by Dennis Dalman
Little did Elijah Johnson know when he was a toddler being treated by a chiropractor he would grow up to be a chiropractor himself.
Dr. Johnson opened Good Life Chiropractic recently in Pinecone Marketplace in south Sartell.
Johnson was born in Pine City. He first went to the chiropractor at the age of 2 where his family took him to help with digestive issues and colic symptoms. His family had been going to this chiropractor in St. Paul for several years prior to his first visit. They would make the hour commute to see this doc because of the skill set and technique he practiced.
Johnson worked at that same clinic in St. Paul years later during chiropractic school. He also worked at a clinic in Maple Grove.
Johnson incorporates the very technique he was first treated with as an infant. That St. Paul chiropractor was practicing a form of chiropractic known as the Gonstead method, which was developed and named after one of the greatest of early chiropractors, who had a huge clinic in Wisconsin that attracted people from far and wide.
The Gonstead method emphasizes precise diagnostic techniques to pin-point the causes of what patients are suffering. Those techniques include visualization, instrumentation, palpation, x-rays and symptoms of the patients.
Johnson said those kinds of pin-point precisions are absolutely vital to let the chiropractor and patient learn exactly what the problem is (or combination of problems). Much of the diagnosis and adjustments involve discs along the spinal column.
Johnson uses an intensely personal approach because each patient is so unique, including unique individual problems to be treated. A neurologically-based chiropractor, Johnson uses scans and x-rays to determine the precise structure of the spine, its discs and how the nervous system is functioning, or dysfunctioning, as the case may be.
Johnson’s goal, he said, has always been to help his patients achieve a good life (thus, his clinic’s name “Good Life Chiropractic”). He and his clients are both thrilled when patients feel better and can function more happily in a fuller life: pain relief, improved range of motion, good sleep patterns, a lack of anxiety and depression and more energy. That happens when patients, step by step, go past the crisis mode, Johnson noted.
Chiropractic is from Greek words meaning “done by hand.” Chiropractic healing is accomplished by aligning the skeletal system and by methods to keep the nervous system working properly (a healthy brain-body connection).
Many people think only of back pain or neck pain when they hear the word “chiropractic.” But, in fact, chiropractic medicine can be helpful in treating everything from allergies to Crohn’s disease, from depression and lack of concentration to children suffering from insomnia.
“I developed a passion for chiropractic through the many transformational stories I had heard and seen while at school,” Johnson wrote on his website. “Because we live in a world with an overload of stressors, damage to the communication pathways between the brain and body can occur and prevent us from living at an optimal level of function and quality.”
Johnson earned a degree in biology from the University of Northwestern, St. Paul. That is where he met a woman named Karen from Fargo whom he eventually married. Karen is a dental hygienist at Pearl Dental in Sauk Rapids. Johnson then went on to study at Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington and became a doctor of chiropractic.
At one point, Johnson decided he would like to move out of the Twin Cities area. For a time, he lived in St. Cloud, but he and his wife began researching other cities in the state.
“I had no relations living in Sartell, but I kept hearing good things about it,” he said. “I learned the city is receptive to new businesses. I enjoy being in Sartell, and I’ve made so many good connections here. Sartell is great for new families, and it has a great school system.”
Good Life Chiropractic is located at 1733 Pinecone Road S., #1200. To find out more about the business and its open hours, google its website: “Good Life Chiropractic Sartell MN.” To make an appointment, call 320-217-2542.
Dr. Elijah Johnson is the owner-operator of the new Good Life Chiropractic in Sartell.
