What made you decide to become a chiropractic doctor?

When I was in my late teens — 19 years old, I think — I hurt my back lifting weights. Around that time, a good friend of mine in Brooklyn was going to school to be a chiropractor. He came back home on school break, came to my parents’ house and adjusted me. It took a couple of times but it took. I got the relief I needed, and that influenced me a lot.

The requirements for becoming a chiropractor are more extensive than many people realize. Tell us about your own experience in the educational and training process.

I knew you needed a four-year undergraduate degree, then four more years of chiropractic school. I started taking classes to go in that direction. It was a lot of work and the hardest part for me were the written tests. The hands-on practical part came easier. It just felt natural for me and I was very good at that.

I keep my training up. I recently took veterinarian orthopedic manipulation training, which was taught by a veterinarian. He’d basically researched chiropractic and realized how important it is even for animals. There’s so much to learn in every kind of discipline.

Generally speaking, what is the most challenging aspect of being a chiropractor?

When people come in and they’re hurting or uncomfortable, getting them to feel better and winning their confidence — that’s probably the most challenging. Educating the patient is an important part of that. But I also try to make sure I match everything I'm doing to each person's individual comfort level.

Another challenge is dealing with the insurance companies. There’s a lot of paperwork, and things are always changing. In that regard, my office manager (Pat Scharf) probably has the hardest job of anyone on the staff.

Has anything surprised you about the practice of chiropractic?

What surprises me is that miracles happen every day in chiropractor offices all over the world. I don’t mean to say that every person is going to be a miracle case, but the miracles really do happen right in front of your eyes. You see people who improve 95 percent in only a couple of visits. Those kinds of miracles happen so often that I think some chiropractors almost take them for granted. They’re just so accustomed to seeing the results.

What is a typical day like for you?

Every day is basically a good day for me. I don’t have much stress or aggravation, and the staff is kind of molded the same way. Of course, some days it can be hectic here and once in a while we hit a bump, but most days? They’re just good days.

Tell us about a patient case or two that made you especially pleased with the outcome.

I had a patient in her early teens with severe curves in her spine. To keep the curves from getting worse she wore a special brace invented by a doctor she had been seeing for her condition. Anyway, the girl was later referred to me. Before we even got started I took full spine X-rays of her. After she’d been coming to me maybe three, four months, we took X-rays again. The curves had actually become better to the point that the braces were no longer useful for her. She told me her original doctor and his staff were amazed at the improvement. They said it would normally take eight years to get to that point.

Another of my cases involved a woman in her 70s who had been suffering from a painful disease for several years. We worked on her shoulders, hands, neck and back to alleviate the pain. She’s done fantastic and now she’s a regular. I just wish she had come to me years earlier. Her situation could’ve been taken care of sooner and she wouldn’t have to rely on me so much now. Unfortunately, seniors didn't have the information and resources — like the Internet — that today's generation is accustomed to. They were often told they had a condition they just had to live with. They didn't realize there were other things they might do.

Have you ever had to turn someone away?

There’s only one person I ever told I couldn’t help. He had a number of long-term problems going on. He also had a pacemaker. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do the therapies because it would aggravate the pacemaker. Also, his body wasn’t in the physical shape he needed to be in. Anything I did to examine him might have aggravated his condition further. I’m never going to tell someone I can help if I know that chiropractic isn’t the right option.

There have been misconceptions about chiropractors in the past. What do you tell people who even today are unfamiliar with or timid about chiropractic care?

Now and then I might hear people express misgivings about whether chiropractic really helps. But chiropractic isn’t a religion, and science has shown that it works. Fortunately, the skepticism is slowly going away. That’s partly because there’s a new generation of medical doctors and a lot of them have been personally adjusted by a chiropractor. It’s a younger and more educated generation, and by now there’s also more and better information about chiropractic care. We get occasional referrals from medical doctors. And when the situation calls for it, chiropractors refer patients to other specialty doctors, too. The whole approach to medical care is more inclusive.

Do you get regular chiropractic adjustments yourself?

Sure. There are a couple of chiropractors who live in the city and I try to get adjusted once or twice a week. I function better. More and more people are getting adjustments, from the greatest athletes in the world to the littlest kids on “peewee” leagues. In my office, I see everyone from senior citizens to a paraplegic to a one- or two-month-old child. it’s a wide variety.

Where do you see chiropractic care going in the future? How will it change?

I think it’s only going to get better, with more and better research. Already we’re seeing more mainstream information that has the kind of science people can’t deny.
 

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