My Early Passion Was Music

My earliest passion was for music. I played trumpet in the High School band, participated in All-Star bands, and received scholarships to Music Camps.

After graduating from Benton Harbor High School, I joined a local rock group. We played music primarily on the weekends and this helped to pay for my college education at Michigan State University. After completing my studies at Michigan State, I moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and studied music at Berklee College of Music. While in Boston, I played music 6 nights a week in a Chicago-style Horn Band. Our group was very popular and we had the opportunity to back up many groups including: James Taylor, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Sha Na Na.

My First Chiropractic Adjustment

I can still remember my first contact with a chiropractor. I was 23 years old and experiencing lower back and leg pain as the result of a weight-lifting injury. After many months of pain pills and muscle relaxers, I finally took my father's advice and made an appointment to see his chiropractor.

After conducting a thorough examination and taking X-rays, the chiropractor clearly explained to me that I was experiencing a vertebral subluxation. At the time, I had no idea what that meant. I only knew that if l wasn't careful, or moved the wrong way, that l very quickly received an excruciating jolt of pain in my lower back and leg that literally brought me to my knees. It was the worst pain I had ever experienced.

I can still remember sitting in front of the X-ray view box and looking at my crooked spine as the doctor explained that a subluxation was a misalignment of the spine. He further explained that spinal subluxations can cause nerve pain, muscle spasm, numbness, weakness, and a whole host of other symptoms relating to the spine, nervous system, and rest of the body. I remember at the time being both skeptical and fascinated, but also in too much pain to doubt him.

Needless to say, over the next few weeks, the skepticism quickly passed as I came to earn a great deal of respect for chiropractors. It took only a few chiropractic treatments to relieve my lower back pain. The leg pain was more stubborn, but within three weeks, I was completely pain-free. Then there were the other things that unexpectedly improved.

As a teenager, I had begun experiencing a burning pain in my chest. I can still remember the family doctor telling me, “That's nothing; don’t worry about it.” But I did worry about it as the pain continued. It was only years later that I learned I was experiencing heartburn. However, even though I never mentioned the heartburn to the chiropractor, it completely went away once I began chiropractic care. Apparently, this was related to my spine, too.

I had also been experiencing tension headaches, which I thought were from excessive reading and studying at college. The headaches also went away once l began chiropractic care.

Then there was the nagging numbness in my hands. This symptom also went away completely and never returned. And I can truly say that after turning to chiropractic, I just felt better all over ~ more energetic, and with a clearer mind.

Needless to say, it was not too many months later that I decided to drop my current program of study at Western Michigan University and apply to the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. I was accepted in 1976 and earned my Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degree in 1980.