Everything Gets Better At Foundational Chiropractic & Wellness

When Dr. Jake Shores was a teenager, his first impression of chiropractors came from watching The Simpsons. “Let’s just say it wasn’t favorable,” Shores laughs. When he finally took the suggestion to see a chiropractor seriously, it changed his life. “It changed the way my brain worked,” he claims. “My decision-making, my mood, my sleep — it all got better.” Even after Shores’ insurance ran out, his chiropractor let him continue to see him out of the kindness of his heart. Six months later, Shores was in chiropractic school.

“It changed the way my brain worked. My decision-making, my mood, my sleep — it all got better.”

Years of advanced training in neurology and spinal rehabilitation later, Shores is paying it forward. With help from his wife, Liza, he now runs his own clinic, Foundational Chiropractic & Wellness, in Central 9th. Aside from services like adjustments and decompression, Shores’ care is neurologically focused, so he also offers specialized treatments like ozone therapy and very select homeopathy. When asked what these entail, he explains that “Oxygen is one of the greatest healing agents there are. When we use a special form of oxygen, it triggers your body to heal things faster and better. Homeopathy is non-pharmaceutical tools that are plant-, mineral- or animal-derived. They have some great capabilities without some of the potential downsides that can come with medication.” If these enhanced services aren’t for you, just an adjustment is “unbelievably powerful.”

Along with their special services, something else that sets Foundational Chiropractic & Wellness apart is their affordability and accessibility. With a fee schedule structured at a level where anyone can get involved and further discounts for local businesses, they are building community one person at a time. Liza uses the analogy of budgeting as much for coffee every day as you would need to afford a weekly adjustment. “We put it at a price point where it’s actually manageable and realistic for families.”

“The better everyone in the community lives and works and moves, the better the community is.”

They live by the mantra: “The better everyone in the community lives and works and moves, the better the community is.” They also offer educational nights so community members can understand the significance of the simple things they can do and how it will impact the quality of their life. “People don’t need to walk around with headaches or chronic pain,” Liza says. “We can fix that.”

Just like Dr. Shores had to work through his own misconceptions about chiropractors, there are a few things he hopes to clear up for readers, the first being that chiropractors are not just for pain. “The thing that’s really fantastic about chiropractic is that it strengthens the communication between the brain and the entirety of the body. The way the brain tells the body what should happen is by sending signals down the spinal cord, out nerves and to organs and muscles. The stronger these signals are, the more efficiently every organ and muscle works. Everything gets better,” he teaches.

“People don’t need to walk around with headaches or chronic pain. We can fix that.”


The next myth he hopes to bust is that all chiropractors are “quacks,” whereas they are actually very well-trained. “We have training. It is very comparable to medicine, but we have more anatomy training, especially around the spine. The quantity of training hours is very similar, but the specialization is different,” he says.

Finally, Shores wants patients to understand that “there are so many different techniques in chiropractic that finding the right one for you is important.” If a different doctor was not the right fit for you, Dr. Shores might be, as his multiple advanced certifications in neurology allow him to have a different perspective than the average chiropractor. But if he’s not, he’ll point you in the right direction; he wants to help even if he’s not getting business out of it. To learn how Dr. Shores can help you, visit fcwslc.com.

Read more about the movers and shakers in Salt Lake City:
Artspace: Bridging the Gap Between Art and Community
Community Never Ends with Magnify Utah’s Community Quest

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