Chiropractice Wellness and Self-Care with Dr. Danielle Peebles and Linda Kreter
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Welcome to Wise Health for Women Radio with Linda Prater. Women are pressed daily to give more, learn more, and be more, often at the expense of mind, body, or spirit. Each week with intriguing guests and topics, we'll bring you fresh ways to view your limited time, encouraging a shift to new, healthier perspectives. Wise Health for Women Radio, helping women thrive. And now here's your host, Linda Prater.

Good morning and welcome to Wise Health for Women Radio. I'm Linda Crater and we are going to talk today about a number of things actually, but we're going to encompass self-care to include some

aspects that you may not have considered before. We have a wonderful guest on today, Dr. Danielle Peebles, who is a chiropractor, an author, a speaker, and she works with women on a number of women's health issues, such as pregnancy, menstrual cycles, postpartum, but also how do you stay sexy in every phase of your life? How do you use chiropractic as a form of self-care?

And so those are a lot of topics. And I think often that chiropractic can be misunderstood. So Danielle, welcome to our show. And let's start with that. Thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure to be with you today. I'm so happy you are because I do believe that chiropractic care falls into a realm that is often either misunderstood or thought to be cracking your back,

putting you in alignment only and isn't seen for these other issues. Can you speak to that part?

Absolutely. One of the things that people really don't even understand, does not become aware of is that we have multiple ways of treating you. So with regards to your comment about it's just about cracking the back. Yes, we are taught to use our hands to what we call adjust. Adjust is the name of the treatment that we use to align your spine and align the joints throughout your body. And chiropractic

the word chiropractic means to use hands or practice with your hands. So yes, that is what our

our profession was founded on. However, what people are not aware of is that there are more than 200 techniques that we have out there that allows us to align the spine with as little as the amount of pressure that you could take on your eyeball or a little bit more with a little bit more speed. So we have so many different techniques to even take care of you. And if you have an apprehension or a nervousness about

being adjusted and hearing the sound that associated with it, you can ask your chiropractor, is there another method in which you can realign me? So that is the first thing I wanted to address. But as far as it being a part of self care and just overall wellness, it is such a necessity because really you can't be your best self if one, you're in pain, two, you're not able to move very well.

But let's talk about pain. Everyone doesn't respond to pain intensity the same way. So what's pain for one person may be nothing to someone else. So in my practice, I don't always address pain.

The word pain, I teach them their other language, other words to describe what they're feeling that would be an indicator of needing to be treated with chiropractic care. See, pain is something that says, ouch, but pain can also show up as dysfunction throughout your body. So, yeah.

Sometimes people say, well, what do you mean by dysfunction? What do you mean it shows up as dysfunction? Dysfunction such as I'm not sleeping well at night. Right. Dysfunction such as I'm having headaches pretty frequently lately. Dysfunction such as my indigestion, I'm having more acid reflux than usual. Dysfunction.

Disfunctions such as I can't walk past a bathroom without having to go and use it. Those are other indications of quote unquote pain, but not hurting you. More like discomfort points. Right. Discomfort points. They they're they're impacting your lifestyle. And what choices you make for is how happy you're going to be that day. I can't wear white today because my cycle is extremely heavy. Right.

That's a dysfunction, but that's also a pain that can be addressed with the nervous system and the chiropractic adjustment. That is so helpful because I think we all know that alignment is a word we would like to have in our lives, both physically and mentally and functionally and professionally, right?

But I don't know that everyone is thinking along those lines, but it is a wonderful practice of care. And I did not know that there were 200 techniques that you can use, but it makes sense because there's not just one way to manage people because every single body is different. Right. We're all complex. So why would one particular technique

thing be the end all, the cure all. We have nothing in our world that is a one size fit all, whether it's your health care or your clothes. Nothing is one size fit all. I think they're now calling it one size fits most. Right. Because that's a little more accurate. But yeah, no, I think you're exactly correct.

And I think by your explaining some of these other things, you know, whether it's your gut health and your digestion, whether it's insomnia, which plagues so many people. I mean, these are very important things that people may have gotten different answers for. From a regular physician, you might be given a sleep aid, but maybe you don't do well on those things.

So finding ways to sleep better, which in my belief, sleep is like gold and can honestly make you healthier just by getting a good night's sleep. What a difference it makes, don't you think? Absolutely. That's when your body does all its healing is when it's lying down at equilibrium, if we are able to achieve it. And then our body does the rest while we're resting. Well, we need to repair.

Because we need to restore as well. I think women have a tendency to use themselves up by trying to be all to everyone. And it takes a strong person to say, I really would like to feel better. And I love the way you put that. You cannot really be your best self if you have either pain points, meaning things that make you uncomfortable or dysfunctional, or if you're in actual physical pain. Correct. Yeah.

And we're talking impacts in every, every single aspect of your life, whether it's professional, personal. I've had patients come in that weren't even interested in being intimate with their partner because they're in pain.

And once we were able to address their discomfort or the lack of range of motion, then their energy level returns. Okay. Because your lack of

energy, like a movement, your pain, it drains your energy. Well, if those areas are addressed and you have improved range of motion, your pain level is down. Now you have the energy and the brain space to think about other things that can occupy that and other things that will make you happy. So now you can focus on being present with your partner versus focusing on your pain. Makes perfect sense.

I mean, who wants to focus on your pain? Although we all know that what we focus on actually gets worse usually. We start to focus on it more. That's true. What you resist persists. Right. So it's pretty interesting to... So I'm guessing, I'm going to segue here. I'm guessing when you first meet a patient, you...

you have to ask them questions. You know, why are they there? How can you help them? And I imagine that's often eye-opening. Especially for them. So in my office, I name my rooms, and one of the rooms is called Recovery, but the room that they go in first is called Discovery. And Discovery is more so them getting a better understanding of what is really bringing them in. They may come in and say,

Dr. Peebles, I am here because my neck has been bothering me. Dr. Peebles, my upper back has been bothering me. And I say, okay, let's address it. But let's also, let me ask you about these other things that correlate with those areas. And then they start to see, oh,

It's not just my back. Yes, I have been having shortness of breath. Yes, my hands, wrists, my fingers. Yes, they have been aching. I didn't know that was connected to that area and that they were also... Because sometimes they forget to mention when... How many times have you gone to the doctor and you knew two weeks ago everything you wanted to tell the doctor? You get to the doctor's office, those things are not necessarily bothering you at that moment, so you forget. Mm-hmm.

And then you leave and you say, oh man, I forgot to tell Dr. this. Well, during my first visit, because I already know what those areas connect to, I don't wait for you to try to remember. I go ahead and jog your memory and say, have you been noticing any of these things? Because each level of your spine correlates with a specific symptom. I love that. I love that because I think it's so very helpful to know that.

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As you come back, Danielle, when you're talking to people about the things that you've jogged memory on for them, I imagine they are more surprised than you because you tend to know where everything is going to be connected. As you said, parts of the spine are correlated with different parts of the body. So if someone comes to you and they have an old injury, are you asking them about that?

Actually, I uncover it. It's funny because they may not even mention it. They don't think it's connected. I may ask a question such as, have you had any falls, any accidents recently? And it's so easy to

to say no. It's so easy. It's like, oh no, I haven't had any falls or anything. So I say, okay, but even though we have a conversation, I let your body speak. So once you get on the table and I start assessing your movement, checking each spinal level, then I start to notice, okay, ma'am, sir, you have had some injury recently. And

There was one person, one patient comes to mind. He had been getting treated. He had been seeing someone else at the time, but there was a conversation that was missed, a little piece. And he had been going to some other doctors to get care. And when he came to me, he never mentioned the accident because he didn't know that it was connected.

And I'm looking at his body. I said, you look like you've been in an accident. You look like you have whiplash right now through your back. Did you land on your tailbones? Your tailbone is not correctly lined up. What happened? And he pauses and looks at me. Wait a minute. That was over a year ago. I flew off the back of a jet ski. Oh, my God.

I landed on my backside, but I got up. I was fine. I said, and how long before you started going to the doctor for your back pain? Did that happen? Oh, that was in August. And I went to the doctor in October. I was like, sir, sir, those things, that's what preceded your back pain. And so once we started addressing it, and now that I see what exactly is moved in which direction,

He responded to care so quickly. It just blew his mind. And he's in his 20s, okay? We're talking 24. And he's thinking his life is over because he can't move. He's coughing all day, every day for over a year. Wow. But see, that's what's so interesting is I've had an experience with chiropractor where they asked me about an old injury. And it happened when I was 12. I am far from 12.

But when you don't structurally what is there, it can become chronic because your body compensates. Your body is a marvelous machine. But unless we help it along, it can really nag at you, especially as you get older. Not only does it compensate, but people fail to realize our body archives every single thing. Good point.

Right. From a little small step off the curb incorrectly to when you're going up the step, your toe didn't quite get up over that step. So it hits the step. Your body archives every single thing. I love that. So pardon me with the archiving.

You may forget about it, but your body didn't. And in turn, it does compensate because the one thing that's most important is keeping your eyes parallel, pardon me, parallel to the ground. So if that means your shoulder lean down to the left and your neck snake back to the right, just to keep your eyesight parallel to the ground and in front of you, your body's going to do all of those things without you wanting it to or not because it has to function.

It doesn't care what your structure look like, but it's going to do what it needs to do to keep you functioning. Keep you going. Right. Yes. I'd never heard that about your eyes in parallel, but that makes utter sense. It's called the writing reflex. But we are not purposely gimballed like you are on a boat, but that's why the body adjusts, right? Correct. Correct. Huh.

Very, very interesting. I work with a lot of veterans who have dizziness and balance issues, and I don't see a lot of referrals to chiropractic. Most vets go out into the community for that because it's just not really offered or the wait time is so long. But what you're talking about is extremely important. And a lot of times we forget and we brush ourself off because

You can do that when you're young, although I'm surprised that the person you mentioned was just 24. But I know as you get older, you don't recover from those things as quickly. All the more reason to get good treatment as soon as possible. Yes, the sooner the better. When you let injuries linger, you actually recover.

increase the rate in which arthritis develops in that joint space. So with chiropractic, you can slow down the rate. Degeneration is going to happen regardless. You live long enough, you're going to degenerate, unfortunately. But with chiropractic, you can decrease the rate at which you are developing the arthritis in those joints because the arthritis develops due to

the misalignment and so it's going to try to stabilize the joint as the best way the body know how and that's to lay down extra bone which is what we're calling arthritis so if the joints back up and then let the the the disc or the bursa or even the blood supply do what it does to maintain what health you have left then we can decrease the rate of the degeneration in that joint

I don't think people know that. No, it's not said enough. Put that into a sentence, a simple sentence that I can make sure I put into the show notes. Because what you're saying is when there's a dysfunction, your body responds. And you can, by not taking care of an immediate acute injury or not taking care long enough, you can actually turn it into a painful older life injury. Right.

Correct. Yes. Chiropractic helps, slows down the rate of degeneration overall. That's really important because as you say, we will all age and degenerate in certain ways. But if we can stave it off.

They also talk about the physics law of a body in motion stays in motion. But if your body is hurt and you're staying in motion, you're actually exacerbating it, aren't you? Absolutely. Think about a window in the house. If you have a crack in your foundation of the house...

and you don't address it, eventually you start to see gapping in the space between the door and the floor. You start to see gapping in your windows and they're not quite on track. So you keep opening and closing that window. What happens to the window? It breaks. It breaks. That's the same thing with your body.

If you're not lining it up and putting it back in place so it can work as it is intended to, but you keep using it, you keep using it, you're going to break down and wear out the other areas that's compensating to help you achieve that particular motion. So then everything breaking down now, everything hurts.

which is not a good thing. I mean, it's interesting during the pandemic, some people moved more, some people moved less, but yours was a hands-on process. How did that function with your patients during the time period where it was difficult, if not impossible, to see patients?

Well, fortunately, in my particular area, I was able to still see patients and running in there because that's sitting at home, sitting behind the computer to sitting on the sofa for Netflix and everything else. They were hurting because to them, they were like, I didn't do anything. But your muscles have to do something to keep you in a seated position.

Or a slouchy position. Or a slouchy position. Which is worse. Right. However you're sitting and where you're sitting makes a difference. And so they weren't moving enough. The other muscles that were used to moving has been shut off. They're like, no one's using us. And the saying goes, if you don't use it, you lose it. It's true. But if you overuse it, you can abuse it.

And so your glutes and your hamstrings, your quads, they're getting used to sitting. Your flexors, they're getting used to sitting. They're getting overused. So they don't know how to shut off. When you stand up, you're in pain. Like it hurts to stand up. It hurts to walk. Well, that's because you haven't done it. And then you're not stretching enough. That's really vital, I would think. Do you emphasize that?

Oh, all I sing all day is stretching and then teaching them stretches to go home and add to their repertoire. Because it's funny, we only, when I watch people stretch, I say, show me what stretches you do. And they go forwards and backwards. I was like, you know, your body can go left, right, and in a circle. You can do figure eights with your hips if you want. You know you can do that, right? And they're like, woo!

I have to take them back to the basics. I find out where you are, meet you there, and then teach you something new. I love that because I think even if you were well-meaning and intentional and took on an exercise program, et cetera, it doesn't necessarily mean that you weren't overusing the same muscles, getting into a rut, right?

in terms of what you were doing. It takes a lot of discipline or a really remarkably flexible program that will take you through muscle groups and not overuse. And then there are those dreaded things like hip flexors and abs that people don't want to work

But those are all connected. I mean, all of us is connected. I mean, that old song, the hip bones connected to the thigh bone, all of those things, that was real. I wish we made people recite it today because it would make a lot more sense for the integrative nature of our bodies and its impact on our health. I agree. Yeah.

So it sounds to me like you do sing that song a lot. My patients sing it for me all the time. My patients come in, they sing, they dance. They do all kinds of things in my office, especially after they're adjusted and they're feeling great. They come down the hallway. It's their like runway. So they dance out of there and then they sing, they praise it to the next patient. Oh, I love that. Tag me in. I'm ready to go back there. It's so interesting though, but we're

we're bringing to mind again how when you fix the body, it helps your emotional health as well, your outlook, your energy, all of those things that are really important to making you a whole person. Somebody, other people want to be around and that you want to be around other people because social aspects are

If you don't feel well, you're not likely to go socialize much. If you are not feeling good about yourself or you're in pain, again, not likely to do that. So what you're saying is you can fix all of that or at least support it and help it on the way. And it's not overnight because they didn't get that way overnight. Absolutely. What people, what I share with my patients is,

And this is not all across the board. That's the thing about those grumpy old men. They're hurt. They're hurting. There's a reason. There's a reason. And when you're in pain and you see people happy, they're like, what are you happy for?

Why are you so happy? Now they're jealous more so than... Right. So there's that. But I also share with my patients, from females to males alike, there's a particular area of our back that goes directly to...

our adrenal glands, which is our stress points, one of our stress areas. It also goes to our anxiety. It goes to our dehydration. Those areas make an impact on your attitude. And then there's another part just a little bit higher than that, that goes to your emotions and how well your heart is handling those stress. So when patients come in,

They may be in the funk, but once I hit certain areas, almost like fine tuning a guitar, once I hit those certain areas and line it up just right, then you can play your best song when you leave my office. I think that's a great analogy because if they're out of tune, it's not easy to play anything at all without wincing. So when you put them back in tune, they can play again, both naturally.

Figuratively and physically, literally. Right. Great analogy. Fine-tuning a guitar. I haven't heard that one, but I think it's great. I've always gotten enormous help out of chiropractic care. And I think that it really fills gaps that people aren't even aware of. But you are explaining extremely well today. Now, then it comes down to our audience is largely women.

And the feeling sexy part. Okay, let's get to it. One, pain period is going to make you not feel sexy, but let's get past the pain portion. So since we're talking to the ladies and I'm going to take the liberty and think we're talking to all age groups here. We are. Okay. There is this one particular function in our life that we all have in common, which

It may not function as well for one versus the other, but it impact us nonetheless. And that is our menstrual cycle and menopause, those areas. And that plays a huge role on our libido, our zeal for life. If you're one of those persons who have this extremely heavy flow,

this irregular flow. We don't know what's going on. You taking medications for this and for that. And sometimes those areas may be simply acting out because the lower back is not lined up. How many times have you said my lower back hurt? Or how many times have you said it doesn't hurt? It's just tight all the time. Okay.

Maybe those two things aren't your examples. How many of you have said, my knee is killing me. And I teach my ladies that your lower back and the nerve that goes to that knee, the nerve root where that knee, the nerve that goes to the knee just so happens to go to the uterus and the bladder. So you're out here laughing and then it's a oops. But it's all connected. You may not realize it. And so

You can't feel sexy if you can't give that sexy laugh with that person you're trying to give because now you've had a leakage or you're not able to feel sexy because your cycle has gone on for two months and now you can't wear that one outfit you want to wear to the party that you almost really want to. But if you make a time, set time, whether it's once a month

once every couple of weeks or whatever your lifestyle requires, make chiropractic care a part of it, especially around the time that you expect your cycle, because then your cycle can be a little bit more tolerable. It may either decrease your flow. It may decrease the number of days you're on your cycle. It may decrease the cramping and other discomforts. So when those areas are in line, you can feel you're sexiest.

It makes sense. No, it completely makes sense. And then comes menopause, which can often be, it's so different for every single person. And it can be heinous for some people and it can be mild for others. But no matter, your body does change as it gets older. And I don't think there's a, we're much better about talking about menopause these days because

But still, it's still one of those things that isn't high on the list. You're supposed to endure it. But I'm knowing this just from talking to you here. Enduring isn't what you do. You help people thrive through it. Correct.

Correct. That's what we want. Those women who come to me, my ankle, my feet, but I want to still wear heels. Okay, let's see what we can do. I won't tell you to get out of heels unless it's absolutely medically necessary. I will help you. I'll tell you, make sure you get your ankle and feet adjusted because those joints, there's so many joints in your ankle and feet. Right.

And so you make sure those are lined up and treated before and after wearing your heels, then you can manage to stay in those heels and keep wearing them, even if they're cute, walk in the room heels, take them off later. Are most heels definitely.

They may be just walking the room heels only. Just look at these, right. Yes, but you're sexy going into the room. Right. Okay. So all of those things play a part, but you have to get yourself in a line. And then once everything is taken care of on the inside, then you can radiate outward. I think that is so completely true. When we feel our best, we carry ourselves with more confidence and

We carry ourselves taller. Your posture improves. You just stand tall. And I think that that is something that you can tell from someone who's hurting. They're often crunched inward a little bit.

or their head isn't up, their chin is down. Of course, you're shrinking. You're shrinking, exactly. Shrink from pain. You shrink from pain, which causes a physical shrinking. So you made me think about patients that get adjusted for the first time in my office. And when they stand up, they're just like, I know this is crazy, but I feel taller. I was like, no, you are taller. You are taller, right.

And I explained to them why. The reason you're taller is because when the joints are out of line, the muscles are going to tighten up to try to stabilize the joint to protect it. Well, when a muscle tighten up, it shrinks. But if I line the joint up and the muscle doesn't have to tighten up anymore, it loosens up. Guess what? You're longer. It's great.

It really is important. I want to make sure people know where to go to find out more information about you personally and also your patients, your care and all of that. So your website is STLProHealth.com. And on both Facebook and Instagram, you're at Dr. Danny P.,

Correct. Correct. Is there any punctuation in Dr. Danny P? No. Okay, perfect. Let me spell Danny out. Okay. D-R-D-A-N-N-I-P at yahoo.com. I mean, well, that's my email at yahoo.com. You can email me too. Okay, let's do that again. Dr. D. Yes, so it's D-R-D-A-N-N-I-P.

That's my name at Instagram. That's Facebook. But if you want to reach me via email, it's drdannyp.yahoo.com. Or go to your website at stlprohealth.com. I'm really glad you spelled that because in my notes to myself, I was not spelling it that way. So that's good to know. And again, I think what you've done is shown a light on...

the myriad ways you can actually take a look, talk to someone and make a difference in their lives in terms of pain points, discomfort points, just you're not feeling your best. And putting that into your care is really important. So thank you for sharing that with us today. Thank you for having me to share that with you. Well, it was a pleasure indeed. So Dr. Danny P.,

And stlprohealth.com. I really do appreciate your time today. It's been most helpful. And you're also fun to talk to. Oh, how wonderful. I appreciate that. You're very welcome. Everyone, make it a great week. And we will be back next time with another amazing guest. Thank you for tuning in today. You can find more shows at wisehealthforwomenradio.com.