Ever go to the dentist for a routine checkup, feeling great and pain-free, only to find out you’ve got a cavity growing rapidly in your mouth?

Surprise!

Your health sneaks up on you when you least expect it. You can be feeling like a million bucks but have a $2 million problem lurking just beneath the surface. This blog post isn’t designed to scare you, but to help you take control of your health. At Dr. Gena Chiropractic in Plantation, we’d like to save the surprises for birthday parties and Valentine’s Day, and let your health be something you call the shots on.

 But, how do you know if you’re healthy?

Basing the status of your health solely on how you feel is a slippery slope. When something is going on inside of you, you usually don’t realize it until uncomfortable pain makes a sudden appearance. This is usually the last thing to show up – a sign that there has been trouble brewing very quietly, for far too long.

While the general population should be visiting their primary care physician for routine physicals on an annual basis, here are Dr. Gena’s top 5 tips to gauge how healthy you are, based on things you do every day!

1. Your energy carries you through the day.

Have enough energy to do the things you want to do? That’s a very good sign. Energy is an indicator of good health, and not enough of it can signify a problem. Your energy can also be affected by your emotions, so it’s important to ensure that your physical and mental health are in good working order.

2. You eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full.

We all have those days where there doesn’t seem to be enough popcorn in the bag – and that’s okay. But on an everyday basis, a healthy body will take in exactly what it needs and know when to put the fork (or dessert spoon) down. If you find yourself unable to eat for prolonged periods of time, please consult your primary care doctor.

3. You don’t need an alarm clock to wake up.

So long as you don’t spend every night hitting the town until the wee hours of the morning, a sign of good health is your ability to spring out of bed without an alarm clock. If you constantly struggle with getting out of bed and hit snooze more times than you’d like to admit, this could be a sign that something isn’t quite right. Remember that not getting enough sleep is one of the fastest ways to sabotage your health and mental wellbeing, but adequate sleep is part of the recipe for good, healthy, living.

4. Your tongue is the right color.

Yes, there’s a right and wrong color for tongues! Melanie St. Ours, a Baltimore-based clinical herbalist, wrote a piece for MindBodyGreen detailing how the Chinese Medicine-inspired practice of tongue reading can be a great barometer of health and wellness. “If the tip of your tongue is red, for example, it's a sign that your heart, mind, and emotions are revved up.”

She wrote: a red tip often "accompanies symptoms like insomnia, palpitations, and an unquiet mind." Other tongue signs include a thick coating  particularly towards the back  which signals that your digestion isn't performing optimally, and teeth marks on the sides of the tongue, which "point to low energy, sluggish digestion, loose stools, and mental rumination."

5. You have no problems with #2.

And by #2, we mean the word that rhymes with goop. Seeing what comes out of your body is a really good indicator of what is going on inside of it. In an article for Everyday Health, gastroenterologist Dr. Vasudha Dhar reported that, “Instead of worrying about whether or not your poo meets any purportedly “ideal” criteria, focus on how your GI tract normally functions and what typical bowel activity is for you. If you notice a prolonged change, that's when you need to closely monitor what's happening. In addition, if you are feeling pain or other pronounced symptoms, it's time to call your doctor."Symptoms that are not normal include blood, consistent constipation or prolonged diarrhea.

Have more questions about your health or are ready to live your best and healthiest life? Visit Dr. Gena Chiropractic today, a family chiropractor in Plantation, located just minutes west of Fort Lauderdale.

Remember, your health is in your hands, but our hands are here to help!