In this episode of the Chiropractic First Podcast, Dr. Jordan sits down with Dr. Nebeker to discuss his journey into chiropractic, the philosophy behind spinal health, and how chiropractic care supports long-term wellness.

Growing up in Wyoming, Dr. Nebeker witnessed firsthand how chiropractic helped his mother avoid back surgery, sparking his passion for the profession. After earning his degree from Palmer College—the “Harvard of Chiropractic”—he dedicated his career to helping patients restore function, prevent health issues, and optimize their nervous systems.

From treating chronic pain and spinal degeneration to improving digestive health and mobility, Dr. Nebeker shares real patient success stories that highlight the power of chiropractic adjustments. He also explains the differences between manual and instrument-assisted adjustments and why preventative care is key to lifelong health.

📍 Dr. Nebeker practices at Chiropractic First in Billings and focuses on wellness-based chiropractic care to help patients achieve optimal health.

💡 Key Takeaways:

✔️ How chiropractic care helps prevent long-term health issues

✔️ The role of the nervous system in overall wellness

✔️ Real patient success stories—including avoiding surgery!

✔️ The difference between manual and instrument-assisted adjustments

✔️ Why Chiropractic First focuses on long-term wellness, not just pain relief

If you’re looking for a natural way to improve your health, restore mobility, and prevent future issues, chiropractic care could be the answer!

📞 Have questions? Contact Chiropractic First to learn more.

🔹 Remember: When you think wellness, think Chiropractic First! 🔹

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Dr. Jordan 0:00
Welcome back to the Chiropractic First Podcast where we talk about wellness and chiropractic. Today we’re gonna be talking with Dr. Nebeker about wellness and health and chiropractic. So with that, welcome Dr. Nebeker this is the Chiropractic First Podcast, and let’s just talk a little bit about kind of who you are, where you come from, maybe where you grew up and where you went to school.

Dr. Nebeker 0:20
Well, that’s perfect. I appreciate that. Dr Jordan, I grew up out of Lander, Wyoming, that’s where my roots kind of hail from. And I ended up going to school at Brigham Young University, got a degree in biology, and then I went off to Palmer College of Chiropractic, Davenport, Iowa. That’s where I got my degree in chiropractic.

Dr. Jordan 0:39
Palmer College, that’s the,

Dr. Nebeker 0:41
It’s the Ivy League. We want to call it.

Dr. Jordan 0:43
That’s right. So, theHarvard of chiropractic, right? So a little bit of background. What’s, what’s kind of more prestigious about Palmer? Why is that significant for chiropractic?

Dr. Nebeker 0:54
You know, truth be told, I think a lot of doctors get really good education from almost any of the universities out there, as long as they have a good basis in what a chiropractor does and how he performs, I don’t have a preference in school so

Dr. Jordan 1:07
Well, I’ll tell you, being a little humble, but Palmer does a little bit more in depth, or at least he did when you were in school with with philosophy,

Dr. Nebeker 1:13
A lot of a lot of philosophy, a lot of technique

Dr. Jordan 1:18
And there’s some pretty big names in chiropractic, and the listeners aren’t going to quite understand who those names are, but some pretty big names that you’re able to sit in on it and get really get a full view of what chiropractic can be. Is that right?

Dr. Nebeker 1:31
Yeah, history wise, Palmer was the first chiropractic university and and so, yeah, we had a lot of those people that were following through most of the chiropractic colleges, I believe, even to this day, are run by people that graduated from poverty

Dr. Jordan 1:49
And then so out of Wyoming. Can’t imagine that there’s a lot of chiropractic when you’re growing up in Wyoming, right especially Lander, kind of in middle of nowhere. So how did you kind of come across chiropractic?

Dr. Nebeker 2:02
My dad, unfortunately, he suffered from a lot of back issues, and I can’t tell you exactly, but I think he’s up to 6, 7, 8, back surgeries. And my mom was slated for back surgery as well. You know, if you know, if the problem is there, you go to the same doctors that you know your spouse went to and and my mom was slated for back surgery. And she came in and came back to Lander Wyoming, there’s a great doctor. There is Vince Irene, and he told my mom, you know, I want to see you three times a week before your surgery. And by the time her surgery came up, she didn’t have any back pain. So to this day, she does not have back surgery. And at that point I realized, you know, there’s something to chiropractic.

Dr. Jordan 2:40
Yeah, what and how long ago was that?

Dr. Nebeker 2:42
30 years ago

Dr. Jordan 2:44
30 years ago, and still no back surgery.

Dr. Nebeker 2:47
And still no back surgery.

Dr. Jordan 2:47
There you go. So, yeah, so you graduate from Palmer. When was that?

Dr. Nebeker 2:52
2003

Dr. Jordan 2:53
2003 and then practiced?

Dr. Nebeker 2:56
I practiced in a different clinic for a short period of time, and then I joined what has become Chiropractor First

Dr. Jordan 3:02
And the clinic was here in Billings?

Dr. Nebeker 3:04
Yes.

Dr. Jordan 3:06
And in your experience in the area, kind of, what’s that, 2003 we’re looking at 22 years in practice, right? What is that? Have you had any kind of, I’d like to call them, like testimony building, if you will, experiences with any patients or any, any big, any conditions or cases that have stuck out in your mind that really solidified your view of chiropractic.

Dr. Nebeker 3:31
You know, I’ve had a number of patients, and I always tell my patients, we don’t expect miracles. We rely on miracles, and miracles happen on a day to day basis. You know, if you want, I can probably roll into a number of cases that I’ve had, but it works.

Dr. Jordan 3:47
Yeah. So what is it about chiropractic? Then, obviously, with your mom’s situation, but as you were going through school, what changed for you, as far as going from a, Oh, I know this works for my mom, to wow, this is actually science backed and based in a solid philosophy, not just medical philosophy of pain care or sick care, but but really getting wellness. What does that look like for you?

Dr. Nebeker 4:14
I think one of the biggest problems in traditional medicine is they ask the wrong questions. When you ask the wrong questions, you get the wrong results. And so if we’re talking about cancer, how do we treat cancer? The real question is, how do we avoid cancer? You know, if we’re talking chiropractic, you know, what do we need to do to make sure the body stays as healthy as it possibly can? You know, if we have to treat them after they’ve been in a car accident or long term trauma, the results just are not as good. So that’s what appealed to me for chiropractic, is it’s preventative. If we teach patients, you know what they need to do in order to make sure that they stay as healthy as they possibly can. That’s where, where my heart is.

Dr. Jordan 4:55
So how can you do that with a patient? How? How is chiropractic more preventative than medical model of health? So what does health come from in a chiropractic view?

Dr. Nebeker 5:05
Well, and it’s the nervous system. The nervous system controls and regulates everything in our body. It controls and regulates every cell, every tissue, every organ. And we want to make sure that the wiring between our control center, which is our brain, generally speaking, and all of the other tissues in our bodies. We want to make sure that that actually functions as well as possible. I know a lot of times people think of us back crackers and we move bones and stuff, but it’s really, it’s that wiring. It’s the electrical system that we’re really dialing into

Dr. Jordan 5:35
Right and and obviously have a chiropractic background as well. So so with that that that nervous system is so crucial, because without that nerve signal to any system in the body, the endocrine, cardio, cardiovascular, any system, if you have a decrease in nerve function, you’re going to have dysfunction in that system. And it can be as light as what’s the old study of the weight of a dying can decrease nerve function by 50% and so imagine if, the way the dimes affecting the nervous system in that way, how much is a, well, just a tight muscle, or how much is a trauma bait, you know, that took place from a car accident or whiplash injury or something as bad as like bone spurring or degenerative changes, right?

Dr. Nebeker 6:18
Well, and I had a patient in actually, this morning, and I was talking to him about cement, and then he’s like, I asked him point blank, how long have you had this? And he’s like, I’ve had it for several months. I was like, oh, that’s unfortunate, because it’s kind of like cement. The best time to make any changes with cement is within just a few minutes of you laying it, the longer it sits there, the longer it lays there, the harder it is, and before long, you’re breaking out the jackhammers trying to get things moved around,

Dr. Jordan 6:43
Yeah. And well, and along with that, you start to get compensated changes, right? So you look at when you roll an ankle, you start to limp, and that’s a compensation to make sure you don’t hurt the ankle Well, as you limp longer and longer, now you’re retraining or rewiring those muscles to limp.

Dr. Nebeker 6:59
Yeah, muscle memory

Dr. Jordan 7:00
That’s right. And so if we start to get ingrained, especially if this is a chronic neck issue or a chronic low back issue over years or decades, you now have an ingrained muscle pattern or neurological pathway to compensate for that. So it’s gonna take some time to resolve. I agree 100% and for you, as far as any specialty or kind of focus or technique in chiropractic. Do you have any any specifics on kind of what you know

Dr. Nebeker 7:27
Back to where I graduated from? Now, they almost always call it the Palmer package, and so I do a lot of diversified adjusting, a lot of nonstick style adjusting, but we also have some low impact adjusting with activators impulse devices.

Dr. Jordan 7:41
So explain a little bit

Dr. Nebeker 7:44
More manual adjusting. You know,

Dr. Jordan 7:46
with your hands,

Dr. Nebeker 7:47
With both, with my hands, I’m going to put the pressure on you, push through some of those segments, release those segments, so they actually start to work better for you.

Dr. Jordan 7:54
Okay, and then you mentioned activator.

Dr. Nebeker 7:56
Now an activator, I should have brought one, but, yeah, it’s got, it’s a it’s an instrument that we use, and we can actually make very small changes in the in the pathways, and gives people a lot of relief.

Dr. Jordan 8:11
And then with that, you talked about manual adjusting and activator. How are those different? How are they the same? What is a what is a chiropractic adjustment, and what’s the purpose behind it?

Dr. Nebeker 8:23
Yeah. And it all depends on the individual patient. We have to take them, one on one on one, figure out exactly what they’re looking for, what we can actually do, and the best way to get it to give them the results that they’re looking for. And so some patients, we may use some manual adjusting. Some of these patients, we may only use instrument adjustment.

Dr. Jordan 8:42
So what is, what is the adjustment? What’s that accomplishing?

Dr. Nebeker 8:46
It’s removing what we call a subluxation. A subluxation is interference with that nervous system, and there’s signs that we have the subluxation. We can talk about pain and tenderness. Almost everybody that comes in with subluxation, with pain and tenderness, swelling, inflammation, temperature differences from side to side in their back muscle spasms or lack of motion, and those are signs that you something is not working as well as it should, and that in the long run, that diminishes your neurological ability to make changes.

Dr. Jordan 9:18
Okay, now. And so with that, the you have a subluxation, obviously, that’s causing interference from your nervous system to body, causing a dysfunction. Or if you go historically, it’s dis ease in the body, right? Not disease, but dis ease, to coin a phrase from Dr. Palmer himself. And so that chiropractic adjustment, you’re actually trying to either remove that subluxation or decrease the effect, so that you can improve neurological function, right?

Dr. Nebeker 9:46
Correct

Dr. Jordan 9:46
And with that, you know, the body adapts quickly, as you mentioned, when there’s an injury or some type of subluxation, the body’s going to adapt. Quickly, and so the best time to get taken care of is as soon as possible. So when something’s been subluxated for, say, 15 years, what are some some dysfunction or side effects you can see from that, again, a subluxation, let’s say, you say, in the middle of my back. T4

Dr. Nebeker 10:21
Yeah, the main thing that we’ll actually see is degeneration of the vertebral bodies themselves. We’ll see the disc problems, that type thing, and we use different diagnostic tools, like X rays to identify that. But yeah, you can actually and the problem is is once degenerative disc disease has started, we can’t reverse it, but what we can do is we can kind of hold it, keep it from getting worse.

Dr. Jordan 10:45
Okay. And then neurologically speaking, how does that affect the rest of the body? Once you start, kind of get degenerative disc disease, or degenerative changes in the spine, you start seeing effects elsewhere in the body.

Dr. Nebeker 10:55
You can and it literally is going to be your internal organs do not function as well as they should be. If you’re talking T4 that could be breathing, that can be heart rate, that can be some of those types of things. We move down down. It can be gastrointestinal issues. And we get patients in all the time that don’t understand what they’re going through. They just think they have back pain. And then you ask them something along their line of digestive and it’s like, Oh, I’ve been dealing with constipation for the last five years, and that’s a side effect, a direct side effect of subluxation.

Dr. Jordan 11:28
Have you seen those symptoms decrease?

Dr. Nebeker 11:31
100%, so you asked me a little bit earlier about any particular cases, and I have one. It was actually the mother was one, the patient of mine, and this was years ago, but anyway, she came in and she’s like, Oh, by the way, can you do anything for younger children? And her daughter was two at the time, and hadn’t gone poop in, like, a week, and they were looking at doing exploratory surgery. And I was like, Well, you know, bring her in. Let’s see what we can do. And we got her adjusted before she left the office. She actually filled two diapers and was doing significantly, significantly better. So well, it never ended up under surgery.

Dr. Jordan 12:08
Well, I mean, imagine that, you know, an exploratory surgery for something that appeared to be blocked bowel with fairly simple it sounds like even that first adjustment, removing that subluxation, restored function. Now that’s not to say that’s the only cure for constipation, right? There’s a number of reasons that you can have constipation, but simple is that you can have positive effect by removing the subluxation. But the problem is you might not know why you’re having those symptoms

Dr. Nebeker 12:37
Well, and most of us have experienced either childhood trauma, or teenage trauma, you know, is from your mom dropping you in your head as a child, and then bike rack when you were 10, jumping off haystacks when you’re 16, car wreck when you’re 26 and all that plays a role in how we feel and how we function, and especially down the road, back to the cement analogy. You know, once those that cement has been set, it’s much harder to get rid of.

Dr. Jordan 13:01
Well, thanks. Thank you for explaining kind of your background and your history and obviously your passion for chiropractic care. For you, you’ve been with Chiropractic First for 18 years or so. Is that right?

Dr. Nebeker 13:16
Coming up on 20

Dr. Jordan 13:18
And so, how has Chiropractic First as an organization kind of helped you become the doctor you are today, and and how would you how would you put yourself in the shoes of maybe someone who’s thinking about going to Chiro, going to a chiropractor? Why would they choose Chiropractic First, as opposed to another organization or an individual office?

Dr. Nebeker 13:38
Well, I don’t want a bad talk any other chiropractic office. Our philosophy is that we’re looking for people that are looking for a change, and there are chiropractic offices, even in our town here, that have a different philosophy than what we have. But we’re looking for people that are looking for long term wellness, and sometimes that long term wellness means that we do see them subsequent visits, whereas some of the there’s a walk in clinic here, I believe, and they just basically, we run in there, and you get adjusted when you need to, and they give a lot of people relief, but we’re looking for more wellness type patients.

Dr. Jordan 14:17
Wellness is chiropractic. Well, that’s fantastic. Well, remember when you think wellness, think Chiropractic First. Thanks again. Dr Nebeker.

Dr. Nebeker 14:25
Thank you.