The Darien Chiropractor to see - Chiropractor Darien

Dr. Alan Chun Wah Tang

If I only knew what I would be getting into when I chose this profession…

From age 12 I knew I had always wanted to be a doctor. Why? When I was born I was a very sickly child. My mother would take me to the pediatrician and to get shots and I wouldn’t really get any better. (hold that thought, I’ll return to it later.) I had asthma and my pediatrician said that all I wanted was attention. I was hospitalized, medically got better, and was released. I was prescribed a puffer to use. The doctors at the hospital had saved my life in that instance. 

I wanted to give back to society what the doctors had sacrificed in time for me. As I got older, my mother took me to a Chinese Medical doctor who prescribed me decoctions of what tasted like mud. I had disliked the drink with a passion, although I was able to breathe better naturally and had to rely less on the puffer. I always ate well, read many health and medical books (beleive it or not!)  My mother always told me that western medication was just chemicals, and they just manipulate your body, but not fix the problem.  Back then I was skeptical.  Not anymore...  

Fast forward to college: I was well on my path to medical school when a chiropractor from my alma mater Logan College of Chiropractic came to my undergrad to share with me the “chiropractic good news”. The philosophy was quite intriguing, as it made me think “outside-the-box.” I decided to try it and realized that I was not using my puffer nor in need of my herbals anymore. In chiropractic school there were many more miracles revealed to me. I saw my x-rays on my low back and saw that I had a small curvature. A few years later after chiropractic adjustments I was amazed to see that my Irritable Bowel Syndrome was going away for good and my lactose-intolerance has lessened as well as the straightening of my spine, which (knowing what I know now) assured a decreased chance of osteoarthritis in my spine! My sinuses got better without any herbals or sprays. I had a love of coffee in undergrad but didn’t link the caffeine to my upper back spasms until my intern recommended to me to try cutting out the caffeine.

I chose Logan College of Chiropractic as my school of choice because of their excellent blend of art, science and philosophy in all the healing arts.

My practice philosophy involves healing the body in three distinct areas:

• structural balance
• chemical balance
• energetic-emotional balance.

We first want structural balance to be able to support our body, since we are symmetrical beings there should be a postural balance between the left and the right side. If there is any weakness in the musculature, the skeleton  becomes torqued out of balance and the body creates a lot more wear and tear in the joints, much like the tire on your care become worned out, out-of-alignment and out-of-balance.

Chemical balance means getting proper nutrition and keeping toxins out of the body. Each person has their individual biochemistries and have different needs. Your body runs on premium fuel. Detoxification of your body is like changing the oil and filter in your car before it turns into sludge that damages your engine.

Energetic balance is keeping your body at a proper energy level by creating harmony with your qi, your body’s life energy. Just like when when your car battery receives too much or too little voltage your car will not run properly or causes a short in the electrical system and the engine stalls.

I’ll tell you a little secret. I don’t heal anyone at all! What I do is to remove the interference from your body and give the body what it needs to function at its optimal health potential and YOUR BODY HEALS ITSELF!!!

Some of the most satisfying cases have been to make fertile, a couple who had been trying to conceive for 8 years, in which there were two failed in-vitro transfers. Or another who could not ovulate at all. Another case is someone who had ascites (fluid in the abdomen) from cancer and to just watch the belly shrink with just several acupuncture treatments still amazes me.

The most amazing case is very personal to me. When I first opened my practice in Chicago in 2003, I went to church in Chinatown – at the height of the SARS outbreak. Lo and behold I had developed SARS-I had a 1) a fever, 2) unexplained severe muscle spasms, 3) my radiology resident roommate at the time took a chest x-ray of me, pointed to a spot and said “that’s not normal” – 3 out of 3 according to the World Health Organization’s criteria for SARS. With a lot of acupuncture, my TENS unit and chiropractic I’m still kicking today! Thank God!

Imagine how many lives could have been saved if the word got out about this wonderful health care paradigm?

My wife and I met in her hometown of St. Louis and have been married since 2004 and we participate actively at church. Little did I know, when I had first met my wife she has an uncle who lives in my hometown, who so happened to be my pediatrician! (I told you to hold that thought.) Yes, I married into a family of six, count it, six medical doctors. My pediatrician brother-in-law is very open to chiropractic and wants me to move over to California where he is so I could treat him. Nah! I’m happy here. My gynecologist-oncologist surgeon father-in-law is the best in the country in what he does has accepted me as a professional and as a son-in-law (though things weren’t that way in the beginning.) All of these traditionally trained MDs are very accepting of who I am and my profession. In fact, my brother-in-law is now seeking training for acupuncture!

I personally receive chiropractic care once per week, and acupuncture once at the start of each season unless in the rare occasion I end up ill. (As of 2007 I had only taken 2.5 sick days.) I am eating more organic, as there is less chemicals, hormones and antibiotics that I don’t need. I take my supplements daily to give me energy and to maximize my optimal health potential, I pray in Jesus’ name daily and I try to exercise at least twice per week. I also catch up with my wife and we reconcile our day. Completing our 3-step Detox program I lost 6 lbs of toxin weight, while my wife lost 9 lbs-and we both have kept it off!

All in all I must thank my mother for instilling in me the Eastern philosophy of balancing the body which I lay my foundation for healing and not the Western paradigm of drugs or surgery.  THANKS, MOM!