Homeless Garden, Santa Cruz

Now in its 28th year of providing “job training, transitional employment, and support services” to homeless people in an organic urban farm setting, the Santa Cruz Homeless Garden Project is a successful, inspirational prototype for helping people lift themselves out of homelessness.

New work skills develop in the healing process of growing organic foods, social relationships are built with other workers & volunteers, and self esteem is nurtured by producing and sharing healthy foods.

Workers and volunteers enjoy 4 hot meals a week together from the garden. Customers can shop the Garden’s bounty at the Farmstand, which is open Tuesday - Sunday, 10 - 4, or sign up to get regular food boxes from the Garden. 

     To learn more, volunteer, or find out how to visit the Garden, go to: http://www.homelessgardenproject.org/index.php   

Kinematic Chain

      The shoulder, arm, wrist and hand function as what is known as a “kinematic chain.” 

     Think of this as an anatomical “connected movement” chain. Functioning of each part is connected to, symbiotic with, and consequential with, the other parts.

     In-other-words, what's happening at the shoulder may reverberate down and affect the elbow, wrist, and hand. Or in the reverse, dysfunction or injury at the hand, wrist, or elbow can affect the functioning of the shoulder.

      This is why, as an Activator Chiropractor, my precise adjustments to correct a problem anywhere in the upper extremity often include adjustments all the way up or down the arm to include all the component parts.

Five Keys to Healthy Sitting

      A healthy sitting position can be critical not only to your comfort, but also to good postural and spinal health. Here are simple things to pay attention to:

     ---have both feet flat on the floor,

     ---your knees should be slightly lower than the level of your hips,

     ---your back is resting comfortably against your chair, and

     ---your head is in line with center of gravity of your body (avoid head-forward postures).

     One of the most important features of whatever chair you use is that you can change the height of the seat.

     In most cases, t's not necessary to spend lots of $$ for a fancy chair. You just need to be able to adjust the height of the seat, so that your knees can be slightly lower than the level of your hips.

Unhealthy Oils

Vegetable oils will oxidize when exposed to heat, even cooking at low temperatures. Even if stored in a cool place, these oils will oxidize over time at nothing more than room temperature. 

This is because vegetable oils (except coconut oil, which is saturated) are unsaturated fats, which means, chemically speaking, that they contain carbon-to-carbon double bonds, which are vulnerable to oxygen’s “hopping on” and attaching. 

The attachment of oxygen across these chemical bonds creates a toxic molecule which is not healthy to ingest. Millions of these unhealthy molecules may exist in a bottle of corn oil, or safflower oil, or other vegetable oils. 

  Thus it is never wise to cook with vegetable oils.

Monounsaturated oils, though still unsaturated, are less so, because they have fewer potential oxidation sites than polyunsaturated oils. An example of a monounsaturated oil is olive oil. Canola oil is also a monounsaturated oil, but it is processed with heat and toxic chemicals that make it undesirable.  

Choose healthy oils and fats:  organic, cold-pressed olive oil, organic, unrefined coconut oil, and organic butter.

Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Cruz County

   

   Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Cruz County have afterschool programs for youth aged 6 - 18. Activities include help with homework, tutoring, arts & crafts, computer training, gym and sports, and game rooms.

Programs offer music lessons, swim lessons & swim team, a Basketball League, special events for teens, and Summer Day Camps.

In Social Awareness groups for teens, participants discuss news events from the past week and talk about how these events may affect their personal world. They also talk about issues teens face in their everyday lives and how to safely and wisely navigate through them.

The Basketball League runs in partnership with the Golden State Warriors Jr. Warriors program, receives lots of support from the Santa Cruz Warriors D Team, and final playoffs of Boys and Girls Club basketball competition are held in the Santa Cruz Warriors Arena. Basketball games begin in early January each year.

Find out more about Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Cruz County and their Downtown Santa Cruz and Live Oak centers at   http://boysandgirlsclub.info/programs/ 

 

Suboccipital Tension

        The occiput is the bone across the lower part of the back of our head, just above the top of our neck. Along the lower edge of it are the suboccipital muscles, which help support our head, help us move and turn our head, and often bear the burden of stressful postures, especially related to computer use.

Many people are very familiar with this area because they experience chronic tension here. Tension in these muscles is a common prelude to headaches.

I have specific, gentle Activator Chiropractic adjustments to relieve this tension, and to re-position a misaligned occiput. After treatment, it is essential for patients to avoid stressful postures that cause the tension to become re-established.

An Often Forgotten Joint in the Pelvis

        In the front of our pelvis is a joint called the pubic symphysis. It is an essential, but often overlooked, part of our pelvic girdle. Many people are unaware that it even exists.

The pubic symphysis is an essential joint because it is integrally involved in motion of the pelvis during our gait cycle (walking), stability and equilibrium of the pelvic girdle, and is important in childbirth. It has a disc, like the discs in our spine, and is expandable during passage of a baby through the mother’s birth canal.

I often find this joint misaligned when the patient’s pelvis is distorted, especially when the distortion is more toward the severe end of the spectrum. Precise, directional correction of the misalignment with Activator Chiropractic relieves pelvic pain and helps the pelvis to stabilize.