Meet the Doctors
Meet Dr. Karen Fairfield...
There is an old saying that nothing good in life comes free. This is true when it comes to your body as well. Optimal wellness requires you to be a proactive agent for your body. You need to treat it well and not wait until you hurt before you decide to take care of it. Health is not merely the absence of disease any more than wealth is an absence of poverty. Health is not simply ‘feeling fine’, for we know that problems may progress for years without causing any symptoms whatsoever. For example, heart disease often progresses unnoticed for many years before it rears its ugly head. In fact, the first symptom that many people experience with heart disease is a heart attack or death. I work hard to get people to understand that it is much better to prevent disease from happening in the first place than try to treat it once it occurs. By creating a state of optimal health within your body, you will feel better, have more energy and have an increased quality of life. You will also reduce your risk of the expense and pain associated with getting hooked into the downward spiral of disease and dependence on more and more prescription medications.
Now let me be clear and say from the beginning, that I am not pretending to think that everyone who creates a wellness lifestyle is going to be immune from pain, sickness and disease. I agree that there are many people who do everything right and still get sick and die. Some will argue that there are many people who do everything wrong and live long, seemingly healthy lives. What I am saying is that since we have no way to
predict who is who, we have to do our very best to reduce our risk and promote our health. May these words inspire you to realize that this is your life we are talking about here. I have heard every excuse you can imagine as to why people believe they can’t afford the time or money to invest in their health. But if you don’t take care of your health, who do you think will? If you don’t have the time and money to improve your health while you feel good, what makes you think you will have the time and money to improve your health once you have lost it? As Anthony Robbins once said, you can make time for wellness now or you can make time for sickness later. The choice is yours.
--Dr. Karen Fairfield
My name is Dr. Hilary Rutledge. The men in the picture with me are my husband Matthew and my sons Noah and Levi. I am a native California but am now proud to call Oak Island my home. You may run into me at the beach, the Flying Pig, or the soccer field on the weekends with my boys.
I came to chiropractic late in life. In fact I didn't receive my first adjustment until I was 25 years old. As a college student I planned on becoming a nurse. Not because I loved nursing, but because my older sister was a nurse and I wanted to be just like her. Kim was 7 years older than me and hyad a life that I envied. When I was 23 Kim was diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancer. I was scheduled to start nursing school in the fall, I did go for one semester, but dropped out and moved home to be with my family. Kim died the follow summer. She was 31 years old.
What does this have to do with Chiropractic? I knew that after she had placed her faith in medicine and it had failed her and the rest of our family that I would never become a member of the "medical community" as I knew it. I was lost for a while, wandering around the world figuring out what I was supposed to do with my life when BBAAAMMM!!!! I was in a terrible car accident on my way to work one day. About 2 weeks later I saw my first chiropractor and then BBAAAMMM!!!!! I was in another car accident. I decided then that I was being sent a message. My chiropractor helped me more with my physical pain than anyone else ever had. This stuff was great. I took a long look at my life and my options. I asked my doctor if he thought that I would make a good chiropractor. I can still remember the huge grin on his face. He wrote me a letter of recommendation and I began Chiropractic school 6 months later. So you see, I didn't choose chiropractic, it choose me.