How Did You Become a Chiropractor?

My name is Dr. Stephanie Maj. I am a chiropractor. How I became a chiropractor is not all that exciting and yet it’s my story and I am going to tell it here. I got injured, had spinal pain and my mom urged me to go to a chiropractor. She also urged me to be a chiropractor. “Chiropractor?” There are none in our family and to my knowledge, no one in my family had ever been adjusted. So I went to Dr. Tony Battaglia in my hometown of Akron, Ohio. I was 23 years of age, working in an environmental lab and was looking for deeper meaning in my life. I went to this office looking for pain relief and received so much more. I was assigned a young doctor, excited and passionate about what he did and how he was going to help lots of people get well. No one talked about helping people at my lab job. Intrigued, I dug deeper. From my earliest memory, I had always wanted to be a doctor. A pediatrician to be exact. Through my undergraduate studies at Ohio University, I was a premed/nutrition major and just assumed my path was to be a medical doctor. After going through the application process, I realized that there was something that didn’t fit about me and traditional medicine. I decided against that career for reasons that were not fully formed in my mind and have since become crystal clear to me. After completing my treatment plan with my chiropractor, I not only healed the sprain in my neck from my car accident, my lifelong headaches went away as well.

After that experience, l decided that I needed to get my life moving in a better direction so off I went to Chicago to chiropractic school. Chiropractic school is a 5 year program, very similar to medical school except when medical students go into the hospitals, chiropractic students study the biomechanics, neurology, and function of the body deeper. I spent my last year and a half of school in clinics, helping the community and firming up my techniques of diagnosis and treatment. School was the most intense experience of my life. It was hard to think of life after school and the direction now of my career. I just wanted to help people, that’s all. I saw that there were so many people to help; this world has never been sicker. I felt for me, working under another doctor for a time was important. I studied under Dr. Peter Feldkamp outside of Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Pete is a good man. I learned many things both clinical and business from him although my biggest lesson was that I could make a living, help lots of people, and do it with integrity and honesty.

I opened Community Chiropractic in Chicago on April 1, 1996, my 30th birthday. I have operated a family-oriented wellness practice in the Chicago area where I specializes in returning people to health, family, pediatric, pregnancy, and wellness care ever since. I am certified in Pediatrics from the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association where I completed over 120 hours of curriculum offered techniques and protocols of care for children and pregnant women. I also earned a Certificate of Proficiency in the Webster Technique, a specific analysis and adjustment used for pregnant mothers. This chiropractic technique helps to correct sacral misalignment, balance pelvic nerves, muscles and ligaments which allow the baby to get into the best possible position for birth.

Community Chiropractic is filled with people in various stages of health. We have sick people on the road to getting well, we have healthy people that utilize chiropractic care as a means of keeping their body functioning optimally. There are young families, athletes and everything in-between. Our hope is that we can be the coaches that lead you on your journey to health and wellness!

I recently returned from the Dominican Republic where I was a part of an orginization called ChiroMission. We help supply much needed health care and funds to the poorest of the poor in that country.

The mission at Community Chiropractic is to check as many people as possible for hidden health problems and to save them from a life of drugs and surgery. We do this in Chicago everyday yet I realized after this trip that the world needs our help as well. I have been hit by a lightning bold and will never be the same.

Local Chiropractor takes her Practice to the Children of the Dominican Republic

Chicago – The people of the Dominican Republic live with staggering poverty, having very little access to any form of health care and no access to chiropractic care. Dr. Stephanie Maj has just returned from a chiropractic mission to help supply much needed health care and funds to the poorest of the poor in the Dominican Republic.

“I have vacationed in the Dominican Republic and although I knew it was a poor country, I saw first-hand how poverty can affect people,” Dr. Stephanie Maj said. “One community was living on the side of a trash dump, with poor Dominican kids wandering the trash heaps with no shoes. Their toys were old tires and bottle caps.”

In some ways, Dr. Maj notes, the people in the U.S. are more stressed out. The Dominican people lead a simpler life, free of the repetitive stresses such as sitting over a computer all day. Poverty and nutrition are the two biggest factors affecting the health of the Dominican people. The nutrition in the U.S. can be blamed as the biggest factor affecting health as well.

Maj adjusted 900 people in a three-day period. “I would say 75% of the people I helped were children. We would go to a school and adjust every kid in the school, as well as the teachers and staff.” That was for the children lucky enough to be able to attend school. Thousands of Dominican children are abandoned each year by parents who can’t afford to provide for them.

“One barrio we visited, Ponch Mateo, our guide was a teacher named Dumy. He runs a school named ‘Mano a Mano por el futuro’ (hand by hand for the future). Dumy showed us his one room school-house attached to his home. When I say home, I mean a wooden and tin shack with a dirt floor. He has no money to pay teachers and yet supplies a place to help kids get education as well as caring for orphans.”

Dr. Maj practices in the Lakeview neighborhood. She traveled to the Dominican Republic with a group of 30 doctors and 30 students intent on giving free chiropractic care to people. The group was organized by ChiroMission and as a group adjusted 35,000 people in a three-day period.

ChiroMission is the “Doctors without Borders” of Chiropractic. The idea is to teach less fortunate people in Third World countries how to take care of themselves so they’ll have a better shot at avoiding medical problems. ChiroMission has just expanded to Australia to take care of the Aborigines.

“I will never forget the children. Even with these tough conditions, there was joy in their eyes. All they wanted was to hold my hand and to hug me. For every one child I helped, they came back with 5 more. If I helped just one, I consider this trip a success.”

This group had their Chiropractic miracles as well. One man showed up with neurologic problem, a hand tremor like in Parkinson’s disease and drop foot. After being adjusted a couple of times in the morning, he hunted the doctors down at their next location. He walked up exclaiming in Spanish that not only had his tremor disappeared, he no longer had drop foot.

This trip changed Dr. Maj’s perception of poverty and life here in Chicago. “We think this economy is bad yet when you witness first-hand a different reality you realize things aren’t that bad. We need to be grateful for the abundance we have at our fingertips.”

Dr. Maj states, “The mission at Community Chiropractic is to check as many people as possible for hidden health problems and to save them from a life of drugs and surgery. We do this in Chicago everyday yet I realized after this trip that the world needs our help as well. I have been hit by a lightning bold and will never be the same.”

Dr. Stephanie Maj is the clinic director for Community Chiropractic, a full service wellness center offering family health care, acupuncture, massage, orthotics and nutritional counseling. Dr. Maj has been practicing in the Lakeview area for almost 14 years.

Sasha & Malia won't receive Swine Flu vaccine!

Cable News Promoting Swine Flu Vaccine

According to White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, Obama's Daughters will not receive the vaccine based on their profile. Apparently, according to him, only children with an impaired immune system are supposed to take the vaccine. But, I don't think that is not what the media has been reporting at all. In my office, I have been told by parent after parent that they are coming into the schools next week to give this injection and they are targeting ALL these children.

It gets stranger all the time, as this is supposed to be a level 6 pandemic, not a virus that only attacks susceptible children. According to WHO, "Almost half of the reported cases of oseltamivir resistant virus have occured in patients taking oseltamivir for prophylaxis. While the significance of this observation is not yet clear, prophylaxis should only be offered where there are strong reasons for doing so..in general, WHO does not recommend the use of antiviral drugs for prophylactic purposes. For people who have had exposure to an infected person and are at a higher risk of developing severe or complicated illness, an alternative option is close monitoring for symptoms, followed by prompt early antiviral treatment should symptoms develop.

Why do I keep hearing doctors on Cable News, including Fox, recommending that children receive a flu shot for prevention. Am I missing something here? In fact, I went to the official site of the Secretary of Human Health Services, and that was the first thing I saw: the importance of getting your flu shot. Every time I drive by Walgreens, there it is a sign "Get your flu shot."

What the Science Says About Injecting Mercury

Thimerosal is the ingredient in these vaccines that preserves them and is also the one containing mercury.  DON’T ASSUME THE SHOT YOU ARE GETTING IS MERCURY FREE!! Unless you demand that option, you will get the one with 25+mcgs of mercury.

The standard counterclaim from the medical industry and the bobble-heads on TV is that these ingredients, in the doses administered, have never been proven detrimental to human health.

This is a bold faced lie.

But it’s an effective lie, because most people will simply take that statement at face value without doing any further research. Life is far too busy to double check “reliable resources.”

The fact is there’s plenty of evidence indicating that significant brain damage can occur as a result of being exposed to agents such as mercury and aluminum, both for children and adults. In fact, some researchers believe that aluminum may be an even more important toxin than mercury in the vaccines.

For example, in a brand new study published in the journal Neurotoxicology just last month, the researchers found that primates injected with just ONE vaccine containing thimerosal suffered significant neurological impairment when compared with those who received a saline solution injection, or no injection at all.

The monkeys received a weight-adjusted amount of the vaccine preservative thimerosal, so each dose included 2 mcg’s of ethyl mercury. A human infant dose of thimerosal-containing vaccine typically contains 12.5 mcg, and most seasonal flu vaccines as well as the swine flu vaccine will contain 25 mcg of mercury per adult dose.

As a result, the macaques vaccinated at birth took more than twice as long as unexposed macaques to acquire three standardized skills typically used to measure infant brain development.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that has built up over the years, US health officials are still promulgating vaccines as the best solution to the flu.

Worse yet, in a nauseating twist, the state of Washington's Health Department has now temporarily suspended a rule that limits the amount of a mercury preservative in vaccines given to pregnant women and children under the age of 3, just so that they can start administering the swine flu vaccine to toddlers and pregnant women as quickly as possible…ANOTHER THING TO SCARE YOU ON HALLOWEEN!

Supporting our Troops Near and Far!

We are working to Support our Troops in our office this week ( http://tinyurl.com/nef9vd ) and now it looks like they will have access to Chiropractic care too!

U.S. House of Representatives approves expanded armed forces access to Chiropractic

July 13, 2009 — The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a directive that orders the Pentagon to make chiropractic care a standard benefit for all active duty military personnel.

The legislation is contained in HR 2647, a bill authorizing defense programs in fiscal year 2010, and is based in part on recommendations from the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) and the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC).

The bill — passed by the full House on June 25 — also contains language allowing for chiropractic demonstration projects at overseas military locations and clarifies that chiropractic care at U.S. military facilities is to be performed only by a doctor of chiropractic.

The Senate is expected to take up the legislation in the near future.

Also reported was that beginning this fall, 11 additional military hospitals and clinics will provide access to chiropractic services for active duty military members.

Included in the list of sites tentatively scheduled to open on Sept. 30, are military treatment facilities located in Germany and Okinawa, Japan — marking the first time in the history of the Chiropractic Care Program that overseas active duty military members will have access to chiropractic.

The 11 new locations join the 49 military clinics and hospitals currently providing chiropractic care.

Please call your Representatives and let them know you support these efforts.

Boost Your Brain!

There is a growing body of research suggesting that the benefit of exercise extends beyond physical health; it may even prevent mental decline. So, the next time you're pondering where you left your keys, consider coming in to work out. It may boost your memory power.

Healthy Lifestyle Tip: Boost Your Brain

Next time you are feeling uninspired, puzzled or stumped, don't bang your head against the wall, get moving. Even a short 20-minute bout of exercise might be enough to unlock your mental block, says Philip Tomporowski, Ph.D. an exercise scientist at the University of Georgia.

It's no surprise that exercise can put pep in your step and a smile on your face. The connection between cardiovascular activity and mood is more than a feeling, it's scientific fact. There is growing evidence that exercise makes you smarter, enhances your ability to solve problems, brainstorm ideas and think fast.

"If I had to pick between fitness training and brain training, I'd go with fitness," said Sam Wang, an associate professor of neuroscience and molecular biology at Princeton University. So far, he said, physical exercise has been shown to have an effect several times larger than computer-brain exercises.

One of the best thing you can do for your brain is to move your body.

Bad Research, Bad Bad Research!

The Wall Street Journal reported that a prominent Massachusetts anesthesiologist fabricated 21 medical studies that claimed to show benefits from painkillers like Vioxx and Celebrex, according to the hospital where he worked. http://tinyurl.com/badresearch .  This brings to light the problem with research that is funded by drug companies.

I remember many years back hearing one of my mentors, Dr. Patrick Gentempo talking about a research study stating that there is an overwhelmingly higher incidence of a positive outcome for a research project when it is funded by a pharmaceutical company (BMJ. 2003;326:1167-1170).  One report, a review of 30 studies, based on a MEDLINE search from January 1966 to December 2002 and an EMBASE search from January 1980 to December 2002, found that trials sponsored by a pharmaceutical company were four times more likely to show positive results for that company's drug than were studies funded by other supporters. This report was published in 2002 and evidently did little to curb the problem.

One of the biggest complaints M.D.s have with regard to Chiropractic is "Where is the research?"    Check out the list of peer-reviewed journals  http://www.chiroindex.org/publications_peer.php .  I guess the research done to condone the drugging of our society is not all that solid itself!  Bad research, bad bad research!

Chiropractic Cuts Blood Pressure says WebMD!

The above headline comes from a March 16, 2007 article on WebMD (http://tinyurl.com/chirpbp). The article is based on a study done at the Hypertension Center at the University of Chicago Medical Center and published in the March 2, 2007 issue of the Journal of Human Hypertension.

In this study, 50 patients with hypertension were divided into two groups of 25 each. One group of 25 received a specific light force chiropractic adjustment (administered by a chiropractor) to the Atlas vertebrae (uppermost bone in the neck). The other group of 25 received a similar procedure but with no adjustment being given. Researchers called this procedure the "sham adjustment". Since the type of adjustment given was very light force, the patients involved in this study did not know if they were receiving the real or sham adjustments.

The results were surprising to even the medical researchers conducting the study. After 8 weeks of care the 25 people in the group receiving the real chiropractic adjustments all showed a significant reduction in blood pressure compared to the group that received the sham adjustment. Those patients who got the real adjustment showed an average of 14 mm Hg greater drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure count), and an average of 8 mm Hg greater drop in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom blood pressure number) over those who got the fake or sham adjustment.

In his interview with WebMD, study leader George Bakris, MD commented, "This procedure has the effect of not one, but two blood-pressure medications given in combination. And it seems to be adverse-event free. We saw no side effects and no problems."

When they first analyzed the data, Dr. Bakris and his statistician had trouble believing the data. He noted, "When the statistician brought me the data, I actually didn't believe it. It was way too good to be true. The statistician said, 'I don't even believe it.' But we checked for everything, and there it was."

X-rays were used to confirm that the chiropractic adjustments actually changed the position of the Atlas vertebrae. Dr. Marshall Dickholtz was the chiropractor who performed the specific adjustments and commented in WebMD, "At the base of the brain are two centers that control all the muscles of the body. If you pinch the base of the brain -- if the Atlas gets locked in a position as little as a half a millimeter out of line -- it doesn't cause any pain but it upsets these centers."

Even with the overwhelming results, the authors of the study were cautious in their conclusions and posed several questions. They commented, "The mechanism as to why this improvement in blood pressure occurs is unknown and cannot be determined by this study”. They continued, “The data presented, however, raise a number of important questions including: a) How does misalignment of C1 affect hypertension?; and b) If there is a cause and effect relationship between C1 misalignment and hypertension, is malposition of C1 an additional risk factor for the development of hypertension?"