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Dr Ben Weitz, DC, CCSP, CSCS
My purpose is to teach patients how to modify their lifestyle and diet and posture and muscular balance to feel better and have a healthier life free from chronic disease. When I was young, I was very heavy. I changed my eating to a healthier, lower fat, natural foods diet, and started exercising and I lost a lot of weight. Then when I was reaching my later teenage years, I was not happy being a 90 lb. weakling–in fact a 150 lb. weakling, so I started to weight train and and eat more protein and I put on muscle and became a successful bodybuilder. I won the Mr. Los Angeles bodybuilding competition in 1985. I had learned how to lose or gain weight to improve my appearance.
However, I looked good, but I felt bad. I had a huge amount of gas and bloating and a lot of stomach pains. I discovered that certain foods, like dairy, and certain carbohydrate foods that had helped me to gain weight, were difficult for me to digest and tolerate. I had nearly constant symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I also started to suffer from hypoglycemic episodes from eating health food oatmeal cookies and bran muffins that spiked my blood sugar and I realized that I had to avoid eating such high glycemic carbs. I realized that how you eat dramatically affects your digestive system and your physiology. Your digestive system is your key to overall health. It is where you digest your food and absorb nutrients. It is the wall that must be kept intact to keep out toxins. A break down of this intestinal mucosal wall is often referred to as leaky gut. I came to understand that having a healthy gastrointestinal system is a key to your overall health. I have been studying and discovering ways to improve digestion in order to improve your health and help you to prevent and overcome chronic diseases. I want to show others not only how to manipulate your body composition, but to help them figure out a way to eat that makes them feel their best.
I also gradually became more aware of how alterations in your posture and structural alignment can result in pain and altered function. As a chiropractor, by analysing and helping patients to make corrections in their posture and alignment is one of my focuses in practice. This occurs both with regular chiropractic adjustments and chiropractic treatments, as well as with teaching patients proper postural cues and exercises.
To help all my patients to achieve optimal health. Optimal health consists of a relatively pain free status, with lots of energy and enthusiasm for life, and the highest possible level of function of all systems of the body, including the spine and other joints and muscles of the body. Decreasing the likelihood of chronic, degenerative diseases, such as arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, is an important goal of such care. A secondary goal is to help each individual to achieve peak performance in sport and/or life. Optimal health should not be sacrificed in an effort to achieve athletic performance, as many athletes end up doing with a “win at all costs” attitude.
Chiropractic care at the Weitz Sports Chiropractic clinic involves various treatment approaches to helping patients achieve optimal health. Initially, the injured area is assessed and examined to determine the problem. Then, the posture and structure of the body is assessed to look for distortions from the optimal state. Overall posture and structure of the individual frequently plays a role in other injured areas. For example, rounded shoulder posture may predispose you to shoulder impingement problems. And forwards head posture may result in not only neck pain and headaches, but jaw pain and even wrist pain as well.
Each patient receives a comprehensive examination with focus on the injured area. This exam includes all relevant physical, orthopedic, and neurological examination tests. X-rays are not taken routinely on each patient. X-rays are used mainly to rule out suspected pathology, such as fractures or other bony abnormalities, and sometimes to assess spinal structural problems, such as scoliosis.
Treatments are individualized depending upon the severity, the particular nature of the problem, and the individual’s response to care. Treatments may include myofascial and/or trigger point massage, joint manipulation or mobilization, therapeutic stretching, rehabilitative exercise programs or recommendations, therapeutic ultrasound, electrical muscle stimulation, ice, heat, and/or traction. Dr. Weitz may recommend custom orthotic supports for your feet, which he can fit you with.
Recommendations may be made for nutritional and lifestyle changes, including vitamin and herbal supplementation to reduce inflammation, to aid in the healing process, or to prevent other health problems. Dr. Weitz has taken numerous post-graduate courses and has made a study of recent nutrition research. Our office distributes high quality professional nutritional supplements and Tempurpedic pillows, both at great prices.
Manipulation and mobilization are done to restore proper movement to joints that are not moving well and to realign the structure of the body. Such “stuck” (dysfunctional) joints often result in the performance of abnormal movement patterns and injuries in other parts of the body. Manipulation of the joints will be performed in the most gentle manner possible to achieve the correction. We typically perform the manipulation only after loosening and warming the area with massage and/or heat. This makes it easier for the body to accept the structural correction. Specialized soft tissue work reduces scar tissue and adhesions in the muscles and tendons, promoting more normal healing.
Do not expect to find a simple solution for a complex problem. Problems that took months and years to develop are not likely to be relieved overnight. And chiropractic care is frequently not the wonder cure that some hope it to be. It is not voodoo. While occasional patients are completely relieved of severe pain with one adjustment, this is not the typical case. Chiropractic care enhances your body’s natural abilities to heal itself, facilitating and speeding up the process. But it works with this gradual process and this takes time. Sometimes it even takes months or years for complete healing to occur. Some conditions can never be cured–only managed. This requires periodic adjustments throughout your life. But this may be preferred to many of the common medical solutions, such as taking pain relievers, muscle relaxants, and anti-inflammatory drugs, with their inevitable side effects. Chiropractic care has few side effects.
We do not take x-rays of each patient unless they are needed to rule out pathology. X-rays are not used to determine how to adjust the patient. By pressing on your back and other areas in a specific manner (motion palpation) we determine how to adjust you. However, x-rays and/or MRI may be recommended after several weeks or months of treatment if sufficient progress is not made. We also do not use any of the following chiropractic methods: Applied Kinesiology, SOT, BEST, NETWORK, or activator.
We welcome all patients, including those with sports injuries, non-sports related pains, whiplash injuries, and work related injuries. We have been able to help patients with back pain, neck pain, headaches, rotator cuff shoulder problems, tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, wrist and hand pain, knee problems, and foot and ankle injuries. After an examination, if an injury or condition is out of our area of expertise, we will be happy to refer you to one of the top experts in the area, who can help you deal with that problem. We can bill your insurance for you and Dr. Weitz is on a number of the insurance panels. Dr. Weitz may be able to treat you on a lien basis with your attorney in the case of an accident, depending upon your case and the attorney. We may also be able to bill the workman’s compensation insurance if it is a work related injury. We recommend you download the office forms and fill them out before your appointment.
We are now offering individualized Functional Nutrition counseling, our First Line Therapy program. This is an exciting, new nutrition/lifestyle program designed to help you improve your health and your body composition. While most such programs are focused on weight only, FLT is a comprehensive Therapeutic Lifestyle Change (TLC) program, effective as a first line treatment for common, chronic health problems. The FLT program is the perfect prescription for conditions such as obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, arthritis, osteoporosis, and many others. It works because it addresses the underlying causes of these conditions, such as unhealthy body composition (lean mass to fat mass ratio), insulin resistance, hormone imbalance, inflammation, and other physiological issues.
Dr. Weitz may recommend Functional Laboratory testing, like breath or stool testing or serum or urine testing to determine where your imbalances are and to look for underlying triggers and root causes for your health issues and to help you to prevent chronic diseases as part of an anti-aging program. Dr. Weitz will be your personal health coach, guiding you to a healthier lifestyle. We will meet with you weekly or biweekly and we will monitor your body composition using bioelectrical impedance. We will discuss your recent food intake and exercise program and make recommendations for eating, exercise, and supplement changes. We will support you in your quest for better health. Not only have we helped patients reduce their body fat levels, lower their cholesterol and blood pressure, get their diabetes under control and avoid having to take insulin, but we have also helped patients to manage such conditions as hypothroidism, autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, etc.), irritable bowel syndrome, SIBO, acid reflux, neurological conditions, fibromyalgia, and even help to keep their bodies healthy while undergoing conventional cancer care.
See the Nutrition section for additional information about our nutrition program and the Testimonials section for several nutrition client testimonials.
BEN WEITZ, D.C., C.C.S.P., C.S.C.S.
1448 15th St., Suite 201 —————-(310) 395-3111 Bus.Santa Monica, CA 90404 —————(310) 260-1254 Faxemail Weitzchiro@yahoo.com ————–www.drweitz.comBorn July 12, 1958.
EDUCATION
Chiropractic College of Pasadena Doctor of Chiropractic- December 1987Licensed 1988University of Calif., L.A. B.A. Philosophy-1983 Magna Cum LaudeCertified Chiropractic Sports Practitioner–Feb. 1995Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist–Aug. 1996Certified FirstLine Therapy Nutrition Healthcare Provider–April 2007
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND AFFILIATIONS
Diplomate of the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners.Member of the American Chiropractic Association Sports Council.Member of American College of Sports Medicine.Member National Strength and Conditioning Association.Member American Society for Nutrition
PUBLICATIONS
“Minimizing Weight Training Injuries in Bodybuilders and Athletes”. Topics in Clinical Chiropractic, 1997, 4(2): 46-56.
The Back Relief Book. Los Angeles, CA: Health For Life, 1998.
Dr. Weitz has written or contributed to numerous articles for various fitness magazines, including Muscle and Fitness, Flex, Men’s Fitness, Ironman Magazine, Maxim, Oxygen, Muscle Mag, and Maxim. He is on the advisory staff for Exercise For Men Only. Dr. Weitz has a weekly podcast, Rational Wellness, with an audio version found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, IHeart Radio, etc. and a video version found on YouTube.
Dr. Weitz is currently working on an anti-aging book.
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