The practice of medicine for Dr. Peter Jakacki is the true juxtaposition of traditional and complementary. First trained as a chiropractor and working in the field for 6 1/2 years, Jakacki then went to IU School of Medicine. He and another chiropractor admitted the same year were the first chiropractors the school had ever admitted. Four years later, Jakacki graduated first in the class, the other chiropractor second.

Both areas of medical practice were God's leading, he said, maintaining, “God didn't lead me to do this to shed one for the other.” At age 47 he's doing what he loves: delivering babies; treating ear infections; counseling patients on diet and nutrition; and doing chiropractic adjustments to pregnant women, factory laborers and growing children. Between stitching cuts and well-baby checks, “I still adjust 10 to 15 people a day,” he said.

He may do an adjustment on a hospital patient who has been in bed for days. The standard treatment is to “medicate them with pain meds, or to ignore it. It's nice to be able to adjust or work on someone's back, work out the knots, work out the neck and face, to alleviate their headache manually when otherwise you wouldn't be able to.” he said. Pregnant women get out of alignment due to the growing baby and hormonal changes on muscles and ligaments. A day after a woman delivers, he usually adjusts the mother.

Chiropractic has its place – and its limits, he said, noting, “I've had cases in which if I wasn't able to intervene using the right medicine, the right medical intervention, the baby would have died. I'm thankful every day I have those medical tools available.”

Chiropractic focuses on keeping a person well, helping them use their natural faculties and abilities. Jakacki, who is part of Brooklyn Medical Associates at Dupont Medical Park, said he's grateful for the extensive nutrition education he received in chiropractic college. Assessing patients' nutrition is a key aspect of the care he provides. Looking at omega-3 fatty acids can be an important diagnostic tool. It is not uncommon for people who are prone to pneumonia to be low in zinc, and he said, “Using probiotics during pregnancy can decrease the incidence of allergies up to age 7.” Still, not everyone is on the same page with his focus on nutrition details.

“As far as adjusting people, I can do that in the hospital. I don't get hassled about that. As far as nutrition, I do get hassled about that.” The extra tests cost money, money that insurance companies do not want to hand over. Jakacki had one insurance company tell him it would drop him as a provider “because I was costing them too much,” he said. When he explained to representatives what he does and how in the long run, the nutrition focus and testing saves money, “They said, ‘You're not doing things wrong. You're just costing us too much money.' ”

Even so, Jakacki says, “There is a … move and education of the public to push toward natural and holistic health care. The move toward integrative medicine will have to originate with the people. If it's not demanded by the people, medicine will not do it.”