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Are you ready for the impending winter weather and colder temperatures that will be here before we know it? Yeah, me either. While winter will come whether we’re mentally ready or not, we can do our best to be physically ready to stay healthy in winter. How do we do that?

Before I jump to that, let’s fondly remember last year’s winter for a second — rain on Christmas, unusually mild temperatures, and very little snowfall. While I do my fair share of wishful thinking, we likely won’t see a winter like that again for a while. It was nice while it lasted, but Mother Nature has a way of bringing us back to reality. And when that reality hits, many of us Minnesotans like to brag about how well we handle winter. It’s in our blood! We’re used to it! We are resilient in the face of polar vortexes! While that may be somewhat true, I know that personally, as I get older, the extreme cold is just not as tolerable as it used to be.

Resilience and tolerance of stress lessen as we age, but we don’t have to just accept that. There are things we can do to retain some of our physiological toughness. Here are some steps you can take to restore your youthful vigor, stand strong against the coming cold, and be in the best position to stay healthy in winter.

Exercise

Getting out and moving is something we all can do. I have patients in their 80s who still walk every day. If you can’t walk, then move your arms. One of my patients who is wheelchair-bound actually had an exercise bike modified so he can use it with his hands. Getting your pulse rate up is vital to keeping your heart strong. If you have any heart or blood pressure conditions, it is even more important to regain your strength. Do what you can within your own physical abilities and limitations.

Diet

As a society, we know that we can make better choices when it comes to food. I heard an alarming statistic recently: for every 10% increase in processed foods in your diet, you have a 25% increase in the risk of dementia. A recent book by a Mayo gastroenterologist even confirmed that eating organic and non-GMO is important for your gut health — something we’ve known for a while, but I’m glad they’re finally acknowledging this! The better quality of food you eat, the less inflammation in your gut. This is huge if you want to remain young on the inside. As a bonus note, if you have gut inflammation you will not properly absorb food or supplements that can make the rest of your body healthier. That’s just another reason to improve your diet!

Supplements

A lot of vitamins, minerals, and herbs can have a huge impact on your resilience. A leaky gut will decrease the absorption of a lot of the things you eat. Supplements can help with that. Even the food you eat decreases in quality as time goes on. One example is that a cup of spinach grown 50 years ago had about fifty milligrams of magnesium, but these days it only has about five milligrams. Many truck farms are over-farmed resulting in lower and lower nutrient quantity in our food. Supplements can compensate for that (to a point). And remember, where your supplements come from can vastly affect the impact they have. I hear of a lot of people saying that they have tried supplements but they didn’t work. When I ask where they bought them, it is almost always one of the big-box stores, which often sells low-quality supplements. If you have tried vitamins and supplements and found they didn’t work for you, try them again, but use quality brands. We can give you names of a few!

Chiropractic

My favorite category! Chiropractic improves the functionality of the nervous system, which is important because the nervous system runs everything. If your nervous system is impaired, your health will be, too. Improving nerve flow makes for faster tissue replacement in damaged and aged areas of your body. So you are technically younger! And more resilient, tougher, and able to handle stress, injuries, wear and tear — and yes, even Minnesota winters — better.

So keep up your “Minnesota nice”, just not when it comes to winter. Fight back, get your resilience back, and restore your body’s vitality with everything you’ve got. Between chiropractic, rest, supplements, diet, and exercise, you will be in better shape to stay healthy in winter.

 

Dr. Burtis, D.C., M.S., CFMP, DACBN, has been providing natural healthcare to the Fairmont area at Burtis Chiropractic Center for over 35 years. He uses a combination of chiropractic, nutrition, and functional medicine to help individuals restore and maintain health and healing through individualized care plans. The mission of Burtis Chiropractic Center is to provide transformational healthcare that takes an individual’s life to the next level. We strive to be a solution for families to experience transformational healthcare and help create vibrant and resilient lifestyles that can be passed to future generations.

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