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Chiropractor tackles allergy symptoms
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Ripon chiropractor Dr. Lyle Tvedt defies allergy symptoms with laser technology. - photo by GLENN KAHL
It’s the strong urge to help his patients that has kept Dr. Lyle Tvedt passionate about his chiropractic practice in Ripon. Now with a new goal to make a difference for allergy sufferers as well, he is expanding his practice.

A co-founder of Save Mart Markets - the late Nick Toco of Ceres - was Tvedt’s first patient in February of 1978.  Hundreds have walked through his office door over the years, using crutches and walkers.  Having seen so many of them walk back out of his office on their own, has given him a feeling of accomplishment, he said.

His Ripon practice has served some 8,000 patients since opening its doors over 30 years ago.

Tvedt and his wife Judy have not been strangers to the Ripon community over the last three generations -- Judy being his right hand and officer manager and very involved in Ripon Soroptimists.  Tvedt has also been a long-time member of the Ripon Lions Club.

The couple has been married 39 years this year, first meeting on a blind date in the mid ‘60s.  He said they were both skeptical of blind dates set up by friends.

The Ripon chiropractor is one of eight practitioners in the entire state who is offering the advanced laser technology - BAX 3000 - that promises to provide relief of allergy symptoms by balancing both sides of the brain.
 
“An allergy is not a disease but an inappropriate (brain) response to a normal substance,” Tvedt said.  Often times the brain “is out of balance” through past physical, emotional or mental trauma, he added.

Tvedt said the laser technology has been in the works for the last 17 years, but it has only been available for the last 14 months.

“It’s a thrill to be able to help people who aren’t healthy. It’s very fulfilling to help a child with their problems when medically there is no idea what is causing it.  It brings tears to your eyes,” he added.  Retirement is not in his vocabulary.

While the allergy treatments admittedly may take numerous visits to his clinic, several of his patients have said they have quickly experienced a marked difference.

Joan Watkins of Ripon, said that she was amazed that she felt better than she had felt in years after several treatments.  

“My sneezing, coughing , runny nose, and itchy, watery eyes disappeared,” she said. “I have been able to stop taking most of the allergy medications that I was taking.”

Another Ripon patient, Cliff Lease, said he had suffered from allergies for many years.  “I was recently on vacation in Panama when I got very sick with my allergies,” he said.  Returning home he was hospitalized for a week but his symptoms persisted, he added.

He said he was unable to sleep for several days.  After several treatments with Tvedt’s laser technology, he claims his coughing sneezing and runny nose has ceased to be a problem.

More information on the laser technology is available at the website, www.AllergiCare.com.

Tvedt grew up in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin – “it’s cold there”, he said.  Coincidentally, that community is the home of the largest chiropractic clinic in the world.

Dr. Clarence Gonstead - a clinic chiropractor - was the Tvedt family doctor and his role model.   “He was the only doctor I ever went to until I broke my ankle in the Air Force,” he said.

It was the time when President Harry Truman issued a Presidential order that put an end to segregation on military bases that previously had whites on one side of the base and blacks on the other.  Tvedt was first stationed at Scott Air Force Base in Bellenville, Ill.

Tvedt was next assigned to Dennison, TX, on a jet training base where he completed his active duty time.  He remembers clearly being involved in the Korean Conflict “troop call back” in 1950 and serving another year in the service.

In 1951 he entered chiropractic school in Davenport, Iowa, later practicing in Stoughton, Wisconsin, where he said he worked every day, all day.  In 1976 he moved to Houston, Texas, practicing there until 1976 - two years before his move to Ripon to be near a brother who was living in Stockton.