My thoughts on a Wellness Lifestyle...

There are a number of things that you can do to ensure a wellness lifestyle.These include regular chiropractic adjustments, minimizing the sugar and starches in your diet, drinking more pure water, turning off the television, smoking cessation, attracting love and intimacy, and becoming an advanced citizen.

Regular chiropractic care, eating a healthy diet, taking whole food nutritional supplements, keeping your weight under control and stress management are all part of an overall wellness lifestyle that, if followed, results in a longer, healthier and pain-free life.  Here is my list of basic tips to help you maintain a healthier, more vibrant body.

Regular Chiropractic Adjustments

Numerous studies have demonstrated that chiropractic care is one of the most effective treatments for back pain, neck pain, headaches, whiplash, sports injuries and many other types of musculoskeletal problems.  It has even been shown to be effective in reducing high blood pressure, decreasing the frequency of childhood ear infections (otitis media) and improving the symptoms of asthma. [Find studies and indepth discussions in the All About Chiropractic section of our website]

Chiropractic is so much more than simply a means of relieving pain.  Ultimately, the goal of the chiropractic treatment is to restore the body to its natural state of optimal health.  In order to accomplish this, at Koenig Wellness we use a variety of treatment methods, including spinal and joint adjustments; trigger point therapy; physiotherapy modalities like muscle stimulation, ultrasound, diathermy and low level laser; nutrition, exercise rehabilitation; and massage; as well as counseling on lifestyle issues that impact your health.  Since the body has a remarkable ability to heal itself and to maintain its own health, my primary focus is simply to remove those things which interfere with the body’s normal healing ability. 

Just like continuing an exercise program and eating well in order to sustain the benefits of exercise and proper diet, it is necessary to receive chiropractic adjustments to ensure the health of your musculoskeletal system.  When you make routine chiropractic care a part of your lifestyle, you avoid many of the aches and pains that so many people suffer through, your joints will last longer and you will be able to engage in more of the activities you love.

Many years ago, dentists convinced everyone that the best time to go to the dentist is before your teeth hurt – that routine dental care will help your teeth remain healthy for a long time.  It is important to remember that, just like your teeth, your spine experiences normal wear and tear – you walk, drive, sit, lift, sleep and bend.  Regular chiropractic adjustments can help you feel better, move with more freedom, and stay healthier throughout your lifetime.  Although you can enjoy the benefits of chiropractic care even if you are only treated for a short time, the real benefits come into play when you make chiropractic care a part of your lifestyle.

Maintaining Good Posture

Poor posture creates a lot of stress on your spine and chronic muscle tension, leading to pain and stiffness.  This happens because the weight of your upper body must be supported by your back muscles instead of the bones of your spine.  The further your posture deviates from normal, the greater the stress on your back and the more pain that you will experience.

To illustrate this idea, think about carrying a briefcase.  If you had to carry your briefcase with your arms outstretched in front of you, it would not take long before the muscles of your shoulders would be completely exhausted.  This is because carrying the briefcase far away from the center of your body places an undue stress on your shoulder muscles.  If you held the same briefcase down at your side, your muscles would not fatigue as quickly because the briefcase is closer to the center of your body and the weight is, therefore, supported by the bones of the skeleton, rather than the muscles. [Find a more indepth discussion in the Success In Your Spine and Posture Products & Tips sections of our website]

Reducing Stress

Modern life is full of pressure, stress and frustration.  Worrying about your job security, being overworked, driving in rush-hour traffic, arguing with your spouse — all these create stress. According to a recent survey by the American Psychology Association, fifty-four percent of Americans are concerned about the level of stress in their everyday lives and two-thirds of Americans say they are likely to seek help for stress.

You may feel physical stress as the result of too much to do, not enough sleep, a poor diet or the effects of an illness. Stress can also be mental: when you worry about money, a loved one’s illness, retirement, or experience an emotionally devastating event, such as the death of a spouse or being fired from work.

However, much of our stress comes from less dramatic everyday responsibilities. Obligations and pressures which are both physical and mental are not always obvious to us. In response to these daily strains your body automatically increases blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, metabolism, and blood flow to your muscles. This response is intended to help your body react quickly and effectively to a high-pressure situation.

After decades of research, it is clear that the negative effects associated with stress are real.  Although you may not always be able to avoid stressful situations, there are a number of things that you can do to reduce the effect that stress has on your body.  The first is relaxation. Learning to relax doesn't have to be difficult. [Find specific techniques for stress reduction in the Wellness Thinking section of our website]

Maintain a Healthy Body Weight

Most people know that excessive body weight contributes to the development of a number of conditions, such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and colon cancer.  However, it may also be a major contributing factor for the development of spinal and joint pain.  Our spine and joints are designed to carry a certain amount of body weight.  When they are exposed to the excess pressure of being overweight, they become stressed and, over time, can suffer structural damage. Spurs in the joints are often a result of the body trying to widen joint surfaces as a result of being over stressed. Being overweight significantly contributes to symptoms associated with osteoporosis, osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), degenerative disc disease (DDD), spinal stenosis, and spondylolisthesis.

In addition to joint pain and degeneration, those who are overweight may suffer from fatigue, as well as difficulty breathing and shortness of breath  during short periods of exercise. The fatigue and shortness of breath causes one to avoid activity and exercise, thus negatively affecting health. It can be a vicious circle.

If you are currently overweight and suffer from joint pain, please talk to me about effective and healthy ways to lose weight.  Not only will your pain improve, but you will decrease your risk of most major degenerative diseases at the same time. [Find more indepth discussions about weight loss in the All About Nutrition section of our website]

Get Enough Sleep

Research suggests that the amount and quality of sleep we achieve has profound effects on wellness. Nightly sleep is critical for the restoration of health.

Sleep expert and President of the American Sleep Research Institute Lynn Larson explains that the link between sleep and decreased longevity is due to the immediate effect lack of sleep has on human performance. Missing sleep leads to poor decision making and affects everything we do: rushing when we should be methodical, forgetting important procedures, loss of attention (such as when driving), not having the energy to exercise, poorer reaction time, higher stress levels, elevated blood pressure, and inability to adapt to change. These things lead to accidents in the short term, and poor health in the long term.

Research at ASRI suggests that the amount and quality of sleep we achieve has profound effects on wellness. Nightly sleep is critical for proper function of: the brain, immune system, endocrine system, digestion, as well as for energy, recovery from injury, and restoration of health. The lifestyle changes explained throughout this website are all intertwined with sleep. Sleep gives us the energy, the will, and the foundation to accomplish these changes.

Approximately 100 million Americans struggle with difficulty sleeping. If you have trouble falling asleep, or staying asleep, there are some “tricks” to improve the situation. To some extent, insomnia can be like the old expression about fear: there is nothing to fear but fear itself. Sometimes, just the fear of not being able to sleep causes enough stress to keep us awake. Don’t worry, these guidelines should help.

• Sleep is like a good meal. It must be at the correct time and well anticipated; it helps to be hungry, the food should look, taste and smell good; your surroundings should be pleasing; and you should have plenty of stress free time to enjoy it. Make your bedroom as inviting as that meal and you will sleep better.
•  Don’t look at the clock. Studies have shown that looking at the clock during the night increases insomnia. You will sleep more if you ignore the clock when you wake up during the night.
• Leave work at the office and don’t take it to bed with you.
• If you wake during the night – do not think! Mental distraction is the name of the game. Try counting backwards from 100. The first times that you try this technique you might count from 100 two or more times. It’s OK. Eventually you will fall to sleep at about 95. You are training yourself to stop thinking about problems and to fall to sleep instead. It will take time to learn this good habit.
• No caffeine after dinner. The half life of caffeine is about four hours.
• Alcohol makes you doze off quickly, but after it metabolizes it will interrupt sleep later in the night.

Good health and sleep are closely linked. Just as we improve our eating habits for better health, we should also improve our sleep habits.  Sleep debt is a costly problem in our society, both fiscally and physically.  Sleep should be a priority and not just a negotiable need determined by our busy schedules.  Good sleep not only reduces costly back problems but also helps to prepare us for a more productive, alert and safe day ahead. [Find information about mattress selection in the Posture Products & Tips section of our website]

Balance Starts At The Feet: Wear Orthotics

Orthotics are custom fitted inserts that you place into your shoes to keep your feet functioning correctly. Your feet are the foundation of your body. They support you when you stand, walk, or run. And they help protect your spine, bones, and soft tissues from damaging stress as you move around. Your feet perform better when all their muscles, arches, and bones are in their ideal stable positions.

The foot is constructed with three arches which, when properly maintained, give exceptional supportive strength. These three arches form a supporting vault that distributes the weight of the entire body.  If there is compromise of one arch in the foot, the other arches must compensate and are subject to additional stresses, which usually leads to further compromise.

By stabilizing and balancing your feet, orthotics enhance your body’s performance and efficiency, reduce pain, and contribute to your total body wellness. Since the average person spends almost two-thirds of their day in shoes, it’s important to make sure that they provide optimal support. On your next visit to Koenig Wellness, ask if orthotics would be helpful for you! [Find more information about orthotics under the Treatment Room tab at the top of the Home Page]

Drink More Water

By drinking enough water, you will be helping your body to remain healthy. Ideally, the average person should consume around ten cups of water per day, or just over a half gallon. 

Water is the single-most abundant nutrient in the body, accounting for around 60% - 65% of your total weight.  It is also the least forgiving of all the nutrients you consume.  You can survive for weeks without food, but for only a couple of days without water.  Water is responsible for the transport of nutrients, oxygen and waste products, as well as for regulating your body temperature and serving as the medium in which all of your body’s chemical reactions take place.  Most people do not drink enough pure clean water.

Drinking an adequate amount of clean water every day is one of the most overlooked, but simplest ways of keeping your body healthy.  Water is used to help the body cleanse itself of toxins and metabolic waste.  Although drinking water has become more popular over the past several years, many people still do not consume enough water.  Instead, they drink coffee, tea, juices and soft drinks and figure that they get enough fluids.  It is true that when you drink these things you are consuming water.  However, along with the water, you are also consuming a lot of other stuff that the body will need to ultimately eliminate, so the potential beneficial effect of the water is somewhat negated.  To make matters worse, drinks that contain caffeine, such as coffee, tea and soft drinks, actually cause more water loss than the amount of water they contain, resulting in a net loss of water. [Find more indepth discussions about weight loss in the All About Nutrition section of our website]

Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

People know that they should eat more fruit and vegetables in their diet, but let's be honest, most people don’t do it.  It seems lately that the four major food groups of the American diet have gone from dairy, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and meat to refined grains, sugar, starch, salt and caffeine.  Because of the easy availability of fast foods and snack foods, we have lost our taste for fruits and vegetables; especially vegetables.  It is not uncommon for many people to go for weeks without consuming a single serving of fresh vegetables.  This is not good.

The human body evolved with a diet high in fruits and vegetables, and is dependent on many of the compounds unique to plant foods in order to operate correctly.  If you don’t consume enough of these plant compounds, your energy level will suffer along with your overall health.  Most people are shocked at how much better they feel when they cut down on the fast foods and snack foods and increase their fruit and vegetable intake. This simple change can change lives profoundly. 

If you find it difficult to work in several servings of fruits and vegetables into your routine every day, you may find it helpful to supplement your diet with what is called a “greens” supplement, which is a highly concentrated powder of fruits, vegetables and antioxidants. My favorite product is Cruciferous Complete by Standard Process. It is a must for children who do not eat there vegetables.

Increasing your consumption of fruits and vegetables is an important way to improve your overall health.  The key is to make it part of your lifestyle - to make it a new habit. [Find more indepth discussions about weight loss in the All About Nutrition section of our website]

Cut Down on Sugar

In a recent shocking study done by the USDA, it was reported that the average American consumes 134 pounds of refined sugar every year, or approximately 20 teaspoons of sugar per day.  As hard as this may be to believe, consider the following facts:

• A 12 oz. can of Pepsi™ contains 10 teaspoons of sugar
• A 2 oz. package of candy contains 11 teaspoons of sugar
• A 16 oz. cup of lemonade contains 13 teaspoons of sugar
• A cup of Frosted Flakes™ contains 4 teaspoons of sugar

This high level of sugar intake is very unhealthy and contributes to obesity, Type II diabetes, heart disease due to elevated triglycerides, kidney stones, dental caries, chronic tiredness and reactive hypoglycemia.  Decreasing your sugar intake is as simple as avoiding foods which are high in refined sugars, such as soft drinks, candy, cake and donuts, as well as most condiments.  When you purchase sweetened food, look for products that are sweetened with apple juice or stevia, rather than sugar or its evil cousin, high-fructose corn syrup. [Find more indepth discussions about weight loss in the All About Nutrition section of our website]

Take a Whole Food Multiple Vitamin

Many people don’t think that they need to take vitamin supplements because, after all, the human body did not evolve to need supplements – as long as you eat a balanced diet, you can get everything that your body needs, right?  While it is certainly true that people living a thousand years ago did not have multivitamins, they also did not have thousands of tons of toxic chemicals being pumped into their environment every year; they were not exposed to a constant man-made electromagnetic field from power lines and cell phones; they did not eat highly processed foods that contained artificial colors, flavors and preservatives; they were not sedentary; and they were not under constant stress at work and at home.  Our bodies suffer from our fast-paced, high-stress, highly processed lifestyle.

The reality is that we need to give our body some help in order to stay healthy in the world today.  That’s where supplements come in.  Supplements help to ensure that your body gets all of the extra vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and probiotics necessary to function the way it should.  You can find more information about the importance of vitamins on this site. [Find more indepth discussions about weight loss in the All About Nutrition section of our website]

Get Into the Light

One of the most important nutrients for your mind and body speeds toward you at 186,000 miles per second from more than 93 million miles away. This nutrient is called sunlight. Most people don’t think of sunlight as a nutrient, but it is. Sunlight is necessary for regulating proper hormone function, calcium absorption, bone health as well as a normal daily sleep-wake cycle (circadian rhythm). In fact, if you don’t get enough sunlight in your daily ‘light diet,’ you can suffer deficiency symptoms, such as:

• seasonal depression (also known as Seasonal Affective Disorder)
• poor quality of sleep
• a loss in work performance (especially in night-shift workers)
• disrupted melatonin regulation
• depressed cortical brain activity
• depressed immune function

Unfortunately, the light to which most of us are exposed each day comes from manmade sources,  such as fluorescent, sodium and incandescent lights that do not produce full-spectrum sunlight.  Numerous studies have shown that these limited-spectrum artificial light sources can make students irritable in school, reduce production among factory workers and make office workers sluggish. In one study, researchers even found that calcium absorption dropped off in the elderly who spent their days indoors during the winter, while those who spent time under full-spectrum lighting had an increase in calcium absorption.

Getting enough full-spectrum light can give your mood a tremendous boost.  Light can help reduce stress, help you feel happier and improve your ability to concentrate.  To make sure that you are getting enough light in your diet, doctors recommend the following tips:

• Try to spend at least 15 minutes outside every day; even when it's very cloudy.
• Begin using a light box during the fall and winter seasons, especially if you tend to get the winter blues.
• Stop wearing sunglasses as they create very unnatural light for your eyes. Sunglasses should only be worn when you need to protect your eyes from physical harm or very bright light.

Keep Your Heart Healthy

Heart disease is currently the number-one killer of adults in the United States.  This is unfortunate because most heart disease is caused by poor lifestyle choices.  The four big lifestyle changes you can make to ensure to maximize the health of your heart are exercise, maintaining a healthy body weight, taking a high quality whole food nutritional supplement and stopping smoking. 

Just as exercise is important to the health of your neuromusculoskeletal system, it is also critical to the health of your heart.  When you regularly exercise, your body becomes much more efficient at using oxygen and burning calories and your blood pressure is normalized.  This decreases the stress on your heart.

Another easy way to reduce the stress on your heart is to decrease the amount of body fat you carry around.  It takes approximately one mile of additional blood vessels to supply one pound of additional fat.  If you are twenty, thirty or fifty pounds overweight, it is easy to see how that extra body fat can place an undue burden on your heart.

Vitamins E and C and folic acid are the three most important nutritional supplements to take for your heart.  Vitamin E is a powerful fat-soluble antioxidant which helps to prevent the cholesterol in your blood from becoming oxidized.  High cholesterol levels in the blood, per se, are not that big of a deal.  Cholesterol only becomes dangerous when it interacts with an oxidizing radical.  Vitamin E helps to prevent this. One alarming note: recent studies cause me to be concerned about cholesterol-lowering shortcut drugs called statins. The studies reveal that statin drugs actually block Co-Q10 in the heart. Co-Q-10 is what the heart uses for energy. The statin drugs may actually be doing harm to the very organ they are trying to protect! Lower your cholesterol the healthy way; with diet and exercise. Ask me and I will show you how we might be able, along with your medical doctor, to get you off those statin drugs.

Vitamin C is important to help strengthen the walls of the arteries and prevent the development of cholesterol plaques inside the coronary arteries.  Did you know that the arteries that are the most likely to develop cholesterol deposits are the ones that are close to the heart?  The reason is that when the heart contracts, it pushes blood out with a great degree of force.  If the walls of the arteries which are closest to the heart are not as strong as they should be, they will tend to momentarily stretch out like a balloon and cause small tears to the inside arterial wall as the rush of blood from the heart passes by.  These small tears serve as a place where platelets and cholesterol form deposits.  High levels of vitamin C reduce the number of tears in the arteries by strengthening the collagen tissues around the arteries, keeping them from expanding too much as blood pulses through.

The third vitamin which is important is one of the B-vitamins called folic acid.  Folic acid, also called folacin, is important for reducing the level of homocysteine in the blood.  Homocysteine is a metabolic by-product which can contribute significantly to the development of heart disease.  I make sure Koenig Wellness is always fully stocked with the finest whole food supplements containing natural E, C, and folic acid. One of my favorite heart formulas is Cardio-Plus by Standard Process. [Find more indepth discussions about weight loss in the All About Nutrition section of our website]

Change Bad Habits

Changing habits is like starting a new job, the first couple of weeks are stressful and disorienting, but if you just hang in there, you will feel at home before you know it.

There are three things that have to happen to successfully change a habit. The first is that you must make the decision to change. When you make a decision, you are affirming to yourself that you are willing to go to any lengths to make your wishes come true. This means that you will need to completely eliminate the word “try” from your vocabulary. When you say “I’ll try to do my exercises,” you are leaving an open door to not doing them. Then in your mind, if you don’t do your exercises, that’s okay because you only said you would ”try” to do them. If you want to successfully change your habits to live a healthier life, you cannot leave an open door to your old habits. You need to just do it, just make a decision and not look back.

The second thing is to act “as if.” Whenever you change what you are doing, it will feel unnatural. It may feel like you are doing something wrong, funny, or something that is just not you. In a way you are right. When you change a habit, you are by definition acting in a way that is ‘just not you.’ But in a very short time, it will feel normal and it will seem strange that you ever acted any different. Changing habits is like starting a new job, the first couple of weeks are stressful and disorienting, but if you just hang in there, you will feel at home before you know it.

The third is to work on yourself every day. The highest demonstration of a healthy and growing self-image and self-esteem is the commitment to work on yourself each and every day. You experience an elevated consciousness when you realize your power to step up to your greatness or default to your weakness with every challenge, distraction and decision. Working on yourself with consistency and persistence connects you to your inner wisdom and inner strength to become unstoppable.

Quit Smoking

If you are a smoker, you are sick of hearing this, but….  it is REALLY important that you stop smoking!  Smoking throughout the day is akin to living inside a burning building. Smoking degrades the collagen of your skin causing premature aging, destroys the cells inside your lungs, and promotes heart disease, cataracts and cancer because of the oxidizing radicals released into the blood stream. It can contribute to back pain by dehydrating the spinal discs.

Bone is a living tissue dependent on the functions and support provided by the other body systems. When these systems are not able to perform normally, bone is unable to rebuild itself. The formation of bone is particularly influenced by physical exercise and hormonal activity, both of which are adversely affected by cigarette smoking.

Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood and increases the level of harmful substances, such as carbon monoxide. In addition, nicotine causes a constriction of the small blood vessels that feed your spinal discs, shutting down their nutrient supply.  Over time, the loss of normal blood supply leads to your discs becoming dehydrated and they begin to degenerate.  Smoking is also known to cause an increase in estrogen loss in women who are perimenopausal or postmenopausal, which can result in a loss of bone density and increase your risk of developing osteoporosis.

There is no question that it is difficult to quit smoking.  Many people who have quit say that it was the hardest thing they have ever done.  But it is not impossible.  People do it all the time.  If you currently smoke and want to quit, there are a number of effective medical programs that can help you.  Some people have also found complimentary therapies, such as hypnosis, to be helpful in quitting smoking. Some people find acupuncture to be very helpful at reducing cravings and many people have used nicotine patches for the same reason. But these are not as effective as your unswerving, absolute commitment to do whatever it takes to not smoke today. Just limit your not smoking to today only. You can tell yourself that you can have a cigarette tomorrow if you just make it through today. Tomorrow morning when you wake up, tell yourself the same thing.

Kicking any addiction is tough. You can expect to feel stressed, anxious and irritable at first. To expect anything else is unreasonable. But you can also expect that over time it will become easier and easier to not smoke. Ask me about cessation options on your next visit.

Turn Off The Television

Watching television has detrimental effects on the brain's cognitive function, especially in kids. Studies have shown that children who watch more than two hours of television per day struggle more with aggressive behavior. There are three major trends in the health of both children and adults that have public health workers concerned: an increase in obesity, attention deficit disorder (ADD) and the amount of time spent watching television. Several recently published research studies indicate that television may be the culprit that leads to both of the others.

Watching television leads to obesity in two ways. First, every hour that you spend sitting in front of the television, is an hour spent being inactive. Kids should be outside running around, riding bikes and playing with their friends. Adults ought to be involved in hobbies and community activities. Sitting in front of the tube results in burning fewer calories and a reduction in overall metabolism. Also, a number of studies have shown that people who watch television just eat more food.

Watching television also has detrimental effects on the brain's cognitive function, especially in kids. Studies published by the American Academy of Pediatrics have shown that children who watch more than two hours of television per day struggle more with aggressive behavioral problems, difficulty in concentrating, sleep disturbances and a dramatically increased risk of alcohol consumption as teenagers. Although most studies have been conducted on children, other studies have shown that the results are just as valid for adolescents and adults as well. These negative effects can be explained by understanding the effect television has on the brain.

Broadcast television in the United States has a particular frequency of flicker that cannot be seen, but which has an effect on brain function. A number of studies measured brain wave activity in people while they watch television. During these studies it was noticed that the brain waves in people watching television were similar to people who were in a trance. This trance-like state is associated with a decrease in the function of the cerebral cortex – the critical thinking part of the brain. When people are in this trance-like state for several hours per day, it becomes more difficult to focus their attention and control their impulses.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children watch no more than two hours of television per day, and it would be better to reduce this even further. Many health experts are now encouraging parents to completely eliminate watching television for children under the age of seven, by which time their brains have the chance to develop a bit more.

Love Others

It is amazing but true that the easiest thing in the world to do to improve our own health and wellness is to express love for ourselves and others.

Although you may have never seen a doctor write a prescription for daily doses of “love,” best selling authors such as Deepak Chopra M.D., Bernie Siegal M.D.,  and Dean Ornish M.D. all write about the healing properties of love. Dr. Ornish says, “love may be the greatest of all disease-fighters, and it’s about time doctors realized it.” Dr. Ornish, a pioneer of wellness, has extensively researched how diet, exercise, and stress management can help to reverse heart disease symptoms. His book, Love & Survival explains how loneliness can ruin the body, while experiencing a sense of community and love can have healing effects.

Sharing love is the most powerful force of nature, whether it's with a pet, a friend, or a significant other. Experts stipulate that loneliness and social disconnect result from our increasing attention on technology and work. Regarding ailments such as heart disease, Dr. Ornish says that “the real epidemic isn’t physical heart disease. It’s spiritual heart disease: loneliness and isolation.”

It is amazing but true that the easiest thing in the world to do to improve our own health and wellness is to express our love for ourselves and for others. It doesn’t cost anything and it doesn’t have to take much time. The benefits of love are beyond measure.

Give of Yourself

Being an advanced citizen means that you dedicate some of your time, your thoughts and your perspectives to a cause that you believe in. This may be something as simple as volunteering
a few hours every month to visit with  senior citizens in the local nursing home, perhaps becoming a mentor to a child, or becoming active in your local government. Whatever it may be for you, by making your feelings known, you shape the world for the future generations. Your ideas are more important than you may realize, so please participate in your local, state and national organizations, and add to the process with your own individual slant. The more that all of us do this, the more we’ll develop a world which we can all be proud.

Each of us has a sphere of influence, a circle of friends and acquaintances who need to hear our message. Whether you decide to do something small or great, please accept your share of the responsibility for moving our society ahead. If we all invest our own special something, the net effect will be a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life for us all. 

Be well.