In this episode of the Chiropractic First Podcast, Dr. Jordan sits down with Dr. Bushman to discuss his journey into chiropractic care, his philosophy on natural healing, and the diverse techniques he uses to help patients.

From treating infants with colic and ear infections to utilizing dry needling, instrument adjusting, and cold laser therapy, Dr. Bushman shares how these modalities complement chiropractic adjustments to promote healing and long-term wellness. He also explains why chiropractic should be the first choice before considering medication or surgery.

📍 Dr. Bushman practices in the Heights and Roundup offices and specializes in a variety of chiropractic techniques tailored to each patient’s needs.

💡 Key Takeaways:

✔️ Why chiropractic is effective for both adults and infants

✔️ The differences between manual and instrument adjustments

✔️ How dry needling and cold laser therapy support healing

✔️ The philosophy behind Chiropractic First—chiropractic before medicine or surgery

If you’re struggling with chronic pain, muscle tension, or nervous system issues, chiropractic care might be the solution you’re looking for!

📞 Have questions? Contact the Heights or Roundup office to learn more.

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

 

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Dr. Jordan 0:00
Ah, okay, all right. Welcome back to another episode of the chiropractic first podcast. I’m Dr Jordan. This week, we’re going to be talking with Dr Bushman about chiropractic and other modalities that can help with chiropractic care. So welcome, Dr bushman. Let’s get to know you just a little bit kind of, maybe where you’re from, and what got you into chiropractic, and then we’ll talk about some of your specific offices. So yeah, Dr Bush man, where are you from?

Dr. Bushman 0:26
So I’m from kind of all over the place, like we grew up in California, Japan, Chicago area, Missouri. We kind of traveled a lot growing up, and not necessarily traveled, but we worked around a lot, and so was able to see a wide diverse group, you know, diverse cultures and things like that, all over the place. We weren’t military. The second question I always get, my dad was in international business, and he just liked to travel, like to switch companies and move his way up the COVID chain, right here.

Dr. Jordan 1:02
So, so with that, having a large world view from a young age, what? What’s your background? How did you get into chiropractic? How did that kind of play into that?

Dr. Bushman 1:12
I’ve always had an health, a healthy skepticism of pharmaceuticals and things like that. So when I, you know, when I was leaning towards the healthcare field because I was wanting to help people, chiropractic just seemed to be the best fit for me, a natural way to allow the body to heal properly without taking drugs or those sorts of things. So for me, it was just a it was a natural fit from where I stood philosophically.

Dr. Jordan 1:51
So where did you go to school? How long have you been a chiropractor? So I’ve

Dr. Bushman 1:55
been a chiropractor for 11 years now. I went to school at Logan University in St Louis, and then I practiced my entire career here in Montana, between the heights and Laurel, Columbus and Roundup. So where are you at now? Which offices? So I’m in the heights and Roundup,

Dr. Jordan 2:16
and from traveling all over the world, going to school in Missouri, how did you end up in Vilnius?

Dr. Bushman 2:24
My wife didn’t want to move to Alaska, and Montana was a her family is here, and so it was a natural, natural fit there. She she asked me when I mentioned Alaska. She said, Well, how about Montana? So we actually shadowed offices in Greeno, Nevada, Boise, Idaho. Those were two choices, and it just seemed like the environment in Montana was much more healthy, friendly, and it seemed that every office I went into was busy and seemed very chiropractor friendly.

Dr. Jordan 3:10
Now, in 11 years in chiropractic, all here in basically the Billings area. Is there anything in your mind that sticks out in your experience that’s like a patient or case or a condition that you’ve seen more frequently, or maybe that some people wouldn’t realize chiropractic can have a positive effect on.

Dr. Bushman 3:31
Well, I actually do a lot of work with infants, and so that’s the one that shocks people the most, is that they just they don’t realize that infants need care to and colic and ear infections and things like that can be helped with chiropractic care.

Dr. Jordan 3:48
So obviously, a chiropractic adjustment, there are different techniques you can use, from manual adjustment with your hands to instrument type adjusting. How do you vary your technique from an adult, big, bulky, 250, pound man, to a six week old infant? How does that change you?

Dr. Bushman 4:08
Yeah, those adjustmentsare very different, very different. Obviously, we’re not cracking an infant snack. The funny thing is, most infants, you know, they’ve been upside down for four or five months in the world. And so that’s one way that you adjust. When you actually hang upside down and just do a slight distraction and like rapidly, do a lot of the straightening and the adjustment, you just kind of go along the way so you don’t have to manipulate them like you do in the boat. And then about half my patients, especially when heights, they do adjust instrument adjusting, which is a completely different style of adjustment, is good.

Dr. Jordan 4:51
So what is, what does thatlook like? What is the difference between like a manual adjustment and instrument adjustment?

Dr. Bushman 4:56
So you’re not going to get any pops or cracks with an instrument. An adjustment. Most people have heard of the clicky thing, the activator. I wrote a technique called torque release technique, which has a very specific use. It uses a very specific instrument, has a specific protocol that checking my legs and digesting certain areas and making sure that we’re nervous system in the body. So it’s a it’s an interesting technique. And the doctor that I took over for him, he used that technique…and the philosophical what would the difference between instrument only adjusting beat and manual? Why? Why is there a difference if they’re really getting the same effect? So for me, it’s not so much a philosophical type, whether you know, because I do a half of my adjustments, or a lot of it has to the way somebody responds to read adjustments, and it’s nice to have more tools so somebody responds only to an annual adjustment if they get stolen or whatnot, we can try an extreme adjustment to that. So it’s it’s more of a patient preference for me, feel. So they both work. They’re both effective techniques. They both work. It’s just some work. For some people work better than other people. So it’s we’re up and round up. I’m the only doctor up there. I’ve got to have a variety of techniques that I can use and with that. So you talked about having more tools in your tool belt, right? I know there’s some modalities that you use in your different offices, then maybe some of our other clinics don’t.

Dr. Jordan 6:47
So what? What techniques, what services, what? What modalities do you have in your offices?

Dr. Bushman 6:53
So I’ve become really fond of dry new dry needling is it’s a form. It’s not acupuncture, but it uses acupuncture releases muscle tension for headaches and trigger points in the back, low, back side, like a type pain arthritis. It helps with a myriad of different symptoms, and it’s a lot of people will come and they’ll get adjusted, and within a day or two, they’re back to where they work. And that muscle memory is pulling their spine back, not necessarily out of place, but it’s causing things to to tighten up again when the symptoms come back. And what the driving can do is is break that muscle pattern and get them better.

Dr. Jordan 7:45
And I was gonna say, I actually just sent the patient up to you recently for TMJ as well, right? Some of those other other techniques, and those are more soft tissue related or muscle related? Well, I can’t say that occasionally can be more soft tissue related than bone or joint related, so that dry needling can definitely have an effect. So what exactly is going on when you when you are going through a dry needling session? Why is it effective with the soft tissue? How does that kind of setup look?

Dr. Bushman 8:13
So it’s the actual puncturing of the muscle with the needle that is the treatment. It works on a chemical level to allow muscle to relax. The chemicals inside muscle, at least releases some toxins and other things that allow that muscle to relax.

Dr. Jordan 8:35
And one thing that I do a lot of I’ve done dry needling in your office as well from my shoulder, and it’s fantastic, is, is you hook the E stem or electro stimulation up to it as well. Why would you do that?

Dr. Bushman 8:51
Well, just to broaden the area, because the needle is a very specific point, and you put the needle in, you can twist it, which wraps connective tissue regular, and that broadens the treatment area. But when you hook the electricity up, you’re actually going to treat the whole muscle, and it’s a little more intense than like a normal tension that’s on the surface of the skin, whereas this is going directly down into the muscle, so you’re getting very intense electric stir generation into that muscle and breaks that well, obviously,

Dr. Jordan 9:25
11 years experiencing chiropractic, been in the area for quite some time. Definitely know what you’re doing. What other I know that you have laser in your office as well cold laser therapy. Want to talk a little bit about coal laser.

Dr. Bushman 9:43
Yeah, cold laser. It works kind of like photosynthesis on plants. Photosynthesis and plants, they don’t realize that different wavelengths of light can also produce energy or ATP production in the cellular level of our own bodies. And so. What it does is it uses those different wavelengths of light to help speed up healing. Essentially, it just creates ATP production. It improves proceeding.

Dr. Jordan 10:16
So with that, those modalities, obviously aren’t chiropractic, but there’s a increasing the healing process and and easing some of the symptoms as people are going through the healing process. Is that right, correct?

Dr. Bushman 10:28
And I wouldn’t replace any of these four. These are supplemental modalities that go with cataract. The adjustment is, was paramount to all those, because without the adjustment, the driving rate would probably be effective. The adjustment isn’t as effective as driving. So they’re complimentary.

Dr. Jordan 10:51
So if you were, if you were talking with somebody who maybe is experiencing chronic pain, let’s just say in that the shoulder neck area, they’re starting to get numbness down their arm. Why would you suggest chiropractic them? Or why would I consider chiropractic care? But if I’m that individual,

Dr. Bushman 11:11
I mean, you could always go the surgical route, but once you get cut, you’re done. There’s no going back. The nice thing about it is it does allow for a natural most likely, if it’s rated down here, for example, you gave it’s a nervous system issue, and we affect the nervous system, and it would be, it may not be the fastest way to get better, but it’s going to be the most effective. And be the most effective results for you.

Dr. Jordan 11:47
You’re, you’re one of the, one of the owners of of chiropractic first. And what I love about the name chiropractic first is there’s a chiropractic history, right? I can’t remember the author, the doc, who initially said it, but they said, when you’re looking for healing, you should consider chiropractic first, medicine second and surgery last. Why? How does your philosophy line up with that?

Dr. Bushman 12:14
Well, like I said before, that’s basically before I even got into chiropractic. That’s kind of where I was standing. It. Just makes sense that you’re going to want to try to exhaust all efforts before surgery. More invasive, yeah, because, like I said, once you’re cut, there’s no going back. And if you can get better naturally, it’s going to be you’re going to have more long term benefit to it. For instance, most surgeries if you get a knee replaced, they say those knee replacements only last 1015 years and have that surgical repair today. So but if you’re able to fix that knee naturally, it may last 34 years before so there’s obviously the body’s designed to heal on its own. So if you can facilitate that through car break of care, it’s always the best for everybody.

Dr. Jordan 13:17
Fantastic. Well, thank you, Dr Bush man, for joining so the podcast for helping us understand some of the modalities in chiropractic. Again, you’re in the heights office and the roundup office, and just want to invite anybody have any questions about some of those modalities, reach out to those offices. And remember when you think wellness or think health, think chiropractic first you.