Who was Doctor Gonstead?
Doctor Clarence Selmer Gonstead
was born in 1898. He initially studied as and became
a successful mechanical engineer. Gonstead first turned
to chiropractic when he started to suffer from a crippling
form of rheumatoid arthritis in his hands. Gonstead
saw a miraculous change in his rheumatoid arthritis
for the better and then decided that chiropractic
was to be his future. He graduated from at Palmer
Chiropractic College in 1923 and started practicing
the same year.
Dr
Gonstead applied his knowledge of mechanical engineering
to the human body. He saw the human body as a complex,
intricate marvel and applied the same disciplines
and principals to it from his previous career. As
part of his lifelong fascination with the human spine
he would fly on his private plane to Lincoln Chiropractic
College in Indianapolis and spend hours examining
cadavers (bodies left to scientific research). From
his findings and studies Gonstead developed a completely
new system of analysis and spinal correction based
around what he called the foundation principle. This
Principle resolved around the pelvis in the human
body which he related to the foundations of a structural
building for example a house. He thought that if the
foundations (pelvis or spinal vertebrae) where uneven
or misaligned then all structures above it would be
affected.
Dr Gonstead also wanted to be able to visualize what
was happening with the spine instead of just attempting
to palpate with his hands as so many other chiropractors
were doing, and so was the first doctor to take full
spine and pelvic x-rays of each individual patients.
This gave Gonstead the ability and tools to see exactly
which way the pelvis and vertebrae were misaligned
as well as the curves of the spine and any degeneration
that may have occurred. At the same time he also developed
the thermographer otherwise known as a nervo scope.
This was a small instrument that gonstead would roll
down the patients spine as part of his analyzes to
pick up changes in skin temperature. He realized that
if a spinal joint was injured or subluxated, as in
any other joint in the body these joints would be
inflamed and give of small amounts of heat. The inflammation
would be detected on the nervo scope and in doing
so would help guide gonstead to the correct vertebrae
for further analysis.
The full spine x-rays that Doctor Gonstead pioneered enabled Gonstead to visualize the whole spine to locate spinal misalignment, access spinal curves and degeneration
Due to this extensive analyzes on the spine and pelvis doctor gonstead had to also come up with a new technique to specifically correct the spinal subluxations. Gonstead now understood that he had all the tools necessary to be able to specifically analyze and correct spinal and pelvic subluxations on any patient. And so Dr Gonstead set up his first clinic in 1923 in the small farming town of Mt Horeb in the state of Wisconsin, United States.
Gonstead's
first clinic in the small farming community of Mt
Horeb, Wisconsin, USA
With a population of only 1200 people, Dr Gonstead's reputation started to spread throughout the state, country and the world as he was able to help so many people with many different conditions a remarkably fast time. As the demand to see Dr Gonstead grew he had to change clinics twice with his final clinic being completed in 1964. The clinic was to become the most famous chiropractic clinic in the world, with a waiting room for 104 people, 11 adjusting rooms, full x-ray and laboratory facilities it was the most advanced clinic of its time and the largest chiropractic clinic ever built. The most amazing thing about the clinic was that patients came from a total of 22 different states and 7 different countries. To care for this amount of people he worked from 8am - midnight, Monday to Saturday and from 5am - 10am on Sundays. He would be able to see up to 800 patients in a typical week. In order to accommodate these patients Gonstead amazingly build a 78 room motel at his clinic, as the town of Mt Horeb only had a few small motels.
Gonstead's
final clinic in Mt Horeb, at the front is the clinic
with the 78 room motel situated behind
And
so other chiropractors in the United States and other
parts of the world wanted to know exactly what this
man was doing to his patients. How could this man
who lived in a town of 1500 people see 800 patients
a week, why were there people who lived minutes away
from a local chiropractor prepared to travel hours
and days to see this man. And so the gonstead seminar
of chiropractic was born. The Seminar is the longest
running seminar in chiropractic, and is still going
strong today. Gonstead would set aside the first Saturday
of every month to teach other chiropractors from around
the world his system of chiropractic so each Doctor
would be able to learn exactly what he was doing and
go back to their own towns and implement it into their
own community. Doctor Gonstead soon got the name 'The
Miracle man', given to him by patients and by his
fellow chiropractors.
And so the Gonstead chiropractic had evolved. Dr Gonstead stopped practicing in 1974 and handed his clinic, his teaching, technique and the Gonstead seminar of chiropractic to Doctors Alex and Doug Cox, his first two associates, who are still practicing in the clinic today and teaching on the seminar, visit www.gonsteadseminar.com for more. Dr Gonstead passed away in 1978 at the age of 80.
