I thought I would start off the year with a short message on immunity, especially since many of you may have a poor immune system at the moment due to all of your holiday stress.  A professor of mine, Dr. Fred Barge, used a memorable story to help us change the way most people mistakenly view germs and immune function.  Some of you may have heard it before if you’ve heard me speak. 

I want you to imagine that I took all of the garbage cans out of our Chicago alleys and put them on the street like NYC does.  Do you think that our scavengers (squirrels and rats) will stay in the alley, or do you think they will come out to the street, since I moved the garbage there?  Since we are talking about garbage by the way, do you think squirrels and rats are good for our environment or bad?  Do they help with the decomposition of our waste or make it worse? I’m sure you answered that they would come to the street to where the garbage has been moved, and I’m sure you said they are good for the environment. 

Now, you see, germs are really just smaller versions of opportunistic life, like rodents.  They will survive in high quantity where there is a form of garbage that they like to live in or near, and, like rats, they are actually good for our planet.  Mind you, I didn’t say you had to say they were cute! 

Most people are running around scared of germs and viruses as if they are actually out to get you.  Calm your ego down, because none of you are that popular to these organisms, unless your body is a hospitable host due to its current state of garbage.  Nobody if perfect, but some of us have a lot more garbage in our internal system than our neighbors, and those are the individuals whom are more likely to be “infected” with illness, due to their poor immune system, not because you are popular or look cool with your new Banana Republic underwear you got from your mom at Christmas. This is why only 2 kids generally get sick in a classroom of 30 kids.  If it were the germ that caused it, then all would be sick, because kids touch and get into everything, as any parent would know.

So, for 2011, is the New Year going to bring a New You?  What are you willing to do different, or stop doing, in order to clean up your internal garbage to keep the rats/germs away?  If you are reading this, then at least you already get regular chiropractic care which improves immune system function instantly.  On the other hand, maybe you need to schedule more fun into your weekly calendar, eat less sugar, eat more greens, stretch, relax, meditate, pray, or just turn your cell phone off for 20 seconds a day.  You get to choose!

 Happy New YOU/Year!

Dr. M