Clinic fixes bodies and mindsets with care

Even as a little girl in elementary school, Marcel Hampton had aspirations of becoming a doctor.

“They help people, it seems like a really important job, and this is what I want to do,” she recalled thinking as a child. “Ever since I was in fourth grade, I knew I wanted to be a doctor.”

Now 38, Ms. Hampton owns Body Resort Chiropractic Clinic, 5612 W. Bancroft St. in Toledo, where she practices holistic health care through a range of therapies and body adjustments.

“As chiropractors, we go to the source of problems. We’re not just trying to treat your symptoms so I don’t have any ‘shut up pills’ for people,” she said laughingly. “What made the body will heal the body.”

The field is male-dominated like most others in the health-care industry; however, since 1991, the number of women doctors of chiropractic has more than doubled, the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners reported.

As the only known African-American woman doctor of chiropractic and practice owner in northwest Ohio, Ms. Hampton is a trailblazer, educating the community about the field and inspiring other women and people of color to also consider the practice.

“I have met almost all of the docs in the district and, to my recollection, she is the only one that I’ve met,” said Robert Zirker, secretary of the Northwest Ohio Chiropractic Association, which supports what chiropractic does on a state level. “I cannot think of another Black woman chiropractic business owner in the area.”

Chiropractic care specializes in promoting proper function of the spine, which reduces pain and nerve irritability, increases range of motion, and improves the body’s overall function.

“By no means am I against all internal medicine because sometimes some people need blood pressure meds, or antibiotics to clear infections, things like that,” Ms. Hampton said.

“But for any musculoskeletal conditions, you can see a chiropractor because it’s really number one for back pain, neck pain, headaches, PMS, and even bedwetting for kids,” she said. “There are so many benefits to chiropractic. I’ve always said that it’s the best kept secret.”

While she got her initial experience working in other clinics, she was inspired to pursue her own practice in line with her family’s Toledo entrepreneurial legacy. Her mother, Sherry Hampton, owned Children of Light Learning Center and her father, David Hampton, Jr., owned Crystal Arbor’s Catering. Her grandfather, Clifford Murphy, owned Toledo’s iconic jazz club, Murphy’s Place.

Although she knew without a doubt she wanted to study medicine, in college — like many undergraduates — Ms. Hampton found herself unsure of the route she wanted to take, even considering pediatric care, inspired by her mother’s passion for caring for children.

However, an internship in a pharmaceutical research lab led to a change of heart and direction. Bearing witness to the effects of drugs on the test animals “really turned me off from wanting to do something that had to do with prescribing medicines,” she said, which initially piqued her interest in holistic medicine.

Ultimately, things became clearer when she heard Mackel Harris, a collegiate recruiter, speak at her school.

“She was a young freshman at Kentucky State University studying pharmacy. I asked her if she really liked medicine,” said Mr. Harris, who has served as director of multicultural relations at Life University in Atlanta for 38 years.

“The typical students, they don’t know what chiropractors do. They think they are massage therapists or cracking bones,” he said, adding that his job consists of educating students on the doctor’s role as well as the benefits of the profession.

With Mr. Harris’ encouragement and connections, the young, future chiropractors shadowed chiropractors in Detroit and the greater Toledo area. He asked her to see if she could visualize herself doing the job, he said.

“I really fell in love with chiropractic — mainly because it was noninvasive — it was an alternative approach to medicine,” Ms. Hampton said. “You’re going to get your doctorate, and you’re able to still help people get well but you’re aligning their spine.”

She was also attracted to the field as it would allow her to become a business owner, just like her parents. She described the two factors as the “perfect combination.”

Cynthia Bunn, 61, of Toledo has been a school bus driver for nearly 29 years and said that Ms. Hampton’s chiropractic services have been invaluable.

As a patient for several years, she receives regular maintenance care, which is encouraged and even covered by her job.

“Bouncing around on that bus, my back was hurting all the time,” she said. “Before I started coming to her I was looking to get a new mattress, like maybe it will help because I was so unadjusted, so out of alignment.”

Mother to her 4-year-old son, Royal, who she describes as the love of her life, Ms. Hampton is also a singer and deaconess in her church and wants to inspire other aspiring women professionals to embrace challenges and always to remember to pay it forward.

“The bigger the challenge, the better because as you go along the way, you’ll have a wealth of tools necessary to be successful overall and that’s really the goal,” she said. “And then when you get there, you cannot forget to always give back to the Lord in servitude.”

Contact Sheila Howard at

showard@theblade.com or

on Twitter @SHowardwrites.