Holistic Health Tips from NYC Chiropractor Dr. Louis Granirer

Growing up, I was a pretty skinny kid, and it wasn’t until college that all of that changed. I started weight training when I was 19 years old, and put on about 20 pounds of muscle within 9 months. I can’t say that my initial motivation was for health and the love of exercise. It was more for the desire to break free from my skinny kid complex. Back then, I did very little gym based cardiovascular exercise- for multiple reasons. One being a lack of inspiration; the treadmill, recumbent bike, and elliptical cross trainer bored me to tears. Another and even bigger reason was that I believed doing too much cardiovascular exercise would take away from my weight training gains. I liked all that muscle, and believed that I might lose it by doing calorie burning aerobic exercise. My extent of cardiovascular exercise was doing a 10 minute warm up before weight training (not enough!) and biking outside occasionally. Yoga entered my life when I was 26 and thought that was the per...

What is the hardest working system in the human body? Arguably, it might just be our immune systems. Our immune systems work every second of every day fighting and eradicating potential microbial threats that consistently bombard us. There are approximately 10 to the 28th power of microbial insults that we have the potential to come into contact with. That is a tremendous amount of microorganisms that our immune systems have to protect and defend us against. Our immune systems are divided into two parts: The innate immune system and the adaptive immune system. The innate immune system's primary mode of action is to "swallow the bad guys". The cells of the innate immune system include macrophages, monocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, and mast cells. The adaptive immune system consists of T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes. This part of the immune system adapts to all of the immune challenges that we are exposed to. We each have approximately one trillion lymphocy...

A patient came into my office recently, and during our initial interview she indicated that she wanted to lose weight. She was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and has been on Glucophage for 4 years, which is a commonly prescribed diabetes drug. I discussed with her that I would be muscle testing for food sensitivities, and she interrupted me by exclaiming "the doctors said now I can eat whatever I want, that's the purpose of the drug I'm on." In my firm sometimes snarky fashion, I went onto explain that she may think she can eat whatever she wants, but it doesn't mean that the foods she is eating aren't causing a problem for her body, and this may be why she has no luck losing any weight. The drug may be lowering her blood sugar, but the cause of the problem is still there. The drug acts as a Band-Aid for her blood sugar symptom. We'll get back to her later.  A person with low blood sugar issues may have symptoms of feeling tired, restless, memory issues,...

I have many patients that are runners and marathoners, and oftentimes they come into my office with a severe injury. A common scenario may be that they have been training for a marathon for many months. There may be 6 to 12 weeks to go before the big day, and they hobble into my office with pain in their low back, hips, knees, ankles, feet or all of the above. They say, psychically of course, "Get me better now, I need to resume training within one week, I'm perfectly healthy, I'm doing everything right, hurry up get me better, the clock is ticking." Running is not just about the physical exercise, but it's also the one thing many have to channel their stress in their lives. I get it, when I've had an injury; I have also sought help and expected the practitioner to "fix me". When my activity level has diminished (hiking, biking, yoga, chi gong, dance, etc.), because of an injury, it has been challenging for me. So, I am especially sympathetic...

I have numerous patients come see me for jaw pain and neck pain. Some of these patients are teeth grinders and this can be the underlying cause of most of the pain in their neck and jaw. Most don't even realize that they are grinding their teeth, until I look at their teeth or a dentist mentions it to them. Their teeth may look like they are wearing down and have sharper irregular edges. Unfortunately, since this is not a conscious act, most people do not know how to stop themselves from doing it. The proper term for this kind of teeth grinding is bruxism. There are many theories of why bruxism takes place. Too much excitation of the nervous system is a common held belief of why this occurs. When the body should be in a state of rest and calm, it actually is revved up. Most patients that grind their teeth at night have what is called a sympathetic dominant nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system should be less active at night, and the parasympathetic nervous system s...

Many thousands of years ago, humans realized that living alone wasn't the best option to survive in a harsh world. They were up against consistent threats, and forming a community increased their odds of survival. Communities consisted of hunters, gatherers, warriors etc., which allowed all the necessary jobs to be carried out. Humans came to realize our strength in numbers. We certainly don't have all the answers alone, and combining talents and diverse perspectives offers greater opportunity. In the microbial world many bacteria, parasites, fungus, yeast, protozoa, amoebas, etc. have to figure out ways to outwit and out last the human immune system. A vast majority of bacteria and microorganisms have evolved into communities called biofilms. A biofilm is a negatively charged group of cells that attach to each other and extracellular substances like toxins, minerals, heavy metals, microbes, polysaccharides, and fibrin. The biofilm acts like a protective force field shiel...

Can you imagine waking up one day and your big toe feels like it's been set on fire, burning with excruciating, needle-like pain? So painful that you can barely walk-to the point that you may have to miss work and stay in bed all day.  If you've ever had a gout attack, you'll know that words can't do the severity of this pain any justice. Gout is a disorder resulting from a disfunction of uric acid metabolism. Somewhere between three and five million Americans suffer from gout. Generally thought of as a genetic disorder, people with gout have a decreased efficiency of excreting uric acid from the blood.  The result is a high level of serum uric acid, which causes the uric acid, or urate crystals, to precipitate out into a joint. The body will attack the urate crystals, and in doing so also attacks the joint, causing an autoimmune response. This causes the joint to become severely inflamed, red, hot, and swollen. About 50 percent of gout attacks occur at the ...

One of the questions on my patient intake forms is, "On a scale of 1-10, how stressed are you?" Rarely does anyone put down anything lower than a 7. Most people put 8 or higher. Stress is something we all deal with, but it's not really the stress that is the problem (because that will always be there), it's the ability of our body and mind to process and manage our stress. If our bodies are functioning optimally, our "stress threshold" is increased. When our "stress threshold" is increased, we can handle more stress without it affecting us so negatively.  If you are not eating foods that enhance your physiology and balance your cortisol levels, then you are decreasing your "stress threshold." The "stress threshold" is the maximum amount of stress that your body and mind can handle before you are in a code red/burnt-out state.  This may present itself in the form of back pain, or any other bodily symptom, and even eventua...

Earlier this year, I attended the International College of applied kinesiology's annual meeting. Many nutritional supplement companies attend and set up a table with a goal of reaching out to practitioners. One table really struck a chord with me and got my attention. This company was the FlorAlive flower essence table. They are a flower essence company that uses live flower essences to make their essences. Most companies use cut flowers, and I was very intrigued by their flower essence methodology. When I get a strong intuitive hunch about something, it is VERY clear. I get a surge of energy through me, goose bumps, my body feels lighter, and I get sensations in my chest/heart. This is what I felt about this flower essence company. I'm sure many of you can relate, when you know something is true or right for you. Sometimes you just know, and you can't explain it. About 10 years ago, I was going through a break up and a healer friend of mine recommended that I try flo...

You know it's coming! It's just around the corner. We've had a couple of teasers here and there, where we put away the long johns. One thing is for sure; the weather will start getting warmer, the bulbs will start popping up, birds will begin chirping, the days will get longer, and the energy for most New Yorkers will certainly change. When the words "polar vortex" are the catch phrase for a season, you know it has been a tough winter for many. OK, people, onward and upward, which is the energy of the spring season that we are moving into.   Every season has its own specific energy that we can tap into for a more balanced and healthy physical, mental, and emotional body. Here are some healthy tips to help you get the most out of the spring energy. In the Chinese medicine system, the wood element representing the liver and its corresponding organ the gallbladder are the most active meridians and energies in spring. The liver rules the tendons and ligaments, so...

It's inevitable - we all age! It is part of this amazing journey and no one can escape the fact that our bodies and minds will change over time. Many people opt for expensive anti-aging creams, lotions, potions, rock the Botox, and focus all of their energy on external applications.  I'd like to focus this article on some amazing nutrients that are available to combat the aging process and to help you look and feel younger. A recent study out of the Yale school of medicine found that immune sensor NLRP3 inflammasone is a common trigger for age related decline.  "This is the first study to show that inflammation is causally linked to functional decline in aging," said lead author Vishwa Deep Dixit, professor of comparative medicine and immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine. "There are multiple cellular triggers of inflammation throughout the body, but we've pinpointed Nlrp3 as the specific sensor that activates inflammation with age."   If infla...