Lauren Baker didn’t have to look far to find her inspiration to help others. Her mother, who worked as both a teacher and a paramedic, set that example for her.
“I always saw her helping people, so I wanted to help people,” Baker said.
After working as a sports medicine trainer and a few stints as a chiropractic assistant, Baker opened New Leaf Chiropractic in Kingwood in 2009.
Baker said she knew she wanted to get into chiropractic medicine after watching one of her colleagues help so many patients.
“After watching thousands of people not have surgery, it was really inspiring,” Baker said.
A closer look
New Leaf Chiropractic offers a variety of chiropractic services to patients of all ages, including pediatric care.
“The most common reason we see a baby is because of fussiness, or they're just constantly crying,” Baker said. “After one or two adjustments, they're peaceful again, because babies can't tell us when they have pain.”
The business is also a Webster-certified provider for pregnant patients, which Baker said allows the practice to work with OB-GYNs and midwives.
In addition to chiropractic care, Baker said the business also treats neuropathy, which can cause pain or tingling in a patient's hands and feet stemming from nerve damage outside the brain and spinal cord.
Baker said chiropractic care is less expensive and less invasive than traditional surgical options often offered to treat lingering pain.
“As long as your body is having that pressure taken off those joints and getting the joints checked for misalignments, the body can then do what it does innately to heal itself,” Baker said. “Not all patients need surgery.”
In addition to New Leaf Chiropractic, Baker said she also became the owner of NuSpine Chiropractic Lake Conroe in April.
Also of note
While New Leaf Chiropractic and NuSpine Chiropractic focus on human patients, Baker also runs a chiropractic practice that focuses on animals.
Dubbed Animal Ranch Care, the mobile service provides chiropractic care to animals, including horses, dogs, cats, donkeys and miniature donkeys.
Additionally, Baker said services are also available for show animals, including cows, lambs, goats, pigs, rabbits and chickens.
“I think that animals are the gateway to people understanding chiropractic [medicine],” Baker said. “If you adjust an animal and they get better, then people start wondering, ‘Well, what if that could help me?’”
Baker said animals refusing to comply with typical requests and commands is a good indicator that chiropractic care could be needed.
“If it's a horse or if it's a cow, and you're saying, ‘Hey, turn right around this barrel,’ and they don't want to, there's a problem,” Baker said.
What’s next
While Baker said she has many plans for what her business may hold in the future, she’s taking things day-by-day to focus on her current ventures.
In the meantime, she said she’s proud to be a member of the Lake Houston-area community.
“I love being a part of the Humble, Kingwood and Atascocita community,” Baker said. “People are starting to understand both how much I care and how thorough I am. ... People really need a thorough doctor that will go to no ends to find the problem.”
