story and photo by Lane Maguire

Washing her hair was almost impossible, sitting up straight was difficult, writing was painful and so was just about every other action that required movement from her right shoulder. After suffering months of pain, unable to compete in her softball season, senior Rachel Tovar finds relief from a chiropractor.

“I cried,” Tovar said. “I literally cried in front of this woman I didn’t even know. I cried because it didn’t hurt anymore.”

Yet, one problem remains for Tovar. How will she explain this to her parents? According to Tovar, her parents are skeptics of chiropractic medicine due to past negative experiences with the practice. Knowing this, Tovar, recently turned 18 years old, paid the $75 for her first chiropractic session herself using money she’d saved up from waitressing, without parental consent.

Tovar’s parents are not the only skeptics. From its establishment in 1895, chiropractic medicine has been an issue of contention because of the lack of scientific evidence to support the practice. It was dismissed by early medical scientists as “witchcraft and quackery,” according to the Yale Journal of Medicine and Law. Chiropractic medicine is based on the practice of correcting misalignment in the spine to restore the health of the nervous system. The Journal also states that even today chiropractic medicine is not considered a “legitimate form of allopathic medical treatment” by the American Medical Association.

“I think what most people have an issue about it is how it’s not 100% evidence-based medicine like Western medicine is,” STA trainer Lisa Gross said. “When you go see an MD, you know if he writes you a prescription, this prescription has been tested for however many years before it is approved by the FDA. That establishes a trust in it. Chiropractic medicine is not that black and white. There are going to be more gray areas and there’s no cook-book remedy.”

Due to her parents’ personal beliefs about chiropractic medicine, Tovar was skeptical at first about the idea of visiting a chiropractor. When she first sustained the injury to her shoulder at softball practice, Tovar had an x-ray, to ensure that nothing was broken or fractured, and an MRI, to address a possible labrum tear. No obvious problems were detected in either. She met with both an occupational and physical therapist. The only conclusion was that the muscles on the right side of her torso were inflamed.

During this time, Tovar also met with Gross. Gross tried Kinesio taping, which is used to try to support the muscles so they can relax and heal. According to Gross, this was unsuccessful because the muscles were still too inflamed. Gross then tried active release therapy and graston therapy, both soft tissue system-based techniques. According to Gross, these techniques were successful, yet limited. Gross recommended her own personal chiropractor, Dr. Koko Husain, owner of Star Chiropractic Family Clinic, to Tovar.

“Ultimately, when it came down to it, I don’t have the specialized training and education that a chiropractor does and she needed to go see this chiropractor herself just to really get better faster,” Gross said.

According to the Star Chiropractic Family Clinic website, “The chiropractic approach to better health is to remove interferences to your own inborn healing ability.” After researching the clinic and Husain’s credentials, Tovar agreed with Gross that visiting the chiropractor would be beneficial.

“The way the trainer explained Koko, in my head I summed up as ‘She’s magical,’ although she said it in in a lot more analytical terms and she gave me all of her credentials and she told me this woman was probably my best option,” Tovar said.

Husain diagnosed Tovar with scapular dyskinesia, an alteration in the normal position of the scapula. Husain used manual manipulation to restore Tovar’s scapula to the proper position. She then used electrical impulses, which according to Gross are used to reset the surrounding muscles so that they will communicate clearly and not in a compromised state. After this one chiropractic session, Tovar experienced increased mobility in her arm and less pain.

Although the controversy remains, chiropractic medicine has become one of the most popular forms of alternative medicine, according to the Yale Medical Journal. Furthermore, a growing body of research is attempting to prove the effectiveness of chiropractic medicine in treating some ailments.

“[My parents] want me to be healthy,” Tovar said. “They really do just want the best for me and that’s why they’re so adamant on me seeing a doctor. I’m sure I will tell them [about seeing the chiropractor]. I’m not going to keep it from them. I’m sure they will be really, really, really mad that I went and did this but I think at the end of the day they will just be glad that I’m better.”