Austin Family Chiropractic, filling Holistic Healthcare needs in Central Illinois

By Cindy Ladage

Dr. Todd Austin shared that they opened Austin Family Chiropractic 26 and a half years ago.  “We opened in October of 1996.  We have been in business over 26 years, and I’ve been practicing Chiropractic for 30 years.”

Dr. Austin received his degree from Logan College of Chiropractic in Chesterfield, Missouri.  “I am from Granite City, and my wife is from Carthage,” he said.  “We met when I worked in Quincy.”

When asked how they ended up in Virden, Dr. Austin explained.  “My license to practice is in Illinois, and my wife, Eugena and I are both from Illinois and wanted to work here.”

The couple spent three months driving around the state trying to come up with the perfect site to set up their practice.  “One day we ended up in Gillespie.  Mike Mathis was the mayor at the time.  We stopped at City Hall at 4:30, and they closed at 5:00. The woman at the reception desk said, ‘You need to talk to the mayor, let me get him.’”

That conversation led to Mayor Mike Mathis finding the perfect place in Macoupin County for the Austins. They learned that while a chiropractor had just opened for business in Gillespie, there was a need in Northern Macoupin County for another.  Mayor Mathis said he was involved in economic development and added, “I’d love for you two to come to Macoupin County”.

Dr. Todd said, “And that’s how we ended up here.  It was just dumb luck that we happened to meet the mayor of Gillespie that day and that he was so incredibly helpful.”

Since then, the couple settled first in Girard.  After residing there for 1 year they purchased a home in Virden where they had opened their practice, and had three daughters, Ava (20), Zorah (18), and Aegea (16).

At Austin Family Chiropractic they offer many services including spinal and extremity adjustments, which includes the wrist, elbows, shoulders, hips, knees, and feet.  “We have also offered cold laser therapy since 2005.  It uses specialized light to help speed up the healing process, increases range of motion, and decreases the amount of pain, swelling, edema and inflammation,” Dr. Austin said explaining how it works.

Cold therapy is useful in both chiropractic and non-chiropractic cases.  It even works well for skin issues like poison ivy and bruises.  “It helps return cells to normalcy, or a state of homeostasis.”

“I also perform needle acupuncture, and I offer an auriculotherapy based smoking cessation program,” Dr. Austin said.  The program works with a combination of acupuncture points in the ear, and if the patient is ready to quit smoking this has proven to have a 72% success rate.

Their name Austin Family Chiropractic is appropriate because Dr. Austin’s wife Eugena is a Licensed Massage Therapist.  “She works in the afternoons, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I am here Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.”

“We got married in 1996 and moved to Girard. She went to massage school, and we opened our clinic six weeks later,” he explained.  The two works in tandem, often referring one patient to the other if the need fits the situation.  Most patients begin with a half hour of massage therapy when treating, and eventually once they are moving better and, in less pain, many then ask for the full hour relaxing massage.

Another service they offer is custom molded foot orthotics.  “Anyone can come in and do this.  The scanner checks 16 measurements, then we send the scan to the lab, and they create the custom molded orthotics.  I wear these, I practice what I preach,” he said adding his wife and daughters also swear by them.

At Austin Family Chiropractic, they also use bio mats in their treatment therapy.  This is also a kind of healing light therapy. “We have been using bio mats since 2013.  Eugena does her massages on them, and I do my acupuncture treatments on the bio mats, then we have one here in the reception area too.  We call it the “hot seat” because it heats up to from 104 to 158 degrees. It works like lasers.  It uses Far Infrared.  Lasers, which utilize a combination of visible red and near infrared light, don’t go through the clothes, but bio mats do.  We use lasers to treat a smaller area, and bio mats to treat much larger areas or even the entire body at once.  Lasers only have an effective depth of penetration of up to two inches, but the bio mats can penetrate up to six inches deep into the human body.”

Sometimes after treatment, a patient will use either the bio mat in the reception area or one of the bio mats on our acupuncture or massage tables. Another benefit of the bio mats, Dr. Austin shared is, “The bio mat helps normalize melatonin levels.  Often a patient will fall asleep while using it during what we like to call their 20-minute Bio mat Biobliss session.”

Austin Family Chiropractic is a veteran’s own business. After graduating from high school Dr. Austin joined the Army and served three and a half years. At that time, he knew that he wanted to be a doctor, but he was not sure what type of doctor.  It was a conversation with his best friend back home that convinced him to go into the chiropractic profession. “I talked to my best friend, and he had gotten into a terrible car accident. The MD he saw said his neck range of motion would never be back to normal, but his dad had a friend of the family that had just graduated from Logan Chiropractic College.”

The young man went to the chiropractor and after a few weeks his neck was better than ever.  After that, he decided to go to Logan as well and thought that it would also be perfect for Todd Austin.  Dr. Austin said his friend had Logan College send him an admissions packet and when he got out of the Army he enrolled, after attending St. Louis Community College for his pre-med classes. “I didn’t even know what a chiropractor was before that,” he added, “and now I have been helping central Illinoisans with Chiropractic care for just over 30 years.”

Active in the Virden Community, one year Dr. Austin served as the President of the Chamber of Commerce, and he served as the Vice President for two years.  He is still an active member and is involved in the Toastmasters organization as well.  “I helped start one in Virden, and it lasted 12 years.  I also helped start one in Hillsboro about 12 years ago, and it is still going.  It’s called the Montgomery County Toastmasters Club.  Toastmasters helps people to improve their Communications & Leadership Skills.  We hold monthly meetings in Hillsboro.”

Dr. Austin also has another passion as well.  “One of my passions is teaching people about bats, which has earned me the nickname “The Bat Doctor”.   I teach kids and audiences of all age’s facts about these beautiful, fascinating and highly beneficial creatures, about bat conservation, and about bat houses.  Volunteering my time is important to me.  I’ve been educating people about bats through my conservation presentations since 1995, have delivered over 300 bat talks since then and have educated over 14,000 people about bats so far.”

It was after reading a book about bats in 1990 called America’s Neighborhood Bats by Dr. Merlin Tuttle that he became interested in bats and it totally changed his life.  Then Toastmasters training, which he discovered back in 1994, helped him to get over his fear of public speaking.  So, he was able to get out of his comfort zone and enjoy speaking to groups about bats. 

Austin Family Chiropractic is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 8:00 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. and Saturday by appointment only.  Eugena offers massage therapy Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 4:00 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.  The office is located at 157 N. Springfield Street on the Virden Square. For more information about Austin Family Chiropractic, check out their website at https://www.austinfamilychiropractor.com, or call 217-965-3100.