Chiropractic & Mental Health

Chiropractic & Mental Health: The Story of Jeff

I had just opened my first office on a shoe string and was having my starvation period. I lectured to everyone, gave out cards on the street, advertised as much as I could afford and ever so slowly my practice began to grow. At this point, mental health wasn’t on my mind.

I was able to avoid a real starvation period when the local pizza guy became a patient and we traded services.

One day Greg became a patient. He was an orderly in a local psychiatric, mental health hospital.

Chiropractic and Mental health book cover

Mental Health & Chiropractic book

“I work with a lot of disturbed people,” Greg told me, adding, “the inmates could be difficult too.” It was his standard joke. At least I hoped it was a joke.

Every few days he’d come in for a visit, scratched and banged up from restraining violent patients. Usually he won, but not every time. “I didn’t see that left hook coming, Doc. Wow, she was strong.”

Greg loved the philosophy of chiropractic and understood chiropractic care was much more than a pain treatment. He referred a lot of his friends in for care.

One evening Greg brought in a tall, thin kid with brown hair, about 20 years old.

“Hi Greg, who’s with you?” I asked.

Clear View Hosptal“Hey, Doc, this is Jeff. He’s an inmate at the hospital. He’s diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and hears voices. But he’s not violent. He’s on lots of meds. Jeff and I have bonded and the psychiatrists asked me if I’d take him out for a drive. I’ve done it many times before. Would you like to work on Jeff?”

Serves me right for telling Greg about the Clear View and Forest Park Chiropractic Sanitaria in Davenport, Iowa. These were chiropractic mental institutions. They had better reported success rates and lower recidivism than the state mental hospitals that used shock therapy and other bizarre treatments.D.D. Palmer

DD Palmer, the discoverer of chiropractic observed: “Chiropractors correct abnormalities of the intellect as well as those of the body…. Many a child has been injured at birth by a vertebral displacement … the result of this excessive tension is physical or mental disability which may be lifelong.”

I’m sure the psychiatrists at the hospital didn’t know about Clear View and Forest Park and I doubt if an MD there said to Greg, “Hey, while you are driving around with Jeff, would you find a local chiropractor? Maybe a subluxation is causing some of his mental issues.”

From a legal perspective, we had no perspective. Greg had no permission or authority to bring Jeff to my office. Similarly, Jeff couldn’t give permission for me to work on him since he was certified crazy, or at the least incompetent. I could lose my license for even touching him.

I said, “Sure, lay Jeff down on the table.”

Jeff was very wary about all this. You might say he was a bit paranoid. Greg and I placed him on his side on a side posture table that was designed for upper cervical work.

“I’ll never get another opportunity to adjust him,” I thought.

I placed my hands over Jeff’s atlas and waited, and waited, and waited. There’s a magic moment when the patient relaxes and lets you in. Jeff was having none of it.

Suddenly, without my conscious awareness, my elbows snapped together, my pisiform bone pushed down against his upper neck and the drop headpiece dropped down and stopped suddenly.

Did you ever see a cartoon where a character seems to go from laying to standing without any intermediate position? That’s what seemed to happen. Jeff was laying down and then standing up. I saw no intermediate positions.

“What did you do to me?” he yelled.

“Uhm, uhm, I uh, gave you an upper cervical adjustment,” I said. It was not my finest lay lecture. As an afterthought I added, “Your atlas was subluxated.”

“It felt as if you took a sword and ran it through my neck,” he yelled.

samurai solder - mental healthAs he said that I pictured him repeating those words to a dozen people on a jury. I began to sweat; my heart began to pound. I looked up at Greg, for help. He walked over to Jeff, put his arm over his shoulder and laughed.

“Don’t worry about it, he does that to me all the time. Let’s go out for a pizza.” They drove off.

I never saw Jeff again.

Greg came in a few days later.

“How’s Jeff?” I asked.

“Oh, I meant to call you. He’s off all his meds. He stopped hearing voices. The psychiatrists are convinced the drugs finally began to work. He’s like a different person.”

The next week I asked again. “Jeff’s being discharged. His parents are coming in tomorrow to pick him up and bring him home.”

“No more voices, no more strange behavior?”

“No, he’s fine. Oh, wait, there’s just one thing his MDs are concerned about.”

“What’s that?”

“He keeps telling everyone he wants to be a chiropractor.”

 

ted-koren-bio-headshot

Dr. Tedd Koren

Dr. Koren, originally from Brooklyn, NY, lives in Montgomery County, PA. A graduate of the U of Miami and Sherman College of Chiropractic, he writes, lectures and teaches in the US, Europe and Australia as well as takes care of patients and fights for healthcare freedom. Dr. Koren and his wife Beth have two children.

7 Comments

  1. Avatar Joe Fawcett III, DC on December 5, 2017 at 5:08 pm

    Excellent and inspiring article… and very well written, too!
    While attending Palmer-Davenport (’80-’84) I often heard wonderful stories about the Sanitaria and how the chiropractic successes made the medics insanely jealous.

  2. Avatar Dr John Nikitow DC on December 5, 2017 at 5:11 pm

    Wonderful what the brain and body can do when the interference is removed.

  3. Avatar Curtis on December 5, 2017 at 5:32 pm

    Chiropractic has some of the best true stories. Yours are masterfully told.

  4. Avatar Lewis Cone, DC on December 5, 2017 at 5:32 pm

    Super funny and great story… I laughed out loud with your fear of legal troubles so you layed him down anyway… Dr. Cone

  5. Avatar Michael s. Evangel, DC on December 5, 2017 at 7:18 pm

    This is a great story. Our bodies contain an innate intelligence that strives to get us healthy and to keep us healthy. This is a great example of what happens when that innate intelligence is liberated.

  6. Avatar Luciann Moyher on December 31, 2017 at 10:58 pm

    My son has recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia and has admitted to hearing voices. I’d take him to get this power adjustment tomorrow! Can you please give me more information?

  7. Avatar Glenda Allen on July 12, 2018 at 9:03 am

    I was diagnosed with TN yesterday. My neck/spine has been out for years, but I never knew of the connection between the two. God is helping me to find my way in this. Praise God and Thank you for caring so much for people. You are an inspiration and you are giving more than hope. You are giving life back to ppl. I’ve always believed in Chiropractic, I’ve seen three different Dr.’s over the years, I just couldn’t afford to keep going. I don’t want to take this Carbamazepine not even the first pill. I am afraid. I am 49 yrs old and starting over again. I want so badly to change my life, my health while I still can. I can’t afford the Neurologist but that’s not how I want to handle this anyway. I believe Chiropractic is the answer. However I am unemployed. Is there some where I can get some help? I am suspecting that I may also have MS, but I’ve not been diagnosed yet. It scares me and I feel overwhelmed. Could someone give me some where to turn? I would so much appreciate any information please. TY- Glenda

Leave a Comment