You may wonder why a chiropractic office offers medical weight loss near Iowa City. If you know anything about a chiropractor, it’s that our focus is on bone health, spinal alignment, and joint function.
That’s true—at Family & Sport Chiropractic, we care deeply about the health of your musculoskeletal system. For that reason, we offer medical weight loss, because excess weight can strain your bones and joints and cause chronic conditions down the road. Fortunately, even losing 5 to 10% of your body weight can significantly reduce joint pain and lower your risk of orthopedic complications.
However, we understand that many patients find weight loss difficult. It’s not always as easy as eating less and exercising more (although those methods are essential for losing weight). Your hormones and genetics contribute to everything from your appetite to your metabolism to your fat distribution. When you struggle with weight loss, these factors may work against you.
Guided by the practice of functional medicine, we take a personalized approach to your weight loss journey. With our range of options and tailored treatment plans, we can help you lose up to 15 to 20% of excess weight, improving bone health, mental health, and much more.
Before we explain our weight loss process, let’s first discuss the impact excess weight has on various bones of your body.
Chiropractic Care and Medical Weight Loss
Near Iowa City, we tell all our patients that stretching, walking, and staying active help build and maintain strong bones. When you carry excess weight, it can make low-impact exercises more difficult, which may deter you from exercising—especially if it causes joint pain. But how else are you supposed to lose weight and stay healthy? For those reasons, we offer medical weight loss to help you establish and maintain a healthy, active lifestyle.
Here’s how excess weight negatively impacts various parts of the musculoskeletal system.
Excess Weight on Your Neck and Back
Your spinal cord consists of 33 vertebrae (stacked bones) with discs in between to absorb shock. Excess weight strains the bones of your spine, causing poor posture that curves and weakens the ligaments. You may think this would only cause back pain, but posture issues can also affect the top segment of your spine (cervical spine), leading to neck pain as well. Therefore, losing weight may offer back pain relief and neck pain relief.
Excess Weight on Spinal Discs
Excess weight can cause a disc injury, as poor posture, increased strain, and lack of physical activity can result in a herniated disc. Medical weight loss near Iowa City may work alongside other disc herniation treatments to ease pressure on your spine.
Excess Weight on Your Knees
Osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis, can affect the knees. As the cartilage lining your joints wears down, your bones rub together when you use the affected joint. This condition causes pain, stiffness, swelling, and decreased range of motion.
Obesity accelerates this joint wear by increasing inflammation and stress on the joint. Each pound on your body exerts 4 to 6 pounds of pressure on your knees. Therefore, each pound lost from our weight loss program reduces knee pressure by 4 pounds, meaning just 10 pounds reduces pressure by 40 pounds. With less pressure, you’ll experience less knee pain and improved mobility.
What is medical weight loss?
Losing weight is never easy, but it shouldn’t be impossible. As we mentioned before, biological factors make it more difficult for some patients to lose weight than others. Instead of chalking it all up to a lack of willpower, we take a personalized approach to your weight loss journey. For some, medical weight loss means a tailored nutrition program and exercise recommendations overseen by a member of our team. For others, medical weight loss near Iowa City involves the use of GLP-1 medications like semaglutide or tirzepatide.
GLP-1 Medications Are….
You’re probably familiar with weight loss injectables, which were originally developed to help individuals with type 2 diabetes manage their condition, stimulating the body to produce more insulin. Now, we recognize them as safe and effective treatments for weight loss. As glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists, these medications mimic the natural GLP-1 hormone in your body, which is involved in appetite, digestion, and blood sugar regulation.
As you eat, your intestines release the GLP-1 hormone to signal that you’re full and should stop eating. Medications like semaglutide and tirzepatide increase the presence of this hormone, essentially “tricking” your brain into thinking you’re satiated (full) with smaller meal portions. Weight loss requires a calorie deficit (burning more calories than you consume), and GLP-1 medications help you maintain this deficit and lose weight without feeling starved or hungry.
Additionally, GLP-1 medications slow the digestion process, so you feel fuller for longer and are less compelled to snack in between meals.
Tirzepatide vs Semaglutide
The difference between the 2 GLP-1 medications lies in tirzepatide’s ability to mimic the gastric-inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) hormone. By increasing the levels of both GIP and the GLP-1 hormones, tirzepatide further stabilizes blood sugar while reducing hunger. For more information, watch this quick video of Amanda Kuehl, F.N.P.-C, our nurse practitioner for medical weight loss near Iowa City, explain the function of the 2 GLP-1 medications.
While neither medication is superior to the other, one might work better for you. When you visit our weight loss clinic, we will determine whether semaglutide or tirzepatide is right for you.
GLP-1 Medications Are Not…
Let’s get one thing straight: GLP-1 medications are not a “quick fix” or “miracle drug.” It’s easy to give them the credit when they boast such a high success rate among. However, that diminishes your efforts.
Instead, we think of these medications as tools to help you lose weight. They will never work as a standalone solution, but when combined with a nutrient-dense diet and regular exercise, you can successfully lose 15 to 20% of your weight.
The Medical Weight Loss Process at Family & Sport Chiropractic
You might think your journey to weight loss starts with a diet, but at our chiropractic center, it actually starts with a conversation.
Consultation: Discussing Your Weight Loss
During your consultation, we discuss your lifestyle: your career, activity level, and eating habits. Before we determine your best options for medical weight loss near Iowa City, we perform bloodwork and other health screenings. All of this information helps us personalize your weight loss program to you. In addition to semaglutide and tirzepatide, we also offer the following options for your program:
- Blueprint nutrition plan
- Gut health kit
- Weight loss kit
Included in these plans and kits are natural supplements to improve gut health, and an app on your phone where you can reach support 24/7. Your program may start during the consultation, with diet and exercise recommendations. However, we may need a week to receive both blood test results and the weight loss medication shipment at our office. Before you leave, we will take measurements and “before” pictures to document your weight loss journey.
Treatment
Once we start treatment, you’ll visit us every 2 weeks so we can track your progress. Take this time to ask us any questions and explain how the weight loss kits and medications are making you feel. With semaglutide and tirzepatide, patients may notice bloating, constipation, diarrhea, or nausea. However, our diet recommendations and gut kit should help manage these side effects. During these visits, we will continue to take pictures and measurements to document your journey.
Weekly Injections In Office or At Home
If you’re receiving semaglutide or tirzepatide for your medical weight loss near Iowa City, we will teach you how to administer the medications at home. These are weekly injections that you receive on the same day, around the same time, in rotating injection sites such as the upper arms, thighs, and stomach. If you feel uncomfortable doing this alone, you can always stop at our wellness center, and we’ll administer the GLP-1 medication for you.
Results
Everyone’s journey looks different. Our goal is to help you lose 1 to 2 pounds a week with steady, ongoing results. However, our support doesn’t end once you’ve achieved your weight loss goals—your wellness is an ongoing journey, not a single destination. Our program aims to teach you how to make healthier choices that promote longevity and health.
Chiropractic Care
We understand that joint pain affects mobility. While losing weight helps ease that strain on your body, lingering pain may still prevent you from staying active and exercising regularly. Our chiropractic care will help you along the way. Using spinal alignment tactics, physical therapy recommendations, and specialized massages, we can help alleviate pain, teach you better posture, and improve your mobility.
Find Care at Iowa Wellness Center
We aren’t just a chiropractic office; we also share a roof with Iowa Wellness Center, which offers more support for your weight loss journey. Using regenerative medicine, we can help relieve chronic pain, boost blood circulation, and reduce inflammation, all of which contribute to alleviating pain caused by excess weight. We may recommend the following services:
Take the First Step to a Healthier You
At Family & Sport Chiropractic, it just takes 1 conversation to start your weight loss journey. In the past, the process may have felt difficult and isolating, but now, you have a team of experts ready to help and guide you along the way. To find out more about our program for medical weight loss near Iowa City, request an appointment. We’ll answer any questions that you may have.
To streamline the process, try our treatment planning tool. Once we receive your submission, a member of our team will reach out with more information regarding appointment times and potential treatment options.
