Hello everyone. Welcome to today’s show of empowering women in chiropractic. My name is Dr. Nathalie Beauchamp and I will be your host today. This show is brought to you by Chirosecure and I am interviewing a good friend of mine today, Dr. Staci Blume. Welcome to the show, Stacy.
Thank you. I’m excited to be here.
Yeah, I’m excited to have the discussion that we’re going to have, because we picked of all, I picked a topic that I think I want to know more about because I am being asked more and more in practice and this is the topic of CBD, and as chiropractors what we should know. I want to make a bit of a disclaimer here that we are in no way, shape or form telling you how to handle this. We’re just having an open discussion. Obviously different States, different countries, different province in my situation will have different laws and scope of practice.
What I wanted to do it because I know you’re quite knowledgeable on the topic because I’ve interviewed you for the marketing and practice growth summit on it, is what is it, how it affects the nervous system and the benefits, so we’re more educated because our patients are I think turning to us because we are in the natural health field and I think they feel probably more comfortable talking to us about those things than they are with medications and so forth. Staci I’m just going to introduce you for people that don’t know you.
You’ve been a chiropractor since 2008 and right out of school, I know you purchased your own practice, which was pretty darn gutsy, so good for you. And I know that you practice in a community for quite some time. You also have done a Ted talk on neuro-plasticity, which is such an amazing accomplishment. And I watched it and you did awesome. Now you are practicing with your husband Nate Blume of course. And the name of your practice is life refined chiropractic and it’s in Noblesville and you have two stepsons and a cute, cute, cute little daughter that I love seeing on your Facebook. She just seems like such a blessing and a joy to be around. Am I right?
Oh, 100% right? Yep. Every day it’s something new, so it’s a good reminder just to appreciate every moment.
Yeah. Do you still have her come to your practice?
No. When she got mobile, it was time to move her. She goes to preschool now at two and a half and she loves it. But once she started talking a little bit more and moving on her own, it was time. But for the first year, her coming to the practice every single day was amazing. It was great for me as a brand new first time birth mom just to have her around and a great experience for her too.
I bet your patients are asking for her.
They get to keep up with me and with her on Facebook quite a bit and they’re grateful for that because otherwise they do ask. Yeah.
That’s awesome. Let’s dig right in and why don’t we start? Because I know myself when I heard you talk on the marketing and practice growth summit, I didn’t really fully understand the connection between CBD, cannabidiol and the impact on the nervous system. Let’s start with that and then maybe we’ll just segue into how you’ve been talking about it and give us some insight on that.
You bet. I really got started doing my own research about a year ago simply because I was getting the questions so much from patients and I got really tired of answering, “I don’t know” that after getting the question a dozen or more times just didn’t feel right to me and then I didn’t have someone else to send them to get the information. I felt like I was at this impasse, like I don’t know what to do. And then when CBD started showing up in gas stations and tanning salons and everywhere you can think of, I didn’t want them to resort to something poor quality and I still needed to know if they’re going to take it from somewhere, how is it impacting the work I do as a chiropractor? I started digging the research a little bit and I guess just to get started, CBD is a cannabidiol.
It’s a phyto cannabinoid, so it comes from a plant. The first big aha moment I had was something I wasn’t taught in school, that we have an endo cannabinoid system. I was like, I don’t know what physiology book I had, but somehow that part got skipped or ignored, I’m not really sure. I’m like, wow, we’ve got this endo cannabinoid system. And when I started doing my research, still nursing my daughter, I started learning that wow, when we make endo cannabinoids, that’s what makes a nursing baby really tired and sleepy or really happy. That got me leaning in the direction of, Oh maybe this is something worth looking into in a positive light rather than, is this just something I need to know about to steer patients away from? Because when it comes to chiropractic in my philosophy, it’s like I don’t want to input anything into the system that’s not meant to be there.
CBD, the first question people get, because even asking me, some people feel a little embarrassed because there’s a stigma around it because we don’t know enough, because we don’t know what questions to ask to get the right information. And patients would even almost say, do you know anything about CBD, how does it work, what should I do? And it felt really good to me when I’d finally done enough research to people to steer them in the right direction. That’s how I got started, which is probably why most people are listening today is yes, I’m getting the question, what on earth do I do? How do I answer? When it comes to that endo cannabinoid system in our body, one of the first things I found out that was really interesting to me was chiropractic adjustments actually used our body’s endo cannabinoid content.
That’s fascinating. Now there’s a link between, for my purposes, between chiropractic and CBD. And actually I’ve got it on my screen here. The study that I found, let’s see here, the role of endo cannabinoids in spinal manipulative therapy. It was just a really great article, which I can certainly post and make available to the listeners, but that combination of a spinal adjustment boosting endo cannabinoid function. Then I started doing a little bit more research on, okay, so what does CBD do, and really what it allows those endo cannabinoids in our body to do is just work for a longer period of time.
Those same things that we do like exercise, use endo cannabinoid function, we’ve learned that cryotherapy uses endo cannabinoid function. There are some foods we can eat that contain phytocannabinoids, healthy coffees, deep green, leafy vegetables, the things we know we should be eating and we just don’t know all the good stuff they do for us. That all boosts our body’s endo cannabinoid content and the CBD helps those positive impact chemicals in our system just to work for a longer period of time and to help them target those areas in our body that produce CB receptors signaling that there’s an imbalance. I think when you take up all the research and break it down into the basics, that’s what CBD does.
Oh perfect. How have you been talking about it in your practice? Because again, I’m not in this state so things are different and for us, we have a joke here that it’s a little bit of the wild West in terms of yeah, we now have it in another province you can get it at the liquor store, beside your wine. So you can see how it’s so different from everywhere. But the quality is definitely a huge one so we’ll address that but how are you talking-
How do I handle the conversation?
Yeah.
I think very simply I explain it, I use a lot of analogies in my practice regardless of if I’m talking about heart rate variability or how a tonal adjustment works. Analogies always seem to make sense to the majority of the people. And what I explain to them when they ask about CBD is, think about an Omega three, it’s funny when you say they found it in the liquor store because to me it would be like you have to go to the liquor store to get your Omega three or your probiotics. That doesn’t even make sense. I’m really confused and apparently the retailers are confused on the product they’ve got too. But when it comes to just having that conversation, it’s like an Omega three.
We know that your body is going to have an expected effect from this product and even if you don’t notice it working right away, it does help your system balance over time and so it’s a simple conversation I have with people about it’s a great product to try for most people, there are some people that should not be on it and there are certain contra-indications and I’ll have lots of details for the listeners on that, certainly if they’re interested, but if it’s appropriate for them, just starting them on a little bit and helping them see those benefits. I also will oftentimes walk over to my computer screen and pull up a patient’s x-rays and show them, listen, if you’ve got this reverse cervical curve, there is no amount of CBD in the world that’s going to take care of this. There is no magic bullet.
There is no one thing that’s going to cure all. Chiropractic doesn’t cure anything. We don’t treat anything. We just correct subluxation so the body can express its best health. But when it comes to having the conversation, even for my friends who are chiropractors in a very straight chiropractic office, they’re going to get the question. And so having a little bit of background information on what CBD does or just send them to a resource, I wish I would’ve had that resource and could’ve avoided all the research but have a resource that you can send people to who you trust that’s going to give them some really good information. In my office it’s much like any other nutritional supplements and then I guide them to a product that I’ve found that I’m really happy and comfortable with. It’s organic from the table, but you know the whole nine yards of what we as the chiropractor would look for. But I think being able to have the conversation if it comes up is important. And I think having some level of knowledge on how it’s affecting your patients and their response to your care is important to you.
Do you find that people are talking about it more from a pain perspective? Because I know that’s what I’m getting a lot. I don’t think that overall health benefit of CBD has been for us anyway made mainstream. For us it’s like okay I’m on a lot of pain medication. The patient will say “I don’t like how I feel, I’m in a daze, I can’t focus.” I know for patients in pain and I’ve seen it because I send people to, we have a resource locally and I suggested and even to my older patient and I was really happily surprised to see how receptive they were. I’m talking people in their seventies and eighties they went to the center that I refer to and then they got put on CBD and oh my god, they can’t believe the difference. But are you getting it questions from a non pain point of view?
Not really, unless people are doing everything else. They’re eating beautifully, they’re exercising, sleep, the whole nine yards. There’s always that group of people who are like, what else? What else can I do to get my body functioning as close to 100% as I can. There’s a few of those, but the great majority come in two different groups. Number one is going to be the pain. “I’m in so much pain” and I’ve got a couple great explanations for that. Pain but also stress, anxiety, depression, those are the two major things and there’s no one size fits all. You have to just work with each client individually for a bit to help them figure it out. But those two categories, and I think you know from a chiropractic philosophical standpoint too, to be able to help them find something that’s going to do less damage than a pain medication.
We’re helping out our patient. I have one client, significant pain and she has done autoimmune protocols, strict for six to nine months, but finally broke down and started taking some pain medication because she could not function. And after a period of time of her trying so many different things, I finally mentioned, “why don’t we try the CBD and just see how you do?” She started on a really low dose and after three days, three days, which is crazy, but three days she wrote, she said her pain was reduced by 90% and she was able to already start discontinuing some of the pain medications she was taking. Think of the positive effect that’s having on her kidneys and her liver and her quality of life. Really important there. I also have people in that second category, this stress management.
“I can’t focus all day, I’ve got 15 projects and I can’t complete anything because my brain won’t focus.” Or the anxiety and depression piece. And I’ve seen some really amazing things there. And if you can help people, I never talk about medication or what to do, I send them to their medical doctor for that. But I have seen many, many clients, be able to discontinue some of those medications as well. And that from a chiropractic philosophical standpoint, that’s helping them live a better quality of life with less drugs and surgery. And that’s important in my book.
I did start taking the product for wellness purposes for myself before I recommended it to anyone because I would never recommend something I hadn’t done myself first and I really didn’t know what to expect because I don’t have any health concerns, I’m not taking any medications, I don’t have pain on a regular basis and it improved quality of sleep, definitely better focus. And then I’m carrying my two year old up the stairs, I would never have complained about knee pain, but I did notice that it had gone away. Not a major complaint or anything that would have come up in an intake form if I were a new chiropractic patient but, but small improvements for me that keep me taking it on a daily basis. And if I don’t, I do notice that the quality of sleep just isn’t as great or maybe I feel just a little bit less focused during the course of the day.
I think it’s so important exactly what you mentioned that even for supplements or because I do sell supplements in my office and I never start anyone or suggest anything until they experienced the miracle of chiropractic because I never wanted them to say, Oh, it must be the vitamin that Dr. Nathalie gave me. I have a rule, and they ask me, Oh, what? Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. Hold on a second. Let’s get your nervous system. And I know some people are straight chiropractic that don’t have nutrition in their practice. And we’re not suggesting that you do, this is to inform people that it is out there.
But I also agree that if we can get people off the sleeping pill and off the pain medication, we’re doing them a huge favor because we know that it’s less toxic. Now, does it have to be us, the choice of the practitioner? It doesn’t have to be. You decided because you could to integrate it within your practice and not necessarily having it on your shelf, but having a process that you can guide people because that’s always my fear too, that they’re going to get the one at the liquor store or, I don’t know, the gas station, but maybe we have that too, but the quality just always worries me. And I know-
Yeah. 80% of the hemp that makes CBD comes from China and they use hemp over there. They put it in the ground and they grow it because hemp pulls up toxins really well. Now they’re planting this hemp, they pull it out of the ground, they ship it to the US and most of our CBD oils are coming from that hemp and then they plant their crop because it’s in a healthier soil. Quality is unbelievably important. When it comes to integrating, I don’t keep a bunch on my shelf. I don’t like a huge inventory. And when it comes to introducing it to a patient, I have a similar rule as you, we don’t talk about nutrition until after their first progress assessment. At least a good four to six weeks into their care plan by which time they should have started to notice, Oh my goodness, all I’ve changed is adding chiropractics to my life, here’s how I feel.
I’m the same way. It’s never a, “let’s start with this and see how you do.” But having it available, I send people a link that they can purchase it online so that they’re getting the quality product that I know really well and then I can help them with dosing and “how do I take it?” And if they’re noticing any effects from it, I know how to troubleshoot that. That for me has worked beautifully. It’s not something we have a conversation about every day in my office. It’s an if and when it seems appropriate or if we’ve tried other things or people are really looking for an alternative to the medications that they’re taking because they’re typically noticing a lot of side effects from them.
I know that I’ve read different full spectrum and can you just I know you don’t have slides to show us but-
Yeah. The limited amount of research out there right now says that the full spectrum is more effective. You’re taking everything that’s in the actual plants and putting it in the extract. Whereas the isolates or if you’ve pulled out THC is the number one thing that’s pulled out. You’re losing something. There’s still a benefit, but you’re losing something. Depending on the person, some people can’t have THC in their system. In our country, government workers if you’re driving, if you’re a DOT driver, those types of things, you have to be able to know who and what you can recommend to people. But the full spectrum based on the limited research right now is showing to be the most effective for obvious, it gets the whole plant in the extract.
We talked about not having CBD positioned as a cure all because as you mentioned, I say that first of all chiropractic doesn’t cure anything. We just help the body work more efficiently. And I think nutrition or any supplementation should be looked at the same way. Tell us a little bit more about the product that you found because I know that again, just across the border things get a bit complicated, but you found something locally that you feel comfortable with?
Yeah. It’s a US product. It’s actually a hundred percent vertically integrated company, which means the company that grows the product, harvests the product, extracts the CBD from the plants, you name it. And I love that about this company. They are certified organic, which was also important to me. If I’m taking a product, I want to know that it’s really clean. They have a certificate of analysis for absolutely every product they have and company, it’s called Green Compass. You can get a ton of information from me actually at Chirocbd.liferefines.com but it’s, it’s a really, really clean product and while I’m a chiropractor, I will always be and that medical side of the world is what I try to keep people away from. The company actually has their own medical advisory board so that if you are having difficulty with a client, don’t feel like you have to give those recommendations, send them off to somebody else.
I’ve been unbelievably happy, not just with the product but with the company itself and it’s an easy company to work with. Most of the people that are using the product from my perspective are all other healthcare providers. Nurse practitioners, they’ve actually got a pet product. So there are veterinarians that I’m working with and helping. And then locally here too, we just don’t have anybody in any professional position, whether it be medical doctor or chiropractor that does the education so I’m actually working with a local company as well to be doing education for other healthcare providers on CBD, its effects and how to at least get started in a way that’s going to be most beneficial to your patients.
Yeah, and the website that you just gave, I know that you did the work for us chiropractors. If chiropractors were interested in learning more or understanding more and then educating our patient and you’ve done the bulk of the work for us.
I’ve done so much of the work. Yeah, it’s actually a really simple process for other chiropractors to integrate. Chirocbd.liferefines.com, and so you’ll see on there I’ve got a 45 minute webinar that can be shared with clients, that can be shared with other healthcare providers. I’ve got dosing recommendations, I’ve even got PowerPoints. I think this is the nice thing too. There are so many people seeking out CBD information. And while we would all love to believe that everyone’s looking for a chiropractor at all times and that we’re going to see 95% of the population, it hasn’t worked that way yet, let’s phrase it that way.
But people are looking for CBD information. And so having the ability to do a presentation for someone, like a group of patients that could be new to your practice has done really well for other chiropractors I know, just bringing people in the doors in the first place, you’re going to gain their trust. They’re going to begin to become your patient, especially if you have steps ahead of them before they get started on that CBD. Having that presentation available has helped me grow my practice. And some of those people have never taken CBD, they just come to me because I’m a trusted resource and take my advice and you’ll see if I ever do a post about CBD, it always says hashtag chiropractic always comes first.
Cool. And again, we can’t reiterate, you’ve got to check with your scope of practice in your state, in your province, in your country because it’s all different. But it is true that people are asking questions and I think they’re turning to us as I mentioned just because they know that we like to do things more naturally. Staci, thank you so much for shedding some light on this.
I hope that if people are interested to dig deeper in their own understanding, they’ll reach out to you and use the resources because let’s face it, at the end of the day we’re all busy and there’s just so many hours in one day we can have to educate ourselves. This was doctor Nathalie Beauchamp and thank you so much to Chirosecure for putting on these amazing segments with different hosts where we learn something great every week and that keeps us current of what’s going on in chiropractic and also in the overall field of health. Again, this was Dr. Nathalie Beauchamp for empowering women in chiropractic, and I will see you on the next show when I will be hosting another of our great guests.
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