Meet
Dr. Matthew Hannikainen

The reason that I am here today, and why I became a chiropractor, is because chiropractic saved my life.

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When I was 18 years old, I was body checked really hard in hockey and went head first into the boards. What I felt was an intense electrical shock in my neck and upper back. It sent shooting pains out to my arms and down my spine. I blacked out and collapsed onto the ice.

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I don’t really have much recollection of what happened right after that hit.  I was that scene we’ve all seen too often—where the player is lying on the ice and everyone in the arena is waiting to see if they get up.

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That was me.

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I had to be helped off the ice and into the dressing room.

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What followed immediately after that hit was a lot of pain, brain fog, an inability to concentrate, and unrelenting headaches.

It wasn’t fun.

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But getting rid of that is not what made me decide to become a chiropractor.

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It was because six months after that hit… my heart stopped beating.

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This became a recurring thing for me. My heart would stop beating for a period of time and then restart. I had no idea what was happening. I had no idea how long it would last—sometimes 30 seconds, sometimes more, sometimes less. I had no idea when it would happen either.

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I went to many hospitals. I saw every medical doctor possible. I went through countless medical tests trying to find out what was causing my heart to do this.

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After two years of living like this and not getting any answers, my doctor told me they couldn’t find anything wrong with my heart—and that I was just going to have to live with it.

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After hearing this, my life began to fall apart.

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I became depressed. I thought I was going to go to bed one night and that would be it. That’s a terrifying way to live.

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My brain fog got so bad that I began failing courses at university.

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This went on for another six months.

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At that point, I hurt my back lifting weights. I initially tried the conventional route. I went to my family doctor, where they prescribed painkillers and muscle relaxants. None of it helped.

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It was at this point that I was dragged to see our local chiropractor. His name was Dr. Kelly Kramp.

Neither of us knew it at the time—but he was going to save my life.

After two and a half years of living with a heart that wouldn’t work properly, Dr. Kramp was the first person who truly listened to me. He believed that the hit I took in hockey was significant, even when everyone else said it had nothing to do with it.

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He performed a thorough examination of my spine and took X-rays.

What he found was that my spine had been badly damaged as a result of that hit—in the area where the nerves come out of the spine and travel to the heart.

He explained to me what he was going to do. He told me it would take time—but that we would work through it together.

So I committed to corrective chiropractic care, even though I was a broke student.

Little by little, I noticed that life was improving. I slept better. I could think again. I could study. No more headaches. No more heartburn. No more back pain.

It was amazing.

But this still isn’t why I became a chiropractor.

My first chiropractic adjustment was May 18, 1999.

I have never had a problem with my heart since that day.

I became a chiropractor because of a chiropractor who cared.
I became a chiropractor because of a chiropractor who listened to me.

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But most importantly, I became a chiropractor because chiropractic care saved my life.

I would not be sitting here writing this today had I not met Dr. Kramp and decided to start chiropractic care.

I would be dead.

The single best investment I have ever made was to start chiropractic care.

That’s why I do this. That’s why I became a chiropractor.

So that I could be here today to tell you that while chiropractic care may not save your life the way it did mine, it can absolutely change your life for the better.

And I want to be the person to help you do that.