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Well, thank you for joining me for Facebook Live, hosted by ChiroSecure, delighted to have you with us today. We’ve got some amazing new products to show you today from the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, some of the things that we can offer you, the chiropractor in practice. I know it’s not been an easy road during this pandemic, but let’s ensure that we help our patients enhance their health.
Today is all about enhancing your health, managing stress, and providing timely resources effective for you to communicate with your patients, because let’s face it, the most important thing we can do when we’re in this stay at home environment is to help our patients be committed to their health and ensure that when the doors start opening, they think of us to help them enhance their particular healthcare concerns and really build on the knowledge that you, the chiropractor, can give to them.
So before we get started, as always, I want to thank our corporate sponsors. Why? Because they’re the ones that make it happen. For the foundation, they allow us to do national marketing, getting into the Wall Street Journal, being able to place ads in the international yoga therapy magazine, and so, so many others, train wraps and billboards across the nation. And you’re a big part of that, so stay tuned because we’ve got some great stuff for you today.
Now, what are we going to cover that’s going to be important for you and timely in this time? Well, we’re going to look at a variety of resources generated to align with the current pandemic, materials that will assist you in sharing not only chiropractic but the whole health opportunity your patients receive when seeing you. We know from experience that we’re more than just an adjustment, we’re there for the patient’s whole health, from stress management, to breathing techniques, to the benefits of coupling posture in yoga.
We’re going to review some new updates today that showcase how chiropractic enhances your overall health. So let’s start with stress management. I know, I’ve been working from home, and I had to do a quick shift in our campaign. So excited to do the Olympic campaign, and that goes next year. So what we really do need to do is really ensure that our patients are getting the very best information they can and really focus on something, the most important thing that they own, their health. And the chiropractor is one of the best experts to help them with their overall health. And it starts with stress management.
I’ve been home with two teenagers, I’m sure you’re at home and you’re noticing that there’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of stress that can impact your day, from trying to be the helpful mother with the homework to running a campaign. So I want our patients to know that we’re with them in the stress category.
And what we did was we provided a variety of resources that will help them understand more about stress management. One, focusing on breathing techniques to help reduce their stress. And as you can see on your right-hand side is the optimize your proper breathing, and how that really help them maximize breathing and ultimately lower their stress. In the middle, you’re going to see five causes of improper breathing. And I think it’s important that we really showcase to our patients that we’re here to help the global perspective of their life, rather than just focusing in on ailments that they have. And there is no time better than now to really be able to create those opportunities.
Now the next thing that we want to focus on is sleep. Why sleep? Well, I think this is a very important piece that we talk to our patients about because a lot of times individuals actually consider sleep a luxury. And it’s actually not that at all, it’s a necessity. And they often feel that they don’t have enough hours in the day. I know you probably feel like I do. I don’t have enough hours in the day to get all the things done. So what’s the first thing to go? Well, sleep. And that’s a reality.
The Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School has actually compiled an article chocked full of different studies that communicate how insufficient sleep can increase a person’s risk of developing serious medical conditions, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, as well as a decreased ability to resist infection. These are all very important pieces to showcase with our patients. In addition, lack of sleep over time has been associated with a shortened lifespan. So let’s really be honest with our patients and showcase that sleep is not a luxury, it’s in fact the most important for them to be productive, and a necessity in their life.
Sleep is so important that we want to keep our minds clear. It helps to bring down pain levels. And overall, it just keeps us healthy. So we wanted to provide you an ability to communicate this effectively with your patients. So we have three infographics here that talk about these. You can put them on your website. You can put them in your newsletter. You can text them out. Feel free to do whatever you want.
In fact, I just text one of them that I know, one of my friends is not sleeping, so I captured this infographic and texted it to her on how important it was, but think about winding down too. As I have teenagers, and now is the time that unfortunately they’re not going on a regular schedule to school, I think a lot of us are not following our regular patterns. So we need to start looking at winding down, restful sleep, reducing that blue light exposure at nighttime, which really actually decreases utilization of your electronic devices.
Because what we end up doing is thinking about the last thing that we did before we go to sleep, and the last thing that you want to be looking at is your smartphone or your computer. You want to put them away two hours before bedtime, so that you can start relaxing, get that blue light away from your eyes, and really started enjoying a peaceful, calm, winding-down sleep. I think that’s important for all of us to remember. It’s not easy to do. I totally get it. My phone is with me. A lot of times, I’m sure, yours is too right before you go to bed. We’re on a journey. We’re all on the journey together. And as a doctor who is providing expert opinion, we want them to always take the high road and ensure that they’re looking at their health effectively.
As we do that, fun fact, May is actually recognized as Better Sleep Month. To align with the Awareness Month, we at the foundation include here a press release earlier this month that you can use, you can utilize it on your newsletters or maybe even send it out as a media blitz for better sleep, and we are positioning the profession as a whole health and wellness providers. So this is a nice way to do that.
Now, we’ve covered stress with breathing. We looked into the importance of sleep. Now, what’s next? We’re looking at hydration. And as we go through, getting enough water every day is important for your patient’s overall health. They may not even think about it, because a lot of times we’re busy doing our Zoom meetings now with many of you on there, they forget, they don’t get up, they’re sitting in improper ergonomic settings. We need to just remind them gently that there is an important aspect to being hydrated.
And we can pull the CDC information if we like. Water helps your body keep your temperature normal, lubricate and cushion joints, protect your spine and other sensitive tissues, and then gets rid of waste through perspiration and the like. That goes for, hopefully your patients are exercising, that continued lactic acid build up, the soreness that can come with working out. A well-hydrated body will be able to be prepared for that next workout. Tell your patients why they’re drinking water, they’ll be more likely to want to do it. I think that goes for all of us.
When we know why we’re doing it, we know then that it’s an important aspect to their life. It’s very important, especially if a patient is running a fever, if they’ve had any type of diarrhea or vomiting, and depending on where they are in the United States, if it’s in a hot climate. So let’s continue to improve our patient’s ability to take in water.
Right next to me is a blueberry LOT. I love it. It helps me get inspired about drinking water. But just keeping it beside them is going to be helpful through the day. And also reminding them that there’s high water content food out there that they can participate in, such as watermelon, celery, melons themselves. That helps them get increased hydration for them.
And as I said before, we want to get them excited about water. So here’s some fun infographics. Remaining hydrated is important during this pandemic, as many people are adjusting to these new schedules and working remotely. So these three graphics really help, you can put them in an e-blast, just flare up their typical H2O. And it gives them why fruit-infused water options, and the healthy benefits that come from incorporating each into your diet. That’s a fun way to help your patients stay hydrated.
Next, we want to talk about May. Now we all know that May is typically Posture Month. Now we add sleep month into it. So there’s lots of reasons for our patients to get information from us. I’m happy to showcase some new resources on enhancing your health through this pandemic, that really showcases a lot about the benefits that chiropractic can add to their lives. You’re just educating them and you’re staying in contact with them.
New work-from-home setups need to be ergonomically correct to ensure proper breathing, less pain, and placing a focus on good posture. That’s always a key. On this slide, you’re seeing some exercises to improve your posture, and we all should be doing them. Even as chiropractors, we need to be reminded. I know my posture is not that great, but I’m working on it. I hope you are, too, because we have to really preach to our patients the importance but we have to practice what we preach. And together, I know there’s been some absolute creative individuals out there that have done their exercises with their patients in their pajamas, I congratulate you. That’s fun, and it’s real, and we’re in a pandemic, so let’s just connect with our patients and ensure that they’re actually getting what they need.
Now, also important, many of you might not even know there’s a selfie elbow, but I can tell you that Generation Z this does. What’s important, especially for my high school students, is that they may be doing a lot of selfies because they’re trying to connect with their friends and family. It’s kind of like tech neck, only it’s to your elbow. And it’s because of the smartphone use, and it actually causes pain. This pain in your elbow, in your wrist, can lead up to your neck. It can be avoided, and this graphic actually will provide some tips to manage this pain and strengthen your body.
So the hip selfie elbow, I definitely don’t have selfie elbow, but I can tell you that a number of the teenagers that I watch even across the street from my house probably do have because there’s a lot of selfies going on.
Well, it is one of the next pieces that I’m going to talk to you about is really the prevalence patterns and predictors of chiropractic use. This was an article that was used in Spine in 2017. The reason why I bring this article up, it’s important for you to read. The reason the future, why are patients using chiropractic? We know why we want them to use chiropractic, but why are the patients using chiropractic?
So I think this is a really good time to bring up some of the prevalence patterns and predictors of chiropractic because this is how we’re going to grow for the future. When they see us looking at general wellness and disease prevention, improving energy, improving their athletic or sports performance, and improving their function and concentration, that means something, and that means that they’re adopting us into their lifestyle and they’re focusing on chiropractic as being a whole organic approach. So please, read this because I think you’re going to find that the future is going to grow quickly because we’re going to be creating this enhance your health campaign this year and next year, optimizing your performance.
I cannot wait till the Olympics come. I hope you’re as excited as I am, because I think once we showcase that we do enhance performance, and the chiropractors that are treating these Olympic athletes are coming out and talking about it and the Olympic athletes themselves, I think we’re going to be in great shape.
So as we go through this enhancing your health, we want to ensure that we’re providing information on the hydration, the sleep, the breathing exercises, but also we want them to practice self-care. So we’ve created some graphics here to focus on some of the things that are important for them to really recognize in their life. They can range from using fish oil, which has been very helpful, to reminding them that I know some may take stress and utilize the refrigerator a little more frequently, and they’re putting on a little extra pounds. And we want to remind them that those extra pounds do actually create more stress on their joints, but we’re going to do it positively.
So we’re just saying lowering your body mass index can create some positive things, increase energy, reduce stress on your joints, and lowering inflammation and improving sleep. So let’s get these infographics out there to really ensure that they’re seeing the positive side of, unfortunately being a very stressful situation.
Now, I love these two infographics, and I get it, what does chiropractic have to do with gardening? And I got that question from a chiropractor the other day. Listen, we know that the best way to reduce our stress is to get outside in the yard. And what happens when you’re outside in the yard? Well, you start doing yard work, or you have a fabulous garden that you absolutely love. We’re just here to remind them that it’s great opportunity to enhance your health by getting in the garden.
But remember, there’s plenty of ways to hurt yourself when you’re in the garden; improper lifting, stagnation while you’re planting, many ways. So this is just a nice way to ensure patients are getting out there, they’re getting some fresh air. And if they’re gardening, remember a few good tips that your chiropractor loves you. Here are some of the things that they can do to take care of their health while they’re not coming to see you if you can’t see their chiropractor.
So what about our pets? Well, who doesn’t love their pets? And let’s remind our patients that pets bring down stress levels, and we’re here to help enhance your entire wellbeing. And not to forget that pets can be a fabulous way to decrease your stress. Grab them on your lap. I have Miniature Pinscher and I also have a long-hair Chihuahua. They’re beautiful and they’re fun, and they really do reduce the stress levels in the house. So keep that top of mind because as we go through, we want to make sure that we’re helping them be part of their own healthcare.
Remember, chiropractic leads to improved overall health and better sleep, reduce stress in sense of control over health. And there is the information in this infographic that you should be reading that showcases where we got this information from. Everything we do is coming from quality-backed research.
One from example, the filthiest public surfaces, remind them where they can get those filthy spots into their life, gas pump handles, ATM buttons, public door handles. And maybe as we go back to our practices, maybe it’s that pen that’s sitting on your own desk that 40 people have picked up that day. Let’s keep wiping down surfaces and ensuring our patients are aware of some of the more dirtier places that can come with that.
Now next, we’ve put together some really outstanding opportunities for you to have a tri-fold brochure in your practice. You can mail these out with your own letter if you’d like in the mail. Remember a lot of us no longer get hard copies, so sometimes it’s nice to just see a copy tri-fold brochure in the mail. You can also put it in your newsletter or keep it up front in your practice.
As we start reentering back into our patient’s lives, we want to make sure that we give them things that are going to work for their whole health perspective. And as you can see on the other side, five keys to optimize health, we’re getting that message out over and over again. And working from home, trust me, this has not been an easy transition for many. So we want to be really working on what happens in the workplace when it transitions to home.
And on the left, we have an infographic on seven healthy tips to manage working from home. The center is a tip sheet that showcase the best tips to working from home. This is a several-page long and provides built-out recommendations to make adjustments to the new circumstances that they’re in and try to help it make it easier. You can download this brochure, make your own if you’re not part of the foundation, but we absolutely hope you are, and try to help your patients transition from that working from home environment in a better way.
The last one on the right is we have working from home ergonomic tips sheet so employees can avoid those awkward positions that we all tend to get in when we start getting tired.
The next piece here is actually a video. And these are nice videos that you can put on social media. In fact, we know now that 95% engagements with videos. So think about putting this video out there because patients will engage and they’ll remember more frequently. So we want to ensure that they’re remembering what is in the video and that we’re communicating on different media. So let’s look at this video.
As general health and wellness becomes top of mind for many Americans, it is no surprise that 35-and-a-half million individuals have seen a doctor of chiropractic in the last year. Contrary to popular belief, chiropractic care is effective for more than just managing back and neck pain, and is reported to improve overall health and wellness, leaving patients feeling better.
Doctors of chiropractic who receive a minimum of seven years of higher education are trusted primary healthcare professionals for spinal health and wellbeing, and are specifically trained to recommend therapeutic and rehabilitative exercises, apply supportive procedures, provide nutritional, dietary, postural and lifestyle counseling.
In a recent study, the reasons why patients chose chiropractic care included for general wellness and disease prevention, to improve energy, to improve athletic or sports performance, and to improve immune function.
To achieve, improve or maintain healthy lifestyle, see a doctor of chiropractic in your area. Go to f4cp.org/findadoctor.
Now as we talk about that, I just wanted to remind you in that study that I mentioned, Adams study, Spine 2017, that was the reason why the patients sought chiropractic care. And I think a number of our patients see us as their primary care provider for spinal health and wellbeing. So we need to remind them that their health is of utmost importance to us as chiropractors, and that we are here to help them on that journey.
Now during the pandemic, we’ve had a lot of questions at the foundation, and we just want to remind you that it’s not been an easy road for us to all transition possibly to a telehealth opportunity, but don’t worry because the foundation has a lot of information on telehealth. We have two webinars that you can download and watch, and it talks about how to navigate the murky waters during this time with the telehealth. And it really just kind of gets you prepared for a whole new way of life. Patients that may not be able to come in to see you are going to enjoy seeing you in a telehealth way. So make sure you take a moment to take a look at those webinars. I think they’ll be very helpful for you.
Now, so excited because today is the day that we’re actually launching our new eBook, Enhancing Your Health with Chiropractic Care, chocked full, mind body and spirit on how chiropractic is really assisting the patients. We’re launching it today with you, ChiroSecure. So our members at the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress are going to have a beautifully, well-crafted, brand-new eBook that they can put out in their waiting rooms, handout to patients as they’re leaving, or if you want to put it in a newsletter, on a website, or text it to them, whatever you feel comfortable with. Please get it out there, ensure that our patients are excited about enhancing their health because it’s not been an easy road, but listen, this is the time for us to make top of mind their health like never before. So I’m encouraging you to have this complete health work eBook out there for them to consume. I’m very excited. I hope you will see it.
In it, you’re going to talk about, it’s nutrition, stress management that we talked about, a little more about hydration, physical activity and the importance that physical activity brings, posture, mindset. I have been very grateful each day to have a meditation of five minutes, and it really has helped reset my own thoughts. I believe that when I go back into consistently seeing a regular patient base, that a meditation will be helpful to share with my patients on how I can decrease my stress. And I’m hoping that you’ll take some of the invites in this eBook and transfer it into your life so you can see how it works and how you can really adopt that with your patients.
One of the key pieces with the foundation is our corporate sponsors, and they have been absolutely fantastic. We’ve gathered all of the COVID-19 related materials that you can find on our website to further help you and educate the patients. So don’t be shy, come on a board, find out what’s happening and what resources are there to support you in practice.
As we go through in the social media, now more than ever before chiropractors need to maximize communication with their patients. And what better way to do so than social media? In fact, more than 3.8 billion individuals are active on social media, with 321 million new users in the last year. I can tell you it’s probably gone up with the pandemic because everybody wants to know what’s going on in the world. Utilize those numbers to get your messaging out to the masses.
The resources that are available to our members to download are right here. It shows tips on how and why it is important to connect with your patients on social media. As we go through the very exciting next steps, re-entry back after COVID-19, a road to recovery, and this is Your Recovery Roadmap. I’m teasing it up because it’s coming soon. And I know each and every of us want to go back into practice on a new level because it’s a new world, and we want to make sure we get all of the pieces right and how to do the re-entry.
So Your Recovery Roadmap is right around the corner. And I promise you that we’ll get that out to our foundation members because it’s really important to have us all united in how we’re going to ensure the safety of our patients, and we know that they’re going to be a little nervous, and how do we adequately, appropriately do this to be effective as a healthcare provider? Stay tuned. It’s coming very soon. We’re getting it done.
I never thought I would be doing this much material this fast with my fabulous team. But trust me, we’re here along the pathway with you on this journey, and we’re going to do everything we can to make your life easier.
Last but not least, extraordinarily grateful for you to come and join me on these Facebook Lives. Remember, we’ll be back next month with ChiroSecure’s Facebook Live, but ensure that you make Tuesdays ChiroSecure’s Facebook Live day because it’s chocked full of amazing information that all of us need to use in our practices. I look forward to having you back next month. In the current times and the stress, I wish you the very best of health and peace in this time. We’ll see you next time. Thanks.
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