Sports Medicine
Dr. Ken Kinakin
D.C., CSCS
Dr. Ken Kinakin is a sport medicine doctor, chiropractor, certified strength and conditioning specialist and personal trainer! He’s also the author of the book “Optimal Muscle Training” and has competed in bodybuilding and powerlifting for over 20 years. Dr. Kinakin lectures around the world to doctors and personal trainers on the areas of weight-training, rehabilitation and nutrition. He is also the clinic director for the AIM Health & Wellness clinic (see www.aimhealthgroup.com), with a rehabilitation and training centre in Mississauga, Ontario. Dr. Kinakin founded the Society of Weight-Training Injury Specialists (SWIS), an organization that educates and certifies doctors, therapists and personal trainers in the area of exercise muscle testing, rehabilitation and treatment of weight training injuries (see www.swis.ca).
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Prescription Muscle Relaxants
Q. What’s your opinion on the use of prescription muscle relaxants to treat an injury? My family doctor always tries to prescribe diazepam (Valium) and never recommends chiropractors. It seems like doctors prescribe medication like candy any time I hurt my neck or lower back.
A. Prescription drugs tend to be the main modality of treatment for pain symptoms that medical doctors are taught when they are in school. This may be more the fault of the medical school educational curriculum and not the medical doctors. They receive limited education in the areas of manual medicine and therapies such as physiotherapy, chiropractic, massage therapy, acupuncture, and laser therapy, so these aren’t typically their first recommendation for a patient with pain symptoms. They tend not to prescribe things that they aren’t familiar with. I see this firsthand as I currently work with 10 medical doctors who specialize in chronic pain. The doctors that took the time to become educated in manual medicine refer to me. The ones that didn’t, don’t. Education is the key to any health professional expanding his or her treatment regime.
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