Be the Change – Neel Bulchandani

When his brother sustained a back injury in high school, it changed Neel Bulchandani’s life. At the time, Neel was working in a lab and feeling less than enthused about his career. When a few visits to a chiropractor spared his brother from surgery, Neel found himself intrigued by the chiropractic approach to healing as a philosophy, science and art. “It was different from what I had expected healing to be, but it made sense to me,” he recalls. When chiropractic adjustments dramatically improved Neel’s own asthma condition, his fascination grew. A few months later, Neel began his first classes at Palmer Chiropractic College in Davenport, Iowa, on his way to becoming a chiropractor.

Integrative care considers the whole patient

Today, as an integrative practitioner in Redding, Neel compassionately considers how his patients’ physical, emotional, social, mental and spiritual environments affect their health. “If I can’t find a physical issue, then if I can find out more about what’s underneath and we can explore what’s at the root of what they’re going through, then we can get further along in their healing,” Neel says. Patients come to him at all ages and with a wide variety of physical ailments, from body misalignment to breathing and airway issues. But Neel’s main focus, he says, “is helping families.”

Dr. Bulchandani gently assesses newborns for tension in the body and the movement quality of the bones of the head, face and spine, which when restricted can tighten the mouth and intensify feeding issues.

Chiropractic care from conception to postpartum and nursing

Neel’s work with families can begin with a woman’s fertility journey, as he helps to holistically evaluate if something in her environment might be interfering with hormone function. For expecting mothers, Neel’s chiropractic alignment can ease their discomfort and help their developing babies get more nutrients through the umbilical cord. Toward the end of pregnancy, Neel can help reposition breech babies for delivery. After delivery, his integrative bodywork facilitates postpartum healing.

After birth, Neel loves meeting his tiny new patients and helping them with their most important job: feeding! When Neel and his wife’s first child, Serenity, was born in 2016, she struggled to nurse due to tongue-tie – a condition in which the tissue connecting the underside of the tongue to the floor of the mouth extends too far toward the tip of the tongue, limiting the ability to lift and use the tongue. This condition can impede a newborn’s ability to nurse. Thankfully, a simple procedure called a laser frenectomy can release the tongue and allow babies to feed normally.

Dr. Bulchandani demonstrates his infant bodywork techniques for birth-related health care practitioners to help guide them in their practices.

Before scheduling the frenectomy that solved the problem for Serenity, Neel learned more about this condition and bodywork that can help alleviate its symptoms. This experience expanded his interest in the stomatognathic system (the tissues and organs related to the mouth) and its connections to the rest of the body. Over the years, he has created a tongue-tie map and logged symptoms to alert him to patterns of misalignment. For example, he says, “nine out of ten patients with a tongue-tie also have tighter right psoas (hip flexor) muscles and tighter left trapezius muscles.” Recognizing these patterns helps Neel get to the root of patients’ health issues – even when they have remained undetected by other physicians – and find unexpected routes of healing.

Dr. Bulchandani takes patient care to the next level

Neel loves collaborating with other medical experts, including dentists Jude Crutchfield and Rachel Barnhart. Neel often prepares patients for tongue-tie releases through various bodywork exercises. Jude, who performs tongue tie release surgeries for some of Neel’s patients, says, “These procedures can be very emotional for parents because it’s their newborn baby and it’s hard for the parents to understand and not let emotion cloud their judgment. Neel is very good at describing the pros and cons of the procedure. His thoroughness really shows his level of care.”

Rachel says Neel “provides such wonderful service to our community. He can provide so much help for families through pregnancy and postpartum and then with the baby. It’s just beyond what a traditional provider would do. Neel really takes it to the next level.”

Moms can trust their instincts

Neel emphasizes that parents can trust their instincts in caring for their children. “Moms have this instinct to care for their baby,” he says. “Sometimes they hear contradicting wisdom from health care providers. I want them to realize they’re the ones who are carrying this baby and they have intimate knowledge of what this baby needs.”

New Embryologi podcast features a variety of healers

Neel and his wife, Dawn, have three children: Serenity, 7; Cypress, 5; and Zephyr, 3. Neel and Dawn met through mutual friends and fell in love over “a discussion on the beauty of sound and miracles.” The family loves listening to music and podcasts together and Neel has recently launched a podcast called Embryoloji. “The name is a nod to my east-Indian heritage,” he says and the content – featuring healers of various backgrounds – honors parents and the fact that all people started life as embryos.

As he works with families in the North State, Neel gives patients of all ages this encouragement: “Know yourself. Take moments to be aware of what gives you thankfulness, joy and passion. Cultivate those qualities and the more you build that awareness of what inspires you, you’ll spill this out onto those around you.”