Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Bringing Chiropractic Care to the Crow and Fayette County

By Ellie White-Stevens

In the last few weeks the Crow Nation Pow-wow brought crowds to the reservation. They came for food, for native dancing and for chiropractic care. Local chiropractor, Dr. Elliott Segal and his wife Linda Segal, a nurse, were part of a mission team from the Christian Chiropractor's Association.

"Local Crow churches invited the association to bring a team. It was an opportunity to minister, to pray for them. We prayed God touched them spiritually as we provided chiropractic care," said Dr. Segal.

This was the Segal's third formal chiropractic missions trip. On a previous trip to Panama, Dr. Segal saw three to four hundred patients each day. "It's invigorating. It's the greatest high you can have. My passion is missions. If I could do anything 24 hours, all the time, I would be a full time chiropractic missionary."

Fortunately for Fayetteville, where the Segals live and work, they recently returned to business as usual, providing chiropractic care for Fayette County through Lighthouse Chiropractic.

A chiropractor for 25 years, Dr. Segal has both had a local practice and taught at Life University, his alma mater. He believes that much of his goal is to educate the public on what chiropractic care is.

"To me chiropractic is a spiritual healing art with a physical application," shares Segal. He continues, "Who made the body? God. There is a supreme wisdom placed within each one of us that knows precisely what the body needs. This runs, controls, orchestrates and heals our bodies. We call this wisdom innate intelligence."

In the physical application, Dr. Segal aligns the spine to a place where the body can function as intended. Segal, like other chiropractors, often utilizes tools like x-rays to see where a spine may be out of alignment. There is a physical evaluation, including other tests, like one to see whether each leg bears equal weight or not. The problems he may find are called "subluxations." Those are places where misalignment would interfere with signals from the brain to the body.

Subluxations, explains Segal, commonly cause problems with muscles in the back, like sciatica or backaches. But what many don't know is that subluxations also cause problems in the autonomic nervous system. That's what controls internal organs, the circulation system, even the skin.

Segal tells of one patient he had many years a go. A baby of three years, she had skin eczema so severe that her backside and thighs were raw, peeling, and painful. Beside themselves, her parents tried every kind of medical treatment they could find. They turned to chiropractic care. Dr. Segal adjusted the little girl, whose subluxations were interfering with signals to her skin and circulation, and her eczema cleared up, never to return.

It's not magic. It's chiropractic care.

"We allow the patient's own innate body wisdom to dictate how, where and when we adjust the nerve system. We don't superimpose our man-made limitations on our patients. We don't have to force a patient into a pre-designed treatment plan, but rather we accept the patient where he or she is, and simply respond to the unique need of that person. It's a very liberating way to live and practice," says Segal.

Segal gives patients detailed packets about care. He's quick to let people know that adjustments are painless and effective in getting the body to function optimally.

Lighthouse Chiropractic patients like Keri Carruthers of Fayetteville concur. Carruthers said, "Low thyroid, anemia, fatigue, sinus and allergy problems and neck painall gone. And I have the blood work to prove it. Don't tell me chiropractic doesn't work. You're too late!

And if you're still skeptical, I couldn't get pregnant for years, until my body started working right. I'll be having my baby in about two months."

For more information on chiropractic care, to schedule an appointment or to inquire about upcoming seminars, call Lighthouse Chiropractic at 770-460-6700.

children I encounter at grade schools and at church, and with my own children.