Only 6 weeks left until we shut up for Christmas holidays. If we haven’t seen you in a while now is the perfect time to get in touch, don’t leave it until the the 24th and hope for a Christmas miracle.

You’ve all heard of the 12 days of Christmas… Well here are The 12 Facts of Chiropractic.

12 weeks to create sustainable change. Most of the cells in your body are regenerated every 12 weeks (90 days) and you can effectively rewire old patterns in your brain in that time too.

11 Organ Systems of the Body. You are an ecosystem of around 75 trillion cells, organised into tissues then organs and then systems. Although each of your 11 organ systems has a unique function, each organ system also depends directly or indirectly on all the others. They are all coordinated and integrated by the nervous system.

Cranial Nerve 10 or Vagus Nerve. The vagus nerve places a very important role as a nerve it is the link between your gut brain, heart brain and head brain. If this nerve shows good tone, it is a strong indicator of great health.

9 months to grow a new human being in a mother’s womb. Starting from just 2 cells and getting to 75 trillion! Your first 1000 days of life (from conception) set the tone for the rest of it.

8 bones in the wrist: scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum, pisiform, trapezium, trapezoid, capitate, and hamate.

7 years to replace every cell in your body. You are literally a new person to whom you were 7 years before!

6 breaths per minute give coherence between your head brain and your heart brain. Breathe in for 6 seconds and out for 6 seconds to achieve this rhythm.

5 regions of the spinal column. Cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, coccyx giving you 32 spinal segments. By age 21 your sacral segments and your coccygeal segments are fused, leaving you 24 moveable segments between your head and your pelvis.

4 primary motions of the spine. Flexion (forward), extension (backwards), side bending (left/right), rotation (turning on the central axis of the body).

3cm Shift. 5kg is the average weight of a human head in ideal alignment. For every 3 cm your head goes forward on your shoulders it doubles the effective weight of your head on your spine. Imagine the pressure that is put on your spine and nervous system!

2 thirds (2/3) of a circle is how far a spine in good condition can bend. How far can yours bend?

1 spine to rule them all. It is the lifeline of your body and is responsible for sending and receiving messages from your brain to your body AND from your body to your brain.

“A walk a day will change your life in 6 months.” - Dr Chad

Heeding Chad’s preaching about walking and the fact that summer is a great time to get out and explore our beautiful region. We’ve decided give you our Top 7 walks around Otago for you and your family to explore.

Sandfly Bay (Dunedin) - a short walk from the carpark down to the beach but can be much longer if you decide to explore the sand dune tracks. Fairly steep climb and can be a good leg workout. Not Dog Friendly, look out for seals this time of year.

Maungatua Track (Dunedin) - a 90 min - 2 hour round trip up a mountain. It is reasonably steep and can be very slippery after rain but the views from the top make it worth it. Be sure to pack water and snacks for this hike. Dog Friendly, moderate fitness is required.

Nugget Point (Clutha) - a relatively short walk but who can go past the iconic lighthouse and peaks of nugget point. a relatively easy track that we believe is wheel chair friendly for families that may not be able to join on some of the other walks. Not Dog Friendly

McLean Falls (Clutha) - a short 40 minute return walk that will usually take longer while you pose for pictures and admire the ever growing waterfalls along the track. This is a great walk on those hot days as it’s fairly shaded and cool. Dog Friendly

Lake Dunstan Trail (Cromwell) - Starting in old town you can walk the beginning of this trail up to Bannockburn it is a fairly easy going track with a few hills. The beginning of it is a shared path so cyclist and pedestrians can all use it. If you wish to do the trail to Clyde you will need to use a bike. A fun and mildly challenging ride we recommend organising a pick up in Clyde if you ride it. What’s Michelle’s favourite part about this walk? plenty of wineries to refresh and hydrate at. The walking section is Dog Friendly

Routeburn (Queenstown) - For those that want to do a serious hike you can’t go past the Routeburn. One of the great walks for a reason it has spectacular views and wildlife. A 4 day through hike or as many days as you choose for an in out adventure we recommend packing a tent as the huts get very busy and very expensive over the summer period. Not Dog Friendly

Blue Lake (St Bathans) - an easy family friendly track or a more advanced longer trail the blue lakes are such  unique area and landscape. Packed with mining history and the Welsh St Bathans is a must this summer. Both Tracks are Dog Friendly

Show us your walks! We’d love to hear and see some of the adventure you enjoy this summer. Feel free to email in picture and information about where you’ve been and we will update it in our next newsletter.

Make Memories for Good Mental Health

With summer approaching it is natural to feel a lift in mood compared to the darker months of winter. It is also a perfect time to remember we are creatures of connection and the importance of our family and friends.

Fred has been the perfect catalyst for Aidan and Chad to start scrap booking memories of all the people who love him. And thought we would share this with you all as a great activity to do with kids, family and friends. These are also great as Christmas presents.

It’s well known that we sleep better in a cooler room. So here are 5 tips you can do this summer to beat the heat and get a good nights rest.

1. Avoid tight fitting and heavy clothing. Think light and loose. Thin cotton, silk and linen pjs are best.  Light sheets and blankets are now the trend, pack up the heavy down duvets till May.

    

2. Keep a window open. A window or other source to create a cross breeze through the room can be helpful at lowering temperature. Just watch out for mosquitoes coming in!

    

3. Crank the AC. If you can’t get peace with the bugs and you have air con putting that on at around 20 degrees cool mode will help a lot… watch your power bill.

    

4. Avoid Alcohol, Caffeine and spicy foods. These three all raise our body temperature as we metabolise them. We aren’t saying avoid them all together but try not to have them within 3 hours of bed time.

    

5. Have a HOT shower or sauna. That’s right hot, when your environment is warm we sweat to lower our core temperature. A hot shower or sauna 1-2 hours before bed has been proven to improve your sleep by cooling you down.

500g New Season Potatoes

6-9 Rashers of Bacon

3/4 cup Sour Cream

2 tbs Sweet Chilli Sauce

1x handful of Chives

Salt & Pepper

Optional

2-3 Eggs

Boil the potatoes until fork tender, drain and let cool for 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile cook the bacon till crispy (I prefer to cook mine in the oven but you cook it however you usually do).

Place potatoes into large mixing bowl, chop bacon and add to bowl along with the sour cream and sweet chilli sauce. Give it a good pinch or two of both salt and pepper and then it’s time to get your hands dirty, mix that beautiful bowl of potatoes up until everything is covered. Chop your chives over - I use scissors for ease but you can cut them on a board. Give it all a mix again and taste. Adjust the sour cream, sweet chilli and salt/pepper to your liking. This keeps will for about 2 days in the fridge so can be whipped up the night before an event.

If you can’t have potato salad without eggs hard boil some eggs and cut them up to add once everything has had a good mix so the eggs don’t disintegrate.  

Artisans Christmas Markets

This will be held on Sunday 24th November 2024 at the Edgar Centre. 100% local businesses

9am - 5pm

With well over 100 stall this will be an exciting day to see what local stall holders have to offer…

Your chiropractors will be there too so pop on down to say “hi”

Beachland Races and Fireworks

It may have rained this weekend but it hasn’t rained on the parade.

The races and fireworks have been rescheduled to the 16th November.

Check their website for start time and flag drop.

Thats right the Clutha District Christmas Market is on December the 7th 10am-2pm. There will be floats, stalls and fun for the whole family. Registation for a float is open until Friday 8th November. We look forward to seeing you there!!!

Balclutha Community Garden

The local community garden of Balclutha are looking for volunteers to regularly help maintain the gardens so they can feed local families.

This is a fabulous initiative with Chad and Fred doing something similar every Saturday in Dunedin. Its great to get the kids interested where food comes from.

Open 10am-12pm every Saturday. If you’re interested call Micheal on:

South Otago Theatrical Society

Are hosting shows of the classic

BADJELLY THE WITCH

The show is sure to thrill and entertain along with fill a lot of us up with nostalgia.

They have multiple screenings so check out theatretickets for times and seats.

Kids summer sports are getting underway so what better time to get them in and ensuring their spines are healthy so they can continue to enhance and maintain their health this summer.

Senior students are gearing up for exams. Reducing postural stress is shown to help the brain process information along with memory recall!

“When you adjust the spine, You change the brain.”