Good Neighbor Podcast: Cobb County

E76: The Healing Power of Chiropractic Care with Dr. Chris Rechter

• Milli M. & Dr. Chris Rechter • Episode 76

Share episode

Discover the surprising depth and breadth of modern chiropractic care with Dr. Chris Rechter, founder of HealthQuest Chiropractic and Spine Pain Solutions, a wellness center that has served the East Cobb Marietta community for over 25 years.

Dr. Rechter takes us on his personal journey from an engineering student at Penn State to a dedicated chiropractor who found his calling after experiencing the healing power of chiropractic care firsthand as a child athlete. His philosophy challenges the mechanistic view of the body, emphasizing instead the vital intelligence that flows through our nervous system. This perspective explains why chiropractic adjustments can benefit conditions seemingly unrelated to the spine—from ADHD and sleep disorders to recurring ear infections in children.

The conversation takes a compelling turn when Dr. Rechter shares his own humbling experience with a severe tennis injury that left him temporarily incapacitated. This personal health crisis became a professional turning point, leading him to discover and implement spinal decompression therapy that has since helped hundreds of patients avoid surgery for disc injuries, sciatica, and spinal stenosis. Beyond spinal care, HealthQuest offers a comprehensive approach including massage therapy, nutritional guidance, and innovative soft wave therapy that promotes tissue regeneration by recruiting stem cells to injured areas.

What truly sets HealthQuest apart isn't just their technical expertise but their relationship-centered approach to healthcare. As Dr. Rechter explains, "Our patients are like family," a philosophy that has built their practice through loyalty and referrals. Whether you're seeking relief from chronic pain, looking to avoid surgery, or simply want to optimize your overall wellness, this episode reveals how chiropractic care might be the missing piece in your health puzzle. Ready to explore a different approach to health that treats more than just symptoms? Tune in now and discover how supporting your body's natural healing abilities could transform your life.

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Millie M.

Speaker 2:

Hello everyone, Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, Millie M. Are you in need of chiropractic care, especially when it comes to disc injuries? Well, a chiropractor might be closer than you think. I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Dr Chris Riker of HealthQuest Chiropractic and Spine Pain Solutions. How are you, Dr?

Speaker 3:

Riker, hi Millie, great to be with you today. Thank you.

Speaker 2:

So excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us more about HealthQuest.

Speaker 3:

Awesome. So yeah, we are a busy wellness chiropractic center in East Cobb Marietta. We've been in business for over 25 years now, so we are established experts in the community and we specialize in the treatment, healing and prevention of musculoskeletal conditions and pain, as well as just general wellness and preventative care.

Speaker 2:

Tell me how you decided you wanted to be a chiropractor.

Speaker 3:

Okay, yeah, that's funny because the first thing I said as a child was I want to be a chiropractor and that's probably a rare thing to hear from a kid. But I had gone to my dad, took me to his chiropractor when I was playing football as a little kid and I had a knee injury that he took care of and got me back on the field, so just made a good impression on me. I guess that stuck with me. Over the years. I moved through some other thoughts and ideas of what to do and I came full circle. I started, I went to Penn State University and was an engineer there at the beginning and decided to change course and engineer the body. So I went to Life University, moved to Atlanta and went and got my doctorate in chiropractic there and decided to. I love the South and I set up here in Atlanta. And no, looking back, that's been 30 years ago. So that's my story.

Speaker 2:

I love that full circle moment because I often say that we, as adults, we try to move back to those things that we loved as children. So tell me about some myths or misconceptions about your industry or what you do in particular.

Speaker 3:

OK, yeah, sure. Well, I guess it really comes down to the chiropractic philosophy. You know we take a vitalistic approach to health rather than your traditional mechanistic view that the body is just a machine. We understand it's much more than a sum of its parts and more than a machine. It has this incredible innate intelligence that's running and programming and doing everything, and so that intelligence operates through the nervous system and that's why, as chiropractors, we put so much focus and really our care is directed at helping the nervous system.

Speaker 3:

We detect and correct what we call a subluxation and that's simply a biomechanical or nerve interference you can think of it that is disrupting how the body's functioning. So it has very broad body implications when you're talking about the nervous system. So, rather than the misconceptions, to answer your question, the body that the chiropractors just treat pain, you know. So we treat the nervous system and we treat the biomechanics and we the art of what we do and so many different ways and techniques to do that. But we make adjustments to the spine and to the joints of the body to remove interference, allow the body to function at peak levels so you can be your best and really has impact against helping virtually anything under the sun.

Speaker 2:

I think people forget that. You know, I think of a chiropractor and I'm just like, oh, he's going to crack my back. You don't think about the bones, but we forget about that nervous system and that spinal cord connection to where chiropractic care can help everything from I don't know ADHD to sleep issues, to weight. I even heard a chiropractor say like ear infections in kids, if they have a bunch of them, you might want to see about getting them adjusted.

Speaker 3:

A lot of people that are adults with us now. You know kids in college started as three year olds with ear infections, so you know that's. That's true. You're spot on. Probably the majority of our patients actually come in now after we've helped them maybe with a problem. They just are still under care to be healthier and to prevent other things. You never know what you're even going to prevent. So it's another. Spoke of the health wheel, right, like exercise and nutrition and sleep and your mental and spiritual practices, and they all enhance each other the more you do.

Speaker 2:

So chiropractic is a vital part of that health regimen yes, yes, I think that as well is a wheel that comprised of many different things. So who are your target customers and how do you reach them?

Speaker 3:

Well, let me tell you a quick story about me that lead into that, because one of our specialties is, as you mentioned in the opening there, disc problems and disc injuries and the related symptoms with that. And when I was in my mid-30ies much older than that now, in my fifties, but the I was playing tennis I'm an avid tennis player, still still love it and I was playing and I felt something just explode in my back and I didn't know what it was. I had managed to finish the match, but that night when I got home I bent over and it was like I got shot in the back and so I was laid out and it's pretty humbling as a chiropractor to have a back issue and said what is going on with me, you know, and through another friend who was a chiropractor, I discovered he treated me with a spinal decompression table and that got me back 100% and back to tennis and back to life and everything else. So I said I got to get this and so we became certified.

Speaker 3:

Our office, our doctors, became certified in spinal decompression and we've been offering that for 15 years now in the practice and helped hundreds of patients avoid surgery, get back on their feet, things not just low back pain, but radicular symptoms in the legs, numbness, tingling right Sciatica, spinal stenosis and like so we are become real expert in that and that's a great niche of ours. So if you have those types of problems, your listeners, we're a great solution, a long-term solution, better than going under the knife. So we're trying to avoid that and that's a great tool for us. Avoid that and that's a great tool for us.

Speaker 2:

Whatever we can do to avoid that, those invasive procedures. So have you ever thought about doing a podcast to spread the word on your specialty and, just, like I said, all of those additional benefits of chiropractic care that people may not know about?

Speaker 3:

Let's do it. Millie, that sounds good, let's do it. No, I haven't, but you know, maybe I'll have to consider that that's the way to go right now.

Speaker 2:

For sure, for sure. Talk to me a little bit about what you do for fun.

Speaker 3:

I'm sorry.

Speaker 2:

What do you do for fun? Well, I mentioned tennis.

Speaker 3:

So you know, I have a little my son. I have an eight-year-old son. He keeps us busy. My wife and I would like to travel, I like to cook and any spare time I get I kind of get on the tennis court, but yeah love that still active absolutely I want to continue that into my 80s right yes, that's.

Speaker 2:

That's why I need chiropractic care, so I can dance till I'm 90 yes, for sure so let's switch gears a little bit. Can you tell us about um a life challenge or a hardship that you overcame?

Speaker 3:

well, the biggest I said just mentioned. You know that was a really humbling experience, as I said. You know, as a chiropractor you think you're invincible. But I realize I'm a human too and you're going to have injuries and so you have your ups and downs and all as well. But what's nice about that, is it? My pain led to my helping hundreds of patients over the next 15 years and ongoing, so that's a great turnaround. I guess I'm thankful that that happened to me now.

Speaker 2:

Definitely glad that you were able to take care of that. And just remember, even Superman needs the sun.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely, there you go.

Speaker 2:

Well, Dr Chris, can you tell our listeners one thing you would like for them to always remember about HealthQuest? Well, we prioritize building relationships.

Speaker 3:

You know that our patients are our listeners. One thing you would like for them to always remember about health Well, we prioritize building relationships. You know that our patients are like family. It's a kind of cliche thing but that's what's built our practice over the years is relationship building and so you know that's seen in our results with our patients and our loyalty and our retention and our referrals. So we want to continue that for another 25 years in the East Cobb area.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely Becoming a part of the family. So if someone is in need of your services, can you let them know how they can reach you?

Speaker 3:

Absolutely, and let me mention too we talked about the disc care, but I should mention too that we offer massage therapy, we offer nutrition supplementation help and we also offer soft wave therapy or extracorporeal shockwave therapy. It's a popular tissue regeneration therapy that is excellent for chronic or acute injuries. It helps recruit stem cells to an area to help rebuild tissues. It quickly decreases pain and inflammation. So that's another tool that we use, taking a real holistic approach and really operate like a lifestyle health coach for you. So if anyone wants to contact us, we are located at 1000 Johnson Ferry Road, suite D100 in Marietta, and our website is HealthQuestChirocom. That's HealthQuestCchirocom, that's healthquestchirocom, and our number, if that's easiest, is 770-509-3400.

Speaker 1:

Thank, you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpcobbcountycom. That's gnpcobbcountycom, or call 470-470-4506.