Wellness is the proactive approach to healthcare today

Dr. Tim Errington, Founder – Total Health Chiropractic, Singapore

For someone who started his career as a fire-fighter in Northern England, life lessons happened in extremely challenging situations for Dr. Tim Errington. Apart from being physically ready & mentally alert to respond to situations, Dr. Tim learned teamwork and empathy, and also to respect the many laws of the universe. But his vision was much bigger.

After a couple of years into the grind, Dr. Tim headed off to University and then to Africa where he put to use, his skills in civil engineering and worked in building industrial chimneys and power stations and later started & grew a house building company, back in Europe.

A chance meeting introduced him to two young doctors and this changed his life. Realising that all the laws of the universe must also be applied to the human body, Chiropractic resonated deeply within him. “Humans too are columns, and if they stand tall and straight then their structure wilI be strong, giving them a much greater chance of being healthy in body and mind. I realised quickly that I would have something quite unique and that I’d found my true calling”, says Dr. Tim Errington, Founder – Total Health Chiropractic, Singapore.

He moved to San Francisco and started his doctorate training. With full 5 years of pre-med, college and clinical training and loads of determination, Dr. Tim set himself to the path of providing Chiropractic – health & wellness services; applying scientific techniques and spine correction methods to cure ailments – both preventive & curative. Total Health Chiropractic Singapore was setup in 2010 and has quickly grown to become THE trusted Chiropractic business in Singapore and is favored by many of the top corporations. Providing valuable health services across the island, Total Health Chiropractic now has five clinics and eight fabulously talented doctors.

Having studied and understood many of the laws of the universe Dr. Tim now possess deep insights & understanding of how things can be built to last. He proudly remarks “I’ve done the hard work over the years, that now allows our clients to live better lives”.

Author of the book “Posture Matters”, Total Health Chiropractic Singapore, founded by Dr. Tim Errington was recently presented the Icons of Healthcare 2018 Award for “Leading Chiropractic Wellness Chain of Clinics” at the summit by BERG Singapore in July 2018.

Read the interview below with Dr. Tim Errington to know more about Chiropractic and wellness services offered and his plans to spread healthy living.

Tell us more about the genesis of Total Health Chiropractic & the services offered
When my wife, Vanessa and I, and our young twins, arrived in Singapore in 2010 we soon realised that we had a massive job to do. The postural slump of modern society was clearly everywhere and it was robbing thousands of people of their vitality and their future health. Postural and spinal health was not something that had been taught and this simply had to be tackled. Gradually, the seeds were sown for my book ‘Posture Matters” which was finally published in 2016. It’s been amazingly well received and it seems like I’ve been on a ‘book tour’ ever since.

When we started taking our message into corporations (ie. where the people are) THC really started to grow quickly and we launched Total Health Corporate Wellness Solutions. Clearly, we were providing a much needed service. Having started in a small clinic above a Pilates studio on Amoy Street we outgrew this within a year and moved into larger premises and continued to grow and we now have 5 clinics around the Island. We now have 10 doctors seeing over 1200 clients every week.

We called ourselves ‘Total Health’ because we are more than just Chiropractors. We are first and foremost educators, believing strongly that people need to be taught how to look after themselves. We work with the body’s innate ability to heal and we concentrate on helping people develop strong ‘Pillars of Health’. Obviously, exercise and nutrition are vital, but people generally miss the need for quality sleep and reducing stress, and who’s even heard of the absolute fundamental importance of maintaining a healthy nervous system. Few indeed! By improving posture and spinal alignment we relieve the nervous system of interference and it’s amazing the improvement in health we see.

To correct spinal alignment we use spinal ‘manipulative therapy’ or precise, mechanical, chiropractic ‘adjustments’. We use traction and exercise protocols to stabilise and strengthen the structure. Of course, spinal health is a life-long pursuit. Often when clients are told they should consider regular ‘adjustments’ throughout their life, much like dental patients are advised to maintain oral health daily and have regular check-ups, there is some surprise. This is because of lack of education in the past. In the future there will be a much greater emphasis on maintaining our health and chiropractic will be central to this paradigm.

What are some of the ailments that can be addressed through the posture correction methods?
We must always be aware that it is the nervous system that controls all our bodies functions and that restoring and preserving 100% expression of our nervous system is our No.1 goal. Because your alignment or posture determines the health of your spine, and the health of your spine determines how well your nervous system functions, then by correcting your posture and spinal alignment this can have wide ranging effects on the function of your nervous system and therefore peoples’ health.

Not only will back pain and headaches usually go away, but there will be less fatigue, better sleep and enhanced immune response. This means that chiropractic can be helpful in combatting many of the bodies ailments. Sportsmen will have more strength, will perform better and will be able to train harder without injury. Chiropractic also slows down and even reverses some of the degenerative processes associated with aging,

Your views on the growing attention to Wellness as a key aspect in Healthcare Industry today
Wellness is the proactive approach to healthcare. It is a lifelong pursuit of a healthy balance or homeostasis. Health is not static and is in a constant state of flux, with complex internal systems creating changes as it reads and adapts to our external environment. Traditionally, what has been referred to as ‘Healthcare’ has been more reactive in nature, preferring to study and treat the disease when things go wrong. This obviously has its limitations and we witness today the results of medical based systems of healthcare. We prefer to understand and work with the body, and our focus is to restore and then maintain an optimal internal environment that will sustain long term vibrant health. This is sensible, sustainable and makes complete sense.

When your focus is on disease then that is what you get, and now the degenerative conditions of modern society are of epidemic proportions.

The ‘Wellness’ movement has always been there, but of necessity it is really gaining momentum now. Most days now we are invited in to present on topics of wellness and natural health to the corporations around Singapore. We have a long list of heath-talks, work-shops and health screenings that have become extremely popular. The ‘Wellness Revolution’ is truly with us and individuals, corporations and even governments are now seeing that this is THE way forward.

Could you recall your most cherished moment?
That’s easy, it was the birth of my twins 15 years ago. It happened literally the same month I became a Doctor of Chiropractic. Suddenly, I had all this new knowledge I’d learned at college and real ‘live’ people to help. With my clients I would get the chance to help thousands of wonderful souls live with less pain and greater function, more able to live a healthier life, closer to their potential, for whatever their magnificent purpose might be.

With my baby twins I now had brand new human beings to nurture and this excited me as we could really see what is possible with a “Chiropractic Lifestyle”. The results speak for themselves and I struggle to remember even a day’s sickness in 15 years.

What would you like to achieve in the coming years?
I consider myself now to be in the very fortunate position where we can help a large number of people. Our public clinics see thousands of people every month and continue to grow. When people experience life with a higher level of function, it is something that they want to maintain. Many of our clients have been coming in for regular ‘adjustments’ for years. It has become a very healthy lifestyle choice which will provide them with perhaps decades of enhanced life.

Realising that our ‘reach’ into the community is enhanced enormously when we ‘take it to the people’, we now have our eyes firmly on the corporate wellness market. After building and running a chiropractic wellness clinic actually inside a MNC ‘Tech Giant’ last year, with enormous success, we now understand what we must do. It’s now time to bring what we do to the masses and we will be opening 20 corporate based wellness clinics over the next 4-5 years. The trend for corporate wellness initiatives is growing extremely rapidly and we are perfectly positioned for this market move. Hong Kong and China are markets that we will naturally move into and I believe that there are very exciting times ahead.

Here is a video of Dr. Tim Errington at the Icons of Healthcare 2018 Summit & Awards, Singapore.