Paint Creek Chiropractic

Eric DeRusha, D.C. has been serving Rochester Michigan and the surrounding communities since 2001.

Whether you are suffering from back pain, neck pain, headaches, auto accident injuries, chronic joint pain or other health issues like digestive problems, fatigue or lowered immunity our friendly team at Paint Creek Chiropractic are dedicated to finding natural solutions to your unique health care needs.

Dr. Eric is 1 of apx 10 Chiropractors in the state of Michigan to be certified in the Chiropractic BioPhysics method of chiropractic care.

Often, we find that a whole body approach of combining chiropractic BioPhysics with MLS Cold Laser Therapy to reduce inflammation and pain which promotes whole body healing and recovery works best. 

CBP combines the principles of mathematics, physics, biomechanics and chiropractic. CBP focuses on improving the patient’s posture. Improving posture can provide long-standing relief from neck and back pain, headaches, fatigue and many other acute and chronic health problems.

CBP works on the fact that any deviation in a person’s posture causes deviations in the alignment of the spine, termed a subluxation, this causes tension upon the spinal cord and brain stem. With time this tension starts to interfere with the normal functions of the central nervous system which includes the brain, brain stem, and spinal cord. This interference over time will have a detrimental effect on an individual’s quality of life.

CBP includes “traditional” chiropractic adjustments in combination with specific posture rehabilitative exercises, “mirror image” posture corrections and traction methods (not the kind of traction you may have had in physical therapy) to correct the posture and spinal position to promote healthier nervous system function. CBP restores optimal balance to the spine and posture to achieve long-lasting relief. CBP is the most researched, published and proven chiropractic method in the world. Dr. DeRusha is currently one of the only ten certified CBP doctors in Michigan.

You have a third option for your problem: do nothing! The one thing that will happen for sure is your problem will get worse with time. Maybe to the point where no conservative approach will work. Do something for your spinal health! Do patch care or fix care and take care of the only spine you will ever have.

Paint Creek Chiropractic Center utilizes several different chiropractic adjusting methods to relieve pain and remove nerve interference, or subluxations, from the spine. Simply stated, a subluxation is when 2 or more of the spine’s joints get “stuck”. When the spinal bones (vertebra) get stuck it can lead to pinched nerves and nerve interference in the spine. The result of this process leads to pain, numbness, headaches, degenerative arthritis of the spine and many other symptoms. Subluxations also can result in malfunction in the organs and tissue cells that the involved nerves lead to. Dr. DeRusha’s specialty in chiropractic is with Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP) method, you can read more about CBP on this page.

When beginning chiropractic care in our office you have options for care based on your short and long-term health goals. You can “patch” the problem or you can “fix” the problem.

Patch Care
Patch care is for patients interested in short-term pain or symptomatic relief. Our objective is to get you feeling better ASAP. To accomplish this it often requires the patient recieve frequent treatments called chiropractic adjustments. The pain or symptom you are experiencing may be fairly recent but the cause of your problem, a subluxation, may have been developing over years due to posture displacements which cause subluxations or “stuck” spinal bones. Fortunatly, it doesn’t take years to feel better but it most likely will take a few weeks, possibly more.
Patch Care is called patch care because when you are done (when your symptoms are gone) if we took another x-ray of your spine it would still be in the same abnormal position it was in when you started. This is due to the posture alignment, which caused the problem in the first place, isn’t addressed with patch care. Therefore, most patch care patient’s symptoms eventually return.

Fix Care
Fix care AKA Chiropractic BioPhysics is for patients interested in a long-term solution to their problem. Fix care addresses both the pain or symptoms that brought you to our office as well as the postural problems and displacements that caused the spinal bones to get stuck and subluxated. Our ultimate focus and goal with fix care is to restore your posture and therefore your spine back to normal or as near normal as possible. We then verify the improvement of your spinal alignment with re-evaluation x-rays when you complete a course of fix care. That way we will know the new position of your posture and spine and not just assume it is improved.

Cold Laser Therapy is often used in conjunction with chiropractic treatment. MLS laser therapy treats arthritis and bursitis pain, sports injuries, sprains & strains, occupational injuries, repetitive motion injuries, pre & post surgical treatment, tendonitis, wounds, bruising, ligament injuries, soft tissue etc. MLS laser therapy uses specific wavelengths of light, in synchronicity, that have a strong anti-inflammatory, anti-edema affect on injured tissues that are exposed to the laser. Photons of laser light energy penetrate deeply into the tissue and accelerate cellular reproduction and growth. In simple terms, laser energy kick starts the healing process, thereby speeding recovery. Unlike most pharmacological solutions, there are no known negative side effects. Laser therapy is cleared by the FDA and is safe and effective. Our clinic is proud to be on the medical technological forefront, and to be the first health care facility in SE Michigan, by offering MLS Laser Therapy.

Lasers 101

Therapy lasers use power densities that are far below the levels that cause tissue damage. Ultraviolet light has very high-energy photons capable of ionizing molecules, but therapy lasers use visible and near infrared light, which only cause molecular vibrations. (You could argue that therapy laser light is safer than sunlight.) The photons penetrate through your skin and are absorbed by cells, increasing production of cellular energy and thus increasing the rate and quality of healing.

What is laser therapy?

Laser therapy is the application of low levels of laser light to areas of the body that have been injured or damaged. Contrasted with high-powered lasers used in health care that cut tissue, such as surgical or hair-removal lasers, therapy lasers produce beneficial photochemical and photobiological interactions that can repair injured/damaged tissue.

Can you share some of the history of laser therapy?

The use of light as a healing modality has been recorded as early as 4,000 years ago in ancient Egypt. Albert Einstein wrote a theory about lasers in 1917, and the laser was invented in 1960. Laser light is special because it is monochromatic (one color), coherent (all waves are in phase with each other), and can be collimated (meaning held to a small spot size at a great distance). Dr. Endre Mester was the first to observe the positive effects of laser when hair grew more quickly on shaved mice that were exposed to low levels of laser light.

How do lasers work?

The photons of laser light penetrate through your skin and are absorbed by special components in your body’s cells called chromophores. Just as photosynthesis creates energy for plants, the absorption of the photons by your cells causes increased production of cellular energy. In areas of injury or damage, this means there is more energy available to improve the rate and quality of healing. This is called biostimulation.

Because of its biostimulatory nature, laser therapy has the potential to help any scenario whereby the body’s cells are not working to their optimum potential. Studies on tissue cultures reveal a wide range of beneficial physiological effects, including increased levels of endorphins, prostaglandins and other beneficial components; reduced levels of harmful compounds including C-reactive protein and interleukin-1; pain modulation through a variety of mechanisms; and increased rate and quality of tissue healing.

OK, but what does that mean in English?

For patients, that means relief from acute and chronic pain, reduced inflammation and muscle spasms, improved range of motion and restored function. Patients suffering from headaches, neck pain, carpal tunnel, low back pain, sports injuries, post-surgical pain, arthritis and more have been helped with laser therapy.

How long does it take to work?

Some patients notice improvement after the very first treatment session; with others it may take a few treatments. The effect of laser therapy is cumulative, meaning that each successive treatment builds on previous ones. The main benefit to patients, as reported by laser therapy practitioners across the country, is that chiropractic care plans that include laser therapy produce faster and better quality clinical outcomes.

What does it feel like to get a laser treatment?

With very low-powered therapy lasers, you feel nothing at all. Higher-powered (Class IV) therapy lasers produce a mild, soothing, warm feeling. You may notice a tingling sensation in the treatment area as blood vessels dilate, or that muscle spasms are reducing in strength and duration. Laser therapy is a painless treatment.

How do you know it is not causing cancer or other tissue damage?

There are two ways that laser light can damage tissue: if it is very concentrated (high power density) or if the photons are very high energy. Therapy lasers use power densities that are far below the levels that cause tissue damage. Ultraviolet light has very high-energy photons capable of ionizing molecules, but therapy lasers use visible and near-infrared light, which only cause molecular vibrations. You could argue that therapy laser light is safer than sunlight.

Are there any side effects?

Some patients may experience soreness in the area of treatment, as toxins are released and the blood flow is restored. World experts on laser therapy have commented that therapeutic lasers have no undesirable side effects in the hands of a reasonably qualified therapist. Laser therapy is safe, painless and inexpensive compared to alternatives.