Alternative medicine practitioner treats the cause

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Who would have thought that if your pelvis were out of whack, your painful jaw is probably out of whack too?|ret||ret||tab|

Betty Gonyaw, DC, would. As an alternative medicine practitioner, she joins the ranks of a growing trend in medicine to treat the cause, not the symptom.|ret||ret||tab|

A chiropractor with holistic tendencies, Gonyaw emphasizes the importance of structural alignment of the human body. "If your body is out structurally, it creates a stress on the overall system so that organ systems can't work correctly. Nothing does."|ret||ret||tab|

But balance is the key, she said not just structural, but chemical and electrical, as well. Gonyaw said she believes the body is an amazing healing machine "if we put (it) back in balance and allow nature to do its thing."|ret||ret||tab|

Unfortunately, she said, modern medicine and indeed patients are conditioned to the treatment of symptoms. It's "take a pill for this pain and a pill for that pain," she said, instead of trying to fix the problem; and too often the elderly are overmedicated, which itself creates symptoms.|ret||ret||tab|

Gonyaw doesn't knock modern medicine. Chiropractic adjustments don't cure cancer or diabetes, she said, but she has seen patients whose physicians can reduce medications once the body regains balance.|ret||ret||tab|

The patient has responsibility, she said. "We have to totally restructure the way (patients) view their health and bodies...and (teach them to) take an active role in their healing."|ret||ret||tab|

Gonyaw said she works to create a partnership with her patients, beginning with a 45- to 60-minute initial consultation and a close look at nutrition. From the start, her approach is personal. Her new office at 3101A S. Kimbrough has been decorated using feng shui to "promote comfort and relaxation as much as possible." Feng shui is the Chinese art of placing objects and colors in one's environment. "I want to waylay negative experiences patients may have (and reduce) their overall concern that there's something wrong with them," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

Patients fill out a symptom survey fed into a computer to help determine the patient's potential health problems, including possible nutritional deficiencies.|ret||ret||tab|

Gonyaw carries a line of organic nutritional supplements sold only in doctor's offices that she prescribes when needed. If a patient is under stress, for example, hormone demands deplete and exhaust the adrenal gland. A nutrient helps rebuild it to bring the patient's chemistry back into balance, she said.|ret||ret||tab|

After a brief physical examination, "I give an explanation that we are trying to go for correction rather than symptom relief," Gonyaw said. From experience she knows that if a foot is jammed, the pain may be in the low back. Treating the low back doesn't address the foot; as soon as the patient starts walking, the body is thrown out of alignment again and the pain starts.|ret||ret||tab|

The next exam diagnoses and treats the crucial structural alignment, Gonyaw said. While the patient lies face down on the table, she scans with Activator, a hand-held instrument that gives consistent low-force, high-speed "thumps." By observing a series of the patient's physical movements, she checks reflexes and determines if one leg appears to be longer than the other. "|ret||ret||tab|

This is their distortion pattern," she explained, adding that Activator adjustments then release the distortion.|ret||ret||tab|

Another tool Gonyaw uses is a drop table, a costly device but gentle on the patient. "I want to reach the people that are afraid to try chiropractic. Adjustments don't have to hurt and can be cost-effective." |ret||ret||tab|

If a patient complains of pain in a shoulder, pelvis or hip, and Gonyaw determines from the Activator scan that one of those body parts is displaced, a gentle push down while the patient is on the drop table will put it back into place, she said. |ret||ret||tab|

Gonyaw said that sitting long hours in a chair or in a car can put a hip out of place and cause excruciating pain, and a fall on the ice or overworking in the yard can be culprits, too. |ret||ret||tab|

"I have had patients that will have had a car accident or fallen down on the ice and be really upset because they just had an adjustment. But if there is such a thing as a good time to have an accident, that's the best time" because the body is aligned properly and can bounce back better.|ret||ret||tab|

Elderly patients find relief from low back pain with chiropractic treatment, Gonyaw said, adding that manipulation on a Cox distraction table eases muscle spasms in the spine and opens the vetebral canal to give nerves more space and reduce. |ret||ret||tab|

Those bothered with sciatic or low-back pain receive effective relief with the push, pull, pump action of the manipulation, she said. |ret||ret||tab|

Gonyaw said that if the discs are continually crunched and out of alignment, they don't receive nutrients and nerve impulses to keep them soft and pliable. What many people put down as arthritis or just old age sometimes can be alleviated with Cox manipulation, she said. |ret||ret||tab|

She believes that unfortunately, the elderly are often just medicated instead of treated, and the longer they fail to move because of pain, the worse-off they become. She suggests that proper chiropractic adjustment could allow movement. You have to "move it or lose it," she said. Once the cushion between the discs dry up, "you have osteoarthritis." |ret||ret||tab|

Once a body has been realigned, further adjustments are needed to retrain the muscles as well as the mind, Gonyaw said. "I usually have them come in two times the first week and one or two the next week to see how they are doing." |ret||ret||tab|

After that, she starts tapering off treatments, so that, once healed, the patient comes in for a "tune-up" every three months or so. |ret||ret||tab|

Once the patient is aware of his body, he knows when something is not right she said. She advises regular visits just like going to the dentist, as preventatives. Although a patient may not be aware of pain, normal wear and tear of life can be slowly working on the body "to lock it up," according to Gonyaw.|ret||ret||tab|

"The body was built and made to move a certain way and if it isn't moving that way and you have to compensate by having to move differently, you are creating problems within the healthy tissue," Gonyaw said.|ret||ret||tab|

The body has to be retrained, according to Gonyaw, which requires consistent treatments initially. "I advise them to come often enough at first to retrain the muscle and tendons to hold in the proper position." |ret||ret||tab|

To help keep the body aligned, sometimes Gonyaw uses acupuncture as an adjunct therapy. There are certain areas in the body, she said, that "if you don't address the electrical part with ear acupuncture (along) with the adjustment, it will lock right back up." Ear acupuncture, she said, is best for facial pain in the jaw and upper neck. She determines the area in the ear that best responds to the jaw or neck, then applies flesh-colored press tapes with tiny, short needles attached. She also uses body acupuncture when necessary. |ret||ret||tab|

"Addressing each area electrically, chemically and structurally people get better faster."|ret||ret||tab|

Massage can help, said Gonyaw, and "physical therapy will address some stretching and range of motion." Neither, however, puts the bones back into place, she said. |ret||ret||tab|

Gonyaw's patients often come to her when they have exhausted traditional medical treatment, she said. She works with the patient's regular treating physician, sometimes referring the patient back to the doctor for diagnostic tests. |ret||ret||tab|

In addition, she teaches her patients exercises to help them. "I show them how to use towels to stretch out their neck" and how to use ice packs and heat. "I can give them 110 percent ... but if they don't give at least 50 percent they are not going to get the kind of response that I would like to see as a result of what I do for them." |ret||ret||tab|

Gonyaw, who practiced in Nixa for seven years, moved in January to her new location, in part to be next door to Farhad Moshiri, a St. Louis orthodontist who Gonyaw called an "expert in pain management and dental-facial orthopedics."|ret||ret||tab|

Temporomandibular joint syndrome, or TMJ, is a more recognized disorder now, Gonyaw said. It "puts abnormal stresses on the body. You have headaches, dizziness, mood swing, neck pains, emotional problems, pain in the shoulders, arms, popping and clicking of the jaw and ringing in the ears. Numerous complaints are aggravated by TMJ."|ret||ret||tab|

Gonyaw graduated in 1992 from Logan College of Chiropractic in St. Louis. She had previously been an electroencephalogram technician and a spinal cord stimulator implant technician. "It became apparent to me that there had to be other earlier interventions for people to deal with their pain. The natural, holistic approach seemed to answer these questions, " she said. [[In-content Ad]]