John Germany pictured with a replica of the human spinal cord, a piece of anatomy at the core of chiropractic knowledge and practice.
Germany Chiropractic lifts off with help of Choctaw Nation
By Brandon Frye
Choctaw Nation
Durant, Okla. - John Germany doesn’t need much to make someone’s life better, just a table and his hands.
He is a trained Doctor of Chiropractic and holds a deep understanding of the human body’s skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems. With a little pressure in the right spots, Germany can help with many of the physical ills found in someone’s body.
Germany, a 32-year-old Coleman native, spent more than seven years training and earning degrees to be able to open his independent Durant-based chiropractic business, Germany Chiropractic. It has been serving locals since the end of 2014.
“My purpose here is to help people,” Germany said. “It’s a hands-on approach to health, and I also get to reach a person on a more personal level.”
Germany said clients come to him, not only with the common ailments like back and neck pain, but also needing help to be able to brush their hair without a shoulder hurting. Sometimes they want to be able to pick up a grandchild again, or want to be able to play 18 holes of golf without feeling like they ran a marathon.
“Pain impacts people in different ways,” he said, “weakness, soreness, heartburn, headaches, a whole host of different sensations.” And one of his goals is to help people get rid of such pain for good.
“People realize if they come here first, they can get their problem under control, rather than suppress the symptoms, but do nothing for the root cause.”
Fixing bodily problems once they make themselves known is important, according to Germany. But, he believes proactively keeping the body healthy is just as, if not more, important.
This is why his service doesn’t end at the table, but extends to include teaching and coaching his clients about living healthfully and mindfully – staying active, drinking enough water, holding themselves well, and so on. It’s also why his business draws in athletes as clients, they aim to keep their bodies working at peak performance levels.
While working with a client, he looks for subluxations within the spine and joints—a point of misalignment, interference within the nervous system, like a kink in a water hose. These kinks can be caused by daily life choices like bad posture, a sedentary job, or staring down at a phone too much. They can also be caused more noticeably by injuries and trauma.
A subluxation expresses itself in apparent ways, like when clients come in with pain, weakness, and soreness. It can also express itself more subtly with a part of the body not functioning properly, like with a lessened range of motion.
Nerves go through every organ of the body, and when a subluxation impedes a nerve, messages don’t travel through the body as well and pain can be sent back to the brain.
Germany frees up these interferences and allows the body to heal itself. The body does all of the healing, he said, just like it does after getting a cut. Band-Aids and Neosporin do not heal wounds, they only help the body along. Germany’s chiropractic service similarly helps the body help itself.
To get to where he is now, Germany took advantage of services offered by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO).
He received financial support as an undergraduate and doctoral student. He received support again when pursuing his certified chiropractic sports physicians certificate, a specialization in treating athletes. He saved money using the Choctaw Asset Building (CAB) service, which returned two dollars for every one dollar he saved in the effort of building up his business. He also worked with CNO Small Business Development Services, which helped him plan his business.
Billy Hamilton, manager of Small Business Development Services, said, “We provided one-on-one counseling, access to business training, marketing development, and access to networking opportunities.”
Germany is still working with the Choctaw Nation to be able to better serve tribal employees, and accept their insurance. He said he is also looking for better ways to serve all Native Americans in need of chiropractic care, and is set up to offer a tribal member discount.
Anyone interested in finding better health—or as Germany puts it, “Getting back in the game, no matter what that game might be,”—can call Germany Chiropractic at (580) 380-4960 or visit 116 S. 21st Ave. in Durant, OK 74701.