At age ten, while watching a Cal-Berkeley football game, I fell twenty five feet out of a tree when the limb I was sitting on broke. I severely injured my back, landing in a seated position. My two best friends Billy and Andy had to carry me home which was about a half mile away. My parents being medically oriented, serving on the board of the local hospital and having many medical doctors as friends, were very limited in their thinking. They took me to the medical doctor, and the general consensus was that I had “sprained my back” and would feel better in a few weeks. No x-rays were taken and I was sent home with a prescription for painkillers and muscle relaxers. My parents continued to give me the prescribed painkillers and muscle relaxers for the next ten years. I would often suffer debilitating “flare-ups” and be forced to rest until the pain calmed down. I was in varying degrees of constant pain for the majority of my child-hood. For some reason, no one really took my pain seriously and I even remember my medical doctor telling my mom it was nothing more than growing pains.In 1975, while living in Santa Cruz, I was helping a friend move a piano, when I hurt my back so painfully, I couldn’t move at all. A friend of mine told me that a chiropractor could probably help. I refused to go and spent the next two weeks flat on my back. Finally, and against my will, they lifted me into the back of my own pick-up truck and drove me to the chiropractor. This doctor of chiropractic was the first doctor to ever take me seriously enough to take an x-ray of my back. What he showed me changed my life forever. He pointed to the lowest vertebra in my spine and asked “when did you break your back?”. I could see as plain as day where the bone had been crushed. I became overwhelmed with emotion, seeing for the first time in ten years that I actually did have a physical reason for the pain I had been suffering.

The chiropractor told me that he thought there was a chance he could help me, but warned that there was so much pressure on my spinal nerves now affecting my bowels and bladder, that based on the result of his attempt to help me, he may have to refer me to the emergency room if the adjustment failed to help.

I was extremely scared and very nervous, but somehow I had faith in this new doctor and agreed to allow him to “adjust” my spine. What he did next was nothing short of a miracle. He placed me on my side and gave me my first chiropractic adjustment. My fate was in his hands, literally. He told me to breath deeply then made the adjustment. There was a loud pop causing me to jump up from the table. I could not believe the relief I felt and realized that I was standing under my own power for the first time in two weeks.

This chiropractic doctor was able to give me back something that no medical doctor had done for the past ten years. Chiropractic gave me back my life.

Now, out of pain for the first time in ten years, I was able to slowly get myself off all the brain-numbing painkillers. I could finally live a normal life as a twenty-one year old without constant fear and debilitating pain. I continued to receive care from my chiropractor, and got better and better. Dr. York explained the principle of chiropractic to me and encouraged me to consider chiropractic as a profession. He related to me how so many people just like me needed help, real help, not the kind found in a medicine cabinet. That’s when I dedicate my life to chiropractic and decided to go to school to become a chiropractor. I vowed to help others live a happier, healthier life, devoid of mind deadening drugs. For the past twenty five years, I and my team of doctors have worked with over ten thousand patients. My goal is not only to help people suffer as little as possible, but also to help my patients understand how to live healthy, happy lives. It is my belief that not everyone needs chiropractic, but that everyone deserves to be checked for nerve interference. I will always be grateful to those two friends who cared enough to carry me into their chiropractor’s office. Their desire to help will always be a driving purpose in my life. Wherever they are, I thank them with all of my heart.

Originally from Warrensburg, MO, Dr. Dawson completed a Bachelors in Kinesiology at the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of Central Missouri on a baseball scholarship. Having undergone Tommy John Surgery in 2009, he grew increasingly interested in the human bodies resilience and response to injury, subsequently pursuing the profession of implementing strategic plans for injury prevention, rehabilitation, and human performance. Upon graduation in 2011, he began working as a sports performance and rehabilitation specialist in Phoenix, AZ. Ryan has worked with all different age groups; youth, high school, collegiate and professional athletes through the various stages of healing. He is proud to offer a drug-free approach towards healing via restoration of proper biomechanics, therapeutic exercise, diet/nutrition, and lifestyle mentality.

While attending Southern California University of Health Sciences, Dr. Dawson excelled in the subjects of Neuroscience, Clinical Nutrition, Clinical Reasoning, and Advanced Chiropractic Techniques. He has over 500 documented hours assisting as a tutor in the anatomy lab, as well as for courses such as biochemistry, microbiology, and functional medicine. Ryan completed his clinical internship rounds at the University of California-Irvine student health center. He also donated time to volunteering with Healing Hands for Humanity (H3) and the Sand Diego Veterans Stand Down events. While completing his doctoral program, Ryan performed extensive private practice rounds with Dr. Neal and Nicole Barry (Barry Family Chiropractic) in Santa Barbara, CA.

Throughout his studies, Dr. Dawson has become very interested in the mind-body relationship and its effect on resilience and wellness. His intent is to establish a personalized means for patients to best optimize their health. He is concerned with questions such as: how do your thoughts affect your wellbeing and resilience? How can you adjust and maintain proper ergonomics throughout the various activities in your day? It is through education and awareness that injury prevention is most effective.

As a result of advancements in technology, sedentary lifestyles are becoming more and more common. That combined with poor diet and lack of exercise, leads to a drastically increased risk of chronic diseases that cause joint degeneration, headaches, and muscle pain, and have also been linked to obesity, diabetes, auto-immune diseases, and more. Restoring and optimizing core stability while increasing daily mobility is the best way to increase blood flow and function to tissues. Restoring and optimizing proper body chemistry via diet and exercise programs ensures the best results for decreasing inflammation and helping each patient reach their health potential.

I feel my whole life has been about healthy living and leading me to where I am now.

But the real turning point came years ago, prior to chiropractic school, when someone close to me at that time was experiencing crippling migraines that made them nauseous, sensitive to noise and light, and causing severe pain anywhere from 3-7 days per week.

My friend was trying everything including spending all day in bed to get even the slightest amount of relief. The neurologist they were seeing did not have an answer and simply prescribed toxic pain killing narcotics, anti-nausea medication and even steroids to “help” with the migraine symptoms as well as the side effects experienced from the other medications. My friend was even told surgery would be needed to sever the nerve endings distributed to different areas of the skull in an attempt to alleviate the pain.

My friend was in an emotional downward spiral with this horrible condition when someone we knew, who had just started going to a chiropractor, told us about the relief she was experiencing from beginning the treatment for her neck pain.

Overwhelmed with negative skepticism after having already tried every treatment allopathic medicine had to offer I convinced my friend to try this alternative path. The Chiropractor performed the most in depth examination I had ever seen and it felt amazing to have my friend around a doctor that listened and was devoted to finding the cause of the migraines and not just wanting to mask the pain and other symptoms. After the very first adjustment, my friend did not experience another migraine for over a month!

For the first time in my life, I had observed Chiropractic save a life! He had given my friend not only consistent relief but the ability to do the sports and group activities they had loved but given up because of their incapacitating migraines.

It was then that I knew with certainty who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do. Four months later I began the Doctorate of Chiropractic program at Southern California University of Health Sciences and my life has never been the same since.

The power of not only chiropractic itself, but being around optimistic doctors and staff in a healing environment liberated me to dedicate my life to serving and helping others to optimize their health and begin living the life they want to live.