Colton Westerbeck is the new chiropractor at Chiropractic 1st on the west side of the Osceola square. He formerly worked at the Chiropractic 1st clinic in Winterset, until the position became available here.
Westerbeck is originally from Pennsylvania and a third generation chiropractor.
“I knew I wanted to go into the healthcare field because I loved the sciences and wanted to help people,” said Westerbeck.
What Westerbeck originally liked about chiropractic is how holistic it is and that chiropractors help people feel better without having to prescribe drugs.
“I knew I wanted a physically demanding job where I wasn’t sitting at a desk all day and could still help people,” said Westerbeck. “So I gravitated toward chiropractic.”
He studied chiropractic at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport.
“At Palmer I met Dr. Stuart Hoven, who is out in Winterset,” said Westerbeck. “He actually had an opening right when I was looking so it worked out perfectly.”
Westerbeck worked at the Chiropractic 1st Winterset location for about six months before taking the Osceola position.
There are about 200 techniques of chiropractic. The type of chiropractic technique that Westerbeck uses is called Gonstead.
“With Gonstead, there are five components of our analysis to determine how we’re going to adjust someone, “ said Westerbeck.
Westerbeck will first take x-rays of the spine, feel the spine and how it moves and compare that to the x-ray, use a thermoscope which measures the temperature of the spine to show where inflammation is occurring, and compare that to the x-ray all before an initial adjustment can take place with new patients.
“You see things that people would consider miracles every day in the office, “ said Westerbeck. “People come in and can barely walk and they walk out perfectly fine.”
Westerbeck’s advise to anyone considering going to school to be a chiropractor is, “Do it. It’s the best profession in the world.”