This article pretty much sums it up. Many of you are working on deadbugs, birddogs, etc. core strengthening exercises. Stuart McGill, the expert quoted in the article, developed these exercises (and I stole them). The most important thing to take away is this: ab work is not core work, in fact improperly done ab work will hurt your back.
Please talk to us about your ab routine and if it is appropriate for your body!
The Wall Street Journal Health Blog today posted a couple of articles (here and here) on the costs and the effectiveness of preventative medicine in the US and Germany. The articles outline that despite their high costs, preventative medicine programs do not actually help to prevent any disease such as colon or breast cancer. In fact the article on Germany, based on research by the German magazine Der Spiegel, claims that the only people who benefit from the screenings are the doctors who are paid fees to perform the test. For example, there are no randomized trials (the gold standard for medicine) demonstrating benefits for patients who under go regular colonoscopies. In the US researchers looked at a prevention program performed with 200, 000 Medicare participants. They found that it didn’t improve patient’s health and it didn’t result in fewer doctor and hospital visits and therefore less cost.
For anyone who came to our dinner event last March these articles shouldn’t come as a suprise. Preventative medicine is a misnomer. It doesn’t actually prevent anything. You could have a colonoscopy every single day for a year, but doing so would not lower your chances of getting colon cancer. Preventative medicine is really early detection and screening. It simply tells you if you already have the problem (this is an important role but it clouds the issue in peoples minds). True 
preventative medicine is all about the lifestyle choices you make. Each one of us has the keys to determine if we develop or don’t develop any of these chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. We should be (and do in our office) advocating lifestyle intervention; that is the key to making America (and Germany) healthy, and in the process saving billions of dollars, not costly screening tests.
MSNBC just posted an article on the upcoming FDA decision to approve new pyschiatric drugs for children.
For this discussion I’m going to leave aside the questions of 1.) whether these drugs are safe and effective (many groups are questioning whether enough studies have been done to determine the long term effects of the drugs), and 2.) do children need to be taking them or is there a better way to help them?
Just like efforts to promote Lipitor for children, we are again seeing drug manufactures attempting to push medicine designed for adults onto younger and younger children. This time it is a drug that many studies show has no greater effectiveness, or less side effects, then current drugs on the market. What is the motivation behind this push then? Well these older drugs were first developed in the 1950s, meaning that they can be bought as generic. The cost for them is around $100/month. The newer drugs cannot be bought as generic, they sell for between $300/month and $500/month. These drugs had combined sales of $14.6 billion last year. With approval for use in children that number could conceivably double. My question is what motive beyond money could there be to approve new drugs (that haven’t been long term tested, even beyond 6 weeks) for children, and promote there use over older, known drugs when there is basically no difference in effectiveness between the two?
If these new drugs are approved by the FDA, there are two groups of people I feel sorry for. The first, of course, is the children who take it, especially if these drugs turn out like so many others who are not properly tested (or are and those test results are buried), and have dangerous long term effects that we don’t know about now.
The second group is the doctors who perscribe these drugs. In many cases all the information that 
doctors receive about a drug, its effectiveness, side effects, etc. are from the manufactures themselves. Most doctors, especially general practitioners, simply do not have the time to do due diligence and study every single drug they prescribe. There are too many. They are forced to rely many times on marketing materials they receive from drug reps, whose job it is to convince the doctors to prescribe their medication, in the case of these psychiatric drugs cost 2-3 times more but show little to no increased effectiveness. For a more indepth view of the lengths that drug reps go to sell their products check out this article from ABC News. It interviews a former rep for Eli Lily who sold Zypraxa, one of the drugs we’re discussing here. He describes the lengths he went to sell doctors on drugs. In another article a chiropractor from Michigan posts a blog describing his interaction with some pharmaceutical reps.
In the end we all pay the price if these drugs are approved. The children who take them unknowingly face the unknown consequences of long term use of these drugs. We, the public, have to pick up the tab on the increased cost of using these medications over the ones currently prescribed.
Update: The panel voted to OK the psychiatric drugs just a couple hours ago. The FDA doesn’t have to take the recommendation, but does anyone think that they won’t? Again, there is too much money riding on it for them not to. Don’t forget, many of these same folks who determine supposedly impartially determine what drugs get approved eventually leave the FDA to work at the drug companies themselves in high paying positions. They definitely don’t want to endanger that golden parachute.
In a completely related note, the Wall Street Journal reports another research psychiatrist has been accused of not disclosing the fact that he receives money from the drug company, GlaxoSmithKline, which make the drug Paxil. He was researching on a NIH grant the effects of Paxil on pregnant women. /sarcasm| I’m sure that GSK was paying him out of the goodness of their heart and expecting nothing in return in regards to his research, even though it could be worth billions to them if her returns the “correct” outcome. /sarcasm\
As many of you know I was in Washington D.C. last week attending the Hope Awards presented by the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children. It was a very moving evening filled with inspirational stories of children fighting for their lives. One award recipient was Mary Katherine Smart, the sister of Elizabeth Smart. Many of you may remember Elizabeth Smart from her kidnapping in 2002. She was taken from her bedroom in the middle of the night and held for nine months before her eventual rescue. At the awards ceremony we heard the story from the perspective of her younger sister, Mary Katherine. Mary Katherine was sleeping in the bed next to Elizabeth on the night of the kidnapping. She did not get a good look at the man’s face but was able to remember his voice. She eventually recognized the voice as a man she had met before, and was able to give a desciption of him to a sketch artist. This sketch was eventually recognized by the kidnapper’s family members and Elizabeth was brought home.
Hey everyone, hope you’re having a great start to your week.
If you’re like me your probably sick of hearing about the swine flu. Dr. McKinley wrote a great piece about it last week. In it he mentioned that one of the events that put Chiropractic on the map was the Flu epidemic of 1917-1918. You see before the 1970s the public consciousness didn’t immediately associate Chiropractic with back pain, people visited Chiropractors for any number of reasons. You may have recently heard the term “Wellness Revolution”. It’s used to describe the new focus (of mainly allopathic medicine) on holistic and natural methods of healing. Well, guess what, there is nothing revolutionary about wellness, the Chiropractic profession has been practicing it for hundreds of years. This is why those people in 1917-18 brought their loved ones to the Chiropractor when they were suffering from the flu. It wasn’t because their back hurt, it was because at that time Chiropractic hadn’t been label as “back doctors”, and they understood that a chiropractic adjustment allows the body’s immune system to function better, allowing them to fight off the flu virus. This is the reason that so many less chiropractic patients died during the epidemic than the general population as a whole.
This brings me back to the swine flu. I’m linking a great article written outlining the scientific evidence for chiropractic helping those with the flu. You’ll see close to a hundred articles referenced for this claim.
In the end it all comes down to this: you can’t avoid the flu bug, if one person in your school, your place of work, your home has it, you will be exposed. Your level of health and immunity will determine whether you or your loved ones will suffer from it. If you eat healthy, exercise, manage stress in your life, live purposefully, are under chiropractic care, etc, you shouldn’t have to worry. If you’re not doing these things it doesn’t mean that you will get swine flu. But eventually your lifestyle will catch up with you: maybe swine, bird, dog, cat, bear, iguana, or any other flu. Why not do something about it now?
Enjoy!!!
Dr. Arthur
Hey everyone, I just wanted to post a release on the Flu and Chiropractic from Dr. Matthew McCoy, a chiropractic pediatric researcher and editor of the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal, and Family Health. He does a great job of outlining the research showing why people everywhere should be getting adjusted as part of their plan to make their body strong enough to fight off the flu!
Enjoy
Dr. Arthur
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dr. Matthew McCoy
People of all ages are encouraged to add chiropractic to their strategy for warding off and fighting the flu and its effects – swine flu or otherwise.
Spinal adjustments can have a positive effect on immune function according to a growing number of researchers who are exploring the common denominators in disease processes, and the role of the nervous, immune, and hormonal systems in development of immune related illnesses.
Chiropractic corrects spinal abnormalities called vertebral subluxations that result in interference of the nervous system. Since the nervous system controls all functions of the body — including the immune system — chiropractic care can have a positive effect on immune function.
“Contemporary research is beginning to shed light on the neurobiological mechanisms which may explain the outstanding clinical results chiropractors have experienced when managing patients with viral and infectious diseases,” stated Dr. Christopher Kent, Co- Founder of Chiropractic Leadership Alliance.
Dr. Kent explained: “A comprehensive review of the research literature reveals the current understanding that the brain and immune system are the two major adaptive systems in the body. During an immune response, the brain and the immune system ‘talk to each other’ and this process is essential for maintaining homeostasis or balance in the body.”
Since its inception, chiropractic has asserted that viruses and microbes don’t threaten us all equally and that a healthy immune system easily repels most invaders. The immune system protects us from the flu, as well as any other infectious disease, and strives to get us well again when we do fall ill. Our immune system, like every other system in the body, is coordinated and controlled by the nervous system.
Chiropractors are also aware of the importance of positive health life style practices (rest, drinking ample quantities of water, diet, exercise, proper diet, use of multivitamins and minerals, and stress reduction approaches) that can also positively influence the nervous system and immune response. According to a large study of the chiropractic profession recently conducted by the Institute for Social Research, Ohio Northern University (McDonald et al., 2003), chiropractors also customarily advise their patients as to the benefits of these other modalities in optimizing overall health.
Chiropractors helping patients battle the flu is not a new occurrence either. During the 1917-18 influenza epidemic, which brought death and fear to many Americans, it has been estimated that 20 million people died throughout the world, including about 500,000 Americans. It was chiropractic’s success in caring for flu victims that led to the profession’s licensure in many states.
Researchers reported that in Davenport, Iowa, out of the 93,590 patients treated by medical doctors, there were 6,116 deaths — a loss of one patient out of every 15. Chiropractors at the Palmer School of Chiropractic adjusted 1,635 cases, with only one death. Outside Davenport, chiropractors in Iowa cared for 4,735 cases with only six deaths — one out of 866. During the same epidemic, in Oklahoma, out of 3,490 flu patients under chiropractic care, there were only seven deaths. Furthermore, chiropractors were called in 233 cases given up as lost after medical treatment, and reportedly saved all but 25. In another report covering 4,193 cases by 213 chiropractors 4,104 showed complete recovery.
“These results are not so surprising given what we now know about the interaction between the nervous system and the immune system” stated Matthew McCoy DC, MPH, Editor of the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health – Chiropractic. “Through research we know that chiropractic has beneficial effects on immunoglobulins, B-lymphocytes (white blood cells), pulmonary function and other immune system processes.”
One such study, conducted by Patricia Brennan Ph.D and her team, found that when a chiropractic “manipulation” was applied to the middle back, the response of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (white blood cells) taken from blood collected 15 minutes after the manipulation was significantly higher than blood collected 15 minutes before and 30 and 45 minutes after the chiropractic procedure. This research demonstrated an “enhanced respiratory burst” following the chiropractic adjustment. This “burst” is needed for our immune cells to destroy invading viruses and bacteria.
Another small study of HIV positive patients was conducted to study the effects of specific chiropractic adjustments to correct vertebral subluxations in the upper neck on the immune systems of HIV positive individuals. Over the six-month period of the study, the group that did not receive chiropractic care experienced a 7.96% decrease in CD4 cell counts, while the adjusted group experienced a 48% increase in CD4 cell counts over the same period.
A large retrospective study conducted by Robert Blanks Ph.D and colleagues studied 2,818 individuals undergoing chiropractic care - these individuals reported an average overall improvement, ranging from 7-28%, in a battery of physical symptoms including stiffness/lack of flexibility in the spine, physical pain, fatigue, incidence of colds and flu, headaches, menstrual discomfort, gastrointestinal disorders, allergies, dizziness and falls (Blanks et al., 1997, Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research).
More importantly, the incidence of colds and flu was reduced by an average of 15% in this large population who were undergoing regular chiropractic care.
“In addition to the passive recommendations regarding hand washing, avoiding large gatherings, coughing and sneezing into your hands – it makes a great deal of sense to do everything you can to ensure that your immune system is functioning at its best. And that strategy should include chiropractic care” stated Dr. McCoy.
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As a chiropractic office that sees a large number of kids, we are often asked by new patients, “How does chiropractic care help babies and children? I thought you guys treated back pain.” While it is true that we do help people who have back pain, chiropractic care is much more than just that, especially when it comes to children. Many of the spinal problems seen in adults start as early as birth. Why is this? The answer is one word: stress.
Last month a mother brought her 4 month old child, Nick, into our office. She had been referred to us after visits to numerous pediatricians, gastroenterologists, and other specialists. You see, Nick wasn’t able to keep formula down after feedings. He would violently heave immediately following his bottle. As a result of this he was in the second percentile for weight at his age, and was experiencing severe mouth and gum inflammation due to the stomach acid. The specialists that his mom had taken him to were unable to find any cause for his problem. They examined his stomach and esophagus and couldn’t find anything wrong. And they were right. There wasn’t anything wrong with Nick’s GI tract. What was happening is that the nerve that ran to Nick’s esophagus and stomach was being affected by what is called a subluxation: an area where the bones that protect his spinal cord are interfering with the ability of signals to travel between the brain and their destination, in this case the stomach and esophagus. There wasn’t any thing wrong is Nick’s organs themselves, they just weren’t getting the right signals to tell them how to work properly.
So what causes subluxations like the one that was affecting Nick? Again we come back to that one word answer: stress. When we think of stress we think of the things that we deal with on an everyday basis: job, money, family, etc. Many times what we don’t see is that kids, infants, even fetuses in the womb, all undergo stress too!
From the moment of conception the child in the womb is susceptible to stresses. Some of them are evident; we all know that the mother shouldn’t smoke or drink, that she should eat healthy, that she takes the appropriate prenatal vitamins. Some stresses are not so easily seen though. The baby grows seven times faster in the womb than outside the mother’s body. Uterine constraint, not giving the baby the space to grow, places severe demands on mother and baby alike. It can lead to developmental problems, malposition, and breech presentation. Even the act of giving birth is very stressful to the baby. 12% of all vaginal births result in an upper cervical subluxation, the rate is even higher for more traumatic births such as forceps, c-section, and vacuum. These all lead to increased rates of SIDS, colic, asthma and more due to subluxation.
Typical, everyday activities can also place the child in danger. A recent study found that 23% of children suffered head and neck injuries in so called “near miss” accidents. The simple act of swerving or decelerating quickly can affect the child greatly. What we put in their bodies plays a role as well. The rate of asthma doubles for every dose of antibiotics before the age of 1. Even simple activities as diapering can lead to increased rate of constipation due to the stress placed on the lumbar spine.
So what does this mean for you, the parent? Be proactive in your kids’ health. Take steps to both minimize the stress in their life and to allow their body to properly handle what stress they do have. Chiropractic care is one of the tools that Nick’s mom chose. We’re happy to say that he hasn’t vomited in over 3 weeks and has started to gain weight! We invite you join us on March 3rd as we join with Active Moms Club to bring you an exciting presentation called “Raising Extraordinary Kids!”. We’ll walk you through our methods, from the womb to when they leave home, to make sure your kids are living stress free and not stressed out!
We absolutely love it when patients bring articles and clippings from newspapers and magazines about health in to us. This week we received two articles one from the Sun-Times and one from the Tribune discussing the same thing: the fact that alternative medicine use is one the rise here in the US. In fact, nearly 40% of all adults in the US tried an alternative (integrative) therapy last year, of which chiropractic was by far the most popular. What is the reason for this? Well, most of the therapies were for a chronic condition such as neck or back pain, arthritis, anxiety, high cholesterol, high blood, pressure, etc. For many of these conditions alternative treatments work just as well, or better, than medical approaches, while at the same time they are safer.
One of the major themes of both articles was the use of complementary treatments by the medical profession. It outlines how more and more MD’s are turning to these treatments as they realize their effectiveness. This is a welcome change from days past when the medical profession was hostile to any alternative health care practices. In fact, in the early 1990’s the AMA was found guilty by the US Supreme Court in an antitrust suit of illegally conspiring to destroy the chiropractic profession. As late as the mid 1970s chiropractors were put into jail for simply trying to help patients. Today, it seems, the health care profession is starting focusing on what is important: giving the best care to patients as safely and cheaply as possible. In our office we regularly refer patients to MD’s, physical therapists, acupuncturists, podiatrist, massage therapist, and other providers for concurrent care. We just want our patients to be as healthy as possible, and we believe that working closely with all types of providers will help us do just that.
I wanted to make one last comment on the articles. In both complementary treatments are label as unproven or lacking evidence. This is a fallacy. For chiropractic, and other treatments, there is a large, ever growing body of research that confirms effectiveness of what we do. Complementary medicine unfortunately has not had the levels of funding that traditional medicine has. We don’t have large pharmaceutical companies funding, though this is a blessing since much of their research is tainted due to the lure of profit, we haven’t have thousands of large universities publishing research on our behalf, and
until the last ten years we haven’t received funding from governmental organizations such as the National Institutes of Health. Not that all these resources make medical interventions fully researched. In fact, a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that in 2004 40% of all prescription medications in the US were prescribed off label, meaning they were prescribed for uses they are not approved for by the FDA, the number is even higher, up to 70%, for children. Is it any wonder that one of the leading causes of death in the US is side effects to prescription medications? Luckily this all of this is changing. In the last year we have seen studies on chiropractic done in conjunction with a number of the top universities in the world, including the University of Chicago, the NIH has increased its number of research grants for alternative treatments, and the Association of Chiropractic College has pushed to publish more and more research into chiropractic.
In the end these developments are very positive for all of us. Health care professions, whether it is medicine, osteopathy, Chiropractic, PT, massage therapy, etc, should not be in competition with each other. Our goals to be to do whatever it takes, and work with whomever it takes, to get the best, safest, and cheapest, result for the patient.
Thanks to those patients who brought us these articles and I encourage everyone to bring in or bring up any health topic or current event they see. We want to be an information source for our community and you can help us achieve that!
Three Dimensions of Health
Many of you have heard us speak about the need to both reduce the stress in your life, and to enhance the ability of your body to handle stress. You may have listen and thought, “Yeah, I get it, but how?” Of course, you already know the answer: exercise, healthy eating, living purposefully, being under chiropractic care, time management, good sleep, etc. The question then becomes: “If it is that easy, why aren’t you doing it?” Well, for some people, unfortunately, it’s not easy. You need that extra push, someone holding your hand, holding you accountable for your actions (or inactions).
As a Creating Wellness Center we are concerned with all aspects of our patients’ health. We work with your spine and nervous system to ensure they are working at their optimum levels, but we also want to be there for you in regards to nutrition, exercise, stress management, living on purpose, and much more. It may be as simple as a suggestion on a new exercise routine or a tip on which type of fruit to buy at the grocery store. Or you may be someone who needs a more hands on approach. We can provide that through our Creating Wellness System.
The Creating Wellness System couples state of the art health assessments with customized, hands on coaching in all three dimensions of health: physical, biochemical, and psychological to give you a life changing program that allows you to make the changes necessary to improve your life and your health.
The best part of the system is that it really works! A soon to be published study from Emory University shows that:
Furthermore the study showed significant improvement in participants weight, blood pressure, body fat %, strength, and more.
For more information or to schedule a Creating Wellness Assessment please contact us today!
When I returned to town on Sunday night, I found on my doorstep an excellent article from Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune. It outlined a study from the University of Chicago Medical Center that found that “At least 2.2 million older adults in the U.S. take medicine in combinations that could trigger dangerous drug interactions, causing gastrointestinal bleeding, muscle breakdown, disruption in heart rhythm and other serious problems. Overall, 1 in 25 older adults risked serious drug interactions, the study found. For men ages 75 to 85, it was as high as 1 in 10.” Study author Dr. Stacy Tessler Lindau said risks might be even higher because the research focused only on major interactions among the 20 most common drugs and dietary supplements.
This study confirms what we talk about so often in our office: It is vitally important that you take as few medications as possible. And we’re not just talking about prescription medications, the study states that half of the negative interactions involved over-the-counter drugs such as aspirin. Your chances of adverse interactions increase exponentially with each drug you take, this is the reason that reactions to correctly prescribed medications is one of the top four causes of death in this country. (Lindau said the analysis did not find people taking drug combinations that should not occur under any circumstances. This indicates that the medication was correctly prescribed, yet serious interactions occurred anyway!)
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How can you decrease or eliminate medications? Most medications we take are for lifestyle conditions - conditions caused directly by our lifestyle. To get off of these drugs we must address the lifestyle that causes the conditions. Chiropractic directly plays a role in this. We all know that chiropractic care helps remove the need for pain medication - even if that isn’t our major goal, but did you know that studies show that it can help remove the need for other types of medications as well? For example a recent study done in conjunction with University of Chicago’s Blood Pressure Center showed upper cervical chiropractic adjustments effective in lowering blood pressure.
Our goal with all of our patients is for you to be on as few medications as possible. We want to show you how by making lifestyle change you can remove the need for many drugs, and we want to work with your medical doctor in helping you remove the danger of these medications from your life. (Remember, never stop taking a prescription medication with consulting with your medical doctor first.) Together we can work to put you on a path to health and wellness, drug free!
