Many naturopaths, chiropractors, medical doctors, ophthalmologists, and other healthcare providers are expanding their practice by offering medical-grade supplements. This is one addition that holds the potential to improve the quality of life for your patients and create a new revenue stream for your practice.
So, is selling supplements right for you? Let’s take a look at the difference between medical-grade supplements and store-bought supplements, how patients and practitioners benefit from the sale of supplements, the ethical considerations, and how to pick a supplement supplier should you decide to proceed. This information will help you decide if medical-grade supplements are a good fit for your practice.
The Difference Between Store-Bought and Medical-Grade Supplements
The nutritional supplements sold at the local grocery store, nutrition center, discount stores, or through a local multi-level marketing associate are not the same as medical-grade supplements.
Medical-grade supplements are supplements formulated by doctors and are targeted to support overall health or are formulated to the specific needs and conditions of their patients.
Store-bought supplements are formulated and manufactured to sell a product to the general public. The goal is maximizing sales and profit.
On the other hand, medical-grade supplements are formulated and reviewed by numerous doctors. They are intended for use by physicians to offer a higher level of dietary supplementation and are tools for doctors to use in addressing the specific needs of their patients.
Medical-grade supplements allow a physician to create a personalized multi-vitamin supplement regime to support optimum health and vigor for each patient.
Then there is also a difference in potency. For example, many ophthalmologists recommend “fish oil” as dietary supplement to increase the intake of Omega-3 fatty acids to help alleviate dry eyes. Now, their patient may purchase store-bought fish oil with a front label claim of 1,200 milligrams of fish oil and zero cholesterol. But, the specific dietary ingredients key to supporting good eye health are Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) The back label of this store-bought supplement indicates the supplement provides 363 milligrams and 240 milligrams of these nutrients respectively. The store-bought supplement may contain 1,200 miligrams of fish oil, but only 603 milligrams of the needed supplemental nutrition.
Now, compare that to a medical-grade supplement like Complete High Potency Omega-3 Liquid from Nutri-West. The medical-grade supplement provides 880 milligrams of EPA and 420 milligrams of DHA. That’s a total of 1,300 milligrams – more than twice the true potency of the store-bought counterpart. Higher potency means the patient needs to take less of the product to receive a beneficial effect.
The ophthalmologist that offers the high-quality, medical-grade supplement can instruct the patient to take 1 ½ dose to receive 2,000 milligrams of EPA and DHA, otherwise, the patient is stuck taking 3 or more doses of the store-bought product. So, do you want your patients to take 3 doses of an inferior store-bought supplement or 1 ½ doses of the more potent medical-grade formula?
Benefits to Patients and Practitioners
Nutri-West goes above and beyond to provide products for specific health conditions for individual patients in addition to supplements to support general health. When a practitioner adds medical-quality supplements to their practice like those from Nutri-West, everyone benefits.
Benefits to Patients
High-quality, potent supplements provide benefits to the patient and their family. By supporting the immune, respiratory, circulatory, reproductive, endocrine, nervous, and digestive systems you support better overall health.
Many Americans are interested in leading healthier lives, incorporating healthier habits, and are curious if supplements can help. However, they are reluctant to take them without the recommendation of their educated physician. When you encourage patients to improve their nutrition through supplementation, you are supporting their efforts to improve their quality of life. Patients experience better outcomes when treatment includes the proper nutritional supplementation.
Medical grade supplements can offer support for specific organs, systems, or even underlying conditions – such as inflammation. This support as part of a holistic treatment plan can not only improve health but improve the patient’s everyday life.
Benefits to Practitioners
Practitioners always keep the best interest of their patients as their top priority. So, it stands to reason what benefits the patient benefits the practitioner. This maxim holds true for adding medical grade supplements to your practice.
By ensuring your patients receive complete nutritional support you know you are treating them with all resources you have available to you. And if your patients are going to take supplements, you want to be assured that they are not taking store-bought products with questionable ingredients and dubious results. With medical-grade supplements, you know your patients ingest high-quality ingredients in a product that was manufactured under careful supervision and delivers the potency they need to achieve the results they want.
You can also expect to benefit from an additional revenue stream as patients take advantage of the ease of purchasing their supplements while in the office.
Is Selling Supplements Ethical?
The ethics of selling supplements has been hotly debated for years. The American Medical Association’s position on selling supplements is the same position that it holds on selling any other health-related products. The physician should only offer products that are backed by scientific reviews when it comes to efficacy. They should also avoid conflicts of interest.
No ethical practitioner will offer a supplement just to make a buck. You and your colleagues wouldn’t do that.
What is ethical is to uphold your Hippocratic Oath and do no harm. Since you can’t control the quality or potency of store-bought supplements, you should steer clear of them and only recommend supplements developed by physicians for physicians.
In addition, you’ll want to check with your state licensing board. The regulations vary from state to state and from practice. For example, Massachusetts previously barred the sale of supplements by medical practitioners, but since 2016, the law recognizes the need for naturopathic doctors and those working in a naturopathic health system to offer nutritional supplements. So, it is now allowed.
Picking a Medical-Grade Supplement Supplier
Once you’ve decided that supplementing your practice with supplements makes sense, you’ll want to search carefully for a reliable supplier.
Choose your supplier as carefully as you would a partner. That’s because this supplier will be a partner in the healthcare you offer to your patients.
Make sure they only offer medical-grade supplements. Also, the products should be manufactured in the United States, so they meet the highest quality standards for supplements.
A reputable supplier, like Nutri-West, will have input from many physicians and health care professionals that formulate, research, and approve products. They will also be dedicated to supporting your continuing education on nutritional supplementation through workshops and seminars.
That’s the level of support and the assurance of quality you want from your supplier of medical-grade supplements.