Is this the Year to Address Your Patients’ Weight Issues?
NUTRITION
Todd G. Singleton
Over the past 25 years of practice, I have come to expect that many of the conditions my patients present with are not simply musculoskeletal issues. While adjusting the patient is always beneficial, there are often additional therapies that will help the patient have increased results.
Nutrition is a particular area that is too often overlooked by chiropractors. Although we take nutrition courses in our training to become chiropractors, the practical application is often intimidating and confusing.
Obesity is one of the conditions that has become increasingly difficult to ignore as a chiropractor because it often causes back pain. While chiropractic can help obese patients, the cause of their obesity also needs to be addressed. A doctor of chiropractic can offer a natural approach that will get to the root of the problem, and in turn, offer the patient life-changing solutions. With the rise in obesity in our country, all chiropractors will have patients who need help with weight issues.
Obesity in America
In 2014, America placed eighteenth in the world in obesity and nineteenth in the world in wealth. Of the other 18 countries wealthier than the United States,1 nine of those countries have no need for statistics on obesity and seven of them are significantly lower, leaving only two of the countries above the US in obesity, beating the US by less than 5%.2 The US is just about equally as obese as it is wealthy.
^Obesity is one of the conditions that has become increasingly difficult to ignore as a chiropractor because it often causes back pain.J J
It is reported that 35% of the adult population alone is obese in the US.1 Studies have compared BMI averages and how they correlate with nutrition intake, and conclusions have shown a 37% increase in the past 20 years.3 As obesity rates increase, the condition becomes virtually impossible to ignore in a clinical setting.
As chiropractors, we expect to diagnose and adjust our patients. We are comfortable with that and have expert training and experience helping our patients with chiropractic care. However, when patients present with complicating problems, such as weight-loss issues that require more than adjusting, we can become intimidated and think we are stepping outside of our expertise.
The Life-Threatening Weight-Loss Industry
The problem is that if you don’t address your patients’ obesity issues with holistic nutritional protocols, they’ll end up turning to hype and unhealthy weight-loss diets and products to shed
unwanted pounds. There is an endless supply of these fad diets and short-term, quick fixes, such as sugar-free, cut the carbs for two weeks, cut out food entirely, or genetically modified food diets. All of these short-term fixes lead to short-term weight loss and potential lifetime damage.4
Common side effects from the weight-loss industry include pulmonary hypertension, dizziness, constipation, and restlessness. During the first week of December 2016 alone, there were five FDA recalls on dietary supplements; it’s estimated that every six days there is a diet pill out there deemed too dangerous for use.5
Since this is a very lucrative market, we can expect more fad diets and products to surface. In 2014, the diet industry had a revenue of $64 billion. With approximately 318.9 million adults in America and the diet industry pulling $64 billion a year, that means Americans are each wasting at least $200 per person on failed diet attempts. Of course, not every American is participating, so that means many spend a lot more than $200 each on harmful solutions to the obesity epidemic.6
Chiropractors have the knowledge and tools to be the goto doctors for healthy weight loss. D. D. Palmer specifically mentioned “toxins” along with “trauma” when teaching about caring for the body from the inside out. In D. D. Palmer’s day, patients ingested a fraction of the toxins that our patients do today. Our patients higest genetically modified foods, too much sugar, man-made foods, and chemicals in their diets. We owe it to our patients to give them health-promoting alternatives because they aren’t going to get it elsewhere.
My experience in treating thousands of patients with weight issues has been that a thr ee-fold approach gives patients the best outcome. Those three areas include 1) diet-based therapies; 2) whole-food nutrition without fillers or additives; and 3) handson therapies.
There really shouldn’t be a mystery around what helps patients lose weight and get healthy. The same principles and protocols that apply to healthy living are the same protocols that apply to healthy weight loss. It seems all too obvious, so doctors, as well as patients, look for a secret or quick fix. Unfortunately, as discussed earlier, such shortcuts can be harmful to long-term health.
Help More Patients and Grow Your Practice
If obesity levels continue to rise as they have for two decades, it will become increasingly more important to help your patients lose weight in order to become pain-free and healthy.
Another great reason to add weight loss to your practice is because it will help you have a solid practice financially. It is your responsibility to ensure that you make the money you need in order to stay open. You owe it to your family, employees, and patients to make sure you are stable financially. With everdecreasing insurance reimbursements, the need arises to find cash
‘‘Those three areas include 1) diet-based therapies; 2) whole-food nutrition without tillers or additives; and 3) hands-on therapies. 5 5
programs to fill the void, and weight loss is the perfect fit for a chiropractic office. The obesity crisis is a golden opportunity to offer real help for a tragic situation and increase your practice’s stability in the process.
The annual revenue for the chiropractic industry is $ 14 billion. Adding holistic weight-loss services allows you to be a paid of an even bigger industry—the $64 billion weight-loss industry. The majority of the $64 billion a year is wasted on diets and diet pills that do more harm than good. By casting a net into this large diet industry, your clinic will be not only be enhanced financially, but you’11 also be a lighthouse in the storm for those patients who have serious weight-loss issues and no place to turn for lasting help. Will this year finally be the year you give your overweight patients the care they so desperately need?7
References
1. CIA, (2016, November 16) The World Factbook, https://www. cia.gov/librarypublications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html
2. CIA, (2016, November 14) The World Factbook, https://www. cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html
Ladabaum, Uri. “Obesity, Abdominal Obesity, Physical Activity and Caloric Intake in US Adults: 1988 to 2010 ” The American Journal of Medicine (2013) 718-726. Web. 30 November 2016. Chess, David J. and Stanley, William C. “Role of diet andfuel overabundance in the development and progression of heart failure” Cardiovascular Research (2008) 79, 269-278. Web. 30 November 2016 Accessed.
FDA, (2016, December 3) Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts, http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/
Davis, KelliannK. Effect Of Mindfulness Meditation And HomeBased Resistance On Weight Loss, Weight Loss Behaviors And Psychosocial Correlates In Overweight Adults. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 2008. Google books. Web. 30 November. 2016. https://books, google, com/books Elsevier B.V. “Integrative Medicine and the Nutrition Transition: What We Learn From History and How it Can Be Applied?” 2.2 (2015): 77-80. Web. 30 November 2016.
Dr. Todd Singleton, DC, is an author, speaker, and consultant who has been a practicing doctor for more than 25 years. He ran the largest MD DC PT clinics in Utah before switching to an all-cash nutrition model in 2006. He created a very successful cash practice in Salt Lake City and now spends his time consulting and visit-
ing other offices all over the United States. Today, he’s helped more than 1,000 doctors implement a wide variety of nutritional systems, ranging from simple plug-andplay protocols to full-fledged nutritional programs. For more information or questions on this article, please contact Dr. Singleton by calling 801-903-7141, via e-mail at ContactfrSingletonSystems.com, or by visitingSingletonSystems.com.
