Cold and flu season is here! I don’t know about you, but I like learning of natural ways to protect my immune system so I can prevent falling victim to the cold or flu. Or if I’ve already caught the bug, knowing what to take to make me feel better the fastest (and I don’t mean taking copious amounts of Dayquil and Nyquil to help me get through the day and night!).

There are many natural ways to jumpstart your immune system, but these are a few we recommend to our patients:

• Chiropractic care: Chiropractic care regulates the nervous system. The nervous system controls everything in your body, including the immune system. Chiropractic care boosts the immune system by 200-400%.
• Vitamin D: The sun is a natural source of vitamin D, but with daylight hours decreasing and the weather getting colder, it’s harder to get enough vitamin D from the sun. Supplement vitamin D to prevent cold/flu and to jumpstart the immune system.
• Probiotics: Probiotics are “good” bacteria that inhabit the gut and support the immune system. Over 70% of the immune system is controlled by what happens in the gut.
• Omega-3-Fatty Acids: Not only are Omega-3 fatty acids good for the cardiovascular system, reducing inflammation and enhancing brain function; it also boosts the immune system.
• Echinacea: Helps prevent colds and flu, but if taken when you are sick it also helps shorten the duration and decreases severity. NOTE: Echinacea is in the ragweed family, so if you are allergic to ragweed you may be allergic to Echinacea as well.
• Garlic: Garlic is a potent herb with a variety of active compounds that reduce inflammation, fight infection and regulate the cardiovascular system. Garlic is full of antioxidants and even helps you fight the cold/flu faster.
• Drenamin by Standard Process: Drenamin is a dietary supplement that supports adrenal function, encourages a healthy response to everyday environmental stresses,  supports immune system function and even maintains energy production so even though you are sick, you are able to get through the day.
• Exercise: Regular exercise is important for healthy living. It improves cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, helps control body weight, and protects against a variety of diseases.  Just like a healthy diet, exercise can contribute to general good health and therefore to a healthy immune system. It may contribute even more directly by promoting good circulation, which allows the cells and substances of the immune system to move through the body freely and do their job efficiently.

Now you know of natural ways to kick that cold or flu to the curb! Stay healthy for the new year!

Dr. Jess

 

Dr. Jessica Stensland is a busy family wellness Chiropractor in Urbandale, Iowa. She spends her weeks taking care of dozens of families.  Not only does Dr. Jessica specialize in pediatric and pregnancy chiropractic care, but she’s a board certified Acupuncturist.  Dr. Jessica believes that a healthier community means taking care of all ages.   She is a Minnesota native and enjoys seeing family and friends in her free time, in addition to staying active and reading the many books she has on her kindle.

Chiropractic care is often used as wellness and/or preventative care and  when you maintain health you’re not sick as often. A lot of people only see their medical doctors if there is a problem or if they are sick, but what if we could prevent some of these problems from arising in the first place with wellness care? What if your primary care physician was a Chiropractor? 

In an Independent Practice Association (IPA) permitted patients to select a doctor of chiropractic as their primary care physician, clinical and cost utilization based on 70,274 member-months over a seven-year period demonstrated decreases of 60.2 percent in hospital admissions, 59 percent hospital days, 62 percent outpatient surgeries and procedures, and 85 percent pharmaceutical costs when compared with conventional medicine. These were across the board savings, not merely back and neck cases.

Take a moment to check out the research 🙂 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17509435

Dr. Nicole Davis

Dr. Nicole Davis graduated from Logan University with not only her Doctorate in Chiropractic but her Bachelors in Life Sciences. After working with hundreds of clients a week in a busy Ohio Chiropractic clinic, she decided to head home to Des Moines to be closer to her family.  She currently specializes in family wellness care with advanced training in pediatric and pregnancy care, working alongside 2 other doctors in the only Wellness Center in Iowa to offer Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Specialized Pediatric and Pregnancy Care as well as Functional Medicine.  She loves spending time with family, friends and her dog, Maci. She is here to serve her community with love, support and enthusiasm.

With the New Year just around the corner, who has their 2016 goals/resolutions set? I honestly have never been one to make resolutions or goals. But with a new job, comes a new outlook! And I am very excited with what 2016 is going to bring! Everyone in our office makes a list of goals, professional and personal; we write them down and post them somewhere where we can see them everyday.

The rare times I have attempted to make resolutions, I only lasted a few months. If I even lasted that long! And I’m sure I’m not the only one! After looking into the best ways of making goals and keeping them, I realized I didn’t know there’s a right way and a wrong way. I figured I wasn’t the only one going about them in the wrong way! So I have listed below some key points in goal setting from Michael Wyatt’s Beginner’s Guide to Goal Setting to help make following through a little easier!

1. Keep them few in number. Productivity studies show that you really can’t focus on more than 5–7 items at any one time. Focus on a handful of goals that you can repeat almost from memory.
2. Make them “smart.” This is an acronym, as you probably know and goals must meet five criteria. They must be:
   • Specific—your goals must identify exactly what you want to accomplish in as much specificity as you can muster.
   • Measurable—if possible, try to quantify the result. You want to know absolutely, positively whether or not you hit the goal.
   • Actionable—every goal should start with an action verb (e.g., “quit,” “run,” “finish,” “eliminate,” etc.) rather than a to-be verb (e.g., “am,” “be,” “have,” etc.).
   • Realistic—a good goal should take you just passed your comfort zone, but you have to add a dose of common sense.
   • Time-bound—every goal needs a date associated with it. A goal without a date is just a dream. Make sure that every goal ends with a by when
3. Write them down. There is a huge power in writing your goals down even if you never develop an action plan or do anything else. When you write something down, you are stating your intention and setting things in motion.
4. Review them frequently. While writing your goals down is a great exercise in itself, the real power is in reviewing them on a regular basis. This is what turns them into reality. You can review them daily, weekly, or monthly.

Hopefully this helps those of you wanting to make goals this coming year! And for others, why not give it a try! What do you have to lose? It’s a new year, there’s no better time to make positive changes!

Happy goal setting!

Dr. Jess

“Goals are dreams we covert to plans and take action to fulfill.” – Zig Ziglar

Dr. Jessica Stensland is a busy family wellness Chiropractor in Urbandale, Iowa. She spends her weeks taking care of dozens of families.  Not only does Dr. Jessica specialize in pediatric and pregnancy chiropractic care, but she’s a board certified Acupuncturist.  Dr. Jessica believes that a healthier community means taking care of all ages.   She is a Minnesota native and enjoys seeing family and friends in her free time, in addition to staying active and reading the many books she has on her kindle.

I can’t believe that today marks exactly a year since I graduated from Logan University and became a Doctor of Chiropractic. You know what they say! Time flies when you’re having fun! 🙂 Being a doctor is so much more than just diagnosing and treating patients. Being a teacher is also included in the very definition of the word doctor. I hope to use this blog to help teach the things that I have learned over the years to influence and educate families everywhere! 

Why do children need to be checked by a Chiropractor? I can’t tell you how many times I hear this question, and I LOVE that people are asking because it gives me a wonderful opportunity to educate!

First a foremost, in utero your baby is confined to a small space and may even be in awkward positions at times. Secondly, birth can be a very traumatic process for both you and your baby. Even if you have a smooth and natural birth without any interventions. This can be hard for people to understand, they say to me… but it’s natural.. they are brand new? This is true but think about it, the baby is being squeezed by the mothers uterus with every contraction trying to push the baby through the birth canal. If the baby’s head isn’t in the opening of a dilated cervix it is being jammed into the side of the uterus and pelvis with every contraction causing stress on the baby’s spine and spinal cord. If interventions are used such as a vacuum or forceps …or the mother delivers via cesarean, the goal of the doctor is to get the baby out safely as fast as possible. However, these interventions can involve a lot of pulling and tractioning on the babies head and neck also stressing their spine and spinal cord. This often leads to misalignments or subluxations of the babies spine, most commonly in their cervical spine and pelvis. These subluxations are easily found and treated by Chiropractors through gentle adjustments. Because the problem hasn’t been there for very long at all babies respond very quickly and beautifully to these adjustments. If left unchecked these misalignments will likely remain in the child’s spine and their body will start to compensate. This compensation can lead to abnormal curves in the spine causing stress and pressure on their nervous system. Because the nervous system controls the whole body, interference can cause multiple health issues not just structural problems. A lot of parents will bring their babies in to have their spine checked for many different reasons including, colic, constipation or digestive system issues, reflux, the baby isn’t sleeping very well, the baby only likes to feed from one breast, they can’t turn their head a certain way… the list goes on and on. Again the WHOLE body is controlled by your nervous system which is your brain, brain stem, spinal cord and all the exiting nerves. The vertebrae in your spine house this nervous system, interference in this system could affect anything and everything in your child’s body. Don’t wait.. get your children checked today to prevent these issues from growing into serious health conditions that will take a lot more time and money to correct as an adult. Chiropractic care is natural and crazy cool 🙂 Take advantage of the natural and safe healthcare options you have available to you and always always ask questions! Educate yourselves as parents so you can make the best possible decisions for your children 🙂 

Dr. Nicole Davis DC

Dr. Nicole Davis graduated from Logan University with not only her Doctorate in Chiropractic but her Bachelors in Life Sciences. After working with hundreds of clients a week in a busy Ohio Chiropractic clinic, she decided to head home to Des Moines to be closer to her family.  She currently specializes in family wellness care with advanced training in pediatric and pregnancy care, working alongside 2 other doctors in the only Wellness Center in Iowa to offer Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Specialized Pediatric and Pregnancy Care as well as Functional Medicine.  She loves spending time with family, friends and her dog, Maci. She is here to serve her community with love, support and enthusiasm.

Hello everyone! My name is Dr. Nicole Davis and I am one of the three doctors that we have here at Yost Family Chiropractic in Urbandale. Like Dr. Jessica this will also be my first blog 🙂 Come to think of it there have been a lot of firsts for me since I started my journey here! It has been such an amazing experience I can’t even begin to explain how very thankful I am to have such an amazing place to serve. This office is truly one of a kind. When I first walked into this office I was completely blown away and knew this was the kind of place I would love to be everyday. Not only was I blown away with how beautiful it was in here but by how very friendly everyone was the moment I walked through the door.. and they didn’t even know who I was or why I was there! Talk about positive energy! 🙂  I will admit that before I started here I was unaware of just how very important positive energy is for your health. Working here and being in this environment has greatly impacted my spirit, attitude and health. Not only will you get fabulous energy walking through our doors but we also offer Chiropractic adjustments.. of course:)

Dr. Jessica did a fabulous job of explaining what the Mind-Body connection is and why it’s important. I just want to touch on how chiropractic adjustments can actually help with your mind- body connection! Your mind (brain) is connected to your body through your spinal cord and all of the nerves that come off of it. What protects that vital pathway of communication??…. your spine! So what do you think happens when the vertebrae in your spine start to shift and lock up? It directly effects the brains ability to communicate to the rest of your body. When we perform Chiropractic adjustments on the spine we are not only removing joint fixations and correcting misalignment’s..we are also removing any interference that may be present in your nervous system! Super cool I know.. 🙂 So when all the stress in your life starts to build up.. chemical, emotional and physical… get adjusted and help that mind-body connection 🙂

Dr. Nicole Davis

Dr. Nicole Davis graduated from Logan University with not only her Doctorate in Chiropractic but her Bachelors in Life Sciences. After working with hundreds of clients a week in a busy Ohio Chiropractic clinic, she decided to head home to Des Moines to be closer to her family.  She currently specializes in family wellness care with advanced training in pediatric and pregnancy care, working alongside 2 other doctors in the only Wellness Center in Iowa to offer Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Specialized Pediatric and Pregnancy Care as well as Functional Medicine.  She loves spending time with family, friends and her dog, Maci. She is here to serve her community with love, support and enthusiasm.

 

Hello all! So this is my first blog post. Ever. I never thought I would be blogging, honestly. But I’m actually excited to start helping everyone learn more about chiropractic and living a healthier, happier life!

So as I’m trying to think of something to talk about, I think about Christmas being just around the corner. Then I start thinking of everything I have to do: finish my Christmas shopping, wrapping the gifts, all the traveling, and the list goes on. And my stress levels start to rise. I’m sure I’m not the only one! Although the holidays are my favorite time of the year because I’m able to spend time with all my loved ones and it’s a great time to be thankful for everyone and everything in my life, it can be very stressful.

Any kind of stress and negative thinking can actually affect your body. Have you ever noticed when you are stressed out, you might all of a sudden get neck pain, muscle soreness or even an upset stomach? Or how about when something terrible happens, one bad thing seems to lead to another bad thing? This is due to the mind-body connection. Don’t know what this is? Well I will tell you!

The connection between your mind and body is not visible, but it is crazy powerful! And the effects it has on our bodies can be pretty intense.  It’s pretty easy to understand, basically it’s that positive thoughts lead to positive effects and negative thoughts lead to negative effects. So the negativity of stress and terrible situations can lead to pain, and vice versa, pain can lead to negativity.

In our office, we experience the mind-body connection every day! We have patients that come in with extreme pain and can be very unpleasant (but who wouldn’t be if they are in pain!), but after a few treatments their pain is decreasing and they are a whole new person! This is one of my favorite parts of my job, improving the quality of life of my patients!

Check out this chart on how negative thoughts and emotions can affect your body! And remember to try to stay stress-free and think positively, your body will thank you for it!

Dr. Jess

 

Dr. Jessica Stensland is a busy family wellness Chiropractor in Urbandale, Iowa. She spends her weeks taking care of dozens of families.  Not only does Dr. Jessica specialize in pediatric and pregnancy chiropractic care, but she’s a board certified Acupuncturist.  Dr. Jessica believes that a healthier community means taking care of all ages.   She is a Minnesota native and enjoys seeing family and friends in her free time, in addition to staying active and reading the many books she has on her kindle