NEWBERRY — The story of Dr. Wade Verch’s move to Newberry — and the opening of Carolina West Clinic of Chiropractic on Feb. 6 — began in the midwest when he attended Kettering University in Michigan.
Originally a mechanical engineering major at Kettering University, formally General Motors Institute, he transferred to Central Michigan when he father got sick and went from a prestigious engineering school to one with a two-year engineering program.
“So I got frustrated with it and changed directions,” he said. “I knew I wanted to get in healthcare some how, and I got my bachelor’s degree in health fitness exercise science, with a concentration in cardiac rehab.”
Verch graduated from Central Michigan in 2012 and then decided to go into the chiropractic field, mainly because it had nothing to do with medications.
“I had some bad experiences growing up with medication, and I knew that I wanted to find a way to help people without doing that, so there are a couple of options at that point — PT and chiropractic,” Verch said. “Chiropractic ended up being what spoke to me as an individual.”
He then went to Palmer College of Chiropractic in Daytona, Fla., where he realized how many of the same principals he studied in engineering still applied in the chiropractic field.
Palmer College of Chiropractic was started by the son of Daniel David Palmer, the man who invented chiropractic. The main campus is in Davenport, Iowa, but there are branches in Florida and California.
“I was born in Nebraska, I grew up in the midwest and I decided I was ready for a change, so I moved to Florida,” Verch said. “It was definitely a big change, moving from Michigan all the way to Florida. It was definitely a culture shock.”
Verch graduated in March 2016, after which he did his preceptor at a large chiropractic clinic in Edgewater, Fla.
Verch said his family decided they loved Florida, but knew they wanted to get a little further north. A colleague of Verch’s knew he wanted to start his own practice and asked Verch if he would help him at his practice in Walterboro. They ended up becoming partners.
“We wanted something more central in geography. We did boatloads of demographics on everything in the area, and we found something halfway in between the mountains and the ocean, which was Newberry,” Verch said. “The lakes, everything was very attractive to us. The economy is doing well here, employment is good, it is a growing town.”
Verch said the historic downtown had a nice boutique feel, and once he and his family decided to settle in Newberry they wanted to be in the downtown area. That decision led them to 1112 Calhoun St.
Carolina West Clinic of Chiropractic took over the front two units, and Verch took down the wall that separated the two units. Verch said it was a major renovation project that took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to complete.
“Here, I did it the old fashioned way — I went door to door. I knocked on every door, went to every business, shook hands,” Verch said. “Once they figured out I was not trying to sell them anything, or tell them who to vote for, they were very accommodating. It is really a blessing to be able to do that. I brought my wife and baby to some of those interactions and that was a much bigger hit than myself.”
The business
Verch is an upper cervical chiropractor, cervical referring to the neck.
“So while I do treat the full spine, my post graduate focus has been at what is called the CCJ, where your head and your neck meet,” Verch said.
The first thing Verch will do when a patient comes in is have a conversation, which is when he will determine what kind of shape the patient is in, if they have an history of car accidents, or other things of that nature. He is trying to determine what happened to get them into the condition they are currently in.
“The next thing we do is take a really close look at you, do a neuromuscular examination, get a little bit broader scope, a little more data. After that we have to get some very special imaging of where Atlas is exactly, that is the C1. We put all that information together,” Verch said. “We will tell people very black and white what we can and cannot do for everyone. If someone comes in and they have had tremendous results with traditional chiropractic we can accommodate that too.”
After Verch crunches all the data, he can find the ideal vector to push this segment and it only takes three to five pounds of pressure to do so. He says that it is gentle and painless, but the results are profound and often immediate.
“My youngest patient I have ever treated was two hours old. Nice thing about what I do is it is so gentle, people who cringe at the thought of adjusting a newborn, it is an entirely different process, there is no cracking or anything like that,” Verch said.
Verch emphasizes that seeing a chiropractor is bigger than pain — it is about your future. He said pain comes and goes, but if the things are not aligned correctly, it can cause long term problems.
“We see all kinds of crazy things, even blood pressure coming down on post adjustment. Babies that have been backed up for weeks, come in and get adjusted, they explode before they leave the office usually,” Verch said.
Carolina West Clinic of Chiropractic officially opened Feb. 6. Call 803-597-5099 r visit them online at www.carolinawestclinic.com for more information.
