Dr. Thea Flock had not planned on becoming a chiropractor, but she hadn’t planned on hurting her back in nursing school either. After days of pain relievers providing little to no relief she decided to seek chiropractic help. Flock was so thrilled and impressed with the chiropractor’s results she decided to switch career goals. Thus, Thea Flock of Bolingbrook became the inventor of the “Flock Method,” which includes spinal decompression.Spinal decompression uses a machine to apply force that relieves nerve compression, which is usually the cause of lower back pain. Success with this idea led Flock to publish  "The Elimination of Pain the Natural Way," in order to tell inspirational tales of 35 back patients who could barely move before treatment, yet after six weeks of treatment they were going to dinner with their families. The book also outlines the reasons most medicines do not work, eight causes of back pain, the six warning signs of back pain, and an outline of how to solve back pains in just five weeks. Unfortunately many doctors do not encourage spinal decompression in their usual treatment plans. Bouncing from medicine to physical therapy and then proposing the idea of surgery is the usual order of events, and it doesn’t help that most insurance companies won’t cover spinal decompression treatments. But, this method is seen to have worked on many chronic back pain patients, who are finally conquering the pain after years of discomfort. And, although it’s not for everyone, such as children, osteoporosis or severe arthritis patients, or people where the disc has been worn to nothing, spinal decompression could be a great option for people who have suffered from chronic back and leg pain. (Denise M. Baran-Unland, Herald News, 7/11/08)