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Issue 13 - October 2003 Homeopathy and nutrition enrich Homeopathy isn't a household word. In fact, it wasn't even a word in the dictionary until just a few years ago. But it's catching on in this country. Eventually it will make its way into the Yellow Pages (it already has in some places) and, perhaps one day, into the average healthcare consumer's mind. For Gary S. Snyder, DC, DNBHE, homeopathy is the word. Well, one of them, at least. Nutrition is the “other” word. And as a chiropractor specializing in nutrition and homeopathy for more than a quarter-century and certified by the National Board of Homeopathic Examiners, Synder has built the Alternative Medicine Center into a $500,000, all-cash practice in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Succeeding in the areas of nutrition and homeopathy meant more than helping patients learn a new vocabulary. For Snyder it meant committing to the disciplines as a way of life. That, in turn, meant lots and lots of education — first for himself, then for his patients. “We’re in the Information Age,” says Snyder, who sees 75 patients per week and about 25 new patients each month. “Ten years ago the Yellow Pages didn’t even have a classification for homeopathy. But within the past few years it has appeared, just because there is more of a public awareness about it. They’re hearing it more, reading about it, finding things on the Internet. “Not that it’s a household word yet, certainly, but there’s awareness of homeopathy and homeopathic remedies. Every health food store — or just about every health food store — in a major market has homeopathic remedies. So [people] are getting educated that way. They’re starting to look. They want to find a doctor that is not only certified, but who practices homeopathy.”
Getting the word out “In most other countries, homeopathy is practiced by your regular MD,” Snyder explains. “I get patients who come in and are amazed that they had to search forever. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I started advertising in the Yellow Pages under nutrition and under homeopathy. Patients were coming in saying, ‘I would have been in here five years ago, but I had to hear about you by word of mouth. Why aren’t you in the Yellow Pages?’ And eventually I said, ‘Why aren’t I in the Yellow Pages?’ I tried an ad and it did pretty well for me.” Snyder now advertises in the telephone book under both homeopathy and nutritionists. It’s part of a marketing strategy that focuses more on referrals and word of mouth than anything else. He spends about $6,500 annually on marketing and advertising. This includes $374 a month for a Yellow Pages ad, along with $1,500 a year for mailings and $500 a year for brochures and miscellaneous items. With 28 years as a practitioner, 15 in his current locale, Snyder does lectures in the community for various civic groups, along with occasional health fairs and keeps his traditional advertising to a minimum. Referrals from MDs, other DCs, patients and other professionals keep business coming his way. One way to lure nutrition/ homeopathy patients is to find them in places they frequent, namely health food stores. Snyder gives lectures at area health food establishments and routinely leaves business cards and brochures there.
When employees of various health food stores come into his practice as patients, Snyder gives them discounts. He does the same with students and faculty of local massage-therapy institutes. “The same people that are going to come into your practice are going to go into those stores, and the word spreads,” Snyder says. “I know they are a ready referral base. Once they feel comfortable with you, they’re in a position to do a lot of referring. Any way you can promote yourself and get the word out there is what will work. The percent of the community that is interested in natural remedies is growing...It takes time, but if you do good work and you’re helping people, the word spreads.”
Education is key “Education is the key to this,” he says. “People hear of nutrition; they hear of homeopathy, herbology; they hear about all these things. But who knows what they really hear or read or what they really know? But once you explain it to them, they see the need for it. Once you get some credible results from homeopathy or nutrition, they see what you’re doing.” Patient education includes illustrating the advantages of homeopathic techniques as compared to common medical practices. Snyder estimates that one-third of his practice involves pediatric cases, saying that children respond well to homeopathic care. Parents like it as an option to using antibiotics. “Most parents are fed up with going in and getting another antibiotic and watching their kids get sicker and sicker as they continue to suppress the immune system with the antibiotic,” he says. “You teach them that’s what the antibiotics do — they suppress. They don’t kill of all the bad guys. They leave some behind.” The strategy has left Snyder with a practice that averages $132 per office visit and bills an average of $1,650 per case. This includes all chiropractic, nutritional and homeopathic care. Transforming the practice Snyder prefers to pursue the less common areas of expertise. It was a road he took almost by accident. Snyder began his career by focusing only on chiropractic. He did, however, have an interest in nutrition. During his days at Logan College of Chiropractic in Missouri, a DC, who was also an MD specializing in nutritional endocrinology, was doing research. The visiting doctor taught classes in nutrition.“So I had three or four semesters of some pretty in-depth clinical nutrition teaching. Normally I would have had one semester of some really lightweight dietetics,” Snyder recalls. “I was really fascinated by [what I learned].” Once he began practicing, Snyder was looking for more information, attending seminars and listening to everything he could on the subject of nutrition. About a year after Snyder was in private practice, Columbia (Mo.) College, where he did some undergraduate work, offered a two-year program in bionutrition. “They brought in all the big names of the day who had written the books and who were the nutrition gurus for different modules of teaching,” Snyder remembers. “That gave me the opportunity to really find out about clinical nutrition and nutritional medicine, and I earned a separate degree in bionutrition.” After about a dozen years in practice, during which time he began specializing more in nutritional medicine and practicing less chiropractic — “Because (chiropractic) took more and more of my time,” he says — Snyder decided to commit 100 percent to nutrition. Along the way he began studying homeopathy. “I was fascinated by the detoxification aspect of homeopathy,” he says. He still practices chiropractic. As he says, some patients “don’t want anyone touching them but me.” But in most cases, his one-time chiropractic patients make the transition to nutrition and homeopathy and Snyder continues to treat them with those means. “That primarily is how I developed a homeopathic following,” he says. And soon, like Snyder’s name in many South Florida homes, it may even become a household word.
Vital Statistics The Alternative Medicine Center TEAM PLAYERS OFFICE HOURS Gross collections Marketing budget Todd Stumpf is a freelance writer from Akron, Ohio. He has written professionally for 14 years. He has been with Chiropractic Economics as a contributing editor for three years. He can be reached at TStumpf22@yahoo.com. |
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