No, we are not talking about changing light bulbs or lowering thermostats at the office here.
We will encourage efforts to explore your “inner doctor,” to seek healthcare not sickcare while justifying choices and behaviors as sustainable. Ready?
Dr. Jessie Painter’s inspirational philosophy as a chiropractor and a yoga instructor flow from her mother’s genes of an engineer. In Painter’s pre-med classes, she realized that she would need to fall in love with medicine, the art of writing prescriptions to solve the body’s ailments. But her Mom’s engineering principles necessitated a look at the whole body as a system and how everything relates. So after an “aha!” moment, she became a doctor of chiropractic.
The basic premise of chiropractic solutions is that the structure of the body affects the function, like any other system, and balance is achieved by pushing and pulling muscles resulting in optimal functionality.
First let’s justify demand. Are people in pain, are they sick? The high demand from the public for self-care can be demonstrated by a trip to Costco. On the shelves are a twin pack of pain relievers, 1,000-count total. Or peek into the pharmacy and witness a multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry. Yes, there is demand.
If the average person is on, say, five prescriptions, what is the cost of that? To our planet, to our bodies?
Can we also agree that the environmental impacts are significant based on energy consumption, transportation, packaging, proper disposal of often hazardous materials and the needs to tightly condition the manufacturing process? Excellent.
If we agree on the premise, what is the conclusion or solution, knowing there is no magic bullet medicine or super food to cure what ails us?
Painter, with an abundance of youthful energy, suggests we need alternatives to the medicate or operate solutions offered by many doctors. Like many choices in life, there is a similar “pay me now or may me later” return on life’s investment opportunity decisions. Do you eat crap in a sedentary lifestyle, and have a higher cost of sickcare? Or do you invest in the preventative behaviors of proper diet and exercise?
Painter has structured her care around helping patients find their inner doctor. She considers the entire body as a system and recommends anything from an adjustment, to yoga exercises, to avoiding inflammatory foods like non-grass-fed meat or grains. She offers test questions to guide your behaviors, the foundation of her green medicine thought process. What will this choice do to your body? What impact will it have on the planet? Simple is best.
A resident of Newport Beach, Painter transfers her knowledge and passion in several programs and places. She teaches her “Movement Is Medicine” yoga class to seniors at Newport Plaza. As a surfer, she offers core strength programs and preventive exercise to other local surfers. I find my inner doctor at SouthWest Health, Costa Mesa, where Painter works with Dr. Zappala, as he applies similar holistic approaches to sports.
“Movement Is Medicine” is a customized program for seniors, surfers or to a morning gathering of sales people, enabling the flowing of creative juices before embarking on a day of training. There is a soft-sell lecture on the hot topics of healthcare, prevention, and investment in the self, care for the planet. Followed by yoga solutions you can perform in street clothes or as a necessary 10 minutes standing up and away from an office desk and computer.
This philosophy of smart choices tested by simple questions against body and planet meets my broad definition for the sustainability characteristics of green medicine. There is no free ride, there is a cost to everything. Some may think they cannot afford to eat healthy. Painter helps one understand the all-in total costs of a healthy body and a healthy planet with empowered personal choices of your inner doctor. Visit chiroyogi.net for additional information.
Besides, there is no sense in having higher air quality and water quality if we don’t selfishly sustain ourselves and our community in the equation. Don’t just transfer a better planet to our kids. Why not stick around a little longer to enjoy life with them is the point of this sustainable approach.
