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Natural Awakenings Atlanta

A Mission to Heal and a Disposition to Teach

Dr. Rudy Scarfalloto, in Norcross, specializes in low-force chiropractic for the relief of chronic pain, stiffness, headaches and rehabilitation from auto accidents, athletic and work-related injuries and works with individuals with internal conditions such as asthma, indigestion, blood sugar issues, menstrual difficulties and high blood pressure.

But Scarfalloto started his career as a teacher and is still deeply committed to bringing his message to a wider audience. He has written five books, with another one coming, as well as articles and blogs, and also teaches classes. He has devised his own Integrated Wellness Program that includes not only chiropractic treatment, but also exercise, nutritional counseling, supplements and herbs.

His journey to chiropractic was prompted by personal health issues. “There are things in my childhood that I could point to and say definitely influenced my decision,” he states. “I was born in Sicily and came to the United States when I was 8-and-a-half. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. As a child, I used to get sick a lot with respiratory infections and fevers. When I came to this country, it got even worse because I was no longer living in a natural environment. I was eating processed foods and the air and water were not as clean.”

drrudy_620x350pgBy the time he was 25, Scarfalloto had obtained a bachelor’s degree in biology and was teaching anatomy and physiology at a massage school. He noticed that other things were happening to his body and says, “It drove me to study nutrition, and I found out that it had to do with food and understanding my particular physiology and constitution. I actually started to learn about nutrition through a chiropractor, and so I thought that if I became a chiropractor, I would also be able to work in nutrition. He received a Doctor of Chiropractic degree at Life College, in Marietta, in 1984 and stayed in the area.

Scarfalloto, like most chiropractors, gets many patients that are suffering from pain. He notes, “People come to me mostly for their back pain, neck pain, pain in their joints, pain in their muscles. You might say that I am a pain relief specialist in that regard. But I address these issues in a way that is very much related to what’s happening on a deeper level, because quite often, their back pain is related to their prostate issue or their chronic kidney problems or their menstrual difficulties. I focus on doing whatever it takes to relieve their external pain, but I notice that quite often when I address that, their internal issues are resolved as well, and sometimes it’s profound.”

In explaining his Integrated Wellness Program, Scarfalloto states, “Chiropractic is about the nervous system and indirectly, the circulatory system; that’s a big part of where we can influence our health profoundly. You get the nervous system to work properly, you get the blood and the lymph to flow. And then in support of that, if you add proper nutrition, they are very much complementary. The whole point of having good circulation is to allow nourishment of the body; to allow nutrients to get busy and waste products to be flushed out. And of course for that to have any meaning, you’ve got to have good nutrients coming in. To me, chiropractic and nutrition go together really, really well.”

The doctor notes that although some chiropractors just focus on adjusting the spine, be he has learned that physical activity is also immensely important. He says, “It’s huge, because the body is not meant to be sedentary. It needs good nutrition and it needs good exercise, so I put that into my practice, as well.”

The way Scarfalloto links the chiropractic treatment and the Integrative Wellness Program together is organic. He says, “I don’t try to connect them, it just happens. Often, the patient brings it up.”

Scarfalloto says, “Before I was a doctor, I was a teacher. My original training in college was in secondary education, and I thought I was going to become a schoolteacher. After practicing chiropractic full-time, I still wasn’t quite satisfied, so I said to myself, ‘Hey dummy! You are a teacher—you’ve gotta teach!’ As soon as I realized that, I started putting feelers out and the opportunity to teach again came up and I’ve pretty much been teaching ever since. Now I teach my own courses independently for massage and body workers, as well as the general public, on health and healing.”

Books he has written so far include The Dance of Opposites, Cultivating Inner Harmony, The Edge of Time, Nutrition for Massage Therapists, and What Should I Eat?

Location: Whole Care Medical Group, 5390 Peachtree Industrial Blvd., Ste. 120, Norcross, GA. For more information, call 678-896-2992, email [email protected] or visit DrRudy.net for a list of upcoming classes. See ad, back cover.

Martin Miron is the editor of Natural Awakenings Atlanta.

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