Plasker Family Chiropractic Blog

Avoiding This Dangerous Holiday Duo

Alcohol and prescription drugs are a dangerous combination. While celebrities are the most popular victims, too many people are affected by this bad combination. With the holidays coming up, this knowledge can even save the life of someone important to you.

Both prescription and non-prescription drugs do not mix with alcohol. Too many people take medications on a regular basis - daily, weekly or monthly - and are unaware of the damaging effects that can be caused by adding alcohol into the mix.

During the holidays, people tend to consume more alcohol. The combination of even small amounts of alcohol with many medications can result in adverse reactions within the body that can lead to severe health problems, and in the worst case scenario, even death. Your awareness about this issue brings responsible drinking to a whole new level.

A few examples include…

• Medications used for ADHD or sleep disorders, such as Adderall, may actually circumvent the body’s normal warning systems and can mislead the person to unknowingly drink a dangerous amount of alcohol.

• Acetaminophen is listed as a Major Drug Interaction with alcohol and can result in liver damage, even from small amounts of this combination. This is the medicine found in over the counter drugs such as Tylenol and the widely used Cold Medicine, Nyquil.

• An antibiotic like Bactrim, Flagyl, or Tindamax should not be mixed with alcohol because it can cause severe reactions such as nausea and vomiting, headache, and rapid heart rate.

With other antibiotics, the immediate effects may be less severe but your energy can be reduced and delay how quickly you recover from illness.

Even in small amounts, alcohol may intensify medication side effects such as sleepiness, drowsiness, and light-headedness. The risk of serious injury or fatality when operating a vehicle or machinery is magnified and reaction time to prevent harm may be diminished.

Medications consumed by adults over the age of 65, many of whom already have balance issues and an increased risk of falls, can raise the risk when combined with even a small serving of alcohol.

The combination of medicine and alcohol should be avoided at all costs. If you are taking medication prescribed by a doctor, do your homework to learn about the potential reactions that may occur and avoid them.

When hosting a party or meal during the holidays, offer a variety of beverages to provide non-alcoholic, healthy choices to those who may need to avoid alcohol consumption. When attending as a guest, if you know you are at risk, offer to provide a non-alcoholic beverage to share as part of your contribution to the gathering.

You may read this and at first thought presume that the alcohol is the problem. For many, however, it’s the prescription and non-prescription drug use that is the problem. Millions of people each year are discovering that drugs are not the answer for long term health. As they become aware that long term drug usage can lead to severe side effects, they are making healthier lifestyle choices, 100 Year Lifestyle choices that include good nutrition, exercise, and a healthy spine and nervous system through chiropractic Lifestyle Care.

Avoid this dangerous mix, make healthier choices, and make this the healthiest holiday season ever.

Timing is Everything

Time. We measure it, live by it, spend it, give it and sometimes waste it. Most of us wish we had more hours in day, more weeks to complete a project, more minutes before missing the flight, more time to say what we really wanted to say. Yes, timing is everything.

What if we had more time than we thought and we just haven’t discovered that yet?  Consider this as the advanced notice that like it or not, want to or not, most of us have the potential to live longer than we ever imagined. What the journey looks like getting there, is up to us. How we use the time will be our legacy.

Measure Your Time

How much time do you have left? No one knows for sure. Here’s a simple calculation to determine one part of the best guess answer:  Take the age of your oldest relative ever and subtract your current age from that number. The answer is your Minimum Potential Years Remaining or your M-PYR. Genes only factor in as a small percentage for life expectancy. The way you choose to live hour by hour, day to day, from one year to the next is your lifestyle. Lifestyle choices play a major role in life expectancy for you and your family. If the choices are sedentary, monotonous, stressful, and unhealthy, your time may be limited. If the choices are active, exhilarating, positive and vitalistic your time could be extended beyond your imagination.

Measure your time by your lifestyle choices and ask yourself if you like what you see. How you take care of yourself physically, mentally and emotionally now affects the future measurement of your time, your life. Take care of your body and take special care of your spine. It protects your nervous system which is your personal IT system designed to integrate your mind and body for perfect communication between the two.

Live, Spend and Give Your Time

Lifestyle choices either free us up to spend time with and give time to others or they consume us in a crisis to crisis survival mindset. Those who live life fully have made daily choices to use their time wisely, to incorporate self-care before crisis sets in, and give out of their abundance. People who are at peace in their life are able to give back to their community. The healthy balance that comes from physical well-being, reduced stress, and habits that strengthen the individual’s passions enable them to make better choices over and over.  Develop social circles filled with the type of person who is positive, healthy and focused and be built up while you build up others.  Exercise together, serve in your community together, eat healthy foods together, attend inspiring lectures together.  If you want to do something different with your life and your time, you can. Change is easy, thinking about change is hard.

Schedule Your Time

Your schedule will dominate all of your time or you will be master over your schedule.  Set aside time to take care of yourself. If you put it off, and your health suffers, the rest of the schedule can fall apart without warning. You can’t afford to get sick. Overbooking your day, week and month only to be forced to scramble and scurry is detrimental.

Plan ahead, make appointments to get your spine and nervous system checked regularly and choose to live like time is on your side. But only if you make the choice to manage it wisely.

You cannot predict exactly how long you will live so why not live your best life every day of your life like you will live to 80, 90, 100 years or beyond?  Live your ideal 100 Year Lifestyle starting today.