Local Chiropractor Touches Lives Across the Country

Frankfort chiropractor Rick Brescia is all about wellness.

"We're looking to improve people's quality of life," Brescia said.

But that improvement is holistic. It's not about adjusting one vertabrae and instantly solving all of a patient's health problems, he explained. Chiropractic medicine doesn't work like that, although many people do seek treatment for specific neck or back complaints instead of getting regular care.

However, it's that holistic philosophy that has motivated Brescia to take part in a national humanitarian project sponsored by the New Renaissance, a group of chiropractors dedicated to health and wellness education and communication.

According to Brescia, the New Renaissance Love Has No Color project is working in partnership with the wellness specialist on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Poplar, Montana, to provide mentoring programs for youth, teen pregnancy and suicide prevention programs and activities for senior adults.

The project also funds a scholarship which is enabling a student from the reservation to attend chiropractic college. The hope is that after graduation she will return to her community to provide quality chiropractic care in a modern clinic built by New Renaissance.

Last year, more than 200 doctors nationwide engaged their patients in collecting gifts for "Christmas on the Reservation" which sent 20,000 gifts to Fort Peck children.

"When we're in school, we have the opportunity to do clinic abroad where you adjust hundreds of people, but there's no specificity, no history, no follow up," Brescia said.

Yet Love Has No Color allows the doctors to give back in a different way, as they do not provide any chiropractic treatment to reservation residents.

"We don't want people to think this is just a thump and a bump," said Brescia.

Instead, the project works to meet basic health and wellness needs for a Native American population that faces multiple health crises. More than one-third of the middle school students on the reservation tested positive for STDs. At least 20 percent of fifth graders drink alcohol weekly, 12 percent of high school girls are pregnant and the drop out rate is 40 percent, Brescia shared.

One of the innovative strategies the project employed was to send chiropractors to the reservation to refurbish an old movie theater to give the youth a safe, supervised place to hang out after school. The doctors then turned the theater over to the local high school business class, whose students now get real world business experience operating and managing the theater.

"We are letting these kids know that people in this world do care. Life is just not (what they see on) the reservation," Brescia added.

From now through July 28, all new patient appointments are discounted to $50 from $275. Of that $50, $25 is donated in the patient's name to Love Has No Color.

Last year Brescia's practice raised $700 for the project. This year, he hopes to raise $1,000.

"My goal is to make sure that people are living life to the fullest, to be the best they can possibly be.  A healthier community (leads to) a healthier planet," Bresica affirmed.

To make a new patient appointment, contact at (815) 464-0104. The clinic is located at 21000 S. Frankfort Square Road, Unit B, Frankfort.