Dr Christos Balis, the Chiropractic Chiropractor

When I moved out of my parents’ house for college my own health basically collapsed. I had just graduated high school with an 18% absentee rate, missing about 1 day a week, mostly for a ‘sore throat’. Still, I was unprepared for strep throat and mononucleosis and a subsequent medical withdrawal by THANKSGIVING break of Freshman year. I was further unprepared to get worse strep throat and mononucleosis again by Christmas of my Junior year. By this time, after missing 2 semesters in less than 3 years for ill health, I was convinced to move back home, commute to a local college, and pursue less rigorous studies.

Over the next 4 years I set out to get fit, eat well, take vitamins, meditate, practice yoga and achieve my own peak wellness to overcome my poor health history. In that time, I banished any signs or symptoms of strep throat or mononucleosis and I really thought I had cured myself. But then again, after those 4 years of peak wellness, I moved out of my parents’ home, and soon, after several demanding semesters, these symptoms reappeared during one especially long wet winter. After a week of progressive fatigue and difficulty swallowing, I was desperate.

Casually, a friend suggested I try Chiropractic to get an “adjustment”. Upon X-RAY examination, the Chiropractor found severe misalignments in my neck, what he called “subluxations”. Most notably two neck vertebrae had fused together from a severe fall sometime before full skeletal maturity, likely due to a bike accident when I was 12 where I suffered a concussion. On the X-RAY film, even to my untrained eyes, I could see that every other neck bone had a disc cushion between it and the neck bones above and below. In the middle of my neck, I could see two bones where there was no disc, and instead there was what looked like another pancake-like bone inserted like spackle. This is what the Chiropractor referred to as a ‘traumatic fusion’, and was now safe to “adjust” as one bigger, fused vertebrae. The Chiropractor then “adjusted” my neck. The adjustment seemed loud, abrupt but did not hurt. Later that night I ran a very high fever, alternating with sweats and chills, and barely slept. When I awoke though, I could swallow easily, I had no fever, and I felt remarkably well, without the fatigue I had expected from not sleeping well. I knew then in a flash that my life was changed, and that I needed to know what had just happened.

After enrolling in chiropractic college, I discovered a small but diverse profession, dedicated to health care and not just low back pain or whiplash. Chiropractors were in fact historic pioneers and among the current leaders in Complementary and Alternative Medicine, integrating therapies unknown to me like muscle testing (kinesiology), homeopathy and acupuncture techniques to amplify their adjustments. I learned that many seemingly conventional ‘pain based’ chiropractors also employed cutting edge dietary, nutritional and biofeedback therapies. I found other “straight” chiropractors who strictly worked on the spine, mostly with only light touch but occasional quick toggles, and these purist chiropractors consistently delivered the best adjustments of them all. My own history of spinal trauma and poor health left me with the rare gift to discern which chiropractic methods worked best for me, and I developed a passion to master what I benefited from as a patient. I studied with the best possible mentors, and certified in their work, like NETWORK CHIROPRACTIC with Dr. Donny Epstein, CLINICAL KINESIOLOGY/TBM with Dr. Vic Frank, ACUPUNCTURE/TCM with Dr. Richard Yennie, and BIOLOGICAL TERRAIN MANAGEMENT with Dr Tim Ray.

Regardless of methods, as a Chiropractor, I want to know what the body knows, and I want to adjust only what the body suggests. The body, through breath, movement, pulses, and reflexes, and by measurements of blood, urine and saliva, reveals its fundamental needs and possible remedies. The body speaks a wise language and by answering its call we amplify the body’s primal drive to self-heal, often radically.  After 27 years in practice, no matter the patient concern, the clinical priority remains to optimize the patient’s self-healing, with methodical focus on delivering spinal adjustments as the best possible catalyst to self-healing.

In the presence of distress, chronic pain, and illness, I get to adjust people back into their power with Chiropractic.

Contact info: 

drchristosbalis@gmail.com

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