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 n