After serving the Apopka community for 47 years, chiropractor Adlai Green will close Park Avenue’s Apopka Wellness Center and begin his retirement on Oct. 1. 

“It has been an incredible honor to serve the Apopka and surrounding communities and provide care to generations of patients over the years,” read a July 27 statement on Green’s Facebook page from him and his wife Carolyn. “I want to sincerely thank you for the trust you placed in me throughout the years, for allowing me to care for you, for referring your friends and family, and for the kindness you have shown me and my staff. Whatever impact I have been able to make in this community has been because of the relationships we built together.” 

Owning a chiropractic practice had been one of Green’s longtime dreams before opening Apopka Wellness. He just had to decide between New York, “virgin territory for chiropractic at the time,” and Florida, Green said in a sit-down interview with The Apopka Chief. Green credits his wife’s cousin, who had a practice in Altamonte Springs, for helping him narrow down his options in Central Florida. 

“He said, ‘There are two places I want you to look: Goldenrod and Apopka,’” Green said. “With Goldenrod, I drove through Aloma Ave., that area, and it just didn’t do anything for me. Then I drove through Main Street in Apopka, and I hate to use the term, but it felt like Mayberry R.F.D. — an old TV show with Andy Griffith, small town. It just felt good.” 

Apopka Wellness originally opened in the shopping plaza on Fifth Street on Oct. 1, 1979, before moving to its present location at 424 N. Park Ave. on Oct. 1, 1981. Although Green worked long hours — he would typically arrive at the office at 4:30 a.m. and stop seeing patients at 6 p.m. — he always loved sharing his “weird sense of humor” and “treating them like family.” 

“Patients know that when I joke with them, it’s to make them laugh — because when you go to a chiropractor, you may have to start off at two, three times a week for a week or two or three,” Green said. “You’ve got to make the experience rewarding and hopeful and make them want to come into the office because they know they will get treated right.” 

One of his favorite chiropractic cases involved Shana Lee, a then-preschool-age girl who had “deficiencies, mental and physical.” 

“Her mom had to carry her in — she was deadweight,” Green said. “The aunt and uncle said, ‘Can you do anything for her?’ And I said, ‘I will try’… We treated her for, I don’t know, a month or more — I can’t remember — but even the physical therapist said, ‘What are you doing? Because she’s making such really great progress now that she can hold herself up by herself.’ And the mom said, ‘I’m bringing her to our chiropractor.’ I would have to say that was the most memorable case.” 

Over the years, Green also ventured beyond his chiropractic work by opening The Salt Room, welcoming his wife into the practice to offer skincare and energy healing, and hiring medical doctors. 

“I even opened up an office in New Smyrna Beach when we did the neuropathy things,” Green said. “It was very, very successful in patients getting better, where they had tried gabapentin and other medications, and it didn’t work — but this treatment that was developed by a podiatrist in Wisconsin, Dr. Cernak, she had I think an 80-85% success rate, and not just short-term. Years later, they still were feeling better. I had one patient go on one of my appeals with a judge, and this was like five years later, and the judge asked, ‘Well, how are you doing today?’ ‘Still feeling good, still feeling fine.’ And that really felt nice.” 

Earlier this year, Apopka Wellness Center experienced its first unexpected closure when the office had to close for two months due to a severe health condition Green developed. After the center reopened, approximately 80% of his patients returned, though he has had to cut back business hours and days. 

Now, Green wants “to go out on a high note” while he is still healthy and to spend time with his children and grandchildren. But he has “no regrets” about opening his practice, crediting the philosophy displayed on an old button he received at a seminar years ago as the key to his business’s success. 

“It says ‘serve to deserve’ — it’s the same as the golden rule,” he said. “I wear this every day I come in the office in my pocket as a reminder: give more to get back. You’ll always get back when you do services for people. So I guess that’s the biggest positive thing I’ve had in all these years: do more for the patients than they expect, and be there for them whenever you can.”