Atlas Spinal Care

I’ve been going to Atlas since about November 2010. I went because I was beginning to develop serious back pain, to the point where I couldn’t go more than a few hours at my desk at a time without having to break for a 5 – 20 minute stretch. Really uncomfortable.
Also, I’ve had these joint «flare ups» — diagnosed previously as a form of arthritis — for years that seemingly occurred at random for 1 – 3 days in my wrists, knees, elbows, shoulders and ankles. My family doctor concluded that these were likely the result of past traumas which seemed to make sense to me. Unfortunately, the only course of action he would recommend was Tylenol 3, which didn’t make sense to me.
So, I started seeing Dr. Tayal at Atlas with the hopes of finding some sort of solution that didn’t involve pills.
First I feel I should say Dr. Tayal is a good friend of mine, so I’ll try to stay away from the «he’s a really good guy» stuff and focus more on the actual results of my experience at Atlas.
As a result of being a buddy of mine, Dr. Tayal had been hearing about my issues with my personal healthcare and was sensitive to my hang ups. One of those hang ups was my worry that he was going to hurt me the way many doctors before had.
I was happy to find out that he practices NUCCA, which is a low-​force technique. That means exactly what it sounds like it means, there’s no discomfort and definitely no pain involved, which was GOOD news to me.
I went twice a week for the first few weeks and then cut it down to once a week for a bit and now I’m going once or twice a month.
After a couple of visits my back pain was gone. It still gets a little tight if I put myself in bad posture for hours (ie working on my laptop from the couch) but even then, it’s no where close to what it was. If I keep myself in a good position most of the day I can rely on not having back pain.
My joint flare ups are gone too. I noticed this pretty much right away and I was writing about it in my recommendation of Dr. Tayal on linkedin when I realised I was starting to get them again. In fact, I was getting them almost once a week, which is a lot for me. Then I thought for a second and realised I hadn’t actually gone in for an adjustment for a couple of months. So I started going again (like I said, about once or twice a month now) and they’re gone again. Pretty cool.
Our goal is get me down to once a season. I think if I had just stayed the course from the beginning and hadn’t taken a two month break I probably would have been there. Anyway, we’ll see, I’ll update this as I continue my healthcare here.
Something else to note, between this and yoga I feel much more in-​tune with my body. I feel like I can understand the messages it’s sending me and I’m starting to learn that things that happen in my body aren’t random as I originally thought, but always a result of a root cause. This is helping me transition (albeit slowly) into a healthier, happier person, which is good because I’m sort of getting old. Plus, I’m learning chicks dig a dude who knows how to be healthy…