Helping Families in Cambridge Stay Healthy

 

Since 2007, the team at ReAlign Natural Health Clinic has been helping families in Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph and surrounding communities get and stay healthy.  We do this utilizing a variety of approaches.  We look at health as not just a physical achievement, but a balance between the emotional, environmental and physical being.  During this health blog, you are going to learn exactly the philosophy that we take when helping families reach their health goals.

Diet

Most visits begin with a thorough history with our chiropractor, physiotherapist or massage therapist.  This history details your current and prior medical history to help us understand where you come from.  We then dive into your family history, social history (e.g. sleeping patters, alcohol consumption, do you smoke regularly?) and traumatic history (have you broken a bone?).  It is here when things get a bit more unique; we talk openly about diet, stress and exercise.

 

The average Canadian has no idea what a proper diet looks like.  In fact, the most recent guidelines from the US Government claim that Lucky Charms cereal is healthier for you than a steak.  If these are the parameters that people in Cambridge are following, we’re in for an even greater health crisis.  During our exam, we try to identify not just the weaknesses but also the strengths of one’s diet.  We help people to understand how putting the wrong food in your body is akin to putting the wrong fuel in your vehicle.  We show the biochemical interactions and how some foods generate more inflammation than others.  We help our families understand that healthy eating is a family-based habit.  We teach people how to shop the perimeter of the supermarket and how to avoid the marketing and packaging of the clever sugar based companies.  By showing families that they can accomplish new patterns of eating, we empower them to take their health into their own hands, and kitchens.

Exercise

Obesity rates are still climbing, despite our knowledge of the dangers of being overweight.  In alignment with our previous topic, diet, we educate families in our clinic on the importance of exercise.  We believe that it is an area that frightens many, but is approachable if done correctly.  We take the time to establish a program for family members that includes cardiovascular exercise, strength training and yoga.  We know that not everyone likes to run, so we help establish goals that are unique to each family.  We encourage people to demonstrate to their children that exercise is a normal part of daily life, and that we feel so much better and have far more energy when we are exercising.  Exercise for just 20 minutes per day has been shown to decrease levels of anxiety and stress, improve mood, decrease insulin sensitivity and prolong life.  Any doctor that isn’t exploring the avenue of exercise is truly doing you and your family a disservice.

Stressors

Lastly, the team at ReAlign Natural Health Clinic examines which areas of your life are contributing to your overall negative stress (distress) response.  It is widely accepted that stressful times create havoc in our systems.  These can be minor emotional irritants such as sitting in traffic or worrying about weather, or major episodes such as loss of a loved one or financial strain.  Identifying the areas of your life that are full of stress is the key to eliminating or at least tempering them.  We know that being in a state of stress increases the levels of a hormone called cortisol.  This hormone has many detrimental effects on the body such as increased abdominal fat deposits, sleep disruption and decreased immunity just to name a few.  You can clearly see how reducing stress, and thus cortisol, is vitally important to getting and keeping families in Cambridge healthy.

 

We hope that this blog has helped you understand the approach that we take at ReAlign Natural Health Clinic.  We look forward to continuing to serve the families of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph and surrounding communities for many years to come.

Also, see our blog Things I’ve learned while being a chiropractor.

If you’re looking for a chiropractor in Cambridge, check out ReAlign Health.