Dr. Mark Jensen grew up in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, a small town in the southeastern part of the state. During his childhood, he participated in many sports such as football, basketball, baseball, track, and hockey. He later became involved in golf and rugby as well and has been no stranger to sports injuries. These injuries and a knack for science and biology led to an interest in health care, although it was an auto accident while attending the University of Minnesota that led to his first chiropractic experience. So impressed by the quality of the care and the 100% natural approach of chiropractic, he accepted the challenge of becoming a Chiropractor. Six years later in 1996, he graduated from Northwestern College of Chiropractic in Bloomington, Minnesota with both Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Chiropractic degrees.
Following graduation, Dr. Jensen relocated from Minnesota to Rocky Mount, North Carolina where, as an associate with Hammer Chiropractic, he treated thousands of patients young and old suffering auto accident and athletic injuries, neck and low back pain, headaches, TMJ, sciatica, disc injuries, and carpal tunnel syndrome, among many other conditions. After nine years of practice in Rocky Mount, Dr. Jensen decided to open his own office in Raleigh, and in October 2006, opened Corrective Chiropractic.
Corrective Chiropractic is conveniently located in the Glenwood South area of downtown Raleigh. This beautiful office offers state of the art technology used to detect and correct posture and spinal dysfunction, utilizing computerized thermal and muscle testing and high-speed full spine x-ray as well as spinal traction. Dr. Jensen uses several spinal adjusting techniques (Diversified, Gonstead, and CBP) as well as soft tissue adjusting techniques (active myofascial release, trigger point therapy and electric stimulation). Neuromuscular retraining and exercise are also used to help retrain the body to healthier patterns of function.
Corrective Chiropractic is a large chiropractic office that services many Raleigh families. Dr. Jensen’s mission through Corrective Chiropractic is to educate and adjust as many families toward optimal health using natural chiropractic care. To fulfill this purpose, Dr. Jensen provides education through classes in his office and at venues around town such as the YWCA and Target. He is also active at many local health fairs and 5K races around Raleigh; he further donates his time in support of the Raleigh Rugby Club (2007 Division II National Rugby Champions) and is available to speak to local organizations and office groups about natural and proactive health care.
Continuing education is important to Dr. Jensen who consistently reads chiropractic journals for the latest news and health updates, and attends seminars throughout the country to study the latest information and techniques for the benefit of his patients.
Dr. Jensen resides in Raleigh and enjoys sports of all kinds. In his free time, he can often be found traveling with his fiancee, Kelly or at home cooking and hanging out with their dogs.
Shannon Chojnicki Chiropractic Assistant – Shannon grew up in Buffalo, NY and moved to the Raleigh, NC area in 2005 with her husband, dog, and cat. When she is not at work you can find her volunteering at a local animal shelter for cats. She also helps run her husband’s business on her days off. Shannon has been with Corrective Chiropractic since June 2012.
Sharon Pacheco Chiropractic Assistant – Sharon was born in Dallas, Texas but grew up until the age of 7 in Southern California. Sharon has lived in Raleigh, North Carolina for 14 years. She is married and has a beautiful 3-year-old daughter. She is an active member of her church and participates in a lot of community service activities. She enjoys taking care of others and helping people feel better. Sharon also loves to take family trips with family and friends. Sharon is also bilingual in English and Spanish.
JJ Virgin, Ph.D., CNS/Celebrity Wellness Expert
JJ VIRGIN/Vitamin D
Vitamin D, once linked to only bone diseases such as rickets and osteoporosis, is now recognized as a major player in overall human health. There are only 30,000 genes in your body and vitamin D has been shown to influence over 2,000 of them. That’s one of the primary reasons it influences so many diseases, including diabetes, depression, heart disease, and cancer, just to name a few. But while many will focus on vitamin D supplementation, it’s important to realize that the IDEAL way to optimize your vitamin D level is not by taking a pill, but rather allowing your body to do what it is designed to do – create vitamin D from sun exposure (or a safe tanning bed).
Sunlight is superior to supplements for a number of reasons:
- It is natural. Our ancestors optimized their vitamin D levels by sun exposure, not by swallowing it in foods. Although vitamin D is in some animal foods, it is in relatively low quantities and to my knowledge, there are no known ancestral populations that thrived on oral vitamin D sources
- When you expose your skin to the sun, your skin also synthesizes high amounts of cholesterol sulfate, which is very important for cardiovascular health. In fact, Dr. Stephanie Seneff believes that high LDL and associated heart disease may, in fact, be a symptom of cholesterol sulfate deficiency. Sulfur deficiency, in fact, also promotes obesity and related health problems like diabetes
- Most experts believe you cannot overdose when getting your vitamin D from sun exposure, as your body has the ability to self-regulate production and only make what it needs
- When taking a high dose vitamin D supplement, you also need to boost your intake of vitaminK2, either from food or a supplement, in order to maintain the proper ratio. These two nutrients work in tandem, and vitamin K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, which includes inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries
- Sunlight has many additional health benefits unrelated to vitamin D production