Try this dip with summer's fresh vegetables or with kale chips.

Ingredients

• 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 small clove garlic, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4 teaspon sea salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped tomato (optional)

Directions

Combine all the ingredients except tomatoes in a blender or food processor, process until smooth.

Adjust seasoning to taste. Stir in chopped tomato, if desired.

Refridgerate, allowing flavors to blend overnight.  Serves 4.

At Charlotte Natural Healing, we pride ourselves in providing only the highest quality whole food and herbal supplements for you and EVERY member of your family, including your pets.  We carry a full line of canine, feline and equine products.

Our canine joint support product contains research supported ingredients that work synergistically with several vitamins to support healthy cartilage, joint lubrication and immune modulation.  It is suitable for long term use as a preventative for active dogs as well as for maintaining comfort and mobility in aging dogs.

Ingredients

• Ginger - Historically used as an analgesic, ginger contains a spectrum of compounds that moderate the body's normal inflammation response.
• Turmeric - Herbalists and naturopaths consider tumeric to be one of nature's most potent antioxidants.
• Glucosamine sulfate - This natural compound is involved in the formation of cartilage components.  Glucosamine helps stimulate cartilage growth and maintain joint health.
• Chondroitin sulfate - By absorbing fluid into the connective tissue for cushioning, chondroitin supports healthy joint function.  Chondroitin is a major component of caritlage and provides the building blocks for the body to produce new cartilage.
• Wheat Germ Oil -  Vitamin E, contained in wheat germ oil, plays an important role in protection from reactive oxygen species produced through normal metabolism and natural inflammatory processes.
• Ascorbic Acid - Vitamin C plays an important part of the collagen synthesis pathway.  Like other micronutrients, vitamin C helps the immune system by suppoprting the skin, mucosa and cell function.
• Liver powder - Live flavor enhances palatability.

Attention to Prevention Key to Avtive Life

An active life depends on good nutrition and targeted support.  Prevention is the best approach to growing and maintaining flexible joints in your dog.  Our canine joint support provides building blocks to support joint function.  Early, consistent joint support might be especially beneficial for:

• Working dogs
• Large breeds
• Highly active dogs
• Performance dogs

When Exercise Induced Stiffness Is Apparent

Exercise often results in gradual wear and tear of joints and surrounding tissues.  Ingredients found in our canine joint support encourage the body's natural inflammatory processe that can reduce quality of life, particularly for aging or very active dogs.

Contact us for more information or to get yours today!

No health choices exist in a vacuum.  Ignore physical activity?  Affect your bones (among other things)?  Avoid veggies?  Make your body scramble for essential nutrients (needed for immune response, skin rejuvenation, for example)?  Regularly eat more than your body needs or eat unbalanced foods?  Now there's a name for the collective possible results: metabolic sybdrome.

Metabolic syndrome is the name for a cluster of changes in the way the body operates.  Think of it as a handful of arrows pointing away from the bull's eye of health.  Metabolic syndrome is a set of risk factors that, when they occur together, signal an increased level of concern for heart/circulatory health and sugar metabolism.

The risk factors are:

• Belly fat - a waist greater than 35 inches for women or 40 inches for men
• Blood lipid changes - triglycerides and/or high density lipoprotein (HDL)
• Circulation challenges
• Sugar metabolism challenges

Whole Body Purification and Solution

http://www.charlottenaturalhealing.com/services/whole-body-purification/

The first step back toward health is to achieve a healthy weight.  Because no health choice exists in a vacuum, small changes need to be part of a bigger goal.  

Adding more fruits and vegertables to a diet is a start, but combined with a nightly after dinner walk, this addition transcends the dinner hour to help support an overall metabolic reset and a normal weight.  Limiting alcohol can help cut calories from an overburdened diet, but say goodbye to cigarettes at the same time for a huge step in the right direction.

Making Healthy Choices

• Design a diet high in fruits and vegetables
• Choose whole grains
• Limit sodium
• Avoid added sugar
• Limit alcohol intake
• Achieve a healthy weight

Need Help?  

Here is a great place to start.  Contact us for more information.

http://www.charlottenaturalhealing.com/services/whole-body-purification/

Do you get enough antioxidants in your diet?  If you don't or you aren't sure, we have an excellent herbal antioxidant to consider.  Our high quality herbal supplement is a well-balanced, synergistic combination of Green Tea, Grape Seed, Rosemary and Tumeric, formulated to provide complete antioxidant support.

This potent antioxidant formula may help:

• Provide strong antioxidant support
• Support healthy circulation and vascular integrity
• Maintain healthy connective tissue
• Provide mild cleansing support in the lower GI tract, which encourages proper intestinal flora
• Support healthy fermentation in the GI tract
• Support healthy production of pancreatic enzymes
• Support and maintain cellular health

Helping women (from puberty to menopause) adapt to daily challenges by supporting normal female physiolgical processes is one of the many things we accomplish daily at Charlotte Natural Healing.  A blend of three powerful female tonic herbs, White Peony, Shatavari, and Schisandra, combines to support female health on multiple levels and may help:

• Support women's general well being and vitality
• Support healthy liver function
• Support normal reproductive function in women
• Ease the effects of cramping associated with menstruation
• Ease the effects of everyday tension and stress

Hang on to your Youth

For younger patients who may be starting to think about aging or want to do the little things now to help them later in life, we offer a high quality whole food supplement to meet those needs.

This unique combination of whole foods, concentrated to clinical potency, provides long term food based, body-wide support to meet the demnands of a hectic day or intense training regimen or address the everyday wear and tear on the body due to poor nutrition, stress, inflammation and fatigue.  It offers support through a complex berry, vitamin, CoQ10 and enzyme combination designed to support energy needs by supporting base processes that fuel our cells.

Ingredients

• American ginseng - reinforces the body's ability to handle stress
• B vitamin complex - assists in turning food into energy
• Berry seeds - provides antioxidants
• Bromelain - helps with inflammation
• Coenzyme Q10 - for the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems
• Ribonucleaic acid (RNA) powder - helps provide energy
• Mushroom powder - helps maintain energy, provides immune system defense

Essential Support for Healthy Aging

For baby boomers wanting to remain active and vital well into their senior years, we offer a special blend of the highest quality herbs.  This formulation ensures an innovative, effective product to support all aspects of the aging process.  The multisystem approach of this herbal blend may help to:

• Support and maintain the body as it ages
• Help the body adapt to the changes of everday life
• Promote vitality and stamina in seniors
• Help maintain proper energy as the body ages
• Maintain feelings of general well-being when experiencing temporary stress
• Support cognitive function and normal memory function
• Support a healthy cardiovascular system in mature men and women
• Maintain and support healthy joints
• Provide antioxidant protection

Ingredients

• Korean Ginseng
• Ginko
• Milk Thistle
• and much more!!!

If you don't take the time for your health today, you WILL need to take the time for your sickness later on.

Nutrition for Olympians, High School Track Stars, Weekend Warriors, and the Occasional Gardener

We traditionally think of athletes as people who perform in athletic competitions. Their sport is their job and they work at it everyday.  But all of us are athletes while we're engaging in any form of vigorous physical activity, whether as part of our job, walking gardening, a game of basketball, or biking down the path.

The problem is we're spending less time as athletes and more time as spectators.

What ever happened to exercise?

Blame it on cars...or suburbs, or fast food, or television or the Internet.

The inevitable truth is that we don't need to exercise, so we don't.  Many jobs have transitioned from being active to sedentary and many of us live in communities that aren't "walkable" or where it isn't even safe to walk to the grocery store, library or cafe.  Leisure time?  What's that?  Americans are increasingly busy as commutes lengthen, job hours expand and commitments of each family member take their toll.

Based on a government survey in 2007, "...one third of U.S. adults did not report meeting minimum levels of aerobic physical activity," meaning: "150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity per week or an equivalent combination..."  That breaks down to 21.4 minutes of moderate activity or 10.7 minutes of vigorous activity each day of the week.

We know that the body needs regular exercise.  In one study, veterans were divided into five fitness categories and followed for six years.  After adjusting for age and known risk factors like smoking, the least fit had 4.5 times more risk of death than the most fit.  Lack of exercise contributed more to risk of death than either chronic illness or smoking.

How Exercise Keeps Us Healthy

For decades, science has amassed evidence of how exercise contributes to health.  Decreased body weight, blood pressure, and bad cholesterol as well as an increase in good cholesterol and a normal response to insulin are all well-recognized benefits of regular, planned, physical activity.

In recent years, other benefits have been explored and positive associations been made between regular exercise and mood, sleep and fatigue.  Exercise actually improves your body's efficiency when using oxygen so you can go about your daily tasks feeling more energized.

Fit at Healthy Weight Beats Fat but Fit

For those who are regularly active, it is possible to be fat and fit - just like that guy who smoked for 71 years and died, not from lung cancer but from the excitement of winning a big hand of poker after a long, full and exciting life.  Some lucky ducks have clearly won the genetic lottery but, unfortunately, there's no way to flip to the end of the biography to see how it will all turn out.

Even if you are overweight or obese but otherwise healthy, bear in mind that age is the relentless risk factor.  Our risk for pretty much everything increases as those birthdays add up.  Being at a healthy weight and being regularly active are two great ways to offset this age-related risk.  Being fat but fit isn't a place to tread water.  It means you are in a position to dive into prevention, right now, when it really means something.

If exercise is so great, why aren't we all doing it?

It's hard: hard to schedule, hard to maintain and hard to manage.  Here's where a trusted health care professional, like us, comes in.  You can help.  We will encourage a sedentary person to make small adjustments each week, like parking at the far end of the lot at work.  When that pattern is established, add a walk around the block to be taken as soon as you get home - no "workout clothes" needed just go!  You might think of setting up a morning or evening walking group if you are nervous about being on your own or being the "caboose" of a group.  These small steps can provide a good foundation for regular vigorous exercise.

Maintenance is another stumbling block.  Unlike professional athletes, we don't all have trainers, nutritionists or masseuses to lean on.  At Charlotte Natural Healing, we provide chiropractic services to keep you in alignment and sound nutritional advice to improve performance.  We will help you to understanding how diet choices affect active bodies.  Knowing when to eat carbohydrates, what fates are better than others, how much protein is appropriate. the importance of hydration and what to avoid (like sports drinks) will help keep you on track.

Supplements can also help support the drive to exercise.  Adaptogenic compounds like ginseng and echinacea are useful for the body as a whole, while targeted support exists for individual systems:

• Cardiovascular: oxygen transport and blood flow
• Musculoskeletal" muscle fatigue and both energy and oxygen storage in the muscles
• Digestive: nutrient breakdown and liver processing
• Endocrine: normal hormone function and immune response

If you don't take the time for your health now, you WILL need to take the time for your sickness later on.

Much healthier than potato chips or pretzels, these snack chips are an easy way to get your kale!

Ingredients

• Kale, approximately 1 bunch, rinsed and dried
• Olive oil, several tablespoons (divided)
• Celtic Sea Salt, to taste
• Chili flakes, approximately 1 tablespoon (or to taste)
• Sprinkling of paprika or cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Remove the kale leaves from their tough end and inner stems.  Cut longer leaves in half or, if preferred, bite-size pieces.

Place kale chips in a large bowl.

Start by tossing in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  The kale leaves only need to be lightly coated with oil.  Too much will make the chips limp and greasy.  Only add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil at a time until the leaves are lightly coated.

Spread the kale peices in a single layer on a lined baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt and chili flakes.  You can use parchment paper for easier cleaning.

Bake for 12-14 minutes or until crisp.  Prior to last 5 minutes of cooking time, gently toss the kale leaves in the sheet pan for more even baking.  Because the leaves burn easy, closely monitor them while baking.

For more smoky or spicy flavor, lightly dust the kale chips with paprika or cayenne powder.

Enjoy!

A recent study suggests that chiropractic can help patients with arthritis suffering from neck pain.

The case study included ten older adults with atlanto-axial arthritis. This condition occurs when a subluxation of the alanto-axial joints in the neck causes reduced range of motion and pain in the neck, back of the head, and over the eye.

In the study, the patients were treated by a chiropractor with a combination of mobilization device therapy and chiropractic neck adjustments. By the end of treatment, radiologic imaging revealed that 60% of patients had restored alignment of the alanto-axial joints. Ninety percent patients had better neck range of motion and the average patient had 60% improvement in pain.

These finding suggest that chiropractic can provide safe, natural relief for older adults suffering from neck arthritis. Earlier research has also shown that chiropractic can reduce arthritis in the hands,knees, and hip.

Reference
Yu H, Hou S, Wu W, He X. Upper cervical manipulation combined with mobilization for the treatment of atlantoaxial osteoarthritis: a report of 10 cases. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 2011;34(2):131-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jmpt.2010.12.005.