Progressive Chiropractic- Victoria Family Chiropractor Dr. Mark Smith

Well, it was nice that not all Christmas traditions had to change this year!

Holiday Hours: CLOSED DEC 24th/25th OPEN DEC 28th-30th... CLOSED DEC 31st/JAN 1st Happy and blessed holidays to all of our wonderful clientele!

Hello everyone! With temporary province-wide restrictions being put in place there is understandably some confusion as to what services remain open. At this time the restrictions do NOT apply to our clinic and we WILL remain open as per usual. Stay safe and be well!

Just an FYI to our patients that our office will be closed tomorrow November 11th as we observe and reflect on Remembrance Day. In a year of change and challenge it’s a good thing to be thankful for and remember those who came before us and overcame great obstacles that we now benefit from

A very heartfelt THANK YOU to our wonderful office manager Tracey McColm for her years of service to our clinic and our clientele. You have left your mark on us and have made our office and those around you better and you will be missed as you move onto a new opportunity with Harbord Insurance. You will be missed! In the meantime, we are excited to welcome PAMELA (Pam) to our office as our full time office manager. We are eager to see what Pam brings to our clinic environment and we think you will enjoy her warm, down-to-earth personality

With our unique table, adjusting tool, massage table, and experience we are well equipped to care for expecting mothers: http://chiropractorvictoria.com/pregnancy-chiropractor/

Just a heads-up to our valued clients that we will be closed Monday Aug 3rd for BC day and will re-open Tuesday, Aug 4! Have a wonderful day celebrating our beautiful province!

***IMPORTANT PETITION*** WE ARE AT RISK OF LOSING X-RAY IN OUR OFFICE: As if this year hasn't been difficult enough for chiropractors, our regulatory body, the College of Chiropractors of BC (CCBC) believes it is in the public interest to deny us the ability to do x-ray examinations for the purpose of chiropractic analysis.... We respectfully disagree, and it is very important that those of us who have had benefit from using xray in our clinic and in other clinics in the province make their voice and opinions known Please participate in the petition here: http://chng.it/8GQgfhfJFL In addition, please contact the CCBC directly by email, letters, or phone calls and let the board know how xray has helped you and why you think it benefits the profession as a whole- here is the contact link: https://www.chirobc.com/about-the-college-of-chiropracto// Without voicing your opinion, our clinic will lose its ability to help you and those you care about to the best of our ability, in other words, SEEING IS KNOWING Thank you for your support

Not ALL chiropractors do things the same way. You may or may not know it, but I try to take a 'full-body-care' approach http://chiropractorvictoria.com/full-body-chiropractic/

So who really is THE BEST?... http://chiropractorvictoria.com/best-chiropractor-in-victo/

Hello everyone! just a heads-up that we will be CLOSED Wednesday July 1st and spending the day with family while we celebrate this wonderful country of ours. We WILL be open Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri as per usual though! Have a wonderful holiday everyone!

We would love your feedback! This COVID-19 pandemic has been a great reminder of how important YOU our loyal clients are to our very existence as a business- We want to keep you happy and we would love your input to do that!... Simply click on the attached ANONYMOUS survey to answer 10 quick questions to help us improve your care. Your honest feedback is welcomed and you won't hurt our feelings with your answers, we promise! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QK83G5D

We are expanding our patient hours! Due to a positive response in our re-opening, our expanded patient hours in the upcoming week will be: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 8:00-1:00 PM... Tuesday, Thursday: 1:00-6:00 PM Thank you all for your support!

When you come into the office youll notice that our mascot/part-time greeter Charlie wont be in. This is due to our new protocols but with the time off Charlie has had time to pursue other hobbies, such as sunbathing on the couch and following my son Lincoln around in hopes of dropped crumbs He is doing well and will be back in the office as soon as possible!

A HEARTFELT THANK YOU to our patients for their loyal support and patronage in helping us bounce back from this crisis As a business owner it is so encouraging to see our schedule beginning to fill up and to see your smiling faces in our office again (even if we can only see your eyes ) Have a great weekend everyone!!

Were open and it feels great to be back! Just a few pics to show you the new (and hopefully temporary) look of the office

To our valued patients, Weve missed you and we hope this finds you and your family in good health. We are excited to let you know that we will be reopening our office on THURSDAY, MAY 21st!...Continue reading

Another quick update for our valued clients as we eagerly prepare to return: Our hope is to return to the office as soon as possible after the long weekend, however we are waiting for our regulatory college (the CCBC) and Worksafe BC to provide us with their required covid-19 protocols for patient and staff safety. These should come relatively soon. Once we have our new in-office protocols we will take a couple of days to prepare our office accordingly and provide our cliente...le with a firm start date and hours while booking appointments. This is a time of great anticipation as we look forward to seeing you all soon!

Hello everyone! The news from Premier Horgan today that chiropractic will be included in phase 2 of restarting BC is both welcome and exciting- we are potentially that much closer to seeing you all again soon! It is all dependent on the continued success of BCs social distancing initiatives but all things going well we will provide you with the following information as soon as possible: - The exact date that we will be re-opening... - What our office hours will look like - What our personal hygiene and social distancing measures for both staff and patients will look like going forward We look forward to seeing you all and having more information for you soon! In the meantime stay safe, stay healthy, and stay optimistic!

IMPORTANT NOTE TO PATIENTS: Unfortunately we will no longer be accepting emergency appointments for the time being. This was a very difficult and even emotional decision but I have made it for two reasons: 1. The safety of my family. ... My son Lincoln has an autoimmune condition that makes him more susceptible to infections and the consequences more severe if I were to pass an illness on to him. We were in and out of hospital a lot last year because of it and at one point spent an entire week in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). As a newborn baby my daughter Avaya is also susceptible. After discussing it with my wife we knew that this alone was reason enough to stay out of the office for now. 2. The escalation of the Covid 19 situation in BC. Bonnie Henrys announcement of the closure of personal services that involve close physical contact mark an escalation of the seriousness of the situation in B.C. While my own professional association and regulatory college has not explicitly told us to close our clinics yet it appears as though we are moving towards the priority of life over limb with respect to health care services. This is especially relevant to my profession which involves close physical contact. The regulatory body of massage therapists in B.C. has already shut down all massage therapists and massage clinics for example. It is very difficult for me to not be offering high-need appointments at this time but is the best choice for myself and my family at this point in time, I hope our valued clientele understands. I sincerely look forward to seeing you all again as soon as we are able to, I appreciate you all. - Dr. Mark

Need advice with a physical issue, nutrition, stretches, etc.? Id like to remain available to my patients as much as I am able given social distancing. Email me at [email protected] with questions/concerns and I will respond as quickly as possible... Stay healthy and safe everyone!

After I decided to essentially close the office I was struck by the emotions you might expect- fear, anxiety, worry, doubt, etc. What struck me most though was this overwhelming sense of loss. As I thought more about why this was, I realized that its because I truly LOVE what I do as a calling and so appreciate the absolutely wonderful people I have had the PRIVILEGE to serve over my 9 years in practice: My amazing and supportive staff and their comeraderie, our regular clie...ntele and the joy they bring to our clinic, and every new patient that comes in seeking help. I felt and still feel loss because my role as a chiropractor and health care provider is such an essential part of who I am as a person. It is and has been a uniquely fulfilling calling that despite its challenges makes me look forward to coming in to the office every day. Lesson reinforced: I will NEVER take this beautiful career path for granted again. Whenever it is that I get to return to work full time and this situation we face blows over I will make a point of saying THANK YOU every morning before I step through my clinic doors Maybe you can relate?

To our valued clients: It is with a heavy heart that our office will be closed immediately and open only for emergency care. While we have remained open as long as possible it is in the interest of our patient's safety and the greater good of public health and the recommendation of my regulatory college (the CCBC) that we have decided to close. This is especially relevant to me as a parent with two young children, one of whom is immune-compromised and at greater risk. Please ...call the office of Dr. Richard Kjaer for emergency appointments. Please also check our business Facebook page for updates as well. We will be contacting existing patients as soon as we are able to re-open. We thank you so much for your ongoing support and patronage, we greatly appreciate you and look forward to seeing you soon. Please stay safe and healthy. Yours in Health, Dr. Mark, Tracey, and Virginia

To our valued clients: We believe that a healthy lifestyle, good hygiene and sanitation practices, and common sense are the best ways to avoid illness. As a result we would like to inform our patients that while we already practice appropriate sanitization practices we are taking extra measures to keep our treatment tables and office surfaces clean in the best interest of everyones good health. Our office will remain open for the time being.... If you have an appointment scheduled and are feeling ill or have been out of the country or in contact with anyone who has, please contact our reception and we will gladly reschedule your existing appointment. Thank you all for your help and ongoing support- we encourage you all to do your part to keep yourselves and those around you healthy! - Dr. Mark

Holiday hours: Closed December 24, 25, 26 and New Years day (January 1st) Happy Holidays everyone, thanks for a fantastic year!

Doesnt that warm your heart?! Well done to all of our clients and community who got into the Christmas spirit and took the time to put together a shoebox for women in need, we were proud to be a part of it again this year! #theshoeboxprojectyyj

Its that special time of year again! Get your Christmas shoeboxes in by December 19th and receive $20 off your next visit! Happy holidays!

First time in the lake!

All smiles at #shuswaplake

http://chiropractorvictoria.com/foot-pain-chiropractic/

Spinal health is one component of a healthy lifestyle, and each piece of a healthy lifestyle strengthens and enables the other. Are there any missing or weak links in your health picture that you could work on this spring?

Chiropractic Care for Children - An Evidence-Based Opinion by Dr. James Chestnut MSc, D.C., C.C.W.P. My response to recent campaigns in Canada and Australia to... eliminate chiropractic care for children: To me the whole issue of chiropractic care for children is a simple one if we use science instead of dogma and bias. Kids have neuromusculoskeletal systems (muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments, nociceptors, proprioceptors) just as adults do and children can thus experience dysfunction and can feel pain the same as adults can. This is irrefutable; a classic example is torticollis. When kids are in pain, or appear to be in discomfort or distress, the parents must choose between doing nothing for their child or seeking some type of care. I think most would agree that if signs and/or symptoms persist, some type of care, or at least some kind of physical examination, is prudent. The reality is that parents are faced with choosing between prescription drugs which have never been tested on children but are known to have questionable short term effectiveness at best and to have serious adverse effects for adults, passive physiotherapy modalities which have no evidence of effectiveness for children and are proven ineffective for adults, or to choose a reasonable investigative trial of chiropractic care which has at least some evidence for both effectiveness and safety for children and has convincing evidence of effectiveness and safety for adults. (Todd et al. (2014) Adverse events due to chiropractic and other manual therapies for infants and children: A review of the literature. J Manipulative Physiol Ther); Evans et al.(2018) Spinal manipulation and exercise for low back pain in adolescents: a randomized trial. Pain 159:7). Science and ethics and evidence-based healthcare initiatives require a fair comparison of all available interventions for childhood neuromusculoskeletal issues. This entire foundational scientific premise of evidence-based and ethical healthcare delivery is being deliberately side-stepped by those advocating to eliminate chiropractic care for children, and is being inexplicably ignored by those advocating for chiropractic care for children. If one were to offer an unbiased, evidence-based review of the available evidence regarding effectiveness, safety, and cost-effectiveness for medical, physical therapy, and chiropractic interventions for back pain and other musculoskeletal health issues for adults and children one would inevitably conclude that chiropractic SMT care has equal or greater evidence for safety, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness. It is also very important to note that this same biased argument that is currently being put forward against chiropractic care for children was put forward for decades against chiropractic care for adults. The Wilk vs American Medical Association case proved that the organized campaign against chiropractic care had nothing to do with any actual dangers or evidence of harm or desire to protect patients. The court ruled that it was an organized conspiracy to create fear about chiropractic, undermine any validation or cultural authority of chiropractic, and create the false impression that medical interventions for the same conditions had evidence of being safer and more effective - all in order to remove chiropractic as competition. Ironically the Manga Report, an independent report commissioned by the Ontario Provincial Government, was being written at the same time that the AMA was trying to appeal the Wilk decision (which they lost!!). The Manga Report represented the most comprehensive review of the literature at the time and concluded chiropractic was more effective, more cost-effective, and safer than usual medical care for low back pain in adults. Remember, this was at the SAME TIME that the AMA was arguing that chiropractic was quackery, that it was dangerous, and that it was ineffective. Evidence proved all accusations of harm were false. Evidence proved accusations of less evidence were false. Manga, a Ph.D. public health professor at the University of Ottawa, concluded that the evidence showed more harm, less effectiveness, and less cost effectiveness for usual medical care than chiropractic and firmly stated that it was medical care that required more research to prove effectiveness and safety. I suggest Manga would find the exact same thing regarding care for children - the interventions remain the same! What is in the best interest of the public, and what represents the only ethical and scientific approach, is an unbiased comparison of all available interventions. Only demanding unequivocal evidence for chiropractic while blindly accepting the false presupposition that usual medical care for children is proven safe and effective may be an effective strategy to create a false narrative but it is unethical, unscientific, and against public interest. Let's hope that science prevails over dogma and that evidence prevails over fear mongering and misinformation. Parents, get informed, demand evidence, and whatever you choose, I wish you the healthiest and happiest children possible. Dr. James L. Chestnut MSc, D.C., C.C.W.P.

Just under a year ago I picked up and started learning guitar for the first time. I made the goal of playing #december by #collectivesoul within a year and it seemed pretty out of reach at the time, but here we are! #learnsomethingnew #creativeoutlet #musicfeedsthesoul #buildyourbrain #nevertoolate #thesehandsarentjustforspines

Really proud to see that our new national food guide is simple and more reflective of what is actually required for good health rather than concerned with the interests of the food industry! https://www.theglobeandmail.com//article-canadas-revamped/