Driving Home the Benefits of Chiropractic

A story disseminated on January 8, 2003 by the Associated Press highlighted the benefits of chiropractic care for truck drivers. Drs. Paul Boris (left), and Andrew Giran (right) have an interesting chiropractic practice at a truck stop, helping those who cross the open road.

The article starts by relating the story of Erwin Daugherty, a 71 year old trucker from Quinlan, Texas. Daugherty regularly stops at the Smithton Travel Center, a truck stop about 25 miles south of Pittsburgh, not to get his 18 wheeler truck checked, but rather to get his spine checked. "I'd see a chiropractor every week if I could," Daugherty said. "About the only way I get to see a chiropractor is one that had truck parking," Daugherty said in a telephone interview Tuesday from Texas, where he was driving a load of automobile tires. "So when the chiropractors started putting offices near truck stops, it really made it handy for me."

Daugherty has found about nine chiropractors who operate at or near truck stops in Arizona, Missouri and Texas. "If I just happen to find one that's close to a truck stop, I'll put them in my cell phone and say, "Hey, I'm on my way."

It is estimated that 25 million Americans visit a chiropractor each year, according to the American Chiropractic Association. And a growing number of the nation's 65,000 chiropractors have decided to serve truck drivers, a group that really needs their help. Truckers, who spend hours on the road and sometimes do heavy lifting, are among the most serious sufferers of spinal problems.

Most of the chiropractors who have offices at or near the truck stops say that the majority of the truckers they see also have chiropractors who take care of them when they are home. The truck-stop-doctors offer help while the truckers are on the road.