WORKING IN L.A. / CELEBRITY CHIROPRACTOR : Doctor Helps the Stars Get Rid of Their Subluxations

The minute you walk into Dr. Eric Scott Pearl’s office in West Hollywood, you know things are going to be a little different.

For one thing, there are no dogeared copies of People magazine or National Geographic lying around.

Instead, for those inclined to read, there are signs on the walls, scattered about between the fake orchid plants and the bronze busts of Mohandas K. Gandhi and John Lennon. “The Force Is Within You,” one sign proclaims. “As Your Subluxations Are Leaving, Your Life Is Returning,” another says.

“Optimal Spine Equals Optimal Growth,” reads a third.

Pearl is not a conventional medical doctor. He’s a chiropractor. In fact, he’s the self-acknowledged chiropractor to the stars.

Well, to some of them, anyway.

His patients include some big names in the rock music industry--people such asguitarist Eddie Van Halen and his brother, drummer Alex Van Halen. Eddie’s wife, actress Valerie Bertinelli, is a patient, as is actor Thaao Penghlis, one of the stars of the soap opera “Santa Barbara.”

“I was a little hesitant, a little skeptical at first, but it works,” Eddie Van Halen said. “I sort of have bad knees from jumping around a lot on the stage. After he adjusts me, my knees feel better, I can breathe better, I even think I can see better. He puts your whole body into focus.”

Penghlis, who is a veteran of such television soaps as “General Hospital” and “Days of Our Lives” and portrays a surgeon on “Santa Barbara,” said he visited Pearl after spraining his neck during a scene and was pleasantly surprised by the result.

“You hear all this stuff about how chiropractors are quacks, but when you are in pain, you’re looking for someone to heal it,” Penghlis said.

“Well, since I’ve been seeing him, I feel enormously better. Both physically and psychologically.”

Pearl said most of his patients did not come to see him because of aches and pains.

“Most are here because they want to be a better version of who they are--better complexions, a longer shelf life for their voices and brighter, shinier eyes, . . .” he said.

“I work to free up the brain stem and remove the interference that is preventing the body from doing what it is designed to do,” he said. “My patients heal themselves. I’m a catalyst.”

Pearl--a 37-year-old native of central New Jersey who wears informal clothes and his curly hair cut shoulder-length--showed this reporter around the office a few days ago, explaining things along the way.

The first stop was the measuring room, where Pearl checked my posture. I sort of slopped to the right, with much more weight on my right leg than on my left. Asked how bad that was, Pearl declined comment, but he winced a little.

The next stop was the Spinalator room, where five flat, upholstered benches were lined up side by side, kind of like the beds in a charity ward.

I was invited to lie back on one of the benches.

With the push of a button, a roller beneath the upholstery began traveling along my back. It felt good.

“You haven’t lived until you’ve seen five people in here, all going at once,” Pearl said.

As the Spinalator machine did its thing, Pearl talked a little about his past.

He said that while a student at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla., he considered a lot of career possibilities.

“I thought about law,” he said. “I thought about being a dancer. For about 10 minutes, I thought about being a rabbi.”

Then, one day, he was given a “deep-tissue massage” in a procedure known as Rolfing.

“It made tremendous changes in my body,” Pearl said. “My concave chest became convex. My back straightened up. I felt better emotionally and physically.”

Pearl said the experience eventually led him to the Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angeles, from which he emerged four years later as a doctor of chiropractic, licensed by the state of California. And that led to his practice in West Hollywood.

Pearl stopped talking as the Spinalator ground to a halt. It was time for the adjusting room, which contains a single upholstered bench, surrounded by mirrored walls.

I was asked to stand at attention, facing one of the mirrors.

“Look at your ears,” Pearl said. “See? You can see more of one of them than the other.”

I was forced to a discouraging conclusion: My head wasn’t on straight.

Pearl said that’s where he comes in.

He explained that under standard chiropractic technique, the entire spine is manipulated, removing subluxation, or vertebral misalignment.

Pearl said chiropractors believe this misalignment interferes with the mental impulses, or “life force,” emanating from the brain to the cell tissue in the rest of the body, which in turn can lead to a wide variety of unpleasant symptoms. He said that when subluxation is removed, the body has an opportunity to heal itself.

Pearl had me lie down on my right side on the bench in sort of a fetal position, with my head resting on a small, spring-mounted ledge projecting from the bench.

He placed both hands on my neck, felt around for a moment and then pushed down hard.

There was a horrible crashing noise as the ledge suddenly snapped down about a quarter of an inch.

“There!” Pearl said. “That didn’t hurt, did it?”

I was a bit unnerved, but I had to admit that no, it didn’t hurt.

Pearl stood me up in front of the mirror.

My head may have been on a little straighter, but it was hard to tell.