DR Duncan McCollum DC, Santa Cruz

At the age of 10, Duncan McCollum fell 30 feet from a towering tree while trying to catch sight of a Cal-Stanford football game. With the fall came the consensus of a sprained back and a childhood filled with prescription medications and muscle relaxers to deal with his near-constant pain. He reinjured his back at the age of 20, and his friends, who were convinced that chiropractic care could help, dragged him to a chiropractor against his will. After taking x-rays and examining him, the chiropractor made a startling discovery—Duncan's initial fall from a decade ago had broken his back, and since then it had healed incorrectly.

"I was really nervous when he was about to adjust me for the first time," Duncan says. "For the first time in over a decade, I felt relief. I could get up and move!"

With continual treatments, Duncan slowly got his life back, and with it came great inspiration. He set out to become a Doctor of Chiropractic in order to help those who felt condemned to living with back pain, as he once did. Now, inside McCollum Family Chiropractic's cottage-like setting, he warmly welcomes patients and listens to their own life stories before eradicating aches and pains with gentle chiropractic treatments.