Gonstead Chiropractic

The Gonstead Adjustment represents the highest standard of chiropractic manipulation techniques
known today.

Dr. Clarence S. Gonstead (1898-1978) grew up learning and practicing how to repair automobiles and tractors, which was interesting to him because it later foreshadowed his successes in applying mechanical physics principles to spine correction human vertebral.

When Gonstead was 19, he contracted a crippling case of arthritis, which left him bedridden for several weeks. Dr. JB Olson who was a chiropractor treated the condition for him and after a few days Gonstead was able to walk again. This was a dramatic and life changing experience for him.

Thus, he gained admission to Palmer College for Chiropractic and completed his undergraduate degree in 1923. While working as an automotive engineer, the concepts and principles of mechanical physics helped him rethink his prevailing ideas regarding the mechanism of subluxation. BJ Palmer’s theory, which focuses on the displacement of the vertebrae causing infringement of the neural foramina, was the paradigm and standard in the chiropractic profession.

On the other hand, Dr. Gonstead did not agree with Palmer’s ideas and challenged his theory through biomechanical principles. Gonstead introduced innovative intervertebral disc theories, which state that subluxation begins in the disc – an area where the inflammatory response has caused pressure on the nerve from damaged tissue – resulting in several neurological complications associated with the subluxation.

Dr. Gonstead has developed several aids, such as the Nervous Scope, which has allowed chiropractic professionals to objectively identify the components of the subluxation by measuring differences in bilateral spinal temperatures. He also designed the Cervical Chair and Knee Chest
Table, which allowed chiropractors to obtain particular positions for effective hand corrections.

Gonstead began practicing chiropractic in 1923 in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, a small farming community of 1,200 residents in south central Wisconsin. Dr. Gonstead’s reputation first spread throughout the US states and then throughout the world as a multitude of patients’ health problems were resolved extraordinarily quickly by his type of chiropractic treatment. Hundreds of patients sought his care every day, and with his dedication to helping these patients, Dr. Gonstead worked 8am to midnight 6 days a week plus Sunday mornings 5am to 10am to accommodate this growing number of patients.

The Gonstead Clinic of Chiropractic, completed in 1964, was the third and last clinic Dr. Gonstead would design before his death in 1978. Dr. Gonstead built the largest Chiropractic Clinic in the world. A 22,000 square foot clinic, it had a waiting room to accommodate over 100 patients, x-ray facilities, laboratory and training rooms. Alongside his new clinic, Gonstead had a full-service hotel and airstrip built to accommodate the many patients arriving from far and wide. Gonstead and his fellow staff members attended to 300 to 400 patients daily. This huge following of patients led Dr. Gonstead to start the Gonstead Seminar of Chiropractic.