Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College well.” In Dr. Meschino’s estimation, the odds for boosting longevity and being fully functional at a later age are significantly increased if we attempt to defuse these “genetic time bombs” and minimize our risk factors for vascular disease and cancer by being proactive. Your practice supply partner RMT Chiropractic Acupuncture Visit our new online store at www.cmccstore.ca HOW DOES WEllNESS RElATE TO CHIROPRACTIC PRACTICE? The proper regimen of guided lifestyle and behavioural interven-tions, Dr. Meschino tells us, leads to health promotion and en-hances our chances of meeting or exceeding our life expectancy and maximizing our health span. In his opinion, chiropractors are in a unique position with regard to promoting wellness – a position they often fail to take full advantage of. “The patients who come to see chiropractors are, for the most part, not at end-stage disease,” he says. “Most functioning adults in our society, without realizing it, have health and lifestyle behaviours that are perpetuating pathways that are moving them towards can-cer, heart disease, immune system decline and other degenerative illnesses. They may not be manifesting the major events yet but are somewhere in a downward spiral. Part of this spiral is that their musculoskeletal system starts to fail and they begin to exhibit pain, restricted motion or nerve impingement problems as part of daily activity or occupational hazard. The opportunity for chiropractors – because their care philosophy is holistic in nature – is not only to restore the biomechanical defects that they can treat by hand, exercise or other therapies but to identify other risk factors in an individual’s lifestyle behaviours that are setting the stage for degen-erative illnesses. “Chiropractors have the opportunity to identify these risk factors and guide those under their care toward healthier and more ap-propriate lifestyle behaviours that would not only reduce their risk of degenerative illnesses but would allow them to maintain a highly functional body and mind for a longer period of time. Exercise, diet, nutritional supplementation and other guided behaviours can have a profound impact on lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, maintaining bone density and other age-related disorders. Proac-tive lifestyle strategies are equal to any pharmaceutical medications when the objective is to maximize quality-adjusted life expectancy and chiropractors have the opportunity to include, in their mix of holistic management, the interventions that are most appropriate. That’s called quality of life.” mIND-BODY RElATIONSHIPS At the recent 2011 CMCC Research Symposium, Dr. Aviad Haramati reported on the outcomes of a mind-body program implemented to address stress-related issues among health-care practitioners. Dr. Haramati, co-director of the graduate program in CAM at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, examined the physi-ological implications of chronic stress and its effect on health and life expectancy. The Georgetown program was created to address the reality of physician burnout, a condition marked by feelings of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, low personal ac-complishment and an inability to express empathy. Burnout also compromises the health-care provider-patient relationship. Accord-ing to Dr. Haramati, health-care practitioners experiencing burnout are more likely to commit errors and patients under their care are less likely to comply with recommended medications, exercise pro-tocols and dietary modifications. Stress, Dr. Haramati observed, is anything perceived to be a threat to the body and initiates an involuntary cascade of physiological www.canadianchiropractor.ca CMCC Supply Centre & Bookstore 6100 Leslie Street Toronto, Ontario, M2H 3J1 Local: 416 482 1532 Toll Free: 1 800 268 8940 Fax: 416 482 9745 [email protected] 18 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | MAY 2012
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