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Tmac's back specialist

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by R0ckets03, May 12, 2007.

  1. R0ckets03

    R0ckets03 Contributing Member

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    Does this Patterson guy have a website or something? My wife's back is always hurting and I wanted to see if this guy would be a good option for her.
     
  2. DrewP

    DrewP Contributing Member

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    probably not a good option seeing as he practices a profession based on total fraud.
     
  3. Jeff

    Jeff Clutch Crew

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    I called his office in Waco last year and spoke to the woman who handles his appointments. VERY nice person. She said that it cost a few hundred the first time ($400-$500) and then $100 for follow-up visits. Although she couldn't guarantee it, most people don't need to come back.

    He doesn't have a website, but here is his contact info...

    John Patterson Body Mechanics
    (254) 772-5766
    6801 Sanger Ave
    Waco, TX
     
  4. R0ckets03

    R0ckets03 Contributing Member

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    Thanks Jeff!!!
     
  5. R0ckets03

    R0ckets03 Contributing Member

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  6. R0ckets03

    R0ckets03 Contributing Member

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    Did you end up going? And if so, how was it?

    I'm just wondering if it's really worth it to drive up to Waco. Or their has to be someone like him in Houston.
     
  7. Rocketman95

    Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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    :rolleyes:

    Considering my mother basically couldn't walk for a couple months after doctors and physical therapists tried to figure out what was wrong with her back, but can now with no pain after a few visits to a chiropractor, I conclude that you have no idea what you're talking about.
     
  8. Matador

    Matador Member

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    I believe John Patterson is a physical therapist.

    mysanantonio.com link

    That Tracy McGrady's physical therapist in Waco, John Patterson, promised him he never would have back spasms the rest of his life, barring a violent collision. McGrady consulted tennis star Andy Roddick, who had worked with Patterson (he has a doctorate, but is not a medical doctor) before taking Rockets assistant coach Charlie Ward's recommendation that he see Patterson. For now, it seems, McGrady mostly needs to get back in shape. As for Patterson's optimism, we here at MySA.com NBA Insider grew up close enough to Missouri to claim plenty of "Show Me" skepticism.

    http://www.wbu.edu/a/a03/cnote60-3.htm

    JOHN PATTERSON, BS’63, lives in Hewitt, Texas, a suburb of Waco, with wife Cara. He is a physical therapist and owns Body Mechanics in Waco. After teaching in public school systems for 8 years, he received his masters degree from Midwestern State University and worked as a psychologist for 7 years. He moved to Waco and worked for Texas Rehabilitation Commission as a counselor serving clients with mental and behavioral problems and became interested in physical rehabilitation. John went back to school and became certified in that area. He worked with Baylor athletic department for two years before starting his private practice and has worked with various athletic teams including the Atlanta Falcons. John and Cara have two daughters and four grandchildren, two four-year olds, a 7 month old and a three week old. He writes that "being a grandfather is more wonderful that I ever could have imagined." (248 Earle Road, Hewitt, Texas 76643; Email: Jpatter343@msn.com)
     
  9. finalsbound

    finalsbound Contributing Member

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    Man I can't think of anything that's worth a drive up here. He lives in Hewitt? God bless him.
     
  10. Rocketman95

    Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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    Two words: Health. Camp.

    Three more: George's. Big. O.
     
  11. Jeff

    Jeff Clutch Crew

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    Just FYI, technically, Patterson is a physical therapist. Like most body workers (massage therapists, etc), he's not a doctor.

    I did not go. It's something I'm still considering, but I haven't done it yet. You should call and talk to him.
     
  12. Jeff

    Jeff Clutch Crew

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    Don't know if you guys caught the terrific story in the Chron today. I've been to people LIKE Patterson before - people that can make you feel better without invasive procedures. When it works, it most definitely seems miraculous.

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4804198.html

    Balance is basic to relief

    By DAVID BARRON
    Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

    WACO — On this particular morning, the Warlock of Waco's costume of choice was a plaid shirt and blue jeans.

    "I left my pointed hat and shoes at home this morning," he said.

    The Warlock's powers, however, are unaffected by sartorial eloquence. So when the day's first client walked in and said, "What's wrong with me?" he answered quickly.

    "Well, your pelvis is twisted," he told the client. "The left side is higher than the right. Your right knee is out of line. Your left knee is out of line. Your ribs on the right side are pulled together. Your right collarbone is out of line, so it's not holding your shoulder up. Your head is leaning forward. Your right cheekbone is lower than the left, so you're having occasional sinusitis, and if you yell or scream at a game, you get hoarse, because your trachea isn't straight."

    Sounds bad.

    "Nah," he said. "Other than that, you're in good shape. It's just living."

    Just living, it seems, can take a toll on your carcass, even if you do nothing more strenuous than pound computer keys for a living or walk your dogs around the block for exercise.

    Imagine the toll, then, of nightly pounding at the hands of 6-8, 250-pound athletes or the stress of throwing 90 mph fastballs. The results are the Tracy McGradys and Terrell Owenses and John Smoltzes and Earl Campbells of the sports world, brought low by arm miseries, aching shoulders, back spasms or other ailments.

    All four are among dozens of current and former athletes who have turned for help to John Patterson, 66, a former washed-up minor league pitcher who in 35 years as a rehabilitation specialist has developed an integrated approach toward physical alignment and function that he calls Synergy Release.

    It's a fancy title for a concept as simple as the old spiritual: The foot bone's connected to the ankle bone. Leg bone, knee bone, thigh bone, hip bone. Now hear the word of the Lord.

    "I don't know what he does," McGrady said. "Whatever it is, it works. All the doctors I've seen over the years, and everything I've gone through with my back, for a guy in my back yard to be able to heal me and get me through the season is some sort of surprise."

    Getting in tune
    Given McGrady's run of good health and stellar performances after he consulted Patterson last December, it has become fashionable to describe his technique as witchcraft, even though it's a far cry from the occult.

    "It's just common sense," Patterson said. "I try to see why you aren't balanced. None of us is perfect physically or mentally or spiritually. We get into strains, and strains become compensations.

    "A specialist looks at one particular thing. If you go to a neurologist, he's not going to start by looking at your feet. There's is a missing link between medicine and therapy, and it's determining the trigger. What came first to get you out of balance?"

    Frequently, the trigger isn't obvious. McGrady came to Waco for help in coping with back spasms. Patterson started not with McGrady's back but rather with his knees.

    "Everybody looks at his back, and they miss the fact that his head is pulled to the right, his right shoulder is dropped forward and when he goes to sit down, he puts his hands down to steady himself, which means he has very little leg strength," Patterson said.

    "When his legs would get fatigued, his back would start hurting, and the thing that mystified everyone is that it would hurt on the left side one week and the right side the next week. All the textbooks say that doesn't happen. No one had ever looked at his knees or ankles or the fact he had flat feet, which meant he rolled his foot inward when he ran, which put stress on the outside (of his legs)."

    Patterson and his associates, Tim McKelroy and Brian Burzynski, began by relaxing the muscles in McGrady's lower legs. That enabled them to line up his knees, ensuring that the patellar tendons were aligned with the bones so that the joints glide rather than crunch and the muscles on both sides of the legs work in concert.

    Getting the knees in place allowed Patterson's crew to align McGrady's pelvis. From there, they moved to his upper body, stretching his back with a modified version of the full nelson wrestling hold called the "Willie Nelson" that elongates the connective tissue, and aligning his collarbones so that his head rested squarely over his shoulders, not tilted forward.

    Patterson's goal is to allow the body to heal itself once aligned.

    "Your body is in a state of flux for three or four days, and it takes 21 days for all the systems to be perfectly balanced," he said.

    If you're keeping track, in his first game after the 21-day anniversary of his first trip to Patterson's clinic, McGrady scored 37 points against the Kings. Within the next two weeks, he had games of 45, 37 and 36 points.

    From Braves to Baylor
    Patterson was, by his own estimation, a "fair-to-average" lefthanded pitcher in his hometown of Plainview who learned the hard truths about the biomechanics from pitching in chilly Panhandle spring games.

    As his pitching days in the Braves system ended, he earned degrees from Wayland Baptist and Midwestern State and took postgraduate classes at Texas Tech before moving to Waco in 1971 to work for the Texas Rehabilitation Commission.

    "It was seven years of frustration," he said. "You study X-rays (of patients) and realize that there hasn't been any dramatic change after an operation, whether on a knee, the back or the neck. The structure still has the same inconsistencies in the support of the soft tissue."

    His brother, a foot surgeon in San Antonio, hired him to build orthopedic devices for patients' feet.

    When patients would report that their feet were straight, but they suffered from knee and hip problems, he began to develop his own theories on the importance of alignment and how it could be achieved.

    He began working with Baylor athletes, including Mike Singletary, in the late 1970s. Football led him to Olympic athletes such as runners Gail Devers, Maurice Green and Butch Reynolds and athletes in all the major team sports. He makes regular trips to Dallas to work with the Cowboys and has worked with Dikembe Mutombo of the Rockets.

    Although he works with a handful of baseball players, including former University of Texas star Huston Street of the Oakland Athletics, his most enduring and successful relationship is with Atlanta Braves ace John Smoltz.

    Patterson knows Smoltz's motion so well that he can diagnose problems by watching him on television. As he approaches 40, Smoltz's body is so well-tuned that he can pitch until he's 50, Patterson said.

    That drew a laugh from Smoltz, who said: "Certainly there are moments in my life when I feel it's possible, and there are moments when I don't."

    Smoltz said his association with Patterson opened his eyes to practices and theories that many athletes once viewed as taboo because they were outside the experiences of team trainers and physicians.

    "John looks at me as if I'm a building, and he diagnoses the framework to determine whether it's sturdy or not," Smoltz said. "He helps keep my moving parts in place.

    "Some people are open to this sort of approach. Some aren't. All I can tell you is that it has helped me in every facet of what I continue to do."

    Campbell among clients
    Athletes represent about half of Patterson's caseload. The balance includes older clients who often suffer from chronic aches and pains. Two years ago, that list included Houston businessman Bob Craig, who was scheduled to undergo knee surgery but visited Patterson at a friend's suggestion.

    "I go in there and he pulls around on my leg and after 10 minutes says, 'OK, you're fine,' " Craig said. "I'm thinking, man, I've just blown 300 bucks. But he was right. He fixed me, and I didn't need the operation."

    A few weeks later, Craig returned to Patterson's office with a tougher challenge — his friend Earl Campbell, whose life after the NFL has been a series of physical hardships.

    Patterson said it took Campbell 15 minutes, using a cane and with a friend on each arm, to walk from the parking lot to his office.

    "We walk in, and Patterson says, 'Earl, you're in terrible shape.' Earl says, 'No (kidding),' " Craig said. "John worked on him for 3 1/2 hours (adjusting his left knee, ankles and hips to take pressure off nerves in his back), and when he was done, he slid old Earl down off the table and said, 'Earl, I want you to get down and stand up.'

    "Earl climbs down, but he's still stooped over. John said, 'No, I want you to stand up straight.' Earl said, 'Bull (bleep).' But John said, 'Earl, you can stand up straight.' He went over and put his hand over and pushed his chest up, and Earl stood up straight for the first time in three years. It was like a miracle."

    Back in the saddle again
    Craig said that after a second visit two weeks later, Campbell (who did not return calls seeking an interview) was able to fly to San Jose, Calif., to see one of his sons play football. A few weeks later, he was at his ranch, working on fences.

    "When John fixed me, I didn't spread the word because, frankly, I wasn't sure that I couldn't have gotten the same results elsewhere," Craig said. "Now, I've told every living soul that I know about it."

    Patterson said he's slowing down as he nears 70, and Burzynski and McKelroy handle much of the day-to-day work. Patterson still spends occasional weekends on the road to work with pro clients. McGrady makes monthly visits during the season, and Terrell Owens made weekly visits during last year's NFL season.

    "There are so many young pitchers and football players who have all the potential in the world but never have a chance because of a simple injury, and then operations and therapy make the situation worse," Patterson said. "The kick in this for me is seeing great athletes perform at their potential as long as they can."
     
  13. RocketMan Tex

    RocketMan Tex Contributing Member

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    Damn straight. A must visit if you are ever in Waco, especially on a college football Saturday.
     
  14. Rocketman95

    Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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    Best menu ever. First item listed on the appetizers, entrees and desserts.
     
  15. tmacyao111

    tmacyao111 Member

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    anyone know if their are any places like this in houston?
     
  16. DrewP

    DrewP Contributing Member

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    Does chiropractic relieve pain better than no treatment? Yes.
    Does chiropractic relieve pain better than massage? No.
    Can chiropractic prevent disease? No.
    Does chiropractic work the way its practitioners claim? No.
    Conclusion: manipulation of any kind provides short-term relief of neck and back pain.

    Chiropractic originated in 1895 with an accidental discovery by a grocer in Iowa. D.D. Palmer manipulated a lump in the spine of a worker and the man's hearing problem cleared up. From this one sample, Palmer concluded that the spine was the center of everything. Misalignments of the spine could, he figured, cause all kinds of diseases. Read this good description for the details.

    A question arose about why chiropractic was included in insurance plans. This was not always the case. A lobbying effort by chiropractors got laws changed so chiropractic COULD be covered by insurance.

    Chiropractic manipulation of the neck caused fatal strokes in 45-year-old Lana Dale Lewis in 1996, and 21-year-old Laurie Jean Mathiason in 1998.
    Reference: Skeptical Inquirer Vol. 28, No. 3, May/June 2004.

    http://www.ncahf.org/pp/chirop.html
    http://www.geocities.com/healthbase/chirolinks.html
    http://quackfiles.blogspot.com/2006/12/must-see-dangers-of-chiropractic.html
    http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0505/primetime.html
    http://www.neck911usa.com/

    for more links, see source of all the above : http://www.physics.smu.edu/pseudo/AlternativeMedicine/
    scroll down to chiropractic
     
  17. RocketFan007

    RocketFan007 Contributing Member

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    The vast majority of chiropractors don't believe they can. Yes, there are a few "crazies" out there, but don't paint them all with the same brush.

    And hundreds, probably thousands, die every year due to MD malpractice.
     
  18. DrewP

    DrewP Contributing Member

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    Picking out two marginally important statements and contesting them has nothing to do with the whole picture. Read the links.
     
  19. RocketFan007

    RocketFan007 Contributing Member

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    Blaming chiropractic for deaths is marginally important? Also, claiming that chiropractic is used to cure disease is completely false and needed to be called out. I've read the links, and I'm pretty certain I know more about chiropractic than you do. I've been going to a chiropractor since I was a young child, and have never been hurt, and almost always, my pain went away. I've studied chiropractic a lot as well, and yes, there are some odd beliefs, but the bottom line is it works when used in the proper ways.
     
  20. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    I don't care about any of this fuss... I'm wondering if anyone here ever went to see Patterson in Waco, and how it turned out.
     

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