WHO WAS DR. GONSTEAD?
Dr. Gonstead mastered the application of Chiropractic.
Dr. Clarence S. Gonstead graduated from chiropractic college in 1923 and begin his over 50-year career, redefining the chiropractic profession in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. His genius directly influenced the history of Chiropractic and to this day his work inspires many individuals who then change the lives of their patients!
Born in 1898, Gonstead grew up in Wisconsin and worked as a mechanic, repairing tractors and automobiles in the early 1900’s. At the young age of 19, he developed Rheumatoid Arthritis, nearly crippling him, and leaving him bedridden.
Seeking out many different healthcare professionals, eventually with the help of his aunt he found relief under the care of a Chiropractor, Dr. J.B. Olsen. After regaining his ability to walk through a course of care, Gonstead was inspired to attend chiropractic college.
His mechanical aptitude would influence his thought-process, assisting in identifying the mechanism of subluxation. Through clinical observation and application of biomechanical principles, Dr. Gonstead introduced the revolutionary Level Disc Theory which states that subluxation begins at the disc where an inflammatory response from damaged tissue creates “nerve pressure” resulting in neurological complications associated with subluxation.
Dr. Gonstead’s advancements allowed him to create the most specific method of correcting vertebral subluxation in the human spine following multiple diagnostic criteria and correlations of findings. The goal of a correction being to center the vertebrae on the disc to restore an optimal relationship.
The Gonstead System utilizes many different tables for the best correction!
Over the course of his career Dr. Gonstead advanced upon the use of existing technology and pioneered several inventions to make detecting and correcting subluxations even more accurate and precise. His development of the dual-probe instrument, the Nervoscope, enabled practitioners to objectively pinpoint the neurological components of a subluxation by measuring bilateral temperature differences in the spine. This allows a practitioner to effectively identify the affected nerves at each cord level. Dr. Gonstead designed the Cervical Chair and Knee Chest tables to enable a biomechanical advantage to correct the center of a vertebra back onto the disc during a corrective chiropractic adjustment.
The Cervical Chair - the MOST precise way to correct the Cervical Spine!
The Knee Chest - allows for the best correction, especially during Pregnancy!
His advancements allowed him such success in assisting patients on their health journeys, that he became internationally renowned. His final clinic was built in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin and at its peak, had a airstrip to fly patients to it for care and a hotel for patients to stay at as they literally traveled from around the world to receive his care!
This chiropractic mecca saw patients from all around the world!
It is often said that Dr. Gonstead would never go to sleep on the same day that he awoke, adjusting patients for all day long and late into the next morning! It is a little-known fact outside of the Gonstead Community, that Dr. Gonstead did not lose a single patient to the polio epidemic that swept over the United States in the early 20th century.
The Gonstead Clinic’s waiting room seats over 100 and would often have standing room only!
Even after his death, the Gonstead System remains the standard of excellence in the chiropractic profession and the advantage for all of those who seek out Chiropractic care!
Dr. Gonstead taught his discoveries until the very end.
“The principles of the Gonstead System are the simple principles of chiropractic put to work; how to understand what causes nerve pressure, how to find it on the patient, how to achieve a corrective setting of the offending vertebra, and how to know when the chiropractor’s job is done, and nature’s begins.”
- Dr. C.S. Gonstead, D.C.