Dr. Vittoria Repetto

It would seem that I have been heading this way for quite a long time. My journey to become a healer started with a journey of healing myself. I started this journey as a constipated child who had a cold at least once a month and whose ragweed allergy was getting worse every year.

At 18, I was in the Italian Alps; a cousin introduced me to a whole grain product called muesli. It was my first un-constipated summer. Back in New York City I was having a hard time finding this product until I found this hole-in the-wall health food store. I had my first taste of carrot juice and left with the muesli, some brown rice and a resolution not to overcook my vegetables.

In the next seven years, my journey included changes in my diet, martial arts and studies of nutrition, herbs and homeopathics. During this time I was seriously thinking about what to do for the rest of my life. People around me were always asking me for back rubs; saying what good hands I had. The idea of helping people appealed to me, so in 1976, I started studying massage.

Also at this time, I had intensified my martial arts studies and was having muscle strains and spasms that no amount of stretching or massage seemed to help. A fellow student suggested that I go see "old Doc Christie" - a 75 yr old chiropractor whose mind was as clear as her body was strong. I would sit for hours watching her adjust her patients and listening to her talk about subluxations, nerve energy flow, spinal manipulations, extremity manipulations, enemas and liver detox. My ragweed allergy was improving.

My martial arts teacher told me about applied kinesiology; it was a technique that incorporated chiropractic with muscle balancing, organ neuro-vascular & neuro-lymphatic points, cranial-sacral work, nutritional consultation and meridian acu-point therapy. With this you could ask the body itself what is needed to heal itself. In order to do this, you couldn't do assembly line chiropractic. You had to spend time: do a complete exam, explore the chemical and mental factors as well as the structure. And to this busy New Yorker, being in a doctor's office three times a week seemed like it was adding to your stress; an hour visit a week seemed more logical.

At chiropractic college and then in my practice I have polished this idea, this healing philosophy. Recently I have incorporated studies on intestinal wall integrity, IgG food allergies and how these affect not only your digestive system but also the respiratory system,the immune system, the spine and neuro-musculoskeletal disorders like low back pain, neck and mid back pain arthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatique and degeneratives disc problems. As you can see the journey is not over; it continues.

And by the way my ragweed allergy is long gone.

Dr. Vittoria Repetto -Chiropractor / Applied Kinesiologist

The above appeared in Free Spirit magazine; Feb-March 1998