Dr. Dan Durrieu

Meet Dr. Dan Durrieu. He’s the owner of Family Health Chiropractic Center and has been practicing Chiropractor since 1997 wherein he specializes in spinal postural correction providing long term results for thousands of patients. He was born in Columbus, OH. He’s dad was an Air Force Pilot. On his 3rd Grade, they moved to Miami where he finished his study in Bachelor of Science in Biology and take Chiropractic Techniques at the Life University in Marietta, GA. After graduation instead of going back to Miami, he moved to North Tampa.

He is a loving husband to his wife, Denise and they are blessed with three wonderful children.

Thank you, Dr. Dan, for your great service and love for North Tampa.

Questions:

Q: What inspired you or led you to your current career?

A: My father was an air force pilot and he wanted me to be in that field, he wanted me to be a Pilot. I had the interest as well and I still do but when I got my exam I failed because of my eyesight. Going through my high school years, I was a wrestler and in one match I ended up breaking my lower back at L5 just above the sacrum and it’s called Pars. At that point, it was life changer because the medical model wanted to do surgery on me which is a little invasive and I didn’t want to go through that approach at the very young age of 16. A friend of ours who is chiropractor convinced me to go that route. I went off and decided to research it, and look into it and my parents became hopeful, so we started getting  chiropractic adjustments. And what was interesting about this experience was we started seeing wonderful changes with my overall health but we didn’t realized that it was changing not only how I felt but also how I was functioning in healing. When I was younger I was always sick, I had a lot of colds, infections and if flu came around I got it. Every year I knew I was getting sick, so my parents would take me the medical doctor. I always got that next round of antibiotics and what happen was that I would get a little better and then I would get sick again, so we would go back to the antibiotics. It was not until I started getting adjusted and and the end of cold and flu season of that year, I looked at my parents and said, I never got sick that year. We went up to the chiropractor and we’re like, what’s the deal here because I wasn’t sick and asked him about what he did to my body. He said that I was not aware that in my neck I had a a misalignment in my atlas and he had been fixing it for quite a while, and that this problem probably started at birth. I asked my mother about my birth and she said that it had been a difficult birth.  An now I’m almost 50 and I am proud to say that I have never taken another round of antibiotic since I was young. It totally changed my life and chiropractic enlightened me to understand that it’s more than just back pain, neck pain and headaches. And that’s what really stirred to become a chiropractor.

Q: What is your favorite restaurant in North Tampa, and what do you love there?

A: I love Abby’s. Hands down and I must go there at least 3- 4 times a week. I love going to its cafe and sitting down with Victor whose now the owner of Abby’s, having some lentil soup, avocado salad and maybe salmon burger. It is really wonderful.

Q: How long have you lived or worked in North Tampa?

A: I’ve been here since 1997.

Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be? And why?

A: I would like to go to Norway. I would like to actually go up into those areas where the glaciers have carved the path.

Q: What is your favorite movie OR what is the first movie you remember seeing in a theatre?

A: My favorite movie is Dancing with Wolves with Kevin Costner. That movie really inspired me in a lot of different ways, it shows a lot of passion, love, handwork and it was really a thrilling movie at the same time the message is very Christian based. And also the Star Wars movie, you can always remember it from back in the day.

Q: What advice would you give a crowd of people?

A: One of the things that I always educate my patients, my family members and my friends is to go through life trying to prevent things from happening instead of living in crisis care or emergency mode, living management mode and preventive mode and taking care of your health as well as your personal life and assure that you’re directing yourself going down on the correct path. So I would say, start off right and prevent things from happening and your life will be a lot easier.

Q: What is something on your bucket list?

A: I think one of the things that I would say that’s on my bucket list to do is making sure that I take my whole family over to Europe. I would love to make sure that they understood Rome, some of the culture and background where my family is from, a small town in France called Oust,  and just visiting those smaller areas and really grasping the roots of where we came from.

Q: What is your favorite music/ 3 bands you would like to see (dead or alive)?

A: I love Gen X music, I love them all. I love the UB40, I love Bob Marley, I love the Def Leppard, I love Christian Rock and I just feel that I don’t have a love for one, I love them all because they’re all unique. Also I can sit down and listen to Jazz for an hour and just really get into it. My patients joke about it because I play different music all the time. You will hear Jazz, then Whitney Houston. I have diverse taste.

Q: Is there anyone that has had the biggest impact in your life?

A: I would say my father has had one of the biggest impacts in my life because his decisions in life have been really good as far as not making quick decisions. He really contemplated thing in order to make the correct decision, not going out and exerting himself in any one thing but having balance and knowing that he needs rest. If he needed to take a tap, he took a nap and if needed to go to work, he went to work. And having that overall balance in life and constantly living that way has really influenced me. Now he’s 84, he doesn’t take any medication and he is in great health.

Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about North Tampa?

A: North Tampa has so much to offer and it is such a wonderful place. And I think what makes North Tampa really impressive is how the families that grow up here stay close together because the kids will come back and want the same house they grew up in or live in the same neighborhood and keep families united. Areas like old Carrollwood, Lutz , Northdale and even the new Carrollwood, have been here for a while and have really stayed nice and very popular.

Q: (Even for friends or family), what is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?

A: I can speak a little bit of Spanish because we lived in Spain for 4 years.

Q: What 3 words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?

A: Home is really something that I cherished because home is where my family is. Home is where my friends are. Home is supposed to be full of peace, love and having that balance healthy state where you come home and you feel relax, healthy and loved.:

Q: If you were cast into a major motion picture and had your choice of anyone to be your co-star, who would you choose?

A: I think I would pick Tom Cruise because he’s full of action, I’m a little on his high intensity side and I think it will be a lot of fun. And in his Top Gun movie, I kind of wished I was him flying around with Maverick.

Q: Do you think knowing people in the community is still important or it’s not that important anymore because we can connect via social media and internet?

A: I think social media is a big part of the way we do communicate, we need to embrace how to market thru social media, how to use it to our advantage, for friends and family but I also think that there is a connection, feeling and energy when we were talking to people one on one.

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