Small Changes in Wellness Can Produce Big Results
Dr. Michael Rehl of Walnut Creek is a chiropractor, practitioner of applied kinesiology and certified massage therapist—and former teacher—who, most of all, educates patients about their bodies, how they work and what they need to heal themselves.
“I deal with a lot of health problems,” he says. “Many of us are not 20 any more, and we’re kind of falling apart. We’re exhausted and in pain and falling asleep all the time.”
But, he asserts, it doesn’t need to be that way, and we can age gracefully if we understand proper self-care. Rehl offers a holistic approach to identify stressors in the body, whether they’re biochemical, nutritional, structural or stress-related.
He addresses posture, spinal alignment, food and nutrition, supplements and goal-setting, and, most of all, the connections throughout the body’s interrelated systems, aiming to educate patients rather than simply telling them what to do.
Intuition and Applied Science Yield Healing Results
In his early 30s, Michael Rehl, of Rehl Chiropractic, began to experience intense fatigue—a physical malaise and brain fog that made it tough for him to get through the day. Rising out of bed was difficult, and coffee didn’t help. Looking for answers, he sought the advice of conventional doctors, but after running a series of tests, they assured him that everything was normal.
Rehl didn’t feel normal. He knew something was wrong, so he visited an applied kinesiologist that conducted muscle testing, a technique that gauges muscle strength and reflexes to pinpoint physical imbalances and systemic problem areas. He advised Rehl to eliminate wheat, dairy and soy from his diet. “I was eating a lot of bread, like most people do,” Rehl recalls. “I did stop and most of that fog, that heaviness and horrible feeling, lifted off of me.” He began to take nutritional supplements, too, and so commenced his quest to heal himself and eventually, others.
Finding the Root Causes of Puzzling Pain
For Michael Rehl of Walnut Creek, holistic healing is like solving a jigsaw puzzle. With expertise in chiropractic, kinesiology, physiology and nutrition, Rehl identifies and connects the interrelated puzzle pieces to see a complete picture of each patient’s health and uncover underlying causes of pain and malaise.
“People come to me with unresolved chronic problems and don’t know what to do next,” says Rehl. “I use advanced adjusting techniques to adjust all joints of the body, not only the spine. But when a patient doesn’t respond to chiropractic or other types of body work, I can also help identify reasons why.”
Rehl’s search for answers started early, with his childhood science kits—a hobby that undoubtedly inspired his future career choices. Rehl began his professional life as a middle school science teacher in North Carolina through Teach for America. His interest in both science and bodywork later brought Rehl to the Bay Area, where he practiced massage therapy and neuromuscular reprogramming, taught Pilates, and studied applied kinesiology (AK). Looking to expand his holistic practice, Rehl enrolled at Life Chiropractic College West and became a doctor of chiropractic in 2008.