Dr. Dave, Toronto Chiropractor, shares a little about himself.

Hey everyone, it's Dr. Dave. Hopefully you're all doing well, taking care of each other, staying healthy, keeping that immune system strong, getting enough sleep, eating well, getting out for a little bit of fitness and fresh air, but keeping that social distance. Coming at you on behalf of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic today, just thought I'd share a little bit about myself. Had an opportunity over the past 22 years to meet a lot of patients, and over that time I've gotten to know many of them really well. And of course, many of you and many patients have gotten to know me. Maybe some of you don't know me at all. And of course, I am a chiropractor. It's what I like to do every day, but it's not necessarily who I am. I think from the very beginning of time in my life, for as long as I can remember, I always enjoyed helping people. I'm not necessarily altruistic. I'm not— my mom is an amazing person. She has incredible energy. I wish I had half the energy she did. She is really altruistic. She's one of the people who goes out of her way to help anybody and everybody with with no judgment. I'm not that far. I do like to help, but I like to help because I like to be able to solve problems. So academically, I always did okay. I did pretty good and I worked hard. And I don't know why my mom always told me to write the answers on my hand and cheat for the tests. That was kind of her strategy, and that's her easygoing life philosophy, which is great. I love to have that around, but for some reason I was really driven and I love to study and learn things. But I also love to help people when they have questions. Questions or they're not sure about something or to explain something. I remember being in school and one of my classmates, they were like, you know, with something, they had a question. I don't want to say struggling, but they just wanted some help. I love to be that person. I might have been a great teacher, but doctors are kind of like teachers. We do like to share. Some of that competitiveness or that desire to want to know things and be able to share it spilled over into athletics. I always enjoyed being an athlete. I played all kinds of sports right through high school, but definitely in about grade 10, fell in with running. I really had a big focus on track and cross-country, and I still run to this day. I've raced everything from 800 meters on the track, some 4x4 relays as well, but, uh, 800 meters on the track to 3 marathons, uh, and I still try and continue running. In the early '90s, I was hit by a car when I was out running, and since then I've had some back challenges. Really didn't have anything to do with me becoming a chiropractor, um, but I've had my own challenges with health and wellness because of sports and injuries and accidents, so I kind of know what that's like. And then now I'm just a guy. I'm just like everybody else. I'm not a people person. I don't have a huge social circle. I can handle being social. I love being around people. Chiropractic affords me the opportunity to meet and interact with people at a pace that's tolerable. I do like to be out. I like to go to the mall, for example. I'm not a big shopper. I don't buy a lot of stuff. But I like being around people. I just like to observe and watch. These days I focus when I go out on just noticing and interacting with stuff, nature, people, and I'm just curious about stuff. But oftentimes being a chiropractor and a runner, I start to look at people's gait. I look at their posture, how they're carrying and holding things, not out of judgment, but just out of curiosity and to notice those trends and patterns. I love music, all kinds of music, but I'm an alternative rock kind of guy, believe it or not. I don't like mainstream pop or dance music very much, or whatever it's called these days, but I will listen to it. My kids love it. It's okay. Everyone has their preference, but mine is definitely alternative rock. Wish I was a musician myself. I've had the opportunity to play a little guitar and sing, but very recreationally and just as a challenge to myself. And otherwise, I like to read. Books are great. I love movies. I'll watch some television. We don't have cable at home. We never have. So we try to limit all that. We live a very healthy lifestyle. I have a neck and back pain clinic, but I'm actually very wellness-focused. I know all the right things to do. I don't necessarily have the best willpower, just like a lot of other people. But I think life is really about moderation. That's probably my strongest philosophy. Is that everything is allowed in life in moderation, the good and the bad occasionally. Everything probably varying or different degrees, but you want to have a great experience in life. That's one of my favorite sayings. You'll catch me saying all the time. You may have seen it in some of the videos. I hope you're creating that great experience in your life because I really think that's all you come with in the beginning is the idea that you're going to live out some experiences. And at the end, hopefully you've had a lot of them. You're not taking anything with you other than those memories and those experiences that you can carry until the end. So one of the best ways to have those memories and experiences, of course, is to stay healthy. And the fundamentals of that, I think, are really easy. It's just hard to make those choices because someone's allowed to create an environment where it's harder to make those choices on how much we sleep, when we sleep, what we eat, how we eat, and how much movement, healthy movement, we get in our life. It's all very possible, but the probability is decreased by some of the challenges we have living in North America, and maybe globally now, but definitely some thoughts on capitalism and how we make a living in our interferes with some of those fundamental choices with our health and other aspects of our life and our relationships. But hey, this is not that kind of video. I just wanted to share a little bit about myself and let you know that, um, I'm a person just like you, and I'm open to the conversations and love to learn more about you when you come to the clinic. Don't hesitate to share. But my primary goal is to keep you going, not only to keep you out of pain but avoid those pain episodes as much as possible, help reconnect you to your function so that you can keep going every day. And it's a pleasure to to that. I'm never inconvenienced by that. There's nothing someone could do or say or ask about their health that I'm not willing to participate in, within reason probably. But just know that we're here for you, all right? And I look forward to your shares as well. All the best. You know, this whole situation is a challenge to our health, and it's a challenge to our health systems and society and globally, but we're going to get through it. We're going to learn from it. We're going to come out stronger, and it's all going to be good. It's all going to be okay. And I'm not just saying that. I know that to be true. There's going to be some heartache for some, and it's definitely— everybody's on their own journey even through this. But just keep doing your best, stay healthy, be positive. Hopefully you enjoyed this video. It'll pick you up, or pick me up, depending on how you look at it. And, uh, man, I miss all of you. I look forward to seeing you all soon back here in the practice. If you've never been, I look forward to meeting you in the future perhaps. And thanks for checking out this video. And wish you all the best. We're gonna wrap it up. All right, take care, all the best, and take care.