I am including this biography because I want you to understand that I personally know how hard it is to live and work with pain – that’s why I became a doctor that focuses on natural health rather than a medical doctor.

Before I became a Doctor, I worked with my hands for a living...

Doctors were a part of my life growing up. I was always sick as a kid and a teenager; I could count on having a cold or the flu every 2-3 months as regular as clockwork. It didn’t stop me from doing things like water skiing, hiking, and playing racquetball, but it did make everything much more difficult.

During high school I worked summers in Alaska, up on the North Slope, as an oil spill containment specialist. One day, trying to grab an out of control fire hose on an oilrig, I disabled my back, and became unemployable for the summer. Repeating what I’d learned as a child, I immediately went to a medical doctor, who was unable to help me.

The U.S. Army was my next adventure. I learned two things there: one was how to use my hands to fix helicopters and electronic weapon systems; and two, was that I needed more education if I was ever going to do anything else. After my honorable discharge, I became a “field engineer” for a national office supply company. A field engineer is a fancy name for a “repair guy”, who drives around in a van all day fixing and moving office machines.

 

Most of my days as a field engineer were spent driving from office to office in Anchorage, Alaska, and later Olympia, Washington. One day, while driving in Olympia, I was rear-ended in my work vehicle, an accident so severe that it totaled both vehicles. I was in terrible pain; my back and neck hurt so badly I could barely move. But after a few days of recovery, a ton of aspirin and Ben Gay, I went back to work (even though I was hurting) just to keep my boss happy and mainly to protect my job.

Eight months later I was in another accident, rear-ended again. This time, I was smashed while stopped on the freeway.  I couldn’t overcome the pain to keep working, so I started visiting back specialists under the state’s Workmen Compensation Program. The pain became so intense – I couldn’t work, I couldn’t even walk across a room.  I became sedentary (a couch potato), and gained 50 pounds. I was a mess and I couldn’t understand why all these doctors couldn’t help me.

Since I couldn’t work, I decided to go back to school.  After two years of attending a local college, I transferred to Western Washington University to study biology and chemistry.  As a PRE-MED major, I was determined to accomplish two things: first, to study hard and keep my grades up to get into medical school; second, to get my health and life back. I just wanted the pain to go away and I was willing to try anything.

 

While I was attending college, the doctors continued to try to figure out what to do with my back. If there’s a procedure that requires you to be poked, pinched, or stuck with a needle, I’ve had it.  Multiple MRIs, Myelograms (the replacement of spinal fluid with dye – you’re sick for a week), x-ray after x-ray, one specialist after another. Every doctor said the same thing – "We’ll need to do a few more tests, just be patient."

Patient - I’d been patient! All I wanted was some relief! After every treatment, my condition seemed to get worse; as long as I didn’t move I was fine, but if I tried to walk, I was in intense pain. It made walking to class very difficult, but once I got there I felt fine. Sitting didn’t hurt; as a matter of fact, it was the only time I wasn’t hurting. I guess the ONLY good thing that came of all the unnecessary medical treatment I received was that it forced me to sit still in the library and study – day after day.

 

Finally, the medical doctors decided the only thing to do was to cut me open to repair a herniated disk in my lower back (L5-S1). After the operation and weeks of recovery – guess what? My condition was even worse. Since I’ve become a doctor, I’ve learned that the medical doctors completely misdiagnosed my condition. I didn’t have a herniated disk; I have a condition known as Facet Syndrome...

 

A friend offers me an alternative treatment - Chiropractic...

Now, I’d been treated like an experimental lab rat for three years, had my back cut open, and I still couldn’t walk across a room without being in intense pain. A friend of mine suggested I go see their family Chiropractor. After my first treatment, I was in for the surprise of my life.

In two weeks I was walking PAIN FREE, for the first time in over three years. What an army of medical doctors, over $50,000 in treatments, and unneeded surgery couldn’t do - a Chiropractor had accomplished in a few short weeks. I still needed many months of treatments to correct all the damage from the accidents and the other doctors, but I was pain free and I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Now I was ready to graduate from college with a pre-med degree, with grades and test scores high enough to get into any medical school I wanted, but what type of medicine should I practice?

I thought about this extensively, and after a while the answer was very clear. I had a simple choice - either help people stay healthy with preventative care, or to treat them like an insurance claim number and only work with them after they were sick.  The choice was easy...

 

Utilizing chiropractic training to learn about the human frame and combining all my pre-med, biology, and chemistry knowledge to learn about nutrition, I could really become the “Doctor of the Future” as predicted by Thomas Edison 100 years ago. I chose to become a Chiropractic Physician, and I’ve never regretted it.

Today I’m the luckiest man on earth. I’m married to the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met, I have two beautiful sons, I operate the most comprehensive Integrated Health Care Facility in the valley, and I get to do what I love every day, helping people become healthy.  As a patient, I figure you want what I wanted when I was hurt....You want to get fixed right and you don't want to wait around.  Natural first and drugs last (or surgery last) is my philosophy.  I hope it's yours too.

The following information is what the medical boards use for a doctor's qualifications – I think the biographical information you just read is what really qualifies me to understand your needs as a natural healing physician.