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Dr. Patrick Asks...
Introducing Olney Chiropractor Dr. Patrick Gottfried
"I admit my journey to become a Chiropractor is a little strange". See when I was 14 years old I already knew I wanted to be a chiropractor it was just an innate feeling I had. What makes it strange is that I had never went to a Chiropractor nor did my Mom or Dad or any of my family members. It wasn't till my Senior year in High School that I finally experienced the Miracles that Chiropractic Care had to Offer. I was playing varsity basketball for the Olney Tigers and was going in for a layup and was trampled by a guy 3 times my size and fell directly on my back and felt and heard a loud pop in my lower back. After laying on the floor for a few minutes I got up slowly and shook it off as a pulled muscle. Within 2 weeks I could not sleep at night, I was having breathing problems and could hardly walk let alone run up and down the basketball court. This was my senior year, my last year of playing competitive basketball so I wanted to get back playing as soon as possible. My mom suggested we go to the Emergency Room but I declined because I knew they would just give the usual shots, potions and lotions. I knew I wasn't lacking more pills in my blood stream causing my back pain. I wanted to know specifically what was wrong and more importantly what could be done to fix it. I insisted on making an appointment with local chiropractor, Dr. Dishong who is now retired. My Mom was very skeptical and very reluctant to take me. However she agreed something had to be done.
After making my first appointment with Dr. Dishong and having a consultation exam and X-rays of my spine, I was ready for my first adjustment. "It was incredible," continues Dr. Gottfried. "I'll never forget that first chiropractic adjustment. It was as if a 500 pound weight was suddenly lifted off of my back. That's when I knew for sure I wanted to be a Chiropractor."
After graduating from East Richland High School in 1989, Dr. Gottfried began his pre-chiropractic education by attending Olney Central College and Vincennes University where he studied the basic sciences such as organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, biology along with physiology and anatomy courses. After completing his study there, he was accepted to the prestigious Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. During his time at Palmer, courses included biochemistry, a major emphasis on Neuroanatomy and human physiology, X-ray, diagnosis, chiropractic adjusting and unmatched patient care in the Palmer College Public Clinic where he finished his clinical and course studies a semester early and was chosen to do an internship in Peoria, IL at Higgins Chiropractic Clinic his final semester at Palmer College of Chiropractic.
At Gottfried Chiropractic, our main objective is patient care. Often people come into the clinic in a lot of pain or discomfort. Our #1 goal is to get them out of discomfort as quickly as possible.
The first step is to find out what is causing the problem and correct it. This is where specific scientific chiropractic care differs from the medical model (sickness care). When someone goes to urgent care they are given pain relievers and muscle relaxers, generally without anyone so much as touching them. Chiropractors get to the source of the problem by performing a variety of tests, the first of which is brand new technology called Electrothermography and Surface EMG.
This technology is the only of its kind to be certified by NASA Space Program, utilized by the 2007 World Champion Indianapolis Colts and numerous Olympic gold medalists as well as numerous professional athletes (Gottfried Chiropractic is the only local office with this advanced diagnostic technology). These simple, pain free scans pin point areas in your spine where nerves are irritated or damaged. Your nervous system not only controls the function of every cell, tissue, muscle, organ and system of your body but controls your bodies ability to heal. These specialized tests show you exactly how your body is healing and functioning.
The question is "Why do you believe your body is not healing itself?"
We know for a fact that your body is self healing and self regulating. If you were to cut your skin, you know its going to heal and it is not based on the band aid or Neosporin h doing the healing to form new skin. Likewise, if you were to break a bone in your arm, the doctor may have to set it place and put a cast on it, but the doctor doesn't do the healing of the broken bone, your body heals itself. Your body is also self regulating, right now you have a heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, your immune system is working to fight cancer and infection, you literally have trillions of things going on in your body that your not in control of. So again we know the master system, the nervous system controls all self healing and self regulation. If there is interference or damage to the nervous system causing or contributing to your health problem and this interference or damage is left undetected and uncorrected does it get better or progressively worse. Yes, it gets worse.
My job as a chiropractor is to detect and correct this interference allowing your body to heal itself. However, in many cases nerve interference causes changes or damage to the structures of the spine, so we have to find out where there are changes or damage to the structures of the spine and most important how much change or damage there are to the structures of the spine. This leads us to the next step, which are X-rays of your spine to find the most common interference called "Subluxations."
A subluxation is simply a spinal bone which has lost its normal position and results in nerve irritation. When a nerve is irritated it cannot send the right signal to whatever area of the body it controls, whether it is a muscle, an organ or a gland. Once we have discovered the problem area, we get to work on correcting the problem. This is done with specific scientific chiropractic adjustments, as well as state of the art chiropractic technologies and, of course, home exercises and education.
The goal is optimal health not just absence of symptoms. Once someone is out of pain and there spine is at maximum spinal stability we always recommend wellness care. Wellness care involves getting your spine checked on a regular basis to prevent those little problems from becoming big problems and more important to keep your nervous system functioning without interference so your body can heal itself!
Give our office a call to find out how we can help get you on the road to wellness.
