FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE & CHIROPRACTIC
As a Certified Practitioner of Functional Medicine (IFMCP), as well as a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC), Dr. Lum has applied manual techniques remotely since the Covid pandemic.
These techniques have been remarkably effective and can be utilized to reduce pain, relieve symptoms, and speed up healing for a wide variety of conditions.
Whereas a typical chiropractic visit lasts a few minutes and usually incorporates musculoskeletal manipulations - Dr. Lum's services include a complete functional medicine evaluation and personalized, self-administered techniques to reduce pain and recovery time.
This combination treatment is especially for those chronic pain issues that don't seem to change much with manual chiropractic or physical therapy care.
QIGONG TECHNIQUES
Qigong, a millennia-old practice originating in China, has a myriad of health benefits and has been proven to decrease symptoms and recovery time in patients. [1]
Spring Forest Qigong, in particular, was created for those recovering from illness and is great at reducing symptoms, systemic inflammation, and pain. [2] Dr. Lum employs Spring Forest Qigong techniques when doing external Qigong on patients.
Dr. Lum also instructs patients on self-administered movements, often in conjunction with physician-led qigong meditations.
Dr. Lum has found that qigong healing treatments can make all the difference for joint and musculoskeletal pain because it addresses not only the joint tissues and biomechanics but also helps the body resolve underlying sources of inflammation.
Using joint pain as an example, Qigong can address the joint itself, the nerves to that joint, and joint biomechanics. Often too, chronic joint pain is the result of suboptimal organ function or underlying illness, which can be addressed effectively in the functional medicine portion of the appointment.
LEARN MORE ABOUT DR. LUM'S QIGONG HEALING TECHNIQUES
PAIN & CHRONIC ILLNESS
In the case of chronic illness, regular chiropractic care is important but has limitations in achieving permanent symptom resolution.
With the application of remote musculoskeletal stimulation, coupled with advanced testing and diagnostics, Dr. Lum can assess and address the variables involved in your condition or collection of symptoms.
For instance, in the case of chronic back pain, this can due to what is called 'referral points' relating to organ function instead of typical movement-induced muscle inflammation.
Referral points are places on our body that become painful due to factors like autoimmunity or bacterial infection. One such location is on your IT band located on the outside of your leg, which you may notice will get tender when you are having gastrointestinal problems relating to your colon.
Such underlying factors will be assessed during your functional medicine appointment with Dr. Lum and can be confirmed with any testing that he would recommend.
READ MORE ABOUT FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE
SPECIALIZED TESTING
One of Dr. Lum's greatest tools in his remote practice is the ability to source the most advanced testing available from the best companies in the world.
Usually, when patients get blood tests done at a doctor's office, it is either to confirm a diagnosis or to check for serious illnesses.
The kind of testing we offer can uncover things like an underlying bacterial infection, systemic inflammation, heavy metal toxicity, histamine intolerance, poor bile flow, low stomach acid, food allergens, or mold exposure that could be at the root of your health concerns.
READ MORE ABOUT SPECIALIZED TESTING
POST-COVID PAIN, DIAPHRAGM TIGHTNESS & MUSCLE TWITCHES
Since the pandemic began, Dr. Lum's practice has been inundated with patients with muscle pain, tightness in the diaphragm/solar plexus region, muscle twitches, and strong hypnic jerks after they were infected with Covid.
These patients are not alone in their experience of these symptoms.
Pathological muscle tissue changes in the diaphragm can result in fibrosis (scar tissue) and a feeling of tightness in the solar plexus region, making it harder for patients to breathe during and after Covid. (3)
Muscle twitches and strong hypnic jerks associated with insomnia have also been found in my patients and documented in scientific research. (4)
Dr. Lum has devised innovative healing techniques to ease these and other post-Covid-related symptoms as a result of taking care of his wife through her case of Long Covid at the very beginning of the pandemic.
As a result of the highly individual nature of these symptoms, treatment plans are always unique to each patient.
You can speak with Dr. Lum directly to ask questions about potential care by booking a Free 15 Minute Consultation.
READ MORE ABOUT LONG COVID RECOVERY WITH FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE
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[1] Zhang YP, Hu RX, Han M, Lai BY, Liang SB, Chen BJ, Robinson N, Chen K, Liu JP. Evidence Base of Clinical Studies on Qi Gong: A Bibliometric Analysis. Complement Ther Med. 2020 May;50:102392. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2020.102392. Epub 2020 Apr 6. PMID: 32444061.
[2] Vincent A, Hill J, Kruk KM, Cha SS, Bauer BA. External qigong for chronic pain. Am J Chin Med. 2010;38(4):695-703. doi: 10.1142/S0192415X10008160. PMID: 20626055.
[3] Shi Z, Bogaards SJP, Conijn S, Onderwater Y, Espinosa P, Bink DI, van den Berg M, van de Locht M, Bugiani M, van der Hoeven H, Boon RA, Heunks L, Ottenheijm CAC. COVID-19 is associated with distinct myopathic features in the diaphragm of critically ill patients. BMJ Open Respir Res. 2021 Sep;8(1):e001052. doi: 10.1136/bmjresp-2021-001052. PMID: 34544735; PMCID: PMC8453595.
[4] Han Q, Zheng B, Daines L, Sheikh A. Long-Term Sequelae of COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of One-Year Follow-Up Studies on Post-COVID Symptoms. Pathogens. 2022 Feb 19;11(2):269. doi: 10.3390/pathogens11020269. PMID: 35215212; PMCID: PMC8875269.
