Karen Romano, D.C., a 1995 dual nutrition and chiropractic graduate from Life University, has a part-time practice in Marietta, Ga., where she alos specializes in nutritional counseling. Prior to her
chiropractic
career, Romano spent 18 years as a registered nurse. She also taught nutrition
at Life for four years and she co-authored a nutrition book titled Preventing
and Reversing Arthritis Naturally. Contributing editor Pattie Stechschulte spoke
with Romano recently about the relationship between chiropractic and nutrition.Today’s Chiropractic: What attracted you to the field of nutrition?
Romano: I think part of it is from being a nurse, when I saw unhealthy people taking tons of medications and traditional medicine didn’t help them. That’s what brought me to chiropractic and nutrition.
TC: How do you use nutrition in your practice?
Romano: I see a lot of patients for nutritional counseling. I actually work with the doctor and see patients with thyroid problems, adrenal exhaustion, yeast problems and food allergies. I help patients try to figure out what they can eat while they are following a yeast-free diet because they get really confused on what they can eat. It gets complicated and besides that, they really don’t feel well, which makes it a lot more work.
TC: Are your patients surprised at how nutrition affects their health?
Romano: Absolutely. Within two weeks they can feel a difference. That doesn’t mean that they can feel really good, because when you are really sick you can’t expect that. It’s enough to motivate them to stay on the right track.
TC: In what ways do nutrition and chiropractic belong together?
Romano:
They are both very necessary in promoting health to the body. Poor nutrition
can cause a lot of subluxations, and a lot of times, people’s subluxations
and muscle pains don’t get better until their diet is better. They are
both necessary for health.TC: Are there ways they don’t work together?
Romano: No, never.
TC: How has using nutrition helped grow your practice?
Romano: I don’t typically advertise. I go by referrals from preventive medicine doctors, whose focus is on health, not just treating the diseases. Most doctors don’t really have a focus at all on nutrition. Most of them do not think that a food allergy can cause problems. Just because they don’t have training in it, they don’t really know how different foods and nutrients can help the body.
TC: How big is your practice?
Romano: It is a small practice. I only work two evenings a week and I usually see about 10 patients a week for nutritional counseling which takes a little bit of time. My initial evaluation is anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half, and my follow-up appointment is around 45 minutes.
TC: How has nutrition influenced the way your practice?
Romano: I love seeing patients nutritionally. My practice is probably smaller because I can’t see as many people, but I have just such a strong passion for how the body works and seeing how differently people can feel.
TC: What are some of the latest trends in the field of nutrition?
Romano: I work a lot with hormone imbalances. When your diet is out whack, it can cause your hormones to be out of whack, your thyroid to be out of whack and your adrenals to be out of whack. A lot of times these problems can correct themselves with nutrition.
What I am seeing the most of is thyroid and yeast problems. My thought is that most people do not have a true thyroid problem; it is that their body is nutritionally depleted. That does not mean they are not eating enough food. We don’t have a lot of whole foods and people are not getting the nutrients that they should which affects the thyroid and therefore the hormones and adrenals, too. I very, very frequently see fatigue problems, muscle aches, which is not necessarily a true Fibromyalgia. It is all from nutrition depletion.
TC: It is because of the modern diet?
Romano: Yes. Everything is processed and the nutrients are taken out of it and sugar is added, which accounts for the yeast problem.
TC: How can a chiropractor learn more about the field of nutrition?
Romano: I would suggest reading as much as you can from journals and books by people who deal with nutrition holistically. Find one area they are really interested in and read everything that you can about it. There are still a lot of slants on everything and there is no right or wrong answer to nutrition because it depends on the individual person.