405- Chiropractic in the Healthy China Initiative

Welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor, where each week we deliver the latest chiropractic research and marketing strategies, all in the time it takes to get to your office. Now here's your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid.

Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmid. On today's episode, we're talking research. A brand new study that came out in QRIUS just last month and it is about the inclusion of chiropractic care in the Healthy China Initiative for 2030. There are a lot of messages that are gonna ring true with healthcare here in the United States, as well as some of their citations of what is chiropractic good for? If you It's a great study, it's a fantastic opportunity. It's more of, I guess a editorial than a study, but it points out some things in the research that all of us should be very aware of. We're gonna break it down on today's episode. Before we get there, I'll say a few words about Patient Pilot by the smart chiropractor. We recently started daily reactivation reports. So for all of our members or if you wanna become a member, I'd highly recommend doing so. If you'd like to have more reactivations and you'd like daily reporting, if you're showing you literally what is the first name and last name of these people on your email list who want to reactivate, many will automatically click those buttons, click to schedule, call to schedule, hop back right on your calendar. But you're gonna be able to double check that in your team each and every day with daily reactivation reporting. So really the gist of it is with Patient Pilot. The question is, would you like a report showing you every patient that wants to reactivate every day that they do? If so, then you wanna head over schedule a quick call with our team@thesmartchiropractor.com Additionally, I'll drop a link down in the show notes to make it easy, but as I said at the top of today's episode, we're talking research. I'm also going to drop a link to this study in the show notes. And again, it is titled the inclusion of Chiropractic Care in the healthy China Initiative 2030. And this is a big deal. The healthy China Initiative 2030, as you can imagine, sets forth what they hope to achieve by 2030. And it's a significant health policy that was launched some years ago in 2016 and the goal is to improve the overall health Standards of the country. That's a little vague. So let's dive deeper. What does that mean? Well, there are two primary goals associated with this. One, to enhance the health literacy of Chinese citizens to above 20% and number two, to increase their average lifespan by three years. That is a big, big ask and I'll just throw it out there. I don't think there's any way, shape or form the United States is even remotely close to 20% health literacy or else we wouldn't see the behaviors and choices and continuation of many of the health quote unquote strategies utilizing United States additionally increasing the average lifespan by three years over a 14 year period is really aggressive. I commend them for it. When I look at lifespan averages right now, quite frankly, I haven't seen anything in a number of years that didn't show the United States sliding back, not speeding ahead. So those are two big goals and big initiatives of which if they hit those in 2030, we'll talk about how chiropractic plays into this is a really, really big deal. So these have a two pronged approach to them. One is a focus on prevention and control of disease. That's literally the first thing. A focus on prevention. That's wild. I just don't think many countries are looking at things that way in any meaningful. In any meaningful way. The second part is encouraging health related science and technology innovation. So how do you increase lifespan? How do you increase health literacy? Well, you do it by again, focusing on prevention and control of disease and encouraging health related science and tech innovation. So a clear path. It's easier said than done, of course. So where does chiropractic fit in? That's what we're going to talk about. And just as a side note, this is a big shift from what China has previously had as a healthcare model, which this is going to sound wildly familiar if you happen to be listening to this in the United States or Canada, which was largely focused previously on disease treatment. And that is a big shift when we move from disease treatment to prevention. And quite frankly with the industrial complex of medicine in the United States, I just don't see this happening anytime soon. Now as consumers and people become more interested in prevention, that can drive things. But I don't see our government at all taking any sort of form of initiatives. That's the bad news. The good news is people at an individual level are very interested in prevention. So there's an appetite for it out there. But just as we can't expect insurance companies to magically pay us More money, never gonna happen. We also can't expect the government to all of a sudden start focusing on prevention. And quite frankly, if they did, their idea of health prevention, or, excuse me, disease prevention might be a little bit different than the way we view disease prevention. So I don't say that to dog the government. I don't say that to challenge people in the United States. I say that to just say that's the way it is. So understanding that's number one. Number two is, okay, well, what kind of can I make as a business owner, as a healthcare professional to maximize my opportunity to help people? Because that's really what it is all about. And let's tie back to the study. Ultimately, what is chiropractic care? Because that's an important component of, well, how does that fit into that? So as they highlight chiropractic care as a hands on discipline that focuses on the neuromusculoskeletal system, and they also say it has been, I love this, widely recognized for its benefits, particularly in terms of disease prevention and curative therapy. That's powerful stuff. Again, 20 years ago you'd never see a line like that in any research study. Now it's almost as if, yeah, we know it. It's widely recognized, there's a ton of benefits, it prevents disease and it has curative aspects to it. And chiropractic, as they say, is the hallmark as spinal manipulation, which can impact the musculoskeletal system, thereby significant reduction in pain of muscles, joints, bones, connective tissue. And this can be advantageous for people with chronic conditions like back pain, neck pain, headaches, all of those things that we know. And of course, as we know, and they highlight, chiropractic is non invasive, it's drug free and it's used to prevent the onset of musculoskeletal issues, reduce the need for medication and improve overall health and well being. I couldn't have said that better myself. I love seeing stuff like that in print because again, I can tell you, when we talk about health, tying this back to health literacy, I can guarantee you because I see it all day, every day, on social media, on YouTube, everywhere else. Most people think chiropractic still is a magical unicorn of nothingness. They do not believe that. They have never been told, they've never been showcased, which in my opinion is a huge issue. When we talk about the medical providers giving no information or misinformation, it's a real issue. That's why building referral relationships can be so important. But it is a real, real issue because we look at the research, the research that's being published is so different than the thought process of the average person. There is no alignment between these two things. And that's a real challenge. Now every challenge is an opportunity. So it's also an opportunity for you to educate, for you to grab market share, for you to highlight who you are and what you do. But it is a real challenge as well. And they highlight in this study that chiropract care with the dual role of prevention and treatment could be an integral component of these comprehensive healthcare systems that are being built across mainland China. So again, they talk about understanding chiropractic care, that it is a discipline that focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal nervous systems and how that affects general health. That there's a manual therapy component as we know, spine, peripheral joint, soft tissue. And that we take a holistic approach to the body emphasizing inherent recuperative powers of, of the body, the natural healing system, which I think is really important. I want to highlight this for a moment. We all know, you know, chiropractic is a holistic modality. But I want to just point out to you, think about the patients that you're seeing today. Are you taking a holistic mentality with them or not? Because many times docs in the quote unquote evidence based world become really myopic really quickly. There's pain here. I want to get that pain out of here as quickly as possible. I want to get that patient out of my practice as possible. I'm not over treating anybody and okay, I get it. But don't go crazy. You know that we really start to, I start to see a lot of young docs that are sports minded that you know, literally brand themselves as evidence based, becoming really myopic with their care. And it's to. The irony being it's to the detriment of the patient, not to the benefit of the patient. So if you really want to have a patient centric approach, use what you do uniquely as a chiropractor. Look at things holistically, look at the nec, always evaluate the next body region. If somebody comes in with a thoracic complaint, check the cervical in the lumbar spine. If somebody comes with a lumbar complaint, check the thoracic, check the SI joints. You gotta look at these next joints and really take more of a holistic approach. You're going to see your patients are happier. They're also going to not surprisingly get better. And that's the Most important thing we can all do. So they highlight here that chiropractic care and there's a difference between, you know, Hong Kong and mainland China. So they highlight here, you know, in Hong Kong, chiropractic has been recognized for its evidence based benefits and that there have been numerous studies showing that chiropractic care can be effective for managing musculoskeletal pain, especially low back pain. They highlight a previous study that showed chiropractic lead to significant improvements in pain intensity and disability in patients with low back. They also highlight a comprehensive review that showed spinal manipulation is as effective as other commonly used treatments for chronic low back pain without the risks. And then a final study that they highlight revealed the risk of adverse events in chiropractic is extremely low and indicates the safety of the modality. So this all sounds great. Why isn't this just a natural conclusion? Well, there are a couple stumbling blocks. Chiropractors are not recognized as medical professionals in mainland China. Doesn't mean it's illegal, it's just not regulated. So many chiropractors. There are many chiropractors. They work in private hospitals. They work in hospitals and talk about a different system, right? Imagine being a unrecognized provider that can work in a hospital in the United States. Probably wouldn't happen. So they work in private hospitals, local hospitals, some chiropractors on the national sports teams to manage sports injuries. All of that takes place. But when there's a lack of recognition and regulation, public awareness and understanding becomes extremely limited. So these are some of the challenges. Regulatory is actually the number one, going to be the number one issue here with getting chiropractic into this initiative. So previous research has shown. Why is this important in terms of getting into the initiative? Well, previous research has shown that chiropractic can decrease gabapentin prescriptions by nearly 50%. Why? Because number one, people will feel better and don't need the prescription. Two, they understand how their body works better. The communication of chiropractors, bar none to other doctors on the whole is just much better in terms of empowering people to take control of their health through movement based care and therapy. And specifically when we're talking about neuromusculoskeletal complaints, 99% of the time, that's the right thing. So as they highlight chiropractic prioritizes patient education and self management strategies which are totally aligned with this initiative. But first, the government has to recognize chiropractic. The second, they say the government should promote research on the effectiveness. And third, they, they should find ways to integrate chiropractic into other health services so that there's a better and more holistic and patient centered approach to care. So the regulatory issues are undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges and they suggest that the Chinese government work with international chiropractic organizations. I don't know the international political landscape, but I know a few docs including Dr. Brown over at the WFC. I don't know where the lines are drawn there, but sounds like they would be a great organization. They also talk about working with other healthcare institutions. I know Bill Morgan and Parker are doing great things. I know it's far to extend over to China, but man, talk about opportunity. With billions of people looking for healthy initiatives, looking for the answers by what we do. And this study sort of starts to highlight what that could look like in the real world. So the big take home messages for me from this study are a couple things. One, it's interesting how China is approaching health care at a national level and how we're approaching health care, or should I say how we approach disease care at a country level, national level here in the United States. Two, is setting really aggressive goals. That's interesting. That gets people motivated and to take action. Three, this study highlights the fact that chiropractic needs to be a part of this. There's just no question about it. And they're talking about this being a part of it even in a completely unregulated landscape in China. So I think about the regulation that takes place, for example in the United States, in Canada, in Australia, heavy regulation and the fact that we're still only seeing 15% of the population and that still a majority of individuals with neuromusculoskeletal complaints are getting advanced interventions. That is a problem. So here's the good news. It's a great opportunity for us to get out there individually to build our businesses. But it is a challenge at a community level when we have people getting unnecessary surgeries, unnecessary injections, unnecessary interventions day in and day out. The only way that changes is not by waiting for the government but by getting out there telling our story and ensuring you have the tools and systems in your practice that give you the opportunity to do it. As a small business owner, you should not be responsible, for example, writing emails. That's why we do that at Patient Pilot. You don't, you're not making money doing that. You need to take care of people and to get people into your practice. You need to have systems and processes to do so and one of the best ways to do that is through reactivations, bar none. So I loved this study. I thought it was a really interesting highlight from a different perspective. I hope you did as well. If you have any feedback, you can always hit me up. Jeff the evidencebasedchiropractor.com Additionally, if you have not left a rating or review for this podcast, I would love it and greatly appreciate it if you do so. That would be awesome. And finally, if you're thinking about hiring before the end of the year, now is the time to start taking action. Schedule a free call with Cairo Matchmakers if you're looking to hire a D.C. associate. If you're looking to hire a CA or a VCA, a virtual Cairo chiropractic assistant 70% less cost. And for anything that can be taught and trained, those things can happen through a virtual chiropractic assistant. So if you are a lone wolf looking to scale, not ready to bring on that first person man, talk about a great opportunity with a vca. Head over to Chiro Matchmakers. Schedule a call. If you have any difficulty with that, you can always hit me up. I'll guide you in the right direction. Otherwise, thank you for being a chiropractor. Have an awesome week in practice and I will talk to you soon.

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