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Grads Earn Their Own Celebrity As - August 5th, 2005
"Chiropractors to the 'Stars'"
Published in the National University of Health Sciences Alumni Magazine.
Written by
Marie Olbrysh
Assistant Director of Public Relations
Office of Communications
National University of Health Sciences
Published in the National University of Health Sciences Alumni Magazine.
 “Can you give me a couple more minutes? A couple of Bronco players just walked in the office!” Now that’s the kind of response you can expect when you place a call to a chiropractic doctor with a reputation for treating “the stars.” Nelson Vetanze, DC, of Aurora, Colo., is that doctor and one of three National graduates who have made headlines of their own recently as “chiropractors to the stars.” James Stoxen, DC, of Chicago, Ill., and George Gauthier, DC, of Wheaton, Ill., join Dr. Vetanze in the news as the go-to-guys for athletes, actors, dancers, and musicians in pain.
These chiropractic physicians maintain practices that not only cater to the general public, but also allow time for those special celebrities in need of chiropractic care due to the physical demands of their challenging careers. The job also brings some unexpected perks. Dr. Vetanze (NA ’72), was recently written up in ACA Today for his “integral role” in “The Longest Yard,” a remake of a 1974 film about a football game between prison inmates and guards. While he did have a brief appearance on screen, Dr. Vetanze was really there to provide chiropractic care to the stars — pro wrestlers, arena football players and former NFL players — as well as other members of the crew.
A well-known Denver sports chiropractor, Dr. Vetanze was urged to serve as chiropractor on the movie at the behest of his patient, former Denver Bronco linebacker Bill Romanowski, a member of the cast. “The movie was all about hitting and they were getting hit all the time. They were getting beat up and were losing time [on filming],” he recalled. “I would run my practice on Monday and then they would fly me out to California on Tuesday, fly me home on Thursday and I’d be back at my practice on Friday.” This routine lasted for eight weeks but for Dr. Vetanze it was less about the thrill of working on a movie set and all about “using all the care you can to get these professional athletes back on the job and back to work.”
Dr. James Stoxen, owner of Team Doctors Chiropractic Treatment and Training Center, who has been treating amateur and professional athletes for 18 years, has expanded his services to include entertainers passing through Chicago on tour. “When a tour comes to town, they contact my agent and she negotiates my time with them for treatment back stage, at their hotel or even in the recording studio. Tour schedules are very grueling and brutal. I’ve treated everyone from the artists to the bus drivers.”
In a fairly typical three-day period recently, Dr. Stoxen treated three professional boxers, a movie director, a local newscaster, a cast member from “Wicked,” VIPs at the Vans Warped Rock Concert Tour, an actress from “Lion King,” in addition to handing a score of regular patients. In the case of professional athletes, Dr. Stoxen treats and trains them in the office and then travels as part of the team to national and international competitions. He’s also been asked to tour with major recording artists. “I treat an average of 200 entertainers per year,” he says. “It’s crazy when I listen to the radio and half the songs I hear are recorded by my patients.” Observes Dr. Stoxen: “If you want to be a doctor to the stars, you have to go out of your way to give them special attention. You have to spend time with them and work diligently with them.”
Dr. George Gauthier’s first experience treating a famous personality more than 10 years ago definitely involved time and diligence. An actress flying to Chicago for a two-day autograph-signing event injured her back during a rough landing. One of Dr. Gauthier’s patients, and a friend of the actress, asked him to help. He treated the actress throughout the weekend and was able to get her through the strain of sitting through marathon autographing sessions. The actress was so pleased with the success of her treatment that she recommended Dr. Gauthier to other celebrities visiting the Chicago area, and his reputation for star treatment developed one satisfied patient at a time.
Since that time, Dr. Gauthier has been asked to provide his services to celebrities at major events such as the Grammy Awards, Academy Awards, Country Music Awards, and Super Bowl. He’s on hand to provide treatment for strains, sprains and general physical therapy. Treating the “stars” only makes up about five percent of Dr. Gauthier’s time; the rest is devoted to his regular patients and charity work such as United Way, Toys for Tots and Make A Wish Foundation. His charity work, he told a previous interviewer, was inspired by his stint at the Salvation Army Clinics while an intern at National. He found the work rewarding and vowed to keep helping others after he opened his own practice.
Dr. James Stoxen also pays credit to his National education. “I liked the heavy emphasis on biomechanics and anatomy. I was a TA in anatomy and felt that seeing how the body works was the secret to the successful treatment of athletes and members of the performing arts.” As a result of this interest and his educational foundation, Dr. Stoxen developed treatment for pronation syndrome, fallen arches, linked to numerous arthritic conditions. In his practice over the years, he says he has seen definite repeated patterns of misalignment and abnormal biomechanics and has made breakthroughs in his efforts to design a treatment regime to rebuild arches of patients’ feet by hand. Through innovative rehabilitation training in his office gym, he is able to restore all normal biomechanics to the foot without orthotics.
Dr. Stoxen’s treatment has received worldwide attention and prompted invitations to speak before 4,500 medical physicians at the American Anti-Aging Medicine World Congress, 400 MDs at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, and 400 MDs at the Royal College of Physicians’ Anti-Aging conference in London, England, the first chiropractor to address the group.
Dr. Nelson Vetanze also has been able to cite is National education for his success with patients. One of his particular victories involved a football player who suffered a torn hamstring and whose career seemingly was ended. “I told the coach I could fix him and handed him my card. One day the player walked in, referred by the coach. I got his hamstring to reattach by natural care in about six months time and he went on to become a starting player and eventual Pro Bowl player, he recalls. “I had the most amazing foundation at National. If you don’t have a solid foundation, you tend to latch on to gimmicks. I don’t need gimmicks,” Dr. Vetanze says. He also has nothing but admiration for former National President Joseph Janse. “He was an amazing man. Through him I learned how to become a really good, honest human being — a man of integrity. He was very instrumental in the man I have become.”
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