Dr. Jason Piken: First-hand holistic patient care

Dr. Jason Piken is a Chiropractor, Certified Nutrition Specialist, and Health Coach who offers a holistic and whole body approach to nutrition and wellness. He’s been practicing for over 25 years and is based in New York City.

Q: How did you first start working on pain? 

A:  Although I have always considered myself a healthcare practitioner, rather than a pain doctor, being a chiropractor brought me plenty of patients that believe that chiropractic is an alternative treatment for pain. Although I had great success early on helping plenty of patients with their aches and pains, I soon learned that chiropractic alone was not going to solve everyone’s symptoms.  I learned that through my own experience with chronic pain.

Eight months before graduating chiropractic college I was in a serious car accident where I was ejected from a car that was going 65 miles an hour.  I was lucky to survive and sustain injuries that didn’t disable me.  Even though I had great chiropractors, physical therapists and lived a healthy lifestyle I still felt residual chronic pain from that accident for almost 3 years.  I then found the practice of using Applied Kinesiology to help me to get better and it worked!

I learned from Applied Kinesiology that there are 3 major causes of any symptom, physical, chemical, and emotional stress.  Applied Kinesiology is a diagnostic tool that helped me understand exactly what stresses were causing the pain I was experiencing and what to do about it.  I learned that a combination of specific chiropractic adjustments, and some simple dietary changes would help my joints to move better and lower my body’s state of inflammation.  

Q: Your practice is based in NYC. What kind of people do you treat (athletes, men, women, young, old), and have you noticed any commonalities among your patients?  

A: I see a wide variety of patients, literally from infants to 92 year olds.  I also see people that have a wide range of abilities, ones that deal with physical disabilities as well as top athletes.  What do they all have in common?  Every single person on this earth is managing the stresses of life.  My job is to learn where their weaknesses are and help to make them more resilient.  Once we address the stresses that are interfering with their ability to heal, the power that is inside them is then capable of finishing the healing process.

Q:  Are you using any kind of special techniques in your practice to treat your patients?  

A: As I mentioned above, I believe that the use of Applied Kinesiology as a diagnostic tool is a great way to get a Biofeedback as to what is causing pain.  I also use a therapeutic cold laser to break up scar tissue and speed the healing process.  The greatest results though come from combining the physical work along with therapeutic lifestyle change.  If someone leaves my office and doesn’t follow up with “homework” then it is more challenging to help them as much.  The “homework” is a combination of dietary changes, stress management tools and exercises.

Q: When you aren’t treating patients, how do you like to spend your time? 

A: Of course I love spending time with my wife, my 2 daughters and my rescued pitbull.  I love to hike and cook with my family or sometimes just me and my dog in the woods.  I also have a passion for painting and I create “playful street art” a few hours a week.

Q: What three things (books, articles, twitter posts, YouTube channel, song, etc.), would you recommend chronic pain patients and clinicians check out? 

A:  I have recorded all of my beliefs about pain into my book, Better, 11 Simple Habits to Improve Your Life.  I also have a website filled with information and a YouTube Channel named The Digestion Diaries where I share key information of the relationship between the Gut and the Brain and how their relationship plays a huge role when it comes to chronic pain.