Dr. Anton Cancio: He’s got your back

MANILA, Philippines - Although there has been a growing interest in recent years, there are still many who are unaware what chiropractic is.  Chiropractic focuses on spinal health. It is usually associated with sports and sports optimization — for more mobility as well as to prevent injuries and recover faster from injuries.

“It’s very important in sports because we get a lot of sports injuries,” says Dr. Anton Cancio, who is a chiropractic sports physician licensed by the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians, and by the National and California State Board of Examiners. He earned his Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician (CCSP) certificate upon completion of a one-year post graduate course in 2006. He graduated cum laude from the Palmer College of Chiropractic West in California where he obtained his Doctorate in Chiropractic (DC) degree in 2002. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from the Virginia Tech University in 1999. Dr. Cancio has had 12 years of clinical practice in the US and the Philippines.

Other than the professional athletes who come to see Dr. Cancio at the Cancio Chiropractic Clinic, there are also the “the weekend warrior type of athletes, the hobbyists who just want to engage in some kind of activity. They’d go to the gym. They play badminton,” he remarks.“There are also the elderly in their 50s or 60s. There are those who are not in good shape but who like to engage in a sport. They want to do what they used to be able to do, but their body cannot anymore. Age catches up. They come in for alignment. They want to have a healthier, more active life.”

“Many people think that they only need to see a chiropractor when they have back or neck pain,” Dr. Cancio observes,  “but poor posture, improperly lifting an object, playing a sport, or even sleeping in the wrong position can put a strain on the spine and cause it to be misaligned.”  

Dr. Cancio adds, “By maintaining proper spinal alignment, early spine decay or arthritis can be prevented; bad posture can be improved to maximize growth potential in children and young adults; and mobility in the elderly can be enhanced.”

Kids matter

Parents bring their kids to see Dr. Cancio.  A lot of the kids he sees show signs of scoliosis. And there are also those who suffer from the so-called “text neck” syndrome, Dr. Cancio observes, “The kids today are stuck with their gadgets. They lack activity.”

Another culprit would be their heavy backpacks for carrying their books. “They carry their backpack incorrectly, with one shoulder only,” Dr. Cancio remarks. “Ideally, the load should weight not more than 10-15 percent of their body weight.” The youngest kid who came to him for treatment was a four-year-old. “Kids today show posture distortion at a much younger age,” Dr. Cancio observes.

Dr. Cancio had always wanted to go into sports medicine, “ever since I was in high school in the States where I grew up. I was heavily into sports — basketball, soccer, baseball. I was prone to injury. I kept spraining my ankle. Finally, my mom brought me to a chiropractor. I was 12 years old. He found out that one of my legs was shorter than the other due to a misalignment in my hips, so whenever I’d land on my feet, I’d be off balance.”

“It’s very common,” adds Dr. Cancio. “We do not know that we have a misalignment. It’s what gives us problems.” Poor posture and wrong sitting habits are among the culprits. Kids prefer to slouch. “When you ask them to sit up straight, they feel uncomfortable. The normal becomes the abnormal.”

Dr. Cancio also gets a lot of patients who suffer from slipped disc. “There are basically two causes,” he explains. “One is traumatic, due to lifting something the wrong way. The second is when you feel a sudden back pain, ‘out of the blue,’ with an accompanying tingling at the back of the leg or manhid. This happens when people are sedentary and have a bad sitting posture. You can be sedentary, but good sitting posture can minimize the risk of slipped disc.”

Bad posture usually happens in front of the computer where you could be sitting for hours. “One of the things I tell my patients is if you really can’t remember to bring yourself up, sit at the edge of your chair and automatically, your body will self-correct. I call it ‘mindful posture.’ Don’t stay seated for more than 45 minutes or an hour straight. Stand up even for just 10 seconds and ‘re-boot’ your muscle tone. It refreshes your muscles.”

You need to have correct posture even when lying in bed. “If your mattress is sagging even without you’re sitting on it, it’s time to replace it. Most mattresses are good for 10-15 years,” says Dr. Cancio. “Generally, I recommend a firm mattress — extra firm for the back sleeper and medium firm for the side sleeper. Don’t go with anything lower than that.”

“You need a pillow,” Dr. Cancio says. “You want to have a pillow that will allow your head to stay in the neutral spine position. If you are waking up with pain that wasn’t there before you went to bed the night before, then it must be something from your sleep position. When you open your eyes when you wake up, you should be staring at the ceiling above you and not at the TV set in front of you.”    

Neck and back pains are common problems, as well as headaches. “Headaches respond very well to spinal alignment,” Dr. Cancio says. It has a very good success rate for migraines, headaches, and dizziness. 70 percent of headaches called cervicogenic headaches are caused by a problem in the spinal bones in the neck. The pain in the neck causes headache.

Treatment can be as simple as plain spinal alignment. “A lot of people are really looking for an alternative to the usual pain killers,” Dr. Cancio observes.  “Chiropractic uses a natural approach. It’s holistic. We look at the source. We do not use drugs and we avoid surgery. It’s complimentary alternative medicine.”

“There are some out there claiming to do chiropractic or pseudo chiropractic, because they are riding on the popularity and efficacy of what we do. It’s a business for them. I have patients who come in pain after going to them. It’s unsafe,” Dr. Cancio says. 

“You should trust your spine only to a registered chiropractor.”

There are only about 26 registered chiropractors in the country. Dr. Cancio is a certified chiropractor under the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care. He is one of the founders and a board member of the Association of Professional Chiropractors of the Philippines.  “We are trying to police our profession and protect the public,” says Dr. Cancio.

Dr. Cancio also refers his patients on the way to recovery to a Pilates studio which is found in the same location as his clinic. Options Studio, which is managed by his wife Trina Cancio,  is the only Pilates studio in the country that is run in tandem with a chiropractic clinic.

 Dr. Cancio explains. “For me, it’s like a stepping stone for my patients who are recovering from an injury before they ease back to their own sport. It’s low impact. It focuses a lot on core exercises. They pay attention to your form, your movement, and how you execute those movements.” Dr. Cancio supervises and works closely with certified Pilates instructors to make sure that what they are doing is safe and appropriate.

Exercise is very important, Dr. Cancio says. Life is a lot more comfortable if you’re not overweight.  A mentor once told him, “Skinny people live longer.” Dr. Cancio says, “I believe our body was designed for mobility. Chiropractic ensures spinal mobility.”

One of his favorite patients is an 85-year-old lady who loves to cook and stay active in the kitchen.

“She doesn’t say much, but every time I do alignment of her spine, she leaves with a smile on her face,” Dr. Cancio relates. “This is the kind of patient that gives me great satisfaction in the work that I do.”

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The Cancio Chiropractic Clinic is located on the 2nd floor of Missouri Square Building, 101 Connecticut St. corner Missouri St., Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila, telephone nos. 722-7530, 502,2882; mobile: 09175807530.

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Options Studio is located on the 3rd floor, Missouri Square Building, 101 Connecticut St. corner Missouri St., Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila, telephone nos. 0917-8903229 and 623-8449.