Moving your body is crucial to living a long and healthy life.

There are many ways to exercise, but finding some that “click” with your lifestyle and interests may take you a few weeks. Ask friends and co-workers what they do. Look around at what people are doing. At the very least, walk! Join a gym where you can take different types of classes until you find the ones you like. Try dance and Pilates and kick-boxing and free weights and spinning and everything else that’s out there. Try the local parks to see what they’re offering. You want to exercise your extremities as well as the core muscles of your torso. You might need two different forms of exercise in order to do this. Develop muscle strength as well as endurance. Try an exercise ball. You can do Pilates exercises on the ball either through a class or a book/DVD at your local library.

Dr. Max shares his morning exercise routine.

Rest during hours of darkness.

Your overall health will improve when you take better care of your body with diet and lifestyle changes, and this will affect the way you sleep. It helps to acknowledge that sleep is a normal function and that you need to allow time for it to happen. The best time for sleep is during the hours of darkness. The right amount will vary between individuals, and younger or ill people need more sleep than others.

Daytime is not a good time to sleep, and naps perpetuate a bad cycle. A short rest of ten to 15 minutes is fine, but any more than that messes up your normal sleep cycle. In order to go to bed earlier at night, get up earlier in the morning. You’ll be tired earlier and will be able to fall asleep easier. Don’t use stimulants to stay awake. Your awakening responses will be inhibited if you use stimulants to wake up in the morning — coffee, tea, or sweet breakfast foods.

Progesterone is the hormone of sleep — use more lemon to help in this area.

The hormones for staying awake are estrogen and testosterone. If you have trouble staying awake between 1 and 3 in the afternoon, increase your good fats & oils mixed with lemon, and decrease the bad fats and oils. You should be your most alert at 3:00 in the afternoon. If you are sleeping during this time, you’re not allowing your body to go through that particular cycle.

Stimulants Red proteins cross the blood/brain barrier more quickly, which is why red caffeinated drinks are more effective in getting caffeine to the brain. Chewing gum and candies with red, orange, pink, or purple food dyes act as stimulants too.

Pillows Proper support of the head is important for relaxation. There are many types of pillows out there, and sometimes you just need to try a few of them before settling on one that really works. But here are some guidelines:

• Natural stuffing and pillow covers allow your skin to breathe. Use unscented laundry products to wash them.
• Stomach sleepers frequently use a flatter pillow, but under their abdomen instead of their head.
• Back sleepers use a flatter pillow, and sometimes an additional one under their knees.
• Side sleepers need the firmest pillows, but most pillows don’t hold your head at a proper angle. Try a wool pillow, cotton, two or more flat pillows stacked, buckwheat hull pillows, or millet pillows. The latter two are especially good for people with neck or breathing problems because the contents don’t shift unless you move them, and they don’t push against your nose.
• Side sleepers may also be able to relax better with a pillow between their knees, as well as a pillow against their back or stomach to support them. A pillow against the stomach can also support the shoulder and arm.

See Energy Cycles

Align Your Spine

Dr. Max demonstrates two exercises that align your spine so you don’t need to be adjusted with Align Your Spine.

Recovery

Sometimes we get ourselves into a state of stress where we can’t relax and rebuild at night, we aren’t putting out wastes like we should, and we don’t feel well. There are ways to encourage our bodies to move back into health. The best way, of course, is to eat right, exercise, hydrate properly, and not allow your stress levels to get too high. But if you are feeling lousy, here are some remedies that can help you feel better: Rescue Remedies.

Stresses can come from many sources, both good and bad. Laughing too much can stress you, as can crying too much, being too sad, or having too much of any emotion or stimulus. If you have had too much stress and add another stress to it, your ability to handle them won’t be as great. For instance, if you just ran a marathon, experienced the loss of a pet, and had too much to drink last night; don’t try to eat something you’re allergic too. These are all stresses and the allergic reaction could be much worse than usual.

Muscle Testing

Use muscle testing to determine whether your body will appreciate a food, supplement, or drink. Many supplements have additives or are tainted with something that would affect us badly but we won’t realize what is causing it unless we test.

Muscle testing can be done easily with a jug of water. Lift it to test your strength, then hold the food and lift it again. If it makes you weaker, eating that food harms you. If it makes you stronger, that food is good for you. Warning: clear your mind before doing this, emotions affect your strength too.

Or try finger testing.

Laser Therapy

There are two main therapies used in Dr. Collins’ office. One is diet and lifestyle changes as explained on this website and in the booklet The Basics (available from Max). The other uses a specific set of cycles run through a laser to enhance healing of the body. The laser therapy (also called FM Light Response) is complicated to explain, but basically the light and sound energy going into your body can help restore health on many levels. The laser heads are made by Dr. Collins. Though he is not accepting new patients, there are other places to receive this therapies. If you are using one of his lasers and wish to be added to the list below please contact me.

 

About Your Health: located in Columbia, SC off Broad River Road