I believe that it is important for me to describe to you why I have chosen the path I’ve taken for my practice, as well as for my life today. My story begins with a decision I made to start an alternative health care route by enrolling in Chiropractic College. While a student, it became clear to me that things were occurring in my family’s health care program which were not congruent with my blossoming belief system regarding health care.

My mother who was employed by a medical doctor was doing things to her body which were not healthy, and which I knew would lead her down a path of illness and probably even an early death. I encouraged her to make changes in her health care choices, but unfortunately my recommendations fell on deaf ears and these practices were continued for another fifteen years.

Fast forward fifteen years and my mother was now suffering from chronic pain. Unbeknownst to me, she coped with this by beginning to use pain killers which were plentiful and procured easily from the sample closet in the doctor’s office where she worked. One morning, I got the call that my mother had died of a massive heart attack. She had been examined by a cardiologist about two months earlier at my urging after she had casually mentioned to me that she was experiencing some “mild chest pains”, but “they were nothing to worry about” and “not occurring too often”.

By the way, mom wasn’t overweight; she exercised regularly and ate a “healthy” diet and was only 69 years old. At her funeral people were shocked and I heard many explain how “she always looked SO healthy”.
Fast forward five more years to more events which moved me further toward my current position on heath and wellness.

My mother-in-law, a long time patient of mine, begins having some upper respiratory symptoms. She is diagnosed with “bronchitis”.

These symptoms lingered, to the point that she came into my office to be adjusted and had to prop herself up on her elbows in order to breathe. That was enough for me. Although the chest x-ray she had done about one month prior showed “nothing”, I recommended that she have a C.T. scan of her chest. She went to the hospital that day for the test. That afternoon they admitted her due to the findings of that scan. They then drained the fluid which had accumulated around her heart and lungs. They also had taken some “biopsies while they were in there”. My immediate response was “biopsies of what?” It turns out that these biopsies indicated that my mother-in-law had inoperable late stage, small cell carcinoma in her lungs and throughout her thoracic cavity. Seven short weeks later, the entire family huddled around her as she took her last breath.

By the way, my mother-in-law never smoked a cigarette in her life, and took three mile bike rides daily.

The next person who clarified my focus as to where I was heading in my health care journey was my wife Liane. Following her mother’s death Liane developed a number of health concerns.

Following these experiences it became crystal clear to me that I must immerse myself in the study of nutrition and all of the other components of wellness and holistic healthcare. My focus became wellness and functional nutrition, identifying toxicities and deficiencies before they can manifest themselves as “disease”. My focus is no longer placing a label on a symptom or a group of symptoms and attempting to eliminate them. It is to compensate for imbalances in the human ecosystem and provide the necessary components to assist that system to move towards homeostasis or balance. These components may be nutritional or structural. They may involve exercise, certain body motions, and education regarding the personal outlook on ones self, environment, or others. The paradigm I follow and teach involves the imparting of knowledge and information regarding lifestyle changes to assist your body in reaching balance. This is my story, I hope it helps you to understand how my life experiences have helped to shape who I am now and what I profess. This is a journey and I realize that the more I read, study, and learn, the more I need to. I am truly a neophyte in the world of health and wellness, not so much because I haven’t spent years studying and learning, but because there is so much more to learn.

In my more than twenty years in Chiropractic practice I was able to help many patients to become healthier. But I also saw many chiropractic patients dying much younger that they should have from such things as cancer, heart disease, and the complications of diabetes. I decided that I had to do more for my patients, to help them to live longer healthier lives. This maturation came from personal health crises with my mother, mother-in-law, and my wife. Knowing that I could have and should have done more was frustrating. Also knowing that there was no one else in my area who was able to help in a truly holistic way forced me to make the decision to immerse myself in studies of holistic healthcare and nutritional wellness.

“This is my joyful obligation to you, to my community and to society.”

“Yours in Health”

Dr. Pfeiffer