Dr. Leifheit is exceptional at what he does. As a teaching physician (medical educator for students in med school) he has some of the most extensive knowledge of the human body and it's mechanics of any physician I've ever met. That, paired with his exhaustive training and more than three decades of experience doing Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine*, Dr. Leifheit really knows what will likely get you better. (Of course you have to follow his prescribed plan of therapy.) As a pre-med student and former healthcare provider who has worked 3 years in the Emergency Department of a major regional hospital that served an area the size of the sate of Oregon)--I've worked beside a lot of great doc's but the one whose decisions I trust the most...is Dr. Leifheit. He's the best physician I've encountered.
Although not directly stated in conversation, it's obvious he has a "wellness based approach" to medicine that goes far beyond mere management of ones symptoms and really seeks to get you better. On that token, he will often give you particular things you need to do yourself on a regular basis. For me, he gave me a handful of systematic particular stretches that I need to do daily(one takes about 6 minutes) to counteract my office-chair induced scoliosis/thoracic vertebral rotation to relax and realign my spine to where it should be. I went in feeling like someone was jabbing me with a blunt pencil 24-7 in the middle of my back. After my appointment it was gone, and only returns when I get lazy and don't follow his prescribed stretching plan every few days.
*What is Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) you ask? Many people don't know this, but it is actually the parent medical practice that chiropractic medicine came out of. It is a branch of medicine parallel (or superior in my opinion) to typical M.D. medical education that provides physicians not just with a basic medical education, but provides additional training in holistic medicine, alternative therapy, OMM, and many more hours of training to diagnose by touch (palpative diagnostics). But the real gem of Osteopathic Medicine is Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine. Simply put, it provides some of the best medical treatments and outcomes of any musculoskeletal therapy I've ever seem. Ostopathic manipulations are far more gentle and effective than any chriopractic manipulation I've ever had. Because Osteopathic Physicians have the all the benefits, rights, privileges, responsibilities, and understanding of being a board certified physician along with more extensive training than a chiropractor in manipulation of the spine and body, topped off with further training in alternative medicine and holistic medicine. In my opinion it's the best of all worlds. :-) read more