Show Notes
Dr Matt Delgado DC joins James Chester for Episode 812 of the Chiro Hustle Podcast to explore the personal health crisis that transformed the way he thinks about chiropractic, subluxation, and the body's ability to heal.
Shortly after chiropractic school, Matt entered an intense associateship, burned out, and was eventually diagnosed with Graves disease. He describes leaving that environment, simplifying his life, prioritizing sleep and rest, eating whole foods, eliminating alcohol for a year, and returning to foundational lifestyle habits. Matt says his Graves disease subsequently went into remission.
That journey ultimately produced the central metaphor behind his forthcoming book, Stepping Out of the Grave: How to Heal When You're Tired of Trying:
The body is more like a plant than a car.
Matt and James explore what that means for chiropractic. Matt describes pain-focused, structurally focused, and neurologically focused chiropractic; discusses primary and compensatory subluxations; explains how Torque Release Technique influenced his thinking and the development of his Tricord Method; and challenges chiropractors to look upstream at nervous-system function, sleep, stress, movement, toxins, and nutrition.
At the center of the conversation is a distinctly chiropractic question: If the body possesses innate intelligence, should our job be to continually “fix” people—or to address interference, improve function, educate people, and respect the intelligence already within them?
This is a conversation about returning to the roots of health and the roots of chiropractic.
#ChiroHustle #ChiroHustlePodcast #Chiropractic #Subluxation #ChiropracticPhilosophy #InnateIntelligence #NeurologicalChiropractic #ChiropracticAdjustment #NervousSystem #ChiropracticLifestyle #MattDelgado #JamesChester
More from Chiro Hustle
At 15 years old, Elia Toscanelli collapsed after an athletic competition and awakened inside an ambulance surrounded by doctors, cables, frightened friends, and his mother searching for answers. The next two years took him through hospitals across Switzerland as he searched for an explanation. Then his mother brought him to a chiropractor—and the direction of his life began to change. In Chiro Hustle Podcast 814, James Chester talks with Elia about the journey from experiencing chiropractic to feeling called to dedicate his life to it. Now serving people in student clinic in Madrid, Elia shares one of the episode’s most powerful lessons. When the first person came through the door, he didn’t feel ready. He decided to be ready. That philosophy extends throughout this conversation as Elia challenges chiropractic students to reject victimhood and become active participants in their own development. Read the Green Books. Listen to the greats. Find mentors. Visit practices. Build community. Study philosophy. Develop your message. Show up. Having visited more than 60 chiropractic practices and recently traveled from Europe to Colorado to speak at Mile High, Elia explains how immersion in the chiropractic community has shaped his understanding of the profession and his responsibility to its future. The episode culminates in a powerful question he shares from Reggie Gold: If today you were the last chiropractor on Earth, would chiropractic survive? For students, recent graduates, mentors, educators, and chiropractors who believe the principle must be preserved and communicated, Episode 814 is a challenge to stop waiting for someone else to build the profession you want. Know the principle. Develop your message. Find your people. Show up. And decide to be ready. #ChiroHustle #ChiroHustlePodcast #Chiropractic #ChiropracticStudent #ChiropracticPhilosophy #Subluxation #SubluxationBasedChiropractic #ChiropracticPrinciple #InnateIntelligence #ChiropracticLeadership #ChiropracticEducation #FutureOfChiropractic #ChiropracticMentorship #GreenBooks #MileHighChiropractic
Three bulging discs at age 16 changed the direction of Dr. Dan Ruitenbeek's life. A competitive hockey player growing up in Canada, Dan reached the point where he says he could no longer voluntarily contract his left quadriceps. Surgery was becoming a possibility. Then a friend sent him to a chiropractor. Within approximately three weeks, Dan says he was essentially pain-free. Within three months, he was back playing hockey. That experience eventually led him to Life University, chiropractic practice, Recover X, entrepreneurship, and Shockwave Centers of America. In Episode 813 of the Chiro Hustle Podcast, James Chester and Dr. Dan Ruitenbeek DC explore what happens when chiropractic changes someone's life—and that person decides to build systems that can strengthen the profession. Dan discusses why chiropractic students must intentionally pursue mentorship, technique training, internships, philosophy, and business education beyond the classroom. He also explains his approach to accessible “biohacking for real people” and how technologies can support patients without replacing the unique role of chiropractic. Then the conversation turns toward one of chiropractic's most overlooked opportunities: the chiropractic assistant. Dan believes better education, certification, responsibility, and career pathways for CAs could strengthen practices, improve staff retention, expand service capacity, and help chiropractors spend more time doing what only chiropractors can do. Detect subluxation. Correct subluxation. Communicate chiropractic. From a teenage hockey injury to nearly 3,000 offices using the systems of Shockwave Centers of America, Dan's story demonstrates what can happen when experience, mentorship, innovation, and chiropractic principle come together. You are just one story away. Keep Hustling.
“That kid was me.”
What happens when one chiropractic adjustment becomes the beginning of a multigenerational legacy?
What happens when a man who once entered disaster zones to help people rebuild their lives brings that same calling into chiropractic?