EP258: Live Longer with Dr. Cima

Health Coach Conversations

Today’s guest, Dr. James Cima, is a chiropractor with over 50 years of experience. He shares his journey from suffering severe back pain as a young man to becoming a chiropractor. Dr. Cima also discusses chiropractic care and its impact on overall health, how chiropractic can treat more than just physical pain, and his holistic approach to healthcare and living a long and healthy life.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Dr. Cima’s journey from experiencing severe back pain to becoming a chiropractor

• The importance of holistic healthcare and treating the person chemically, physically, mentally, and emotionally

• Role of nutrition in health and the importance of listening to your body’s cravings

• Why the US healthcare system focuses on sickness instead of health and wellness

• Why healthcare costs are so high in the US

• How to live a long and healthy life until 150 years old

• Dr. Cima’s new project for veterans healthcare

Memorable Quotes

• “Health is a composite chemically, physically, mentally, emotionally, and you have to deal with all three sides.”

• “As long as you keep on taking care of the body chemically, physically and mentally emotionally, you’re gonna be the one that’s going to improve.”

BIO:

Born in New York City on October 10, 1948, I was one of the first wave of baby boomers. Growing up in New York City was a great challenge in many ways and prepared me well for life. I mean if you were not getting into fights, you had to use your street smarts to outsmart your enemies as well as the police. This prompted me to find another way, which was to stay in school, study hard, and become something. The truth is that I always wanted to be a doctor. As long as I can remember, that was what I wanted to be. It’s funny how things worked out because years later, my wife told me she always wanted to marry a doctor.

My early years were happy growing up in a tough, lower-middle-class ethnic mix of Italians, Irish, Germans, Polish Catholics, and Jewish people.

Talk about bullying. That was all you experienced from the moment you left the safety of your apartment. From then on, you were fair game to anyone in the neighborhood, and you either fought like there was no tomorrow or there would be no tomorrow. So I developed a lot of street sense, knowing when to hit and when to run. I always hung around with a tough group of friends, which most people would call gangs. Whatever you call them, they were our protection, and I was part of their protection—a necessary evil.

Of course growing up in Queens in the fifties through the seventies, you were always in awe of the wise guys, the Tony Soprano types. That intrigued me, but these guys played for real, and this was no TV show. One mistake and you were either dead or in jail, which was not so appealing. I am unsure how my life would have ended if it had not been for two defining moments.

Turning Lemons into Lemonade

My spinal injury and poor grades changed the destiny of my life. I suffered a severe, debilitating lower back injury in my early teens. I also had fair to mediocre grades in school. My advisor told me that I was not “college material” and recommended that I seek employment or join the armed forces during the Vietnam years or wind up in jail like some of my friends did. You could say that I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, with few, if any, options. I had no talents, and I didn’t come from money.

Somehow, my adviser asked me, “James, what do you like?” I told him I loved animals. He went over to this large file cabinet, searched through all the college files, pulled out one, and said, “Here is one school you might be able to get into if you pass an aptitude test.”

Somehow I passed the test and instantly became college material. I was now a proud student enrolled in a state college’s pre-veterinary program.

From that day forward, I knew that I wanted to become a doctor and that I would not be any doctor but a doctor’s doctor. I studied as hard as I could and raised my grades enough to get into Cornell University’s pre-veterinary program. I graduated in the top 25 percent of my class. Not bad for not being college material.

A Slight Shift in Direction

During my early teen years, I developed severe back pain, which was thought to be congenital. I was born with a bad back, and because it was congenital, there was no way out. As I entered college, my back pain became debilitating to the point that something had to be done. My doctor did not want me to undergo surgery and suggested I tough it out, which I did, but you always heard stories about once you have a bad back you will always have a bad back. This was not fun to hear when you’re eighteen, but it was true.

One day it hit home while I was lying on the floor of my girlfriend’s living room in severe pain when her father’s friend asked me what was wrong. I told him my back was killing me, and he said don’t worry, “It is going to get worse with age,” as he stepped over me and walked out the front door.

Although it seemed cruel, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I knew he was right and that it was only going to get worse if I didn’t correct the problem, but how? Had it not been for that epiphany, I probably would never have chosen the path I did. I decided to find out about back pain and was accidentally introduced to the field of chiropractic. I went to a doctor of chiropractic who helped me with my back problem. As I learned about the profession, I realized that they were able to treat many other health problems besides back pain. Well that just seemed to be the icing on the cake, because if I could just help people with low back pain, that in itself would have been a rewarding experience. That was it. I applied to what is now known as New York Chiropractic College, received my degree in 1976, and was off and running.

As I was in my last year of school, I saw a quote from Thomas Edison about the doctor of the future: “The doctor of the future will give no medication but will interest his patients in diet, care of the human frame, and the cause and prevention of disease.” Although the definition was near perfect, there was no how-to manual that explained how the doctor was going to treat his patients.

From that day forward I was hooked, and I wanted to become the doctor of the future. I devoted my life to health and wellness, and forty years later I have created a health and wellness program that lives up to Mr. Edison’s vision of the doctor of the future.

In 1980, I left New York City with my new bride Gloria, and, moved to beautiful Palm Beach, Florida. My wife and I started my practice in 1981 and raised a family of four— Natalie, Tiffany, James, and Alexandra, two are chiropractic physicians and now practice with me.

We have 9 grandchildren with one on the way, and we hope to add a third generation to our practice. Our commitment is to offer the best health care available, which we always strive to achieve. Whether it is through education, treatment, or recommendations, our goal is to improve the health of this great nation, one patient at a time.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Cima Functional Medicine Website: https://www.cimafunctionalmedicine.com/

Achieving Unlimited Health book free PDF: https://www.cimafunctionalmedicine.com/ebooks/

How to Eat More and Lose Weight free PDF: https://www.cimafunctionalmedicine.com/ebooks/

Links to resources:

Health Coach Group Website https://www.thehealthcoachgroup.com/ Use the code HCC50 to save $50 on our website

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