In the medical world, the problem is they only have 2 tools:  drugs and surgery.  No matter what their intervention for anything you have going on, they CAN and WILL only use those 2 tools in almost ALL cases.  When I look at Angelina Jolie and the fact that she had the BRCA1/BRCA2 genes in her body, I look at that as someone who has a greater risk of having an issue with cancer just as the medical doctor would.  However, unlike your medical doctor, I don’t believe it to be a death sentence.  Again, we ALL have cancer genes in our bodies on a daily basis.  As well, it is more common these days to have a family history of cancer than ever before in the history of the world.  Despite all that, if you have a family history of brain cancer, why aren’t the doctors recommending to remove your brain?  Because clearly that’s asinine.  If you have a history of testicular cancer, why aren’t they recommending you remove them.  Because clearly that’s asinine as well.  What about lung, stomach, colon, throat cancer, removing legs because you could possibly get diabetes or your heart because you could possibly get heart disease, etc.  Why aren’t your doctor’s recommending removal of those organs?  Do you get my point?

Here is reality.  You don’t catch cancer.  It’s not as if your mom, dad, neighbor, whoever, sneezes on you and all of a sudden cancer is growing. In this life, you have 2 choices when it comes to cancer.  You can either live a lifestyle that promotes and encourages cancer or you live a lifestyle that promotes health and vitality.  And before I go too far, I am aware that sometimes bad and unexplainable things do happen.  It is possible to eat spinach and still get cancer.  I know some people that have had it happen.  However, that shouldn’t stop us from trying to do all we can to prevent diseases without the use of drugs and surgery.  If you could improve the way you ate for 1 year, would you be healthier?  Absolutely.  If you added in good proper exercise for 1 year, would you be healthier?  How about if you reduced your stress?  Would you be healthier?  Sure. My point is, don’t let doctors give you only their tools.  Their treatment is similar to the fire department.  If your house is on fire? Who should you call?  The fire department of course. They’ll use their axes and fire hoses (drugs and surgery) to fix the immediate fire.  However, the calling the fire department to rebuild your house doesn’t make any sense either. What you need are carpenters, painters, etc. who have the right tools to get your house back in order. Find someone who has other tools that can help to rebuild you.  Maybe it’s a chiropractor, naturopath, nutritionist, personal trainer, whatever the case may be, but let those who have tools teach you how to move toward health and away from disease.

Leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Yours in Health,

Dr. James Ashley, DC

So what did I tell her, you ask?  I simply told her this.  In this world, there are crazy people.  People who want to hurt others and don’t care what happens to anyone else.  Here’s the thing about crazy people, if they’re crazy, they will find a way to get what they want.  It doesn’t matter what laws we change, or how much we try to protect ourselves, crazy people will find a way to make things happen.  In spite of all that, we can’t live our lives worried about what some crazy person is doing.  As a marathoner myself, that could have been me.  It could happen anywhere, at any time.  But I will not be scared.  I will not be afraid.  I will continue to press onward in faith that I will grow to see all my girls walk down the aisle and maybe even one day (far far far in the future) have grandkids. What will you choose?

Yours in Health,

Dr. James Ashley, DC

Let me start with a word of caution, this post won’t just be about health.  I think we have become a nearsighted people.  We are so stuck on the instant gratification side of things that we don’t ever recognize the consequences of our actions.  In the moment, we make decisions on our nearsighted view of what we see as enjoyable.  We impulse buy things we can’t afford, we cheat on our spouses because it feels right in the moment, we overindulge on cake and cookies because they’re just so good. Our nearsightedness goes way beyond health.  Still, I want to stress the importance of making good choices for your health.  While yes, we look at the donuts or cake or soda or whatever the next person brings into the office and we partake in them because we don’t recognize the devastation they have on not only our health, but us reaching our goals as well.  See we don’t look at the cake, donut, Snickers bar, etc. as all that bad.  All we see is a few extra calories.  We don’t see the fact that it drives us closer to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, etc.  We also don’t see that every time we take in those things that we are pushing ourselves farther and farther from reaching our goals.  The reality of the deprivation of skipping these things isn’t that you are depriving yourself of something you love.  The reality of this deprivation is that you are in fact depriving yourself of sickness down the road.  Now I don’t know about you, but this is something I’d love to have.  I’d love to be able to live into my old age without heart disease, cancer, being able to chase my grandkids, etc.  The real reality is that there is no negative to increased life and vitality you get from making quality choices over and over.

Maybe what we need to do as a people is begin to look beyond the moment.  Maybe we need to look at where the decisions we are making today will take us in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years.  I believe that if you began to look at how good or bad your life will be in the future based on the decisions you are making today, a lot of the decisions you’re making would be different.  Living for the future is hard, but highly rewarding.  See, I want to be the guy that gets to look at my wife of 50 years and smile and rejoice that we have persisted through the tough times.  I want to be the 90 year old man trying to set records on the track.  More importantly, I want to look back at where I am 50 years from now and see all those people that I helped to come journey along with me.  Are you willing to be farsighted?  If so, leave me a comment and we can journey together.

Yours in Health,

Dr. James Ashley, DC

The problem with migraines is that there can be many causes.  In women, migraines can occur due to anemia and poor blood circulation.  Perhaps you have a job where you sit at the computer all day.  That as well can be a cause of a migraine.  Some issues with migraines are due to the foods you eat.  Things that are full of fake sugars are a trigger for some, but should be avoided by all.

Still other causes involve things that can be remedied by a chiropractor.  If you do have a job where you are seated in front of a computer all day, then you are predisposed to problems based on poor posture and increased probability of having your head shift forward which changes the curve in your neck and stretches out your spinal cord as much as 5-7 cm!  Not only does this affect your migraines, but it also affects the ability of your brain and spinal cord to properly transmit messages to the rest of your body including your vital organs.  Another issue that can be occurring is what is known as hemisphericity.  While this is a fancy term, it simply refers to abnormal communication between the hemispheres of your brain.  Using the principles of chiropractic neurology, we can test and see if this is a cause of your migraines.  If properly addressed, treatment of migraines through chiropractic can be very successful.

Call us today to see if we can help your migraines!

Yours in Health,

Dr. James Ashley, DC

The marathon itself started very well. I had put in good training and felt very smooth for quite awhile.  The Austin course is full of hills so it is going to add another challenge to the 26.2 miles in itself.  My initial 5k was a little slower than my pace, but it was to be expected due to the throngs of people you have to navigate through.  However, from that point on, things went just as planned for a majority of the race.  My goal was to run the entire thing in 4 hours and 30 minutes.  My pace was to set me up for a 2 hour half-marathon which would give me some wiggle room on the back end for fatigue.  I actually came across at exactly 2 hours in the half and was still feeling well. I thought I was in a good position to meet my goals.  Then about mile 18, something unexpected happened.

Just past the 18 mile mark, I started getting some mild cramping in my quad muscles.  I made sure to stock up on Gatorade and the next few water stops hoping to minimize the problems.  The other problem I ran into was that when I started to stretch those using a standard standing quad stretch, my hamstrings tried to lock up on me. Despite all this, my second 10 miles I still managed a respectable 10:24 min/mile pace.  However, things changed for the worse just passed mile 20.

Around that time, my cramping began to really hamper my ability to run.  In fact, it hurt like crazy.  I found myself picking landmarks to try to run between to keep my pace up.  The problem was that even after a 100 yards or so, my cramps in my quads, feet or groin would try to lock my legs down so that I couldn’t keep moving forward.  I wasn’t going to quit.  I had worked too hard and wouldn’t let myself give up for a few reasons.  Sometimes in life, things get hard.  You are going to run up against all kinds of obstacles whatever you are trying.  If I am going to tell my patients they have to have the stamina to keep going, then I better be willing to do the same.  As well, I wanted my kids to see me push through the hurt and the pain.  They’re young so honestly, they may not remember it, but I will be sure to let them know when they get tired during their sporting activities.  More than all this, however, was the fact that I had to finish this for my family.  I ran in honor of my sister-in-law who never had the opportunity to run due to a chromosome deletion.  I ran in honor of my wife who wasn’t able to participate due to her own reasons.  As well, there is a saying “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”  On that day, I found out what my body is capable of.  I found out what my mind was capable of.  I found out what I am capable of if I am willing to push through some pain.  Who knows what that will do for me in the future, but I am blessed to know that I am capable of far more than I ever imagined.

I finished.  No, I didn’t meet my goal of 4:30.  I actually finished in 4:55.  Due to the cramping, my last 6 miles were at a 16:40 pace.  They were brutal, but I never quit.  Now I am a marathoner!  I hope that you will find a way to push yourself to see how far you can go.

Yours in Health,

James Ashley, DC

Be Blessed!

Dr. James Ashley, DC

This is also why I love sports.  This not only applies to this race, this applies to life.  I don’t know what you’re involved in.  Maybe you decided this is the year you are going to lose weight.  Maybe you’re a business owner like me and have decided this is going to be your year.  That you are going to grow far beyond where you are now.  That you are going to make more money than you’ve ever made before.  Maybe you have a goal of getting to Disney World with your family.  Whatever the case may be, I can guarantee there will be unforeseen circumstances.  There will be moments when you’re going to have to look at yourself and tell yourself you have to move farther than you are now.  That you have to be willing to invest in yourself more than you are now.  Whatever the case may be, I hope that you can be inspired to continually push forward and to defeat everything that gets in the way.

So, how bad do you want it?

Yours in Health,

Dr. James Ashley, DC

Here in our country, we seem to have a rampant sweet tooth. In fact, in her book, The Virgin Diet, author and nutrition expert JJ Virgin writes, “We eat 140 pounds of sugar a year, but 10,000 years ago we only ate 22 teaspoons a year (The Virgin Diet, p. 126).”  As you can see, this is a factor that is contributing greatly to the rise in obesity.  Why then would I recommend staying away from things like Splenda if it is essentially calorie free?  Splenda has become a popular sweetener these days as it is marketed everywhere because it is the only zero-calorie sweetener “made from sugar.”  Let me remind you that not all calories are created equal and just because something claims to have zero-calories doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some effect on your body.  Before we go much further, let’s look at the history of sucralose.

Sucralose was first approved for the use as a food additive by the FDA in 1998.  However, sucralose was discovered long before that.  In 1975, at Queen Elizabeth College in London, a graduate student was trying to create pesticides using chlorinated sugar molecules.  Somehow in the midst of communication, the student incorrectly heard his professor and believed him to say “taste” the compound, rather than “test” the compound.  After this taste test, he found it was surprisingly sweet, actually upon testing it is almost 600x sweeter than sugar.  Due to the sweetness, the compound was then looked at as an artificial sweetener.

Here is where things get a little tricky.  Splenda is advertised as having the same reactions in your body as salt.  The problem is that salt is an ionic bond that is easily breakable and the bonds created in sucralose are covalent bonds which are not easily breakable.  In fact, sucralose more closely mimics DDT, PCB’s, and other harsh chemical pesticides in it’s structure.  Those are some of the same ones that have been previously banned as they were dangerous to human health.

After being asked about studies regarding sucralose by a local acupuncturist, I did a little research on that as well.  According to the FDA, sucralose has been the subject of over 110 studies, both human and animal.  Before we go too far, remember this is the same FDA that allows for the sale of lots of toxic products and is not in the business of making sure you are healthy.  Here is the truth on the studies.  Of the 110, 84 studies are available to the public for review.  According to a report by Integrated Supplements, “Of these studies, only 15 were safety studies and only 5 of these were safety studies performed on humans…thelongest human toxicity study only lasted 13weeks(Integrated Supplements Newsletter, June 7, Vol 1, Issue 6.)  Realistically, there has been no definitive long term study on the toxicity of Splenda and sucralose.  Here is the conundrum, at the same time, because there hasn’t been a long-term study, it would be impossible to say that Splenda is 100% toxic for you as well.

Here is what we do know for sure.  One study published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health did note that Splenda decreased the amount of good probiotic bacteria in the animals tested by up to 50%, increased the pH level in the intestines and ultimately led to more weight gain. In addition to this, other studies have shown that those who use artificial sweeteners note an increase in the risk of obesity.  As well, you could look at the numerous health issues that others have noted when using Splenda which can include:

• Migraines
• Agitation
• Numbness
• Dizziness
• Diarrhea
• Swelling
• Muscles Aches
• Stomach and intestinal cramps
• Bladder Problems

In addition to this, why not just use a little common sense?  Have we ever taken a product or something that occurs naturally in nature, altered it’s chemical structure in a lab, and made it MORE healthy for you?  I really can’t think of one.

Ultimately, it is your decision what you put into your body.  You are more than welcome to use sucralose.  No one will stop you at this point in time.  However, I’d think twice about using it or giving it to my kids.

Yours in Health,

Dr. James Ashley, DC

I will try to do something a little more health related later this week.  For now, that’s it!

Yours in Health,

Dr. James Ashley, DC

In spite of all this, I am somewhat okay with my progression thus far.  Two weeks ago I managed to run 15 miles.  Now this may not sound like an accomplishment, but fora sprinter, this is phenomenal.  I did suffer a setback this weekend unfortunately.  I was doing some work in the garage and stepped off the ledge slightly wrong causing a mild sprain of my ankle.  While it doesn’t seem like a big deal, the following day I was supposed to run 17 miles, but after 5 I noticed some calf cramping which I believe to be the problem of altered biomechanics due to the ankle sprain.  In order to avoid further injury, I did stop what I was doing so that I can hopefully get back on schedule this week.  I am using ultrasound, myofascial work, and kinesiotaping on my calves and ankles to make sure I can continue along with this journey.

That’s it for me for now.  Hope you all continue to have a blessed new year!.

Yours in Health,

Dr. James Ashley, DC