Dr. Alex Ognibene recently took over the practice of Dr. Frank Racitano. The new name for the practice is Jamestown Spine and the practice will continue to be located at 1719 Foote Ave. Ext. in Jamestown. P-J photo by William Mohan

A Falconer native is continuing a family medical tradition in Jamestown.

Dr. Alex Ognibene recently took over the practice of retired chiropractor Dr. Frank Racitano. Racitano had been operating for 36 years under the name of Chautauqua Chiropractic. Under Dr. Ognibene, the new practice will be named Jamestown Spine, but will keep the same location at 1719 Foote Ave. Ext.

Originally, Racitano was intent on selling the practice when Ognibene offered to purchase it from him.

“I found about Dr. Racitano selling the practice here and gave him a call, I knew I wanted to come back home and practice here,” Ognibene said. “It worked out great for both of us.”

The correspondence that followed led to Ognibene becoming a transitional physician. From there, Ognibene got to know the patients and eventually took over the practice full time.

“I just took over the practice on Nov. 26,” Ognibene said.

Ognibene is originally from Falconer and has been practicing chiropractic for three years. He graduated from Falconer High School in 2008 and immediately took up medicine. After studying biology at West Virginia University, he transferred to Logan University’s College of Chiropractic in Chesterfield, Mo. in 2012. He graduated in December 2015 and began practice in January 2016. His first practice was at All About Chiropractic in Madison, Wis. That lasted until this past summer when he started practice at Jamestown Spine. His grandfather, Vincent Ognibene, was also a chiropractor.

“Chiropractic has always been in my family and resonated in this area,” Ognibene said. “Growing up I decided on being a chiropractor early on and stuck with it all the way through school.”

Ognibene said that while chiropractic medicine is primarily focused on the back, it is more than adjusting spinal bones. Headaches can also be a sign of spinal injury as well. However, the back is the main area where chiropractic is applied and where practitioners usually have the best results.

“The spine is where we look to first for most cases, but we are trained to treat the entire body,” Ognibene said. “Knees and ankles, and shoulder injuries, we’re also really effective in treating headaches as well, a lot of times it comes from the neck,” he said.

In the field, chiropractors can offer advice for how patients can maintain a healthy lifestyle. However, they are mostly performing adjustments as needed.

“There are some things we can do outside of just the adjustment, recommend therapies and home exercises, give nutrition and healthy living advice,” Ognibene said. “Most of the time it is the adjustment to the joints in the body, muscle mobilization as well. Relations to physical, structure and function of the body is where our focus is.”

The amount of business and the types of injuries chiropractors treat varies greatly with the time of the year. In the winter, most injuries are related to snow and ice.

“At this time of the year with the snowfall, shovelling often times causes a lot of back injuries,” Ognibene said.

One injury that is common year-round are from car accidents. Winter is no exception for chiropractors.

“People slide on the ice, have an accident in the vehicle and then your looking at a whiplash type of injury to the neck and back,” Ognibene explained. “And then slips and falls on the ice.”

Another type of injury chiropractors attend to often stems from the position one tends to employ when they are working. The severity of these injuries depends on the type of work one is doing.

“People that sit at a desk all day, often times have low back pain and just any day laborers,” Ognibene said. “People are active at work all the time lifting, carrying, moving things a lot of times a low back is what takes the brunt of that too.”

Ognibene further described the scenario as a combined means to achieving spinal health. That scenario in particular relates to mobility

“It’s kind of a fine line between not moving enough and moving too much that can cause an injury,” Ognibene said.

As for the rest of the year, Ognibene explained that sports injuries are the most common injury in warmer months. In addition, he added that the contributing factor is the utilization of the lower back in sports.

“Golfing is a big one, a lot of tennis players,” Ognibene said. “People are working all year-round and their getting beat up all over the place.”

New patients are currently being accepted at Jamestown Spine, with hours being 9 a.m. to noon and 2-5 p.m. Monday through Thursday. To schedule an appointment, call 483-6800. To learn more, visit Jamestown Spine on Facebook.