Vol. 1, #2
Daravida News
Welcome to Daravida's online newsletter! Our goal for this publication is to create a resource for empowering our patients, both current and future, to live their healthiest lives.
The topics we'll cover can be considered talking points and I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. We can discuss during your next adjustment!
This Issue's Featured Supplements - D3 & K2
If you head to the store looking for vitamin D, you're going to find it available as D2 (sourced from plants) and D3 (sourced from animals). For the sake of time, let's consider that D3 is the more efficient option because it more effectively raises the level of the vitamin D complex, called calcifediol, in your blood.
D3 is also the form produced by your skin when you are exposed to UVB (sunlight) rays.
As well all know, Covid-19 is still dominating public consciousness, and D3 is a natural way to enhance your immune system's ability to respond properly to an invading virus. Along with zinc from our previous issue, D3 is an important measure in keeping your immune system balanced. As we discussed in that issue, balance is extremely important to an immune response. Additionally, folks with low levels of calcifediol have been shown in studies to be more prone to infections, including respiratory infections.
D3 also helps your digestive system absorb calcium, and for this reason it is important to help your body use that calcium effectively. Enter vitamin K2, which helps your body properly use calcium for bone health and at the same time helps prevent calcification (hardening) of your arteries, which is a contributing factor in heart attacks. You're likely to find D3 and K2 packaged together, which gives you one less excuse for not taking them.
Don't wait until you're sick to start taking D3 & K2. Taking a recommended daily dosage can help you keep your immune system a step ahead and ready to defend.
This Issue's Featured Essential Oil - Breathe Again
For those of you that may be unfamiliar, essential oils are highly concentrated oils produced from plants, flowers, trees, roots, and seeds. They can be used topically (properly mixed with a carrier oil such as coconut oil) on the skin, or through inhaling the aroma from the bottle or a diffuser.
Breathe Again is a blend of oils and contains Australian blue cypress, four different types of eucalyptus, Brazilian copaiba, peppermint, and myrtle essential oils. This blend by Young Living was created for enhancing your daily breathing experience. It provides a soothing, cooling aroma for places like the gym, stuffy interiors were many people share the same air, and even your bedroom as a wake-up aid. My husband enjoys using it as a supplement for seasonal allergy relief. Even the strongest OTC allergy meds aren't always enough to counter the dust and allergens in the West Texas air and he uses Breathe Again topically as often as he needs it.
Let's Get Down to Brass Tacks
If your workplace has recently reopened or you're sending the kiddos back to school, that likely means you're packing food to go for meals or snacks or buying packaged foods. Aside from trying to choose healthy food options, we should also be mindful of how we are packing them.
Most of us are packing food in a plastic container with a lid that seals tight. My husband calls any container like this "Tupperware" which shows his age. Plastics are a wonderful invention, first synthesized back in 1907; however, they are not all created equal: some plastics are safer for food packing, and some are not safe. Those that are not safe have the potential to adversely affect our health in the long term because they contain bisphenols, namely A (BPA), S, and F. Bisphenols are particularly harmful to our endocrine (hormone) system.
A quick way to tell the difference is to check the little recycling number symbol which should be (better be!) stamped or molded somewhere on the piece of plastic you're using. So which ones are ok?
Here's a little rhyme to help you remember which plastics are safer:
FOUR-FIVE-ONE-TWO, ALL THE REST ARE BAD FOR YOU.
For example, most water bottles you'll find at the grocery store (Ozarka, Nestle, Aquafina) use #1 plastics for their product.
This little rhyme isn't just true for food packaging. Take a look at your child's toys, the cooking spoons in your kitchen, and the fabric on your furniture. Plastics are a part of our everyday life and the more we contact them, the more we are potentially impacted. It's all about ditching that BPA.
If you'd like to "take the red pill" and go down the rabbit hole of learning how plastics and other everyday items that we are in contact with are affecting our health, Dr. Shanna Swan provides an excellent set of resources. I would also encourage you to explore her site and her research.
PS... you shouldn't ever microwave your food in a plastic container
PSS... the linings of most canned foods are plastics.
PSSS... if there is no recycling number symbol on something that appears to be plastic, then that thing isn't meant to be recycled because it contains substances other than plastic
Leave You With a Smile
