I'm picky about chiropractors. My father, brother, and brother-in-law are all chiropractors. I've met all kinds of chiropractic doctors through my family's professional circles from all over the country. As a child, I dreamed of one day becoming a chiropractor myself.
However, before a week ago, I didn't know any chiropractors in SF, where I have lived for the last half decade. Then, I had a neck injury and realized that I needed to find the right doctor to help me. I read Yelp reviews and called the top ranked doctors to speak with them about their methods of diagnosis, adjustment, and measurement of results. I even cheated and had my retired father call doctors to help in the vetting process.
To be completely honest, I was largely disappointed. Most SF chiropractors were focused on soft-tissue palpation, spoke primarily about symptoms, and said they didn't take X-rays as part of their diagnosis (how can you tell the degree of spinal subluxation if you don't have a picture of the bone positioning?).
But with Dr Michael Zabelin, it was different. His methodology is highly precise, and he is very focused on the cause of the symptoms, as opposed to the symptoms themselves (in my case, constant headaches since my neck injury 5 weeks ago). His diagnosis and measurement was very exact. Today, as part of the hour he spent with me, he took 20 minutes going over a series of X-rays with protractors in hand, showing the extent to which the first vertebrae in my cervical spine was rotated relative to the base of my skull and the second cervical vertebrae. Then he adjusted my first vertebrae (atlas). Immediately, I could feel warmth in my neck as my bone moved in response to Dr Z's specific adjustment.
Seven hours later, I'm feeling better than I have over the past 5 weeks since my neck injury. My understanding is that it will probably take somewhere from 2-8 visits for the headaches to go away entirely. I will look forward to updating this review with the results I experience over that time.
I should note that if you're looking for fancy offices, and a doctor that promises to fix your symptoms, Cow Hollow Chiropractic is not the place to go. He's been at Fillmore and Union for the past 16 years on a second floor that is accessed by a yellow door with no sign out front. The facility probably hasn't been remodeled once.
However, if you are looking for a traditional chiropractor that focuses on correcting the cause of health symptoms you may be experiencing, Dr Z seems to be a great candidate. read more
