Making Nutrition Work for Your Patients and Your Practice

Chiropractors are the doctors of nature. As science strives to enrich lives through chemistry and extend lives past the 76 year mark through chemical intervention, chiropractors have focused diligently on supporting, building and maintaining vitality and longevity through health. Nature has the answers. Supporting the essential ingredients of health; optimum nervous system function, food, water and exercise; this is our domain. We chiropractors are the doctors of nature – the doctors of health.

"Statistics" show that Americans are living longer than ever. How I wish this were true. A brief history lesson is sorely needed to shed light on this misinformation. In fact, Americas' founding fathers lived well into their 90s. Amazingly they did this with no drugs, no antibiotics and no mega-vitamins. They did this purely through nature.

Since then, in a quest to feed the now seven billion people on earth, we have made great strides in the mass production of food, but at what cost? The consequences have had a profound effect on our food supply and health. We are taught that if we eat a balanced diet, we will get all the nutrients we need to and like our founding fathers, live a long and healthy life. Sadly this is no longer the case.

The Price of Poor Nutrition

Disorders and diseases that result from vitamin and mineral deficiencies are severe and becoming widespread. Compounding this already serious problem are the symptom-based chemical vitamin concoctions patients are "self medicating" with. It is time to stop the madness.

I am certain we have all read articles in recent months touting the ineffectiveness and dangers of taking vitamins. Is propaganda the only driving force behind all the recent press about vitamins being bad, having no benefit what-so-ever and actually causing harm?

Perhaps, but the studies and their findings can not disputed. These studies found that an isolated chemical, even one derived from a naturally occurring vitamin complex, does not function the same in the human body as the natural food source does.

System-Based vs. Symptom-Based

Every day in our practices we educate patients about symptoms. Chiropractic teaches that by naturally supporting the systems of the body over time, the body heals itself and the symptoms abate. For example – if you put your hand on a hot stove you will have a symptom = pain.

You can treat this pain symptom in different ways; you can take a lot of pain killers or you can cut your hand off, but not until you treat the cause of the problem by removing your hand from the hot stove can healing begin.

Only by working with the systems of the body will you get the results you desire. Luckily, these same systems inherent in every patient will let you know when you get it right.

Strangely however, when it comes to nutrition, we get all turned around. We survey our patient for symptoms and then attempt to treat these symptoms. Chiropractically, it makes much more sense to support and balance the systems of the body naturally through whole food nutrition and allow the body to correct the symptom.

Assimilation & Elimination

When you get down to it, this is what nutrition is all about; taking in whole nutrients directly from the food chain and eliminating the metabolic waste products inherent in all healthy physiological processes.

To that we have the added burden of chemicals and toxic compounds now present in every day life.

The body was never designed to handle such a toxic load. Today more than ever, proper nutrition, digestion, elimination and detoxification are crucial to a properly functioning body.

The task is clear, optimize and naturally support the assimilation and elimination pathways in all patients.

Simply start all your patients on a whole food supplement and digestive support. Just like taking your hand off the stove you will be amazed with the results you will see. Some patients may need additional support for hormonal, structural, nervous and cardiovascular systems. That's fine, just make certain to utilize whole foods. The nutrients in whole foods always produce superior results naturally.

For those new to the utilization of nutrition and whole food supplements in their practice let me assure you - the simple implementation of a systematic non-symptom based approach to nature and nutrition is both easy and rewarding.

Step 1 - Get Them In

By "them" I mean new patients! Doctor, you can not educate or help people who are not in your office. How many ads for chiropractic do you see that read, "Come to Main Street Chiropractic so we can align your atlas in relation to your sacrum and optimize your nervous system function." Not many – right? What you do see, and what works, is appealing to what people want – pain relief.

So, knowing people want what they want, how should we advertise our nutritional offerings?

"Come to Main Street Chiropractic to optimize your cellular respiration, metabolic pathways and elimination systems," or should you advertise, "LOSE WEIGHT NOW – I CAN TEACH YOU HOW!" It is a fact that weight loss is more sought after than cellular metabolic efficiency.

[pb]Go fishing in a larger pond, get these new patients into your office and then deliver natures answers. The public at large is sick and tired of being promised that this time, this drug, this surgery, or this diet will do the trick. They are ripe and ready for what you have to offer – nature's answer. After all, that is what you do, right?

Step 2 - Educate

The Latin root of the word doctor is teacher. You have them in your office, now teach them. Teach them about the physiology of fat (that is what they are there for). Explain that fat is there to help them – that it is a toxic transport and storage cell.

Tell them how it is inaccessible and hydrophobic/non-soluble in water. They are hungry for this information. Deliver on your ad promise, teach them how fat can wash away toxins (what do you think soap is made of?). Knowledge is power – deliver power to your new nutrition patients and they will follow all of your recommendations.

Then explain to them how when their body can not eliminate or wash away toxins, (toxins come from normal metabolic processes just as much as from the environment – i.e. – it is not their fault) these toxins had to be contained – in fact stored, most often around their waist.

Now is the time to deliver nature's answer. By simply explaining that fat will be created when their body can not fully eliminate all toxins on a daily basis, amazingly, they get it! Simple – Easy – Natural – Nutrition.

The goal is to support naturally, not force through diet, drugs or surgery, natures toxic eliminative systems. By simply working with the systems of the body results are amazingly quick and easy.

Start with the end in mind. The goal is to have your patients support their detoxification systems daily after the accumulated fat/toxins/weight have been corrected. Addressing and correcting excess fat just as you would address and correct the spine easily fits into any chiropractic office.

Step 3 - Correction=Detoxification

More can actually be better! Who would say no to more money, more happiness and more healthful habits? Give your patients a short term physiologically based detoxification program that allows more toxin and more fat removal from their body. How? Give them more of the same nutritive and digestive products that they are to use for maintenance and support. It would be incongruent for it to be any different and possibly forceful and unhealthy. The answer is always simple with nature.

Natures' super-foods always deliver broad spectrum nutrients; chlorella, spirulina, wheat – barley – oat grasses, wheat germ, and carrots (yes carrots) along with the proper digestive enzymes and vegetable-based probiotocs always supply what you and your patients are designed to ingest. That is natures' advantage. Implement a whole super-food detoxification program that supports the body naturally and watch the excess weight fall off. Beware – this weight loss through detoxification is contagious! Just imagine what one mom, one bodybuilder, one teacher or one factory worker can ignite. The new patient possibilities are endless.

Step 4 - Stop The Re-Tox

To deliver results, it is not enough to get the toxins out – it is not even enough to get the good stuff in – you must also stop the madness – the toxification - or neither of the first two will work.

What exactly does that mean? No sugar, no chemicals (msg, artificial anything, no refined anything, no abbreviated anything, no nitrates, no fortified anything (i.e. synthetic vitamins), no dairy (they are not baby cows), no hormones, no antibiotics (both often found in non-organic animal products), and no pesticides found in non-organic produce. But what if they complain? Well doctor – educate them! Toxins are why they are fat.

Once they have this information, implementation of whole food nutrition and detoxification is easy.

Step 5 – Stop The Caloric Overload

Excess calories are toxic. What would happen if you ate a 1,000,000 calorie pill? Chances are you would probably start on fire. The proper amount of nutrient dense foods along with high nutrient super-foods will stop the caloric assault. What is needed? Not too many calories and not too few.

Contrary to modern "science" for optimum weight loss you can not have too few calories. Too few calories stop the body from entering liposysis (fat burning) and actually initiates lipogenesis (fat creation).

What is needed is the proper amount of calories from clean foods along with nutrient dense whole super-food supplements that supply optimum nutrition without overloading the caloric scale. The results – a body properly fed with the proper amount of clean food and supplemented with quality whole food supplements will naturally enter lipolysis and eliminate excess fat. Your body does not want to lug around those excess pounds any more than you do.

Step 6 - Maintain

Whether patients come to you for nutritional weight loss and stay for chiropractic or the other way around, using a non-symptomatic functional approach to health, vitality, nutrition and weight loss will revolutionize your practice while staying congruent with your chiropractic practice and philosophy. New patients, referrals and fulfilling outcomes will position you and your practice to be a beacon in your community.