Although vertebrae and disk injuries do occur often in this kind of a scenario, frequently nothing obvious comes up on imaging tests, and the patient is left with neck pain without a concrete reason as to why. In other situations, the accident victim may feel surprisingly okay immediately post accident, and then a few weeks to months later may develop neck pain. In this scenario it may be harder to prove to insurance companies that the neck pain is actually a result of the car accident, even though there is a very understandable explanation for this pain pattern.

Getting the blues every now and again is quite normal, particularly if there is an obvious reason for feeling down. But if sadness starts to take over for no apparent reason, and is interfering with your life or someone you know, something needs to be done.  And much can be done to resolve mild depression.   Increasing omega 3s (fish oil) consumption while reducing consumption of vegetable oils (omega 6), sugar and flour products and can help, as can exercising regularly, and getting to bed and turning out the lights by 10h00 or 10h30pm. These interventions aid in rebalancing hormone and neurotransmitter levels over time.  Making the effort to go out and do something fun with others can help a lot.  Even putting a silly smile on one's face and assuming the posture of someone that is on top of the world can actually change one's mood, as emotions and our physical body are intimately related.

I've been pondering raw food quite a lot lately, as I watch the adult bald eagles rip apart fresh kills to feed their chicks at the eagle-nest cam I've been glued to over the past month.  Apart from humans, all  other species eat their food raw, whether it be meat or vegetation. So how did it come to be that as humans we cook the bulk of our food? I read a very interesting article called "What's cooking? The evolutionary role of cookery", in the Economist a few months back, where the researcher Richard Wrangham of Harvard University, suggests that learning to cook our food as a species was responsible for our evolutionary advancement.

I will be cutting back on my writing to every other week to make room in my life for other things, so I would like to introduce you to Vin Miller, a writer with a similar philosophy to nutrition and wellness as I have.  He will write the weeks I'm not.

Vin Miller is a certified health and fitness professional who is passionate about helping people improve their lives through healthier living and a more positive perspective. As someone who was able to recover from chronic fatigue syndrome, Vin knows what it's like to experience poor health and understands the aspects of a healthy lifestyle that prevent it.

In a society where poor health has come to be accepted as normal and is often blamed on age, Vin is motivated to help people rise above this self defeating mentality and realize the potential for the long and healthy life that optimal health can provide.

For more information about Vin, visit his blog, Natural Bias, at http://NaturalBias.com.   With no further ado, here is Vin's first article.

NO IDEAL DIET

If you look in the nutrition section of a bookstore, you're likely to find nearly as many different types of diets as there are books! If you read about any of these diets, one of the first things you'll notice is that many of them are extremely different while they each claim to be the one universal diet that everyone should follow. It's no wonder why so many people are confused about nutrition!

No disrespect to those who have a family member that died from the swine flu, nor to those that went through the illness and recovered. That flu does not sound like fun. Maybe this is only happening in my part of the world, but what I'm finding a bit nuts is the amount of attention the media is giving to this. In my opinion, such coverage is scaring people unnecessarily. When one is bombarded with hourly news reports on the number of cases diagnosed, and the major newscasts of the day making the "pandemic" the top story day after day, and dedicating a fair amount of time to it, people think that if they get a sniffle that they are going to die of the swine flu. Many are wanting to get their hands on the drug "Tamiflu" just in case. (The makers of Tamiflu are rubbing their hands in glee as fear of flu sells drugs!) But if antiviral drugs are used as prevention rather than treatment, the viruses become more resistant to them, so that when we actually do need the drugs they do not work as well.

This week CBC news (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) put out a very interesting story about City Park High School in Saskatoon, that put treadmills and exercise bikes into a math classroom, and before doing any math, the kids strapped on their heart-rate monitors and did 20 minutes of moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise. This is an alternative school for those with learning difficulties, and over half the students have ADHD. They couldn't sit still, many had behavioural problems, and they couldn't learn. Well, the cardio equipment went in the classroom in February, and by June, pretty much all the kids had jumped a full grade in reading, writing and math. After doing the exercise the kids were suddenly able to sit still and focus on what they were learning, and they were able to understand what they were being taught. The exercise altered their brain chemistry enough to make learning possible, AND it greatly improved their behaviour.

I am the first to admit that anything convenient I like. I am personally having a very hard time keeping up with my own life right now, so anything that can save time is much appreciated. I bet many of you feel the same way. I'm willing to pay more money for pre-washed organic mixed greens and I buy organic nugget potatoes instead of the big ones so I don't have to peel or chop. A few years back, I insisted on getting a microwave to defrost meat and to reheat snacks. We still have that microwave, but now it is relegated to rag duty - I zap my kitchen rags for 3 minutes to kill every living bit of bacteria on them before wiping down the counters.

Accidents happen. Kids fall into pools or swallow marbles. A parent may have a heart condition. A family member or friend may accidentally choke on some food at our dinner table. I remember the first time I took first aid and CPR, I thought that it was about saving strangers, but I think the bottom line is the person we might save is far more likely to be someone we know and love.

Even in a city with good ambulance service, it is realistically going to take a minimum of 10-15 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. Considering the chance of survival for someone without a pulse goes down by about 10% each minute, the importance of early intervention is paramount. The techniques are simple, may make the difference between life and death for someone we love, and all it takes is a short course, ranging from 3 hours to 6 hours long, depending upon which CPR course taken. Personally, I think everyone should take at least CPR, if not first aid also, every other year starting in about grade 6. I think it would be prudent for every parent of youngsters to take a baby and child CPR/First Aid course and recertify every other year just in case, particularly to be able to handle airway obstructions (choking, severe food allergic reactions).

Here is a story I hear ALL the time. "I have a back problem. I stopped my exercise program and my back pain went away. But every time I begin my exercise program again, within days, or sometimes a week, my pain comes back and I have to quit again. I'm so frustrated because I'm out of shape and gaining weight, and I don't know what to do about it." After I assess them, I frequently tell them I think I can help them. There is a very good reason this happens, and there is definitely something you can do about it to get back on track.

Over the years I have occasionally worked with people that have told me they cannot afford to buy high quality, organic food, yet I have noticed that they are driving fancy cars, wearing designer clothing or they are telling me that they just bought a flat-screened TV and home audio system with surround sound for their vacation home. In these cases, clearly it is not about affordability, but about choice. How frequently does one see BMWs or Mercedes lined up at McDonalds? Perhaps in these cases I have not done an adequate job of explaining why, for example, grass-fed beef is so much healthier than grain-fed, and the real difference that food choice can make over time to pain levels, and disease processes. Perhaps I have not explained that one can't wash off all the pesticides, as the soil has been sprayed too, so the pesticides are taken up by the plant. Maybe with more education, these people will decide to afford healthy food.

That said, many of us live on a fixed income, and in these difficult economic times, trying to eat healthy and save money can be a challenge, as often the cheapest foods are the most processed ones, and therefore the least good for us. Seems strange to me that salted butter is cheaper than unsalted butter, and that powdered milk is cheaper than the liquid stuff that is fresh from the cow. Hopefully in time, as more and more people become aware that the quality of the food we eat has a direct impact on our health, and more of us demand whole food grown or raised without chemicals, the prices will come down. In the mean time, here are some tips that will hopefully prove helpful.