Dr. Jeffrey West has been everything from a mover to a mechanic to a landscaper, but ever since he was 12 years old, all he wanted to be was a chiropractor.
Dr. Matthew Richardson’s mother, an herbalist, imbued him with an interest in full-body wellness at a young age. He used that interest to earn a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and a master’s degree in applied clinical nutrition before it lead him to New York Chiropractic College.
West, 29, and Richardson, 26, met at the college. Today they run Greece Chiropractic, a practice with a distinctively holistic focus on patient education and nutrition. Still, the doctors said it’s their youth — they received their doctorates together in November — that makes their practice unlike any other in the area.
“The real difference comes through the practitioner,” Richardson said. “Us, our personalities, are really what set us apart.”
Dr. West’s story
As a child growing up in Charlotte, West said he had splitting headaches 24 hours a day. He saw many doctors and neurologists and was put through CAT scans, MRIs, and other medical tests throughout his childhood, but to no avail.
“I could almost see stars all the time,” West said. “The headache never went away.”
The best his doctors could come up with, he said, was to hope his condition improved on its own.
Meanwhile, his grandmother had been visiting a Greece chiropractor named Dr. Heinz Schamberger. When West’s doctors ran out of things to try, he said she insisted he visit the chiropractor.
After two weeks with Schamberger, his headaches were gone.
“That was the first time in my life I can remember not having a headache,” West said.
West frequented the chiropractor until he was 18, but told Schamberger at age 12 that he was going to be a chiropractor when he grew up.
“I had a firsthand account of how well it works,” West said. “He didn't have to stick needles in my arms or put me in any big machines or any of that, and it worked. He inspired me to do this.”
Before becoming a chiropractor, however, West held a number of other jobs. Some involved sitting at a desk eight hours a day. Others involved heavy lifting.
Coming from a family of blue-collar GM employees, he said he quickly came to understand how damaging some careers can be to the body.
Dr. Jeffrey West has been everything from a mover to a mechanic to a landscaper, but ever since he was 12 years old, all he wanted to be was a chiropractor.
Dr. Matthew Richardson’s mother, an herbalist, imbued him with an interest in full-body wellness at a young age. He used that interest to earn a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and a master’s degree in applied clinical nutrition before it lead him to New York Chiropractic College.
West, 29, and Richardson, 26, met at the college. Today they run Greece Chiropractic, a practice with a distinctively holistic focus on patient education and nutrition. Still, the doctors said it’s their youth — they received their doctorates together in November — that makes their practice unlike any other in the area.
“The real difference comes through the practitioner,” Richardson said. “Us, our personalities, are really what set us apart.”
Dr. West’s story
As a child growing up in Charlotte, West said he had splitting headaches 24 hours a day. He saw many doctors and neurologists and was put through CAT scans, MRIs, and other medical tests throughout his childhood, but to no avail.
“I could almost see stars all the time,” West said. “The headache never went away.”
The best his doctors could come up with, he said, was to hope his condition improved on its own.
Meanwhile, his grandmother had been visiting a Greece chiropractor named Dr. Heinz Schamberger. When West’s doctors ran out of things to try, he said she insisted he visit the chiropractor.
After two weeks with Schamberger, his headaches were gone.
“That was the first time in my life I can remember not having a headache,” West said.
West frequented the chiropractor until he was 18, but told Schamberger at age 12 that he was going to be a chiropractor when he grew up.
“I had a firsthand account of how well it works,” West said. “He didn't have to stick needles in my arms or put me in any big machines or any of that, and it worked. He inspired me to do this.”
Before becoming a chiropractor, however, West held a number of other jobs. Some involved sitting at a desk eight hours a day. Others involved heavy lifting.
Coming from a family of blue-collar GM employees, he said he quickly came to understand how damaging some careers can be to the body.
“No one in a factory is comfortable,” West, who now lives in Greece, said. “Something always hurts.”
Dr. Richardson’s story
Richardson’s path to chiropractic began on the small farm in a small town called Pulaski, about 30 minutes north of Syracuse. His mother, an herbalist who studied the medicinal properties of plants, raised him to value natural, holistic healing practices.
“I kind of grew up around the whole health mentality,” Richardson said.
He said he became fascinated with the human body and its movement patterns, eventually studying kinesthesiology — the study of the movement of muscles and joints — to earn a bachelor’s in exercise science from SUNY Cortland. He went on to earn a master’s in applied clinical nutrition, which assesses how the foods we eat are actually utilized within the body.
According to Richardson, chiropractic was an obvious next step.
“I always had an affinity for helping others and I love the body,” Richardson said. “I liked the idea of chiropractic in that it wasn't derived from drugs. It was a very hands on, natural way to do things."
Joining forces
West and Richardson attended New York Chiropractic College together, both interning in Henrietta and through VA hospitals and free clinics in the area. There they became friends, experimenting on each other to develop the innovative techniques they now use to treat the hip and lower back pain that can haunt those who sit for a living.
"We both had real similar philosophies and mindsets about what our role in health care is and what people expect of us and what we expect of our patients," West said.
“Our philosophy is very physiologically based,” Richardson explained. “People in today’s society have a lot of stress. They want to come in, get worked on, and feel well.”
When West and Richardson joined forces to create Greece Chiropractic, which opened in May at 1100 Long Pond Road, they did so with a focus on more than the back-cracking and joint-stretching commonly associated with the practice. They said they also pay attention to their patients’ nutrition and body chemistry to teach them how they can modify their behaviors and diets to stay healthy.
“There are some chiropractors out there that will just crack your back and send you on your way,” West said. “We will actually try to achieve full body wellness and show our patients you can be healthy without having to take drugs and worry about surgery all the time."
As a nutritionist, Richardson said he is able to recommend natural, organic techniques for improving and maintaining health. The key, he said, is to help the patient understand what the problem is and how the solution fixes it.
“The essence of significant change comes from the patient's understanding,” Richardson said. “We could recommend 100 things for people to try to do, but they only work if someone actually does them.”
West said they like to give patients small, simple pointers for healthier ways to live. Many of these tips point to whole or organic foods and supplements.
“It's a world of difference when you know where something is coming from and how your body utilizes it,” West said. “Trying to inspire the patients to take their health into their own hands through education — That would be the essence of what we do.”
A familiarity with the blue-collar workforce and the stresses of modern life combined with a deep understanding of nutrition and a desire to keep patients educated throughout their treatment is, according to West, not entirely unheard of in the chiropractic field. It is West’s and Richardson’s combined specialties that make the duo stand out.
“Those are fundamentals that are deeply rooted in chiropractic itself,” West said. “We just let them grow a little bit.”
