Natural Remedies for Seasonal Allergies

According to WebMd, over 50 million Americans experience some type of allergy. That means that around 1 out of every 5 Americans experience the sometimes debilitating symptoms that accompany allergies. Additionally, it is estimated that more than 18 billion dollars are spent each year treating allergies in the American healthcare system. 

Many people assume the only way that seasonal allergies can be treated is through pharmaceutical products. That is not always the case, though. Oftentimes, symptoms like runny nose, itchy eyes, headaches, etc. that are caused by seasonal allergies can be treated naturally.

First, it is important to understand what an allergy even is. An allergy is when your body reacts or becomes hypersensitive to an antigen. Your body’s immune system becomes hypersensitive, and as a result, your body experiences a damaging response. Most often, allergies are caused by pollen, dust, certain foods, or animal fur. 

When your body responds to an allergen, your body produces a chemical called histamine. This is why many people immediately jump to taking “antihistamines” when they experience allergies. This chemical, histamine, works with your body to counteract the allergen. Allergies can range from being seasonal allergies that most often get worse when pollen levels rise during the spring and fall; food allergies; indoor allergies to dust; pet/animal allergies; and allergies to medication. Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening allergic reaction to an antigen.

While anaphylaxis and other allergies should be treated with medical care, seasonal allergies can be treated with natural remedies. It is important to understand that when your body produces an allergic reaction, it is because it senses that something is not right within your body.  Instead of only addressing symptoms you experience, it is very important to understand the root cause of WHY you are having allergies and then build your natural defense system to that. 

That being said, here are a few natural remedies that can treat the symptoms associated with seasonal allergies:

• Avoid inflammatory foods. Remember that an allergic response is an inflammatory response. If you try to avoid foods like gluten, refined sugar, dairy, etc. that are highly inflammatory, it will help alleviate your inflammatory response. Incorporating Vitamin D into your daily routine can also help. Vitamin D is very important to immune functioning. Make an effort to get outside in the sunlight and incorporate Vitamin D into your daily intake. 

• Consume local, raw honey. Taking a spoonful of local, raw honey every day can dramatically improve how you are feeling. Raw honey contains bee pollen. Bees that live in our area go from flower to flower collecting the pollen that you are actually suffering from. Eating this pollen actually helps build up your immune system to that local pollen. Make sure you are consuming raw, LOCAL honey. This is important to it being an effective treatment. 

• Use a Neti Pot. Neti pots are a natural remedy for allergies as well as many other respiratory conditions. They literally clear out the sinus passage and remove congestion. It improves your quality of life while causing little to no side effects whatsoever. Neti pots are very reasonably priced. Using a neti pot daily flushes out your nasal passage and clears out allergens and pathogens in the process.

These are just three, easy and cost-efficient solutions to alleviating symptoms caused by seasonal allergies. Call 712-464-3301 today if you’d like to learn more about natural ways you can help treat your seasonal allergies!

Function over Fitness

“Functional Fitness” has become a buzzword in gyms and fitness centers lately, and it is for good reason. Functional fitness means to train your body to handle real life situations or to simply improve how your body functions on a daily basis.

When the winter months roll around, we tend to get lots of new members at the fitness center hoping to exercise off the holiday pounds that are put on by the pies, turkey and mashed potatoes we tend to over-indulge in. While this is good practice in theory, it is important to remember that the fitness center can be utilized by all ages year-round, and it can be used for far more benefits than exercising off the extra piece of dessert you ate at Thanksgiving.

Think of the body as a machine — a very high maintenance machine. Our bodies require more maintenance than any machine, like a car or tractor. When we take care of our cars, for example, we change the oil, rotate the tires or fill it up with good fuel. Even more so, our bodies require this type of preventative maintenance to run smoothly. Working on our functional fitness combined with fueling our bodies with good food will undoubtedly improve the quality of life we experience.

Working to improve your functional fitness means exercising in a way that prepares you to lift a toddler out of a carseat, or simply go on a walk around the block. Take a bent-over row, for example. A bent-over row builds muscles in your arms, shoulders and back. This same motion occurs when a mechanic bends over to adjust something in the engine, or a nurse bends over to transfer a patient to a new bed. These types of exercises will undoubtedly carry over into your normal life--regardless of how old you are or what your profession is. 

We built the fitness center to promote overall health and wellness for our community members, as we see people every day that struggle with different pains that have been plaguing them for years. Many of these ailments could be resolved with weekly exercise. Think of how many people could avoid a surgery like a rotator cuff surgery if they had spent the years prior doing exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff muscle.

Yes, the fitness center is there to promote weight loss and provide community members with a way to exercise year-round, but it is also there to improve our bodies function through regular exercise. Any research study will tell you that regular exercise improves your mood, is good for your bones and muscles, increases your energy, decreases your risk for chronic disease and can help reduce pain. Improving muscle tone and losing weight are often secondary benefits to seeking out improved functional fitness. 

Lake City 24 Hour Fitness is for community members of all ages. There are weights, cable machines, cardio machines, a NuStep and many other options for people of all ages and ability levels. There are no contracts, and there’s even a senior citizen discount. Take a chance at improving your functional fitness today by seeing what regular exercise can do for you and your quality of life. 

We Now Offer Foot Levelers!

 One of the most under-appreciated parts of our bodies is our feet. Many people do not realize that good health is highly dependent on good feet. If a person’s feet are not properly aligned or supported, they may experience pain or injury in many other parts of their body.

While there are certain stretches a person can do to help alleviate foot pain or misalignment, another helpful tool can be to put custom orthotics in their shoes. Custom orthotics can help with issues like plantar fasciitis, shin splints, pronation issue, knee pain, tendonitis, glute weakness, scoliosis, low back pain, neck injury, neck pain, bursitis, impingements, and hip pain. Foot imbalance or dysfunction can have ripple effects, transferring imbalance (and pain) to the ankles, legs, knees, hips, spine, shoulders, even the skull. Custom orthotics can help improve pain, posture, balance and physical performance in all aspects of life.

Custom orthotics are different from generic, over-the-counter ones in that Foot Levelers creates custom-made orthotics based on scans made by a high-tech 3D scanner. The scanner has pinpoint accuracy, so each pair is unique to the footprint of the patient 

It is important to note that once you receive a new pair of custom orthotics, you keep in mind that it can take some time for the orthotics to conform to your feet and for your body to adjust to the new support. It is important to try a new pair of orthotics for 45 days before determining if they are effective or not. Adding an orthotic to your shoe alters your plantar vault--the three arches in your foot that help to balance your body. It is important to give your body some time to adjust to the new arch support. 

You can stop into Redenius Chiropractic to order your own pair of Foot Levelers Custom Orthotics. Foot Levelers is the number one custom orthotic maker world-wide. They offer a 100% money-back guarantee if a person is unhappy with the custom orthotics they receive. Their orthotics are also built to last. When you come to the clinic, we will have you stand on the 3D scanner, and then Foot Levelers will take that information and create your custom orthotics in just a few days. Call 712-464-3301 today if you would like to learn more about Foot Levelers. 

Chiropractic Care and Pregnancy

During pregnancy, a mom’s body ramps up the production of  ligament and joint-loosening hormones that help pave the way for the baby to make an exit. If these hormones were not released, the baby’s head would never fit through the typically narrow pelvis! These hormones, combined with added water weight, baby weight, and a swollen belly can also lead to joint pain, low back pain, and fatigue. 

Chiropractic care typically involves adjusting the spinal cord to lessen pain and promote overall health in your body. Getting regular chiropractic adjustments during pregnancy helps to lessen aches and pains typically associated with pregnancy in addition to getting the body in alignment for a smoother delivery. We regularly treat pregnant women seeking care for low back pain, pinched nerves, hip pain, water retention, and headaches. We also regularly treat pregnant women seeking to get their body in optimal alignment for delivery. 

Hormones, similar to the ones that send signals to ligaments to loosen, also play an important role in sending “messages” during pregnancy and labor/delivery to help make both go smoothly and safely for both the baby and the mom. After doing work throughout your pregnancy to send messages to the body to take care of and grow the baby, hormones get the body ready to deliver, start labor contractions, prepare the baby for labor, and tell the body it's time to breastfeed. We seek to educate our patients on the importance of these hormones while getting the body ready for this process. 

Many people do not realize that hormones play a major role in regulating labor and birth. Oxytocin, for example, is commonly known as the “hormone of love,” however, during labor and birth, this hormone is responsible for releasing milk in breastfeeding. It also triggers feelings of love and nurturing. Oxytocin is heavily released during an intervention-free birth. This hormone stimulates contractions that dilate the cervix and move the baby down.

Endorphins are natural, pain-relieving hormones. As the body releases oxytocin to trigger contractions, in an intervention-free birth, endorphins are also released to help mom deal with the labor, even if it is long and challenging. Endorphins also put a mom into a state of ‘labor land’ during an intervention-free birth. When asked, most moms who have had an unmedicated birth will report very quickly forgetting the intensity of the labor. Endorphins are to thank for that. 

In addition to those two hormones, adrenaline and prolactin (lactation/breast feeding) also play a large role in pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum. When we treat moms, we hope to not only treat their aches and pains while getting them into alignment for the best labor and delivery possible, but we also try to educate them on how, when the body is left to labor and deliver as nature intended it to, these hormones interact in a unique way to help both the mom and the baby. We can also help provide some tips for pain management techniques for when labor does begin. 

The goal of treating pregnant moms is to have a healthy baby and a healthy mom, regardless of the method of delivery. We work with expecting mothers to treat pregnancy aches and pains as well as prepare them for childbirth. After a baby is born, we also regularly treat moms and babies for postpartum care. Pregnancy and childbirth are miraculous processes our bodies undergo, and it is important to not only prepare for a child to be born but also to take care of both mom and baby afterwards. Call 712-464-3301 if you would like to learn more about how we can help you!

Kochersberger, Amy, DC. “5 Conditions Chiropractic Care can Improve During Pregnancy.” American Chiropractic Association. October 19, 2018.