My name is Alan Katz, and I was brought up in Long Island, New York. I’ve always been intrigued by nature, and by how things worked so its really no surprise that I would eventually become a chiropractor.
From as far back as I can remember I would stop and smell the roses. My mother told me recently, that she followed me to school one day to find out why I was always late. She said that I did not walk straight to school like the other children, but that I would kick a rock, chase a squirrel and smell the flowers.
Time never mattered to me. I would get rewarded as a child for doing anything faster. They had a stop watch on me for everything, from tying my shoes to eating breakfast. They tried to get me to do things faster. I guess it didn’t work because even today I am on “Alan time.” My mantra was and still is “RELAX”, “What’s the hurry!” Moving to the south was like a breath of fresh air. Being way too slow for New York, I found a home in Atlanta, GA where it is much more my pace.
I consider myself very “Present” or “in the now.” I rarely think about the past or the future. All we really have is right now ( which is already gone…damm missed it).
In college I studied Biology and Sociology with the intent of going to medical school. I’ve always been intrigued by the human body and how it worked. I started college focused on going to medical school. I was pre-med all through college, and had an externship in my senior year in a hospital in Albany NY. Here I was taught how they were treating patients for various maladies, here is where I decided not to go to medical school.
I saw a lot of the side effects of medicines were outweighing benefits. I saw a lot of mistakes in medicine that were hurting even killing people, I saw people being released from the hospital coming back within days for other things, I was playing with 4 year olds with AIDS and they were dying on me. I had a really hard time stomaching these things, and decided that medicine was not for me. I said God there’s gotta be a different way. Not a better way mind you….just a different way!
Now I had quite the conundrum, I had been bred to be a doctor. I had spent four years in college studying pre-med. So, I decided to look for alternatives. I checked out podiatry (who wants to work with feet?), Dentistry (every dentist I met said not to do it) besides who wants to smell bad breath all day. Optometry (every optometrist told me not to do it), and Veterinary medicine which I would have loved except for the fact that I am violently allergic to dogs and cats.
Then one night I was out with some friends and I brought up my problem. Someone brought up Chiropractic. I said that I did not want to crack backs my whole life. He said no, its much more than that. So, I decided to volunteer for a Chiropractor.
Now he was a traditional rack’em and crack’em chiropractor, but I watched in awe when he took people out of pain using his hands. I said to myself Wow, I could see myself doing this.
Then I met a little girl named Jill. She was an adorable 6 year old little girl whose parents brought to see the chiropractor that I was volunteering for. I overheard their conversation with the doctor. They told him that he was their last resort, that Jill had already had bladder surgery as well as been on different medications for bed wetting, and the problem still existed. I said to myself “What’s a Chiropractor going to do, there is nothing wrong with her back.” Well I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The chiropractor took x-rays of Jill’s spine an saw that she had a misalignment of one her vertebra (subluxation) in the area that the chiropractor explained led to the bladder. He adjusted her spine as she giggled. The next day they came back with smiles from ear to ear, Jill had her first dry night in 6 years. I was like WOW! This guy just changed these peoples lives using his hands, that’s what I’m supposed to do. So I made a bunch of phone calls to Chiropractic Colleges, and applied to schools in New York, Atlanta, L.A. and Chicago. My folks wanted me to stay in NY, I wanted to go to LA, so we compromised and I went to Atlanta.
I started Life Chiropractic College in August of ’89. Now, I thought I was open minded, after all I was going to be a chiropractor, when a friend told me about this new/different chiropractic technique called Network. I said chiropractic is chiropractic how different can it be. I soon learned that it was pretty different.
I went to what the called a clear out, which was basically students adjusting other students. I walked into this apartment and there were 5 tables set up and people getting adjusted on them. Now, these people where not just lying on tables like I had seen in NY. These people where laughing, crying, screaming, and flipping and flopping like fish. There was incense burning, voodoo music playing and everyone wore tie dyes and Birkenstocks. I was like I will NEVER do that VOODOO Bull*&^%&. And I ran hard and I ran fast.
Well the moral of this story is NEVER say NEVER. About half way through chiropractic school a friend of mine blew out a disc. His chiropractor told him there was nothing else he could do for him and sent him to an orthopedic surgeon. The surgeon was convinced that he needed surgery, and scheduled him for surgery on the following Monday. This was Thursday.
I told him about this strange chiropractic technique that I had seen almost two years before, I called it NUTWORK and he told me that he would try anything rather than being cut. So I took him to his and my first Network Chiropractor.
He was in so much pain that I literally had to carry him from his apartment to my car and from my car into her office. I watched her work her magic and within an hour he was walking. I was blown away. I said “I’ve gotta learn this stuff” and then went to every Network seminar I could get my hands on.
The work really came easy to me as if it was what I was always supposed to do. I guess everything happens for a reason and if you listen to the little voice inside you won’t get steered wrong.