By Bob Driskell

If this is Day One for you — or if Day One is in your near future — you may want to know what to expect if you choose to get clean and sober the ‘LifeRing’ way.

The ‘LifeRing’ approach works mainly by bringing people together. Although some people can stop drinking and drugging in isolation, many people find it more interesting, more fun, and more effective to do it together with others in self-help groups. In face-to-face meetings and in online chats and email lists, you will find other people who used to drink and/or use drugs, and have now stopped. You may be surprised how perfectly ordinary most of the people you meet appear, and how diverse a group of people is bound together by this common denominator.

The main purpose of our meetings is to reinforce the desire to get clean and sober that lives within each of us. You will observe this desire in the others, and they will recognize it in you. You will probably hear participants talk about the challenges to their sobriety that they faced during the past week. If you listen, you may find useful information that helps you face similar challenges.

You may hear people talk about a great variety of topics and how they relate to staying clean and sober. Possibly you may hear something that stimulates your own thinking. You may have experiences and ideas of your own to contribute. Please share them; people often learn more from what they say than from what they hear.

The session is successful if at the end your resolve to stay clean and sober feels a little stronger and better armed than it was when you came in.
People in the group will respect your privacy and confidentiality. Please respect theirs. It is up to you what you share in meetings and to whom you disclose the fact of your participation. Whatever you heard and whom you saw in a meeting stays in the meeting.

People in ‘LifeRing’ groups tend to have a matter-of-fact attitude about substance addiction. Chemical dependency is not a sin that you have to confess and atone for. Science does not yet have all the answers about what causes addiction, but the most likely reason why most people became hooked is that they drank or drugged too much. Heredity often has something to do with it, but it also happens to people with no family history of substance use.

It happens to people with all kinds of personalities, including people who are warm and caring, brilliant and generous. It does no good to punish or psychoanalyze yourself. ‘LifeRing’ recovery meetings exist not to judge you or shame you or guilt you for your drugged/drunken past, but to support you in building your sober present and future. The point is to make a fresh start and learn how to live sober.

Although you may count your sober time as a rebirth and celebrate sober baby birthdays, you are an adult and need to understand some adult truths. The tooth fairy will not come in the night and take your problems away. Only you can get you sober. The group cannot get you sober. Its purpose is to support you in getting yourself sober.

Treatment professionals and amateur therapists can be very helpful, but they cannot get you sober. The most they can do is point you to tools, ask you good questions, and give you encouragement to get yourself sober. The bottom line is that your recovery is always your responsibility and your work, and yours alone.

The ‘LifeRing’ approach represents a reform movement in recovery and a return to fundamentals. You will be asked to take only one step: don’t drink or use, no matter what. Your religious beliefs or disbeliefs will not be disturbed; they have no more to do with learning to live sober than with learning to ride a bicycle. You will not be told to submit your sobriety to the control of another member, nor to take charge of any member’s recovery program other than your own. You will be encouraged to make sobriety your priority in life, and to make any changes that may be necessary toward that end.

‘LifeRing’ is uncompromising about the need for abstinence, but very flexible about how you get there and stay there. Every program has some good ideas; none has a magic formula. The secret is for you to become active in the cause of your recovery, choosing and using what works for you. You are the author and the judge of your own recovery.

You will find in the average Life_Ring meeting little in the way of abstract discussion, and much in the way of narrating and analyzing specific events that people were involved in each week. Gradually, bit by bit, each participant assembles a meaningful mosaic that constitutes the individual’s personal recovery program. The teaching is practically all by example. You will hear little lecturing and probably a great deal of laughing.

The ‘LifeRing’ approach is thoroughly positive. ‘LifeRing’ works by giving encouragement and support to your sober qualities and efforts. Your sober presence at the meeting entitles you to respect. Your desire to be clean and sober brought you there. Your best thinking made you stop drinking/drugging. Your efforts to stay clean and sober not only validate you as a person, they are a valuable resource for the group.

From Day One, you are not only a pupil but a teacher. You are reinventing yourself as a person who has a life without drinking or using, and in that process you are supporting others in doing the same. What you are doing is immensely worthwhile and important, not only for yourself, but for the group and for the whole community.

At the end of the typical ‘LifeRing’ meeting, members will give each other a round of applause for staying clean and sober. Just as the responsibility and the work are yours, the credit is yours also. The ‘LifeRing’ group process helps you feel good about yourself as a clean and sober person, to rebuild your self-esteem, and to discover and bring out your sober potentialities.

Welcome to Day One of your clean and sober life!

Antioch ‘’LifeRing’’ Meetings are every Monday at noon at Kaiser Permanente – Mental Health & Chemical Dependency, 2213 Buchanan Rd, Suite 110, Antioch, CA 94509. For information call 925-301-3277

Adapted from’If this is day one’ a brochure available at LifeRing Press. http://lifering.org/

Dr. Robert Sheffield is now giving residents of East Contra Costa County another reason to smile by starting a local chapter of the Smile for a Lifetime foundation.

The mission of Smile for a Lifetime is to provide braces at no cost to disadvantaged children between the ages of ten and eighteen who reside in the above mentioned county. The children we strive to serve are those who would not otherwise have an opportunity for orthodontic care.

Dr. “Rob” Sheffield will award six orthodontic scholarships in 2011 and twelve scholarships annually beginning in 2012. The recipients will be selected by a local board consisting of diverse community leaders. This board will meet semi-annually to review applications and award scholarships.

Dr. Sheffield, whose office is at 3428 Hillcrest Avenue, Suite 100 in Antioch, is pleased to have the opportunity to serve our community by becoming a member of this generous foundation, and at the same time to realize his dream of serving local children who are in need of orthodontic assistance.

The Smile for a Lifetime application can be found at http://www.sheffieldortho.com/AboutUs/SmilesforaLifetime.aspx. For more information: e-mail S4Lfoundation@sheffieldortho.com or call 925.757.9100 or visit www.sheffieldortho.com.

Robert Sheffield, DDS is a respected provider of orthodontic treatment serving East Contra Costa County with offices in Antioch and Brentwood. The practice’s top priority is to provide the highest quality orthodontic care in a friendly, comfortable environment. It utilizes the latest technological advances in the industry, such as Damon System braces, Invisalign® and Insigna Custom Braces, along with the latest in computer technology (digital imaging and advanced computer graphics) to help offer faster treatment options that are more comfortable and more appealing than ever.

Smile for a Lifetime Foundation is a non-profit, charitable organization comprised of local chapters throughout the country that provide quality orthodontic treatment for patients who may not have the opportunity to achieve a beautiful, straight smile without financial assistance.

The Smile for a Lifetime Foundation helps equip orthodontists with the resources necessary to help develop a local Board of Directors that will specifically select individuals for orthodontic treatment. Smile for a Lifetime Foundation’s mission is to create self-confidence, inspire hope, and change the lives of children in our communities in a dramatic way. The gift of a smile can do all this for a deserving, underserved individual who, in turn, can use this gift to better themselves and their community.

A Nationwide Health and Wellness Campaign

April is National Stress Awareness Month and Local chiropractor, Dr. Brandon Roberts has teamed up with health and wellness professionals across the country to provide relief for a nation under stress.  The brainchild of Dr. Eric Plasker, health and wellness expert and bestselling author of The 100 Year Lifestyle and The 100 Year Lifestyle Workout, the Stress Less. Live More. campaign has attracted hundreds of chiropractic offices,  who are offering free consultations, workshops, newsletters and tips to alleviate the effects of stress on people around the country.

“We want to make people aware of the destructive effect that stress has on the body, and I am encouraging the residents of East Contra Costa to free themselves of the worries that are responsible for this stress by taking an active part in this worthwhile campaign, “says Dr. Roberts “As part of Dr. Plasker’s Stress Less. Live More. campaign this month, I will be offering local residents and businesses a free Stress Less. Live More. Workshop along with Dr. Jason Bergerhouse and Anthony Trucks of Trucks Training and a free spinal stress screening.”

This presentation will be on Sat, 5/7 from 11am-2pm at TravelHealthnHygiene.com, 5081 Lone Tree Way, Antioch, Ca 94531. Free lunch will be provided.

As recently reported in the Wall Street Journal, 84 percent of women and 75 percent of men are stressing about the economy, similar numbers stress about money, and more than half of men and women stress about housing costs and job stability.

“A stressful lifestyle can cause pain, disease, premature aging and even an early death.  Sixty percent of doctor visits are stress-related.  If you learn to Stress Less. Live More., you can eliminate many health problems, save money and improve the quality of your life dramatically and you can reduce the aging and disease-causing impact it has on the body,’ Dr. Plasker says.

Americans spend billions of dollars each year on stress-related illnesses.  Treatment of back pain costs $90 billion a year, and during the Stress Less. Live More. campaign, participants will be able to get free information on reducing stress, as well as learn tips for living a healthier lifestyle.

By Dr. Brandon Roberts

The lifestyle choices that you make for yourself and your family can literally change the course of your history. It used to be thought that if you had a family history of heart disease or cancer then it was your destiny to get these conditions too because they were “in your genes.” Through the science of epi-genetics we are learning that nothing can be further from the truth.

Epi-genetics, which means ‘around the gene’, has shown that your lifestyle choices, both positive and negative, can influence the expression of your genes, turning them on and off like a light switch.

A recent report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA found the activity of more than 500 genes in the normal tissue of thirty men with low-risk prostate cancer changed after the patients began eating diets higher in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and lower in red meats and fats while also implementing an exercise and stress reducing regimen.

After three months the men had changes in the activity of about 500 genes including 48 disease preventing genes that were turned on and 453 disease promoting genes that were turned off.

In the largest nature/nurture study that was ever done, on 44,000 pairs of twins, it was found that the primary determinates in most cases of cancer were environmental or lifestyle factors such as tobacco use, diet and exercise habits rather than the inherited disposition of their family history.

So here is a very important message if you want to live an active, healthy, quality of life for 80, 90, 100 years and beyond…stop blaming your genes. Too many people rationalize unhealthy choices with words like, “Why bother, it’s in my genes.” You can’t get away with this anymore.

Adjust Your Lifestyle

Changing the course of your history is not rocket science. Eating a diet filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean meats will keep you lean and healthy and they will activate healthy genes. Exercise, as a part of a lifestyle, reduces stress, strengthens your heart and muscles and has been shown to reduce the risk of nearly every disease.

Optimistic thinking has been shown to keep people motivated to make healthy lifestyle choices regardless of their circumstances. In addition, chiropractic care as a part of a healthy lifestyle, Lifestyle Care, keeps your spine and nervous system aligned, balanced and healthy and free from deterioration, this ensures that the vital messages between the brain and the body are optimized. Reducing stress is also important as stress has been shown to shorten the telomeres, or caps on the genes, which can reduce the life expectancy of your cells.

One of the life-changing principles of The 100 Year Lifestyle is “Change is easy, thinking about change is hard.” It is much easier to eat healthy and exercise regularly as a part of your lifestyle than it is to be on a weight gain, weight loss rollercoaster or to chronically have to deal with being sick or injured.

Chiropractic care as a part of a lifestyle is a much better option than the crisis to crisis suffering that comes with an unhealthy spine and nervous system. Bringing these values into your home can literally change the course of your history and ensure a healthy future for you and your loved ones.

Please take advantage of the resources our office is providing this month to help you and your loved ones rewrite your history and a healthy future will be yours for decades.

Dr. Brandon Roberts, DC of Deer Valley Chiropractic is a 100 Year Lifestyle Affiliate Office. This column is reprinted with permission of The Family Practice, Inc.

By Harry Stoll

“He’s going to slit my eyeball!” screamed my mind, but the balm of the calm of Eye Guy Dr. Ivan Hwang soothed me. He does his good work at the California Eye Clinic on Sunset Lane in Antioch.

Over the past 10 years ophthalmologists told me I had slowly developing cataracts, so I should have seen it coming. Night driving became a horror movie nightmare with big caverns in the pavement ready to swallow and crunch me and  my Camry. Headlights in the mirror, ahead, and to the side, slashed and stabbed white flashes into my brain. Then came the evil halogens with an intense light so white it was blue.

In Dr. Ivan Hwang’s office I read the chart. “A-G–R-C-14” and the next lowest line was “Man-Running Water-Tree-Friendship.” A line of Chinese pictographs. An eye dropper appeared and fingers held my eye still and open. My eye eyed the eye of the demon and I barely blinked a flinch when the drip hit.

Alone I waited. Knowing when my eye was ready, entered Dr, Ivan Hwang and I put my forehead against one curve and my chin against another. He wielded a white light saber. The eyes are the windows of the soul and his brilliantly bright white light saber looked deep into my soul. There was no escape. The eye drops had pulled back the curtain and every deed was recorded and shone brightly on the back of my eyeball.

I talked to several people who had the surgery, and they said, it wasn’t painful and recovery was rapid. So, let’s go. My Gatekeeper M.D. had to sign off and I had to come off my blood thinners a few days in advance.

Early in the morning we were all lined up in the waiting room. I looked for the take-a-number dispenser. A voice called my name, I mumbled me and walked numbly forward.

The engaging anesthesiologist, Dr. Vincent Sansoni, poked a needle into my arm, but he couldn’t get it to draw, which sucked. Bob seemed disappointed in me. But finally I went with the flow and entry was achieved. For some medical reason, he’s called Bob. Bob said, “Everything is going to be alright,” and ooh, it certainly was.

I could talk, be aware of my surroundings and all, but just as the anesthesiologist said, everything was OK. I knew this, but once more realized that people don’t take drugs to ruin their lives, they take drugs because it feels good.

Eye Guy Dr. Ivan Hwang strapped my head in to immobilize it, the way they did Dick Tracy in 1938 when the mad doctor was going to put a cat brain in him. My Eye Guy gave me some local pain killer in the eyeball but I was only aware of something going on there.

Soon, I heard a dental-like whirring, and thought, “That must be the emulsification the brochure talked about.” He was emulsifying my eye’s lens and I didn’t scream. Then more and different noises. I guessed, “Now he’s sucking it out,” and tried to say Eeeeew! But had no desire. More funny noises as he slipped in a plastic lens to replace the scattered shattered one.

Except for what they like to call a “sting” or a “poke,” when they slipped the IV in it was pain free.

Dr. Ivan Hwang (rhymes with gong) had patients lined-up for the surgery. He was calm and never seemed hurried, but wasted no time. He shook my hand, and while I was waiting to be helped off the gurney, I heard him giving the next patient the same pep talk he gave me.

When they took the bandage off the next day, I was getting bright flashes off to my right. All the medical people got that “Hmmm” attitude that I don’t find very comforting. It soon, but not soon enough, went away. “Hmmm,” I said. When they tested my eyes they were very pleased.

A pirate’s eye patch covered my eye at night to protect it and somebody who seemed to be me put in a row of drops, some to do certain things, other to do other things. It was all explained but who can remember?

I keep looking at an object, paintings, the tree across the street, … first with my so-so eye, then with my new-lens eye and delight at the sharp, well-defined edges of the grid over the heating duct and details of each vane.

Dr. Hwang told me to avoid rigorous exercise or heavy lifting for two weeks, so I restricted myself to pouring the wine. In two weeks I drove to the gym (how American to drive someplace to exercise) and resumed my routine amongst the grunting studs and women treadmilling with hair tied in back sweeping rhythmically shoulder-to-shoulder. Just like a little pony.

I passed my test of night driving. The caverns and the stabbings were gone.

This summer I’ll probably have the other eye done by my calm competent Eye Guy.

By Dr. Brandon Roberts, DC

Chiropractic care has become a part of mainstream NFL culture. Every team, except one, has a chiropractor on staff including this year’s Super Bowl contenders, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. The same can be said about every other professional sports league including major league baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer.

Today’s athletes are learning from some of the greatest of all time who have paved the way for chiropractic and taught today’s modern day players about how to perform at their highest level for a lifetime and take care of their body along the way.

Emmitt Smith, for example, is the leading rusher in NFL history. A perennial Pro Bowler and three time Super Bowl Champion when he retired with over 18,000 yards, Smith said, “I thank God, my family and my chiropractor.” Chiropractic care not only helped him heal quickly from injuries but he also used and continues to use chiropractic care as a part of his lifestyle and training regime to keep him functioning at the top of his game.

Jerry Rice is considered the greatest receiver in NFL history. His durability and work ethic is legendary which helped him to overcome his lack of breakaway speed. He initially sought chiropractic care after being injured on the field. After learning about the benefits of Lifestyle Care from his teammates he made chiropractic care a regular part of his training routine. He is a three time Super Bowl Champion and today he is an official spokesperson of the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress.

Roger Craig is a pioneer in the NFL and soon to be Hall of Famer. He is the only player to ever make the Pro Bowl as a full back and a half back, the first player to rush for 1,000 yards and receive for 1,000 yards in a single season, a feat that took fourteen years to be duplicated. He is the only running back in NFL history to ever lead the league in receptions. He is a three time Super Bowl Champion and is the only NFL player to make the playoffs for eleven straight years.

Roger began receiving chiropractic care when he was in fifth grade and today, like the others, still receives regular chiropractic care. In fact Roger endorsed the #1 bestselling fitness book, The 100 Year Lifestyle Workout, which he recommends for every athlete, young and old, because it stresses the importance of a healthy spine and nervous system with chiropractic care as a core part of the training. This balanced fitness plan teaches athletes to Get their ESS in Shape™, Endurance, Strength and Structure to help maximize performance and prevent injuries.

Like all professional athletes, these three took a tremendous beating over their careers which began in little league and continued into the pros. Chiropractic care as a part of their lifestyle, injury treatment and training has helped show the world that you can play high level sports and retain your health. In fact, Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice have appeared on Dancing With the Stars and Roger Craig is an avid runner today who has tackled many marathons.

We’ve all seen videos of old time professional athletes who pounded their bodies into submission and became cripples when their career was over. This is not true for these three superstars and it is no longer the norm as many professional and Olympic athletes have chosen to make chiropractic care a core part of their training programs and lifestyle. In fact many of the leaders of the Olympic sports medicine team today are chiropractors.

Youth sports programs are now learning from the pros and young athletes are seeking out chiropractic care as a part of their training in record numbers. Little League football, baseball, basketball, soccer and hockey teams as well as gymnasts, cheerleaders and even members of the marching band are realizing that a healthy spine and nervous system is important for good health and to ensure your highest level of performance.

Don’t wait for an injury. If you’re an athlete or participate in an exercise program, be like these Hall of Fame and Super Bowl Champions. Make chiropractic care a part of your lifestyle. Make your appointment today.

Dr. Brandon Roberts, DC is a 100 Year Lifestyle Affiliate Office. This column is reprinted with permission of The Family Practice, Inc.

By Dr. Brandon Roberts, DC

     Much of our health care system has been based on the germ theory which simply speaking says that germs cause disease and we should kill all the germs. While certainly there are times when this may be true, as a system of health care and as a general rule it has been ineffective.

     Our attempt to wipe out “bugs” has created an assault on our immune systems, placed many of our bodies out of balance and, according to The Telegraph, leads to 10,000 deaths per year through the creation of super bugs who have adapted to this assault. The Interference Theory of Dis-ease takes a much different approach and if you incorporate this philosophy into your lifestyle you will be more likely to enjoy a long, active healthy quality of life from birth to 100 years and beyond.

     The first basic premise of the Interference Theory is that your body has within it an Innate Intelligence which has been with you from the moment of conception, and holds the blueprint for you to live an active healthy life. This Innate Intelligence is the vitalistic energy that distinguishes a living being from a corpse.

     The second component of this theory is that the expression of this intelligence can be interfered with and become wholly or partially blocked. When this happens, dis-ease, or lack of ease, results causing dis-harmony, weakness, and imbalance within the body that in turn, if left uncorrected, will lead to disease.

     The third component of this theory includes adjustments that are designed to remove the interference so that your Innate Intelligence can cause spontaneous healing and give your body the best opportunity to function at its highest level for a lifetime.

     There are two types of interference that lead to dis-ease. The first type is lifestyle interference and the second type is nerve interference. While these interferences can interact with each other, and exacerbate the other, they must be removed independently in order for your body to express its innate potential.

Nerve interference results most often from injuries to the spine which interferes with the communication between your brain and your body and also the other direction from your body to your brain.

     This communication pathway is necessary for your body to express health and vitality. For example, your heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, stomach, leg muscles and every other cell tissue and organ require healthy nerve supply without interference for these individual parts to function properly and interact with each other in a healthy way. If your spine is injured during the birth process, childhood falls, accidents or from stress, this causes pressure in your nervous system, interference, which creates dis-ease.

     Too many people wait for a crisis and treat the symptoms of dis-ease through drugs and surgery rather than removing the interference to create ease. The side effects from this can be devastating especially if this is done over time. Removing the interference provides a healthier long term solution so that your body can express its true health potential over the course of your lifetime.

     Lifestyle interference includes the choices that you make regarding food, thoughts, and your environment. Lifestyle interference is caused by eating unhealthy foods, such as white sugar, white flour, starches, processed foods and foods that are filled with manmade chemicals that cause interference to your body’s natural state of ease.

     Stress, excessive sitting, smoking, negative thoughts and lack of exercise are other sources of lifestyle interference that, as a part of your lifestyle, can decrease both the quantity and quality of your years. If you want to live an active healthy quality of life, avoid sickness, and express your full potential for yourself and your family then it is important that you remove the interference from your life and keep it out of your life for the rest of your life.

     Our office is committed to helping you and your loved ones achieve this goal so that you can enjoy a healthy 2011 as well as a sensational century.