per side.

TMTM

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taking all of their medication, but have made no other lifestyle chang-es. Everybody knows that smoking is bad for you, exercise is good and a good nutritionally sound diet is even better. Stressing these things to a heart patient is not done often enough or strongly enough.

Listen to your Body:

The body is talking to these people, yelling in some cases, but they do not listen. Their bodies are telling them that the next warning may be a fatal heart attack. Heart attack survivors can really consider them-selves fortunate and forewarned. Their bodies told them that whatev-er they were doing before the heart attack wasn’t good enough. If this happens to you, you need help. You need changes. You need to take this warning seriously and help yourself.

There are some who will make some type of effort, usually to appease their spouses or children, but who do not realize what a tremendous warning has been dispatched to them with the heart attack. The message is very clear! Your pain-wracked body shouted it loud and clear – a passionate plea for you to take care of yourself.

Healthy people are usually not concerned with, nor do they brag about, how good they feel. Hypo-chondriacs or genuine unhealthy people do not hesitate to tell you over and over how much this or that hurts or bothers them. Granted an illness of any kind does occupy a large part of our minds most of the time and we tend to speak of that which is the ruling portion of our lives.

Change is Necessary:

As is the case with all of your organs, your heart has a tremendous ability to heal itself. Certain things have to happen first, however. You have heard it before and I’ll state it again! Most people need to make lifestyle changes. I am absolutely amazed at the number of people who, after a serious heart attack, will eat and drink exactly the way they did before the attack. They still fail to exercise, cannot give up smoking and continue to rush into the stress and strain that put them flat on their backs in the intensive care unit.

When speaking with new patients who have come to see me with a painful lower back I discover that they just had multiple bypass heart surgery. They will tell me they are

Chiropractic and the Heart

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References and Sources:

Ignore this message at your peril because next time there may be no warning only the final attack.

Why a Change in Lifestyle? The reason you have to change the way you live is, because this lifestyle has already caused one heart attack. Assuming you did not particularly like the heart attack you had and you do not want another one, then it’s time for a change and sometimes a radical change, depending on how far you’ve pushed the envelope in your life or how close to the edge you live.

Is change easy? No, it is extremely difficult. It takes thought, disci-pline, desire and guts. Unfortunate-ly, most people don’t change much, if at all. Some are very determined, strong-minded individuals. They will succeed in building their bodies back, not only to the place where it was before the attack, but to an even healthier level because they are now aware of how precious life and good health can be.

Chiropractic Can Help: Chiropractors do not claim to provide treatment for heart condi-tions – they never have and never will. What chiropractors do is insure a patient is free from misaligned vertebrae, which put pressure on the spinal nerves. Pressure interferes with the nerves that run to the heart, arteries and the autonomic nervous system, which affects the heart rate, the coronary arteries and the overall strength of the heart itself.

Even as early as 1921, autopsies on 75 cadavers showed that those with

This article has been excerpted with the kind permission of Dr.

William Gandee from his amazing book “Triumph Over Illness and What You Should

Know About Chiropractic Care”

Disclaimer: Information contained in The Wellness ExpressTM newsletter is for educational and general purposes only and is designed to assist you in making informed decisions about your health. Any information contained herein is not intended to substitute advice from your physician or other healthcare professional.

Copyright © - The Wellness ExpressTM

Laila AliAmerican Athlete

Edited by: Sandra Taylor Graphics: Maria Camille AlmirañezProduction: Troy Butler

“I've had people in the family impacted by heart disease, but

people can prevent it”

diseased hearts had spinal misalign-ment in the area associated with the nerves that go directly to the heart. The relationship between the spinal column, spinal nerves and cardio-vascular system is so intimate and extensive that heart damage can be diagnosed in patients simply by examining the spine.

A number of researchers have also observed that the vertebrae of the middle and lower neck show struc-tural abnormalities in people with heart disease. In another study of 150 cases of various types of heart disease, more than 90 percent showed evidence of spinal abnor-malities in the area supplying the heart. Furthermore, three out of four cases showed improvement in the electrocardiogram (EKG) results as well as lowered blood pressure, better sleep habits and decreased heart damage following regular chiropractic adjustments, diet and exercise therapy.

Heart bypass surgery is now performed nearly 300,000 times a year and considered an established medical practice. One study found that 56 percent of coronary bypass surgeries were done for appropriate reasons. What about the other 44 percent? The same study found that 30 percent were done for “border-line” reasons and 20 percent had to come back for more surgery, while 14 percent were done for inappro-priate reasons.

The relatively simple procedure of performing a chiropractic adjust-ment to relieve nerve pressure could actually make the difference between life and death. If you have, or have ever had, heart problems, including heart surgery, you owe it to yourself and those who love you to include chiropractic care as part of your on-going health-care plan-ning.