Show notes
Dr. Cindy M. Howard is a Board Certified Chiropractic Internist and Nutritionist in private practice and the owner of Innovative Health & Wellness Center in Orland Park, Illinois and also holds a license in the state of Florida. She owns DC consulting; assisting private practices improve their communication skills and improving patient adherence while building a better functional medicine and nutritional practice. For the last 12 years she has served as the Illinois delegate for the American Chiropractic Association and as the alternate for 6 years prior to that. She was the ACA recipient of the Flynn/Lynch award in 2015 for outstanding service. She is a past president of the ACA Council on Diagnosis and Internal Disorders and currently serves as the Vice President of the College of Pharmacology and Toxicology. She also serves on the medical advisory board for Fullscript, the Functional Medicine University, and is the chief medical officer for Inguardia Health. Dr. Howard is an associate editor of The Original Internist and a regular contributor for the Illinois Chiropractic Society online newsletter. She speaks nationally, presenting on topics including Pre and Post Concussion Nutrition, Headaches, Sexual Health, Male and Female Pelvic Disorders, GI Disorders, Nutritional Blood Analysis Interpretation and Genetics. Her first book, Positively Altered, is due out in September of 2023. In 2020 Dr. Cindy Howard was awarded the Chiropractor of the Year from the Illinois Chiropractic Society. TRANSCRIPT JAMES CHESTER (HOST): You made the Chiro Hustle. Sit back and learn from the greatest influencers in the profession on the world’s Number One Chiropractic Podcast. Before we dive into this powerful episode, please remember to subscribe to our channels and to give us a 5-star rating on iTunes to continue hustling. This episode is sponsored by Imaging Services, Chiro Health USA, Chiro Moguls, Pure Chiro Notes, Titronics, Sherman College of Chiropractic, New Patients in a Box, The Influencer Authority Podcast Training, Mango Voice, Life Chiropractic College West, and M-Sculpt. LUKE MILLETT (PRODUCER): Let’s Hustle! Hey guys, welcome to Episode 500, the Chiro Hustle Podcast. I’m your producer, Luke Millett, and here’s your host, James Chester. JAMES CHESTER (HOST): So today we have the opportunity of interviewing Dr. Cindy Howard. And if you want to hear a story of giving people the power back with chiropractic, stay tuned. JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Welcome back. This is another episode of the Chiro Hustle Podcast. It’s a long time coming. Oh, I’ve been waiting for this one, Episode 500. Milestone episode, Cindy Howard here coming in from the Windy City, Chicago. Really excited to have her on today. And as you all know, that listen, that our loyal fans that pay attention to all things chiropractic, you know our big why, but I’ll go ahead and restate it for you. Freedom of Speech, First Amendment, so important. And we definitely stand on the shoulders of giants with freedom of speech, and I think that that’s something important for us. Family health freedom, need I say more, medical freedom. Those things are important to us. And I know that chiropractic has been on the forefront of that for 127 years. And next is BJ Palmer Sacred Trust. We do protect the sacred trust. If you don’t know what that means, pause this episode right now and go to your favorite search engine and find out what BJ Palmer’s last words were. You’ll know a whole lot more about chiropractic and why we do what we do over here at Chiro Hustle. And then we also believe in Subluxation-based chiropractic. We know that that’s an important part of the history of chiropractic and the future of chiropractic. And lastly, but not least, we do believe in subluxation that is innate intelligence and that when somebody gets adjusted, it connects man or woman to physical, to man or woman to spiritual. And I think that those are things that we have to discuss within a physics philosophical realm of the profession. And then we can talk a lot more about what you’re into, which I believe helps people too. And I tell people all the time, Cindy, Dr. Cindy, that chiropractic is the original biohack. Like when people think about like where we are today, 2023, we talk about like, what are you doing to like do this or do that? Well, chiropractic has been the one thing that’s stood alone for the longest time. So with that being said, Dr. Cindy Howard, welcome to the show. CINDY HOWARD, DC (GUEST): Oh, it’s so great to be here. Yeah. This is fantastic. I love it. I love it’s number 500, right? So congratulations on that. It’s a huge, huge accomplishment and I’m really proud to be part of it. JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Well, thank you so much. You know, it’s been a long time coming, like I said, and every step of the way, I’ve gotten a chance to, I mean, your background functional medicine, you know the word titration. So for me, every episode that I’ve done has been like a little bit of an element that I’ve dropped into like the ecosystem of the world. And eventually we’re going to get the big idea out there. If we just drop enough episodes into the element of life, there’s going to be enough expression of chiropractic out there. So I feel like we’re just constantly adding a little bit more to like the chemistry of life with these episodes. So yeah, episode 500 is something I’ve really been looking forward to. And I was just talking to somebody, I’m like, do I stop at like a thousand? Like why? Exactly. I’m like, there’s 60,000 chiropractors out there. Why don’t I don’t ever have to stop this stuff. CINDY HOWARD, DC (GUEST): You know, and then we get to come back a second and third time. Well, I love that too. JAMES CHESTER (HOST): And we have had guys like Eric Plasker on like, I think he’s been on like six times. As a? Oh, Eric’s right. But his message is so powerful that he’s always welcome back on. And you know, there’s guys like Pete Goldman that have been on here like, I don’t know, five times. But it’s people out there that are doing the right things that they’re attracted to getting their message out to more people. And I think that’s really what we do. We’re a catalyst for chiropractic and natural health media. I focus on my guests, brands, strategies, and their systems. And what makes them awesome. So without any further, let’s just talk about your story. You said, ah, it’s not that awesome of a story. But I think that there’s probably something in there that somebody’s going to have a takeaway of and be like, I’m just like that. So how did you get into chiropractic? CINDY HOWARD, DC (GUEST): Yeah, I was kind of an accident, which is really funny. You know, I don’t, I don’t have a father or mother that practiced or grandparents. And actually raised was raised in a very Elipothic family, actually, you know, antibiotics for everything, right? You know, that was the go to with the pediatrician. And, you know, at a very young age, I was very into a lot of sport and physical activity. And in college, majored in exercise physiology. And when I had graduated from college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I had already done some personal training and I was dancing and I was powerlifting and, you know, just fun stuff in that field and had no job and nowhere to go with nothing to do. So I applied to physical therapy school and I didn’t get in. You know, and, you know, the big joke is, is if you saw my grades, you probably wouldn’t knock on my door and make an appointment. But, you know, sometimes we’re better physicians than we are students, right? And so I thought long and hard about, you know, this whole physical therapy realm and was really depressed. And I don’t even remember the person I spoke to, but they said, you know, why would you want to go to physical therapy school when you go to chiropractic school and tell the physical therapist what to do? And I love to tell people what to do. So, you know, especially at a young immature 25, I was like, oh, I can just tell people, you know, go here, do this, do that. And I got all excited. And, you know, it was just kind of one of those light bulb moments where I thought, you know what, I’m going to go do it. And I applied and I got in and next thing I know, I’m in chiropractic school and now I got the letters and the business and the patients. And, you know, that’s how I happened in the chiropractic. So it was sort of an accident without a whole lot of education or knowledge. Just took this leap of faith and made the right decision. JAMES CHESTER (HOST): So I’m curious, how did you pick what school you went to? CINDY HOWARD, DC (GUEST): Yeah, so you’re going to love this one as well. So Chicago girls, you mentioned, right? And I didn’t want to move and there was only one school in Illinois. So not even understanding the differences between the colleges. Applied got in and went and, you know, not even sure if I would have gone the same route, you know, had you done some of the education, but again, just leap of faith and applied to national and that’s where I graduated from. JAMES CHESTER (HOST): So reverse back time, go back to yourself at 23. If you could go back and talk to your 23, your old self and you know what you know now, what decision do you think you would have gone with? CINDY HOWARD, DC (GUEST): Actually, I would have done the same thing. JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Okay. CINDY HOWARD, DC (GUEST): I really believe that, you know, looking back, sometimes those unknown jumps are some of the best decisions I’ve ever made, you know, where you don’t know what’s in things and you just you’re pointed in the right direction for a certain reason. And sometimes you don’t know what it is until it’s over. So I honestly don’t think I would have changed a thing and not because there aren’t aspects that might have helped me in different ways, but because I really love where I wound up. JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah, I mean, after doing so many interviews over the past five and a half years, I love it when people find out what their major purpose is and becoming a doctor seemed like it was something really important to you. And now you’re out. I know that a big part of your wheelhouse is functional medicine. Talk about that a little bit. Let me know how you transition from the chiropractic, you know, philosophy and science and art and to say, hey, there’s something bigger out there for me. CINDY HOWARD, DC (GUEST): Yeah. So that was kind of an accident as well, which is fun. You know, I’m enrolled in school and I wanted to become a sports chiropractor, like probably 80 percent of my class. That really jazzed me. I love athletes. I love that whole sort of, you know, realm of things. And I was sitting in obstetrics and gynecology, which I didn’t even know played a role in, you know, chiropractic medicine at all. And my instructor, I was in his very first class, his name was Frank Strel. And while he’s talking about, you know, diagnosis in the gynecology world, I’m thinking, I don’t understand what this has to do with sports chiropractic at all. And, you know, a couple of weeks in, a couple of months in got really jazzed and learned that, you know, there’s this whole primary care aspect within our scope of practice that we can focus on that really again, just, I don’t know, there was this path, right, that I just geared toward, based on this one doctor that got me really excited. And I really changed courses. And by the time I graduated, he had introduced me to the Council on Diagnosis and Internal Disorders, which I became a part of. And I started to take all the diplomate courses and got my diplomate in both internal medicine and then years later, sat for the board nutrition and earned that as well. And what was amazing about it is I now have been afforded the opportunity to get back into the sports world with a different path, right? So I work with a lot of other chyros in that field that handle a lot of the musculoskeletal issues, why handle the chemical, the metabolic issues, you know, GI, hormones, nutrition, etc. In order to really support what they’re currently doing with their patients, with the mindset that, you know, we’re all within the same profession. So the goal is the same. The mindset is the same. And we don’t have to worry about, you know, the words that are spewed that may not be favorable for what we do with our patients. JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah, I honestly think as I’ve been around for 15 years almost, that chiropractors are all more like than they are different. And the more that they support the initiatives of other chiropractors, then we’re actually moving the profession forward rather than slowing it down. And I think that as long as chiropractic retains its philosophy and it’s, you know, really deep-rooted lexicon, like its words, like in its schooling, I think then we’re going to have a prosperous future within, you know, chiropractic. But if every chiropractor starts to like look at each other and, you know, second guess what that person’s doing, their integrity and things like that, then I really think that we’re going to have a harder transition moving forward in the profession. So I always recommend every chiropractor out there that talks to me any day and say, hey, go find your docs in your area and take them out to lunch. Build your community stronger. Build a network to maybe you can get adjusted, you know, like, you know, find somebody to network within your local area. That’s another chiropractor because I do think, you know, Dr. Cindy, I’ve talked to a lot of chiropractors and then they want everybody to get adjusted, but maybe they’re not taking car themselves, right? So I always urge whether it’s a new student or somebody practicing 20 years, go out there and take a new chiropractor in your city out to lunch, like every month. And you’re going to find that you’re going to build that local community where, like you said, now you can manage a certain aspect of the patient’s care. And now they can take care of them from a sports related, you know, adjustment style practice. And then they can say, hey, if you want better performance, let’s see what’s going on with your with your blood work. Let’s do some panels. Let’s see what’s going on inside of you to where we can find out how to best better your performance on the outside. CINDY HOWARD, DC (GUEST): Yeah, we’re, I think, you know, at least in my little circle, we’re great at that. You know, we all have these unique gifts within the profession that we recognize and we, you know, build on each other’s strengths and support each other and also understand our weaknesses to fill those, right? And I think that’s key in our profession is knowing that no matter how great I can be at something, I can’t be great at everything, right? And I need those other people to help support the patient in a way when, you know, I am not successful, right? And recognizing that. And I think that’s where ego gets in the way a little bit, right? In our world. And we need to let that go to elevate. JAMES CHESTER (HOST): Yeah, one of the guys that like taught a lot of chiropractors on day one, day two, his name is Barry Anderson. He’s passed away now. He is actually a Chicago guy. He would always, you know, drive home to me when I was just watching his videos before I was like anybody, but he would always, you know, tell chiropractors if we don’t tell you the truth about chiropractic and someone else will close you for drugs or surgery. And I think that, you know, as we talked about Plasker earlier, Eric Plask would say, chiropractic first, second, third, fourth, fifth, chiropractic and XYZ, six, chiropractic and whatever intervention, seventh chiropractic and whatever’s going on. But even if somebody is down the path that they are going in for surgery or, you know, something like that, still get adjusted. Like that’s the part that a lot of people like throw the b…
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