Well Adjusted

EPHRATA — Columbia Basin Chiropractic is a place where people with a variety of musculoskeletal conditions can seek treatment. Lead chiropractic physician Dr. Brent Bedford said his goal is to help these patients restore function to their bodies and improve their quality of life.

Bedford said he has treated over 15,000 different patients in his 26 years at Columbia Basin Chiropractic, and he’s the only board-certified chiropractic neurologist in Central Washington.

“We have patients of all ages that come in here with musculoskeletal conditions ranging from neck to mid-back to low back pain,” he said. “We’ll have disc injuries, sports injuries, so in a small town like Ephrata we get varying types of injuries to the spine.”

When looking at the human spine it is easier to think of it as a set of hinges, according to Bedford, and when parts of the spine are not working properly the whole system can be compromised. A chiropractor can fix these issues and restore function to the system.

One way to set the system right is through distraction, a technique that reverses disk compression by gently stretching the spine. Hands-on manipulation and the use of chiropractic instruments are other ways to restore function to the spine, Bedford said.

“(With) all of those the goal is to make the spine move within its normal range of motion,” he said.

Bedford considers chiropractic care a more conservative approach to restoring function and decreasing pain in the back as opposed to taking medication or injections. It can also be a complementary approach to those as well.

“You can still do those things, but this allows the patient to actually get better quicker,” he said.

Besides the spine, Bedford also works on extremities – arms and legs. Columbia Basin Chiropractic also offers exercise rehabilitation, which has different methods depending on the condition.

“(For) any area of the spine, (there is) some rehab we do,” he said.

As a chiropractic neurologist, Bedford also treats vertigo and dizziness. The neural rehab room features a balance tracks program that is able to monitor a patient’s vestibular, proprioceptive and visual systems, he said.

The mural on the side of the Columbia Basin Chiropractic building was actually painted by the famous Irish street artist Fin DAC. The artist, whose real name is Finbarr Notte, is known for his depictions of Eurasian women, according to the website Street Art Bio.

Bedford had met Notte on a backpacking trip in Peru, where he learned that Notte was coming to the United States to do some buildings in larger cities. Bedford asked him to stop by Ephrata and paint the side of Columbia Basin Chiropractic, making this one of the few works Notte has done in a rural setting.

Nicole Lamens, who has worked at Columbia Basin Chiropractic for more than 12 years, said that her favorite part of her job is being able to help people return to doing their daily life activities. Simple tasks can be taken for granted like bending over to tie shoes or playing with their grandchildren, and the ability to see people be able to leave their care with a smile on their face and return to their lives makes it all worthwhile, said Lamens.

Columbia Basin Chiropractic employee Haley Dockins said the greatest reward for her is seeing how grateful patients are for the care that they’ve received. Many older patients are in great pain when they come in and have been living with the pain for years. They’re often surprised with the results, said Dockins.

Bedford worked for social services in New York for years before becoming a chiropractor, but there he was never really able to truly see the long-term benefits of what he was doing for the people he helped.

“The reward for this job is that you see immediate changes after you work with the patients,” he said. “I’ve had people crawl in here and then walk out of here, so we’re affecting people’s lives directly by what we do in this office.”