Why I Wrote My Book

It is not an accident you picked up this book. I want you to know that if you read and absorb the ideas and actions in this book you can live the promise, “You Can Be Well!” This is a textbook to a healthier life. Like any textbook, there is some theory and lots of action and exercises to perform. You can read this book like a novel, letting the words wash over you and saying to yourself, “I know that.” My question to you is knowing it and living it are two different things. I challenge you to dig into this book, ask yourself which areas of your body and your life you have been ignoring and need to heal. 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 felt lost, hated my job and I 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. 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 Nutrition premed 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. What the heck, 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. The first years are a blur. Keeping a business open is a struggle the first couple years in any endeavor. I never doubted I would succeed. There were lots of people that were there in those early days that are still around today. I was truly ‘practicing’ on them and I am grateful for their loyalty.

My patient base at the time consisted mostly of the usual neck and back pain patients plus lots of headache sufferers. I feel strongly in the value of chiropractic in caring and curing people of those debilitating conditions. I am amazed everyday when someone who comes to the clinic gets significant relief of a longstanding condition in a short time. They always exclaim, “Why didn’t my medical doctor tell me about chiropractic instead of giving me all the drugs and surgeries?” My answer is simple, “Does Pepsi tell you to drink Coke?”

It was this divide that has driven me to step out into the forefront of the Wellness Movement. What does that mean? Well...wellness is a lifestyle. This means it is the result of healthy actions taken in a consistent manner. It is not an event, a one shot deal, a little purple pill. They will never find the cure to most cancers and diseases because most are the result of a toxic and deficient life. Most people are taught they are a victim of their health. Not so. How do most people unknowingly and knowingly set the ball rolling toward illness? What
was that process and how can it be arrested and reversed? Who is going to coach people to live more in line with natural laws? Who will lead people to the path of health and wellness? That is my mission. That is my purpose. That is what this book is about.