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WEEKLY HEALTH UPDATE

Week of: Monday April 8, 2019

Courtesy of:

John H. Keefe III, D.C.

(918) 663-1111

Dr Keefe, Natural Health care, pain, Tulsa chiropractor,

IN THE NEWS: How Sleep Influences Learning, Memory and General Health Sleep impacts your ability to learn and your creative capacity. First, sleep is important before learning, as it helps prepare your brain to soak up new information. Research shows that sleep-deprived students have a 40 percent reduction in their ability to retain new information, compared to those who got a full eight hours of sleep. Second, you need sleep after learning, to properly save and hold on to those new individual facts — and integrate the new information with what you already know. Deep sleep is also crucial for brain detoxification, and can have a significant impact on your risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Around 12 months of age, when the infant is starting to learn to crawl, stand and walk, there’s a tremendous increase in stage 2 sleep, during which the brain is actively editing and making decisions about what information to retain and which to discard. Sleep allows your brain to consolidate abstract pieces of information, collating them into cohesive patterns that allow you to make sense of the world around you, and your experiences of it. Sleep is important before learning, as it helps prepare your brain to soak up new information. It’s also crucial after learning, at which point the data are saved and integrated with what you already know. Sleep increases your ability to gain insights that would otherwise remain elusive by about 250 percent. Simply dreaming about performing an activity increases your actual physical performance 10fold.

WELLNESS: Air Pollution Is Worse Than Smoking Research data demonstrate the number of people dying early from air pollution is 1 million more each year than death caused by smoking; nitrogen-based fertilizer, fossil fuels and industrial chemical production are the three largest contributors. Nearly 95 percent of the world live in areas where pollution levels are higher than deemed safe by the World Health Organization (WHO).  Fine particulate matter measuring less than 2.5 micrograms (PM2.5) is one indicator of outdoor air pollution. Rising rates of pollution trigger lower life expectancy, lower intelligence, low birth weight, premature birth and health conditions such as autism, attention deficit disorder, cardiovascular disease, obesity and cancer. Children bear a greater burden as they are exposed before birth, their respiratory rate is faster, inhaling more air pollution into smaller, developing bodies, and they are expected to live longer, giving more time for diseases to emerge. Although you may not control pollution levels outside your home, you can make changes to your diet to mitigate damage, and decrease indoor air pollution originating from cleaners, carpeting, personal care products and furniture. NOTE: Ask us about developing a safe zone in your home.

Dr. Keefe, Keefe Clinic. Tulsa Chiropractor, pain, natural health care.
Photo used courtesy of AcupunctureMoxibustion.com

CHIROPRACTIC: Acupuncture and chiropractic Both acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments affect the way the nervous system functions. The adjustments release stress on the nerves to allow a normal transmission and communication with the rest of the body. Your nervous system controls and coordinates every organ part AND system of your body and relate you to the environment through the five senses. Sometimes simply releasing the nerve pressure is not enough in some circumstances so stimulating certain acupuncture points on the body can enhance nervous system function. When we are working with shoulder problems for instance, besides adjusting the shoulder stimulating certain points can dramatically decrease the pain and increase the mobility. Sometimes acupuncture stimulation alone can restore full mobility in the shoulder when a problem is strictly due to muscle imbalance due to electrical imbalance. There are a number of different ways to stimulate acupuncture points where the classical way is through needle acupuncture but simply stimulating the point electrically or with a magnet can have a beneficial effect as well. Using different forms of acupuncture can enhance the balance of the spine as well as aligning the spine can balance the electrical activity within the acupuncture system. Sometimes we use what are called "press needles" which are tiny thumbtack looking stimulators on tape. These press needles can be left in place for several days if the condition indicates. If you're dealing with a painful situation or an internal disorder like acid reflux or hormonal imbalance a combination of chiropractic and acupuncture can be very effective. Who do you know who's in pain or has some other type of health issue?  Tell them about chiropractic.

FUNNY BONE: Our eldest son is extremely smart and sarcastic, is an avid movie fan, and loves puns. Not all of his romantic interests have been able to keep up with him and/or did not appreciate his… um… uniqueness. We knew his latest girlfriend was a keeper when the following happened. We were discussing a movie that we felt had some technical mistakes. Our son said something about CGI effects and ended by exclaiming, “Even the toes were digital!” His girlfriend immediately said, “All toes are digital.” I don’t know if we laughed harder at her pun or at the look on our son’s face.@@ Mom: “How’d you get that scratch?” Nephew: “My boyfriend bit me.” Mom: “He bit you?” Nephew: “Yeah.” Mom: “What’s your boyfriend’s name?” Nephew: “Bailey.” Mom: “Where’d you meet him?” Nephew: *gives my mom a look* “Bailey is my dog!”@@ Hospital staff sharing patient stories: I asked a female patient with dementia what year it is. She said, "Oh, my, no, that's far too personal to discuss in polite company. A nice young lady like you shouldn't be concerned with such things." I didn't bother pointing out that I'm not a lady. I figured if she didn't notice the beard, then she wasn't going to understand an explanation either.@@ A woman came in for a baby check with her 6-month-old and she had what looked like chocolate milk in the baby’s bottle. So I started explaining to her as kindly as I could that she shouldn’t be giving her baby chocolate milk. At which point she interrupts me and says, "Oh that isn’t chocolate milk. It’s coffee! He just loves it!”@@ Had a woman who was in active labor, despite insisting she couldn't be pregnant. She said her last period was "like ten months ago" so she'd gone through menopause. She was 25.