One of the things you’ll notice when you visit Bryan Chiropractic Center in Olympia is the office motto: “Do What You Love, Love What You Do,” on the wall in the bright and comfortable reception area. This attitude of cheerful service is apparent from the first time you walk through the door and meet Gina, the longtime receptionist and Kris, the doctor’s wife and office manager.
Dr. Bryan is energetic and friendly because he is passionate about helping people and about natural health and healing. This warm and healing environment is evident in the chiropractic care, massage therapy, corrective exercise instruction and other services offered at the clinic.
When Mark Bryan graduated with this chiropractic degree in 1986, the primary cause of back and neck pain was trauma. Car accidents and work-related injuries were some of the most common causes of visits to a chiropractor. Although chiropractic care continues to offer safe and effective treatment for traumatic injuries, today, the chiropractic community has noticed a dramatic increase in the number of patients that are seeking help for neck and back pain from a much more benign, yet pervasive reason: modern life.
“Our sedentary lifestyle has started to exceed injury as the primary cause of neck and back pain. Modern life has more emotional stress, a lot more chemical stress, and, unbelievably, more physical strain. Being sedentary causes a lack of proper muscular support and poor patterns of movement, so people end up with more mechanical pain in the form of postural strain and repetitive use injuries,” Dr. Bryan explains.
According to Dr. Bryan, a lot of medicine is stuck in an outdated mode of treating only the mechanical pain. In order to address the underlying causes of mechanical pain, Dr. Bryan embraces a holistic approach to chiropractic care. He believes that treating both the mechanical pain and its underlying causes promotes whole body healing, so he works with patients on three fronts: physical, chemical and mental.
“We are very patient-centered in our approach. I want to look beyond presenting symptoms to find the root of the pain. This means that we try and listen and evaluate our patients on multiple levels,” he said.
Level One: Physical
For example, if someone comes in with non-traumatic back pain, Dr. Bryan will first asses the patient with a movement screen. “A common pattern is that people tend to not move well in their hips, so they overload their back during activity. I’ll pick that up in the assessment screen,” he said. From there he may recommend adjustments, along with instruction in “Doctor Guided Home-Based Exercise Programs.” Exercise programs are doctor guided, because when you are compensating, you will need help with the learning process. His office has an entire room devoted to this and some of his preferred exercise tools include balance pads, gymballs, resistance bands and kettlebells. For example, there are over 42 different Kettlebell exercise variations and each of them incorporate unique balance and resistance challenges that promote neuromuscular learning. This is all part of the process of promoting independent rehabilitation. “Getting people involved in their recovery is good for them physically, mentally and emotionally,” he said.
Level Two: Chemical
The next area to evaluate is the chemical component. “What we see is that patient’s diets are high in carbohydrates, dairy, vegetable oils, fast foods and processed meat products. This diet leads to an increased inflammatory index, insulin resistance and oxidative stress. These biochemical changes lead to chronic inflammation, increased pain, degenerative health problems and weight gain,” said Dr. Bryan.
The definition of physician is “teacher.” Education about improving what we eat, in addition to manual treatment, helps detox the body and stimulate the metabolism, which improves healing while decreasing pain and inflammation. “If someone comes in for back pain and continues eating off the McDonald’s Value Menu, then it will be very difficult for the body to heal and avoid pain,” he adds.
Level Three: Mental or Emotional
The third focus of patient care is the emotional or mental component and may be the most difficult to tackle. Stress creates emotional imbalances, and stress seems to go hand-in-hand with the Modern American Lifestyle. “People often ask me how emotions can effect neck or back pain. I tell them that the fight or flight response is stimulated by stress and without a physical release these changes can lead to stress related illness. Stress can induce illness by over stimulating our nervous system that then changes the vascular system, digestive system and immune system, as well as our muscular function and movement. When stressed, people change their breathing patterns as well. We work with patients on an emotional level by physically relieving nerve stress with adjustments and then helping them to reduce stress by teaching breathing techniques and corrective exercises that work like biofeedback,” elaborated Dr. Bryan.
The team is committed to helping people naturally live their best lives, and it shows in the positive healing atmosphere in the office. Dr. Bryan’s goal for each patient is to work with them from the onset to maximize the doctor-patient relationship from evaluation and diagnosis to a diversity of treatments, including adjustments, soft tissue therapy, corrective exercise strategies, dietary advice and stress reduction techniques.
Dr. Bryan sums up by adding: “We work to get people moving well, eating well, and thinking well, so they can feel well and be well.”
2815 Yelm Highway SE
Olympia, WA 98501
360-456-8605
Services offered: Adjustments, manipulations, rehabilitative exercise, and massage therapy
