Hello. This is the Good Living Doc show. I’m your host, Dr. Mark Smith, and this is my very first podcast ever. Episode zero. And on this episode, I just want to spend a few brief minutes introducing myself and letting you know a little bit about what I want to do with this, and explain why I think this show is something that will better your life.
I’ve been a chiropractor for 25 years, more than 25 years at this point. And in that time, I’ve learned a few things about pain relief and about the kinds of nutrition, fitness, lifestyle changes help people live better. And that’s really the basis of this show and the goal of the show, and why it’s called the Good Living Doc show.
Because I want to share my experience with you to help you live better. And even beyond that, beyond just my experience, you can’t just go by experience alone, so I’m also very heavily involved with science, reading scientific reports and scientific studies from reputable journals. And I try to combine good science with experience in order to give people the best guidance when it comes to living better.
Good living.
So, I am the Good Living Doc. Thanks for showing up.
Why I am starting a podcast
I’ve always been into writing. Ever since I can remember, probably back to when I was 10 years old, I loved to write. I’ve written hundreds of articles on health over the years. and it’s just something that I’ve always liked to do. I’ve written a couple novels, neither of which was published, but I wrote them. So I’ve always had a passion for writing and it’s always been just a fun, creative outlet for me.
But if you’ve ever spent any time writing, writing is tedious. As much as I love it, writing and rewriting and rewriting and editing and editing and editing is tedious and it can get boring and it can get very, I don’t know, just overwhelming. And so I started out trying to write a book about what I want to do with this show. I was going to compile it from all the questions I’ve heard repeatedly over the years from patients who wanted advice, and I wanted to compile all this information in one place so that I could have something tangible that I could give a new patient or a patient who has been with me for a long time, and have all this stuff in one place for them so that they can take their time with the information and digest it and incorporated it into their lives Because in the few minutes that I see a patient, I can’t tell them everything that I want to tell.
So, my original plan was to write a book. I figured it would probably take me a year. And I kept just letting it go, like I was having a really hard time sitting down and pumping this book out.
And then I thought, you know, It would probably be a lot easier if I would just say it. If I could say it, obviously, that can be more efficient, and so that’s why I have come to the conclusion that a podcast might be a better avenue to collect this information into one place. Hence, the Good Living Doc show. Thanks for showing up.
Pillars of health – My topics of discussion
So, I’ve identified for myself over the years, several what I call “pillars” of health. And those are the things that I’m going to want to try and concentrate on during the time that I make these recordings. What is a pillar? A pillar is a structure that helps support something and so when we’re talking about pillars of health, these are topics that help support us being healthy and living well. And so I want to concentrate this show on these pillars.
The first pillar is pain relief / movement. Movement is so very important. I’ve done a lot of reading and studying nutrition over the years, that’s another pillar, nutrition. And as important as nutrition is…because nutrition is important not just to make sure your body has all the vitamins and minerals it needs in order to fight disease and to keep us healthy…but nutrition is of the utmost importance when it comes to healing, when it comes to our bodies trying to overcome injury, and other dysfunction. And as important as nutrition is, I believe that movement…healthy movement…is just as important. Not just exercise. We all know that fitness and exercise is important, but healthy movement is right up there with nutrition. I think it might even be slightly more important. But we’ll talk about that over time.
Another pillar I want to make sure I address in some episodes is stress reduction. Not just stress management, but stress reduction. We need to get stress down. You know, if you do any studying of various diseases, stress is always a factor. Stress will kill you if you have it for long enough. It’s a horrible, horrible detriment to our health. And it’s something that we all live with. There’s nothing about modern society that is not stressful these days. And so we need to learn what stress does to us and how to reverse it, so that we can not only minimize stress, but reverse its effects on our body.
Next is sleep and rest. Rest is just as important as movement. One of the biggest mistakes people make when they’re injured is they don’t rest. If you’re injured at work, if you’re injured in school sports, or you’re injured at the gym…good living, ensuring good living requires that we get the right amount of rest and that ties in with sleep as well.
I think I read a statistic recently that said 80%.of Americans are sleep deprived, and that alone over time will cause disease.
And another pillar, one of my favorites, is fun. It’s important to have fun. This life can’t just all be about working and taking care of problems and supporting other people. We have to have fun. So, we’re going to talk about that too.
And we’re going to do it by combining the experience that I’ve built over the years, the things that I’ve learned from over 25 years of study…and science, the most recent science that I can find. I’ll be pouring over it and bringing it to you. And so, I hope you’ll come back if that’s interesting to you. Come on back and give a couple episodes a listen and see if this is something that perhaps might be worth your time, that might do something to help you live better. This is Dr. Mark Smith. I am the Good Living Doc. This is the Good Living Doc show. And we’ll be talking real soon, I hope. Take care.