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| Qualifications and Experience |
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Dr. Andrew L. Aguilar knows the importance of chiropractic care for optimun overall health of all members of your family. Being an athlete himself, Dr. Dru also has a special interest in assisting all levels of athletes to best their performances with the assistance of chiropractic care. |
Dr. Andrew L. Aguilar, referred to by his patients as "Dr.Dru," is a dedicated chiropractor who has made a practice of promoting the benefits of chiropractic care for healthy living to Asheville residents since 1996. His philosophy of health through proper chiropractic adjustment and complimentary therapies will empower you to take control of your own health and better understand your body’s amazing healing properties.
Dr. Dru's Chiropractic degree is from Life University, School of Chiropractic in Atlanta, Georgia. During his studies, he was project manager for a research study involving autistic and special needs children. His article, Can Chiropractic Care Effectively Alter the Behavior in Autistic Children?, was published in the Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics, Summer 2000 issue.
Dr. Dru also has two Bachelor degrees, one as an Engineer, the other in Business Management from the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. While receiving his MBA, he worked with IBM and transferred with "Big Blue" several times prior to leaving to become a chiropractor.
With years of experience adjusting children, Dr. Dru truly is a chiropractor for your whole family. He has a daughter of his own, who is now 7 years old, and takes great care to make sure his younger patients are getting the adjustments needed for their growing frames. He takes special interest in prenatal care and the care of infants to ensure a good start for proper growth and life-long health. Dr. Dru has a working relationship with New Dawn Midwifery assisting mothers to reposition children who are in a breech presentation as well as providing mothers-to-be with care to help ensure a healthy pregnancy. He has also done research on the benefits of chiropractic care for special needs children. Children from newborn on can safely receive adjustments.
Many of Dr. Dru's clients are local Pro and Elite Athletes. People like Karen Masson, Trish Stevenson, Joey Coddington, Scott Langford, Randy Ashley, Mark Lundblad, and Anne Riddle-Lundblad know the benefits of proper spinal adjustment to acheiving and maintaining their outstanding athletic performances. Dr. Dru is himself an avid road biker and triathlete as well as past ruby and lacrosse player giving him a first-hand understanding of the importance of chiropractic care to athletes. Whether you are a weekend tennis player or career marathon runner, Dr. Dru will work with you to ensure a schedule of chiropractic adjustments to assist you in bettering your game or besting your time.
With a wide variety of life experiences, Dr. Dru is uniquely qualified to assist the athlete and family in maintaining the best possible health for continued enjoyment of life.
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| Techniques |
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Dr. Dru primarily uses the following chiropractic techniques:
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| Thompson Drop Table |
Patients are positioned comfortably on their stomach upon the Thompson Drop Table, which is about knee high above the floor. The Table has four segments that independently release or “drop” underneath you by a few millimeters to assist in the speed and depth of the adjustment as Dr. Dru applies pressure. The Table was designed by a mechanical engineer in the 1950’s while he was going through Palmer Chiropractic School. Your adjustment will happen faster and last longer with the assistance of the drop. The Table provides for a quick movement, makes a “clunk” sound from underneath you and is a bit of an “old school” style of adjusting. |
| Activator |
The Activator is a hand held instrument used to address joint dysfunction in the spinal column and extremities for a light force adjustment. It has lighter settings on it for sensitive regions such as rib articulations along the sternum or small bones in the wrist. Some patients prefer this technique in their cervical region versus the traditional drop.
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| Sacral-Occipital Technique (SOT) |
SOT is a very gentle, non-force approach that addresses the meningeal tension in the nervous system and uses pelvic blocks (essentially wedges) to balance the body’s primary respiratory mechanism to balance a pelvic or sacral subluxation. It works tremendously well with disc problems where any type of force would be extremely painful. |
| Diversified |
Diversified is a hands-on adjusting style which brings your body to tension prior to administering the adjustment. Think of a “body roll” or “sideline position” with an audible sound. This is the traditional "old school" chiropractic adjustment. |
| Flexion-Distraction Table |
The Flexion-Distraction Table is especially helpful if you are having disc problems. It opens the joint space in the lumbar and lower thoracic region allowing the disc to reseat. This Table uses the principal of mechanical advantage to aid in adjustment. A long lever, the lower part of the table, physically moves toward the floor while you are attached to it. Patients are securely strapped to the Table before the adjustment occurs, so there is no danger of falling. Dr. Dru’s Flexion-Distraction Table was built in the 1920’s and has served its function well ever since. |
| Palmer Technique |
The Palmer Technique is actually a misnomer. Palmer is a chiropractic school in Davenport, Iowa that teaches all of the above techniques. Dr. Dru graduated from Life University, in Atlanta. The founder of Life graduated from Palmer, so the techniques are taught in Atlanta as well. Traditionally, the Palmer Technique refers to upper cervical work such as adjusting the atlas, axis, or the occipital bone. Dr. Dru looks at this region with every patient on every visit because he understands how important this area is to overall spinal health. Dr. Dru was published in the Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics in 2000 for original research he did administering upper cervical specific adjustments specifically in work with autistic children. |
| Extremity Adjustment |
Dr. Dru is one of very few area chiropractors that employ Extremity Adjustment. Having come from a strong athletic background and working with numerous world-class athletes from various age groups as well as new athletes, Dr. Dru knows the value of having the tibula/fibula/patella articulation (knee) working correctly. Extremity Adjustment is also helpful in repositioning those skeletal areas if, for example, you fall on your outstretched arms, which can easily happen in daily life through such activities as walking the dog. This is one technique that sets Dr. Dru apart from other chiropractors in Asheville.
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| physiological therapeutics |
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Not every patient on every visit gets physiological therapeutics (PT). If you’re a cash patient (not filing insurance), Dr. Dru includes PT as part of your visit to try to keep your out of pocket expense down. PT used in Dr. Dru's office include: |
| Electrical Stimulation |
Four small oval self-stick pads are attached to a patient's back with lines that connect to the Electrical Stimulation machine. A micro-current is relayed to the muscle surface through the pads. The PT is used on spinal muscles for a number of therapeutic purposes: it helps to reduce pain and muscle spasms; promotes blood flow; enhances cellular nutrition; and helps to strengthen healthy muscles. It feels very similar to a “tens” unit, but is non-portable. |
| Ultrasound |
Ultrasound is administered through a hand held device that has a crystal in the head of a wand. It sends a sound wave deep into the belly of the muscle or ligament attachment and matches the bodies frequency to assist the soft tissue in healing. Patients will feel the pressure of the wand on their skin, but not the soundwaves themselves.
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| Hydrocollation |
Dr. Dru uses Hydrocollation (moist heat) to either help loosen muscles prior to an adjustment or afterwards to help the muscles relax post adjustment. Most patients find the warmth relaxing and often slip into a cat-nap in the PT room during this treatment. |
| Cervical Traction |
Frequently, through injury, the neck looses its lordotic curve (the natural curve that should exist in the neck as viewed from the side). The Cervical Traction unit helps to restore the curve over time and opens up the neck joint spaces, therefore helping to open up the holes where the nerves flow out to both arms (called the brachial plexus). Most of the time carpal tunnel problems aren’t a problem in the wrists, rather are a problem stemming from the nerve root in the upper thoracic or cervical spine. |
| Low Level Healing Light Laser |
A lot of studies about the benefits of laser exist. Our massage therapist has this $8K unit and uses it on many of our patients to assist in the healing process. Please refer to the Resources page for more information on this PT technique. |
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