Commercial Drive - East Vancouver Chiropractor; Dr. Dominic Chan DC: Sitting Can be Hazardous to Your Health!

Do I have your attention now? That's right, researchers have found a link between the amount of time you spend sitting in your day and your mortality rate.

Researchers asked 17,000 people, "How much do you spend sitting in your typical day?". They then followed the respondents over the next 12 years and compared their mortality rates. What they found was truly astounding. They discovered that those people who spent half of their day sitting, had a significantly increased risk of dying from ANY cause!! They also found that those respondents who sat the most during their day, had a 54% increased risk of dying in the 12 years following compared to the people who sat the least.

But here is the sobering component. The results were independent of whether you were old or young, smoker or non-smoker or even if you were over-weight or not. Meaning the risk of sitting too much can not be completely removed by your activity level.

So what are some things you can do right now to lower your risk?

- Start moving around more. Take periodic breaks from your computer and walk around. The study even suggests that spending some time standing at work can even be helpful. ie. standing while you're on the phone.

- Look for ways you can be more active at work. Examples include, taking the stairs or even parking your car further away from the entrance so you get just a bit more exercise each day.

- Looking for alternative ways to commute. ie taking public transit to work or biking.

For more information, visit the website for your COMMERCIAL DRIVE CHIROPRACTOR IN EAST VANCOUVER

Commercial Drive - East Vancouver Chiropractor; Dr. Dominic Chan DC: " A Chiropractor to tell your friends about"

You know what I love about practice? It's when you help a patient and they are so happy and grateful for your care that they say, " You know, my husband/wife/brother/co-worker etc. could really use your care. Do you accept new patients?"

I mean wow! what an awesome compliment. I think it's a great honor to treat the loved ones of my existing patients. But this actually got me thinking, " How many of my patients are referred to me by existing patients or other health care professionals?".

So I went about tabulating the data. I decided to review my records for the first six months of this year. Here are the results from January to June 2009;

New Patients referred from existing patients: 63%
New Patients referred from Healthcare professionals: 22%

Even I was a little surprised that the vast majority of new patients to my practice are referred by existing patients or other health care providers such as; family doctors, physiotherapists, massage therapists, naturopaths and even dentists!!!

Thanks again everyone!

As always, if you're in the COMMERCIAL DRIVE AREA OF EAST VANCOUVER, DR. DOMINIC CHAN DC IS NOT FAR AWAY!!

Commercial Drive - East Vancouver Chiropractor; Dr. Dominic Chan DC - FYI: Diabetes

Sometimes I get questions from patients about various health concerns. Since I get questions about Diabetes a couple times a month, I thought I'd write about it. More specifically, I will talk about Type II Diabetes and things you can do to lower your risk of developing it.

First off, Type II Diabetes is sometimes also called, Adult onset Diabetes. Basically what happens is that your body needs to produce a hormone called Insulin, in order to properly use glucose. Glucose is a form of sugar your body can use for energy. Common sources of glucose include things like pasta, rice, bread, milk and fruit. But for patients that develop Type II Diabetes, their Pancreas doesn't make enough Insulin, or the body doesn't properly use the Insulin it makes.

This can cause a lot of trouble for these patients as the levels of glucose increases in the body. Some problems associated with Type II Diabetes include; cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, blindness and even nerve damage that can lead to amputations.

So what are some of the things you can do right now to lower your risk?

- Visit your doctor and find out what your levels of blood glucose are. Once you know where you're starting you can find out what your risks are. Note, if your parents have Type II Diabetes, you definitely want to watch your blood glucose levels as there appears to have a strong genetic component to Type II Diabetes.

- Watch your consumption of sugar and especially refined sugar. We are talking about things like Soda, Candy, processed breads and white pasta for example.

- Exercise!!! Studies have shown that exercise can help you to control your blood sugar levels.

- Eat 5-6 small meals per day. Eating like this can also help to normalize your blood sugar levels and help to control weight.

Unfortunately, I can only give you a brief introduction to Diabetes here but if you have any questions, please visit my website, COMMERCIAL DRIVE - EAST VANCOUVER CHIROPRACTOR and you can message me!

Commercial Drive - East Vancouver Chiropractor; Dr. Dominic Chan DC - FYI: "The Good, The Bad and The Nutty"

Sometimes I get a craving for the munchies. You know what I mean? food that you can just pick at while you're enjoying your favorite show. Well, the next time you feel like this, put down the chips!.....and reach for some nuts!

Nuts are power packed for their size. Some studies have suggested that adding nuts to a diet that is low in saturated fats and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease. A ha! but there's a catch. The type of nuts that were studied are restricted to; almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, pistachio nuts, walnuts and pine nuts. (Sorry all you Macadamia nut lovers)

Now although nuts can be high in fat, the fat is considered a "heart healthy" or unsaturated. This type of fat may help to lower your LDL levels, also known as the "bad" type of cholesterol.

One more tidbit of healthy information. A study conducted on women who ate nuts found that those who ate 5 or more, one ounce servings of nuts per week, reduced their risk of developing Type II diabetes compared to women who ate few or no nuts at all. Wow! that's a huge difference. However, it must be said that if you are going to add more nuts into your diet, it's best to choose wisely. The "flavored" nuts ie. BBQ flavored will probably be more harmful than good. The flavoring and all that added salt will just do you more harm than good. So be choosy and smart about your nuts!!

As always, visit the website of your COMMERCIAL DRIVE CHIROPRACTOR IN EAST VANCOUVER HERE!