Dr. Edward Wagner: Holistic healer
He blends chiropractic, homeopathy,
and naturopathy into a spa-like setting.
By Todd Stumpf • Photos by Vander Gallo

Is it a clinic or is it a spa? Patients may wonder when they first enter Wagner Chiropractic Holistic Clinic, in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

Make no mistake: Although his patients' experiences are usually unlike those of most other chiropractic patients, they get full chiropractic care. Dr. Edward D. Wagner, owner and director of the $1.1 million clinic, makes sure their healing is holistic.

Wagner’s is a 28-year-old, integrated healthcare practice, with no medical doctor. The practice specializes in chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy, nutrition, kinesiology, essential oils, and crystal massage. With its various services and treatments, the practice has the feel of a spa rather than a doctor’s office.

And the patients treat it that way, too. An average visit lasts several hours. Nobody simply comes in, gets adjusted, and leaves.

“They get a complete health package,” Wagner says. “That way they don’t have to come as often. We can deal with most problems once a week, or even once a month. It’s not uncommon for a person to come in and spend $500, then not come back for three or four weeks, rather than spend $50 three times a week for several weeks.

“In L.A. people don’t want to come very often. I’ve had to change my practice this way. A long time ago you could drive across the town in 45 minutes. Now the freeways are gridlocked all the time. The traffic is so bad that I had to evolve and change my practice. So the office is more like a spa, a complete nutrition health spa.”

So Club Med-like is the feel of the practice that patients frequently fly in from out of town and spend several days there getting various treatments. Wagner regaled of a woman who spent a week at the clinic, undergoing multiple procedures all day, every day. “When she left,” Wagner says, “her condition was 80 percent better than it had been for eight years.”

PHONE CONSULTS AN OPTION

For those who can’t afford the airfare (or cab fare) or don’t have time to fight freeway traffic, Wagner spends three hours a day doing phone consultations, which he bills as regular office visits. He does five or six an hour and estimates he might “treat” 15 people on a busy day, all over the phone.

He analyzes patients’ symptoms, reviews their charts, and talks to them about how to treat themselves, either through changes in nutrition, adding exercise, or performing a maneuver they can do themselves. He may also suggest a homeopathic remedy.

“They love it,” he says. “I get people who think they can’t get better. They call me on the phone. They’ve been to chiropractors; they’ve been to [medical] doctors; they’ve been to hospitals. Because I’ve been doing this for so long, I can often figure out the problem during the consultation. I suggest a program to do. I might refer them to a certain kind of chiropractor in their area. Usually they’ll get better.”

The one thing a telephone consultation can’t do, however, is provide the experience of visiting the clinic. Those who have the time to come in for treatment benefit from a variety of traditional and nontraditional treatment styles.

A patient is likely to see Wagner himself, as well as all of the other staff practitioners during a single visit. That includes naturopath, homeopath, and nutritionist, David Elliot; applied kinesiologist, Eric Foster; massage therapist and hot crystal massage specialist, Angela Douglas; and B.E.S.T. (bio-energetic synchronization technique, a non-forceful technique aimed at balancing all the systems of a body) specialist Jeanne Lupypciw.

“We all literally work together,” Wagner says. “A lot of clinics with a lot of doctors share patients, but they’re not really that involved [in total care]. Each doctor focuses on his or her specialty. Here, though, we work together.

“I will do an initial evaluation, for instance. Let’s say I find an old stress deep in the body rather than an injury. I’ll refer to our practitioner who does a certain technique, or we’ll move the patient into another room and do a B.E.S.T treatment, a homeopathic scan, kinesiological balance, an essential oil, or a crystal massage. We all talk to each other while the patient is there, not separately. So the patient feels we’re all together. It’s not just an adjustment. Most of our patients don’t get just an adjustment.”

Far from it. During the course of a visit a person typically experiences multiple services, and Wagner says when patients leave, they are different.

Patients might experience a spinal rehabilitation machine, a computerized posture pump, a vertebral distraction pump, an electro-dermal screening, electro acupuncture, a synergy machine (which reduces the appearance of cellulite), a renaissance machine (which applies computerized electronic facials), a cold laser for balancing electrical frequencies of the body, or a hot crystal massage.

Crystal massages and essential oil treatments were instituted in the practice a few years ago and have basically replaced more traditional massages because of patient demand.

“Almost every spa in the United States does hot rock massage,” Wagner says, again making the comparison to a luxury health club. “In our system, we heat crystals, such as amethyst and quartz, not just dull rocks. Then we apply special essential oils to the body and massage the body with these hot crystals. The effect is profound.”

Wagner says that with nearly every patient, a complete program of treatment usually includes all of the practitioners.

Wagner emphasizes that his clinic aims to change people’s lives, much of it through behavioral change.

“When you see my patients a year after treatment, they look 10 years younger. They’re trimmer; they’re happier; they’re healthier.”

His real success secret: Knowing his patients “inside and out.” “You’ll never heal them unless you go through their whole life,” he says.

Todd Stumpf is a freelance writer. He can be reached at tstumpf22@yahoo.com.