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Got Nutrition?

Use these three tips to incorporate wellness into your practice

KIMBERLY K. REED, O.D., F.A.A.O.

With a plethora of research linking nutrition with eye health, not to mention the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, more eyecare practitioners want to institute nutrition and wellness principles into their practices.

Here are three ways this can be accomplished.

1 Send a healthy message

Pledge to keep your office environment health-conscious. Place nutrition awareness flyers or posters in your waiting area (see right); incorporate a short dietary questionnaire into your intake forms; and create a “no junk food in the office” policy among staff.

I recently conducted a very informal poll through “ODs on Facebook” in which I asked how many optometrists routinely, or even occasionally, provide sugary sweets and treats in their offices for patients. Roughly 2/3 of respondents said they do “daily” or on “special occasions.”

One treat here and there isn’t a problem, but one treat everywhere, on a frequent basis, is. Therefore, if your office frequently offers sweets, cut back. This small step promotes the type of lifestyle choices you want your patients to make.

2 Do your homework

A number of high-quality products target eye health and nutrition. However, a vast number of products claim to support eye health, but, in truth, have very little to offer in quality and/or quantity. The typical patient won’t be able to tell the differences among these products, and the single most important factor in patient choice is price, says the Council for Responsible Nutrition. As a result, it’s essential you make specific product recommendations vs. saying, “take a supplement that has lots of lutein in it.”

To determine which supplements to prescribe, create a list of formulations that have been linked with improvements in visual outcome in the scientific literature (beware of just “abstract mining,” as essential facts can be glossed over or omitted), attend nutrition CE, and make sure the supplement companies have submitted to voluntary, independent verification of the quality and content of their products. You want to include, at minimum, a high potency omega-3 product for dry eye disease and a macular formula with at least 10mg of FloraGLO lutein (the type of lutein used in AREDS2 and scores of other studies) and 2mg of zeaxanthin.

Several reputable companies offer simple, doctor- and patient-friendly ways to purchase the specific product(s) you recommend. This may involve a “prescription pad”-style online order form you give the patient.

Alternatively, of course, you can directly sell product in your retail area, ensuring the patient leaves with the product specifically selected for them. As a bonus, either of these methods may add additional revenue streams to your practice.

3 Don’t fall behind

Nutrition science is rapidly evolving, so recommendations on best practices may change even through the short term. As a result, stay up to date on the latest advancements through the medical and mainstream media, CE lectures or webinars conducted by experts in the field. OM

DR. REED IS AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT THE NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF OPTOMETRY IN FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA., A MEMBER OF THE OCULAR NUTRITION SOCIETY AND AUTHOR OF NUMEROUS ARTICLES ON OCULAR NUTRITION, DISEASE AND PHARMACOLOGY. SHE IS ALSO A FREQUENT CONTINUING EDUCATION LECTURER. TO COMMENT ON THIS COLUMN, E-MAIL DR. REED AT KIMREED@NOVA.EDU, OR SEND COMMENTS TO OPTOMETRICMANAGEMENT@GMAIL.COM.