Cammisa Chiropractic Wellness Center: Linking High-Tech With 1-on-1 Care

By Judy Phillip

The product of a tight-knit Italian family, Perry Cammisa was in college, following in his father’s footsteps as an accountant, when a chance discussion with a friend altered his life’s course.

Today, 25 years later, Dr. Cammisa is one of the most widely respected chiropractors in northern Illinois. He works with many medical specialists co-managing complex cases to ensure his patients receive the finest care possible. Dr. Cammisa and his staff place a premium on developing a family atmosphere for the many patients who come to Cammisa Chiropractic Wellness Center in Lisle.

A whiplash treatment specialist, Dr. Cammisa is on a continual quest to filter cutting edge information and technology even as he maintains an approach that emphasizes hands-on accessibility and compassion. His clinic is the area’s first authorized Power Plate Healthcare Facility, utilizing vibrational technology to help a wide spectrum of people improve their health.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Cammisa to learn how he ties in high-tech diagnostic and treatment tools with his large family-friendly practice.

Q: What motivated you to become a chiropractor?

A: I believe I was born to do what I am doing, but I didn’t realize it until I was 20 years old. I was going to the University of Toronto in the business commerce program, in my second year, and was studying economics at the time.

A friend of mine who played high-level hockey had an injury and told me he was being treated by a chiropractor. After my friend left, I was sitting there and I realized chiropractic was my calling. It was one of those life-changing moments.

I jumped out of my chair, went to my dad and said, `What do you think of chiropractors?’ He asked me why and I said, `Because that’s what I want to be.’ He looked me straight in the eye and said, `Well, son, then go for it.’

Q: Do you specialize in caring for any particular segment of the population?

A: I guess you could say my specialty is that I offer care to a wide range of people. I’ve had the good fortune to treat world-class athletes and world-class moms; everyone receives the same high level of attention and care. For example, I have enjoyed helping thousands of people recover from conditions as varied as whiplash-related injuries to complications of lumbar disc herniations and severe headaches.

Q: Isn’t your main task to help remove pain from people’s bodies?

A: Yes and no. We are making a false assumption when we assume, “no pain equals good health.” We all know of people who appear to be healthy, have no pain, and the next day drop dead of a heart attack. Obviously, that person was not healthy, even though he was pain free.

Pain is merely a symptom, it’s our body’s alarm system. When you take a pain killer, it’s like taking the batteries out of the smoke detector. The alarm stops, but the smoke is still there. I prefer to ask the question, “Why was the pain there in the first place?”

Today, with the lifestyles that we lead, poor posture is an epidemic. Poor posture is literally responsible for alterations in function affecting everything from breathing to hormonal production.

In our daily activities, many of us have an unconscious loss of ability to do the things that we used to do picking up something on the floor, turning around to see the kids in the backseat, not being able to put your socks on without sitting down.

Q: Isn’t that just the “aging process”?

A: Well, have you noticed that we all don’t “age” at the same pace? Our bodies are designed to be active, but technology has led us to be much more sedentary, such as being stooped over a computer for hours each day. As we become more sedentary, our bodies begin to compensate we begin to lose motion which leads to poorer posture, resulting in our postures to start collapsing.

This chronic postural stress puts constant pressure on our nervous system, joints and discs, causing pain.

Fortunately, we have better medical technology than ever to address these problems. The key is to utilize high-tech analysis with a strong knowledge of how the body functions.

Using this technology we develop an individualized treatment plan for each patient.

Q. One of the ways you use High Tech is equipment called POWER PLATE_®. What is POWER PLATE_® and how does it work?

Acceleration Training^TM with Power Plate_® creates vibrations at 25-50 times per second, causes the muscles to contract more frequently, resulting in stronger healthier muscles. This improved muscle strength and flexibility helps to dramatically reduce the stiffness and muscle pains that many people are experiencing in their daily lives. Power Plate_® is suitable for all ages.

It is used by most professional teams, Olympic athletes, the PGA, and now is finally becoming available to the everyday person. I am thrilled that our clinic is the first authorized Power Plate Healthcare Facility in the area.

Q. How does Power Plate_® benefit your patients?

Often patients walk thru our door because they are in pain. Our first goal is to get them out of pain. Some of the benefits of the Power Plate_® include improved circulation, strength, balance, stability, flexibility, range of motion and coordination. These benefits can accelerate the healing of the injury and dramatically decrease the pain unlike any other therapy.

Our second goal is to improve their posture to a stronger, healthier, more stable position, so that they do not have a recurring problem, and the pain does not return.