Love your Body, Love your Life: How Natural Health Can Help you to Improve Both

 

As a Chiro with over 20 years of clinical experience, I can’t tell you how many times patients come to me suffering with a particular physical ailment and when we go through their history I find that there is something in their lifestyle that is making their condition worse.  Most commonly people seek Chiro care when they are in pain, more often than not, this is accompanied by varying levels of inflammation.  Many people don’t realise that stress levels, how much sleep we’re getting, how well hydrated we are, and even the foods we eat can contribute to the levels of inflammation within our body, which then directly aggravates our current ailments and can even highlight conditions we didn’t even know were a problem.  Natural Health is a whole lifestyle approach to overall wellness that includes every aspect of your life, including what we put into and onto our bodies, what we put our bodies through, even down to the healthcare providers we entrust with our care.  The natural heal care approach incorporates all aspects of you as a person, including how you are feeling physically, as well as mentally.  The reality is everybody deserves to be happy, healthy and live a pain-free life  Natural healthcare is a great way to achieve this.  

Why Natural Healthcare is a great option

Natural healthcare takes all of this into consideration and tries to identify the root cause of your symptoms, rather than simply trying to eradicate or cover them up with medication.  Following a natural health approach may include eliminating unhealthy habits, encouraging more sleep, incorporating stress reduction methods, detoxifying your body, encouraging a positive mindset amongst many other things that move towards restoring your body’s natural vitality.  Let’s face it we all want more of that 😊 Our bodies have an incredible ability to heal themselves and this form of healthcare facilitates this in a wholistic way using natural methods.  I believe that the body’s symptoms are an alarm system that highlights that something in our body is out of balance and is in need of our attention, if we simply cover these symptoms up with drugs, we are eliminating one of the most powerful communication methods within our body.   So, apart from respecting the body’s own innate ability to heal itself and not forcing the body to change using medication, I also love that the natural healthcare approach affords us more personal power over our own health.

 

 

Natural Health Care versus Conventional Medicine

The Natural Health Care takes all aspects of a persons life into consideration, providing a more balanced approach to creating a healthy lifestyle compared with that of conventional medicine.  Natural healthcare promotes health and wellness with natural solutions using an integrative approach.  Take for example feeling tired at 2:30pm in the afternoon, instead of choosing a coffee to wake you up, the natural healthcare approach would encourage movement and breathing exercises to release stagnated energy, and take a look at the amount of sleep that you are managing to get.

Natural health care is referred to as alternative health, when used on its own, or complementary, integrative or functional medicine when it is combined with traditional medical care.  Example of complementary therapies includes massage, acupressure, aromatherapy, reflexology and many more.  It is becoming more common these days for medical doctors and healthcare practitioners to take a wholistic perspective to healthcare, giving their patients a more well-rounded approach.

 The Natural Health Approach to Headaches

When it comes to conventional treatment a headache is likely to be treated by prescribing a couple of paracetamol tablets, whereas the natural health approach will look into the potential cause of the headache to provide a solution, rather that simply eradicating the headache.  The philosophy of most natural health practitioners is that symptoms, like a headache or pain for example, is the body’s way of telling us that something is out of balance.  If we simply take Panadol to wipe out the headache, which is our body’s alarm signal, the causative factor remains and is never addressed, leaving your body out of balance. 

The natural approach to a headache treatment would look into the potential causes of the head pain in the first instance.  Could it be the result of a lack of sleep, emotional stress, lack of blood supply (extremely common with migraines and headaches), muscular tension, joint subluxation, dehydration, hormonal imbalance, jaw clenching, or a serious issue requiring medical attention?  Any of these options, or perhaps a combination of a couple of them, could be causing the headache and each requires a different remedy.   Clearly sleep is ideal for a headache caused by excessive tiredness, but may not remedy dehydration for example.  Looking holistically at the person with the headache, and taking a multi-pronged approach is what gives us the fastest and longest lasting results.  

At Dr Kez ChiroLab, we want to offer natural options to help you to heal at home, so with the headache example above, we would encourage the following:

• Get adequate quality sleep (they may mean going to bed earlier, or perhaps you’re not getting quality sleep and need a Chiro pillow to ensure your neck is adequately supported throughout the night)
• Address muscular tension (get a massage, stretch your neck muscles and/or use the Premium Vacuum Cupping set to break up muscular adhesions in your neck and shoulders)
• Reduce the inflammation in your neck or jaw if these areas are subluxated (use the therapeutic ultrasound and Kirofix Injury Relief Lotion)
• Increasing blood supply (use the Acupressure Hat to dramatically increase the blood flow to your head neck and jaw)
• Drink plenty of water (including after your cupping and stretching sessions, as these at home solutions eliminate lots of lactic acid from your muscles, just like having a professional Chiro or Physio’s treatment)
• If the headache is at a particular time of the month (try balancing your hormones using B!tch off and ultra hormone relief spray)
• Stress relief techniques (try meditation, yoga, Qi Gong, or some calming aromatherapy solutions) 

 

 

What do we need to consider to incorporate the natural health care approach into our lives?

Take a look at your life as a whole, consider the following:

• How much sleep you’re getting? (as this is predominantly when our body repairs and regenerates)
• What foods are you eating? (are they providing you with the micro-elements and minerals required for our body to effectively heal itself, click here to read a blog)
• How much water are you consuming? (our body is meant to be made up of 60% water, we need to continuously replenish this with fresh, life giving water)
• Is your body exposed to unhealthy habits? (smoking and/or drinking excessive amounts of alcohol)
• Do you move your body in a meaningful way each day? (this frees up energy, increases circulation, releases endorphins and moves our joints and contributes to our heart and lung fitness)
• Do you spend time in mindfulness activities? (Meditation, Yoga, QiGong, Tai Chi - all help you to connect with your breath and become centred and focused)
• Do you spend time in nature? (Absorbing the energy of nature, exposing yourself to the sun to get a surge of vitamin D, and breathing in the fresh air)
• Do you do regular detoxes? (Our bodies take on many toxic components from the environment and need to be cleansed of these on a regular basis, 2-4 times per year, depending on your exposure to toxins)
• Do you see a natural health practitioner or treat yourself at home with natural therapies?(cupping, ultrasound, acupressure mat, acupressure hat , TENS, massage, Chiro, acupuncturist, naturopath, etc.)
• Do you take nutritional supplements? (Replenishing the body with whole foods is ideal, but in some circumstances this isn’t enough and supplementation is required)

 

Natural healthcare is a great way to regain control over your health.  Whether you are wanting to integrate natural health care with your current medical regime or incorporate some of these ideas at home to help to compliment your treatments in between practitioner visits.  The reality is wholistic care can expedite healing from a wide range of ailments, and in my 20 plus years of clinical experience it has the tendency to have longer lasting results, when the causative factors are uncovered and addressed.  Let's face it, when we feel better physically, free of ailments and discomfort, life is better.  We become free to live life the way we want, rather than being restricted by a lack of energy or pain.  At Dr Kez ChiroLab we share tips and suggestions to help you achieve balance in all aspects of life so that you can live to your fullest potential and truly "love life." 

Please join us on our live videos and in our private FaceBook Community - Life Balance with Dr Kez and Em for more natural healthcare tips on a wide range of conditions that can help you to live happier, healthier, pain-free lives.  If you feel that your condition requires a practitioners perspective, whether it’s a Chiro, Physio, Osteo or GP, please make sure you book an appointment today to start the ball rolling.  Dr Kez is a qualified Chiro and has a clinic in Watsonia for face to face appointments and also offers a Telehealth service online for those interstate or unable to attend a face to face appointments to help get the answers to your health concerns and to help progress you on your therapeutic journey.