November 2008

Wellness care for all ages

by Dr. Brad Glowaki

The topic of wellness care has always been a chiropractic issue. While many of our services are initiated around symptomatic relief, wellness tends to be addressed at the completion of a recommended care plan. It's my experience, through a high volume wellness practice, to avoid this topic as a "concluding conversation." Rather, I'd suggest you start with the end in mind. Lead off your care plan with the hope of reaching a wellness level. At the commencement of any type of care plan, you're merely beginning wellness. Commencement is just that, beginning, not ending.

For some patients it's as simple as hosting a new patient orientation and for others it's an entire family getting refocused on lifestyle changes. Wellness for all ages should be a thrust of emphasis for offices nationwide. While the first hundred years of chiropractors firmly put us on the map, it's our job in the 21st Century, to fulfill our potential.

More people want proactive health, and are refusing to wait for symptomatic issues to begin healthy living. By establishing your office as one that checks children, professionals, families and senior citizens you'll embrace a powerful trend that is very much at the root of our chiropractic history. Without compromising your principle or philosophy, you can wholeheartedly embrace this very lucrative paradigm shift.

The leading role is a speaking role, and if you want to take charge of our health-conscious population, start to teach it. Teaching is the definition of "doctor," and we should take that opportunity to create awareness of wellness hazards and positive routines. In the past, on occasion we've allowed ourselves to be defined by external sources and other professions. By clearly painting a picture of health goals at every age, we can expand on our attractiveness within the wellness model.

I'd suggest children be checked at birth. As with any infant, the changes and manifestations of subluxations are often verbalized by the parents.

In toddlers, look for asymmetry and dominant tendencies to see if there is a structural cause. Chiropractic care is typically started due to symptoms, but our highest and best use is to truly maximize nerve function, prior to any pain. If a parent can fully understand these ideals, you'll have asymptomatic newborns. That is to say, they have never had pain!

While many ear infections limit a child's sleep, keep in mind it also affects the parents. An inability to rotate the upper cervical neck can also result in mastitis for a breastfeeding mother. Balance and symmetry are so important in a developing child I can't imagine a more precious time to be forward thinking.

Adolescent patients are always active and rarely communicative with their parents on open and regular basis. Let's face it, they'd rather suffer than tell their parents they need help. Remind parents of this fact. This is reason enough to have teenagers checked in a symptom-free care plan.

Most adult patients should be examined to find "health negotiations." These are areas where they've made allowances within their lifestyle. Usually motivated by positive reasons, these negotiations have negative effects. Chiropractors should look for busy parents, who place themselves last on the priority list. They choose health for everyone else but themselves. Rather than correct a problem they avoid it. They simply don't lift weights, have stopped running, and gave up a hobby due to a health issue.

These patients are perpetuating a chronic condition and should be made aware of the severity this will have on their overall health. To motivate them, simply return the idea of how this will impact the family they're trying to protect and care for when this chronic condition hits crisis mode. It's a pivotal question that will immediately shift their thinking.

As more baby boomers cross into the golden years, they're constantly looking for a "youthful" advantage. Any kind of professional wisdom they're offered to extend a younger lifestyle is immediately absorbed.

Look for spinal curvature that will decrease bone density based on Wolf's law. They know if they don't use it they'll lose it. Bone density isn't just a buzzword so, speak to their need to have perfect biomechanics. Look at their limitations and create a mindset of maximum performance not simply injury avoidance.

Most of the boomer generation still listens to music from the 1950s, and they want to dance like they did then, too! Search for key areas that are holding the patient back and don't accept excuses. Youth is the key, and also a mindset. Keep these "classics" on a mental wave that has them "well-oiled." They'll get it as soon as you find a "maximum lifestyle" with young connotations.

The wellness pendulum is swinging in favor of chiropractic. Ride this momentum at every level and choose to step out and speak up. We hold the keys to so many successful stories of fulfillment and joy. Educate your patients that chiropractic looks at so many pivotal areas of health, at every age, and your practice growth will have no limits.

In areas of stubborn thinking, open your heart to some of these suggestions and you'll create new success stories in wellness that we'll all share as brothers and sisters in chiropractic.

(Dr. Brad Glowaki has run a high volume office in Seal Beach, California and is the 2008 recipient of The California Chiropractic Association's prestigious Dr. Robert Botterman Award. He is involved in several highly popular chiropractic training programs, including the New Patient Maven, Chiropractic Nutz and Boltz Training and the Dead Chiropractic Society.)