An Interview with Dr. Leslie Prins

YNH: Tell us a little bit about your background and how you become a Chiropractor.

Dr. LP: When people find out that I’m a chiropractic neurologist, often their first response is, “Did you go to med school?” While I was pre-Med in college and at one point thought I was going to go the MD route, I did not go to med school. In chiropractic, we have our own post-graduate program that is accredited by the same organization that accredits the MD post-graduate programs in Neurology. I have completed and passed all the coursework for the board in Neurology.

Something happened when I was about 29 years old that turned my life around when I got hurt doing a blue-collar labor job and couldn’t move for three days. A friend of mine said, “You should go see my chiropractor.” I went and saw a chiropractor in the San Francisco financial district, and within six visits I was released. At the point of my first visit, I couldn't even sit up straight, let alone stand. After my first visit, I was able to stand up straight and sit straight. By the sixth visit, I was pain-free.

During my treatment, I'd been asking the doctor lots of questions. By the sixth visit he handed me a list of all the schools in the country, and he said, “Here’s a list of the chiropractic schools. I think you need to call them and go visit,” which I did. I visited two of the schools here in the Bay Area, and I really appreciated the fact that there were no drugs or surgery involved in the care. And, this set me on the path of my lifelong commitment to support peoples’ healing using non-invasive techniques and encouraging supportive lifestyle choices.

YNH: How does working with the nervous system support wellness?

Dr. LP: If we can free up the nervous system so that it can do its job more efficiently, the body will do what it's supposed to do in order to keep you well. Now, we need to support it with food, the appropriate vitamins, minerals, and cofactors. And with the appropriate products going in and the appropriate stimulation to the nervous system, the body will keep you quite well and heal, because the body wants to be perfect. It wants to run without a problem.

YNH: Would you say a little something about what causes inflammation in the body.

Dr. LP: We are the ones that screw it up eating sugar, and you know what that's done to this country with diabetes. We eat processed foods, which then causes us to have issues with various body parts, depending on your genetic makeup and your epigenetics. We do all kinds of things to create issues with our body. We go out and be weekend warriors and injure joints and injure muscles and tear things and sprain things and strain things. All of those things create inflammation. And, as an aside, and why I’m talking with Your Natural Healthcare today, is to mention that CBD products can help with inflammation. And if we can reduce inflammation to the level of efficiency, you will heal faster. So, in my practice, I’m working with you in myriad ways to, among other things, reduce inflammation.

YNH: Most people think about back pain when they hear the word chiropractor, but you mostly speak about the brain.  

Dr. LP: I believe the brain is everything, but the brain has extensions off it, just like the leaves of a tree. You can't ignore the leaves just because they're out on the ends of the branches, they are still part of the tree. And, all the parts of you are an extension of your central nervous system. If I can make your nervous system improve by doing things to promote efficiency in that system, your body will then function at a higher level, usually with less pain and certainly with greater ranges of motion.

And, hopefully with better digestion and ability to function better internally as well.  Yes, you’re right. when you think of a chiropractor, you think of back pain, but you've got to remember that the nerves that come off the spinal cord don't just go to the back, they also go internal to the front. And if I can do things that promote a reduction in your back pain, I've also promoted an improvement in the internal structures associated with the peripheral nerves that go to those internal structures, be it your digestive system, your liver, your pancreas, your heart, your GI system, whatever it may be.

YNH: You have this marvelous ultimate goal for your patients. Share that with our readers.

Dr. LP: Many people are happy with just feeling mediocre, feeling okay. Well, I want you to feel great, not okay. I want you to live to 100 and be dancing without help. It may not be possible, but that's the goal. The goal is always, for as long as you're breathing, to improve today whatever we can.

So, I believe that as a chiropractor utilizing functional neurology, the goal is to get the brain and peripheral nervous system to work better so that the body will then function at a higher level.

If I can use a non-invasive techniques or intervention to help the body promote a faster healing response, that's what makes my joy, because I see people get better quicker without drugs and without surgery.