Help more patients and grow your practice through nutrition coaching

Research indicates that a person’s diet can significantly impact the function of their musculoskeletal system. Many influential figures in chiropractic, such as BJ Palmer, DC, included nutritional advice as part of their holistic approach to healthcare.

In a PubMed study on nutritional counseling in the chiropractic profession, 80% of respondents used some form of health and nutrition coaching in their practices but desired to have more knowledge in clinical nutrition.¹

In this interview, Chiropractic Economics talks to Marty Furlong, DC (MF), and Jackie Furlong, BSc, (JF), and explores some key features of nutritional coaching and education options available to help DCs increase their knowledge of how nutritional coaching can help more patients and grow their practice.

CE. Tell us about yourself and your practice.

MF. I’m a doctor of chiropractic but I describe myself as a holistic practitioner. In other words, we view the body as a whole working unit. I found that patients needed more than just straight chiropractic adjustments to get the results I was looking for.

I knew nutrition was a major factor. In the book “The Chiropractor’s Adjustor,” DD Palmer, the “Father of Chiropractic,” indicated that subluxation can be caused by the toxins we ingest just as much as by injury or impact. That led me to investigate the role nutrition played.

CE. Can you explain more about how nutrition affects the body and the nervous system?

MF.The underlying principle of chiropractic is the body can heal itself unless something interferes with that ability. Subluxations disrupt the body’s normal function. So, if toxins and nutritional deficiencies can cause subluxations as much as trauma or impact, it stands to reason that they are a major factor in healing a body.

I needed more tools to implement this holistic approach, and through nutrition testing, I found a way to identify stressors and provide a path to fixing them.

CE. What impact has nutrition testing had on your patients and practice?

MF. It’s been a real game-changer. It has made a world of difference in my patients’ results, and my certainty about treating patients is near absolute.

As to the practice, we have gone from a pretty significant chiropractic musculoskeletal insurance-based practice to a nutrition-based, 100% cash, million-dollar practice.

CE. How did you get started with nutrition coaching in your practice?

JF. Marty came home one day looking quite riled up. I asked him what the problem was, and he was frustrated by the patients’ lack of nutrition knowledge, which leads to noncompliance with their nutrition programs and hampers results. I realized we had to do something to handle the patients’ nutrition questions and noncompliance.

I decided to create a nutrition coaching program. I knew that I needed to learn more about nutrition and coaching, so I attended the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, a year-long program, and got certified in health coaching.

CE. How did you develop the guided nutrition program?

JF.When I started, I was doing typical health coaching. I had no particular format, so I started fresh with each patient. I soon noticed a trend: I had to teach basic nutrition to every patient! Which is actually not surprising. Statistics show that while Americans generally recognize the link between diet and chronic diseases, their nutritional knowledge is minimal. Also, 58% are not motivated to stick with a diet on their own, and 55% lack the willpower to resist food temptations.²

So, I created a turnkey program we could use. The program has modules about nutrition that made it easy to grab the session I needed for each patient.

And I had another important goal. I wasn’t planning to be the health coach in our clinic forever. I needed something easy to understand and apply so we could use it to train our staff to handle any overflow. Or, if needed, we could quickly bring in new health coaches and train them.

I also realized that what we do in our clinic could be helpful to other DCs. This nutrition coaching system is now available to any DC who would like to use it.

CE. Can you tell us about the difference it makes to patients?

MF. The first thing is compliance. Patients tend to stay with a program when they see results. I always say I can’t out-nutrition or out-adjust a bad diet. In other words, the patient must do their end of it for them to get better.

It’s amazing how it opens their eyes. You get this response: Wow! I didn’t know what I didn’t know. They’re shocked at how the changes make a big difference, not only in how they feel but also in the results they see the next time they come in for nutrition testing or an adjustment.

It completes the puzzle for them. Interestingly, many patients think they eat well and do everything they should until they start getting a nutritional check. When they sit down with the coach, they can learn where their diet is failing. They become empowered, and they’re very excited. Our practice is primarily referral-based. That doesn’t happen unless your current patients are getting huge results.

We achieve that with a combination of health coaching and nutrition testing.

We just had a new patient who is very excited with the results she’s getting after a few appointments. She had concerns that while she was away traveling for business, she would lose momentum. We were able to continue her nutrition coaching sessions via telehealth.

JF. We also developed an incredibly successful tool that increases patients’ compliance with dietary changes. It’s called the Food Health Score (FHS). It is a grading system for the patient’s weekly food log that calculates a score. This score is added to their FHS graph so the patient can see how they are trending. It provides a benchmark to gauge progress. It tells the patient if what they’re eating supports thriving health or contributes to significant or permanent health problems. It’s a great tool that motivates patients to make changes.

Nutrition coaching has made an enormous difference in our practice. We wanted to share this with other DCs and hope they will have the same success.

MARTY FURLONG, DC, is the owner and clinic director of MetroEast Natural Healing Center. He is a second-generation DC who has exclusively used natural healthcare for his health. He is a 1986 graduate of Northwestern Health Sciences University. He has sports specialty training and has treated professional, Olympic, collegiate and amateur athletes to reach their maximum performance. Furlong is one of a group of master-trained practitioners in Nutrition Response Testing^® in the US. For more information, visit nutritionchiropractic.com.

JACKIE FURLONG, BSc, earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Minnesota and became certified as a holistic health coach with the AFPA and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She developed the Complete Nutrition Coaching Course with Ulan Nutritional Systems to make this coaching system available to other chiropractic clinics.

References

Holtzman D, Burke J. Nutritional counseling in the chiropractic practice: A survey of New York practitioners. J Chiropr Med. 2007;6(1):27–31. PubMed. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2647073/. Accessed December 10, 2024.
The grades are in: Most Americans score an ‘F’ on fat IQ test. MDVIP survey. June 2018. https://www.mdvip.com/about-mdvip/press-room/majority-americans-suffer-low-fat-iq. Accessed December 10, 2024.

GLORIA N. HALL is the editor-in-chief of Chiropractic Economics.

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