Your value as a chiropractor is proportionate to your level  of ability to help people with their health issues.

There’s a lot of talk today about wellness care, however, talk is cheap it it’s not backed up with real substance.  Nothing speaks louder and increases your value as a doctor more than helping people overcome the most serious health problems on the planet.  These issues include heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer.

Safe, natural, and effective products and procedures are readily available to significantly help people with these more serious conditions.  Although tackling these conditions is not for the faint-hearted or casual practitioner, they are not as difficult or risky as they may first seem.

The key to successfully helping people with these conditions is offering safe and practical complementary adjuncts to standard medical protocols.  Homeopathy, which is the first alternative medicine modality to have ascended to recognition by the FDA, offers curative solutions that are without side effects, potential for addiction, or known negative drug interactions.   Best of all, homeopathy has passed the tests of time and adversity.  In direct harmony and concert with chiropractic principles and philosophy, homeopathy clearly provides the safest approaches to restorative healthcare on the planet! 

I have personally applied homeopathic approaches since the late 70’s with great success.  At that time, I operated the only holistic clinic in town, seeing nearly a half-million patients.  Since we never turned away a case, we received quite an education about the application of homeopathic products and procedures, not to mention common sense!  During that time of high volume practice, we never received even one malpractice suit. 

Some of the more important lessons I’ve learned about operation of a wellness practice are:

1. Stay away from unsafe, unrecognized, controversial, or political “hit list” products or procedures.  A good example is laetrile.

2. Use protocols in their most efficacious roles.  Nutritional, dietary, and lifestyle enhancement protocols are solid tools when properly used.  Their function is maximized when used as support for homeopathy and chiropractic.   

3. Take the time and effort to read your patients well.    Will they listen to you and follow sound advice?  Be aware of radical thinking patients that may throw away their medications, thinking medicine or medical doctors are all wrong or evil.  

4. Dispel fear and negativity with knowledge and truth.  I have found many of the critics and adversaries of what we do have the potential to become our best allies.  Try to recognize the support level provided by close family members.  It is a good to invite negative influential family members to appointments or training sessions.  Once they have heard your common sense complementary approach, most of them will become supporters rather than adversaries. 

5. Get to know the doctor(s) involved in the case.  Utilize this great opportunity to build a relationship and educate a practitioner that may be monitoring or has prescribed medicine(s) relating to the case.  Briefly, describe what you are doing and give the doctor a chance to ask any questions that you will answer confidently and knowledgeably.  If there is not time to dialogue, schedule a time or even a lunch date.  A growing number of medical doctors are open to complementary alternative practices and would welcome your expertise and efforts.  Bear in mind that many of their patients have been asking about alternative practices, but don’t know how to verbalize their needs.  Aim at developing strong working relationships, especially with those doctors who see the positive results you have made with their patient.  You will find a number of these specialists make great cross-referring doctors.
6. Apply sound lab tests when appropriate.  Make sure not to duplicate or usurp the practice of any specialist(s) involved in any of your cases.  Make a reciprocal agreement to share test results with any other doctors on the case.

7. Apply sound judgment and wisdom when managing your case.  Be positive and hopeful, but never inflate claims or expectations.  Your patients will appreciate your honesty.  Our protocol works to help discover and discern the natural products they need, as well as what they don’t need, so they can be confident that we are trying to keep them on the optimal road to maximum health without overloading them with medicines.  I never disparage traditional medicine, and speak of the value of applying the best of both worlds in healthcare.  Our priority is to maximize results and correct various underlying causes by applying the safer, less-invasive procedures first when appropriate, as well as during and following drugs and/or surgery. 

8. Education, education, education.  Whether it’s patients, physicians, or the public, education is paramount to a wellness practice.  The word doctor means to teach in Latin.  When patients are provided with education, they will in turn provide you with their trust.  I teach my patients that their greatest success will come by leaving no stones unturned and taking the whole person perspective.  I educate them about how their body is designed to be healthy, and how employing every safe and natural means available to them maximizes their health.    We fulfill the high call of chiropractic when we teach.  Your practice will grow in proportion to your ongoing educational efforts.

Frank J. King Jr., N.D., D.C. is a nationally recognized researcher, author and lecturer on homeopathy. In addition, Dr. King is the founder and director of King Bio; a registered homeopathic manufacturing company dedicated to empowering people to safely and naturally overcome the common problems plaguing our society.