Chiropractic Care

“THE DOCTOR OF THE FUTURE WILL GIVE NO MEDICINE BUT WILL INTEREST THE PATIENT IN THE CARE OF THE HUMAN FRAME, IN DIET, AND IN THE CAUSE AND PREVENTION OF DISEASE.” –THOMAS EDISON

Chiropractic Philosophy

.While most people first present to Seahurst Chiropractic for neck, low back or extremity pain they are quite surprised to realize that chiropractic is a health care modality that provides significantly more than just a solution for pain. Chiropractic is not concerned about treating the “symptom”. Chiropractic is a means to correct the cause. Yet the cure is not an isolated treatment, pill, potion or lotion. Chiropractic is a lifestyle that involves all aspects of wellness, including exercise, nutrition, personal development, and stress relief

How does chiropractic work?

We acknowledge that there is an inborn intelligence in each of us that controls all life functions. It keeps the heart pumping, the stomach digesting food and relays key information to the immune system. This intelligence is transmitted through the body by way of nerves. The segments of the spinal cord are the only places through which nerves pass. A subtle and often painless malposition of the spinal bones can choke and squeeze the nerve, ultimately affecting the function of the organs, cells and tissues controlled by that nerve resulting in health problems and disease. We, chiropractors, call this a vertebral subluxation.
The intent of chiropractic is to find these subluxation patterns in the spine and neutralize the negative impact it has on the nervous system by applying a gentle force at the right place, and in the right direction, to restore motion to the stuck or fixated spinal structure.

How do subluxations occur?

As we each deal with the stresses of life (physical stress (birth, sports, injuries), emotional stress and chemical stress (what we eat, environmental toxins)), our bodies attempt to adapt. Usually they do a masterful job. But when our ability to adapt is diminished from lack of sleep, physical trauma, poor nutrition, toxic chemicals, fear, or some other unresolved emotion, the body assumes a defensive posture. This can often cause individual spinal bones to lose their normal motion or position – a subluxation. The muscle spasm, soft tissue inflammation and nerve irritation that result can start a chain reaction, affecting the workings of the organs and tissues controlled by that nerve.

So while the emphasis of chiropractic appears to be on the 24 moving bones that surround the spinal cord and nerve roots, the real interest of the chiropractor is the integrity of the nervous system.

Our goal is to restore health

While many seek chiropractic care for headaches, low back pain, neck pain and other seemingly spinal related health problems, people who are suffering from allergies, asthma, ADD, ADHD, and other conditions are living in a subluxated state. Efforts to regain or improve our health and to become all we have the potential to be cannot occur if we overlook the nervous system. Chiropractic care is the foundation of any serious attempt to restore, improve or maximize one’s health.

Dr. Yael Kantor, DC, Executive Director

I am originally from South Africa. I immigrated to the States with my family when I was 16. I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Science and a Doctorate of Chiropractic. I am the owner of Seahurst Chiropractic Clinic and the Executive Director of Burien Center for Health and Wellbeing.

For the majority of my young life I was a gymnast. Like most athletes I had my share of injuries, shin splints being the most severe. I was in so much pain that there were times I had to withdraw from one event or another and sometimes from an entire competition. Due to my body overcompensating for the leg pain, my low back started to hurt. But I ignored it. I was an athlete after all and could deal with the pain. But the pain started limiting my flexibility and after a while I could barely bend. I had developed a stress fracture in the small of my back. I went from one physician to another, from one specialist to another, and was put on one medication after another until I was finally told to quit the sport. Frustrated and unwilling to give the sport up, my parents finally took me to a chiropractor. Under his care I was able to continue competing, pain free, no drugs, no surgery. I competed internationally for 8 years and earned a full scholarship to undergraduate college in the United States. Chiropractic changed my life and enabled me to fulfill my dreams. I became a chiropractor so I could do the same for other people.

After graduating from Chiropractic school, I knew the beautiful State of Washington was where I would make my home. My parents and siblings had moved to Seattle and it was important for me to be close to my family. Subsequent to working with well known chiropractors, my brother and I bought Seahurst Chiropractic in Burien and persuaded our parents to work in the practice with us. My brother currently operates our other chiropractic clinic in Marysville. As my family would say, “finally” I got married. And have two amazing, healthy children.

My practice has evolved over the past 21 years. My own history of pain and suffering as a result of incorrect posture contributed to the initial focus of my practice being to help people of all ages correct the structural integrity of their spines. I had extensive training in the biomechanics of the spine using Pettibon technique. I knew from my experience, that ignoring ones posture was like ignoring brushing your teeth. It leads to more complex, more painful, more detrimental and more costly effects later. Acute and chronic musculoskeletal disorders, whiplash injuries, sports injuries and work related injuries all lent themselves to poor positioning of the spine and ultimately degeneration and deterioration of the body. I equipped my practice with the most updated, state of the art therapies including whole food nutrition, decompression and cold laser. My goal was to help people regain their health, decrease their pain, improve their function and their postures, and lessen their need for invasive interventions.

It was after my first encounter with a child that was disabled from a birth trauma that ignited my passion to further my studies on chiropractic and pregnancy and chiropractic pediatric care. I studied the effects of pregnancy and birth on the mother and infant, the advantages of natural births, the cascade of neurologic (ADD, ADHD, etc) and physiologic events that can result from poor spinal alignment, the effects of vaccinations, the devastating affairs of nutrition, or lack of, in our country and the unfortunate overuse of prescribed medication. I fell pregnant for the first time at 42 and again at 45. Because of my age I was immediately considered “high risk” but my midwives thought otherwise and so did I. I had two healthy pregnancies and two natural births, both in a beautiful birthing center, drug free. I am raising my unvaccinated children on an organic as possible diet. They were adjusted the moment they were born, get adjusted regularly now and are rarely, if ever, sick. They have never eaten at a fast food restaurant nor have they ever taken any medication. As a mother, it became my mission to teach families about their options, about healthy pregnancies, natural births and a drug free approach to alleviating sickness with spinal health, proper nutrition and exercise. The focus of my practice became about the children, about teaching how our future generations did not have to look forward to a life full of disease, or a life shorter than their parents would be.