FEATURE Brothers and DCs Jamie (right) and Joel Richards (left) run Cafe of Life Chiropractic, birthplace of the Life By Design movement. PRACTICE mANAGEmENT Practice by design T London, Ont.-based doctors spearhead movement to promote chiropractic as a way of life by mAri-Len de guzmAn injury-specific type of chiropractic treatment. It was more part of a well-being lifestyle.” She learned to view chiropractic adjustments as just one part of a more holistic approach to wellness that includes the way she eats, the way she moves and the way she thinks. For years, Kategiannis has lived with lymph nodes popping up in various places in her body following her cancer treatments. A group of these lymph nodes have appeared in her neck and her doctors have been monitoring them for years, given her history of thyroid cancer. “(The lymph nodes) have been there for probably two years and within three mAri-Len de guzmAn is the editor of Canadian Chiropractor and Massage Therapy Canada magazines. You can contact her at [email protected]. 28 Canadian Chiropractor February 2014 www.canadianchiropractor.ca Photos: Life By Design wo-and-a-half years ago, Ontario business owner Emily Kategiannis was struggling with her health. Since she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2000, her health and well-being have been on a roller-coaster ride – going through treatments, med-ications and numerous visits to the doctor. Then she met with Dr. Joel Richards, a chiropractor in London, Ont., who introduced her to a whole new level of chiropractic care than what she had been used to. “His approach was very different,” says Kategiannis. “It wasn’t just months (of being) under chiropractic care, they were gone,” Kategiannis re-calls. “My head and neck surgeon asked me what I had done differently – I had these for two years and all of a sudden, three months later, they were gone.” So she told the surgeon she had been under chiropractic care and has made some changes to her lifestyle. “(My doctor) didn’t dismiss it, but she didn’t think that that was probably the reason why (the lymph nodes) weren’t there.” Regardless of what her surgeon thought, Kategiannis knew the changes she was making – learned through a new health movement called Life By Design – were having a positive impact on her physical and mental health. Founded by London, Ont.-based chiropractors Dr. Jamie Richards and his brother Joel, Life By Design pro-motes health and wellness as a way of life through a regimen of eating, mov-ing and cognitive activities, with chiro-practic at the centre. The goal, according to Dr. Jamie Richards, is to teach patients what the chiropractic philosophy and the chiro-practic lifestyle are really about. “One of the pitfalls we face (as chi-ropractors) is we have negative brand equity,” explains Richards. “People think they know what chiropractic is and they think it’s a treatment for back pain or treatment for headaches. “Many people who value health un-derstand about exercise or about fuel and movement,” Richards says. “So, my whole premise is this: why don’t we teach people how our philosophy ap-plies to these areas?” desIgNINg a MoveMeNT Richards is a graduate of Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College and has been practising chiropractic for 10 years. Three years ago, he created Life By Design, a chiropractic movement that teaches people the way to live a healthy lifestyle. Life By Design has subcomponents – Move By Design, Eat By Design and Think By Design. “We are bringing chiropractic into the centrepiece of a lifestyle movement
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor February 2014: Page 28
