Special
Features / July 2007
Hands On, Heads Up
 Dr. Barbara McNeil
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In 1977, when Barbara McNeil hurt her neck and lost the use of her left arm, she was looking for help, not a career change. But, dreading the traditional hospitalization and medical treatments that were recommended, she chose chiropractic treatment instead. “I got better about six weeks and went back to teaching. But I’d made the decision to go to chiropractic school.” Despite a Master’s degree in education, Barbara needed an additional thirty college hours to complete the prerequisites for starting her new degree plan. Then, working and going to school full time at night, she carried 20-22 hours per trimester for three and a half years to follow her dream.
Barbara grew up in a small in Illinois, and taught elementary school for twelve years before enrolling in the National College of Chiropractic outside of Chicago. She says, “I don’t regret teaching at all. Every day I use the people skills and communication skills I learned from teaching, especially explaining to patients what is going on in terms they understand.”
After graduation, she joined a downtown Chicago practice, “But, my best friend from Chiropractic school had married a classmate and moved to Gallipolis. They said, ‘Come to Ohio! I told them to find me a place with 3000 people and an all night grocery store. They found Marietta. When I moved here in September of 1989, I didn’t know anyone but the real estate agent.” She opened her office in October, the first woman chiropractor in the area.
Chiropractic stresses overall body wellness with a focus on spinal problems that disrupt nerve impulses between the brain and the body’s muscles, organs and systems. Carefully directed spinal adjustments help restore the function of the nervous system without drugs or surgery. But, chiropractic treatment isn’t just for the spine, according to Dr. McNeil. “I treat ankles, elbows and knees - and headaches. I love working with headaches - there’s so many reasons for them.” She combines extremely gentle chiropractic techniques, including a special light-pressure instrument for babies, women with osteoporosis or anyone in acute pain, with innovative therapies like Applied Kinesiology for the most effective results. Applied Kinesiology uses stimulation to acupuncture points that relate back to muscles to restore muscle balance. “My patients are all ages with a variety of issues - babies with colic, adults with TMJ, pregnant women with low back pain.”
She knew the effects of chiropractic on babies long before entering practice. “My baby brother cried constantly his first four months. He was healthy, but never slept more than five minutes and always cried when he was awake. My parents finally took him to a chiropractor for his ‘sleep disorder’. After one treatment, he slept for 24 hours. After two treatments, he was fine.” Now Dr. McNeil uses her expanded techniques on infants to determine if birth trauma or formula may be causing their problem.
Despite the hands-on approach of chiropractic, Dr. McNeil, says, “Physical strength doesn’t play a part in this at all. Plus, I was taught that chiropractors should be diagnosticians as well as practitioners. Not everyone is a chiropractic case.”
For the past two year, she has included Nutrition Response Testing and allergy elimination in her services. By testing the body’s neurological reflexes through acupuncture points, underlying deficiencies or imbalances can be located and then corrected with an individualized clinical nutritional program using whole foods. Integrating the approaches, she says, “allows me to do many different things with different situations. It’s been especially helpful for patients who formerly only got a little better or who needed continuing treatment”. The allergy elimination treatment she has incorporated into her wellness arsenal is a method that also has its foundation in acupressure points and nutrition.
About 75 per cent of Barbara’s practice is women. “Women tend to put themselves last. I want to help them be first. Healthy women mean healthy families.”
Patients come for many reasons, “Maternity patients come in with low and mid back pain because, as the baby grows, it affects a woman’s center of gravity, which affects her muscles. I have a special table that accommodates mother and baby, and have treated them up to the day of delivery as well as after delivery.” She’s found that Nutritional Response Testing helps menopausal and postmenopausal women, and also helps with sleep issues or fatigue. “By using pressure points that relate back to organs and glands, we can discover which one- or ones- may not be working optimally and provide the correct nutrients in whole food supplements.”
When she’s not working, completing paperwork, researching new methodologies, or handling the business side of her practice, Barbara enjoys reading for pleasure and “puttering in the yard”under the benevolent supervision of seven cats. “I’ve worked on them, too!”
For more information, visit McNeil Chiropractic Health Center, 108 South Seventh Street Marietta, Ohio or mcneilchiropractic.com or call 740-374-8818.
Copyright © 2007 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
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