Fighting against time: Don't waste your eternities Don Quixote.

The most common thing patients relate to me is that they are seeking peace in life. Peace is really quite easy to enjoy. It is hanging around us each and every moment of the day, like ripe fruit surrounding the starving child. We simply need to know how to make ourselves aware of it, and how not to hide from it.

Often in life we are tempted to try and maximize our time. We want to get as much done as we can so we will have more time later to do what we want. Have you ever noticed that it doesn't work? Well, if you haven't figured it out, let me save you some "time", angst, frustration and pain.

"IT DOESN'T WORK!"

Why can't you save time, get ahead of time, or beat time? Because it is impossible to defeat what you are focused on. What we focus on, expands. So when we focus on a lack of time, we get more of a lack of time. When you are focused on time, you are not focused on other things, like being in the moment with a child, a spouse, an amazing sunset, or a genuine moment of pain.

The reality is that when we are fully engaged in enjoying the peaceful, firm hug from the chubby arms of child, you are touching eternity. When you are standing firmly in the moment with a loved one, truly embracing the love you have for them, time is no more. It stops. You are now standing on the runway of eternity. The way to gain greater enjoyment of life, is not to create more time, but to spend more of your attention in eternity, in the now, in the moment, in the feelings of virtue that always accompany being in eternity, or being eternal. Those feelings are the feeling of deep and abiding love, peace, joy, enduring happiness, patience, and the willingness to endure another's struggles without making them personal to you.

Thus we busy ourselves, trying to create more time, when what we need to be creating is more of an awareness of eternity, in each moment of each day. Be real, get in the present, cease worrying about time. Start finding the peace each moment has to gift those who would be brave enough to stand firmly and steadily in the face of the current the world will hurl at us, and ignore its pressures, and be real. Be eternal. Be peaceful.

-Dr. O

Alright now it's time to see how alert you are. Everybody think of their age. Please be honest ladies. Now take your age and multiply it by 1/3 or 0.333333333333333 if you need to use a calculator like me. What did you come up with? This number is the amount in years you have spent sleeping. Long time huh? Some of you are thinking to yourself, "Yep and I've enjoyed every minute of it." Well good! For those of you who are thinking, "Wow! I have wasted a lot of time sleeping my life away," let me stop you here. Ready...and STOP!

Don't think for one moment you have wasted any of your life by sleeping. Researchers are finding out just how important that 1/3 of your life you spend slumbering is. Every one of those hours you have spent sleeping has been precious to you. A recent study in which rats were deprived of sleep indefinitely showed that after just 5 days death resulted. Ok I understand we are not rats, but get this, studies have shown that if a person receives only 4-5 hours a sleep in just one night, there can be significant impairment in function. What does that mean? Well let's keep it going. If you were to stay with the pattern of only 4 hours of sleep a night, in about six days you could be in a pre-diabetic state according to recent studies. At the same time a decrease in a hormone called leptin would result which would consequently cause you to eat more food only adding to the pre- diabetic state, not to mention your waistline. Researchers have found that with less than the optimal eight hours of sleep one needs, the body has a hard time metabolizing sugar. I finally have a good reason for that spare tire I have been carrying around!

Researchers have also seen that people who are deprived of sleep share a similar brain function as psychiatric patients do. The pattern seen here was bursts of anger one minute while laughing hysterically the next. (Whispers) Sounds like Dr Johnson's house. Researchers have noted that most of the people in these studies where sleep was deprived, felt like they have adapted to the lack of sleep but in reality they could not perform at safe functional levels for operating a motor vehicle or various other simple tasks. In fact such disasters as Exon Valdez, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island to name a few are being looked at as sleep deprived accidents.

A survey taken in 1960 showed that the average number of sleep hours per night for Americans was at 8. A recent poll shows this has dropped to just 6.7 hours. Also the number of minutes of deep sleep (optimal sleep) for a healthy twenty year old is usually around 100 per night. By the age of fifty this drops to just 20 minutes a night. So as we age it becomes even more important to receive the quality sleep we need. Take this into account with the high incidence of adult onset diabetes and we start to see a pattern here. In fact, lack of sleep is now being touted as a huge risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

So let's reiterate some of our findings. Inadequate sleep can lead to diabetes, death, weight gain, psychotic episodes, and a mental trip to Dr Johnson's house. Don't worry though because researchers say that naps especially deep long naps can be used to make up for the lost eight hours needed. If naps aren't very practical then it becomes imperative that you ask yourself, how well am I sleeping? Are you getting enough sleep? Getting adjusted regularly, acupuncture, and reflexology can all help you to sleep better at night. Come on in and let us help you catch some ZZZs. After all, it's been said that if you can't sleep you can't heal.

-Dr. J

--The office will be closed on Friday, July 4th, in observance of Independence Day. It will reopen for normal business hours on Saturday, July 5th.

--Dr. Olson will be out of town beginning Friday afternoon, July 11 through Saturday, July 19th. Dr. Johnson will be covering all of Dr. Olson's hours, but the office will be closed on Saturday, July 12 and Saturday, July 19. It is recommended that patients remain on their set treatment plans while Dr. Olson is out of town.

Please join us on Thursday, July 24th at 7PM for Acupressure for Home Use.

This 1-hour workshop will teach how to locate and utilize 18 different acupressure points. You will first learn to locate the points on yourself, and then you will learn how to locate them on someone else, so you may want to bring a partner to class with you. Each person in attendance will receive a handy reference guide to all of the points you will learn.

Where: Olson Chiropractic
1360 Big Bend Square
Manchester, MO 63021

When: Thursday, July 24, 7PM

Cost: $10 per person, but if you bring 3 or more guests, you are all FREE of charge.

Seating is limited for this event, so register ASAP by calling 636-225-2121.

This X-Ray is that of a childbearing woman from Missouri who was pregnant. It was determined that she needed iron during a first trimester blood test. Pharmaceutical grade iron tablets were prescribed to her.

It was later determined that she needed more iron as a second blood test revealed she was still low. By trimester 3, she was experiencing abdominal distress.

Shortly after delivering her baby, she was rushed by ambulance to a hospital for surgery to remove more than 80 tablets which had caused blockage in her intestinal tract.

The photo is dramatic, and it is doubtful that many women experience this extreme health risk, but it does make the point about the dissolving of tablets. One of the most commonly found items in septic tanks is undigested tablets.

Please take caution and choose high quality supplements, and if you need any help determining the correct nutritional regimen for you, feel free to ask Dr. Olson or Dr. Johnson. They will be happy to help you improve your health.

Although the Physician's Desk Reference sits on the desk of almost every medical doctor, it may be dusty from neglect. And if your doctor continues to prescribe the same drugs year after year without checking his PDR or keeping up with breaking research on newly discovered dangers for commonly-prescribed drugs, your doctor could actually send you home with a prescription that could be deadly. Some old, formerly trusted drugs are so dangerous doctors say they wouldn't take them. Are these deadly drugs in your medicine cabinet?

--Advair. When used regularly, an ingredient in Advair called salmeterol can increase the severity of asthma attacks. Researchers estimate it may contribute to as many as 5,000 deaths related to asthma in the U.S. each year. In 2006, the FDA added a "black box" warning to Advair, the organization's highest warning.

--Avandia. Recent studies have shown that Avandia, which is an oral medication used to control type 2 diabetes, increases the risk of a heart attack. People who took Avandia (also known as rosiglitazone) for a year increased their risk of heart failure by 109 percent and heart attack by 42 percent.

--Celebrex. Once prescribed to treat inflammation and pain, especially those with arthritis, studies have shown that people who take 200 mg of Celebrex twice a day more than double their chances of dying from cardiovascular disease. In addition, Celebrex is linked to liver damage, kidney problems, and gastrointestinal bleeding. Although nonsteroidal anti- inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen could be safer alternatives, they too have been linked to intestinal bleeding. Consider acupuncture instead. German scientists found that acupuncture treatments twice a week were twice as effective as conventional treatment plans that include drugs, physical therapy, and exercise.

--Ketek. Although an effective antibiotic for respiratory infections, Ketek puts patients at a higher risk of severe liver problems than other antibiotics.

--Nexium and Prilosec. Researchers are investigating a link between these acid-reflux medications and heart attacks, but there are other reasons to avoid these meds. They reduce acid so effectively that you may have an elevated risk of pneumonia (from bacteria and viruses that stomach acids would have killed) and an increased risk of bone loss. Losing weight can keep excess belly fat from putting pressure on the valve that lets stomach acid from leaking into the esophagus.

--Pseudoephedrine. This decongestant, which has been linked to stroke and heart disease, can raise your heart rate and blood pressure--potentially dangerous for people with high blood pressure and heart disease. In addition, pseudoephedrine can increase symptoms of glaucoma and benign prostate disease.

By: Sylvia Booth Hubbard, Newsmax 2008

Time in the Sun: How Much Is Needed for Vitamin D?

--In the winter, it's impossible to produce vitamin D from the sun if you live north of Atlanta because the sun never gets high enough for its ultraviolet B rays to penetrate the atmosphere. But fear not--the summer is a great time to stock up on the nutrient.

--If you are fair skinned, experts say going outside for 10 minutes in the midday sun--in shorts and a tank top with no sunscreen--will give you enough radiation to produce about 10,000 IU of vitamin D. Dark skinned people and the elderly will produce less.

--Experts believe the government's recommendations of 200 IUs per day are far too low to maintain healthy vitamin D levels. They advocate for supplementation of about 2,000 IUs per day in the winter, and a daily dose of sunshine in the summer.

--Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, may protect against a host of diseases, including osteoporosis, heart disease, cancers of the breast, prostate, and colon. Sunlight protects against depression, insomnia, and an overactive immune system.

Take a Vacation, for Your Health's Sake

--Did you know that the United States is the only industrialized country in the world that doesn't mandate paid vacation time? More research is suggesting that vacations are really necessary for good health.

--One study shows women who took a vacation once every six years or less were almost eight times more likely to develop coronary heart disease or have a heart attack than those who took 2 vacations per year.

--Another study shows men who failed to take annual vacations had a 21 percent higher risk of death from all causes and were 32 percent more likely to die of a heart attack.

--The trick to a truly therapeutic vacation is to not only remove yourself from your normal routine physically, but mentally as well. Don't overbook yourself and cause more stress on your vacation. Take time to unwind, and leave that Blackberry and laptop at home!