MEET THE DOCTOR
Dr. Jason Ciaramitaro
Chiropractic Physician
My Story
As a child, I was extremely hyperactive. I was diagnosed from an early age with ADHD and behavioral disorders. From kindergarten through high school, I was in special education classes and looked at as a burden to the school systems. My condition was so severe that I was hospitalized in an adult psychiatric institution for 6 weeks in kindergarten. The schools couldn’t control my behavior and keep me attentive, and I was acting out in extreme ways. They recommended professional evaluation. So, I was taken away from the safety of my family and put in a hospital with very scary people at the tender age of five. At the end of this crazy experience, the takeaway was to keep me away from sugar.
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My problems in school continued. I was put in special classrooms away from the normal kids. I was constantly being sent to the principal’s office for acting out and hyperactivity. I was physically abused by principals, who were so fed up with me they would have older kids beat me up after recess. I would regularly get suspended from school. I would get suspended so many times from one school they would eventually expel me and send me to another just to start the cycle over again. I was eventually expelled from the entire St. Louis Public School system.
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Eventually, I was sent to the county schools which was an improvement in my treatment. However, my issues were still ongoing. Finally, in 7th grade, the school said enough is enough. Either medicate this child or he’s being expelled. (I learned as an adult that this was illegal). So, my mother finally took me to get medicated on a dangerous, addictive amphetamine medication for ADHD called Dexedrine. This is where my life really took a downward spiral.
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I went from an outgoing, extroverted kid who interacted with the world around him to an introverted, suicidally depressed kid overnight. At 12 years old, I finally became the docile, controllable kid everyone wanted me to be. I calmed down. I started getting good grades. I started learning how to play guitar and could focus long enough to actually get good at it. On the outside, everything looked great. On the inside, I was a different person. My world became dark and depressed. I was isolated in my room. I stopped being social except with a small selection of other like-minded friends. I became afraid of the world around me. What little self-worth and self-esteem I had crumbled. My health deteriorated. I couldn’t keep any weight on. I looked pale and deathly ill all the time. I quit growing when I was 15 years old. I was continuously declining both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Suicidal ideation became my everyday normal.
Depression was my norm. Thoughts that this life wasn’t worth living became my norm. The doses they used in me were extreme. I was being pharmaceutically abused. The normal dose of these meds is 15-60mg max per day. I was taking 135mg in the morning with a 10mg booster at bedtime. To sleep, I had to take powerful anti-psychotic medications to tranquilize me enough to sleep with these powerful stimulants in my system. Eventually, more drugs were added for the depression. The cycle just kept getting worse.
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At my rock bottom, I spent the entire summer locked away in my bedroom at age 17. I did nothing but practice guitar all day and only interacted with my best friend. I remember feeling so toxic and depressed and miserable that I fantasized about suicide every day. My mind was so toxic I couldn’t read a page of a book and comprehend what I had just read. All these drugs to help with concentration and attention and I just couldn’t use my mind anymore.
Then one day, my mother hurt her back. My brother-in-law is a chiropractor in Colorado, so my mom asked for a referral. No one in our family had ever been to a chiropractor. So, my mom got a referral to a top doctor in the area. He was not available, so she got an appointment with his wife. My mom went to this appointment for her back pain and came back home enthusiastic and excited to tell me about it. My mother and I had very similar interests and she just had this knowing that I had to experience this profound thing she just went through. She laid me on my bed and started pushing on my arm (an attempt at muscle testing) and tried to explain what she was doing. She was so adamant that I would love this experience that she made an appointment for me to go get evaluated.
Little did we know that this chiropractic applied kinesiologist specialized in ADHD and learning disorders. It was synchronicity at its finest. It was the beginning of my life’s purpose being shown to me. So, I went to this appointment. I was clueless about what was going on. I just participated. She examined me, did some food allergy testing, and adjusted me. She gave me a suggestion that changed my life that day. She found that I was allergic to corn and milk and gave me a challenge to remove them for two weeks and see how I felt. She didn’t explain anything. Just that simple suggestion. For some reason, I listened. I pulled dairy and corn out of my diet for two weeks. I was eating corn and milk daily for years, even as a kid. I would eat cornflakes with milk and pile on the sugar for breakfast.
In those two weeks, my life changed dramatically. It was like the clouds parted and the sun was shining vast and bright. I could think clearly. My brain fog went away. My depression lifted. My energy improved. My motivation improved. I could read again and comprehend what I was reading. Everything changed. I was hooked! I went back in two weeks and said I wanted more!!! So, I began seeing this applied kinesiologist weekly. We refined my diet and eliminated my food allergies, tested me for nutritional supplements and I started restoring my nutrient deficiencies. We worked on my neurology. I was adjusted regularly. Over the next year and a half, I weaned myself off all the medications and learned to keep my ADHD symptoms under control with diet, nutrition, and chiropractic neurology using Applied Kinesiology.
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From that point forward, I knew this was my life’s purpose. I wanted to use these same powerful tools to help others who suffered like me. I wanted it to be my mission in life to try and prevent other kids from going through what I went through with the medications. I learned along the way in my many years of training that these same principles apply to all chronic health conditions. I learned that I could help everyone, not just ADHD kids.
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My passion and mission in life is to take the suffering I endured and use it to help you. To help your kids not have to go through the pain and suffering I endured. To help you overcome a chronic health condition. To help you experience the power of your own healing by giving your body what it needs to heal. To help you remove the obstacles to your body’s innate ability to regenerate and regain optimal health. To help you find your sunshine again. To remove the clouds in your life that are preventing you from living your purpose.