For more information about these seven essentials, go to

Structure

For example, when patients are educated about how structure may impact the function of their body’s systems, their ongoing self-awareness of posture habits can lead them to experience better health outcomes.

Diet and Nutrition

This may be an area where your practice already excels — but how about Essential #2, diet and nutrition? Does your office have systems in place to help patients identify potential nutrient gaps in their diets? This can be done with surveys or food diaries, freely available from your Standard Process distributor. Regular dietary habits will emerge from these queries. Positive dietary changes can be suggested to your patients, and whole food supplements can become part of their care plan.

Digestion and Hormones

Essentials #3 and 4 — digestion and hormones — are important factors to assess with patients. Digestive complaints are increasingly common, and in the long term may impact nutrient absorption. The full digestive process includes the breakdown of food, the assimilation of the nutrients contained in that food, and the elimination of the waste material the body cannot utilize.

Patients struggling in this area may be more apt to experience difficulty maintaining their ideal body weight, or increasing musculoskeletal strength, which may contribute to the root of why they are seeking your services. Helping your patients learn how to support their digestion and maintain optimum levels of digestive enzymes and intestinal microbiota may be an important part of supporting their physical care.

With today’s fast-paced lifestyles, the balance of the endocrine system is fundamental to assist patients in reaching wellness goals. The endocrine system functions 24/7 and influences every part of the body. Balancing this system may support restorative sleep, improve mood and digestion, and boost energy levels. A well-balanced endocrine system is also important for supporting stress management as well as long- term recovery from illness or injury.

Exercise

Exercise — Essential #5 — is well known for promoting the health of the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems. Taking time to assess the most appropriate type and level of exercise can help your patients plan a successful and fulfilling exercise routine. The previous four Essentials will also help your patients find the resources to better incorporate exercise into their daily life through improved energy, sleep, digestion, and post-exercise recovery.

Stress

Patients often arrive for their treatment in a state of stress, and leave feeling much more relaxed. Yet, shortly after they leave the office, the sources of stress reappear in their lives, which may affect the result of their treatments.

As a trusted health care practitioner, you can be a great source of support in helping your patients find ways to de-stress their lives, which is Essential #6. Perhaps recommending local yoga or meditation classes, along with a new exercise routine may help moderate their stress. Incorporating more whole foods and adequate water intake into their diet may help counteract the effects of physical stress and toxic exposures from day-to-day living.

Thoughts Finally, Essential #7 reminds us of the importance of positive thought patterns. Patients need positive thinking to preserve their motivation and momentum toward reaching their health goals. Identifying and resolving negative thinking patterns is a valuable step toward improving their health and wellbeing — and it can impact their outlook on life for years to come.

Plexus www.standardprocess.com/7-essentials

Guiding patients toward achieving more balance in all seven areas often naturally results in a more positive mindset as they begin to feel the effects of whole food nutrition and a healthier lifestyle.

After presenting the benefits of the seven essentials, the next step is to encourage your patients to commit to healthy habits. There are many ways to introduce this concept to your patients. Some practitioners discuss it one-on-one during regular appointments, while others teach it during a workshop or a new patient education night. For some patients, working on one Essential at a time will be of more benefit, while others will be ready to work on multiple areas at one time.

To assist practitioners and their patients, Dr. Powell partnered with Standard Process, Inc. to publish a free patient education booklet: Your Seven Essentials to Health and Well-Being. This booklet acts as an easy- to-use tool and guide for incorporating the seven areas of health with tips and techniques to help patients stay on track. It also offers product recommendations for those who need the support of whole food based products. The scorecards in each section allow the patient and practitioner to measure the current state for each of the seven areas, total up their full health quotient, set their health goals, and then reevaluate over time as they make progress toward those goals.

Additionally, for those who incorporate whole food nutritional concentrates into their practice, the Seven Essentials to Health and Well-Being booklet provides recommended products to support each area. For instance, Ligaplex®

II and Cataplex® D are recommended

in the structural support section to provide a nutritional foundation for connective tissue and bone health, while the digestive support section contains commonly used products such as Zypan®

and Enzycore.

For practitioners who are not yet incorporating nutritional support into clinical practice, using the Seven Essentials foundation can effectively provide fresh, innovative services to your current patients — and in addition, attract new patients. This approach provides a value-added, cash-generating service to increase revenue in your practice by reinforcing the importance of healthy lifestyle choices.

For those interested in learning more about whole- person care for their patients, Dr. Powell offers a free, in-depth, 50-minute webinar to show how to fully incorporate this approach into any practice and how your patients will benefit from this easy-to-use tool. Visit www.standardprocess.com/7-essentials for this free training video and more information about the Seven Essentials approach.

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