Times are tough and in the wake of the economic downturn, people have been tightening their belts, which as Dr. Bruce Turley discovered, means sometimes his patients go without critical care.

That’s just not something he’s okay with, so he did something about it.

He lowered his prices.

Turley, a chiropractor with Pathway Healthcare, came to Oakdale in January 2008 with a fresh can-do attitude that fit perfectly with the philosophies espoused by the local healthcare clinic. He quickly found clients who’d suffered for years yet never thought of chiropractic as their solution to wellness. Turley managed to change the lives of many of his clients — even enabling to put a wheelchair-bound woman back on her feet with the aid of a cane — but many of his clients were on Medicare and Medi-Cal and when the government started cutting back, chiropractic services were one of the first to go.

Turley, seeing his clients suffering, decided he couldn’t let happen so he took stock of what he could do and lowered his prices to $20 per visit for existing clients and $10 for new clients.

“I lost a lot of business due to the changes in Medi-Cal and Medi-Care,” Turley said. “But in my house, the word ‘can’t’ isn’t allowed. When I heard a lot of people saying they couldn’t afford chiropractic I lowered the price. I decided to do it for a couple of months and see what we can do.”

The decision didn’t come without a lot of thought. After all, Turley has to make a living, same as everyone else but he doesn’t regret it.

“It’s actually quite exciting because more and more people are coming in to experience chiropractic,” he said. “For a lot of people, when you don’t know about it, you’re afraid of it. This gives them a chance to try it and see for themselves what it can do for them.”

Turley, formerly of Seattle, Washington, is fired up about the benefits of chiropractic. At one time, he didn’t believe in the alternative method of wellness care. It took dealing with his own extreme pain to make him a believer.

“I lived in Seattle, owned my own business selling carpet and vinyl and I had hurt my back really bad,” Turley explained, sharing his path to chiropractic. “I started to get really bad headaches. I’d never been sick. I was reluctant to see a chiropractor. But after the first visit, he adjusted my neck and it felt like an AC being turned on. The cool sensation went right up into the brain. It was actually my chiropractor who suggested that I become a chiropractor. I thought about it and then started looking at colleges.”

In essence, not only did that chiropractor ease the pain caused by years toiling in a physically demanding occupation but he introduced Turley to his second career.

Turley hasn’t looked back since and he definitely doesn’t suffer from those debilitating headaches any longer either.

But Turley’s blue-collar roots gave him an insight to his patients.

“I can relate to where they’re coming from. I’ve been there with the bulged discs and severe headaches where you can’t get out of bed,” he said. “It’s exciting to help people get better.”

Although he lives in Modesto, he enjoys the Oakdale community, saying, “I like how friendly everyone is. I grew up in a small town where you knew everybody and everybody knew your family and that’s how Oakdale makes me feel. You walk into stores and they look you in the eye and they want to help you. Bigger towns tend to lose that.”

According to Turley, his specialty is the extremities, particularly the shoulder area.

“I’ve helped a lot of people with shoulder issues,” he said. “But I love to work with everyone.”

He also does a lot of muscle re-education, or retraining the muscle to work to their full capacity in connection with the brain.

“With extremities, you have to deal with the body globally not just locally,” Turley said.

He also works a lot with children, adjusting some as young as a few months old with gentle hands.

“Chiropractic is a healthy choice lifestyle,” he said. “A lot of people since the 1990s have been searching out healthier ways to live. Health is a frame of mind. It’s a better way of living. Taking vitamins is a choice you make the rest of your life. It’s like going to the dentist. You don’t go once for the rest of your life. You go for maintenance. It’s about prevention.”

For more information, or to make an appointment with Dr. Bruce Turley, call Pathway Healthcare at 848-8410.