The Value of Integrating Nutrition Into a Chiropractic Practice
INTERVIEW
Interview with David M. Brady, ND, DC, CCN, DACBN
TAC
DR. David M. Brady has more than 23 years of experience as an integrative physician and more than 19 years in health sciences academia. He is a licensed naturopathic medical physician in Connecticut and Vermont. He is also a dual-board certified clinical nutritionist and received his original clinical training as a chiropractic physician. He graduated from Texas Chiropractic College in 1991. He currently serves as the vice provost for the Division of Health Sciences, director of the Human Nutrition Institute, and associate professor of clinical sciences at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. He maintains a private practice, Whole Body Medicine, in Fairfield, Conn. Dr. Brady is also the chief medical officer for Designs for Health, Inc. and Diagnostic Solutions Laboratory, LLC. He is an internationally sought-after presenter and has appeared on the plenary speaking panel of some of the largest and most prestigious conferences in the field. Dr. Brady has published a multitude of peer-reviewed scientific papers and textbooks related to chronic pain, autoimmunity, and functional gastroenterology. He is a featured contributing author for the following medical textbooks: Advancing Medicine with Food and Nutrients—Second Edition (Kohlstadt I, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2012); Integrative Gastroenterology (Mullin G, Oxford Press, Weil
Integrative Medicine Library, New York, NY, 2011); and Laboratory Evaluations for Integrative and Functional Medicine—Second Edition (Bralley JA, Lord RS, Metametrix Institute, Duluth, GA, 2008). His latest popular book is Dr. Brady ’s Healthy Revolution: What You Need to Know to be Healthy in a Sick World. You can learn more at DrDavidBrady.com.
TAC: Tell us more in depth about the services and products you offer chiropractors and how or why you offer them.
Brady: Of course, the University of Bridgeport has a long history with the profession having the first College of Chiropractic located within a comprehensive university in the United States. The Human Nutrition Institute at the university offers a Master’s Degree program in clinical nutrition, which is very popular with DCs since it can be taken entirely online with only one visit to the UB campus at the end of the program for the terminal examination. The origins of the program date back to the late 1970s when a group of nutritionally focused doctors, including chiropractors, formed the program at UB, which was the first graduate degree in nutrition with a clinical focus on integrative nutrition. The program now has a comprehensive modern curriculum design with a focus on the functional and integrative model of lifestyle medicine and nutrition. It offers an accredited graduate academic degree, as opposed to the myriad of unaccredited, nonacademic degrees and online certificates
that are out there on the internet and generally do not qualify providers for state licensure or registration and third-party reimbursements of any kind.
TAC: What are your goals for the chiropractic profession?
Brady: The University of Bridgeport has been committed to the success and further development of chiropractic doctors for decades now. Through the Master of Science in Nutrition program at UB, we provide another opportunity for DCs to widen their scope of practice offerings and revenue possibilities by offering their patients more in the way of evidence-informed integrative lifestyle management options to achieve higher levels of health and optimal wellness.
TAC: What is the most common problem you see among chiropractors today?
Brady: I think, like other health professionals, the practicing DC is struggling with trying to navigate the new healthcare landscape, fee-for-service reductions, and balancing a busy practice with the demands of family life. The introduction of quality, evidence-based nutritional recommendations to a DC’s practice allows for more complete solutions for patients in their health-seeking journey, produces better outcomes and satisfaction for both patient and doctor, and
increases revenue streams for the practitioner.
TAC: What is the biggest problem or challenge you see in the chiropractic profession today?
Brady: I see the biggest challenge for the chiropractic profession as the successful integration into the new healthcare system landscape, which will require comprehensive solutions and payment based on successful outcomes, not simply on the delivery of procedures and services. The addition of impactful lifestyle medicine options for patients within the context of their chiropractic office visits is critical, and there is no more impactful intervention than the improvement in dietary intake and the use of quality nutritional supplementation and nutraceutical intervention on overall health.
TAC: Can you think of one change that a chiropractor can do to significantly impact his or her practice’s growth immediately?
Brady: The integration of basic dietary guideline counseling to promote healthier eating strategies and an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle. Also, within the context of the chiropractic office visit along with more intensive follow-up options, to include dedicated nutritional consulting visits when the adequately trained DC or m-otfice nutritionist will provide much better outcomes and additional revenue to the private practitioner.
TAC: Do you have any recommended marketing strategies that chiropractors can do to attract new patients? And to keep current patients?
Brady: Offering a truly “wellness-based” practice paradigm and marketing your practice as a comprehensive community health resource, to include not only chiropractic care but also critical lifestyle modification to promote optimal health, is a nobrainer and a sure-win approach to differentiate your practice.
The key, however, it is to not just say it, like many do, but to really be able to deliver on that marketing message of offering truly comprehensive wellness solutions, and to actually have the adequate training and content knowledge to keep that promise.
TAC: Where do you see the future of chiropractic headed?
Brady: The new healthcare system will demand that DCs become part of collaborative team approaches to the management of complex chronic diseases, which are the main costdrivers in our escalating healthcare expenditures. That is why we have an emphasis on this in our chiropractic program here at UB and send our chiropractic interns into these collaborative primary-care team environments with key partners, including Community Health Centers, Inc., the largest federally quali-
fied community healthcare clinic system in the Connecticut. We are committed to the preparation of chiropractic doctors, and all other healthcare professionals trained at UB, in this new model of health care, and to prepare them for success and employability in this new environment.
TAC: Any final words for our readers?
Brady: We remain committed to the chiropractic profession here at UB, and look forward to many more decades of training doctors of chiropractic, not only in their primary training to be DCs, but in a multitude of postgraduate and postdoctoral programs. We offer programs and residencies in neuromusculoskeletal medicine for DCs, which lead to board certification in orthopedics; academic programs, such as our Master of Science in Nutrition and Master of Science in Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine; and our doctoral program in naturopathic medicine.
PFor more information on the Master of Science in Nutrition program at UB, please see http.V/www.Bridgeport. edu/nutrition or contact the graduate health sciences admission department at the University of Bridgeport at 203-576-4947. Please visit http://www. bridgeport. edu/academics/continuinged/health-sciencespostgraduate-education-programs/chiropractic-continuing-education/ advanced-clinical-training/ or call 203-576-4880. |gi
