First Somali-American chiropractor aims to help people be well

Dr. Abdiasis Inshar, a 26-year-old chiropractor working at the Premier Health Chiropractors of South Minneapolis clinic (3042 Bloomington Ave.), believes he is the first Somali-American chiropractor in the Twin Cities.
Holistic healthcare has been on the rise in the U.S. as the percentage of people who reported using health approaches like massage therapy, chiropractic care, and yoga increased from 19.2% in 2002 to 36.7% in 2022, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Inshar said he believes that holistic healthcare is going to continue to grow across the country.
“I think people in America in general are leaning more towards holistic healthcare as opposed to allopathic healthcare because they just want to maintain and stay healthy,” Inshar said. “Not everybody wants to go to the MD when they’re sick. Some people want to stay healthy and more in tune with their healthcare.”
Inshar said holistic healthcare work is about educating and alleviating.
“A lot of it has to do with teaching people about the human body and how it works,” Inshar said. “I teach them what’s going on in their body, how I can help them, and how we could use passive care, physical therapy, and chiropractic treatment to get better and back to normal.”
Inshar, who moved to the U.S. from Kenya as a child and now lives in Minneapolis, said he was skeptical of chiropractic at first but looked into it after his mother was given treatment for back and neck issues from a car accident.
Inshar graduated from the University of St. Thomas with a bachelor’s in biology and did IT work at United Health, then later went to Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington to study chiropractic.
Inshar also did volunteer work at mosques in St. Paul as an undergraduate and at the Salvation Army as a graduate student, where he gave free chiropractic adjustments to those in need.
“It helped me realize what’s important as far as being in the healthcare field,” Inshar said. “That’s helping as much people as you can with as much of your ability at that time.”
The Premier Health Chiropractors of South Minneapolis clinic is one of seven Premier Health clinics within the Twin Cities area. The clinic, located near Lake Street, offers translation services on top of its chiropractic services as it mostly works with Latino and Somali patients.
Inshar said that Lake Street is the heart of Minneapolis and working in the area is important.
“It helps quite a bit because you can be in the community while working in it,” Inshar said. “If you want to help the community, you have to actually be in proximity of it.”
Inshar said working at the clinic has been positive since starting in January. Inshar said he decided to work at the clinic after seeing what Dr. Josey Perez, the owner of the clinic, did for the Latino community.
“He’s really a pillar in his community in the sense where everybody knows him and everybody knows to go to him for any chiropractic or any musculoskeletal problems they may have,” Inshar said. “Knowing that he’s done it for such a long time and in such a great way, I decided to work for him this past year so I can learn how he does what he does and how I can replicate it in the Somali community.”
The clinic sees around 200 patients per week. It is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Perez said there is a huge need for people from different cultures to feel at home.
“We want to provide that type of environment for our people, for our cultures, and create that family environment for the community,” Perez said. “Our people work hard and they don’t have flexible schedules, so we have to accommodate to serve our communities’ needs.”
Perez, who moved from Mexico to the U.S. to pursue a degree in chiropractic, said he opened the clinic in South Minneapolis because of the Spanish speaking community in the area. Perez, who currently lives in Lakeville, said many clinics aren’t able to serve communities in the Twin Cities area and he wanted to break that barrier.
“With the Latino community, they feel scared to go to the doctor just to get checked because they don’t speak English,” Perez said. “Our goal is to be able to provide the community with a professional clinic where we speak the language of their choice.”
Perez said holistic healthcare has lots of room for growth, but it’s only scraping the tip of the iceberg.
“A lot more people are looking at different alternatives other than traditional medicine,” Perez said. “Our goal is to fix the cause so they can have long lasting results and not only cover up the symptoms.”
Khalid Mohamed is a University of Minnesota student majoring in journalism.