Providing Complementary Medicine through Acupuncture, Chiropractic, and Nutrition for over 30 years

“Complementary medicines don’t just complement, they synergistically enhance each other’s effectiveness. Combining alternatives in a unified fashion allows a comprehensive approach. All aspects of the disease are addressed so healing can be quicker and more complete.

– Dr. Mitchell Pearce

My journey to become a complementary medicine provider

When I heard about James Reston getting pain relief from acupuncture after his appendectomy when he was in China with President Nixon, I decided to become an acupuncturist. However, there was no place I could legally go to learn acupuncture, so I decided to study pre-med and pre-divinity in college. Unfortunately, each M.D. I met in college failed to  cure the aches and pains I presented with. I dropped out of college and lived on the road in the summer of 1976.

Native American Medicine Woman saved my knees.

One day, sleeping on a grassy knoll, I was awoken by a truck backing over my knees! When I yelled out to tell the driver, he panicked and drove back over both my legs. I was taken to the hospital and told I’d never walk again if I did not have surgery.  Having only $75.00 to my name, surgery was not an option. I convinced the doctor to loan me a pair of crutches and leg braces. I received a ride back to my camp, where I passed out.  I was awoken by rain in the morning and realized that since I could not bend my legs, I would die of starvation if I stayed there.

Sooting about on my butt, it took me two days to break camp and pack up. I placed my backpack and crutches against a tree and shimmied up the tree with my arms till I could get my crutches under me.  Then I put on my back pack and sallied forth.

I must have looked like a sorry sight in the rain on crutches thumbing for a ride! Shortly, a car stopped and two women asked if I needed help. They let me lie down in the back of their station wagon and drove me to a tipi in the woods.  I spent the next two weeks lying on the ground in their tipi where they daily wrapped my legs in herbs. One of the women was an Algonquin medicine woman. At the end of the two weeks, she taught me how to care for my legs and drove me to the road.  I never saw her again and never had an opportunity to pay her for her kindness. The experience had a fundamental influence on me in that I have never turned away a patient for lack of ability to pay and decided to learn herbology.  Also, my knees completely healed.

Miracle Chiropractor restored my health.

From 1975-through 1977, I was steadily losing weight  because I could not eat anything with fat or cooked in oil without getting cramps and diarrhea and often vomiting.  After arriving in San Francisco, I visited over a dozen specialists at both UCSF and Stanford, all of whom were stumped. Then, in 1977, I developed back and neck pain so severe I could not stand up. I was carried into a chiropractor’s office and after my first adjustment (movement of my spinal bones by a chiropractor) I was able to walk out of his office!  It took me several days to arrange for people to carry me into the chiropractor’s office.  As a result of that experience, I decided I’ll make house calls.

Later that year, I met chiropractor Charles Curcuruto who bet me $75.00 he could make it possible for me to eat a fried meal without getting sick. After three treatments, he told me to eat fried eggs and bacon; and for the first time in two years, I did not get sick.  Later, Dr. Curcuruto bet me he could get the tension in my jaw and headaches relieved within $200.  Six visits later, my headaches were gone and my jaw tension was considerably reduced.  He had pushed on bones in my face and mouth which resulted in re-aligning my lower jaw to my upper jaw.  He called these procedures “craniopathy“.  I found out that a chiropractor and an osteopath each developed craniopathy separately and craniopathy was a specialty in both professions.  I did not know the amount of study I was getting into, but I wanted to become a miracle worker like Dr. Curcuruto!

My ambitions finally realized!

After graduating from Palmer College of Chiropractic West, I opened my practice in 1982. After becoming a recognized expert in treatment of sports injuries and clinical nutrition, I realized my boyhood ambition, and entered the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine to study acupuncture and herbology.  Finally becoming a licensed acupuncturist in 1992!

30+ years of joyful healing!

During my thirty plus years of practice, I’ve developed an empathetic and compassionate ear and counseling style for those suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. I prefer to empower patients by explaining why they are sick or in pain and help them choose the most effective treatments. With so many years of teaching experience, I’m comfortable explaining what I’m doing to patients’ family and friends. I like answering questions and encourage my patients to ask as many as they want.

Along the way, I’ve enjoyed working with several dozens of physicians.  When we work together to heal patients, our approaches really do complement each other. Patients benefit.

Although healing my legs was “just another week in the tipi” for the Algonquin Medicine Woman, it was a miracle for me. Patients, especially those who’ve tried multiple different doctors in search of a cure, often feel that their experience of chiropractic and acupuncture is miraculous. I’ve come to accept that God guides us to the healing and lessons we need in mysterious ways.  I’ve realized that miracles are as ready for us as we are for them, so being open to to these gifts allows them to arrive.  I’ve learned the best way for me to accept miracles The Divine showers me with is to give thanks every day.

One of the only joys greater than being a healer is being healed. I hope I can bring that joy to you.

I’m assisted by my closest friend, confidante, and wife, Maggie Pearce. We have two sons, Nathan Pearce and Lucas Pearce. In our free time, you can find us playing outdoors.

Yours in good health,
Mitchell Pearce, D.C., M.S., L.Ac, D.A.C.B.N.