Why See Us?

Ren Halverson

Dr Halverson began his experience with chiropractic as a patient after falling from a roof in the early 70s. He landed on his feet, able to roll instead of experiencing the full compression to his spine had he been unable to do so. He seriously injured his lower back, but was fortunate not to break his back or rupture any discs. He was unable to feel his legs for several minutes after the fall but sensation gradually returned, and he completed the shingle job, thinking he was OK. The next morning he was unable to get out of bed unassisted and went to his family MD, who examined him and then referred him to a chiropractor. ” My recollection is that I was carried into the office, knowing absolutely nothing about chiropractic, and walked out an hour later on without help. I was a believer from then on.” That was also my first experience with neuropathy, although I had experienced back pain in varying degrees since a car accident occurred at the age of 8. It was never excrutiating so I never complained about it, I guess I thought it was normal. Before the fall I flipped my motorcycle going over a high speed jump, causing me to land on my helmet, I had neck discomfort and increasing stiffness that increased over the next few days, with intense headaches, numbness in my fingers at night and arm weakness. Those symptoms eventually decreased with massage and acupressure treatments, but i knew nothing about chiropractic then. After receiving adjustments after the fall, I was amazed! The neck adjustments were very effective and my entire spine felt less pain and looser than I could ever remember. Why hadn’t I been told about this stuff?   Also I was training in martial arts and couldn’t come close to attaining a side split, no matter how often I stretched. Only a few months after beginning adjustments, I was able to do almost a full split. Because I was taught about cause and effect within biomechanics from the doctors I was treated by, it was logical that the improvements took place, but I was stunned at how quickly I improved. I only wish I knew about the profession as a child, but better late than never.

Dr Halverson played 3 sports in high school; football, hockey and track, and then played lacrosse and track in college. The science of athletic development and training was not nearly what it is now back in the 70s, and very few if any colleges or pro teams in any sport used chiropractic as part of the training and treatment regimens. Having seen first hand the personal improvement in strength and flexibility from his experience, and having been introduced to the US karate team doctor who was a DC, he decided to work with as many athletes as possible once he began professional school in 1978. Early on he became friends with all pro kicker Tim Mazetti, of the Atlanta Falcons. Tim had typical biomechanical stress from the soccer style kicking motion, and would ask to get his hips aligned periodically. The results were quite dramatic in increasing power to the leg swing, adding effective distance. Soon other members of the team asked for adjustments for their particular situations, and were please with the results. Dr Halverson also worked on several members of the US karate team, a professional tennis player, several top distance runners and professional kickboxers, and created a systematic program of treatment in 3 essential phases, get the individual out of acute pain to enable them to begin rehabilitative deep tissue work with therapy and various massage techniques.When symptoms were no longer the prime issue, then incorporate beginning to advanced stretching and strengthening of the injured areas. He used his experience in martial arts as both student and instructor as well as knowledge of acupressure which all senior karate students learn before they begin teaching as the foundation to formulate this approach.  Prevention has long been part of the chiropractic philosophy, Dr Halverson simply added his spin and stressed exercise perhaps more than the norm.  Now, every professional team in the NFL, NBA, MLB (baseball), and MLS (soccer) along with every Olympic team in the world has a chiropractor on the medical training staff.  Also all divisions/colleges have DC’s for their athletes, both to treat injuries and to prevent them.  Biomechanics is as important as stretching and weight training for athletes today.

In the mid eighties Dr Halverson was invited to join the workers comp staff at the General Motors 24,000 employee plant in Doraville, Ga. He worked with MDs and therapists and furthered his experience working on a variety of conditions including carpel tunnel syndrome, low and mibback pain and weakness,shoulder injuries and other overuse syndrome conditions. The opportunity to work with excellent therapists added to the ability to successfully treat tramatic injurys with faster resolution response. When he relocated from Atlanta to the Ga coast, he opened six clinics in various areas and became one of the busiest chiropractors in the state. He routinely saw over 100 new patients monthly in his home office in Bruswick alone.

One condition that was difficult to treat with predictable success was peripheral neuropathy, especially if the etiology was non spine related, such as post chemo therapy or diabetes. Although he had treated many post operative patients that remained symptomatic after surgery following referrals from medical doctors, and gained positive results from combining chiropractic and deep tissue massage with other therapies, diabetic neuropathy proved very difficult because the damage to the nerves was caused from blood sugar imbalance. And likewise post chemo neuropathy resulted from the side effects of strong medications. That all changed drastically once neuropathyDR came into being.

“Once I had the opportunity to speak with Dr Hayes, who I’d heard good things about relating to his consulting work, I was excited about the potential to help more patients regardless of the cause of the neuropathy symptoms with this proven regimen. After hearing the high degree of success using the protocol, I decided to immediately become trained in the program. After several years and hundreds of successful treatments with patients who had previously tried everything, and failed, I`m glad I did. Most of these patients believed they would never get better, and many not only were getting worse, their lives were altered to the extent that they could no longer work, drive, even walk more than a few steps and then experienced Great results. Dr Hayes has combined nutrititional and therapeutic protocols that are changing lives worldwide, and we have seen that firsthand in our clinic.”  Our clinic was one of the very first in the country, and the first in Georgia to become certified NeuropathyDR Offices.

The work that our therapy director, Michael Abbott does for our patients is also phenominally effective. He has master certification in Dr Dalton`e neuromuscular therapy, which is world renowned and represents the cutting edge in deep tissue therapy today. Michael has also extensively studied several other excellent approaches, and was an instructor at a well respected Kentucky medical massage school, as well as therapist for an excellent integrated clinic. The synergy of these combined protocols produces great success previously unheard of for neuropathy sufferers. Cold laser therapy is also very productive in treating neuropathy conditions, including sciatica, and TMJ related facial conditions and migraines.

“The key to success is using therapy that works, having a definite game plan in place, and going step by step to attain desired patient outcomes” That`s what we`re all about”, he said.