Dr. Ray Drury is one of the founders of Upper Cervical Health Centers, a company designed to help Specific Upper Cervical Chiropractors own and operate their own successful clinic. Dr. Drury owned and operated four successful Upper Cervical Chiropractic clinics for 14 years before he realized he wanted to teach other Upper Cervical Chiropractors the same system he had developed. Along with Dr. Thad Vuagniaux, Dr. Drury grew tired of seeing many Upper Cervical Chiropractors fail in business. Together, they created Upper Cervical Health Centers, and have watched it grow, now, into a worldwide company. Dr. Drury was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule and let me interview him for The Atlas of Life.
Brandon: How were you introduced to Specific Upper Cervical Chiropractic?
Dr. Drury: “As a student at Logan College of Chiropractic Medicine (as I once found written on their stationary) I really struggled with something my father, a full-spine chiropractor at that time, told me: “The body is a self healing organism. It doesn’t need any help just no interference.” Well this was not what I was learning at Logan. So, in my search to figure out what chiropractic was all about, a friend recommended I go down to Atlanta to a D.E. seminar. He said it would change my life. That was an understatement. Not only did I learn what chiropractic really was, but I met a tall, thin, gray haired man that was hollering, screaming and pounding on this black book like a southern Baptist minister. That man was Dr. Michael Kale, that book was Vol. XVIII and he was hollering about B.J. Palmer and Upper Cervical. I had never seen anyone so passionate about anything in my life. I got enthused by his enthusiasm. At that point I knew I had to know what he knew. There’s been no looking back since.”
Brandon: I’ve heard you speak about going on Upper Cervical Chiropractic mission trips before. Can you tell us, briefly, what that experience is like?
Dr. Drury: “My first UC mission trip was right after Dr. Vuagniaux and I graduated form school and it was a little scary. There were 14 of us including Dr. Kale and his wife that went to Moldova, a country in the former Soviet Union. I took one group about three hours away; Dr. Vuagniaux took another group and the rest stayed with Dr. Kale. We stayed in people’s houses, we saw patients in churches and we shared one interpreter. The food was horrible, the bathrooms were nothing more than a hole in the ground and we worked our butts off everyday. But the people were so appreciative and we saw so many miracles every day. About a year later we went on another mission trip to Moldova. This trip had 30 doctors all in the same place. In one week we saw a total of 39,500 patients, 10,000 in one day. It was awesome. In 2007 we took a mission trip to Honduras. Here we worked in the largest hospital in the largest city in Honduras. We had a line of people outside that hospital 3-4 hours before we got there every morning. Medical doctors would bring their patients to us to check them. It truly was like being in a different world. We are planning another mission trip to Nicaragua soon.”
Brandon: Thinking back to your experiences on mission trips, what would you say is the biggest difference between practicing Upper Cervical Chiropractic in a different country as opposed to the states?
Dr. Drury: “Other countries are not so medically indoctrinated. Americans are brainwashed. “How do you spell relief?” Other countries don’t believe so strongly that in order to be well you have to have a pill, potion, or lotion. We have an office in Italy and we are opening a second in a few weeks. There we really don’t see patients with just back and neck pain. Almost all of our patients are really, really sick. Mostly conditions like ALS, Multiple Sclerosis, cancer, Cerebellar Ataxia, Dystonia, etc. and many of them are referred to us by their medical doctor. The M.D.s there don’t believe in medicine as strongly as the lay people in America. Probably why Americans consume 80% of all of the drugs produced on the planet yet make up less than 5% of the world population. If Americans would wake up and see that we also rank dead last in overall health maybe we wouldn’t be such a drugged up nation.”
Brandon: You and Dr. Thad Vuagniaux created Upper Cervical Health Centers, which provides Specific Upper Cervical Chiropractors the opportunity to own and operate a successful Upper Cervical practice of their own. Can you tell us how that idea started?
Dr. Drury: “Upper Cervical Health Centers got started from a vision and a necessity. Dr. Vuagniaux and I have always felt that Upper Cervical care should be the primary form of health care on the planet. At the same time we saw many of our colleagues fail and drop out of practice. Most of which were excellent doctors. Dr. Vuagniaux and I had been bouncing ideas off of each other for the entire life of our practices, about 12 years at that time, and we built our practices almost identically. During those 12 years we kept up with what worked and what did not. We developed systems for every aspect of our offices. Then we proved that they were reproducible by opening new offices with new doctors and helping them become successful. Then several doctors asked us to share with them what we had developed. Dr. Vuagniaux and I decided that we could use what we had been working on the last 12 years to fulfill a need by helping UC doctors become more successful and carry out our vision of branding Upper Cervical and making it the primary form of health care. Thus, UCHC was created.”
Brandon: Upper Cervical Health Centers recently opened an office in Italy. Can you tell how that is going?
Dr. Drury: “The Italy office is going great. As I said earlier, Dr. Kevin Leach sees more sick people in a day than 99% of chiropractors see in a lifetime. We recently had a meeting there with many of the medical doctors in the area. Three M.D.s stood up and told their colleagues how great UC was. One even said that medical doctors are great diagnosticians but maybe not so good at getting people well and that UC care seemed to be better at helping people get well. We are opening another office in Rome in a few weeks and then we plan on opening many more all over Italy. We are partnering with a very well known and respected medical doctor in Italy that truly supports the UC movement and wants to help us grow throughout Europe.”
Brandon: Do you have plans to open up more offices outside of the United States?
Dr. Drury: “We plan on opening UCHC offices all over the world. We are currently speaking to doctors and students that want to open in Canada, Australia, Mexico, Greece, France, England, Germany, Malaysia, Japan, Dubai and several others.”
Brandon: UCHC sponsors the Upper Cervical Evolution convention every year. Can you tell us what the goal of Evolution is?
Dr. Drury: “The goal of the Upper Cervical Evolution is to bring unity to the Upper Cervical profession. Something the chiropractic profession as a whole has struggled with. We hope we have stirred up a new excitement and enthusiasm for Upper Cervical in the chiropractic schools as well. We want the Evolution to serve as a catalyst for changing people’s lives just as that D.E. seminar did for me.”
Brandon: What is your vision for the future of Upper Cervical Chiropractic?
Dr. Drury: “My vision for the future of Upper Cervical Chiropractic is a lofty one. I see a unified profession working together to create awareness, do research, lobby congress for what we want as a profession. I see Upper Cervical Health Centers in every city in America, in every country in the world. Upper Cervical research centers and hospitals were patient progress can be documented. I see huge convention centers filled with UC docs, staff and patients for seminars like the UC Evolution. I see conferences like this going on simultaneously all over the world. I see UCHC commercials starring well-known actors and athletes played during the Super Bowl, the NCAA Championship, and the Masters. I see Tiger Woods playing in the US Open wearing a UCHC logo on his hat. I see the UCHC Chevrolet winning the Daytona 500. I see UC docs on TV shows like Oprah, 60 Minutes, 20/20 all in a positive light. I see every office with a 3-4 month waiting list for new patients, patients paying top dollar out of pocket just to get checked by an UC doctor. I see Upper Cervical care finally recognized as the premier healing profession on the planet. I only see one problem…enough UC doctors to keep up with the demand!”
Thanks again to Dr. Ray Drury for taking time to share his global vision with us. This interview was truly inspiring to me. It really is amazing to have someone like Dr. Drury at the forefront of profession championing the Upper Cervical cause, not only with words, but actions as well.
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