Day Chiropractic Clinic PS of Spokane has business roots stretching back 91 years as a family-owned operation that began in Illinois but soon moved to Washington state.

Through the decades, clinic care has shifted toward whole body wellness, rather than simply focused on aches and pains.

"It used to be about stiff necks and sore backs," John Day says. "Now it's more about how to stay healthy."

A third generation of Day family chiropractors—brothers John Day and Tim Day—sees patients in the same building at 2721 E. Sprague constructed in 1953 by their late father, William S. Day, also a longtime state legislator. Today, the Days and two associate chiropractors also talk to patients about staying healthy with diet and exercise, and offer a weight-loss program among other wellness focuses.

Chiropractic care is a health profession that treats disorders of the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system, and the effects of those disorders on general health, says the American Chiropractic Association.

More than 2,000 chiropractors provide care in Washington, and more than 100 chiropractors are listed as providing service in the Spokane area, the Days say.

Tim Day is the owner of the business now that his older brother, who is semi-retired, sold his interest in the practice. However, John remains active at the clinic seeing patients three days a week. They both have patients who were cared for by their father, who originally founded a Spokane practice at a downtown location in 1948.

William S. Day had carried on in the same profession as his father and mother, J.W. "Bill" Day and Laura Scott Day, who both graduated from the Palmer School of Chiropractic in Iowa in 1921. After leaving Illinois, they ran clinics in Western Washington but later followed their son to Spokane.

"We had a gentleman in here today who saw our grandfather, our father, and now he's seeing us," Tim Day says. The patient is 77 years old. Adds John Day, "He first came here with his grandfather."

Both Days say industry changes during the past several decades include more sophisticated equipment—such as adjustable chiropractic tables—and use of computers, improved technology, and better diagnostic procedures.

Chiropractors often treat patients for complaints that include back, neck, sciatic nerve, and joint pain—as well as headaches—without the use of drugs or surgery. Chiropractors can perform precise manipulation of the joint structure of the spine by hand or with instruments to correct what Tim Day calls vertebral subluxation, or dysfunction within the joint structure. Subluxation is sometimes described as misaligned vertebrae that can put pressure on nerves or contribute to health issues.

Overall, chiropractors do adjustments to restore spinal and nervous systems' health based on the premise that the body is controlled by the brain through its connection via the spinal cord and the vast networks of nerves that make up the body, the Days say.

"The adjustment uses specific low forces to the spine," Tim Day adds.

The clinic employs two associate chiropractors, Steve Renner and Wayne Fichter Jr., and three support staff.

"On a busy day, we see over 90 patients," Tim Day says. The chiropractors see patients of all ages, he adds. "Once we have the patient come in and do the initial diagnostics, a visit can be anywhere from five minutes to half an hour, depending on the complexity. The average visit is about 15 minutes if it's a simple adjustment."

He adds, "Patients come back to us for wellness appointments, spinal hygiene."

Most health insurance programs cover chiropractic care, they say, and they add that patients don't have to have a referral from a primary care doctor. "We also can refer people to massage therapists," Tim Day says.

For making a diagnosis, the clinic has an X-ray lab, which includes video fluoroscopy, an imaging technique commonly used by physicians to obtain real-time moving images to allow the doctors to see the spine in motion, he says.

"We have a secondary degree in radiology," he adds.

They also use tables that can be adjusted to rotate patients from a standing position to a reclined position, "because some patients may not have a lot of mobility," he says.

More modern treatment used at the clinic also includes cold laser therapy, Tim Day says, a procedure that is U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved and uses a focused beam of light to emit photon energy. Within the injured musculoskeletal tissue, low-level laser light initiates increased microcirculation and enhanced tissue regeneration, the clinic's website says, which can decrease pain and inflammation, while increasing range of motion.

Among other changes in the industry, John Day says the medical community and chiropractic doctors used to be at odds, but that relationship has greatly improved. Before the late 1980s, the American Medical Association called chiropractic care unscientific, but it has since gained legitimacy under evidence-based reviews and greater acceptance from other doctors.

"The relationship between chiropractors and the medical community is much better than in the past," Day says, adding that it's even to the point that some large health care operations have incorporated chiropractic care in-house.

He was the first to join his father after graduating from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1967, and he soon took over a majority of patient care at the clinic, which he expanded to its current size of about 3,700 square feet. Besides operating the practice and holding positions with chiropractic groups, their father spent 22 years in the state Legislature, including as speaker of the house from 1963 to 1965.

Tim Day, who is 12 years younger than his brother, came into the family practice later, after working for seven years as a chef at what was then called the Sheraton Hotel—now Double Tree by Hilton Spokane City Center—in downtown Spokane. During those years, he completed prerequisite courses at Spokane Falls Community College until attending the Palmer College of Chiropractic, where he graduated in 1987.

Becoming a chiropractor typically requires three to four years of undergraduate education, followed by a four-year Doctor of Chiropractic degree program.

Both Days say it was natural to join the family practice because chiropractic care was ingrained in them from childhood.

"We grew up in the chiropractic and natural health care; we didn't take a lot of medicine and we relied on the ability of the body to heal itself," John Day says. "It was a calling we were fortunate to have in our lives."

John Day also previously sat on a state chiropractic disciplinary board, as a governor-appointed member for three terms. It has since merged with a chiropractic examining board and is now called the Chiropractic Quality Assurance Commission, a part of the state Department of Health that reviews the competency and quality of chiropractic health care professionals.

"It gave us an insight into how vulnerable patients are and the great responsibility that all doctors have to their patients," he says, regarding the board's review of patient complaints statewide.

Tim Day also served as a Spokane Chiropractic Association chairman, and was a member of the Washington State Chiropractic Association board for 13 years until 2010.

Steve Renner, who joined the clinic as an associate chiropractor in 2003, has a longer history with the Day practice than his time as a doctor there indicates. He first was brought to see William S. Day when he was six months old after a nurse had recommended the approach as a last-ditch effort to treat him as an infant who wasn't thriving because of severe allergies.

"When I was born, they did a C-section, and they had pulled on my head, which caused the vertebrae to misalign," Renner says. "I became allergic to everything, even to special formula. The doctors told my mother there was nothing they could do. A nurse recommended to my grandmother that my mom take me to Dr. Will to adjust the vertebrae in my neck, and it worked."