Liar, Liar. Feet on Fire. (confessions of a "barefoot runner")

Vibram Five Finger Komodo Sport

I'm a bare-footer. At least that's what I'll tell you. I've been running in minimalist running shoes ("barefoot shoes") for the last year.   For the most part, it's been a good experience. In fact it's really been great. I ran a half marathon in them last summer, and this year I plan to run a marathon in them. My shoe of choice is the Vibram Five Fingers Komodo Sport. Great "shoes"; I feel like I'm wearing nothing on my feet at all, like I'm barefoot. But really that's a lie; I'm not barefoot. Not in the purest sense of the word, and that became ever so real today.

Last Sunday I ran three miles truly barefoot. I was in Florida, and left the Vibrams at home... on purpose.  I figured, if I'm going to truly run barefoot, now's the time; white soft sand, warm weather.  Big mistake. B-I-G big.  My feet were raw Sunday. It hurt to walk; I know it would hurt to run again the next day.  I could do it if I had my Vibrams.  Maybe after a day off I'll run again and see how it goes - see if I can build up some callous on my feet or something. On Sunday night however... I sat and suffered. The ball of my left foot and the big toe on my right foot felt like they had rug burn; like I drug them down the road while riding a Harley. Funny though. Why the difference in my foot wear? Why is one spot on my left foot and another on my right painful, but the other areas seem OK?

I'm realizing my "barefoot shoes" really cover up some issues with my running technique. My true barefoot wear today reveal imbalance... dysfunction; something I'll need to fix if I want to continue to run distance in these shoes. Certainly, the imbalances exist in the shoes too, but I just don't feel them. The thin layer of rubber between me and the ground makes me less aware of this problem- insulates me from it.

As a chiropractor I see this a lot in other people; in fact I see it all the time. They come in with a pain in only their lower back, but on x-ray we see osteo-arthritis (spinal wear or degeneration) in their neck too. Or it can be the other way around, pain elsewhere, arthritis in the lower back.  Invariably they tell me, "but I don't have pain in my neck, Dr. Zach. Never have." And I tell them, "Arthritis in your spine doesn't have to be painful. In fact it often isn't. Spinal degeneration (or arthritis) often goes undetected because of this for years without causing a problem and then... WHAM, it surfaces.   That undected wear becomes a problem, and often a big one, but unfortunately it was preventable. A few simple tests and and some wellness chiropractic care would have prevented this if we would have caught it 10-20 years ago, but now it's too late.  We can get the pain to go away, but the degeneration...that's premanent." After that I usually tell them to bring in their kids or grand kids with them so they don't end up this way too. No one wants to see that stuff in their spines, and many of these people seek care in our office to assure they don't in the future.

You see just like my feet, imbalances in our spines can cause uneven wear.  Maybe you can visualize it better if the analogy was a tire on your car.  If a tire on your car is mounted out of balance it will wear in an uneven fashion.  You won't notice it right away.  It will take years and miles before you notice a difference.  And chances are you won't be the one to notice it either.  Your mechanic will likely point it out during a regular oil change or when you have the car in for other repairs (kind of like the patient with the back pain).

 "Oh, by the way sir, looks like your tires are wearing unevenly. You want us to rotate and balance them?"

"Sure Mack, go ahead and do that.  I'm sure it'll save some time and money later by doing that now."

Your tires, your feet, your spine, or even your life for that matter, when in balance are designed to be long lasting, extremely useful, and above all else purposeful.  Just a slight misalignment however, can throw everything out of balance and before you know it you've got a blow-out; broken down and disabled on the roadside of life.

Fortunately there are "mechanics" for all areas of life.  Experts in finding imbalances and empowering you to restore balance.  For me, the first step is figuring out this uneven foot wear.  I know I'm going to need some outside help.  Someone to objectively look at where I'm at and what I'm doing.  Someone to point out the errors before this little imbalance leads to a lifetime of pain.  For you, it might be a chiropractor, a coach, a counselor, or your pastor.  Regardless of who it is, know this:

You can never live too long, be too useful, or have too much purpose. 

Vitamin D: The Real Young Gun

Do you remember the movie, "Young Guns"?  If you're a man I bet you remember the gritty 1988 action/ western with all-star cast members Emelio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Keifer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, etc.  Or, maybe you women remember the Bon Jovi hit, "Blaze of Glory", from the sequel, Young Guns II.  Either way, this movie rocked, and I quoted it often (too often) as a teen trying impress.  Yet, here I am 25 years later quoting it, and again, I'm trying to impress.  But this time, what I want to impress is an idea into your mind.

In the movie Young Guns, this band of misfits called themselves "Regulators".  Maybe you remember the line,

"We're regulators. We regulate any stealin' of his property, we're damn good too. But you can't be any geek off the street. You've gotta be handy with the steel if you know what I mean, earn your keep." 

According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, regulators act as overseers, governors, or enforcers of the law or rules.  Regulators bring order, method, or uniformity to whatever they regulate.  There are regulators everywhere.  They are in your car, your thermostat, and your oven (just to mention a few).  They are in society (police), and they are also in your body.

Your body has a multitude of regulators and processes of regulation, but there's one particular regulator that's getting a whole lot of press these days... VITAMIN D.

As a vitamin, vitamin D is unique in the fact that it is actually a steroid hormone, and by design we manufacture vitamin D in our bodies when our skin is exposed to sunlight.  In fact with just 10-15 minutes of sunlight exposure to around half of our body, we can produce more than 10,000 i.u. (international units) of vitamin D. In recent years, vitamin D has also become readily available in supplement form too.  Vitamin D has historically been labeled as the "bone vitamin", and is needed in our bodies to effectively use calcium, and therefore create strong bones.  In reality however, vitamin D is responsible for so much more.  Not only is vitamin D absolutely necessary for normal bone growth (without it, children get rickets), but vitamin D also REGULATES other extremely important processes in our bodies including (but not limited to) cell division, immunity, digestion, and reproduction.  Not only that, but recent research has shown that low vitamin D levels play a role in cancer, inflammation, and even Alzheimer's.

So, why is all of this important?  It's important because according to research,  1 in every 10 children in America are vitamin D deficient, and just about as many adults are too! 

I really don't swear much, nor do I even pretend to.  BUT PEOPLE, WAKE UP! WE'RE FREAKING KILLING OURSELVES AND OUR CHILDREN WITH OUR LIFESTYLE CHOICES!

It is too easy to get vitamin D from our environment or as a supplement to be vitamin D deficient!  I mean, seriously, for at least half the year, it's free.  Just get outside in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt or less (with good taste of course) for 10-20 minutes a day.  In fact while your out there, exercise a little and you'll reap even more reward.  Also, don't believe the "sun is evil" people.  God created you to manufacture vitamin D via sunlight exposure.  Do you think He got it wrong?  The sun does need to be respected though.  Sunburn can increase your risk of skin cancer, but you cannot create vitamin D in skin you've smothered with sunscreen.  So, give you vitamin D factories a chance to work briefly each day, preferably in the morning or evening (protect your skin after 15 minutes if your out in the mid-day sun or if you'll be in the sun for an extended period of time).  If you're going to use sunscreen, make sure it's a physical block and not a chemical sunblock.  Chemical sunblock has itself been implicated in causing skin cancer recently too. In the fall, winter, and spring (times when you're not getting adequate sunlight exposure) supplement your diet with vitamin D.  And please if you need help with this stuff, let me know.  I'm always happy to help.

I Will Not Choose Cancer

I've been thinking a lot about my last blog post and the "there are no extra parts" statement.
  I was thinking, "Well what about cancer? Cancer... that's gotta be an extra part; gotta be a mistake, there can't truly be a purpose to cancer, can there?" So, I thought, I should try to understand cancer before I label it. Why do we get cancer? What causes it? How does CANCER happen?

Here's what I've come to understand. Cancer doesn't just happen. There are no cancer cells that magically appear in our bodies. Cancer cells begin as normal cells in our body. Maybe they were stem cells; maybe through mitosis (cell division); either way these cells began in normal fashion, and like all cells in our body, they follow a chain of command. That chain might be DNA driven specialization that created brain and stomach and skin cells when I was developing in my mother's womb. Or the chain of command may be environmentally driven stem cells transforming to replace the old cells who've done their job. In our bodies, new cells are constantly being developed and old cells are passing away. It's really an amazing thing when you pull back and look at it, and it works right every time.....EXCEPT.

Well, except, it doesn't work right every time. That's where cancer comes from. When these new cells are differentiating and dividing, something interferes with that chain of command. Something interferes with the communication needed for those cells to grow and function normally. They stop listening. In fact, not only do they stop listening to the chain of command outside themselves, but they stop listening to the chain of command inside too. You see, every cell in our body has a "suicide switch", a trigger that's supposed to go off if the cell is damaged. The process is called APOPTOSIS, but in cancer cells apoptosis doesn't happen, and these damages cells keep on living, and start damaging YOU. Now that "something" that caused all this is usually damage to the DNA inside the cell. But what caused that? The answer is usually the environment. Radiation, toxins, junk food, cigarettes, make-up, etc. etc. These rogue cells start living for themselves instead of the whole body (boy.. sounds like some people I know). They act on their own accord and start creating more of themselves, and given enough time they'll take over your body.

Back to my original question. Is cancer an extra part? NO. Cancer is a foreign part. It's the wrong part. It not supposed to be there, and wasn't in the design. Cancer in your body is like a virus on your computer, a mistress in your marriage, or the debt you carry on your credit card. A virus isn't in the computer's design and doesn't necessarily care if it destroys your machine. A marriage is designed for only two people, there's no room for a third. And there's nothing that will eat away more at financial security than debt. I didn't chose cancer any more than I chose my computer crashing, divorce, or bankruptcy, but in each case it's likely that something I did led to it. I downloaded the virus, I chose the mistress, I spent beyond my means.

 I am not a victim of any of these. They are a natural process of choice. We are not victims of cancer, either. We have a say in this. Our choices in life affect the outcomes. When I choose to smoke, or drink alcohol or soda, or fatty fried food I increase my risk of cancer. When I choose water, or fruits and vegetables, or exercise I lower my risk of cancer. Chemicals on my skin or Sunburn: increased. Vitamin D: decreased.

I can't control everything in life, but as for those things I can....well, it's time to start make the right choices.

Hugo Cabret gets it. DO YOU?

After the success of the movie Hugo at the Academy Awards, my wife and I decided to rent it the other night and watch it with the kids. The kid, Hugo Cabret, lives inside the guts of the largest train station in Paris and survives on his own, keeps the station clocks running, and has an adventure. Good movie. Maybe a great movie. I don't know, I'm not an expert on movies. I do know this, however. Hugo Cabret get's it. Hugo Cabret gets LIFE.

Hugo Cabret: "Right after my father died, I would come up here a lot. I'd imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn't be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason too."

There are no extra parts in life. Everything has a purpose. Do you think the basic elements of our universe have extra parts? An atom? Elements? Nope. None there. Oxygen has 8 neutrons, electrons, and protons. Take one away and what do you get? Nitrogen. No extra parts there. Every cell in your body has exactly the right amount of parts (organelles) to work. No more; no less.

You body has no extra organs either. Appendix you say? Need it. Tonsils maybe? Need them too. In fact new research shows just how much you need these once thought of "extra" parts of the body. Researchers at Ohio State University recently found that T lymphocytes (T cells) are manufactured in our tonsils. Why's that important you? T cells are a variety of white blood cells in our bodies, and are the primary agents of the immune system and cell mediated immunity. Without them, you would die. Until this research was completed, it was thought that t cells only came from the Thymus Gland. Unfortunately, if you had your tonsils removed, they do only come from your thymus gland. No extra parts. God doesn't make mistakes. Everything has purpose.