>> I'm Dr. [inaudible] Rangel and I
have a degree of doctorate chiropractic
and I also have my master's in human nutrition.
>> 'Kay, can you tell us a
little bit about your job,
what it entails, what you do on a daily basis?
>> Here at Three Elements, I kind of
do two things, I practice half the week
as a chiropractor and half
the week as a nutritionist.
And as a chiropractor, generally I focus on
nerve musculoskeletal conditions so anything
from low back pain, mid back
pain, upper back pain, headaches,
neuropathies, that type of a thing.
And then on the nutritional side of
it, I focus on the obvious weight loss
but I can also include diabetes,
you know, female problems,
hormones, anything along those lines.
So it's a good connection to --
for myself to implement both.
Chiropractors tend to want to treat the whole
person and I personally believe in order
to do that, I have to address both issues.
>> From the chiropractic side, what are some
of the -- the folks that come in to see you,
what are some of their reasons for
having the pain that they're having?
>> Most people -- to be quite honest with you,
when they walk in, it's almost
a little too late.
They've been having pain for a while,
they just kind of think it will get better
and it will go away and then by the time they
come in, you know, it can be the typical --
you know, maybe they've tripped or they fell or
sports injury and they have a sprained muscle,
those typically heal very easily but if
it's someone who might be a little bit older
with a degenerative spine, that can be anything
from a dehydrated disc pinching a nerve
and once you get that nerve damage,
that can take a little bit longer.
So it all just kind of depends on the
condition and the age of the person
and how long they've been
dealing with the problem.
>> And then what are some
of the things, you know,
how will you handle it, you
know, that situation.
What are some of the things that you'll
do with them or try to take care of?
>> As a chiropractor, we -- the main form
of treatment is called chiropractic [inaudible]
therapy and that is the actual adjustment so for
as the nutritionist in me, you
know, I might work on weight loss,
adipose tissue has been proven to be
inflammatory so if they have a disc condition
and they're also overweight and they might
be inflamed, I'd address, you know, diet,
nutrition, lifestyle changes, that type of
a thing in order to get their body to be
as optimally healthy so that their
spine and their body can heal.
>> I see, so the two kind of
go hand in hand a little bit.
>> Yes, yes very much so.
Some chiropractors, they like to practice
just straight chiropractic; you come in,
they do their adjustment, you walk out feeling
better, they might want to see you again
in the next couple days, then a couple weeks so
forth, but there's other chiropractors that they
like to do physical therapy, nutrition.
They might focus or specialize in
neurology and they tend to work hand in hand
with many medical doctors and physical
therapists, osteopaths, that type of a thing.
So it's kind of split, it kind of
depends on which route you want to go.
I have gone more of the mixed route where I
mean I'm open minded to all sorts of medicine,
I just -- I like to specialize
in holistic and natural health.
>> How 'bout ages, I mean
are you all across the board
or is there a certain age range
that you sort of specialize in?
>> I'm all across the board actually.
I've treated young infants and I've also
treated a man who was 98-years-old so basically
if you have a spine, you could use
chiropractic so you can use it more preventative
to prevent pain and you can
also be that person who comes in
and it's too late and you
need to be treated now.
So it is one of those things if you
spine, chiropractic care can be for you.
And then, you know, also from the
nutrition, we all can use nutrition.
You know, it's stated now that less than 1% of
the population is actually considered healthy
so I mean it's amazing, you know,
if you really get [inaudible].
Yeah, it is pretty scary and if you get
into it and you get nitpicky and you know,
you start watching the food [inaudible]
videos and all that type of a thing
and start reading the books, you can be really,
really picky about it but I think in general,
we just need to be educated about
ourselves, know how to take care
of ourselves and then go from there.
>> How 'bout one final question in this part;
anything to come to mind, any certain situation
that you've dealt with that kind of stands
out as a more difficult scenario that you had
to work with or just kind of more
interesting, anything like that,
and example of someone you worked on?
>> I've had a recent patient actually
who was actually in a car accident
and so obviously you can see how that could
correlate with chiropractic but she also came
to me as a nutritionist, she had very
severe skin rashes, on multiple medications
and she was concerned about her liver function
so she came to me just wanting to detox
and make sure that it didn't
interfere with her medications
so that she could heal optimally
just from the car accident in itself.