S A CHIROPRACTOR, YOU HAVE EVERY REASON TO BE ENCOURAGED ABOUT THE POTENTIAL GROWTH OF YOUR PRACTICE AND THE STABILITY OF THIS PROFESSION. IN SPITE OF THE NUMBERS THAT MAY LEAD YOU TO BELIEVE OTHERWISE. A 2002 study showed that 7.7% of the US population utilized chiropractic care.' By 2006. another study showed that 12.6 million US adults, one out of 226 million, visited a chiropractor. That is only 5.6% of the population. That means the numbers of people seeking chiropractic have actually dropped." Unfortunately, while only 5.6% of the population is seeking our care, we have services that would benefit the majority of the population. To add insult to injury, the amount of money spent by chiropractic patients on chiropractic care remained relatively unchanged from 1997 to 2006. Yet during that same time period, expenditures per patient and per office visit to medical physicians increased over 30%."' What can the chiropractic profession do to increase its market share? I believe there is at least one obvious answer. An answer that has helped me to increase my influence as a chiropractor to people in my community who would have fallen into the 5.6% of the people who would have never sought care from a chiropractor. I switched my focus from strictly structural treatments for patients to nutritional programs that are aimed at getting patients health}, and tliat switch lias helped me grow a million dollar cash practice. Tin not sure how I missed the importance of focusing on getting my patients healthy as a whole, when I first opened my practice almost 25 years ago in the early 1990"s. During my first few years of practice, my patient treatment focus was the chiropractic adjustment and all things associated with that. There is no doubt chiropractic adjustments were incredibly beneficial for my patients. I eventually added more therapies and treatments. I opened large MD/DC/PT clinics and expanded the sen ices I offered in my physical medicine clinic. However, all the services were still aimed at helping patients with structural conditions. Back then. I certainly overlooked what D.D. Palmer stated in 1910 in his writing. The Chiropractor's Adjuster. He said. "The determining causes of disease arc traumatism. poison and auto-suggestion." In our profession, these have since been referred to as the Three T"s—Trauma. Toxins and Thoughts. D.D. Palmer saw the importance of getting rid of toxins in order to get patients to health, but I had missed it in my early years of practice. But eventually, while practicing. I started taking special notice of the patients that struggled. I noticed there were sometimes patients who didn"t respond to care like other patients did. I noticed a common thread with patients who didn"t respond as well as I"d hoped. Often these patients were hca\y smokers or they had such toxic bodies that their treatment was just not helping like it could liave been. D.D. Palmer realized over 100 years ago the importance of the patient having a health) body, free from too mam- poisons or toxins, in order to heal. And back then when he was practicing, the people ate foods that were closer to their original forms than we do. Today we eat all kinds of things that look like food, but are simply man-made products filled with chemicals and preservatives. In D.D. Palmers day. the chiropractors saw patients with abnormal stress on normal tissue. But today, because of all of the toxins our society ingests in the form of tobacco, caffeine, processed foods and other chemicals, we treat patients with stress on abnonnal tissue. One way for chiropractors to move forward as primary healthcare practitioners is to help the masses who arc toxic and sick become healtln. Simply focusing on good, solid nutritional protocols can be life changing for toxic and sick patients. As I decided to focus on nutrition. I realized that in order to have a viable practice. I needed new patients that wanted to "buy" what I was "selling." I knew that most people weren't searching for help with nutritional protocols. But what I could see was that a lot of people were "buying" weight loss. I realized that if I had overweight patients who went on a nutritionally sound program and got rid of the toxins they were ingesting, they would lose their weight. Purely for marketing purposes and for the purpose of building a viable nutrition business. I started out by offering weight loss services. Here was my thought process. Only 5.6% of the population seeks the care of a chiropractor. But 69.2% of the population is overweight." So by attracting the masses. I could not only help people who were not previously responding to care, but I could go from putting out a message that only appealed to 5.6% to a message that would potentially appeal to over 69.2%. One thing I was sure was that I was committed to offering a natural, health}, and sound nutritional weight loss program. I could sec main problems with weight loss offerings on the market. There arc so main schemes, so main "lose weight quick" claims, so many "miracle" pills, so many multi-level marketing programs, so mam network-marketing products, so much hype...how could I possibly cut through the clutter and stand out? My plan was simply to be transparent. I would advertise for weight loss, bring potential patients to a seminar, and be direct and say. "Yes I can help you lose weight, but the miracle here is not a magic pill or potion, the miracle is pure nutrition the way nature intended it. The miracle is that there is hope because all you need to do is to get healthy, and you'll lose your weight. So the miracle is really no miracle at all. its just common sense, based on sound neutrino." Some people left, simply wanting the miracle pill, but the majority understood and realized that they needed to make changes. People who arc overweight and toxic arc also tired during the day. they have no energy, they can't sleep at night, their thinking gets foggy, they feel lethargic...they just don't feel well. As I taught people that we would address all of those problems with proper nutrition, they got excited. I had no idea how much more compliant weight loss patients would be with nutritional protocols than other patients. Don't get me wrong. There are many measures I had to put in place to help patients who struggled with change of diet, but still they arc more compliant. For years. I tried to get my patients who came in for headaches or back pain to change the way they ate. I'd talk a lot and do a lot of educating, but more often than not. they just wanted the treatment to alleviate their pain...they didn't want to have to change their diet. On the other hand, when a patient comes in to lose weight, they know I am going to tell them they have to change the way they are going to eat. They initially may think I have a magic pill or potion or some magical food they can cat to lose weight. But I spend the time to educate them that the goal I have with them is to get them healthy.. .and they will lose their weight. Since opening a nutrition clinic nine years ago. I have treated thousands of patients for weight loss with sound nutritional protocols. During this time. I have found that there is one condition that is more prevalent than any other with patients who need to lose weight. That condition is Candida. The symptoms of most of my weight loss patients arc the same symptoms of people who suffer with Candida: Overweight Mental confusion Mood swings, anxiety, depression, irritability Fatigue, lack of energy Insomnia Stress Headaches Cravings or addictions Digestive problems Allergies, hay fever, asthma Eating disorders (anorexia bulimia, excessive appetite) Low resistance to illness and infection Life threatening or degenerative illnesses Bowel irregularity Painful inflammation Yeast infections Strong desire for sugar, beer, breads High risk of coronary artery disease Diabetes or hypoglycemia High blood pressure Skin disorders (acne, eczema, psoriasis) ' Weakness, shakiness. poor muscle tone, muscle soreness or spasm High alcohol consumption ] High caffeine consumption Smoking Male or female hormonal problems (PMS. prostate, hot flashes, impotence, infertility, low libido) Candida (albicans) is one of many different types of yeast. Yeast cells arc able to grow on the surface of all living things and occur virtually everywhere. The fact is. we breathe, cat. and drink them daily. Because they arc part of our daily lives, we all have yeast growing in our skin, on other body surfaces and in our intestines. Normally our bodies" defense systems keep the total number of yeast cells under control, and so Candida colonies in our intestinal tract are nothing to worn- about. However, poor nutrition or a sluggish or impaired immune system weakens the body's ability to fight off yeast. Stress and environmental pollutants can also play a role in reducing the body's control over Candida. When this happens, yeast colonies grow rapidly and Candida may result. A number of conditions can lead to Candida. Steroid drugs such as cortisone, honnonal birth control pills and the long-tenn use of antibiotics (such as those used to control acne and various bacterial infections) can invite the problem. Such antibiotics can reduce the number of beneficial bacterial that normally help to keep the yeast under control. When there is an overabundance of yeast, there may be local infections: in the mouth (thrush), gastrointestinal tract (gas), vagina (yeast infection), urinary tract (bladder/kidney infection), prostate gland (prostate troubles), skin (hives or rashes), fingernail or toenail (fungus under the nail bed). Too much yeast can cripple the immune systems causing chronic viral and bacterial infection or allergies. Yeast can damage the intestinal wall, allowing food particles and toxins to enter the blood stream. The body then produces antibodies to fight these foreign substances and typical "allergic" reactions may occur, such as eczema and hay fever, along with headache, dizziness, heart palpitations, anxiety, fatigue, and muscle aches. There may be changes in the cells that contribute to the Candida condition. Yeast by-products or exhaust, cthanol and acctaldchydc. arc two very toxic substances. These two toxins in turn alter the ability of the cells in the following ways: Red blood cells have difficulty passing into small capillaries. This can cause fatigue, dizziness, muscle aches or headaches. White blood cells have trouble enveloping bacteria and foreign material, thus, the body has trouble fighting infection. Thyroid hormones have trouble passing through cells, which causes the metabolism to slow down, often causing low body temperature (cold hands and feet), fatigue and intolerance to cold. Minerals have trouble passing through cell walls, causing fluid retention and electrolyte imbalance. Cells have difficulty passing messages one to another. This can cause muscle and nerve problems. Enzymes arc destroyed. Enzymes are the chemical helpers in the body tliat help to build, break down, and produce energy and heat. Yeast toxins can inactivate or destroy some of the enzymes, and can result in slowing all the functions of the body. Enzymes help break down sugar stores to help keep the blood sugar at idea levels. When yeast overgrowth destroys enzymes, abnormally high or low blood sugar levels may develop. Once I started treating my weight loss patients for Candida, other conditions went away. As their symptoms and illnesses went away, they told others, and I started seeing patients for those symptoms. A few years back, one weight loss patient presented in my office with a severe case of neuropathy. She was scheduled to have her leg amputated because her neuropathy was so severe. She didn't conic in for neuropathy: she came in to lose weight. She came in originally because she was afraid that being so overweight (she was well over 100 pounds overweight) that she would be too large to get around on her new prosthetic leg she'd have after her amputation. Her desire was simply to lose some weight before her surgery so she could get around easier after on her new prosthetic leg. As I met with her. I let her know she had all the symptoms of Candida. She went on the recommended diet and within 5 weeks, her foot had started to heal. Shortly thereafter, her doctor cancelled her surgery. She ended up losing her weight and leg was saved and was completely healed. After seeing the role that nutrition played in this neuropathy patient. I decided to focus on more neuropathy patients: and in addition to weight loss. I currently have a thriving practice full of neuropathy patients. There is no doubt that chiropractic adjustments arc beneficial, but I would not have been able to help this patient avoid surgery simply with chiropractic adjustments. I needed to address the toxicity in her body. D.D. Palmer recognized this over 100 years ago. and I'm thrilled to have this know ledge and help patients go from being sick to healthy. Helping patients overcome illness and change their lives through sound nutritional principles has been the best thing I've done in 24 years of practice. I have been able to open my practice up from just the 5.6% who seek chiropractic to the 69.2% who want to lose weight. And while helping people to lose weight. I'm helping them with their neuropathy, fibromyalgia. insomnia, lack of energy, back pain, neck pain, and other conditions they want to overcome. And although the nutrition patients come in for reasons other than chiropractic, once I"vc helped them with their initial problem, they inevitably ask me about chiropractic. And there it is! It's the best way I"vc found to introduce the masses to chiropractic. So it turns out. that rather than advertise to the 5.6% of patients who seek chiropractic. I"ve found it's more efficient to advertise to the 69.2% who want to lose weight... and when they need chiropractic...they'll ask me! As a result of opening up my practice to the masses...to the 69.2% who seek weight loss. I've built a million dollar practice and maintained that success since I opened that part of it up nine years ago. And while the financial gains arc very rewarding. I have found that there is an even greater reward. Watching patients'lives dramatically change for the better day after day after day is extremely rewarding. I have a renewed sense of excitement about practice. I am excited to go to my office each day and see the changes that arc happening in patients" lives. I am more passionate about being a chiropractor today than I was almost 30 years ago when I decided to go to chiropractic school! TODD SINGLETON, DC is an author, speaker, consultant, and a practicing doctor for over 20 years. lie ran the largest MD DC PT clinics in Utah until he switched to an all-cash, nutrition model in 2006. He has a nutrition practice in Utah specializing in Height Loss, Neuropathy, Fibromyalgia. Diabetes and oilier nutritional deficiencies. He also leaches fellow chiropractors how to add these programs into their offices. He can be reached at (801) 916-9532. For additional information about Dr. Singleton s work visit www.slarlneuro.com References: i. (Complementary and alternative medicine use amount adults: United States, 2002 PubMed.gov (National Institute of Health) Barnes, P\ I. Powell-Griner E, .\ IcFann K, Xahin RL, A dv Data. 2004 May 27; (343): 1-19 ii. I'tilization and Expenditures on Chiropractic Care in the US from 1996 to 2006, " Davis, Sirovich andli eeks Health Serv Res. 2010 June; 45(3): 748-761. Hi. I'tilization and Expenditures on Chiropractic Care in the US from 1996 to 2006." Davis, Sirovich and Weeks Health Serv Res. 2010 June; 45(3): 748 761. iv. US Depl of IIUS. CDC, Xalional Center for Health Statistics, Health. United States. 2012. Trend Tables: 20
