Today, many chiropractors offer nutritional supplements as a convenience to their patients — but that hasn’t always been the case.

When Michael Roth, DC, was in chiropractic school 20 years ago, the conventional wisdom was that incorporating retail into the practice took the focus away from adjusting spines. But times have changed.

With the public’s growing interest in nutrition, many chiropractors find that offering nutritional products “in house” gives patients the information and the supplements they need.

“I think the country has really gotten a hold of nutrition,” says Roth, who is based in Braselton, Ga. “Patients are more aware of it; they’re more educated about it, and thus, I think a lot more chiropractors are open to keeping nutritional products in their offices and offering them to their patients.”

Many patients may be overwhelmed by the variety of supplement choices and will look to you for advice because of your solid background in nutrition — and they will appreciate it when they can pick up their supplements at your office.

“Patients are actually pretty excited about a chiropractor that offers nutritional products,” Roth says. “They’re going to feel more confident about products in a chiropractor’s office because they know that their chiropractor is not going to offer them ‘just anything.’”

The primary motivating factor for you, Roth says, should be finding the best fit for your patient’s health, and with that comes additional benefits for your practice.

“I also think it’s a good referral tool,” he notes. “If patients start doing really well with chiropractic and supplements, they’re apt to tell more people about both aspects.”

What to offer

Richard W. Parlee, RPh, DC, of Orange, Calif., has been in practice for more than 40 years, and during that time has brought many different nutritional products to his practice. He makes his selections carefully based on the latest research and his own tests for effectiveness.

For example:Several years ago, Parlee decided to offer intraMAX, a liquid organic supplement from Drucker Labs, because he found it was an all-in-one solution for many patients who were taking a “basket full” of other nutritional products.  

Parlee says, “If the patient is tired of taking so many different products, we’ll always test them with intraMAX. Usually, intraMAX covers everything from an energetic standpoint.”

To complement this product, Parlee also stocks intraKID, a supplement for children based on the same technology as intraMAX.

“We do a lot of treating for attention deficit disorder (ADD) and autism, and every one of those patients gets intraKID,” Parlee says.

In addition to these products, Parlee offers supplements from a variety of manufacturers, choosing the best of each brand that he feels can’t be duplicated by anyone else.

For example: From Standard Process, in Palmyra, Wis., he stocks Mammary PMG tablets for his patients with postpartum depression, and keeps Gastrex for patients with gastric ulcers or intestinal problems.

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