Adams Chiropractic celebrates 55 years in business in Sonoma

Laurence Adams was just five years old when he knew he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.

His dad was a chiropractor and often got summoned to house calls.

“He worked a lot, so I’d jump at any chance I could be with him,” Laurence said. One day when James Adams asked his son if he’d like to accompany him to a patient’s home, Laurence quickly agreed.

Usually they would be going to help a person who had fallen and couldn’t get up or someone who had tweaked their neck trying to do a household task and had become incapacitated. But this day was different.

When they arrived at the caller’s property, instead of going to the house, they headed to the barn. A colt had just been born and wasn’t walking. The normal protocol for a newborn horse unable to walk would have been euthanasia, but James’ client had called him in a last-ditch effort to save its life.

Laurence watched in awe as his dad adjusted the colt and, within a few minutes, it started walking and nursing.

“That is the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I want to do that!” Laurence remembers his 5-year-old self thinking.

Today Adams Chiropractic Neurology Group includes not only Laurence Adams and his dad, James, but also his brother Robert, and their sister Jill Sullivan, who manages the office.

The chiropractic industry has been gaining momentum in recent decades and has seen another surge in the past few years after the fallout from the opioid epidemic. According to PubMed, an online database for biomedical topics, alternative treatments like chiropractic have been gaining in popularity as people seek more natural and individualized approaches to their health.

In the veteran population alone, from 2004 to 2015, the annual number of patients seen in VA chiropractic clinics increased 822 percent.

Despite its increasing visibility, chiropractic is still considered as an alternative medicine by much of the mainstream medical community.

But it’s not just glorified back-cracking, insists the Adams family.

Chiropractors also study neurology and the entire neuromusculoskeletal system.

The goal of “chiropractic adjustments,” also known as “spinal manipulation,” is to restore joint mobility to areas that have become hypomobile or restricted in their movement.

At Adams Chiropractic, the doctors spend ample time understanding their patients before any adjustments are done. They take X-rays and look at the spine during specific movements to understand where restrictions and imbalances are originating.

The office also has an entire room dedicated to specialized technologies and machines designed to treat an array of imbalances.

“Many of our patients come in for everyday neck, back or shoulder issues and don’t realize our treatments address so many other problems above and beyond their immediate pain,” said Laurence. “People don’t correlate things like gut function, hypo and hyper thyroid, or infertility to our practice, but the nervous system controls the systems of the body. Eighty percent of movement receptors in the body are located in the spine and 90 percent of all receptors in the body are movement receptors. We have billions of receptors.

“Movement ignites the brain. Our treatments help the brain function better and keep pathways active and moving. When the brain starts getting balanced, our bodies can heal,” said Laurence. “Rather than treating the symptoms, our aim is getting to the cause with what’s going on in our patients’ nervous system and in their body.”

If the Adams family is any indication of the effectiveness of the practice, to say it’s working would be an understatement. James and his wife, Judy, both in their early 80s are on zero medications. The same goes for their six children and 21 grandchildren. According to Pubmed, the average adult over 65 is taking four prescription medications, with 39 percent of people taking more than five medications.

The family also has zero chronic diseases.

Typically incurable and ongoing, chronic diseases affect approximately 133 million Americans, or 40 percent of the total population and growing, according to the National Health Council.

James attributes his family’s clean bill of health to chiropractic’s five pillars of health, which include: exercise, sleep, nutrition, a positive mental attitude, and a proper working nervous system supported through chiropractic.

James and Judy moved from the east coast to Sonoma in 1966 with their four children; they would eventually have two more. “My wife was intent on having six children, so we had six children. I thought she was joking,” said James.

“The month we moved to Sonoma in July of 1966, they put a light up at Fifth Street West and Napa Street,” said James. “That was the first signal in Sonoma. At that time there were lots of dairies, ranches, fruit orchards, walnuts and cherries. It had that inviting, small-town atmosphere. We just loved the community. Raising our kids in this small town, our neighbors became aunts, uncles and grandparents to our kids. They helped raise our family.”

James opened his practice in a small office on Broadway under a doctor named Bates who had a hospital chain called London House. Judy, an RN, got a job as a nurse for the London House and James practiced at that location until his current office on Andrieux Street was completed in 1973.

The family lived on East Napa Street in what is now the Hidden Oak Inn for seven years, until the traffic increased to the point that they felt it was unsafe for their young children. James recalls watching one of his sons run out into the road and have a near-miss with a car.

That’s when they decided to move the family out to the Diamond A area, where they’ve lived ever since.

All the kids attended Sonoma Valley High School.

Robert Adams graduated in the class of 1978 and remembers his time fondly.

“Sonoma High prepared me very well for the world. I loved the school,” said Robert Adams.

After graduating, Robert went off to college where he got his degree in zoology before heading to Palmer College of Chiropractic. Robert also spent some time traveling to Scotland and Northern Ireland before returning to Sonoma to work with his father in 1987.

Over the past few years, Robert has published a series of picture books, fitting for people of all ages, to break down the applications of chiropractic neurology. The format uses illustrations and easy-to-understand tidbits of information that describe the principles and treatments. His books are available for purchase in the Adams Chiropractic office.

When he opened his practice 55 years ago, James never would have imagined the community he and his family have built here. It has surpassed every expectation. “Over the years, patients have become friends and like family to us.”

James also didn’t plan on having his practice become a family business.

“We taught all the kids how to take X-rays and so on, but I had no expectations of any of them following in my footsteps,” says James. “I’m thrilled it worked out that way.”

As for the 83-year-old James retiring anytime soon? Not a chance. “I’m more excited today than I was when I started 55 years ago.”