Lou, 35, established JCA in its present location at 138 St. John Street (where it shares a plaza with Whole Heart Yoga and The Spirited Gourmet) in February of 2004, and was joined by his brother in 2006. Together with on-site massage therapist Jennie Vieira they practice what Lou has termed “ahimsahealth.” In Sanskrit, the term “ahimsa” refers to the practice of refraining from causing harm or injury. Therefore, “ahimsahealth” is a non-invasive form of healthcare that employs natural, low-risk procedures “that facilitate the body’s ability to function at maximum potential, heal naturally and avoid disease and harm.”
Both brothers always knew they wanted to work in professions dedicated to helping people, and both initially pursued psychology degrees, influenced in part by their father, Bert Jacobs, a well-known psych professor at U-Maine Farmington. Ironically, it was also their father who eventually turned them away from psychology and steered them towards chiropractic.
“He was the most anti-chiropractic person I knew,” Lou says. But then he was in a car accident. “He went through the entire medical spectrum trying to get help,” but was unable to find anything to alleviate his pain. Feeling discouraged and seeing no other options, he scheduled himself for back surgery, a route he’d hoped to avoid. But before going under the knife, he finally succumbed to his wife’s urging and agreed to visit a chiropractor as a last resort. After just one appointment, he walked out of the office 90% cured.
“It was incredibly powerful,” Max says of watching his father undergo the transformation from chiropractic doubter to full-fledged believer. He stunned his sons by telling his sons they should pursue careers in chiropractic.
“You can’t change this guy’s outlook on anything,” Lou says. “It’s like talking to a brick wall.” At the time, he, like Max, realized that if something had affected his father so profoundly, it was worth checking out. And as both had an affinity for various aspects of Eastern culture, acupuncture and Chinese medicine were natural accompaniments to their chiropractic training.
At present, the Jacobs brothers employ all three disciplines to treat patients from all walks of life: high level athletes looking for some fine tuning, people with injuries seeking relief, lots of chronic headache sufferers, and plenty of “last resort” folks who are hoping to avoid surgery or have already tried it — and everything else — to no avail. One thing both brothers especially enjoy about their work is the instant relief they are often able to give people without using invasive procedures or synthetic chemicals, two aspects of traditional medicine that patients often find disconcerting. “Almost everybody who leaves this office is happy and not scared,” Dr. Lou says.
Another aspect of their careers the brothers enjoy is the opportunity it allows them to give back to their community. They see regular patients during office hours Monday through Thursday, but they save Fridays for donated time. Lou, who loves cooking, volunteers as a guest chef and educator at The Ronald McDonald House, Gary’s House and The Cancer Community Center, while Max, who has “a bit of an obsession” with both Chinese and herbal medicine, frequently leads mushroom walks and gives talks to help people recognize the wild medicines growing in their own backyards. Additionally, he is working with the Portland YMCA to set up a program whereby veterans and their families can get complete chiropractic and acupuncture treatments to help them deal with post traumatic stress disorder and other post-war conditions.
Needless to say, the two brothers stay busy, but that’s another similarity they share: they both strive constantly to increase their knowledge base and also enjoy pursuing new avenues and opportunities as they arise. Dr. Lou, for instance, plans to get certified in Massachusetts so that he can work with professional musicians visiting large concert venues there. Musicians, he says, face special musculo-skeletal challenges because of the strain they place on their bodies while practicing and playing, and as an amateur musician himself, he is excited to work with that population.
Meanwhile, the brothers have been foraging for mushrooms throughout the Maine woods to use in their new line of skin care products. “I was attacked by ants the other day falling out of a tree getting the stuff,” Lou says of the fungi which Max boils down and incorporates into soaps and lotions with the help of his stepmother. Right now, the Chaga Brand (www.chagabrand.com) includes soaps and lotions, but eventually the brothers hope to expand it to include ingestible tinctures as well. “People want to eat the soap,” Max says, because its high anti-oxidant value leaves acai berry in the dust.
Hopefully the doctors Jacobs will add something edible to the line soon, and once they’ve got all of their ventures — old and new — under control, I have another suggestion for them: Jacobs Chiropractic Accupuncture Action Figures. (Max will be the one with hair.)
— Belinda Ray