ABOUT OUR DOCTOR
Dr. David Vik
Dr. David Vik was born on June 4th, 1964, in Ft. Stewart, Georgia and is last of four children born to his parents. He has colonial roots, the first arriving in Jamestown, Virginia in 1610. He comes from a long heritage of soldiers in the American Army, both of his brothers, his father, his grandfather and many in previous generations serving. His father, a native of Wolf Point, Montana, retired a Master Sergeant and afterwards pursued a career in the Boy Scouts of America for 20 years. His mother, whose family came west with the westward expansion after the Civil War, followed her husband around the United States and the world raising their children and providing a home. Dr. Vik and both of his brothers are Eagle Scouts.
While studying at Kansas State University he was stationed at Ft. Riley, Kansas where he served as an air evac medic, working in a nursing home once he was out of the Army. Based on his background in the military he planned to pursue a career in medicine, but after caring for residents in a nursing home and witnessing the effects of over medication, became dismayed when the residents underwent a medical procedure. Once taking them off of the medications prior to the procedure he noticed both their mental and physical health improve, only to deteriorate once again when they returned to the nursing home and resumed their medications. Upon mentioning this to his mother, who had been a chiropractic patient for years, she suggested he look into chiropractic as an alternative. This resonated with him, and Dr. Dave decided to enter into a career to help ensure true health and wellness to the people in his community he knew growing up as a child in Pueblo.
Upon graduating from Kansas State University with a degree in Languages he moved to Chicago where he received a bachelors degree in Human Biology, studied and graduated from chiropractic school. It was there that he met his wife to be, Dr. Angela Vik, who also moved to Chicago to study chiropractic. She is a native of Lindsay, Ontario, Canada. Upon graduation, they moved to Harlingen in the Rio Grand Valley of south Texas to pursue job opportunities that provided an opportunity to serve people in a unique clinical and cultural experience. This allowed Dr. Dave to further utilize and build upon his Spanish speaking abilities. After five years of practice, they returned to the Pueblo area in 1997 to be closer to family, raise their own family, and serve the families of southern Colorado in a vibrant, growing community. They have been married since 1996 and have three children, Alexa, Sydney, and Casey.
Dr. Vik believes that anyone who has the training, the skills, the education and the knowledge to care for people and their families live the healthiest and highest quality of life possible have the responsibility to do so and for as long as they can. He is constantly pursuing more ways to serve individuals and their families, and is currently advancing his education by working to receive his fellowship certification from the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (I.C.P.A). He is also certified in the Webster Technique.
Dr. Vik is described by his practice members as animated and passionate about life, health and chiropractic. He and his staff practice with a warm and approachable heart, they are honest, committed, and hard working.
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Personal Message from Dr. David:
I am a doctor that focuses on correcting the structural alignment of the body under the influences of gravity. I understand how important that correction is as it has a direct influence on the joints and the nervous system, which controls every function of our body. The spine houses the central nervous system which is the information superhighway between the brain and the body. The basic philosophy behind what I do, gravitational postural alignment, is to determine, and correct, causes of structural misalignment in the spine, subluxation, rather than just treating the symptom, as a symptom is nothing more than the body trying to bring conscious attention to a problem area in the body. Correcting the alignment (structural symmetry) will result in correction of both the cause, and the symptom, even when there may be no apparent connection. Misalignment often causes muscles to compensate elsewhere in an attempt to hold the body upright against gravity. When you are not structurally aligned this changes the attachment (origin and insertion) of muscles to hold the body upright, thus causing muscle, tendon, and ligament changes to compensate for the body not being symmetrically aligned with gravity. The body is designed to send constant feedback to the brain as to where it is in relationship to the forces being placed upon each joint, from gravity or other levers. Each joint in your body has nerves which send information to the brain (afferent) of how gravity is pulling on the joints and muscles. In return, the brain gives feedback (efferent) to stabilize the body against gravity by adjusting muscular tension and length in order to respond to the structurally altered weight bearing area.
“Nerves that fire together, wire together”
Inherently, three key proprioceptive (balance signals to the brain) areas must have stability in order for the body to maintain a structurally aligned posture; the feet, the sacrum (tail bone), and the occiput (base of the skull). Based upon coordinated balance (proprioceptive) input received from these areas to the brain, the body will structurally deform to hold the eyes level with the horizon in an upright weight-bearing position against gravity. Long-standing over-activation or stimulation of abnormal joint reflexes causes change in spinal cord memory that eventually “burns a groove” in the central nervous system, as the brain and cord are unknowingly saturated, with a constant stream of inappropriate coordinated balance (proprioceptive) information. Regrettably, the brain comes to rely on this faulty, weight-bearing feedback that determines established posture. The brain simply forgets the proper innate (in-born/natural) alignment.
This upright posture misalignment results from the brain causing the body to keep the eyes level with the horizon. The body continues to move against gravity misaligned, and the ongoing compensation patterns, created to keep the body aligned with gravity, will also lead to decreased function, strength and range of motion, as well as improper nerve conduction flow from the brain back and forth to the body. Signs and symptoms of this often manifest in the patient body as: fasciitis, tendonitis, trigger points, inhibited tight muscles, referral pain, decreased coordination, poor balance, decreased reflexes, arthritis, joint degeneration, loss of joint motion, decreased eye hand coordination, headaches, numbness, tingling, muscle weakness, atrophy, joint pain, depression, psychosocial disorders, mood swings, as well as a host of other ailments that affect the body and the organs.
Structural alignment goes hand and hand with muscle length. In order to achieve the maximum potential of a muscle group, it must be equal/symmetrical in length. This allows the muscle to provide equal recruitment from other muscle groups and proprioceptive (coordinated balance) feedback to the brain via the peripheral nervous system (nerves from the body back to the spinal cord). The job of skeletal muscles is to stabilize the joints by changing its tension to accommodate movement or to hold the joint stable in one position. When the joint changes position, the muscle must respond by changing tension. Thus initiating the theory that muscles can be turned on and off depending on joint alignment. If the joint structure is misaligned, muscle tension will remain for joint stability. Or, muscle groups will be inhibited in order to keep the body aligned with gravity. This can cause muscle groups or individual muscles to overwork, or underwork, and tear, form adhesions, tender/trigger points, etc. In order to have maximal muscle balance and strength, the joint structures of the upright body must be equally aligned with gravity.
It is important to note that when the body is out of structural alignment, exercise will produce uneven and uncoordinated muscular activity due to uneven muscle lengths from improper joint positioning, thus producing uneven cartilage erosion and arthritic changes (plastic deformation). Therefore, it is imperative to determine and correct the structural cause, in order to prevent injury and retain optimal function.
Our goal is to create symmetrically equal weight bearing, structural postural alignment. Further consideration is a concern that nerve and innate healing energy is disrupted, as a result of a distorted and dysfunctional weight bearing spine.
It is truly an honor to serve you as your doctor of chiropractic. Our mission and vision is to be the best in the eyes of our practice members as we help them to restore structural function, achieve stabilization of the nervous system, help the body heal itself, and live life at its optimal potential.
To Your Health,
Dr. Dave Vik
