Dr. JD Dudum, DC
Doctor of Chiropractic · Walnut Creek, California Co-founder, Disc Renewal Academy · Developer of Disc Renewal Therapy™
He came to this as a patient first. Twice.
In high school, basketball took him apart.
Several injuries, multiple concussions, and eventually a diagnosis of post-concussion syndrome. Migraines three or four times a week. He could not focus in school and could not play.
Six months of specialist referrals produced nothing. Then a chiropractor resolved the headaches in four to six weeks — and that experience is why he became one.
Years later, it happened again. A bulging disc of his own, and a course of non-surgical spinal decompression that let him avoid surgery.
He built the second half of his career around the thing that fixed him.
The practice
Dudum Chiropractic, Walnut Creek, California, established 2010.
Since around 2020 the practice has been built around non-surgical spinal decompression — two hundred patients a week, for years.
Dr. Brandan Tong, DC practises alongside him. Both are graduates of Life Chiropractic College West.
More than fifty thousand decompression treatments have been delivered at the clinic. That figure is the reason Disc Renewal Therapy™ exists: a manufacturer writes its protocol from device mechanics and a modest number of trials, and sees the results only through complaints. Nobody else has watched the same protocol run that many times.
Published research
Two peer-reviewed papers, both co-authored with Dr. Bryan Gatterman, DC, DACBR, a board-certified chiropractic radiologist.
Lumbar disc herniation
Dudum J, Gatterman B. Reduction of the Size of a Lumbar Disc Herniation Using Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression Combined with Chiropractic Care. Journal of Contemporary Chiropractic. 2024;7(1):146–155.
A case series of four patients, with MRI before treatment and again four to six months later. Herniation index reductions ranged from 9.4% to 29.5%, with a 78% reduction in one migrated fragment.
Cervical disc extrusion
Dudum JD, Gatterman B, Buonopane S. Reduction of Cervical Intervertebral Disc Extrusion in Patients with Segmental Instability: Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression and Other Conservative Treatment. Journal of Contemporary Chiropractic. 2026;9(1):240–247.
A single case report. A 50-year-old man who had declined fusion surgery; follow- up imaging showed a 52% reduction in the extrusion, with continued improvement at one year.
Both are case reports and case series — the weakest tier of clinical evidence. They describe what happened to five patients between them. They are worth publishing because the imaging is objective and the mechanism deserves investigation, not because they establish anything.
Further papers are in preparation.
The full research picture, including what it does not show →
Teaching
Disc Renewal Academy — co-founded with Dr. George Birnbach. Coaching for licensed chiropractors building a decompression service line, taught across four pillars: the protocol, the systems, the team, and growth.
The higher tier trains inside the Walnut Creek clinic, alongside Dr. Dudum and his staff.
BACK AT IT with Dr. Decompression — his podcast, running since 2023, more than a hundred episodes. On Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Outside the clinic
He is in the gym most mornings, still plays basketball, and writes about anti-inflammatory eating at @lifesabeet. He credits family walks with more of his thinking than anything at a desk.
Find him
@dudumchiropractic on Instagram — where most conversations with DRA start. He reads his own messages.
Dudum Chiropractic · 1900 Olympic Blvd, Suite 100, Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Individual results vary. The published evidence for non-surgical spinal decompression is limited and largely observational. Nothing on this page is clinical, legal, or billing advice. Scope of practice is determined by your state licensing board.