Palmer West alum discusses chiropractic neurology on PBS’ 'Healing Quest'

December 23, 2010 — Palmer College of Chiropractic West Campus alumnus Robert Adams, DC, was recently featured on the PBS program “Healing Quest,” which, according to the show’s website, “is the only weekly national television series focused on the latest in integrative health and natural approaches in wellness.”   

Adams’ segment on the program, which debuted in 2003, and is now broadcast on more than 100 PBS stations throughout the U.S., as well as nearly a dozen broadcast networks around the world, focused on his work in the field of chiropractic neurology, and how he is utilizing this technique to help children with learning disabilities reduce their dependency on pharmaceutical drugs.

Adams has maintained a practice with his father, Davenport graduate James Adams, DC, in Sonoma, Calif., since graduating from Palmer’s West Campus 23 years ago.

One of Adam’s current patients knows one of the “Healing Quest” producers, who contacted him to discuss a segment on chiropractic. When Adams mentioned his success in utilizing chiropractic neurology as a means by which to help children with learning disabilities, the producer decided to make this the focus of the segment, which was one of the stories featured in the episode originally broadcast the last week of November.

Adams, who earned his diplomate from the American College of Chiropractic Neurology in 1993, says the ability to precisely adjust certain areas of the nervous system without drugs is a major advantage of chiropractic.

By providing parents of ADD-afflicted children with a powerful, natural alternative, Adams has had many young patients referred to him by teachers throughout Sonoma who are interested in learning about how to deal with learning challenges without using pharmaceuticals.

“The nervous systems in these kids are phenomenal; they’re just waiting for some help, they’re trying to get stimulated,” says Adams in the segment.
“The paradox here is that you have a child with hyperactivity, yet the typical medical model (in treating ADD) is to do what? To give them medications, which are amphetamines, to slow them down. Instead of taking a medication that affect both sides of the brain, which affects everything, you want to target the area of the brain that’s deficient, to bring it up to higher frequency of firing, so it won’t inhibit itself.”

In addition to focusing on Adams’ specific work in helping children with learning disabilities through his “Brain Back Body” neurotechology focused exercise program (www.theneurotechnologies.com), he also promotes chiropractic as an effective way for patients to maintain a strong immune system, and cites the results of a study by the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York, which showed that patients who’d been adjusted monthly for five years had 200 percent better immuno-competence than the average person, and 400 percent better than sick people.

Four hours of filming in Adams’ office resulted in the 6:56 segment on the program, whose trio of hosts include singer Olivia Newton-John, and which also features weekly advice from alternative medicine proponent Dr. Deepak Chopra. Adams, a former Eagle Scout who has served as a Sonoma-area Scoutmaster for 12 years, gives the producers a “thumbs-up” for their final edited report.

“My primary motivation for agreeing to take part was to use this national stage as way to help promote chiropractic, not to promote me,” said Adams, a third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, who served as ASG treasurer during his days as a West Campus student, and also was a two-time West Campus delegate at the World Congress of Chiropractic Students (WCCS).

“I think it’s a nice presentation, and it shows that as doctors of chiropractic, we’re more than just musculoskeletal specialists,” said Adams, past president of the California Chiropractic Association North Bay Society, from which he received “Doctor of the Year” Honors in 1995.

To learn more about the “Healing Quest” program, go to: www.healingquest.tv. To see the “Healing Quest” segment with Dr. Adams, go to the program’s YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IZ4-bnf_2U.

Source: Palmer College of Chiropractic, www.palmer.edu