Dr. Stuart Weitzman”™s roots in chiropractic go back to his high school parking lot. But, no, he didn”™t slip there. Rather, he was an active high school jock, playing lacrosse for Lakeland High School in Shrub Oak (class of ”™91).
The team was good his junior year and hoping to be better his senior year. Toward that end, the lax squad kept weather variables to a minimum by practicing on the sure footing of the parking lot, also, by its nature, hard as a rock. The upshot: “By the time the season started, I had terrible, terrible back problems,” Weitzman said. “It was limiting my ability to play.”
He saw a doctor and took anti-inflammatories. Plus, he received the advice every athlete dreads: Lay off for a while. His impatience with the healing process ”“ “no relief” ”“ led him to a chiropractor. “Within two weeks, I was playing as good as ever, if not better,” he said.
Weitzman continued receiving weekly adjustments and noticed other improvements. He had endured childhood allergies and asthma and both headed into retreat. As he reported recently, “I was going to an allergist. I was getting allergy shots. I had an inhaler. All that stopped. I haven”™t used an inhaler since. I haven”™t even wheezed.” Within a few minutes, he has pulled up photos of himself first climbing and then skiing Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. He does it every year.
To demonstrate the wonder of his science in layman”™s parlance, Weitzman offers a simple declarative sentence, easily heard and easily understood. Then he covers his mouth with his hand and utters the same sentence: understandable, but diminished. “You can hear it, but not as well. The signal is being interfered with.” He drives the point home: “A misaligned spine can put pressure on nerves and joints and that can affect the communication between the brain and the body.”
Weitzman”™s patients run the age gamut from four days old to folks in their 80s. In a recent week, he adjusted patients of 6 months, teens and 80, and even helped two successful New York City marathoners before they took to the streets of the Big Apple in November.
“I love adjusting kids,” he says. “They”™re easy and honest.”
Wiry, upbeat and self-describedly fun, Weitzman is a walking ambassador for his profession. He played lacrosse at SUNY Geneseo for three years, is a soccer player and an avid runner. He points to a recently won medal on his office wall for a half-marathon. He”™s also a promoter of physical activity, sponsoring regional races like the 5-mile “Where the Pavement Ends” run in Katonah and the Bedford Village Turkey Trot 5-kilometer. True to his lax roots, he volunteers his services for the John Jay High School lacrosse team (three-peat Section 1 champs 2005, ”™06, ”™07).
To keep his good citizenship bona fides intact, Weitzman is a member of the Energy Advisory Panel for the town of Bedford, a group that just made recommendations targeting a 20 percent reduction of greenhouse gases and of the town”™s carbon footprint by 2020. He is a member of three chambers of commerce: Katonah, Mt. Kisco and Bedford Hills. At his office door this time of year is a notice for his Westchester County Food Patch and boxes of various nonperishable foods. “I do it every year,” he says. “Last year, we donated almost 400 pounds of food. I”™m overwhelmed at my patients”™ generosity.”
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Weitzman, married and the father of a 2-year-old boy, also believes in the power of continuing his education, as evidenced by the alphabet string of letters after his name: D.C. for a Doctor of Chiropractic degree; B.S. for a Bachelor of Science in nutrition; DIBCN for Diplomate of International Board of Chiropractic Neurology; and CACCP for Certification of the Academy Council of Chiropractic Pediatrics. His coming academic load includes certifications in sports medicine.
His 85 Adams Street, Bedford Hills, practice opened part time in 2000 and full time in 2003. It operates on several levels: “I want to encourage people to do wellness activities. I counsel on nutrition. I help people with their exercise routines. Chiropractic is part of the wellness puzzle.”
Weitzman”™s practice in a sense has come full circle to that that high school parking lot that spawned a bad back. “It was a question of what was it doing to my life,” he says of that old high school injury. “It wasn”™t allowing me to play. I just couldn”™t do it. That”™s the way I approach my patients, as well: how it”™s affecting their lives.”
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