Please note: transcription not 100% accurate.
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00:00
I believe, and this is strictly my opinion, I believe that we put too much emphasis on mental health and not enough emphasis on solutions. What are we doing? We’re talking about it. We’re aware that we all have some form of mental health issue, whether it’s anxiety, whether it’s depression. We’re aware of it. We’re trying to remove the stigma, but we’re also not giving people solutions.
00:28
This is Dr. Meenal and welcome to Uncover Your Eyes, where we uncover reality. As a mom and eye doctor, I wanna know it all. Research has shown that after COVID, people are more concerned about their lifestyle, their wellness, and their nutrition. A survey found that 62% of Americans were more concerned about their health and their wellness after COVID than pre-pandemic.
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Here to give us more insight on wellness and the importance of wellness, we have Dr. Claudia Machiella. She is a chiropractor and health enthusiast. She focuses on a lifestyle that promotes a sound body, mind, and spirit, and is a true advocate for healthy living. She’s also the host of The Wellness Prescription, a radio show that airs every Saturday at 10 a.m. on 105.9 The Region.
01:28
Welcome Dr. Machiella. Thank you so much for being on this morning. Really appreciate your time. It’s my absolute pleasure. So, you know, tell me, I know there’s this focus on wellness and you’re a chiropractor. So tell me why there’s this focus on wellness. How did you get there? Wellness is…
01:50
everything has everything to do with our existence. It’s how we function, it’s how we socialize, it’s how we live our lives, it’s how we go to work. Everything that we do every day depends on our overall wellness. And being a chiropractor, I mean, I know some people are still skeptical about chiropractic, but having a chiropractic treatment as part of your self-care, self-love.
02:15
you know, wellness routine is actually mandatory. We need to keep our bodies moving properly. So we need to keep our muscles, joints, and ligaments operating as the unit that they should. And when that starts to come off track or fall off track, that’s when we notice that other things in our bodies and therefore in our daily lives fall off track as well. So for me, the wellness journey started when I realized that
02:42
you know, if I wasn’t feeling optimal and I wasn’t operating optimally, then I had nothing. And it didn’t matter what I did, if I’m not healthy, I’m not serving anybody, they’re not serving me, and my world is kind of, you know, turned upside down. So wellness for me is about understanding that health is a journey. So every decade, we kind of shift our attention to our health in different ways. And when you can do that and you can accept that,
03:10
That’s when your life really does excel and you can live your best life. That’s so beautiful. I love that. Um, you know, I want to jump back to a point you mentioned about, you know, being skeptical, there is this very olden day mentality. I want to say that a lot of us still, you know, have of being scared of chiropractors or scared of adjustment. Why are people scared? And, you know, can you debunk that myth?
03:35
I love this question. So I’ve been practicing for 23 years. So I’m not new. I’ve been around the block a few times with the whole adjustment conversation. So we shouldn’t fear adjustments because our joints are designed to move and that’s simply, simply put is what I do is I help joints move in the way they’re designed to move. So if we’re able to bend our knees and flex and extend our leg,
04:01
All I’m doing in adjusting a joint is allowing that joint to do its job properly. No reason to be afraid. I think in the last 23 years, we’ve really made improvements. And I’d like to say that as a profession, we’ve really done a good job at educating people and understanding that there’s nothing to fear in an adjustment. We’ve come a long way. I never adjust in a joint that is not ready to be adjusted. So what does that mean? I always loosen up the tissues around the joint. I make sure that there’s not a lot of inflammation.
04:31
So sometimes in one of my sessions, I’m not adjusting right off the first second that I meet you. It is a process, it’s a relationship. It’s a waxing and waning of when it’s necessary, when it’s not necessary. And then we get my patients understand that, like I mentioned earlier, health is a journey. Getting your body moving properly takes time. You know, people present with pain and that pain generally doesn’t happen overnight unless it’s acute, which means that bringing you out of that pain state,
05:00
also takes time. So adjustments are nothing to be feared. I am just facilitating the body to do what it is designed to do and joints are designed to move. So I hope that helps. It was interesting. No, yeah. I mean, it was interesting. Recently I had this TMJ pain and it was really bad. And my, you know, my jaw kind of got locked. So I was told to see a chiropractor, which was really nice. And I was really nervous. I’m not gonna lie because I’m like, what are they gonna crack my bones? And you know, you’re stressed out.
05:29
but it was gentle and I had to get it done because I couldn’t even open my mouth to chew food. So I had to do it right away, but it was gentle. And like you said, it’s not like what we feel, like someone’s gonna crack my jaw open. Like that’s how I felt, right? So, can you tell me like in general, I mean, we assume as healthcare providers, I think as well with lack of education on the spine, the body, the joints.
05:58
I mean, for me, I only talk about eyes, right? Like what are the most common problems that you see people coming in for? Yeah, and that’s another great question. So generally I’m seeing people for the big ticket items, like so back pain, neck pain, headaches, what we call radicular pain. So like a nerve, a disc that’s bulged, prolapsed or protruded, it’s causing like sharp shooting pain, sciatica. So all in the back, lower back pain category.
06:25
But over the years, I have transformed my community to believe that, you know, back pain, if you’re presenting to me the back pain, it’s not always just back pain. There is a different, there’s a greater source. So your back pain is a sign that there’s something going on, that you have mechanical issues, that you have a disc issue, you might have osteoarthritis early, you know, too early to be dealing with that. So.
06:49
For the most part, I deal with the big ticket ones, but then what I do is I explore the other areas because our bodies are not just the low back, mid back and the neck, our bodies are bigger than that. It’s our extremities. And it’s like, how does the back pain, how has it been affecting your gait and your ability to walk? Or has your walking been affecting your low back based on tight muscles, inactivity? So…
07:14
It’s not just about, oh, your low back hurts. Okay, come in, I’m gonna give you a good crack. It’s about assessing the whole body and understanding that we are an entire system. And that’s where I feel like I’ve made the biggest impact. I do feel that there’s still more work to be done. And you know, we should all be working together. So I refer a lot of people, if they’re having headaches, and it’s like, I know that I can help a headache.
07:39
if I’m following my own protocol, if I’m understanding the anatomy and other things that are going on. But sometimes like, you know what, you should go and see your optometrist because sometimes there’s something going on that might be causing it and vice versa. And sometimes people refer to me, community my cousins are optometrist and they’ll often say, you know what, you need to get your neck worked on because that could be causing the headaches that are referring to your eyeballs. I feel like health is like this ever evolving.
08:08
thing. And so yeah, if you come to me for neck and back pain, sometimes I’m like, you know what, check this out, check that out. Let’s see what else is going on to find out exactly what the source is. Collaborative health care, right? I mean, it’s, it’s so important for us to all be educated about, you know, it’s not like I need to know everything. I don’t need to know how to do the adjustments, but just understanding what each other does and what’s, you know, what signs and differentials there could be of certain issues, you know,
08:35
I want to say post pandemic or maybe even pre pandemic, but just as years have gone on more people are visiting the Cairo and I think more people are in pain. I want to say why, why do you think that is? Like why do you think, I mean, I don’t know the logistics, but is it more people’s joints are stiffer because of XYZ? Like what is going on? I think that, you know, there, there was a lot happening, you know, during the pandemic and after there are a lot.
09:04
more jobs that require people to be seated. We are not designed to sit for eight to 10 hours a day. There is no way our bodies biomechanically doesn’t make sense. We are design, we are biped. We are designed to walk and move and stand and be locomotive. So the fact that we’re all sitting a lot more is really causing an imbalance in our musculature and our skeletal system. So I say this to everyone, sitting is now the new smoking.
09:33
because they’re noticing. Yeah, it really is. And they’re noticing. That’s a strong statement. Wow. You know what? That’s why people are now seeking care because they’re sitting, they’re hunching, they’re looking at screens. We’re on our devices all the time. We’re looking at our phones. We are a lot more sedentary than we’ve ever been. Fewer people are commuting. Even that little walk or race to the GO train or to the subway, that’s motion, that’s movement. And now most of us are missing that.
10:03
and it’s really causing an imbalance. So people say, the great thing about my job is that I’m not seeing anybody who has terminal illness. So 90%, 95% of the people that come to my clinics can be fixed, I can heal them. It’s not hard, it just takes commitment on my part as well as on their part. And that’s the beauty about what I do is I can give people back their hobbies, their extracurricular activities.
10:33
I can give them back that ability to do that. And to me, that’s such a blessing to hear that I can help somebody. I have a patient, I’m gonna tell you a real interesting story. I’ve been treating her for a few years. She came to me initially because she had your problem. She had TMJ, you know, locked jaw. And she came to me and tears, she says, all I wanna do is just eat a hamburger. I’m like, done, let’s do it. If that’s your goal, I’ll help you get that hamburger. So we worked on it, she was committed. We did what we had to do.
11:03
she started eating a hamburger again. Well, I proved to her that with the commitment and with the knowledge and with her doing her homework, we can get her better. She then came to me for plantar fasciitis, okay? If you’ve ever had foot pain, you know that, oh, I can’t, like I die with foot pain because I wanna walk, I wanna run, so she says to me, okay, you fixed my jaw, I’m eating burgers, but now I wanna go to Italy and I wanna walk like crazy.
11:32
Okay, so let’s do it. So we took our time, we did it. So to me, I’m like, this is incredible. I can give people back the things that they wanna do. And to me, that’s the ultimate health journey. Like, if you can’t live and do what you wanna do, then that’s a big problem. So back to your question. We’re sitting more, we’re doing less activity. Our bodies are telling us that we need to be active. We need to get out there and we need to move because that’s what we are designed to do.
12:03
So, you know, you mentioned, yes, that we’re designed to do that. We’re designed to be standing, walking. Can you explain that to me? Like, why are we designed to be standing? So to me, anatomy is fascinating because if you, if we look at the anatomy of our body, all of our muscles are designed to keep us standing upright. So the muscles along our spine.
12:29
the paraspinal muscles, we also call them the erector muscles because that’s what they do, they keep us upright, they keep us standing tall. When you shorten those muscles by being seated, okay, so you’re shortening first of all, so hamstrings as well, hamstrings, they’re designed to keep you standing up because the quadricep, which is the muscle on the front of your leg and the hamstring, which is the muscle behind the leg, they are antagonistic muscles, so they kind of work together, they play off of each other. They are designed to keep us standing up
12:59
being locomotive. The moment we sit for too long, we shorten those hamstrings, we try to stretch out the paraspinals, they’re not designed to do that. So all of a sudden, all these muscles are doing things that they’re not supposed to be doing. So then you’re sitting for an hour, okay? Then you try to get up, well, you’re shocking the muscle. It’s like, wait a second, are you sitting or are you standing? Our bodies really are not designed for all the sitting. We are designed for hunting and gathering.
13:28
right? Because that’s who we are. We’re hunters and gatherers. So we’re scoping the landscape. We’re looking for food. We’re reaching. We’re picking apples off of trees. That’s what we did, you know, pre-historically. Now we’re going to the grocery store. We’re sitting down. We’re watching Netflix. We’re doing all the opposite of what we should be doing. Wow. So do you think stress is a contributor to all this? Oh God, stress, I personally think.
13:56
in all of my years of practice, that stress is the number one contributor to pain. And it’s so simple. It’s not really even science because, I mean it is, but it’s not. Like if you think about when you’re stressed, what are you doing? You’re squeezing your shoulders together, you’re not breathing, you’re not bringing oxygen to places, your nerves are clenched up. Well, that’s playing wreaking havoc on our structures and on our anatomy.
14:24
you know, you’re curling up, you’re keeping your jaws really tense, that is definitely contributing. And then we can get into the physiology of all of it. So your heart’s pumping differently, the muscles are tight, blood is not getting to those deep extreme muscles in your arms and legs, things tighten up, and you’re releasing cortisol, which is also creating inflammation, which also affects muscles. So everything we do every day is about
14:54
keeping inflammation down, keeping our joints moving so that we can move and get things flowing. Do you feel as a healthcare provider who knows all this, right? Do you feel that healthcare providers in general, whether it’s your family doctors, whether it’s patient specialists for diabetes, endocrinologists, like rheumatologists, do you feel that we don’t focus on stress enough? Yeah, and we don’t talk about it in the right ways.
15:24
I believe, and this is strictly my opinion, I believe that we put too much emphasis on mental health and not enough emphasis on solutions. What are we doing? We’re talking about it. We’re aware that we all have some form of mental health issue, whether it’s anxiety, whether it’s depression. We’re aware of it. We’re trying to remove the stigma, but we’re also not giving people solutions. We’re not giving them options on how to care for that stuff and how to understand that. And I’ll tell you, 90% of people would feel…
15:53
Let’s say 80% would feel so much better if when they’re having an anxiety attack or if they’re feeling depressed, we just get outside and walk for 15, 20 minutes. Nobody’s telling anybody that. Then we’re gonna talk about something else, which is we’re gonna get into another conversation, which is horrible continuity of care. So we’re not all talking as healthcare providers. We’re not all having the same dialogue where we need to be moving, we need to be active, we need to have…
16:19
tools in our little toolbox to deal with stress, anxiety, depression, because it’s all connected. So yeah, we don’t talk about enough. We talk about it in that we have a condition, but we’re not teaching people how to solve that problem because it is, it, you can fix it. Nobody should be judging anybody, but we can help. And I think, I think you’re right about that. Like, you know, again, we both
16:46
both advocate about collage. You know how we always talk about this collaborative healthcare, so important. We also don’t inter-refer amongst each other enough, asking patients to address different aspects, right? If like you said, the neck pain is a classic example, neck pain or eye pain, all of this migraine related, so they should be seeking help from all healthcare professionals associated with those.
17:11
referred areas of pain, right? It’s like you get a migraine, but it’s referred from somewhere else. So, you know, I love that. In this day and age, I mean, I feel stressed a lot because, I mean, we’re all on devices. I mean, our kids are, we are, and I really value your opinion. So, you know, what is your projected, like, where are we headed? I mean, I’m assuming all these devices are going to not only cognitively affect us, but affect our bodies.
17:39
I often fear that myself and you know, you have younger kids and so watching them on their devices, you know, you’re constantly monitoring how much they’re on, right? Well, I have a son in first year university and he is always on his computer. I mean, his exams are online. So you know, this poor kid is one of thousands of kids who are experiencing the same thing. So of course I worry. I think we should be more worried about.
18:08
that generation because you know they’re the first ones experiencing this by the time your kids are there i think we’re gonna have a better handle on it so what’s the solution i don’t know what the solution is all i know is that i think where we’re headed is that we’re gonna have to really start advocating for people to just stay as active as possible you know we’ve switched out activity for you know tiktok which is like
18:35
30 seconds of information and half of it, we don’t even know if it’s credible or not. Whereas if we just said, okay, you know what, let’s get out there, be active, and then you have 15 minutes to just kind of do stuff. I think we haven’t reached that balance because devices aren’t going anywhere, that’s for sure. I think we have to focus on finding the balance. People working from home, personally, I think is a disaster.
19:03
I think they need to get out. They need to have reasons to number one, be social, to walk around and to have a break from being on a computer all day. I think it’s unhealthy. So we’re headed down a bad path unless we find balance and we start promoting balance. Right. Tell me about, I’ve heard this term thrown around places like the tech neck. What does that mean? So we come up with our own actually, we’re very creative. So tech neck is that.
19:32
this forward carriage of your head where you get like a little hump in the back. Yes. Okay. Okay. That’s what I thought. Yeah. Very common and not difficult to get like, you know, we’re all like our posture. It’s like, we’re sitting at devices, you’re squinting, you’re leaning forward. Naturally. Your spine is going to do that. It is not the right position for your thoracic spine to be in. We have to get rid of that because
19:57
we’re not meant to be like, you know, our dog or cat, we are meant to have our neck upright. So tech neck is simply that. We have TikTok thumb, because people are getting issues in their wrists. We call it the TikTok thumb, because you’re scrolling like, you know, every five seconds. So people come in, oh, my thumb hurts, my wrist hurts. Well, TikTok thumb. So we have our own fancy names. We call it the Netflix butt, because people come in and they have…
20:26
my gosh, I have pain in my glutes. Well, it’s from sitting, right? And the big joke is, you know, we’re watching Netflix a lot and you’re on your butt a lot. So we have our own fun names and fun terms, but it’s actually not funny because it’s the truth. So. Oh gosh, next time I see my chiropractor, I’m gonna know what they’re saying behind my back. Yeah, I’m gonna know what’s up. Okay, so like, I mean, obviously we know all of this is unhealthy, but I do see
20:55
a lot of children, adults even getting these Fitbits and whatnot to track health. So I’m assuming you also feel there are positive aspects to using tech devices, I guess. Yeah, I think that that is an excellent use of technology. So I’m obsessed with my iWatch because it tells me everything from how many steps I’ve taken. I have my…
21:20
my settings, so I need to be moving for so many minutes, I need to have so many steps in a day, and I like it because it’s reminding me. So if I haven’t reached my personal goals, it’s like, oh, you can still do it. So I like that, right? I think that’s where I’m going with the balance, like finding the balance, finding ways to be more active, taking deep breaths. I mean, how many times a day do you find yourself holding your breath because you’re stressed or somebody’s saying something or you’re feeling it?
21:49
If we just take a few minutes to take five deep breaths in through your nose, out through your mouth, that can totally change things for you. So I love technology for those uses. Tracking your health, 100%, I encourage everybody to get some sort of a device. Some people like the Aura Ring, the Fitbits. I love my Apple Watch.
22:08
You obviously, I know you believe a lot in wellness. I mean, you have the show wellness prescription, right? What are wellness things that you prescribe? Like if you had to say the top three or, you know, top few wellness prescriptions that you prescribe your patients, what would they be? That’s a great question. And there are four, okay? I tell everybody drink water, okay? If all else fails in your day and you’ve met your
22:36
quota of water for the day, you’re already on the right path to health. Okay? Stretch every day. Okay? I give all of my patients a pamphlet of stretches. Okay? And you must stretch every day. And I know if you haven’t, so don’t try to fool me. The third one is eat plant-based as often as you can. Okay? So eating a very anti-inflammatory diet because that is going to keep everything in check. And number four.
23:06
30 minutes of physical activity. Doesn’t have to be high intensity, but it has to be physical activity every single day and minimum five days of the week. And that is your prescription for wellness. Okay, they’re simple. Water, stretch, plant-based exercise, and you are on the road to a good plan. So I wanna ask you, cause this is my struggle always, how do you find the time to do it?
23:35
Yeah, because anyone asks me that, like a doctor asks me as a health care provider even, I know these things, but somebody asked me, I’m like, oh, but I didn’t have time, right? How do you mentally carve out that time? So it was a struggle, you know, I mean, 23 years in practice, two kids later, two practices later. It’s not easy, but…
24:01
I have learned that I have to make the time. So think about it. How much time does it take? 30 minutes a day? We have 30 minutes a day. And I’m not judging you. I’m telling myself. 30 minutes in a day. I can find 30 minutes. If I can find 15 minutes to be on TikTok, I can find 30 minutes to move my body. Drinking water, just carry your water with you. So it sounds inundating and it sounds almost impossible, but I am living proof that
24:29
you can get into the routine of doing those four simple things to get you on the road to wellness. So you got to practice it. You got to try it. Some weeks you’re going to do amazing and some weeks you’re not going to be so good at it. But if you’re following that 80-20 rule and you’re doing that with your four prescriptions for wellness, you’re going to get there and you’re going to feel pretty pleased with yourself because you’re going to be feeling good.
24:58
Thank you so much. That was some awesome information. I really appreciate your time today. And can you tell our listeners where they can find you and about your show if they wanna listen into your show? Well, thank you so much for having me. It’s always a pleasure speaking with you. I’m easy to find. I’m on Instagram at Claudia underscore Mackella. I have a website, ClaudiaMackella.com. I also have the wellness prescription radio show slash.
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podcast, you can find me at 105.9, the region.com and you can just find me or just Google The Wellness Prescription and it will come up and you can listen to previous episodes. And I would love to do this again with you. Oh, I would love that. Thank you so much for all your, all this great information and inspiring other healthcare professionals. So thank you. Thank you, listeners and viewers, for tuning in. If you want to catch more episodes of Uncover Your Eyes,
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make sure to Follow or Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and on YouTube. To learn more about me, follow me on Instagram @Dr.MeenalAgarwal Until next time, keep those eyes uncovered!