Dr. Ray Drury gets the distinction of being the first person to be interviewed twice on The Atlas of Life.
I first interviewed him in February of 2009, just a few weeks after I started this blog.
A lot has been going on in the Upper Cervical Chiropractic community since then, and a lot of it has to do with Dr. Drury.
I thought it would be interesting to do a follow up interview with him, and I must say I was not disappointed.
I’m grateful Dr. Drury could spare some time to answer some more questions for The Atlas of Life.
Dr. Brandon Harshe: A lot of progress has happened in Italy since the last time I interviewed you. Could you tell us a little bit about what has been happening?
Dr. Ray Drury: “Well we have had three Grand Openings there in the last few months for each office over there (Rome, Sicily and San Marino). Between the three offices we had over 750 people attend and scheduled 248 new patients. We had several medical doctors who have become patients that stood up and gave their testimonials and testimonials of patients that they had referred to our Upper Cervical docs.
One doctor in Sicily was the president of the Italian Medical Association for all of Sicily. He is a patient and has sent several people to the Upper Cervical Health Center in Trapani. He stood up and told 200+ people they need to quit taking drugs and go see Dr. Hollowell (the Upper Cervical doc in Trapani.) That is something you wouldn’t see happing in very many places.
James Tomasi was the guest speaker for the Rome Grand Opening and Greg Buchanan came all the way from Australia to be the guest speaker for the San Marino and Sicily Grand Openings. We will be opening our 4th office in Treviso, Italy in September in a beautiful hospital near Venice.
We are now starting Upper Cervical Health Centers of Europe which will be a subsidiary company of Upper Cervical Health Centers, Inc. We have already had several people interested in investing in this company to spread Upper Cervical all over Europe. We expect to raise a couple million dollars by the end of the year and use that to open 200-220 UCHC franchises all over Europe. So, if you know anyone interested in practicing in Europe please contact me and get on the waiting list soon. This money will also be used to fund the multiple research projects we are working on in our European offices.
So, there is some incredible stuff going on overseas!
Now let me tell you what has NOT been going on in Italy.
Although there are those that like to start false rumors, I want everyone to know that I have NOT been training medical doctors to do Upper Cervical. I am NOT starting a school in which we will be teaching medical doctors Upper Cervical. I am NOT selling out the chiropractic profession to the medical doctors. I have NOT turned Specific Upper Cervical Chiropractic into a therapy to get into the hospitals. And I would certainly NEVER EVER turn our Upper Cervical Chiropractic offices into chelation, intravenous vitamin therapy, hyperbaric chamber clinics.
As most chiropractors know, our worst enemy is ourselves. Unfortunately, even in Upper Cervical there are those that are envious that turn their own guilty conscious into lies to try to elevate themselves by pulling others down. This is the same old “crabs in a bucket” story that I spoke on at the Upper Cervical Evolution.
I wish everyone would just start worrying about what they are doing and quit worrying so much about what I am doing. Or at least, if you are so worried about what I am doing, just ask me and I will be happy to tell you. This way you don’t have to just assume and start making stuff up.
Thanks Brandon for letting me get that off my chest!”
Dr. Brandon Harshe: There seems to be a lot of interest in creating Upper Cervical Chiropractic offices around the world. What are some of the hot spots that you have been looking at and how do you think they will be received?
Dr. Ray Drury: “Right now we are focusing on Italy and maybe a few places close to Italy. We are creating a business model that can be duplicated anywhere in the world. UCHC of Europe is going to hire a fulltime CEO and country manager just to open new offices and build the existing offices in Italy. Once that model is very sound we are going to take it to other countries one-by-one and work our way through all of Europe. So, right now the “hot spot” is still Italy.
The reason we are focusing so much attention on Europe is because it is SO WELL received. We have MD’s promoting what we do and sending their patients. All of our offices are in hospitals (as independent contractors, not employees) where most of our patients come from.
The reason we are in hospitals is because, in Italy, chiropractors cannot take x-rays. So, we have set up relationships with hospitals in which we lease the space and we send our patients to their x-ray department to get their x-rays taken. Obviously we have to spend some time training their tech to take UC films but, so far, they have been eager to learn. We usually have to supplement their system with positioning chairs, head clamps and tilting buckeys. Occasionally they have to import an entire system so we can get the films we need.
We have medical doctors and business people in Europe wanting to invest in Upper Cervical Health Centers because they know that this is the future of healthcare! I am telling you it is a different world on the other side of the pond.
Oh, and did I mention there is no insurance and no Medicare so everyone pays cash without even questioning it?”
Dr. Brandon Harshe: Currently, there is a study being conducted in Italy on the effects a specific Upper Cervical adjustment has on patients with multiple sclerosis. I know it won’t be finished for a couple of years yet, but what have you heard about the preliminary results?
Dr. Ray Drury: “Actually, I am heading to Italy tomorrow (July 3rd) and I am supposed to be receiving the actual official preliminary study results from Dr. Mondolesi. As soon as I receive them we will get them out to everyone.”
Dr. Brandon Harshe: Recently, you created the International Upper Cervical Institute. Could you tell us about that?
Dr. Ray Drury: “The International Upper Cervical Institute was created out of necessity. UCHC has doctors from all of the major UC techniques. I felt that all of those techniques had a good program behind them that gave them consistent training at a fair price. I didn’t feel that was the case for the Knee-Chest work. I worked with several of our Knee-Chest docs that were really struggling with getting the kind of results that UC can get. After working with several of them I found that they had either been taught incorrectly or after completing an entire certification program never learned some of the key elements necessary to get the results they were looking for.
So I felt that if doctors where going to have the UCHC name on their door then I want to make sure they know what they are doing and they can deliver the goods. Although I am very busy, I felt it necessary to start teaching it correctly at a price everyone can afford.”
Dr. Brandon Harshe: How have you enjoyed teaching Knee-Chest? What has been the response?
Dr. Ray Drury: “I love teaching docs to be better docs. I love helping those that really want to serve be able to serve to their maximum potential. Since I gave up my practice 3 years ago to dedicate my life to helping more people through these doctors, I now live through them. I love getting the emails and phone calls about the cancer patients, AIDS patients, terminally ill or suicidal patients getting well. Now I not only get to help them serve more people through UCHC but I can how help them get better results with the ones they are serving.
My first seminar was just word of mouth and was just going to be a few UCHC guys that wanted to learn how to read x-rays correctly. Well the word of mouth spread quickly and we wound up with over 40 people at the first seminar. Within a couple years we expect to have 200+ people at every seminar.”
Dr. Brandon Harshe: The Upper Cervical Academy was created through Sherman College. Can you tell us about that and what your involvement has been with it?
Dr. Ray Drury: “Dr. Jon Shwartzbauer, the President of Sherman College and I have been talking about a way we could offer a real Upper Cervical certification program through a chiropractic college. The Upper Cervical Diplomat is a 3 year program that is very academic by design and most practicing doctors don’t have that kind of time to dedicate to a program that really isn’t going to change their practice much.
So Dr. Shwartzbauer and I developed a program designed for the practicing doctor. This program is set up to help doctors communicate better with their patients, potential patients and other healthcare professionals.
It is specifically designed to teach you what you need to know about the neurology, anatomy, philosophy, history and business protocols to be an Upper Cervical Specialist. This course will also help unite the Upper Cervical profession by teaching us what each technique has in common and what makes us different and how that might help us in our own practices.
This is a one hundred hour course. It is broken up into six core Upper Cervical courses that make up 64 hours plus at least 36 hours of technique that will be taught by the individual technique instructors for each technique. Each graduation will be held at the Upper Cervical Evolution with the Inaugural Class graduating in Orlando April 29th.
You can learn more about the Upper Cervical Academy and register for the upcoming seminars by going to www.UpperCervicalAcademy.com“
Dr. Brandon Harshe: How would you rate the progress of the Upper Cervical message spreading throughout the schools, country and the world?
Dr. Ray Drury: “I would say the message is spreading very well in some schools and not at all in others. As Upper Cervical docs we should consider it an honor and a duty to go back to these schools and tell the students the truth. Most of them know nothing about what we do. Very very soon the demand for Upper Cervical in the world is going to be so enormous we will never be able to have enough doctors to fill the need. We really need more Upper Cervical docs and it is up to us to go back into the schools and share what we do. If you want to do this please call me and I will help you get in to speak to these schools.
As for the country and the world, I have seen a lot of change in the last 5 years. More than the previous 15 years combined. But, it is like a drop in the ocean. Still 99.9% of the people on this planet have never even heard of Upper Cervical. We have a lot of work to do!
Quit worrying about what everyone else is doing. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t know anything about Dr. Drury’s company, but students and new grads should be paying a lot of attention to the basic message… there are other places to practice besides the US! When I was a new grad, if there were real opportunities to practice overseas (particularly in Italy, where I’ve lived before), I would have jumped at the chance. We hear nothing but complaints about practice opportunities in the US, but there is a WHOLE WORLD out there of people, many of whom are curious/receptive to the chiropractic message, and there are, in my opinion, HUGE opportunities outside of the USA for DC’s who want to practice there. There are now more chiropractic colleges outside of the USA than inside, so there’s some food for thought, too!
I’m happy to see that the oversight of chiropractic by the medical establishment is starting to be shed in Europe, and I wish this was going on 10-15 years ago so I could have had opportunities like this available.
What a good interview Brandon. What a much different picture than I was lead to believe through the rumor mill. I’m glad you provide this service to the profession.
Awesome article! I am so proud to call Dr. Drury is one of my mentors. He’s pushing through all the barriers we (as UC DCs) never thought could be moved. He’s a champion for UCC, and truly cares about the doctors who train underneath him. Go get ‘em, Dr. Drury!
As far as helping the profession, we need MORE specific upper cervical doctors in the world. That not only means giving your time to speak at the school, but also inspiring and motivating your patients to take their passion to the next level…becoming a UC DC. Everyone has those patients that want to do more, and are extremely intrigued with the upper cervical work. All these patients need is a little encouragement and guidance from their doctor.
If you want to inspire and motivate, we can help you! Check out Sherman College’s ROAR program at http://www.sherman.edu/roar or our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/Sherman.ROAR. This type of program is not designed to take your money, just to ask of your time and passion. Help us (as Dr. Drury says) “take upper cervical to the world”!
Jaime Browning, DC
Director of Reach Out And Recruit
800-849-8771, ext 220
*say*…not call. I got caught up in the moment! LOL!
Great article. I’m sorry I didn’t read it sooner. As most readers probably no by now, there has been a great deal of excitment over Dr. Zamboni using venous stents to successfully treat patients with MS, which he attribute to CCSVI. He blames the cause of the CCSVI on venous stenosis of jugular routes.
While I agree with Zamboni on the theory of CCSVI, I diagree with him on the cause. I believe the source of the blockage is in the vertebral veins. According to physical anthropologists humans developed extra venous outlet in the base of the skull to offset the increase in blood flow that comes from upright posture. Those extra venous outlets drain into the vertebral veins, not the jugular routes. Furthermore, the principle outlets to the vertebral veins are below the level of the jugular foramen, and oftentimes in the FM itself. Thus the most likely place for blockages to venous outlets to occur is in the UC spine.
I have been writing about the likely role of venous drainage issues in the brain in neurodegenerative diseases, such as MS for well over twenty years now. If you do a Google search for “stenosis Alzheimer’s” you will find an old article I published in Dynamic Chiropractic in 1990, calling for an epidemiological study of the role of venous drainage issues in Alzheimer’s.
When it comes to CCSVI and neurodegenerative diseases, MS is just the tip of the iceberg and aging baby boomers, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease are the iceberg. There are three times as many PD patients as MS patients, and three to five times as many AD patients as PD patients. For more information on CCSVI please visit my website and let me hear your thoughts, comments and questions. UC care canl accomplish the same results as venous stents and more, and it makes far more sense to try first.