Chiropractor in a Candy Store

In December 2007, the 15^th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine's exhibitor hall, held at the Las Vegas Sands Expo and Convention Center, provided an opportunity to experience a plethora of modalities and wellness merchandise rarely assembled at traditional chiropractic venues.

Each exhibit had products aimed at achieving the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine's (A4M) goal: anti-aging.

Just like candy-store owners of the past, exhibitors tantalized visitors. However, unlike precious candy, the A4M exposition visitors were allowed to taste, touch, feel and smell the products and experience all of the modalities without purchasing. Most exhibitors also provided evidence-based medical research papers for review.

As a chiropractor, I went to A4M's exposition with a degree of hesitancy because I knew this exposition traditionally catered primarily to the medical world. However, vendors serving my existing chiropractic practice, plus numerous medical doctors with whom I work, suggested I attend this year's anti-aging congress in order to analyze and evaluate different products and services which might add value to my practice while servicing existing and future patients.

Since it's estimated the anti-aging marketplace generates approximately $42 billion annually and "none of us will get out of this life alive," the market can only continue to grow. Therefore, many of the items at the A4M exposition could provide chiropractors with fabulous opportunities for practice-building. I found anti-aging products that, when incorporated into a chiropractic practice, could give DCs the same cutting-edge approach to health and wellness which medical practitioners have dominated for years.

During my A4M tour, I experienced numerous health and wellness products which could definitely add value to a chiropractic office treating aging patients:

1. Pain-reduction products included anti-gravity machines, salves, sprays, low-level lasers, massage beds and chairs, and nutritional supplements.
2. Aesthetic items encompassed non-dental teeth-whitening systems (already utilized in some chiropractors' offices and at spas, plus numerous hotels such as the Ritz). There also were numerous wrinkle and age-spot-vanishing creams.
3. Detoxification products included colonic machines and foot-bath systems that purportedly draw out negative ions and help relieve painful joints.
4. Some of the general well-being items demonstrated were vibration exercise machines designed to increase the effects of a workout and decrease the time. I also sampled body-building juices and nutritional supplements.
5. Diagnostic equipment included a machine which demonstrated degrees to which the body absorbed nutritional supplements. Other calibration machines for body fat, etc., were displayed and medical research documentation provided.
6. After walking the exhibitors' hall, I returned to my practice equipped with numerous business possibilities which could increase practice revenue in the face of decreasing reimbursement from insurance companies. Modalities and equipment directed toward anti-aging provide abundant opportunities for a return to our chiropractic heritage of patient-driven treatment. The state-of-the-art modalities and products presented would improve patient satisfaction and visits, thereby increasing the bottom line.