Health and Vision Boards

Up until recently I had no idea what a vision board was. Just like everyone else I would write my New Year resolutions in a list and I would find that by March- April I would be struggling to keep them, and those were the ones I remembered!

Then one day my dear friend Chloe White invited me to a Vision Board workshop that she was hosting. A little research revealed that this was something recommended by Oprah :) , so I went, I loved it and I was hooked! I've been doing them ever since and I have noticed that sticking to my resolutions is so much easier when you have a visual, and lots of fun!

So, if you have never heard of vision boards, you are probably wondering what they are and what a workshop entails. Basically I would define a vision board as a collage of pictures that represent your intentions. In the workshops that I have attended, we had lots of fun leafing through magazines and cutting out photos, words and images that represent what we would like our lives to look like for the coming year. We used scrapbooking pages as the backing and just glued what we had cut out right there onto the board. Adding photos of self, family and other meaningful things completed the vision board and then it was hung in a place where I could see these images daily as a reminder of my intention.

As a funny aside, at the vision board workshop that I went to recently, we had just had a severe snowstorm and everybody was putting photos of beach vacations on their boards! What fun!

So what does that have to do with health and wellness you may ask? Well, statistics show that most Americans have health and wellness goals within their top 5 New Year resolutions. Achieving these goals can be easy and fun when you set these goals to pictures. Do you aspire to eat more healthily this year? Find those words or images that say that to you and put that on your board! Do you want to achieve more fitness? Put words or photos representing that! This year my vision board has images representing me getting more rest and relaxation, improving my time management and running that race in Hartford that I love! Now that my intention is set to photos, photos that I see every day, I'm sure I'm well on the way to achieving them.

Would you like to make your very own vision board? Please join us in office on March 30^th 2015 for our intention setting open house. It will be hosted by Chloe White who is an expert.  It will go from 5:30-7pm. There will also be a Foam Roller Workshop and Aromatherapy Workshop as well as complimentary massages with Angelica Macaraeg LMT. To attend please just RSVP to 860-589-1491.

Are you SUPERMOM?

· How can we have less stress and better time management skills?

· What are the best nutritional choices for our  families?

· How can we attend to our self care without taking away from other aspects of our lives?

If these questions resonate with you, then you are not alone and you are cordially invited to participate in the: Being SuperMom Bootcamp

 Complimentary introductory workshop date: Thursday, March 26th, at 6pm

Dr. Shepherd, a mom and a physician specializing in holistic health and wellness, will be presenting all seven not to be missed high content, step by step tele-workshops. The boot camp includes:

·  - 7 seminars and all the seminar materials,

·  - Your own personal Q&A time during “open office hours,”

·  - One complimentary personal clinical nutrition get acquainted session.

- In addition you will be given access to our private Facebook group of truly SUPERMOMS who provide the kind of support every mom deserves and needs.

Janet Johnson your local business writer and CEO of

www.Manufacturingadvances.com says about The Mini Mommy Summits™ :

“ …I go, go, and go.  I do this because I care so much for my clients and want the best for them.  … when

I'm in this mode, I tend to put myself last.  As a parent of two little kids… maintaining my health and energy is very important to me.  … [Dr. Shepherd] always reminds me to take care of myself first and gives me strategies on everything self-care: from simple daily stretches to nutrition guidance.   This mindfulness has made such a huge difference in my life.  Now, I have enough energy to do everything I need to do BECAUSE I take care of my health first. The Mini-Mommy Summit is a can't-miss.  It would be a blessing to your life if you attended.” 

                                                 Please register now as spaces do fill up:

 Just call 860-589-1491 or Email drdaviashepherd@hotmail.com

The Mini Mommy Summits™

Healthily navigating the supermarket aisles

I am a great advocate for preparing as many meals as possible at home and saving eating out for special occasions. In many cases this can be a healthier prospect, however so many patients seem to have so many questions when it comes to healthy quick and affordable meal preparation and most of the questions seem to surround what to buy at the market.

Having questions surrounding supermarket shopping is universal and its no one's fault that busy parents want clear cut answers when it comes to making the correct nutritional choices for their families.

Some of the recurrent questions surround reading labels, whole grains, gluten, low fat vs. low carb, which processed foods are ok, when to go organic, fresh vs canned foods and so on. If you have ever been concerned about these issues then you might want to take advantage of a resource that our patients love: Shopping with Dr. Shepherd.

We shop from the local supermarket (we don't even have to go to a speciality health foods market.) The program provides help making a nutritious meal plan for the week, making a healthy shopping list and then making the healthiest choices that the local market has to offer. In addition, I share some of my healthy recipes that even picky kids may love. (I should know, my 4 year old is perhaps the pickiest!)

As you can imagine, we can only do a few of these sessions, so if you are interested, please call the office at 860-589-1491 today to reserve your appointment. Think of registering a friend with you. If this does not speak to you but you can think of someone who may be interested, please do pass the information along. If you have questions or concerns, do call us in office and we will be happy to help.

Can chocolate help your pain?

Let me start by saying that i'm not sending you out on a candy binge! With that out of the way, please let me share some sweet news!

I recently came across a study that was published in the Journal of Neuroscience. (Just a little of my light reading :) that showed that when rats had a bulb lit under their cage they lifted their paws due to pain. Seems pretty straight forward right? I'm not a rat but I think I'd lift my paw too. Then they gave some rats chocolate and lo and behold the rats took longer to lift the paws. It seems as though the chocolate blunted their pain response in the brain and was providing some analgesia. Chocolate contains a number of compounds that are actually good for us, including a compound called anandamide which blocks pain temporarily. Interestingly enough though, in this study, while they were unable to reproduce the results with a number of other compounds that they tried, they saw a similar response to pain when the rats were given water!

OK so here are my takeaways from this:

 1) This study was done in rats so please don't break out the candy bars whenever you feel back pain, instead, maybe have a glass of water and definitely call your chiropractor.

2) This study may also be giving us some real insight into our so very complicated relationship with food! Wow!

Here are some real benefits of eating chocolate, dark chocolate without a lot of sugar and milk added in that is:

1) Chocolate is rich in antioxidants and studies show it is able to improve cardiovascular health!

2) Dark chocolate may increase satiety and decrease cravings, making it a probably the best part of a healthy diet!

3) Some studies show that the flavonoids in chocolate increase nitric oxide production. This may lead to many benefits including improved insulin regulation, improved blood flow to the brain and muscles and of course, possibly helping patients with ED?

4) This one I think is stating the obvious, but I'll mention it anyway: Studies show that chocolate helps reduce levels of stress hormones. Reducing stress hormones usually = more happy! I can definitely appreciate that benefit!

5) The benefits of chocolate seem to be never ending. From making you smarter in the short and long term,  controlling diarrhea, possibly having an effect on cancer and  alzheimer's to suppressing coughs and protecting your skin, including chocolate in your diet seems like a win win proposition!

So what to do with the leftover valentines day chocolates? Maybe an ounce or two of dark chocolate daily may be just what the doctor ordered!

Love and Pain

Hope you had a great Valentine’s Day! February is the month of love so I thought it might be a good opportunity to talk about something a little different from our usual subject matter but no less relevant to our overall health and wellness. We have mostly shared about topics such as mechanical neck and back pain and how our diets affect our pain and overall health and wellness.  May we talk a little about how the quality of our relationships affects our health and may even impact our pain?

Sometimes patients come in with neck pain, headache or back pain as their chief complaint but once we start treating and talking in the office, stress with relationships at work, relationships at home, with friends, family and even with self comes up as a major contributing factor. Sometimes, patients don't even realize until they start talking about it that these issues were bothering them so very much.  While some patients benefit from talking to a trained therapist, many just need a non judgmental listening ear.

Studies show that stressed relationships can contribute to various negative health effects including increasing the risk of having a heart attack. Studies also show stress to be worse for us than diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity or smoking.

Having worked in health care for almost 2 decades I see the effects of stress on patients’ health almost daily. Here are a couple of suggestions for keeping your relationships healthy, reducing your stress and even maybe improving your pain:

1)      Don’t take your important relationships for granted. Make time for them every day.

2)      Stay away from negative people. Spend your time with people who are uplifting.

3)      Do fun stuff with your loved ones. Family togetherness cannot be over rated.

4)      Talk to and listen to your loved ones.

5)      Be mindful of your stress and don’t “take things out” on your loved ones

6)      Make new friends: Get a hobby, join a class, volunteer all these things help us stay connected.

7)      Be gentle with yourself. Sometimes we can be our worst critics and all by ourselves cause our stress to skyrocket.

Please share your comments about this article and any of our other articles in our Facebook community: www.facebook.com/SaporitoChiropractic. We look forward to hearing from you and having you join us! 

Being Supermom

I have so many amazing things to tell you about today!

I’m certain you will agree with me that Moms are the cornerstone of our communities and that when Moms are strong and well supported the whole family and community at large benefit!  Well, over the past year we started the Mini Mommy-Summits to provide resources for our local Moms. Our community of Moms all seemed to have the same concerns: How can we have less stress and better time management skills? What are the best nutritional choices for our families? How can we attend to our self care without taking away from other aspects of our lives?

Most moms if they are anything like me feel like they are always rushing, being reactive instead of being proactive. Add to that concerns about the health and wellness of the family, not enough sleep let alone self care, and you have a real conundrum! What we have learned is that it doesn’t have to be that way. Imagine instead the utopian life where everything is planned and happens according to plan. The family is healthy in every way, and taking time to take care of Mom is always ok. Let’s face it though, the Mom who has things this much under control seems to be more the exception than the rule, and it’s no one’s fault. This just doesn’t seem to be something we talk about much and no one has been teaching us how to do this as Moms.

What I’ve discovered is that there are 7 steps to being a veritable SuperMom. I know this because, believe it or not, there was a time not so long ago when I was not so Super J. What I found is that applying the same things I learned in Chiropractic school and the things I learned while pursuing my master’s degree in clinical nutrition could be applied to my own life, and may in some ways have saved my life. That was truly one of those “healer heal thyself” moments!

So this takes me to my amazing good news: Mini MommySummits will be hosting our 7 week – “Being SuperMom Bootcamp” starting in March! We will be sharing EVERYTHING that has worked for us in 7 convenient teleclasses. Plus we will give access to an amazing Facebook group of Moms just like me who share their joys and triumphs, get help with their concerns and just generally support each other in a fantastic way. You may know someone who wants to be a part of this movement! I know I see one in the mirror every day. For more information about how to join us, just call us in office (860-589-1491) or e mail me:drdaviashepherd@hotmail.com – put SuperMom in the subject line! I can’t wait to hear from you!

Massage and Your Health

Therapeutic touch has been used for thousands of years in many different cultures. The power of touch can relieve pain and relax the receiver, aiding in the healing process. There is no doubt that massage is an effective treatment for achy muscles, but until recently, the way it worked was a bit of a mystery.

A researcher at McMaster University in Canada ( Mark Tarnopolsky,) had such excellent results from massage that he authored a study looking into why massage works so well. What his research found is what many patients experience daily: muscles that were damaged healed faster if they were massaged! In this study, muscle biopsies showed that massage actually turned on genes that promote healing and reduce inflammation!

Many people still think that massage is only a luxury – to the contrary, studies show that massage therapy can improve our health and wellbeing by: increasing circulation, releasing endorphins, improving range of motion and reducing adhesions and scar tissue.

Almost everyone loves a nice relaxing massage. Angelica our resident massage therapist certainly can do your typical relaxing massage but she specializes in relieving chronic pain and stress. Call or stop in today to pick up massage gift certificates for yourself and your loved ones.