Dr. Brett Hightower has spent more than 30 years practicing chiropractic and acupuncture out of Raleigh, North Carolina, but the title host Mark Anthony hung on this episode — "Doctor of Drugless Methods" — isn't really a claim to be anti-medicine. As Hightower makes clear early in the conversation, it's about widening what counts as a legitimate treatment option before, or alongside, a prescription.
His path there wasn't a straight line. Hightower started out premed, studying biology, chemistry, and quantum physics at Appalachian State University before working at a small hospital in the North Carolina mountains — an experience that left him more disillusioned than inspired. "Everybody here is sick," he remembers thinking. "The doctors are sick, the nurses are sick, the patients are sick." A stint as a chemist in NC State's poultry science department, and later a move to Hawaii with his then-girlfriend (now wife), put him in the orbit of the early integrative-medicine wave — figures like Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, and Bernie Siegel were just reaching wide audiences at the time, and a chance seminar with Siegel and a meeting with Hawaiian healer Serge King nudged him first toward studying acupuncture. He ultimately found chiropractic's more linear, academic structure a better fit, trained at Life University in Atlanta, graduated in 1993, and became certified in acupuncture not long after — building the Raleigh practice he still runs today.
Key Takeaways
- Hightower's "drugless" framing isn't anti-medicine — he's explicit that drugs and surgery have their place; the point is that they're not the only tool available.
- Class 4 laser therapy works through photobiomodulation — Hightower says it causes cell mitochondria to "resonate," boosting metabolic efficiency and producing an anti-inflammatory effect he says lasts about 24 hours.
- His approach to acupuncture has shifted from traditional Chinese-medicine language ("liver heat," "wind energy") toward what he calls neuropuncture — targeting specific nerves with small, measured electrical currents.
- For neuropathy, Hightower's focus is restoring blood flow — through laser therapy, nitric-oxide-supporting foods like beets, and B vitamins — and catching nerve issues early, before damage becomes advanced.
- His recommended order for a new issue: chiropractic adjustment first, then laser for localized pain, then acupuncture for systemic or stubborn conditions.
"Drugless" Doesn't Mean Anti-Medicine
Asked directly what "drugless method" actually means, Hightower didn't hedge on where conventional medicine fits:
"There's a place for drugs. There is a place for medicines. God bless the surgeon. God bless the prescribing physician. It's just that drugs aren't everything."
— Dr. Brett HightowerHe describes the human body as "primarily energetic" — a framing he ties to quantum physics and what he calls quantum biology — and sees a large part of his own role as separating legitimate, research-grounded options from what he called "a lot of nonsense out there too," then matching each patient to the therapy suited to their specific problem.
Neuropuncture and Class 4 Laser Therapy, Explained
Hightower said his thinking on acupuncture shifted after studying the overlap in symptoms across different autoimmune conditions, which pushed him to look for a more precise, nerve-based way to explain what he was doing — something he could use talking to other physicians, not just patients. He calls the result neuropuncture: rather than describing treatment in terms like "liver heat," he can tell an OB/GYN, for example, which specific nerve pathways serve the uterus and ovaries, and what voltage and amperage pattern is being used to affect them. His own "aha moment" with acupuncture, he said, came early — treating an attorney in Raleigh whose shoulder pain hadn't responded to anything else, including chiropractic care, until acupuncture took it away.
On laser, Hightower described Class 4 laser therapy as working through photobiomodulation: specific frequencies of laser light cause the mitochondria inside cells to "resonate" — he compared it to a rooftop antenna tuned to a particular signal — which he says increases cellular metabolic efficiency substantially and produces an anti-inflammatory effect without steroids or medication, one he says lasts roughly 24 hours per treatment. He noted the beam can penetrate several inches into tissue, including through bone, reaching areas like an inflamed disc or facet joint. He distinguished this from the lower-powered Class 3A "red light" devices increasingly common in gyms and recovery studios — helpful, in his view, but working at a smaller scale — versus Class 4 devices, which require a trained operator and produce infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths outside what the eye can see.
Treating Neuropathy — and Why Timing Matters Most
On neuropathy specifically, Hightower described it as nerves affected by long-term oxygen deprivation — classically, diabetic neuropathy of the feet — leading to numbness or a pins-and-needles sensation. His approach centers on restoring blood flow: laser or red light therapy, along with nutritional support like B vitamins and beet-derived compounds that support the nitric oxide pathway. The recurring theme of the conversation applied here too — catch it early and outcomes are generally good; let it progress to visibly advanced signs, like skin changes or discolored toenails, and treatment becomes about managing the condition rather than reversing it. He drew a parallel to catching a cold in its early stages versus after the flu has already "got a hold of you."
He also described a faster-than-typical case: a former chiropractic patient who came in with tinnitus and vertigo symptoms and, because she sought treatment within days of onset rather than waiting, resolved in two visits — well ahead of what he estimated going in.
How Chiropractic, Laser, and Acupuncture Work Together
Hightower's default sequence for a new patient starts with a chiropractic adjustment — what he calls the "macro" level of nervous system function — followed by laser therapy for localized issues like tennis elbow or plantar fasciitis, and acupuncture for systemic conditions such as infertility, insomnia, or indigestion, or when chiropractic care alone hasn't resolved the problem. A typical acupuncture visit runs 30 to 45 minutes, and he generally sells treatment in packages of 10 sessions as an initial test period, with many conditions taking somewhere in the range of 10 to 25 total visits depending on severity. On the business side, chiropractic care at his practice is billed through standard insurance; acupuncture is a cash-pay service, with the exception that he also accepts Veterans Administration insurance.
