'Crack Addicts' star, a Florida chiropractor, adjusting to life after reality show on TLC

PALM BEACH GARDENS — Since the May 24 premiere of her show “Crack Addicts” on the cable TV channel TLC, Dr. Alessandra Colón, chiropractic physician at Papa Chiropractic in Palm Beach Gardens, has been, well, "adjusting" to life in the limelight.

“This is the first time anyone has ever pioneered a chiropractic televised series on a national level, bringing alternative medicine to the forefront. There’s a heavy responsibility,” she said. “To the flipside of it, it’s so exciting.

"Do I get recognized? Yeah, all the time. I have my own imposter syndrome and I also don’t want to come off as braggadocious, so I try to handle my fame with some humility and keep it humble. … My entire life was changed since the show.”

Colón, who also goes by Miss Chiropractic, was never seeking fame. It just landed in her lap, or rather her inbox. TLC discovered her TikTok videos and reached out to see whether the energetic doctor would be interested in starring on a show.

Thinking it was spam, she deleted the message. Two weeks later, producers followed up, so she realized it was real.

“Of course, I jumped on the opportunity,” she said enthusiastically, although she admits to struggling with having cameras in her face the first couple of days.

TLC came up with the series’ clever title and casted extreme cases. New patients with a wide variety of challenging conditions travel to Florida to give Colón a "crack" at improving their mobility and decreasing their discomfort.

“If I can reduce somebody’s pain for 24 hours who’s in pain 24/7, it’s worth it,” she said. “It was really, really important for us to captivate clients who had never seen a chiropractor before because we really wanted to … get those authentic reactions.”

Among the "Crack Addicts" episodes:

• A 29-year-old woman had herniated discs in her neck and back and sciatica. She sometimes couldn't lift one of her legs, and had suffered multiple episodes of temporary paralysis. She walked into the office with the assistance of a cane and left without using it after getting adjusted.

• A 47-year-old woman who wears a waist-training corset 16 hours per day to work toward beating the Guinness World Record for smallest corseted waist (16 inches). She suffered from migraines and tightness in her jaw and neck.

• A young woman diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a connective tissue disorder that causes her joints to dislocate and bones to pop out daily.

• A man born with arthrogryposis, a congenital disorder where there is contraction of the joints so the person can't fully extend their arms, for example. He also suffers from severe vertigo and lower-back pain because of how he slouches and walks.

'Near-death experiences': Colón had Stage 4 Hodgkin's Lymphoma cancer at age 14

Colón knows all about a complete life re-set. At the age of 14, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer and credits the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston for saving her life.

“When you’ve had near-death experiences, it really puts things in perspective,” she said. “I feel like when people go through struggles, they have two options, to allow those struggles to become them or to overcome them. I’ve always chosen to overcome them and not allow them to define who I am.”

She is a proud supporter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the official philanthropy of her sorority Tri Delta. Colón, her mom and brother have each run marathons for LLS’ Team in Training.

Left with residual effects from her illness, she sought chiropractic care for the first time when she was in her early 20s. The positive experience inspired her to enroll in Palmer College of Chiropractic in Daytona Beach. She has been board-certified by the Florida Chiropractic Board since 2013.

Colón, who spent a portion of her childhood in Saudi Arabia because of her dad’s career as a chemical engineer, is raising her 10-year-old stepdaughter and 7 1/2-month-old son with her husband in Palm Beach Gardens. The new mom gave her baby boy his first chiropractic adjustment at just seven seconds old as soon as he was placed on her belly.

'Crack Addicts' star's wait-list has reached 15,000 patients

She dispels the myth that she’s a wizard, but her patients certainly think she has magical hands after receiving an adjustment.

“Now everyone thinks I’m Harry Potter,” she said. “Chiropractic is such a beautiful profession because it is a profession of doctoring where we are truly healing patients from the inside out by physical touch, also by way of investigation, and looking at the human spine and looking at the nervous system. I reduce inflammation and I decrease nerve interference.”

Since the show made its debut, Colón has been inundated with new patient inquiries from across the globe. Her office says it receives upward of 100 calls per hour and prospective patients also reach out through her website and social media.

The wait-list has grown to 15,000 people, and she only has time to see about 50 patients a day. She is finding a balance between giving preference to her local existing clients and friends and family whom they refer with scheduling appointments with patients who discovered her on TLC.

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While Miss Chiropractic hasn’t reached the status of "Dr. Pimple Popper," TLC's hit dermatology show, quite yet, she’d be honored to reach the level of success that her fellow TLC counterpart, Dr. Sandra Lee, has attained.

“She’s had such a beautiful, successful career,” she credited. “I’m manifesting that. I’m working hard to do it and I would be so privileged if that was in the cards, because that would mean shining more light on my profession.”

Colón celebrated the premiere with friends and family at Salute Market in Palm Beach Gardens and hosted watch parties for the second and third episodes.

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The three-episode first season of “Crack Addicts” is available to watch on-demand on TLC Go. Check your local listings for reruns. It remains up in the air if the series will be renewed.

“Even if Season 2 never happens, I have chiropractors reaching out to me on every social media platform thanking me because patients are walking in the door across the nation and across the world,” she says with some tears.

“I feel like I’ve already done my job. It makes me so emotional to even think about it. That we are truly getting people help and out of pain and onto the road to recovery in every state.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: TikTok helped Miss Chiropractic land 'Crack Addicts' TV show on TLC