Texas Family Chiropractic • Pflugerville

Texas Family Chiropractic • Pflugerville

Written by Eric Pulsifer Friday, 01 August 2008

Dr. Derrick Houghton takes a proactive approach to wellness.

A belief that a properly maintained body can handle a majority of ailments without medication is the backbone of chiropractic care for Derrick Houghton, doctor of chiropractic. The idea is simple: Taking a proactive approach to wellness and keeping the body in top shape are best for maintaining health.

Houghton himself admits that as one exposed only to mainstream medicine, he did not fully understand the power of chiropractic until he experienced it firsthand following a motorcycle crash while in college.

After a painful recovery, Houghton was released from the hospital with a $30,000 bill and a loss of sensation in his lower back. But a chiropractic adjustment from a fellow student restored feeling to his back. Houghton said he has been a true believer ever since.

“Almost dying was the best thing that ever happened to me because it drove home how chiropractic works,” he said. “It was through chiropractic that I was able to heal myself and make my body work.”

Today, Houghton practices the same century-old techniques that restored sensation in his back in the clinic he opened eight years ago.

Houghton said chiropractic aims to alleviate the source of the patients’ pains, but that the symptoms patients want to eliminate are usually noteworthy warnings that something is wrong in the body.

“Pain is not something to be afraid of — sometimes it’s a helpful tool,” Houghton said. “Pain is like the fire alarm in your house. Taking an Advil is like taking the battery out of your fire alarm.”

Houghton said every joint in the body can be adjusted, but not every joint needs to be. Though most come in for back and neck problems, Houghton said many are surprised to learn about the numerous ailments that can be corrected with an adjustment, including asthma, acid reflux, headaches and sinus congestion.

“The treatment is very mechanical, but the results are global and neurological,” he said. “I don’t heal them. They heal themselves.”

People are able to heal themselves better when communication along the spinal cord is not interfered with, Houghton said.

“The nervous system is no different than the circuit breaker at your house — there’s a switch for everything. You can have a misalignment in your neck here that brings the whole system down,” he said. “That electricity is the only difference between you and a cadaver.”

Adjusting for a healthier life

Houghton said there are no simple causes for most aches and pains — they are normally the result of years of wear and tear.

“People are always trying to find that one thing. It’s just life,” he said. “It’s cumulative, and it’s slow. It’s over time. It’s not the one double cheeseburger you ate — it’s the five years of white bread and sugars and foods devoid of nutrients.”

There are five components to a healthier life, according to Houghton, though he said they are the things people do not want to hear.

“It’s all that stuff your mom tells you to do when you’re a kid,” he said.

1. Proper diet: Eat four to five smaller meals a day rather than three larger meals.
2. Sleep: Get at least six to eight hours a night.
3. Exercise: Plenty of physical activity. Exercise five days a week for 45 minutes a day
4. Attitude: If you assume the best and don’t expect bad things from people, you will usually get good.
5. Adjustments: A nervous system that is free of interference keeps the body in top shape.

8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.- Thurs. (closed noon-2:30pm)

8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Fri.