Helping people in pain: Meet 3 friends who took over a chiropractic business and now run 13 healthcare clinics

Seven years ago in 2018, two former primary school classmates, weary of their corporate jobs, started exploring the idea of entrepreneurship. Amelia Lee was an investment banker and Aileen Seah was a civil servant. Both were in the last year of their twenties.

Lee, whose husband is a doctor, was looking for something more meaningful to do. “He’d come home and tell me what surgeries he’d done. On the other hand, I was like, ‘I played with my Excel sheet a hundred times, a thousand times’,” she said.

The friends began exploring the possibility of acquiring a traditional business with no succession plan, where founders were either without heirs or looking to move on. This was an idea Lee had encountered in the United States while doing her Master of Business Administration.

After considering everything from tau huay (beancurd) production to funeral services, Lee and Seah stumbled upon Chiropractic Singapore, a small chain of three chiropractic clinics whose founder was looking to sell and move back to America.

Seah was then in the last trimester of pregnancy and suffered from pains and aches because of the pressure her baby put on her pelvis and supportive pelvic tissue.

Her immediate thought about chiropractic treatment: “It sounded like something only expats would do,” Seah laughed. Chiropractors treat neuromusculoskeletal disorders, particularly through spinal adjustments to improve alignment and relieve pain.

Seah’s first session changed her mind. “It really took a lot of pressure off my pelvis, and it helped me walk better,” she told CNA Women.

That’s how the two friends ended up buying the business in 2019.

A year later, Lee’s ex-colleague, Goh Xin Ying, then a senior startup executive, joined them. Having suffered from scoliosis since her teenage years, she was already a firm believer in chiropractic care.

In 2021, the trio, who are all 35 years old, bought over two more small healthcare chains, City Osteopathy & Physiotherapy and WeSmile Dental Care, to add pain relief and holistic wellness to their offerings. They called the group of 13 clinics The Health Collective.

Osteopaths use manual techniques to improve circulation, flexibility, and overall body function. Physiotherapists focus on restoring movement and function through exercises, manual therapy and rehabilitation techniques.

PAIN SHOULD NOT BE DISMISSED AS NORMAL

Lee said that they want to increase awareness that back, head, neck and jaw pain, while common, are not normal.

“The big issue is that pain is normalised in Singapore,” Seah said.

Goh noted that the Singaporean work culture may contribute to this problem, as many white-collar workers lead sedentary lifestyles, making musculoskeletal problems commonplace.

“A lot of times, people are just told to take painkillers, live with it and suck it up,” Goh added.

Lee said that their expatriate chiropractors from countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand have commented that Singaporeans have some of the most problematic spines and postures they have ever seen.

Compared to conventional medicine, chiropractors place greater emphasis on spinal alignment as a key to overall health, Lee said. “When the spine is out of alignment, it can sometimes impinge on your nerves, and that's when you start feeling pain.”

But busy Singaporeans often sweep these issues under the carpet, and for extended periods, the trio noted.

“(It is important) not to ignore discomfort. Even sporadic pain is a signal your body is sending you,” Seah stressed.

Health professionals within the collective refer patients to other disciplines in the group for holistic care, the co-owners told CNA Women.

For instance, if a patient is grinding their teeth excessively due to tension in the jaw muscles, a dentist may refer them to an osteopath, who uses manual therapy techniques such as movement, stretching and adjustments to align the neck and jaw.

Since chiropractors typically work on spinal adjustments and joint alignment, in cases where a chiropractor’s patient has localised pain in an area like the knee or elbow, he might recommend the patient to a physiotherapist for more targeted rehabilitation to restore strength, flexibility and function, she added.

HIGHER RATES OF MUSCULOSKELETAL ISSUES AMONG WOMEN

Women are more prone to musculoskeletal issues such as osteoporosis (bone density loss) and osteoarthritis (joint degeneration), studies show.

“Women are anatomically different and undergo significant changes throughout different stages of life – pregnancy, childbirth, menopause – resulting in hormonal imbalances and changes that impact musculoskeletal health,” said Seah, based on insights from healthcare professionals at her clinics.

Pregnancy, for instance, puts a lot of pressure on the back and hips, causing posture changes, misalignment, ligament laxity and the loss of core strength. These contribute to back, shoulder and neck pain, she noted.

Being pregnant also puts significant pressure on the pelvic floor muscles (which support the bladder, uterus, and rectum) – which bear the weight of the foetus. In many cases, pregnancy weakens the muscles, potentially leading to dysfunction, as well as bladder, bowel and other issues.

One common concern is incontinence, where women experience urine leakage when laughing, sneezing or coughing, particularly in the later stages of pregnancy, and the issue may continue even after pregnancy, Seah said. 

Pelvic floor physiotherapy involves exercises which help women strengthen and rehabilitate these muscles to treat incontinence, she added.

Seah told CNA Women about a patient who suffered from debilitating urinary incontinence for two years after giving birth. “She wet herself every time the bus went over a hump or jolted. Because of this, she only wore black panties and packed extra clothes every day.” This patient’s condition improved with pelvic floor physiotherapy.

“People don’t talk about these things. They say it is normal and part of pregnancy, once you've given birth, it will go away. But it’s not true,” Seah said.

A PROACTIVE APPROACH TO HEALTHCARE

Goh suggested that even without symptoms or pain, it is good practice to go for checkups, adding that the therapies can also be done on babies and children – the group has a paediatric physiotherapist and paediatric osteopaths.

Both Lee and Seah, who have three children each, aged between six months and six years old, send their kids for chiropractic care, physiotherapy and osteopathy.

In addition to getting regular checkups, Seah also stressed the importance of regular movement, good posture habits and strengthening the core and pelvic floor muscles.

These practices are crucial as we age into our fifties and beyond because they support overall health, strength, stability, flexibility and mobility, she said.