We’re now over the halfway mark in the year. Over six months since you may have made some new year’s resolutions. How are you doing with them? For most people, they don’t last longer than January 31! If you have stayed strong and kept those resolutions – well done! if you haven’t, and you would still like to kick-start those wonderful determinations, don’t despair. Every day is ‘Day One’! Just because you didn’t start yesterday, you can begin today!

Apart from mental health, exercise and flexibility is one of the most important things you should be consistently working on. Why? Because your immune system, brain, and spine are interconnected. Looking after your spine is often the one thing people forget about until it hurts! But how do you look after your spine?

3 Things that your spine does

• Protects your spinal cord

Your spinal cord connects every other part of your body. It lies inside your spinal column from your brain’s cerebrum – the largest part of your brain and which handles conscious thoughts and actions. From your brain, it extends through the vertebral openings to your lower back. Its role is to conduct information from the brain to every organ, muscle, fingers and toes etc., along 31 pairs of spinal nerves at over 402 kms per hour. It also carries messages from the rest of your body back to your brain. An injury to the spinal cord may disrupt the messages running along these nerves. Sensation, movement, and the regulation of all the actions that take place inside your body – actions you don’t even think about, like your heart beating, your lungs drawing in and expelling air, your liver cleaning out everything you eat and drink etc. So it’s really important to take care of your spine.

• It holds you up

Without your spine you’d be a lumpy puddle on the floor in a skin sack. Ugh. Sounds like something from Dr Who!

• It allows you to move

Even a simple action like opening this email was possible because you have a spine! Not only does your spine hold you up, but it also forms the foundation on which your muscles, tendons hang and connect.

6 Bio-hacks For Your Spine, Brain, and Immune System

What is bio-hacking? There are different types: Biologics, Technology, Energy Bio-hacking, Brain Bio-hacking, Age Bio-hacking,

Bio-hacking is a powerful concept. It enables people to take charge of their own health with a variety of tools and strategies. But it can be a mixed blessing. Relying too much on external products, services or technology can defeat the point of taking charge of your own health. Not only are these often expensive, they are also often not clinically proven to be of any value. It’s always best to chat to your health care professional first.

Because it’s important to protect your spine, the four best bio-hacks are, and always have been to protect the quantity and quality of your sleep, diet, exercise, and posture. Starting with posture is good because it makes you feel better about yourself to start with, making the other hacks easy to follow.

Protect your posture

Excellent posture is vital when it comes to supporting your body’s healthy inflammation response. You need a good inflammation response as it helps maintain a strong immune response.

Good posture entails:

• Keeping your shoulders straight and relaxed. Hunched over shoulders will strain on your upper spine eventually giving you back pain.
• Keeping your feet lined up with the edges of your hips evenly distributing your weight.
• Keeping your chin horizontal and the back of your head in line with your shoulders. Pushing your head forward, and bent over devices such as mobiles, and keyboards will put significant pressure on your neck, tightening the muscles in your chest and weakening your back. Lift your mobile rather than bending your neck.

Protect your sleep

• An uninterrupted stretch of sleep of 7 – 8 hours with at least 3 before midnight is best.
• Create a bedtime ritual that is enjoyable and primes your body and mind for sleep. For example; switch off all technology an hour before bed, have a warm milk drink, a hot bath, turn off all lights, except for the bedside light, and read a print book once in bed, switching off the light at the same time every night.
• Sleep on your left more than your right, as you dream more on your right, which can disturb the quality of your sleep.

Protect your diet

• Drink 6 – 8 glasses of water a day. Just water – every cell, organ, molecule etc needs it for optimal health. A glass as soon as you get up wakes up your brain. Limit your coffee, tea, alcohol intake.
• Eat more and bigger variety of vegetables. Eat more leafy greens.
• Eat more nuts and seeds, and less meat.

Protect your exercise

• Do at least an hour of exercise a day – pick the time of day that best suits you, but do it. If you are completely unfit, start with ten minutes and add a minute every week. The trick is to workout, whether that’s walking or resistance training, is to get your heart going.

How Can Chiropractic Care Help?

If you are in pain, exercising can make the problem worse. It can also disrupt your sleep. Visiting your chiropractor first will help you start your Day One of healthy bio-hacking in the right way – pain-free.

Call us today to book an appointment so that you can start your Day One asap!

Yours in health,
Dr. Monica and Helen