"New Grandsons, Smiles and Team Goop"

I spent the weekend with my "new grandson". Sweet little thing, calm and beautiful! I got to hold him. It was Heaven. I forget how tiny they are when they are just born. My daughter, the mom, looked tired but, what a great mom. Loves this motherhood thing. It shows.

I got to go for a couple of walks with my other grandson. He's "free". It had rained, he splashed his way through every puddle on our half mile walk. He was wearing running shoes. He got soaked, so did I. I didn't care. We had a great time. It took two minutes to change his cloths when we got back. It was Heaven! Twenty years ago I would have stopped my own kids from "getting wet". I may have learned something in twenty years.

My youngest daughter wanted to play catch. We used to play catch everyday. The "kids" can all throw and catch with amazing skill. I haven't played much catch since my ex wife and I split many years ago and the kids moved away with her. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. I had forgotten how much it meant to me. It was Heaven! Man that girl can throw....... and catch.

We went on the Go-karts too. My wife took pictures. Lots of pictures. What was apparent in every picture was the ear to ear smile on my daughter's face and her little brother's face. I had a great time. It was Heaven!

Although I'd like to tell you all about "Team Goop", it's just not going to happen. Suffice to say that "Catch Phrase" with Uncle Phil and Jarjar on one team is a recipe for some very interesting interpretations. I nearly spit out my coffee! Go Team Goop!!

Stay out of trouble.

Dr. Mike

50% of What I Teach You is Wrong!

When I was going to school there was a sage instructor who, before each lesson, would say to us "50% of what I'm going to teach you is wrong, I'm just not sure which 50%". We used to laugh. After all how could this be? How could information obtained using the best science of the time be incorrect, ever.

It's come true! I have been in practice for 23 years and LOTS of things I took to be the absolute truth, are now "wrong". This became apparent the other day when I was filling out a questionnaire. I'll explain.

I have to do continuing education if I want to continue to practice. The requirements are minimal really and I always get more hours than I need. Every chiropractor in Canada has to carry liability insurance and every year, the liability insurance carrier sends out a "Risk Management Questionnaire" that you can do. If you choose to answer the questionnaire you can get a break on the cost of your insurance and a couple of other things. I choose to do them because I enjoy learning stuff. They're usually pretty straight forward and not very difficult. This year the questions covered Disc Disorders. Piece of cake right? A chiropractors bread and butter! No problem. Ahhhh, not so fast bucky.

50% of what I was taught was wrong! I learned a whole pile of interesting bits of information and some things I thought I already knew. In school we used to say the questions didn't change, just the answers. Let me tell you, the answers changed! How is this important. Well, often when you get home from a seminar you pack up your stuff and NEVER look at the things that you learned. They're interesting, but not interesting enough to change the way you do things. The stuff I learned from the questionnaire changes how I do things in the office Monday morning, period.

What's the lesson here? Life changes, be willing to evaluate the changes and big enough to make change in yourself. Or, as someone much bigger than me said it, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference."

Have a good one, don't do anything silly.

Dr. Mike

People Are Great!

People are Great! Everyday I get to live vicariously through the people I see in the office. I laugh, I cry, I cheer, I even shake my head now and again. Someone once said that "Truth is stranger than fiction", man, is that true.

There was a lady in today who said I ought to do a blog with the stuff I have on the walls in the office. She just doesn't have enough time to read them when she's here. It sounded like a great idea to me. It's a simple way for people to get a feel of the office.

One of my patients walked in today and handed me two medals he had just won at the Police and Fireman Games. This guy has the biggest shoulders I have ever seen! What struck me about this was how proud he was and how proud I was. I admire this fellow because he had the guts to throw his hat in the ring. My dad had a saying when I was a kid, "Our doubts are traitors for losing the good we oft might gain by fearing to attempt." The other thing that struck me was, as a kid I won lots of medals and looking back, they didn't mean that much to me. As an adult I have won few "medals" but they have meant a LOT to me. It's not the Stanley Cup or the Grey Cup but man does it feel good!

Here's some good stuff,

25 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Your Body and Health

1. Rinsing your nose with salt water can help keep you healthy and ward off allergy symptoms.

2. Dogs can smell cancer and low blood sugar. A study showed that it is possible to train dogs to identify, based on breath samples, which patients had lung and breast cancer. For diabetics, the dogs can smell ketones in urine and on the breath when blood sugars are high. Dogs can pick up on other smells that humans can’t when glucose levels drop.

3. Researchers found that people who pass through an entryway near the kitchen tend to eat 15 percent more than those who use the front door.

4. You're more likely to have a heart attack on a Monday, or up to three days after you've been diagnosed with the flu or a respiratory tract infection.

5. Obese people spend approximately $485 more on clothing, $828 on extra plane seats, and $36 more on gas each year than their thinner counterparts. An overweight driver burns about 18 additional gallons of gas a year.

6. Smokers are four times as likely to report feeling unrested after a night's sleep than nonsmokers. Smokers often experience withdrawal symptoms at night, thus causing periods of restlessness and waking.

7. Eating fruits and vegetables may help your body make its own aspirin. Benzoic acid, a natural substance in fruits and vegetables, causes people to produce their own salicylic acid, the key component that gives aspirin its anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties.

8. A 20-minute nap can improve your overall alertness, boost your mood, and increase productivity. In addition, your heart may reap benefits from napping -- a six-year study found that that men who took naps at least three times a week had a 37 percent lower risk of heart-related death.

9. Your kitchen sink is dirtier than your bathroom. There are typically more than 500,000 bacteria per square inch in its drain, and the faucet, basin, and sponge are crawling with germs as well.

10. Four out of five doctors in the UK don't work out enough. Heavy workloads, lack of time and poor motivation contributed to the lack of exercise.

11. Baking soda can whiten teeth, garlic can help treat athlete's foot, and honey can soothe a hangover.

12. Using a food diary can double your weight-loss efforts. Your food diary makes you accountable to yourself and provides you with clues on where the extra calories are sneaking in.

13. Regular exercise can lower a woman's cancer risk -- but only if she's getting enough sleep. The National Cancer Institute followed nearly 6,000 women for almost 10 years. Women in the top half of physical activity levels showed an approximate 20 percent reduction in cancer risk, but sleeping less than seven hours per night resulted in a decreased benefit.

14. Watching yourself run in a mirror can make a treadmill workout go by faster and feel easier.

15. Third-hand smoke -- the particles that cling to smokers' hair and clothing and linger in a room long after they've left -- is a cancer risk to young children and pets.

16. Walking against the wind, in the water, or while wearing a backpack burns about 50 more calories per hour than walking with no resistance. People who wear pedometers also tend to burn more calories and lose more weight.

17. Vitamins don't seem to help older women guard against cancer or heart disease.

18. Germ-killing wipes can spread bacteria from one spot to another if you reuse them.

19. Twenty-nine percent of Americans say they have skipped filling a prescription due to the cost, and 23 percent use pill splitting as a way to save money.

20. Facebook may be good for your health; studies show that staying in touch with family and friends can ward off memory loss and help you live longer.

Sources:

MSN Health & Fitness April 21, 2009


Don't do anything silly,

Dr. Mike

Rasslin'

My Dad came down to the Valley and stayed with us a couple of nights. It was nice to have him around, comforting you know. He gave me a ride home from work and as we walked in the door at home I was greeted by my arch nemesis, "PP, rarin for a rasslin'". My dad used to wrestle with my brothers and I when we were young. I still remember those times with fondness. I think it's a way for boys to get there "touches" in. After all, "we're boys", we're not allowed to just hug, that would be like, "eeeuuuww", so we wrestle. You get to touch but, it's manly.

For those of you unfamiliar with wrestling, there are several distinct phases to be aware of as a parent and only one as a kid. The first parental phase is where your young rival "couldn't hurt a flea". In this phase it is your duty to make wrestling fun by flying all over the place with the slightest touch from your "sworn enemy", at the same time making sure you don't hurt him (or yourself!). Parental phase two is where the child now has some "rudimentary" skill and can inflict some damage if left unchecked. Your parental role now shifts to protecting self and child from damage. Phase three is where the child "isn't" and they could "kick your ass", if, you didn't know every trick in the book and use most of them. Fortunately, phase three is often a short phase as the parental units often learn to avoid "ass kickings" after sustaining one or two.

There is also a part of wrestling which is often overlooked by short timers but which adds a dimension unattainable without it. We'll just call it "naming." To take your wrestling to a whole new level, it is important to name yourself and your signature moves. With the proper build up and strategic use, the mere mention of these names can strike fear into your young wrestling foe. (Use caution when around your spousal unit as they frown on the effect you may have on "their children.")

It is important when naming that you make your foe look foolish, by giving them wimpy names. For example, I often refer to my current foe as "Pussy Pants" or "Precious Pup" or just plain old "PP". This can have the effect of turning him into a screaming wild man so I use these names sparingly. My signature moves are "The Crusher", "The Claw of Death", "Electro-Volter", "Beaver Boy", "Gentlemen" and "Pickle". Electro-Volter, Beaver Boy and "Gentlemen" are my brothers but I use them because they are great moves. Bud, my foe, has moves called "The Knee-er", "The Death Drop" and "The Gas Chamber" (yea, yopu figure it out!).

I am getting great reactions with "Pickle" at the moment. I have to phone "Pickle" to use him, so I make a dialing noise and hold my hand up like I'm talking on the phone to "Pickle". PP now chases me down and tries to hang up my phone, he occasionally succeeds. Occasionally he doesn't, and there comes a dreaded knock at the door. Bud will usually run screaming through the house trying to escape. (If wifey is home and within earshot, the game usually ends there!) But, every now and again, "Pickle" gets through.

PP's got some good moves, he wrestled his mom the other day and smoked her. She got mad and the game was over. Her name is "The Old Lady" or "Rubba Bubba" cause her bum is jibbly. We don't wrestle her to much cause she uses her nails, not fair.

If you've never wrestled, give it a go. Even you ladies. You may be surprised how much fun it is.

(I'd love to have pictures of one of our wrestling matches, but my spousal unit keeps "forgetting" to take some. Apparently she doesn't hear the ruckus when we are going to town.)