Working out the kinks with naprapathy

Chicago Daily Herald - March 30, 2005

By Steve Zalusky

Treatment aids patients who are under stress

• Tight muscles and joints stand little chance against naprapath Patrick Nuzzo’s fingers.
• This army of 10 digits promises to pummel even the tensest of bodies into pleasant submission.
• During each session, Nuzzo’s hands wander along his client’s back and neck, relentlessly probing the deepest recesses of muscles and joints.

By the end of the session, you’re left with a tingling sensation, relaxed and ready once again to battle the world. Nuzzo’s medium is, indeed, the massage. But this naprapath says his treatment is more than just an expert rubdown. He bills it as an alternative health care system with a culture developed over more than a century.

Nuzzo operates Safe Waters Naprapathic Health Care, 228 W. Main St. in Lake Zurich. He also travels to an office in New Mexico. He has been in the business since the late 70’s, with a clientele that has included such sporting luminaries as the late Walter Payton. The Chicago National College of Naprapathy and Clinic, which was established in 1907 and is based in Chicago, specifically defines naprapathy as a licensed health-care system using hands-on techniques supplemented by nutritional counseling. “Connective tissue disorders is our specialty,” said naprapath Paul Maguire Jr., the college’s CEO. “That’s our scope of practice. Connective tissue disorders are basically ligaments and tendons and muscles that have a tendency to strain or tear slightly.”

During a naprapathic exam, the naprapath taps and feels different areas of the body to ferret out any pain or swelling. The naprapath’s enemies include muscle spasms and tears, inflammation, scar tissue formations, bruises and atrophied muscles. Treatment involves manipulating connective tissue, restoring proper posture and nutritional counseling. It does not involve radiology, surgery or the use of drugs. Naprapathy was developed in the late 1800’s by Dr. Oakley Smith, a trained chiropractor who abandoned his original calling to work on a technique that would cure his chronic back pain. He found the answer to his problem by attacking the soft tissue around the spine through manipulation of the muscles, ligaments and tendons. Nuzzo also discovered the naprapathic path via chiropractic. His uncle was a chiropractor. “I did not go to a doctor. I went to my uncle”, he said. “I don’t remember ever taking medication in my life. The body can and will heal itself. It’s a natural health care system.”

Nuzzo became a licensed naprapath in 1983. But it was in 1979 that he met his most famous client, Walter Payton. At the time, Nuzzo was studying at the Chicago National College of Naprapathy and earning a few bucks giving massages at the Charlie Club in downtown Chicago. “He was as flexible a man as I’ve ever met,” said Nuzzo. “He worked more on stretching than pumping iron.” Nuzzo’s goal in working with the running back was to work out the tension in his body. He continued to work with Payton through his illness and right up until the night before he died. At that point, Nuzzo said the Bears legend was in a lot of pain, and he was working to soothe him. For Nuzzo to see such a splendid physical specimen in decline at the end of his life acted as a wake up call that “we live by the grace of God. We’re not in control,” Nuzzo said. One shouldn’t get the idea that Nuzzo just works on athletes. “I work on a lot of highly motivated your stressful executives,” he said. No less an authority than Chicago White Sox trainer Herman Schneider can attest to the effectiveness of Nuzzo’s treatments. Schneider said a number of professional athletes have submitted themselves to Nuzzo’s ministrations. As for Schnieder, he visits Nuzzo regularly to take of a chronic back condition. “He may not cure the problem, but he makes it more tolerable,” Schnieder said. “This is not just deep massage. There is a real art to it. This guy is a quality person and a quality naprapath. Treatment does not necessarily mean a cure, warns Maguire of the Chicago naprapathy school. “We’re all getting over the magic bullet theory. I don’t deal in that world.”