Why I Became A Chiropractor?

Today marks exactly 2 years ago since I started my private practice/small business, and it was perhaps one of the best things I could’ve done for my career. To honor that, I thought I’d write a little bit about who I am and my story as to why I became a chiropractor.

My passion and vision has always been to help and empower others to achieve their fullest potential of health and a greater quality of life. I grew up indoctrinated in the medical model. I suffered from severe asthma throughout my entire childhood and adolescent life. I couldn’t play sports when I was younger or else I would be on the ground suffering from severe asthma attacks gasping for air, and I had to depend on an inhaler with a minimum of 12-16 puffs a day, with or without any brisk exercise. Going to the hospital at least 2-4 times a year was normal for me whenever the inhaler was not able to control the attacks. The doctors would tell me at a young age that there was no cure and I was either going to grow out of it, or deal with it for the rest of my life. This news led me feeling hopeless, since everyone around me was thriving and leading a healthy life. How can there be other people who are in the same roof as you and eating the same foods as you be healthy, and you’re just suffering? This pretty much laid down a path of self-sabotage for me. But overall, I still have an amazing life filled with a great support system from my family, mentors, colleagues and friends.

I pursued my Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at San Diego State University because I knew I wanted to work with people and help people. Throughout my study, I thought I wanted to become a psychologist/ counselor/therapist. It wasn’t until I started taking neuroscience and human physiology classes and started learning about how the human body functions and operates. This intrigued me so much! It was like a puzzle to figure out which drove me to pursue a career with a vision of getting people healthy in the field of healthcare.

After graduation, I worked as a pharmacy technician where I was trained in pharmacology. I was under the impression that I was going to help others with their health under this field. However, that wasn’t the case. 85% of the medications I filled were pain/opioid medications, and I had seen the effects of those prescriptions first-hand when threats were calling in from patients to the pharmacy on a weekly basis. I once filled a prescription for a patient of 120 count of Vicodin, told the pharmacist in charge “this must’ve been a mistake…why would anybody need this much Vicodin?” But he urged me to fill it anyway. That was pretty much the stick that broke the camels back for me. This led to my own conclusion that the pharmaceutical companies were all for-profit, taking advantage of the geriatric population with Medicare, and not care about patient outcomes. My vision of helping others turned into me believing I was a drug dealer, which was very discouraging. Because of this, it led me to not want to pursue a career in healthcare. This also occurred in the beginnings of what we know now as The Opioid Epidemic.

As I was working at the pharmacy, I had a second job at the hospitality industry helping hotel guests. One day, I had to help someone with their luggage (which felt like 200 lbs), and this caused my low back to spasm and caused shooting right leg pain, and later found out I had a disc issue at L5-S1. I couldn’t walk for 2 weeks, I thought it was going to get better overtime, but it just kept getting worse. From my experience in the pharmacy, I knew if I would’ve went to my primary doctor I would’ve just gotten pain killers and muscle relaxers, or be a candidate for spinal surgery. That was unacceptable for me at a young age, so I went to a chiropractor close to my house and within two visits, I was able to walk again.

And as I continued to go to him, I realized I’ve been using my inhaler a lot less (and now I currently do 1 puff every 3 months if needed). It was a very miraculous experience, to say the least, and it had empowered my vision to go further into helping others improve their own health. He recommended Life Chiropractic College West, a prestigious chiropractic college in Hayward, CA. At first, I didn’t even know if I wanted to become a chiropractor, but as I took the tour of the campus and I absolutely loved the congruent philosophy of inside-out healing, the curriculum, and a supportive network of students and faculty. I loved it so much I enrolled that day, and as a week passed, I had my first day of chiropractic school and the rest is history.

Now, fast forward to today and I am now a chiropractor with my own private practice. To be able to do this for a living has exceeded my expectations and obtain the dreams and goals I had set for myself when I was young. My passion after school has grown profoundly, and I’ve experienced a lot of growth being a chiropractor (and I’m still growing). I am extremely blessed to serve the patients I serve, and to be able to help as many people as I possibly can through natural healing from within without the use of dangerous drugs and surgery. I hope in the near future I can mentor future chiropractors and guide them toward the path of success because chiropractic is by far the best profession ever.

For more information, please visit my website at drdavidwongdc.com