By Freddie Ulan, DC, CCN
Chiropractors who are just newly getting into nutrition have a lot of questions. “Well, what do I do? What do I give the guy who has knee pain, neck pain or back pain?” And while it will sell a few products supplying these trendy supplements, it doesn’t actually fulfill the basic, real purpose of chiropractic.
If one would step back from this mold that chiropractors have gotten themselves into because of the insurance industry and actually review the original vision of chiropractic as a healing art and science, one would see the real purpose of nutrition as it relates to chiropractic. For example, in my practice, I find that a large percentage of men with chronic low back problems that don’t fully resolve to even the best chiropractic adjustments generally have a viscero-somatic reflex at their basis. Some organ, under stress, is creating a reflex that results in chronic low back, as an example. Most common of these in men in their 50’s and 60’s is a prostate problem. In other words, a nutritional deficiency is causing stress in the prostate, which then results in overload to the nerves through that portion of the back and the person constantly has back problems.
Giving that patient a Glucosamine Sulfate product or one of the other newer, trendier products for joints will rarely handle this situation. What handles it is finding out what is ailing the prostate and putting him on a nutritional program that includes some very specific supplements and some dietary guidelines. The prostate begins to repair itself and your lower back adjustments start holding. The same is true for women who suffer from chronically recurring neck aches or headaches coming from their neck. It’s amazing how many are suffering from some sub-clinical thyroid deficiency which, when addressed with correct nutritional support, takes the stress off of the neck, and viola — there go the headaches. The adjustments are holding again.
Chiropractors who want to do nutrition need to thoroughly look at their purpose. What was their purpose for going into practice? Was it to be a musculoskeletal mechanic or were they motivated by a bigger purpose of helping people truly restore themselves and become able to take responsibility for their own health?
When you look at it from the viewpoint of restoring health, you begin to fully understand the real symptoms we deal with as chiropractors, which are these chronically occurring subluxations. When you start handling those at their source, you start helping people to restore their health in an incredible variety of conditions, whether it’s endocrine disorders, sleep disorders, chronic fatigue, chronic immune dysfunction, various aches and pains explainable otherwise, stress, etc.
You realize that far more patients than you ever guessed are suffering from secondary subluxations rather than primary ones. In other words, our clinical experience has taught us that in the vast majority of chronic health challenges, the subluxation is often being triggered by hidden nutritional deficiencies.
Of course you must address those subluxations. But when it’s the breaker switch on an overloaded circuit, it will constantly recur, until you handle the overload at its source. If you have decided that you really want to move your practice into the 21st Century, and expand it into a true health and wellness-oriented practice, it behooves you to learn how to implement personalized nutritional health and wellness programs in such a way that will not only not disrupt your practice, but will actually add to it in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, income, etc., not to mention greatly improved results.
For more information on Nutrition Response Testing call 866-418-4801 or email us at [email protected]. You can also download our FREE Nutrition Response Testing E-Book here.
