FORT STEWART, Ga. - Did you feel that ache in your neck when you leaned over to clean your weapon on the range last week? Or how about that lingering pain in your lower back as you sit at the computer screen?
Ever thought about seeing a chiropractor?
Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield now has the service on board, offered by one of the doctors of Chiropracting, Stephen Schiffman at Winn Army Community Hospital. Schiffman is one of the two chiropractors on board who offer services to active-duty service members at Hawks Troop Medical Clinic on Fort Stewart.
With 10 years of private practice under his belt which began just outside of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., Schiffman has been a doctor since 2001. He attributes his father, Marvin, who is a 26-year Navy veteran and now residing in Detroit, as an influence towards the career.
"We moved around quite a bit, and on occasion, my father would take me to the chiropractor with him," Schiffman said.
Being an active teen with the injuries that accompanied his activities, plus his own Navy career, steered him towards the chiropractic profession.
As a Naval flight officer on an AC Intruder, he did a lot of what the Navy refers to as 'yanking and banking', between his tours at Albuquerque, NM and China Lake, Calif. "This can put a lot of stress on the body, so when I had to personally use a chiropractor, I thought it would be a good profession to pursue after the Navy," said Schiffman.
An Auburn University graduate, Schiffman received his chiropractic licensure at Parker College in Dallas.
His day-to-day operations at Hawks Clinic have him seeing active-duty clientele with complaints of pain in various parts of the body, including the back and the foot.
"The idea is to make the joints work more normally," Schiffman said. "It's pretty basic. Like other complimentary medicines, you put energy into the body to make it work more normally, so that the healing can happen from within by de-stressing the joints."
Joints could have scar tissue or become tight from over usage. The energy discussed by Schiffman makes them work.
Schiffman also said that many persons may complain of shoulder aches and pains. "Emotional stress can go to the shoulders for most people. Their postural stress lives there."
The field of chiropractics works in concert with other doctors, noted Schiffman. "The one thing that I love about Army medicine is that I get to work with other professionals. In private practice, you can refer patients out, but you lose contact with the patient."
Not so in this position. "I get to do repetitive therapy," Schiffman said. "I see patients several times, most times with dramatic improvements. It keeps me sustained to keep them improving."
Schiffman and his wife Grace, whom he met in Albuquerque, reside in Richmond Hill with their children Alyssa, Stephen and Spencer.
During his spare time, he and his Family enjoy sailing their boat which they pulled all the way across the country from Washington state.
"It is a huge honor and blessing to have the opportunity to serve all the heroes and Warriors here at Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield," Schiffman concluded. "The sacrifice these men and women make every day is awe inspiring. I believe that the integration of chiropractic physicians into the armed services medical corps, is one of the first steps that the military is taking to bring complementary and alternative physiotherapeutic modalities to our Wounded Warriors. Just as the body has limitations to absorbing stress and damage, western medicine has limitation to what it can repair. While today's surgeons can do things that surely would have been science fiction 50 years ago, sometimes the answer to injury and stress can be found in relatively simpler modalities that promote healing from within."
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