No Bad Days with Dr. Kevin Pecca

Dr. Kevin Pecca’s health journey started on day one when he was born two and a half months early, weighing only two pounds and fifteen ounces. He was about sixteen years old when he started asking the questions about where health comes from and how healthy do we truly think we are. In spite of all the challenges, Dr. Pecca shares he had a great childhood and there were no bad days as long as he was able to ice hockey, had a blast with his friends, and enjoyed school and everything. Dr. Pecca walks everybody through what his own wellness journey has been like, how that led him to chiropractic, and everything that he’s doing right now. Learn as he lays his own story from the very beginning as he goes on Dr. Kasey Johnson’s Unlock Wellness Podcast.

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Listen To The Episode Here

No Bad Days with Dr. Kevin Pecca

I’m here with Dr. Kevin Pecca. Dr. Kevin is an Upper Cervical Chiropractor. For those of you that may not know exactly what that means, we’re going to dive a little bit more into that. Dr. Kevin is also a podcaster and hosts the Expect Miracles Podcast. I’m excited to have him on to share his story with you and the amazing work he’s doing. Dr. Kevin, thank you so much for taking time to come on. I’m excited to have you.

Dr. Kasey, thanks for having me. I’m very excited to be on.

Dr. Kevin, why don’t you jump into your backstory a little bit? Walk everybody through what’s your own wellness journey has been like, how that led you to Chiropractic, and everything that you’re doing right now.

My health journey started on day one. I was born two and a half months early. I weighed two pounds and fifteen ounces. My mom says I was like the size of her palm coming out and my head and legs were dangling off of it. It was pretty scary because they didn’t know if I was going to make it through the night or not because I was so little. My parents had another baby the year before that unfortunately had kidney failure. They must have been beside themselves at this point. They must have been nervous wrecks, but everything worked out beautifully. I had two supportive parents and my dad used to come in and read the Wall Street Journal to me when I was the neonatal unit just to hear his voice. I recovered beautifully, and I caught up to speed.

I had an amazing childhood. I grew up in Howell, New Jersey and a bunch of beautiful people there. I’m still best friends with pretty much everybody I grew up with. It was an amazing place. I grew up playing ice hockey and all different kinds of sports. I had a bunch of injuries growing up. Another big thing that happened to me that made me question what health is and where it comes from, my father was probably the healthiest guy I’ve ever met. He used to do morning exercises every day, ate right, did everything by the book. I woke up one day and he was having a pulmonary embolism right in front of me and my mom, doing his morning exercises. That’s how healthy he was. He started having a pulmonary embolism in front of us and they called the ambulance. They did the best they could, but it was too late at that point. That was the last time I got to see my father alive that day. It made me question, “Where does health come from?”

EM 60 | No Bad Days No Bad Days: Mostly everybody’s good and has something good to say.

How old were you then?

I was sixteen years old. It was a big wake up call for me. We see a lot of healthy people day in and day out and I thought my dad was like the healthiest guy ever and it makes you question where does health come from and how healthy do we truly think we are. That was a little rough going through that at sixteen, but everything turned around great. I had a great childhood, an awesome time in high school and in college. I played ice hockey in college. I had a couple concussions in high school playing hockey that were pretty bad, but nothing ever lasted more than a couple of days. I grew up playing. It was my favorite thing to do and I met a lot of great people doing it. Around my sophomore year of college, I had my last ice hockey concussion. This was probably around five or six. I got it on a Wednesday. I collided with one of my friends in practice. I saw stars for a little bit and then I shook it off and I was fine. I played some more hockey that weekend.

I woke up Monday morning with an array of symptoms. Brain fog, blurred vision, headaches, dizziness, anxiety, depression, severe knee pain, like down to the core, which was unexplainable to me. Since it happened, five days later, I couldn’t connect the dots. I felt like I had a concussion but I wasn’t sure and I was scared. I stopped playing hockey, I went to the primary care physician and they told me, “Stop playing ice hockey for a couple of weeks. You’ll be good to go, and everything should go away.” Two or three weeks pass at that point and it was just not good. Nothing was going away. I felt worse at that point. I made a couple phone call. I called my mom at the time and I was like, “Mom, I think we need to go see a specialist because this is the worst I’ve felt in my entire life.” I couldn’t pick up a book anymore and read. I couldn’t exercise.

I’m sure that’s super discouraging as a young guy. You should be at the prime of your health and feeling great.

It’s crazy too because two weeks before that, I was literally having the time of my life in college. I’m having a blast with my friends, enjoying school and everything. Then two weeks later, you’re filling out disability paperwork because you can’t function. It’s very scary. Probably the scariest part about the whole process, it lasted about four years, nobody had any answers for me. You go doctor to doctor and they tell you, “Kevin, it’s all in your head. Don’t worry about it. Kevin, you had a traumatic brain injury and you’re going to have to live with this for the rest of your life.” That’s when it becomes scary when you have these brilliant people telling you there’s no hope.

How many medications were they pushing at you?

They started me on seizure medication because I told the guy my hands were shaking. They put me on antidepressants to boost my mood and they put me on painkillers. One of the most frustrating parts was I told one doctor, I was like, “I’m not a depressed person, but it’s all my symptoms that have me depressed. I have nothing to complain about. I love everything about my life. It’s just I’m not doing well.” They sent me to a psychiatrist and I was at the point where I was like, “You tell me where to go and I will do anything in my power to get better.” They sent me to a psychiatrist and I’m talking to the psychiatrist and he’s like, “You’re depressed.” I’m like, “I wish I could just go out and do things. I wish I can go out and have a drink with my friends. I’m in college.” This guy was like, “That sounds like an alcoholic tendency. You should go to AA meetings.” I’m like, “Are you kidding me?” I lost my mind at an AA meeting because I went. I was like, “Maybe this guy’s right.” AA is great and it’s just where I didn’t need to be. I was sitting in that meeting and I was like, “Where has my life gone?” I don’t even know how I got here.

At that point, this was probably about a year later, the medications weren’t working. The psychiatrist, the neurologists were telling me there was nothing they could do and I drifted into probably the darkest place I’ve ever been in my life. I didn’t know what to do. I felt like nobody could relate, which I later found out that there’s a ton of people out there with post-concussion syndrome and all this, but when you’re going through it, you think you’re the only one. I remember I woke up one day and I was like, “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live. I don’t want to live.” I’m generally a very happy person and that was not a characteristic that I ever showed or displayed. For the first time, I didn’t want to live anymore. It was because it was absolute hell every single day. You try to have a positive mindset and say, “Tomorrow’s going to be better. I’m going to get through this.” Then you say that every day for two years and you’re just like, “I’ve done everything I can. I’m just emotionally shot, and I don’t think I could do this anymore.” I don’t think I would’ve ever done it but I was like, “I don’t want to live anymore.” I started crying a little bit and just collecting myself, let it all out. I was like, “That’s not the answer. We’ve got to find out the root cause of this problem and what’s going on.” I literally had zero answers at this point.

I saw everybody you’re supposed to see. I even was at the National Concussion Center in Washington DC and the head doctor there upon sitting down, I was telling him the same story I’m telling you, and ten minutes later, he stopped me and said, “Kevin, what if I told you, you were going to have to live with this for the rest of your life?” At that point, I was just like, “There is no way. You are the guy, you are supposed to see, and you’ve given up on me in ten minutes?” I was furious. I walked out. I had no idea what to do. Upon leaving his office, I went to a Catholic university with a huge basilica on campus and everything. I went to go see a priest that day because I was literally out of answers and I was hoping he bless me or do something, put me in the right direction. I go to see this guy and this priest was the first person that met me on my level.

I was looking up to all these doctors and I was looking up to them for help. This guy pulled up a chair, met me on my level, sat down, made me feel real welcomed. He’s a very unconventional priest. He had a pack of cigarettes on his desk, just an awesome guy. I was telling him my story and he was one of the first people to actually listen and I feel like sometimes that’s all people need is just to be heard out sometimes. That’s definitely what I needed that day. I was telling him my story and he stopped me midway through and he’s like, “Kevin, you can do all the hoping, wishing, and praying in the entire world, but if you don’t go out and figure out what’s causing this yourself, you’re never going to get better. Everything starts with you and you’ve got to get yourself better and stop playing the victim and go out and do everything in your power to get better.”

I was not expecting that from a priest. It shook me up a little bit and I was like, “You’re absolutely right.” After that day, I started doing everything in my power to get better. I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I was going to keep knocking on as many doors as I could. My first call was to an ex-NHL player who had a bunch of concussions that was doing well at the time. He led me to this other doctor that does PRP, platelet rich plasma injections in the neck. I tried that out and it didn’t work, but he was the first doctor that told me that posture dictates function and if you clear the interference around the brainstem, your body can potentially heal itself. Although he wasn’t the one that got me better, it was another stepping stone in the right direction.

I always went to a chiropractor growing up. I’ve been going to the chiropractor since third grade. My dad used to take me. I graduated college. I was done for the summer. I was feeling really awful. I said, “Let me call Dr. Denono.” He’s in Manalapan, New Jersey. He’s an amazing chiropractor. I started seeing him a couple times a week to start feeling better. He got me 70% or 80% better. I was functioning again. I wasn’t completely there. The only problem was if I didn’t go for a week, everything would come back. I was reliant on him, which was way better than it had been because I was getting no relief at that point. Chiropractic was giving you some relief. I decided I was going to go to chiropractic school and try to figure out what was going on and see if there’s anything else I can do. It was also pretty scary as well because there are no chiropractor schools in New Jersey, so that means I would have to leave and go somewhere else and hope and pray that the symptoms didn’t come back.

EM 60 | No Bad Days No Bad Days: A lot of us, we have that story.

Or hope that you can find a physician that can give you the same results that you were getting.

I remember him telling me, “I don’t know if there’s anybody in California that could help you. There might be, but I don’t know them.” He tried to put me in touch with a couple people. It didn’t work out and three or four weeks later, I’m in chiropractic school and everything is going South again. Blurred vision’s back, headache’s back, anxiety and depression are back. I didn’t know what to do again. I was getting tutored by one of my friends in chiropractor school who was a little in front of me and he’s like, “What’s wrong with you?” I was like, “I can’t concentrate. I’m going to have to drop out.” The workload in chiropractor school is insane. I wasn’t feeling good again. He’s like, “I might know one person that could help you.” I said, “All right.” I will give anything a shot and I go to see this guy, Dr. Drew Hall, who’s an Upper Cervical Chiropractor in Los Angeles. He’s pretty much the reason why I have a podcast, why I got into Upper Cervical Chiropractic.

I went to his office in LA and I’m filling out the paperwork. I remember turning the corner and, on his door, it said, “Expect miracles.” I gravitated towards that image. I don’t know why. I almost zoned in on it. It made me feel like I was in a true place of healing. I sit down and talk with Dr. Hall and I’m telling him the same story I told you and he’s smirking at me a little bit across the desk and I’m thinking to myself like, “What’s so funny? This isn’t that funny.” After I was done talking, he looked me right in the eyes and was like, “Kevin, I had the same exact story as you to a tee.” He was wrestling his friend after baseball practice his junior year of high school. His friend picked him up, dropped him on his head, and he heard a huge crack and he thought he was paralyzed for a second and then he started wiggling his arms and legs, realized he wasn’t paralyzed. He got up. He thought he was fine and about ten months later, he started getting headaches and blurred vision and sinus issues.

I feel like a lot of us, we have that story. I’m sure you see a lot of people that come into your office that they say they woke up and they started feeling bad that day, but I feel like it could be an old injury way long down the road where your body finally gives up and says, “I can’t take it anymore.” That’s when the symptoms come in, but it probably started a long time ago. It’s tough for all of us to connect the dots and see where everything came from. He went into an Upper Cervical office. It saved his life. He looked at me, he’s like, “There’s no doubt in my mind that we can get you better.” At this point, I’ve heard this before. I’ve heard this from a couple of people saying that they can get me better. I was like, “Just show me because I’m at my wit’s end here. I like what you’re telling me. I’m very interested, but the only thing I can do is believe it if it works on me at this point.”

He took the x-rays. He laid me on the table, and he adjusted me. He laid me there for a couple minutes and he sat me down. I remember getting up for the first time and the anxiety and depression, which were so extremely bad at that point, completely went away within that moment. I finally felt at ease for the first time in four years. Those two things were gone instantaneously. I was blown away. I was like, “This is pretty interesting.” I went in the back room to rest and I felt connected again. I felt like somebody turned on a light switch in my brain and I felt like I was me again. I felt like I was back. For the last four years, I felt like I was just walking around in somebody else’s body looking at myself. I didn’t know what to say to people. I didn’t know what to do for four years. It was a very scary time and up until that moment, I finally felt like myself again. I walked out and the colors on the trees were bright and green and like high definition almost because I had such severe brain fog. It was like I was walking around in a dream all day. That was one of my scariest symptoms.

I’m not saying all my symptoms went away in that moment. It was a long journey back to health, definitely healing. It took me about a year for everything to go away, but every couple weeks, something would go away. I remember around the eighth or tenth month mark, I remember looking in the mirror and like, “My hands aren’t shaking anymore. I don’t have blurred vision. I don’t have headaches. The knee pain is gone.” It made me feel extremely thankful to be alive and be here. Your health is an absolute gift and you don’t realize it until it gets completely taken away from you. Life is very good now. I’m happy to be here, be symptom free. It’s an honor to give back to people that were feeling the same way I was feeling. We have a ton of people that come into the office with post-concussion syndrome, headaches, anxiety, depression, a lot of neurological issues. When they say, “You helped me get my life back,” there’s nothing more rewarding than that.

I love how when you were staying at the end, like it was a gradual thing. Even though you’re expecting the miracles, it’s still a process. The symptoms are the last thing to show up, so if you go and maybe you don’t see that amazing thing right away, give it time because what you’re going through took years to get there whether you realize it or not. I’m respecting the process and that’s just amazing. I love your story Dr. Kevin. Plus, so many people now as well is just amazing.

To touch on what you said, you either have people that it takes them a while to get back to health or you have that one person that you give an adjustment to and right away they feel great, but then after that, the healing process definitely starts up again. It goes up and down, up and down. Very rarely do you see somebody just get that adjustment and then they’re good for the rest of their life. Usually, it’s going to dip down a little bit. Patient education is definitely a huge thing and it’s definitely a process back up to health. If you hang in there long enough, it will definitely come.

I’ve touched on it a few times. I love it, especially with what you and I do as chiropractors. Somebody that comes in, it’s hard to tell them exactly, “These many visits or this is what we’re going to have to do to make you 100% better because we don’t know where you’re at toxicity-wise, whether that’s actual toxins from the environment or products or stress or mental toxins as well.” There are so many factors that could alter your healing process. It depends where you’re at physically and mentally. That aspect is super interesting.

It’s funny that you say that too because you can give somebody a great adjustment one after the other after the other, but you’ve got to find out what’s going on in other aspects of their life. What you put into your body is what you get out. If they’re not eating good, if they’re constantly on their phone looking down all day, it’s making that forward curve even worse. You definitely have to modify your entire life to get back to health, but you do start taking care of yourself. You’ll see amazing things happen.

Even with your own personal story, Dr. Kevin, at that point, you’d put yourself through so much mental stress and loss of hope. That probably increased the healing process as opposed to if you found Dr. Hall maybe right when it first happened. You probably would have healed so much quicker because you didn’t have like, “This isn’t going to help me. I’m not there yet,” all those negativities.

I think about that sometimes. I wonder if I did find Dr. Hall or anybody else doing the Blair Upper Cervical method. If I found it too early, would it have worked? I was such an emotional mess at that time. I believe timing is everything and it all worked out perfectly. I have some people come in here and they’re like, “I’m seeing you, I’m seeing the physical therapist, I’m seeing the neurologist, I’m seeing the nutritionist, I’m seeing a functional medicine person.” They’re seeing ten doctors at once and it’s tough for them to figure out what’s working and what’s not.

Whatever avenue you choose to go down, definitely give it a shot and make sure you stick with it long enough to tell if it’s working because sometimes it doesn’t happen in the first week. Sometimes it takes a couple of visits and definitely you have to figure out what else the person is doing. I had a person that was taking a migraine medication and they weren’t holding their adjustments that well and they were still getting headaches. Then she came in and she started holding her adjustments. She’s feeling great and she’s like, “I stopped taking my migraine medication.” It was a side effect of the migraine medication was headache, she said.

EM 60 | No Bad Days No Bad Days: People’s physical and especially emotional stress can make a person sick.

It was putting a lot of pressure on her body and I’m thinking to myself, “What am I doing here? Can I do better?” Once she stopped taking a couple of different medications, I feel like her body settled down and accepted the adjustments more and she’s doing well. Sometimes I forget to see every aspect of what the patient’s doing. Now, I make sure I ask what medications they’re on, how they’re eating. I’m sure you see this all the time too. People’s physical and especially emotional stress can make a person sick. I have a bunch of people that come in here and they get very stressed out at work. 24/7. They get home and they’re stressed. They go to work and they’re stressed. I can’t imagine the amount of cortisol their body’s releasing and all the inflammation in their body. At your job, that’s what you do most of your life. If you can find something that you enjoy that’s healthy for you, that would change a lot of people’s health issues.

That’s what you’re doing all day, so if you don’t like your job, figure out a way to like your job at some level. Find whatever path you have to take because that does impact your health in a major way or any other stressors that you have going on. You increase the inflammation there and because you’re busy at work, you’d go through the drive through on your way home and it increases even more inflammation.

It’s a vicious cycle. It’s cool though because people that may discover chiropractic, that could be how you had your different stepping stones. Maybe chiropractic is their stepping stone to like, “This makes me feel better. I feel healthier, so maybe I will try to work out tomorrow. I won’t eat fast food and grab a smoothie.” You get a chance every day to be that stepping stone for somebody and you might not even realize it.

If you remove the interference in the nervous system, the structural interference and give the body its best shot to heal because everybody innately has the potential to heal themselves, if you remove that interference in the nervous system that runs the entire show, it’s the control center, if you let that go and let it be free and do its thing and remove the outside toxins as best you can, your body definitely has the capability to heal itself of almost anything you. This doesn’t happen all the time, but Stage four cancers have resolved. Just major health issues have resolved in the past that people that have no shot of doing it. The body can do amazing things if you give it its due and just take care of it.

Can you give a quick definition on what the difference is with Upper Cervical chiropractic? People probably have a general idea about what chiropractic is, but just specifically what you do as an Upper Cervical chiropractor.

As Upper Cervical doctors, we focus on the brain stem, which controls every single function in your entire body. The two bones that surround the brain stem, the atlas and the axis, C1 and C2, they weigh about a couple of ounces and they support your head that weighs ten to thirteen pounds given on the person. Throughout our lifetimes, it’s very easy for those two bones to become locked and dislodged at a place through any type of major or minor trauma. Car accidents, sports injuries, like concussion. Childbirth is huge. Any slip or fall, falling off the monkey bars. People come to my office and say, “I’ve never been in any major accidents. I’m completely fine.” Then you’ll get them adjusted and they’ll come back the next day and they’re like, “When I was six, I fell off the top bunk and smacked my head and lost consciousness.” It’s like, “That will definitely throw you out of alignment. You’re six years old at the time, you’re 52 now.”

You went through a growth spurt without misalignment.

It doesn’t have to be a major car accident. It could be a very little thing. When that happens, when subluxation, bone out of place, when that happens, the brain can’t communicate with the spinal cord and heal itself. When the head goes off center, your eye is the righting reflex. Your eyes will do anything to keep it level, so your head will shift to keep your vision straight and that shoulder will come up and then the hip will come up. A lot of people we find in our office or walking around with a short leg, but it’s not an anatomical short leg, it’s just they have a lot of compensations going on in the spine. What we do as Upper Cervical chiropractors is we take three dimensional x-rays of the upper neck and we visualize that person’s very own misalignments down to the exact millimeters. Nobody’s been through the same trauma is that person, so no one’s going to get the same adjustment, or no one’s built the same.

Having upper cervical adjustments like having your very own blueprint of an adjustment. It’s very specific. We tape the three-dimensional X-rays and probably what makes Upper Cervical a little different than some other types of chiropractic is we say, “Holding his healing.” Our goal is to give one neck adjustment, and have it hold weeks to months to years. The longer that holds in place, the better nerve flow you have, the faster your body’s going to heal up. It took me a couple of visits to start holding my neck adjustments. I held one neck adjustment for three years. It was great because I felt like I finally became my own doctor. I used to base my life around seeing doctors and just hoping that this person gets me better. Once I was back into alignment, our bodies have the innate ability to heal itself. If you move the structural interference out of the nervous system, your body will innately and naturally begin to heal. Our goal is to keep the nervous system free of any interference and let it do its thing.

Chiropractic in general just gets phenomenal results. This is a little specialty within the field. It’s good for neurological disorders, stroke patients, MS patients. Post-concussion, I like to think I specialize in that mainly because we get good results and it’s tough for someone to take care of another person that hasn’t had a traumatic brain injury because you get a lot of symptoms. I had an eighteen-year-old football player come in and he’s like, “My whole right side of my face went numb the other day and pounding headaches. I can’t stay awake.” His eye was drooping a little more than the other side and me being through some of that, I don’t get necessarily worried. I know we can still help them.

Whereas other people that have never seen that might get a little worried and misinform the patient. I’ve heard it, like, “There’s nothing we can do. I don’t think we can help that.” Whereas with my story, I like to give everybody hope because I was told so many times that there’s nothing that you can do. That is the most discouraging thing you could tell anybody that’s trying to turn their life around. That’s doing the best that they can. Who are you to tell them that they are never going to get better, whether they’re getting better from the treatment I’m giving or if they go to another place, I just want that message to be loud and clear that you will get your life back no matter what you do as long as you keep looking. If you just keep knocking on doors, one is eventually going to open. It’s very discouraging when you hear that from other doctors that there’s no hope anymore.

I can’t imagine going through something like you did, Dr. Kevin, and having to hear that stuff, like that one with the top doctor you were talking about that told you that. It’s insane to me. It makes me mad because it’s discouraging. That hurts your own healing process. You having to go through that yourself makes you a better doctor, a better listener and you’re somebody that gives hope because you did have that. It probably does make you listen to that person. They have to feel that authenticity because it’s real. You really care.

Some people, all they need is to sit down and be heard some days. I have some patients that you can just tell they are frazzled and I don’t think an adjustment’s going to get rid of that. They literally need to sit down and talk to somebody for five or ten minutes. Let it all out. I’m not sitting down for an hour and having a therapy session with these people, but I want them to feel that they can say anything, come talk to me, and say it. Then once they get that out, they relieve that stress that they were carrying around and then you give them the adjustment and it works better. Some people just need to be heard and I’m sure that happens in your office too because you develop a relationship with your patients and they like talking to you.

EM 60 | No Bad Days No Bad Days: As Upper Cervical doctors, we focus on the brain stem, which controls every single function in your entire body.

Going off with what you are doing right now with your podcast, which is amazing, and I love the name, Expect Miracles, and that’s just awesome that you had that sign. The body is so incredible and can heal from literally anything if you remove the interference that’s causing those issues. It really is like remove the interference and expect miracles, so it really is the perfect name. What made you want to start a podcast in the first place?

I was doing my internship in Southern California and I worked with this woman, Dr. Liz Hoefer, who’s in Rancho Santa Margarita, excellent doctor. I had a great internship with her. She included me on everything. It was a very hands-on internship. I got to work with a lot of people. One of her patients owns a podcast company. Her, being the doctor that she was, she let me sit in with all our patients and they’re talking one day. This was a couple years ago. I started getting into the Joe Rogan Podcast. That was my favorite. I loved how he had all people from all walks of life, MMA fighters, nutritionists, doctors, people with amazing stories, comedians, anybody that has a good story. I loved that. I was getting into his podcast and this guy, Tom Hazzard, comes in and he’s like, “I run a podcast company.” I was like, “I’m very interested. I definitely want to do it, but I’m not ready. I want to get established as a doctor first and settle in.”

This was probably the best advice I’ve ever gotten. He’s like, “Why do you want to wait? Just do it. Watch your fan base grow with you as a doctor. They can be part of that experience with you.” I was like, “I never thought of that.” It was something I always wanted to do, and I was like, “If going to do it, let’s just do it. Let’s go all-in and do it?” I did it and I was reading up on your podcast too. You said the same thing. It’s like, “I have no idea what I was doing.” You get to meet a lot of amazing people. It’s so nice to have a conversation these days and not have somebody’s phone be out. It’s nice to get that person’s individual attention for so long and you learn so much and you develop a relationship with these people. They end up helping you out down the road. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.

The connections alone are insane. My one year is coming up. I’m pretty excited. I’ve met more people this year, like real connections and different opportunities and overall confidence. It’s crazy what can happen when you put yourself out there and learn as you go. I get it, people will want to be more established or people want to read up a little bit more. I’ve done a lot of episodes, but I still mess up all the time. I’m still learning. It’s a cool process and experience.

That goes with anything you do in life. There’s a great quote from Russell Branson, who owns Virgin Airlines. He was like, “If somebody gives you a great opportunity in life, say yes and figure out how to do it later.” You’re going to mess up, that’s inevitable. As long as you keep moving and go with it and be persistent, you’re going to see a lot of beautiful things happen because there are people that push through that point and there are people that stop. The people that come through the other side of that wall, they get to see a lot of amazing, beautiful things happen. Make no mistake about it. It is hard and it’s tough and anything in life that’s worth doing is going to be very difficult, but it’s beautiful when you stick with something and just watch it become something and it’s great.

You’ve had a bunch of great guests on as well. What’s something that you may be have picked up from an episode that inspired you?

I had one of my best friends on, Greg Alessi, and he was riding down the road with his father one day. A huge eighteen-wheeler jack knifed across the road and they were the first car into it. He almost died that day. He was bleeding. He said his whole body was cold. He had no idea what to do. To talk to somebody that literally was on the verge of flatlining and to have come out the other side and just talk to them like, “How you feel about life right now?” he was like, “It’s such a gift to be here and to be alive and well.” A total appreciation for life. It’s not even something that he said specifically. You can just feel it when you’re talking to him. It’s a beautiful thing to talk to people that had been through that and it makes you stop and look around you and like, “It’s beautiful.”

Everybody thinks they’re having a bad day sometimes, but when you stop, and you listen to somebody that’s had an awful day, it makes you appreciative of that. There are other guests that specialize in certain things like life coaching and different doctors and everything. I pick up one thing in episode from mostly everybody, either if it’s small, subtle or very big. You can learn something from everybody. Everybody’s got a good story. Generally, I feel like mostly everybody’s good and has something good to say. People love talking about what they do, and it gets them excited. Once you find that sweet spot of what gets that person excited, all you have to do is open up at that point and you will learn a lot from everybody.

I’m excited to go back through and listen to the rest of yours. There was one that was like a music therapy. That interests me a lot. I’m going to check that one out. I know you’re busy with your practice and your podcast. Is there anything else going on in the future that you want to share with people or just continue to put out content?

I want to continue the podcast. I see you cranking out the episodes over there. That’s very impressive. You have a great podcast and I’m looking forward to putting out more content on that. My goal is to get more Upper Cervical offices around the country. There’s nobody in Europe that does the Blair Upper Cervical technique.

Is that the main technique for Upper Cervical?

It’s not the main technique.

EM 60 | No Bad Days No Bad Days: Once you find that sweet spot of what gets that person excited, all you have to do is open up at that point and you will learn a lot from everybody.

The most well-known is NUCCA, right?

I would say the most well-known is NUCCA. They focus purely on C1, whereas Blair focuses on the entire cervical spine. There are about 100 people in the country doing Blair chiropractic and there’s just not enough. We have people fly from Ireland and Canada because there’s nobody doing it. My goal is to eventually set up some offices in Europe and around everywhere else and have this outlet for people that has been so good to me. I hope to give it back as best I can.

Dr. Kevin, what is the best way for people to follow you on social media? That way they can keep up with everything that you’re doing.

You can find me on Instagram. I have two accounts. One’s @EaselAffirmations. It’s daily affirmation, daily positive quotes. I’ve always been into that and I write something new every day on that. You can follow me on Instagram at @KevinPecca. My website is DrKevinPecca.com. I have Expect Miracles podcast on iTunes and I also have a YouTube channel, Dr. Kevin Pecca, where I post educational videos and my podcast.

Dr. Kevin, a closing question that I ask every guest. If you had one piece of advice to give, what would it be?

My one piece of advice to give is just keep knocking on doors and doing your thing and never say never because there’s going to be people out there that say, “It’s not possible. You’re not going to get better.” If you have a good intention and your head’s in the right spot and you do everything in your power, you will 100% get better. Sometimes we don’t know how that’s going to happen, but if you keep pushing through, your miracle will happen. I truly believe that.

Dr. Kevin, your story is amazing. I can’t wait to follow all the amazing work you’re doing. Everyone, go give him a follow on social media. Go subscribe and write a great review for his podcast because he’s going to do amazing work with that. Dr. Kevin, thank you so much for taking time to come on. I loved having you.

Dr. Kasey, thank you. I’m looking forward to having you on my podcast soon.

Thanks.

You’re welcome.

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