Chiropractor discusses how he chose his medical career and the treatments he offers at his business, Chapman Chiropractic
By David L. Podos
Q: How long have you been a chiropractor?
A: For about 10 years.
Q: Why did you choose to go the chiropractic school?
A: My best friend and I were both getting ready to take our medical college admission test. We both wanted to do something medical, we just didn’t know what that exactly was at the time. He eventually went on to become a medical doctor. In that same time period, I was working for a construction company part time during the summer, where I got hurt on the job. The injury turned out to be a herniated disk in my lower back. I went to a surgeon and he said I would need surgery and could get me scheduled for the procedure in about eight weeks. Also, my sister was seeing a chiropractor during that same period. So, I went to see him. After six weeks of treatments just two weeks before my scheduled surgery, I had no more leg pain and the pain I was having in my back, which was a 10 plus, now was a 2. I canceled my surgery and said, well, now I know what direction to head. At that point, I started my educational journey to become a doctor in chiropractic medicine.
Q: I assume the educational components of chiropractic medical school are quite intense, correct?
A: Yes, indeed, and, it was a lot more than I thought. You have to complete your four years of undergraduate education then, once accepted into chiropractic school it is another three years of medical school, followed by a two-year residency program.
Q: Chiropractic is now more accepted as part of a protocol of treatment and many medical doctors now refer patients to chiropractors, more so than in the past. Is there some truth to that?
A: Yes, you are correct. Some of that change has come about because we, as doctors of chiropractic, in regards on how we speak about what we do, that has changed a lot. We are now better able to communicate to other health care professionals on how and why we treat patients the way we do. Research has had an incredible positive impact on all of this, showing that actually what we do has therapeutic benefits for the patient.
Q: Can chiropractors do rounds at a hospital similar to how a medical doctors do rounds?
A: It depends on the scope of practice in each state. For instance in New York, we can only do spinal adjustments and many of us work right alongside the patient’s physical therapist if they should have one.
Q: Do you have a specialization in your practice or are you more of a general chiropractor?
A: My practice is general. However, I do specialize more in soft tissue treatment. The common treatment I use is trigger point therapy. Trigger points are essentially scar tissue adhesions that have developed in a muscle. Muscles move joints, so, if those systems are not working right, that joint is never going to behave properly. So, using ischemic compression, I am preventing the area I am treating from temporally getting blood flow by sustained pressure on a knot for example, for about 30 seconds. That allows that tissue to break up a little bit helping the area to heal. I can also use cross friction massage which goes across the muscle fibers.
Q: Are there any other modalities that you offer your patients?
A: Yes. We offer cold laser therapy. First off, the name is kind of a misnomer, it actually is a heat therapy. So, it is almost like an infrared laser that goes through this crystal diode, that amplifies the laser. By using this technology, it heats up the injured area and that will allow fresh blood and fresh nutrients to come to that tissue and rapidly accelerates the healing process. For example, if you have a rotator cuff tear, or disk injury, pulled a muscle badly and that area is irritated and inflamed, it could take many weeks to heal. If you did cold laser therapy a few times per week, research shows that healing time is typically cut in half.