Yoga and Swimming are Good Spinal Exercises

To enjoy good health, your brain must communicate well with your body. To achieve that, it's important to maintain spinal strength, flexibility, and balance.

Two exercises that are great to reach those goals are Yoga and Swimming. Both are rhythmic and symmetrical, encourage chest expansion and deep breathing, and implement several spinal ranges of motion. 

I know it's hard get to a pool with busy schedules and probably even harder to find a heated pool in cold weather, but especially if you have disc problems or other degenerative issues that would benefit from non-weight-bearing exercise, the effort would be worth it.

Yoga can be done at home or in a studio/gym setting. Some of my favorite Yoga DVDs are from Yoga Zone. They have several to choose from and even have some for back pain and other issues. Usually there are two 20 minute sessions on each DVD, which is easy for even the busiest people to fit into their schedule.

Wet Socks Therapy for Fever

Fever is a good thing; it mobilizes white blood cells to fight whatever bug is causing you distress. However, if children are sick and mom, dad, and baby need sleep - and can't sleep because baby is cranky - it's nice to have a natural way to lower the fever and make everyone more comfortable.

Here's the method:

Slice organic lemons round-wise.
Soak the child's feet in as hot of water as they can handle for 5 minutes or so.
Wet wool socks (100% cotton is second best) in cold water. Put a few lemon slices in the bottom of the socks. Put the wet/damp socks on baby's feet. Cover the child with blankets to keep their body warm - keep feet out of the blankets. Keep the socks on for 6-8 hours or so.

This technique helps draw the fever out of the body. If you have Young Living Lemon and Peppermint oils, you can also add one drop each to the bottom of the child's feet.

Your Baby's First Chiropractic Adjustment

Most people would find the title of this article a bit strange because their orientation to going to a chiropractor is for back or neck pain.

As someone who was frequently ill as a child, it would have been nice if my parents knew about the benefits of chiropractic care for children while I was still a baby. It wasn't until I was 16 years old that I got my first adjustment and by then, I had suffered quite a bit. I grew up with asthma, food, animal, and environmental allergies, migraine headaches, and a chronic skin rash. After a few weeks of chiropractic care, my health started to turn around.

After being in the fetal position for so long, newborn spines and limbs can have a bit of a challenge adapting to more elongated positions causing muscle spasms in the neck or back areas. Their heads can also become misshapen during the birth process leading to nursing and focusing issues.

If the mom had drugs during pregnancy or delivery, there are certain subluxation (spinal misalignments that interfere with brain-body communication) patterns that are common. These can lead to reflux, colic, and other digestive system problems.

Babies respond very well to skilled chiropractic adjustments and usually become calm, centered, and relaxed almost immediately. It's important to go to a chiropractor who is experienced in certain infant-adjusting techniques. Usually a friend or midwife is a good referral source.

Make your own Raw Milk Kefir

Making kefir with fresh raw milk is much superior to buying kefir made from pasteurized, homogenized milk. Here's how:

1) Get some kefir grains from a good source. I often have them to share, so just contact me.
2) When you get them, they will be covered with raw milk.
3) When you receive your first batch, strain the kefir grain/milk mixture through a STAINLESS STEEL strainer into a GLASS bowl. The kefir grains will remain in the strainer and the kefir will drain into the bowl. Throw this first batch of kefir away. You are now ready to start your own personal batch.
4) Using a plastic spoon or rubber spatula  (no metal), scoop the kefir grains into a glass jar with a lid. I just use an old pickle jar.
5) Cover the kefir grains with raw milk. How much milk depends upon the amount of kefir grains you have and how fast you want the milk to ferment into kefir. If I sent you your starter batch, you would have received about 2 tbsp. of grains. Pour about 3/4 cup of fresh, raw milk over the grains. (As your grains multiply, you can increase the amount of milk, yielding more kefir per batch).
6) Put the lid on the jar and store the kefir grains in a warm place where they will not be disturbed. In my home, the temperature ranges from about 68-75 degrees. This is warm enough for kefir to ferment in about a day to a day and a half. You will get to know when it is thick enough for you. At that point, put it in the refrigerator for a day or so. The longer it ferments, the thicker it becomes and will start to separate into curds and whey. You can simple stir to blend again, or pour of the whey to use for fermented veggies, etc.
7) Now strain the kefir grain milk mixture as in step three. This time, you keep the kefir to consume! Now, start the whole process over; grains in a glass jar, cover with milk, etc.

You can drink the kefir plain (tastes similar to plain yogurt), mix with fruit or juice or NingXia Red, or mix in a smoothie. Yum!

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via phone or text 661-309-2259 or at drdeb4u@yahoo.com