I want to start by saying something to every athlete who has ever been told they need to rest, take medications, and wait it out after a concussion: there may be another answer. And it does not involve twisting, popping, or any technique that would make a post-concussion patient flinch. This is Chad Nehring's story, and it is one I have been wanting to tell for a while.
Chad is a professional hockey player from Spring, Saskatchewan, a town of about 400 people where hockey is not just a sport — it is the entire culture. He has been on skates since he was two and a half years old. Nine years into a professional career that took him from the ECHL in Boise, Idaho all the way to a league in Germany, he took a hit in the third period of a game that he knew immediately was different.
He knew something wasn't right before he even got off the ice.
The Hit
He was coming down the center, head slightly down, released the puck, and took a devastating blow. He saw stars. He didn't quite know where he was. He skated off the bench and sat down and thought: I don't feel normal.
Hockey players are famously tough. They play through things most people would consider disqualifying. But this one was different, and Chad was honest enough with himself to know it.
An MRI was done. Nothing definitive was found. He was told he should be good to go. But he knew, in his own head, that something was still very wrong.
And from there, things got harder before they got better.
Where Post-Concussion Pain Goes
The neck tightness from the injury radiated into his shoulders, his back, his chest, and back up into his head. The headaches were relentless. The anxiety was out of control. Depression set in. He was not sleeping well. He was not training. He could not imagine getting back on the ice.
Chad was honest with me on the podcast about what that period looked like, and I want to honor that honesty by being equally direct here: he was doing whatever he could to dull the pain and get through the day. That is what unmanaged post-concussion syndrome can drive a person to. It is not a character flaw. It is a nervous system in crisis with no off ramp.
He had a close friend, Dr. Thomas Alfreida in Las Vegas, who was in his corner the whole time and doing everything he could. And then through a chain of mutual friends, Chad ended up in a massage room at a friend's house in Las Vegas on a weekend when I happened to be in town.
I did a preliminary leg check on him right there in that room. I knew immediately what was happening in the upper part of his neck. I told him: I can help you. He said: when's your next opening? I'm coming.
One Adjustment
Chad drove from Las Vegas to my office in Orange County and we did a full assessment: concussion evaluation forms, complete functional analysis, and his 3D imaging. What we found confirmed what I had felt in that preliminary check.
He had one Blair upper cervical correction.
Within days, he was back to training. Within weeks, the headaches were dramatically reduced. The anxiety that had been so severe he had asked me directly whether he needed medication for it: gone. Essentially from that day.
He told me later: you said the anxiety will be gone instantly. And I don't think I have had that anxiety since the day of my treatment.
He spent a few days resting nearby before driving back to Las Vegas, and he described those first days as stiff and uncomfortable as his body began to adjust. But by the following Monday, he was fully back in training. Going for a run. Feeling like a normal human again.
He said it was like a breath of fresh air.
Ranked 14th in Germany
By the time we recorded this podcast, Chad was back in Germany having what he described as one of his best seasons. Ranked 14th in the league. Feeling good. Feeling competitive. Looking toward a future in the sport he had genuinely wondered, just a few months earlier, whether he would ever play again.
He made an important point during our conversation that I want to highlight for any athlete listening: his Blair correction did not just address the most recent injury. It addressed the accumulation. Football hits in high school. Hockey hits over nine professional seasons. Previous head and neck injuries that had been managed but never truly resolved. All of that was layered underneath, making the most recent concussion far worse than it might otherwise have been.
When we corrected the upper cervical spine, we were not just treating one incident. We were clearing years of structural compromise that had been quietly building.
That is why one adjustment made the difference when months of other treatment had not.
Not Just for Athletes
Chad closed the episode with something I want to make sure every listener hears, because it comes from someone who had every reason to be skeptical and came out the other side a true believer.
He said: this is not just for athletes. Car accidents, anything where your body has been through physical trauma, sleep problems, neck issues, anything where you feel like something is not connecting the way it should. Your neck is what connects your head to your body. When that connection is off, nothing above or below it works the way it is supposed to.
He said he tells his story to anyone who will listen. That if he had a hundred people to ask for help, the person he found first was essentially his savior. And he would not have believed that before it happened to him.
I believe it happened for a reason. The right time, the right moment, the right person. And I am so glad he drove over to Orange County.
Listen to the full conversation with Chad Nehring on the Well Connected Podcast: Live Your Life in Alignment. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
Dealing with post-concussion symptoms or neck pain that won't resolve? Visit us at wellconnectedchiro.com.
