Compliment someone every day. More specifically tell them how grateful you are for something they have done for you. This is great to be done in general but also gets you to start thinking of positive thoughts and loving others.
As a part of my series about “5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Jason Loth.
Dr. Jason Loth, CCSP, CSCS, CMTA, received his B.S. (Cum Laude) at Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, NE, his Doctorate of Chiropractic (Cum Laude) from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, IA, and has also received his Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician degree from Logan College of Chiropractic. Dr. Loth understands the absolute importance of sleeping in correct posture. It’s just as important to sleep in correct posture as it is to walk and sit in correct posture. He is a co-founder of SpineAlign, a pillow and mattress company that helps people achieve a healthy, restful and restorative night’s sleep so people will operate at peak performance the following day.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the story about how you first got involved in fitness and wellness?
It all started in college when I was playing baseball and had an injury. I was fortunate to have a friend on my team whose father was the chiropractor in the town where we played. I went to see him, and he not only helped my injury, but changed my life. I’ve always had a passion to help people and combined with my personal experience, it all led me to where I am today. I feel that I’ve been extremely blessed to be able to use these talents to help thousands of people. Being a sports chiropractor and a certified strength and conditioning specialist, I am able to help patients in many ways to improve their health and well-being.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
The story I would like to share with you is not only interesting, but amazing. It shows the power of Chiropractic care. I was fortunate enough to work with many athletes throughout my career. However, one year I was able to help a professional golfer that had hurt his back when he lifted a mower. There was a major tournament coming up, and he could hardly stand up straight — let alone play golf. I was able to work with him a couple of times and within a week he went on to place in the top 10 in his next PGA tournament. This is only one of many stories of people’s life being changed with Chiropractic care.
Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?
During my first year of practice, I was going to adjust a patient. I gave him instructions to lay on his right side and he ended up laying on his left side, and I wasn’t paying attention. I ended up adjusting the patient in the wrong position. Fortunately, nothing bad happened to the patient. I learned two lessons with this. The first thing is that people a lot of times don’t listen very well, and that listening is one of the most important skill sets you can learn. I also learned that paying attention is extremely important, as I obviously didn’t pay close attention when he laid on the wrong side before adjusting him. Both listening and paying attention are important skill sets.
Can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the fitness and wellness field? In your opinion, what is your unique contribution to the world of wellness?
I believe I’ve been blessed with many skills to help people. So, I would say my uniqueness is that I have the capability to use many tools to better their health and wellness. Some of those tools are Chiropractic Care, strength and conditioning, core and posture stability exercise, muscle flexibility, muscle therapeutic mobilization, and positive mental encouragement just to name a few. All of these elements lead to health, wellness and better performance. I also have been fortunate to play multiple sports, including baseball, at the collegiate level. I’ve also been able to coach at multiple levels and multiple sports to be able to have many experiences with competition successes and failures.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I was blessed to have a mentor in chiropractic school that taught me a lot of what I know when it comes to taking great care of people on the practical level. He gave me the ability to start my career and I am truly blessed and thank him for that. I believe anyone who truly wants to be successful needs to have a mentor or coach in their life. But more than anything, I’m a follower of Jesus Christ and I would not be where I am today without Him in my life.
Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. We all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, exercise more, and get better sleep etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s often difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the 3 main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?
Good question. The three main blocking points in my opinion are value, priority, and will. Let me explain. Most people don’t see the true value of staying healthy. Usually, lack of health occurs gradually over time and it’s a slow process that many pople fail to recognize until it’s actually too late. Fortunately, in my practice I get to see firsthand many unhealthy people that have waited too long and it’s a great reminder for me personally to see the value of good health. The second reason is making your health a priority. Everybody is extremely busy in this life and they tend to put many things ahead of their health on the priority scale. When this happens, health takes a back seat and when there’s not enough time in the day, the things that they would typically do for their health go by the wayside. The third thing is the will. We are typically weak individuals and when something triggers our mind to have satisfaction, we make poor decisions when it comes to foods that we eat as well as other decisions for the betterment of our health.
Can you please share your “5 Non-Intuitive Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”? (Please share a story or an example for each, and feel free to share ideas for mental, emotional and physical health.)
1. Drink at least 75% of your body weight in ounces of water per day
2. Make sure you sleep with correct posture in either the side or back position but never on your stomach.
3. Don’t wear shoes that have a heel higher than the forefoot. This leads to poor biomechanics and stress on your whole body. This includes most tennis shoes as well.
4. Minimize the use of technology. Most phones, tablets and some computers will also put you in poor posture and stress the muscles and joints of your body. Also dealing with the electromagnetic frequencies of these devices can be harmful for long periods and in close proximity.
5. Compliment someone every day. More specifically tell them how grateful you are for something they have done for you. This is great to be done in general but also gets you to start thinking of positive thoughts and loving others.
If I can add a number 6 to this list. Make sure you sleep well with the proper pillow and mattress. It is one of the reasons that I co-founded SpineAlign. SpineAlign’s Luxury Hybrid mattress, along with the SpineAlign pillow, support proper posture for sleep that is not only comfortable, but encourages healing and recovery as well. This one-of-a-kind sleep system was specifically engineered to put your body in its most natural, relaxed position to allow maximum recovery and energy regeneration.
As an expert, this might be obvious to you, but I think it would be instructive to articulate this for the public. Aside from weight loss, what are 3 benefits of daily exercise? Can you explain?
There are actually many benefits from exercise but here are the three most common in my opinion.
1. Motion is lotion, if you don’t use it you lose it. These phrases along with others of the like are so true. Keep moving, keep mobile and keep allowing your body to function. Motion helps to work the muscles and lubricate the joints. Over time if muscles don’t get used, they will wear out. On the flip side, overuse and abuse can also be detrimental as well so exercise on a regular basis moderately.
2. Exercise releases many hormones in the body and also can help you feel better. One of the main hormones it releases is endorphins. These hormones are the feel-good hormones. Some have felt what’s called the runner’s high. When you exercise, you release these endorphins which actually make your body feel good.
3. Exercise helps to improve metabolic function. This means that when you exercise, your heart beats faster and you pump more blood. And as more blood moves throughout your system, it helps to deliver more oxygen and nutrients to the cells while stimulating your body to flush out toxins. These toxins can be released through breathing and sweating during exercise.
For someone who is looking to add exercise to their daily routine, which 3 exercises would you recommend that are absolutely critical?
This is a very difficult question to answer. I don’t think there are three specific exercises that are the best for every individual because everyone is different. What is good for one person may not be good for another. My recommendation for each individual is finding the types of exercises that work the best for you in both how you respond to it and what you enjoy doing. The two things I always recommend when it comes to exercise is cardiovascular effort and performing musculature resistance in the exercise.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?
There are a few books that have had a significant impact on me, but I would have to say that the first book was “How to Run Your Business by THE BOOK” by Dave Anderson. The information I learned in this book on how to truly run your business with a moral/ ethical/ people first mentality has been extremely beneficial. One of the things it specifically taught me is how to hire the correct people and that you specifically hire character not skill. You can train skills, but you can’t change a person’s character. The second book that has had a drastic impact on my life is the Bible. The lesson of forgiveness that Jesus offers has had a drastic impact on how I try to live my life and truly forgive others as I have been forgiven by Him.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would start a movement called bless one. The concept of this movement would be to love others but specifically and intentionally bless one person each day with something that means something to that person or individual. The goal behind this is to try to think and love others first before ourselves. I would say this is very similar to the Pay It Forward concept.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
Whatever you do, never give up. This I can say has been relevant in many aspects of my life. Some of the best successes in my career in sports, business, and relationships came after much difficulty and perceived failures. Many people don’t get to see some of the successes come to fruition because they give up too soon.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Dr. Joseph Mercola. He has been an inspiration to me in his digging deep into research of what true health is. Most people think health comes from being free from symptoms, but he truly understands that True Health is much more than that and has to do with many things you do and don’t do throughout your day. Physically/ Mentally and Chemically. I admire all the information and education he has given to the public that is backed by research.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
https://www.facebook.com/spinealignsleep/
https://www.instagram.com/spinealignsleep/
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Dr. Jason Loth of Spine Align: 5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Dramatically Improve Your Wellbeing was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.