The DuPage County Health Department is pleased to announce that DuPage County has once again been recognized as one of the healthiest counties in Illinois.  The rankings are based on quality of life factors such as longevity and overall health status, including physical and mental health.

The rankings, which cover counties in all 50 states, were developed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The model has two separate rankings including Health Outcomes (how healthy we are) and Health Factors (how healthy we can be). DuPage County ranks No. 3 overall among 102 counties in Illinois. The County ranks No. 3 in Health Outcomes and No. 1 in Health Factors.

“We are very happy to be ranked among the healthiest counties in Illinois. The Health Department places a high priority on positively and effectively influencing the factors that affect the health of our residents,” said Karen Ayala, Executive Director of the Health Department.

The Health Department has undertaken several county-wide initiatives over the last several years that have contributed positively to the health of DuPage County residents. Most recently, the efforts of two initiatives, Enroll DuPage and the DuPage Narcan Program, continue to drive healthy living in DuPage. “We realize that within those programs, as well as many others, our success is due to the strong partnerships and collaborative approaches within DuPage County,” said Ayala. “These rankings are not the result of a single agency’s efforts, but rather the health care and health care safety net systems that exist throughout our communities.”

“We will not take these high rankings for granted”, says Ayala. “We have a strong history of working collaboratively throughout our community to identify our residents’ health needs and then developing innovative and effective programs that ensure a safety net is in place to keep DuPage County residents healthy.”

The online report, available at www.countyhealthrankings.org, includes an overview of each county in Illinois with a color-coded map comparing each county’s overall health ranking.

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West Suburban Wellness, a Healthy Lombard Foundation Partner shared that …

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”   Thomas Edison, 1902

The American Heritage Dictionary states that Health is, “Optimal functioning with freedom from disease and abnormality.” The two components of that definition, optimal functioning and freedom from disease and abnormality, identify the two different approaches in healthcare.

Sick care is based upon viewing the body as a sophisticated machine; that life is equal to the sum of the parts of the body. The objective of sick care is to diagnose and treat disease. Sick care focuses on treating symptoms rather than the causes of the disease. These symptoms are often treated with drugs and surgery. In reality, symptoms are the body’s attempt to rid itself of harmful agents.

Well care is based upon a philosophy called vitalism. Vitalism recognizes that there are mechanical aspects to the human body, but we are much more than sophisticated machines. Therefore, we are more than the sum of our parts, that there is an intangible part of life that cannot be measured. The objective of well care is to support your body so that you can heal yourself by addressing the causes of disease rather than the symptoms of disease. Today, more of us are interested in a higher level of health called wellness. Beyond merely feeling better or preventing health problems, we want to fully enjoy life by being at our very best mentally, physically, and socially. True health is only possible with an optimally functioning nerve system.

Chiropractic care understands that you cannot focus on sickness and disease and expect health and wellness to prevail. Merely treating symptoms and refusing to look at the body as a whole, self-healing system is a harmful mistake that is all too common. In our office, we take a broader approach to your health, and look at how you are functioning rather than just asking how you are feeling.

Those who want the very best add regular chiropractic care to their other health practices. The pleasant result is often more vitality, endurance, and the capacity to enjoy life to its fullest. Good nutrition, exercise, chiropractic care, and other preventive measures are part of a wellness lifestyle.

It is always less costly to try to maintain health and prevent injury than to deal with neglected, deteriorating health or an acute injury occurring from a weak, abnormally functioning, misaligned spine. We have observed over many years in practice that the patient who elects to do some wellness care spends far less, over time, that the individual who elects to do acute care only.

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Esther Crain in Men’s Healthy wrote this interesting post about a new study on identical twins published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise explores exactly that, and the results are dramatic.

In the study, Finnish researchers looked at 10 pairs of identical twin men. Each set of twins was in their mid-30s, and each had been brought up in the same household. Since they were identical, they also shared the same DNA. The only difference was that though they had maintained the same level of physical activity for most of their lives, one twin had cut way back on exercising in the past few years due to work or family pressure; on average, the active twin worked out at least twice a week, while the less active twin exercised less than twice a week. The research team put each twin through a host of medical tests to get a sense of their overall health.

The results revealed big differences between each twin. While the more active twins had lower body fat percentage (20.7 versus 24), better endurance levels, and normal insulin sensitivity, the sedentary twins had about seven more pounds of body fat, worse endurance, and insulin sensitivity that showed signs of early metabolic disease. Not only were their bodies different; their brains diverged as well. The athletic twins had more gray matter (the information processing part of the brain), particularly in areas that controlled balance and motor function.

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This video was provided by:

Physical Activity & Health (Clemson)

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Heidi Mitchell shared in the Wall Street Journal that ceaseless technology. A punishing workweek. That to-do list that keeps multiplying. It is no wonder at least 50 million Americans self-report an insufficient amount of sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But will sleeping more on the weekend make up for hours of lost snoozing? One sleep expert, W. Christopher Winter, medical director of the Martha Jefferson Hospital Sleep Medicine Center in Charlottesville, Va., weighs in.

More than 40 million Americans don’t get enough sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And what they’re doing about it might not be so helpful either. MarketWatch’s Jim Jelter discusses five things the sleep-aid industry won’t say.
Sleep Binge
Getting eight hours of shut-eye each night is generally recommended, but many people don’t. As the week rolls from Monday to Friday, they accumulate a sleep debt. Spending a few extra hours in bed on a Saturday morning, people assume, will help them “catch up” on lost sleep. They’re likely right. “Nobody knows how long the horizon is, probably a few nights, but studies show that recovery sleep in the short term does work,” says Dr. Winter, a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. “But the all-nighters I pulled in my residency 15 years ago? That’s gone.”

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West Suburban Wellness, a Healthy Lombard Foundation Partner shares the following wellness information:

Acid Reflux or Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) is a health condition where the contents of the stomach move backwards from the stomach into the esophagus. The acid from the stomach irritates the esophagus and can lead to severe discomfort, painful heartburn, nagging coughs and more. If left untreated, damage can occur to the esophagus over time leading to more serious health conditions.

GERD is becoming more and more prevalent throughout the world. The most common treatment for Acid Reflux/GERD is to take medications like Prilosec, Prevacid & Nexium. These medications make billions of dollars per year for drug companies, but often are only truly treating symptoms and not fixing the cause of the problem.

Recent studies suggest that lumbar kyphosis, or the abnormal curvature of the lower spine, can have a “significant effect” on the presence of the disease. Furthermore, increased thoracic, mid-back curvature called hyper-kyphosis has also been found to cause and or contribute to the signs and symptoms of GERD.

Slight, moderate, and severe spinal abnormalities and misalignments (subluxations) in the spine will put detrimental amounts of pressure on the nerves coming out of the spine. The nervous system is responsible for EVERY function of the human body, including the function of our vital organs and inhibited nerve activity can lead to disturbances of stomach function. If left untreated, the stomach and digestive tract will go into a state of dysfunction, and eventually disease.

Many GERD sufferers under corrective chiropractic care have reported significant reduction in their symptoms. Realigning the spine back to its healthy shape reduces the mechanical pressure on the internal organs and allows nerve energy to flow freely throughout the body. This restores normal function to the stomach and other vital organs in the body.

 Try a natural, drug-free, non-surgical approach to health… Try Chiropractic!

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Jenny Sugar from POPSUGAR shared that An apple a day may or may not keep the doctor away, but it sure can help you see results on the scale. Make these apple-inspired choices throughout your day and see how this fruit can help you slim down.

Breakfast: Low-Calorie Swap

Oatmeal for breakfast is an excellent choice. You can sweeten your bowl of oats with maple syrup (one eighth of a cup is 100 calories) or pour on four times as much unsweetened applesauce instead (half a cup contains 51 calories). Make this switch for a whole week of breakfasts, and you’ll not only save 343 calories, but you’ll also gain 9.1 grams of filling fiber.

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