Surviving a life-threatening health issue or a terminal illness like cancer to recover and become committed to helping other people overcome their challenges is indeed an act of selflessness. And in the history of mankind, there have not been many people who feel the genuine need to help others like Doctor Joseph Jacobs has done in the last decade.
Dr. Joseph Jacobs is a cancer survivor who is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, Advanced Clinical Nutritionist, Functional Medicine Practitioner and Instructor who is the inventor of ASTR. He has also received approval for eight patents, and he teaches and educates doctors worldwide. Dr. Jacobs is a cancer survivor who suffered from chronic migraines, headaches, fatigue, and pain before he invented the ASTR specialty. He holds a doctorate of physical therapy degree from Dominican College in New York and a bachelor’s degree concentrated in hotel and restaurant management from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.
Dr. Jacobs began researching and developing his new specialty to treat patients’ pain more effectively than methods he had learned in the classroom. Between 2011 to 2021, he actively continued to create the maneuvers, tools, and methodologies that ASTR is composed of, and he continues to refine the elements of ASTR through ongoing, consistent research. Advanced Soft Tissue Release (ASTR) has been registered by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
According to him, “After my second cancer treatment, I used to suffer from chronic migraines, pain and fatigue and I could not find relief that what lead me to research and invent ASTR treatment to overcome my disability and I started to implement the same programs on my patients and noticed similar results.” He recalled that during the COVID-19 pandemic, he realized that there was an urgent need for patients to treat their pain at home. So he created self-treatment programs for patients to relieve their pain at home.
Jacobs attributes his motivation to his desire to help millions of people experience the same pain relief he experienced due to his preview disability after his second cancer treatment.
He designed ASTR when he realized that patients used to go to healthcare providers for treatment. “I created a new category to empower patients to work on their muscle and joint pain using medical tools and follow an online program that includes how to use the tools, exercises, posture, ergonomics, nutrition, behavior modification to relieve their pain at home,” he explained.
In five years, he hopes to have successfully impacted millions of people by helping them relieve their pain, such that when they think of home self-treatment, they think about ASTR. “My vision to have ASTR brand as the gold standard approach for home self-treatment. I created this category—it takes time and a lot of intentional marketing to educate clients about a new category.”
Jacobs is committed to telling his story to a broader audience, hoping that they learn that there is an option to work on their pain at home. The programs are easy to follow; usually, it takes 5 minutes for patients to treat themselves at home per body part per day. The programs work so well for active clients that athletes can release scar tissue, fascia restrictions, and decrease inflammation after their sports activities using ASTR tools to improve their performance.
Learn more about ASTR Institute here or watch Dr. Jacobs’s Tedx talk.
