January 2007

Obese patients need DC help

by Dr. Chad Cohoon

I was able to boost my practice from 80 visits to 800 patient visits a week, by applying one amazingly simple rule: Take the path of least resistance.

What is the path of least resistance when marketing a practice? It's discovering the biggest health concern troubling the largest number of people in your community, and then offering all these people a simple and effective solution to that problem. In other words, you give the greatest number of people in need of help, exactly what they want. If you do this, people will literally stand in line to see you!

In my first two years of practice, however, I didn't take the path of least resistance. Instead, I beat my brains out doing what most chiropractors do. I attempted to get new patients by promoting myself as the solution for the usual symptoms: back pain, headaches, digestive problems, hormone problems, low energy, stress, pain in general, etc.

All the while, I completely ignored the number one health concern troubling people in my community and throughout the U.S., the one thing that (by actual survey) people are desperately trying to improve about their health above all else. And what is the number one health problem in the country? It's the epidemic of obesity, or being overweight.

Mind‑boggling numbers

Consider these staggering statistics. Eighty million Americans (in a population of just over 300 million) who are over the age of 25 are obese or overweight. Collectively, these people shelled out more than $40 billion last year on weight‑loss products to help their problem. Yet, to add insult to injury, most of these products failed utterly to fulfill their advertised promises. Many of these products, to a greater or lesser degree, actually compromised the health of the confused consumer.

As a nation, we spend the most money on diet solutions and are yet the fattest on earth. Something effective must be done about it. Fortunately, you as a doctor, are in a position to do just that.

Start with your practice

For most health professionals, more than 66% of the people in our community, as well as our patients, are overweight. The "disease" of obesity has become so prevalent in our society that many of us no longer even see it as a disease. We go ahead and treat our patients' aches and pains yet often don't directly address the pressing issue of their obesity, which in truth may be silently killing them.

The truth is, when you do help rid a person of a lifelong health issue, he or she will happily choose to remain under your care from that point onward, and be much more inclined to freely refer friends and family to your practice.

Not only is it detrimental to your practice when you neglect to treat overweight patients, but it's detrimental to your patients as well. When people are overweight in today's society, they're not just fat but highly toxic and riddled with inflammation. Until the toxicity is flushed out of their system, patients are unlikely to achieve any long‑term success with weight loss. Even worse, their response to our usual course of treatment may be hindered.

Putting it another way, when a patient goes through a proper weight loss/cleanse program, his or her body is then in a much improved condition overall, which significantly increases the chances that he or she will take and keep the weight off, as well as respond optimally to subsequent chiropractic treatment.

There are three important points to understand:

***  The overweight person is toxic and full of inflammation.

***  The overweight person is at risk.

***  In all likelihood, the overweight person is either doing nothing about the fat problem, or consuming unsafe weight‑loss products and experimenting with unusual diets that are adversely affecting his or her health.

If we're to take full responsibility for our overweight patients, we must put them on a path that handles the cause of their being overweight. This would be a safe path, one with long lasting benefits, not only in permanently keeping the weight off but in the maintaining of excellent health. This is what people want.

As I said, I've achieved great success by making myself the weight‑loss solution in my community. Once a person walks through my practice door, I get them under chiropractic care, as well as handle their weight issue.

Here are three simple procedures that work for me:

1. TALKS. I often give talks at my local YMCA (as just one example). When I speak about back pain or headaches or any other symptoms, I get an audience of about 10 people at the most. But, when I my talk is about how to lose weight naturally and quickly, I always get 20 or 30 people to attend. Of those, I get the majority of them to come into my office. If you give talks, talk about a weight‑loss solution.

2. REFERRALS. When a person loses weight on the program I recommend, I almost always get one or more referrals from that individual. Nothing will sell your services better than a body that's lost weight because of what you offered.

3. REACTIVATIONS. Since not all of my past patients have done the diet I recommend, I periodically have one of my CAs call them and tell them about the weight‑loss program. It's so, so easy to get people interested if they have a weight loss problem.

There are many ways to build a practice by offering a natural solution to weight loss. Of course, you have to have a weight‑loss system that actually works and is really good for the patient. I use one such system, but can't say what it is in an article of this type. I suggest you do some research and find one you're comfortable with. It will be well worth your time.

(Dr. Chad Cohoon practices in Wichita, KS. His practice sees 800 patient visits a week. His most successful activity is promoting to and treating people in need of weight loss. For more information about helping patients with weight loss call 800‑948‑5307.)