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You can increase your intake of fruit by simply bringing an apple or orange to the office for a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack. While you're at it, why not make a bowl of fresh fruit available to your patients in your reception room? Your patients will appreciate the gesture and the subliminal message provided by the healthy fruit won't be missed. The Centers for Disease Control and the Produce for Better Health Foundation have launched a new public health initiative called Fruits & Veggies-More Matters™. Visit the FruitsandVeggiesMatter.gov Web site to get tools and information to help you and your patients eat more fruits and vegetables each day.
Prevention & Wellness We have entered the era of health care reform. Legislators and lobbyists are focusing on "prevention and wellness" as methods of decreasing out-of-control healthcare costs. Officials have very clearly voiced their opinion, that in order to control the major costs generated from managing chronic diseases, we must focus our resources on programs and providers that efficiently deliver prevention and wellness services. Most chiropractors advocate the benefits of chiropractic care for the maintenance of health and wellness and report receiving regular chiropractic care themselves. On the other hand, they do not make as effective use of other preventive services. More than half reported never receiving cancer screenings; twenty five percent don't have regular eye exams, and less than a quarter visit the dentist every two years or less. And there is that weight issue as well. If you talk to your patients about the importance of preventive maintenance for their spine, joints and overall health, you should recommend that they visit their dentist, optometrist, and other health care professionals as well. All good advice. But are you following it yourself? Practice What You Preach A great way to communicate the facets of wellness with your patients is to share the following analogy with them. Teach patients to think of their health using the analogy of a three legged stool. The first leg of the stool represents chiropractic care, which maximizes the potential of the neuromusculoskeletal system. The second leg of the stool is the active care exercises that empower the patient and decrease their reliance upon passive care. The third leg of the stool is behavioral modification through developing healthy habits. Weaken one leg and the stool teeters. Remove a leg and it comes crashing down! Yet analogies like this, while very useful, lack credibility if the person stating them isn't following his or her own advice. We cannot call ourselves practitioners of prevention and wellness without addressing the single greatest measurable and controllable contributor to death and disease – poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle choices. We can become the true "Whole Person Practitioners" that we have the potential to be. The chiropractic profession can no longer solely focus on the musculoskeletal aspect of care. This places our profession firmly in the grip of third party payors and in the vice of ever-decreasing insurance reimbursement. Embracing Whole Person Care, including all three legs of Chiropractic, Active Care, and Behavioral Modification, will give your practice a solid foundation to withstand the winds of the healthcare reform storm. Chiropractors can have the same health statistics as the rest of the nation, or, through choosing healthy behaviors--including regular chiropractic care--we can do better. Shift your paradigm and you stand to make a significant impact not only on your own health, but on the health of your patients and our nation. Reference
Dr. Mark Sanna, a 1987 graduate of New York Chiropractic College, is a member of the ACA Governor's Advisory Board and a member of the President's Circle of NYCC and Parker College of Chiropractic. He is the president and CEO of Breakthrough Coaching (www.mybreakthrough.com).
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