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Our Annual Research Donation

By Michael Beattie|December 19, 2013|Announcement|

Our Annual Research Donation

The Board of Chiro.Org held their annual Board meeting in November and unanimously approved a $3000 donation to Chiropractic Research to the ICPA. This will be the twelfth year in a row that Chiro.org has made a research tithe. Our total contribution to date is $24,000.

This year also marks our 10th year supporting the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association’s research projects, always aimed at demonstrating the benefits of chiropractic care for children.

A big ‘thank you‘ to our sponsors because, without them we wouldn’t have been able to donate so much back to Chiropractic.

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Chiropractors as Primary Spine Care Providers: Precedents and Essential Measures

By Frank M. Painter|December 16, 2013|Health Care Reform, Primary Care|

Chiropractors as Primary Spine Care Providers: Precedents and Essential Measures

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: J Can Chiropr Assoc. 2013 (Dec); 57 (4): 285–291

W. Mark Erwin, DC, PhD, A. Pauliina Korpela, BSc, and Robert C. Jones, DC APC

Assistant Professor, Divisions of Orthopaedic and Neurological Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto Western Hospital, Scientist, Toronto Western Research Institute ; Associate Professor, Research, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College.

Chiropractors have the potential to address a substantial portion of spinal disorders; however the utilization rate of chiropractic services has remained low and largely unchanged for decades. Other health care professions such as podiatry/chiropody, physiotherapy and naturopathy have successfully gained public and professional trust, increases in scope of practice and distinct niche positions within mainstream health care. Due to the overwhelming burden of spine care upon the health care system, the establishment of a ‘primary spine care provider’ may be a worthwhile niche position to create for society’s needs. Chiropractors could fulfill this role, but not without first reviewing and improving its approach to the management of spinal disorders. Such changes have already been achieved by the chiropractic profession in Switzerland, Denmark, and New Mexico, whose examples may serve as important templates for renewal here in Canada.

Keywords: primary care, spine, chiropractor

Introduction:

Between 1999 and 2008 the mean inflationary adjusted costs for ambulatory neck and/or back pain in the United States increased by a factor of 95%. [1] According to the study by Davis et al the largest proportion of increased costs are associated with specialty visits rather than primary consultations, clearly indicating that spine care places a tremendous burden upon the health care system. [1] Davis et al make recommendations with respect to cost containment for spine-related disorders which are similar to those put forth by Maniadakis and Gray ten years ago; and many of these revolve around reducing the reliance on specialty management. [2] A number of professionals with diverse backgrounds (chiropractors, massage therapists, physical therapists, osteopaths, and physicians) care for spinal pain patients. However unlike some other health care professions that have focused upon the management of condition-specific maladies, no one group has chosen to do so for certain aspects of the spine patient. Perhaps lessons learned from other condition-specific professions such as optometry and podiatry could provide important guidance in this regard.

Precedents for Professional Growth and Development:

You may also enjoy our new

Primary Care and Chiropractic Page

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A Review of the Beneficial and Harmful Effects of Laughter

By Frank M. Painter|December 14, 2013|Humor, Iatrogenic Injury, Laughter|

A Review of the Beneficial and Harmful Effects of Laughter

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: British Medical Journal 2013 (Dec 13); 347: f7274

R E Ferner, honorary professor of clinical pharmacology [12],
J K Aronson, fellow [3]

Research

Christmas 2013: Food For Thought

Laughter and MIRTH (Methodical Investigation of Risibility, Therapeutic and Harmful): Narrative Synthesis

Every December, the BMJ publishes hilarious Christmas research.

Their 2013 offerings are now online at:

http://www.bmj.com/research

A big Thanks to Anne Taylor-Vaisey

Objective To review the beneficial and harmful effects of laughter.

Design Narrative synthesis.

Data sources and review methods We searched Medline (1946 to June 2013) and Embase (1974 to June 2013) for reports of benefits or harms from laughter in humans, and counted the number of papers in each category.

Results Benefits of laughter include reduced anger, anxiety, depression, and stress; reduced tension (psychological and cardiovascular); increased pain threshold; reduced risk of myocardial infarction (presumably requiring hearty laughter); improved lung function; increased energy expenditure; and reduced blood glucose concentration.

However, laughter is no joke — dangers include syncope, cardiac and oesophageal rupture, and protrusion of abdominal hernias (from side splitting laughter or laughing fit to burst), asthma attacks, interlobular emphysema, cataplexy, headaches, jaw dislocation, and stress incontinence (from laughing like a drain). Infectious laughter can disseminate real infection, which is potentially preventable by laughing up your sleeve. As a side effect of our search for side effects, we also list pathological causes of laughter, among them epilepsy (gelastic seizures), cerebral tumours, Angelman’s syndrome, strokes, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or motor neuron disease.

Conclusions Laughter is not purely beneficial. The harms it can cause are immediate and dose related, the risks being highest for Homeric (uncontrollable) laughter. The benefit-harm balance is probably favourable. It remains to be seen whether sick jokes make you ill or jokes in bad taste cause dysgeusia, and whether our views on comedians stand up to further scrutiny.

Introduction

“Mirth . . . prorogues life, whets the wit, makes the body young, lively, and fit for any manner of employment.”— Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

The BMJ has not dealt seriously with laughter since 1899, when an editorialist, following an Italian correspondent’s suggestion that telling jokes could treat bronchitis, proposed the term “gelototherapy” (in Greek gelōs means laughter; in Italian gelato means ice cream). [1] The journal had, a year before, described heart failure following prolonged laughter in a 13 year old girl. [2]

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Nonconcussion Head Impacts in Contact Sports Linked to Brain Changes and Lower Test Scores

By John Wiens DC|December 12, 2013|Concussion|

Source ScienceDaily

Repeated blows to the head during a season of contact sports may cause changes in the brain’s white matter and affect cognitive abilities even if none of the impacts resulted in a concussion, according to a study published today in the journal Neurology.

Using a form of magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College found significant differences in brain white matter of varsity football and hockey players compared with a group of noncontact-sport athletes following one season of competition. White matter is composed primarily of axons, the long fibers that transmit signals between neurons.

“The contact sports and noncontact-sports groups differed, and the number of times the contact sports participants were hit, and the magnitude of the hits they sustained, were correlated with changes in the white matter measures,” said Thomas W. McAllister, M.D., chair of the IU Department of Psychiatry.

“In addition, there was a group of contact sports athletes who didn’t do as well as predicted on tests of learning and memory at the end of the season, and we found that the amount of change in the white matter measures was greater in this group,” Dr. McAllister said.

The study was conducted while Dr. McAllister was Millennium Professor of Psychiatry at Dartmouth.

“This study raises the question of whether we should look not only at concussions but also the number of times athletes receive blows to the head and the magnitude of those blows, whether or not they are diagnosed with a concussion,” Dr. McAllister said.

Two groups of Dartmouth athletes were studied: 80 football and ice hockey players in the contact sports group, and 79 athletes drawn from such noncontact sports as track, crew and Nordic skiing. The football and hockey players wore helmets equipped with accelerometers, which enabled the researchers to compile the number and severity of impacts to their heads. Players who sustained a concussion during the season were not included in the analysis.

The athletes were administered a form of MRI test known as diffusion tensor imaging, which is used to measure the integrity of the white matter. They were also given the California Verbal Learning Test II, a measure of verbal learning and memory.

The study did not find “large-scale, systematic differences” in the brain scan measures at the end of the season, which the authors found “somewhat reassuring” and consistent with the fact that thousands of individuals have played contact sports for many years without developing progressive neurodegenerative disorders.

However, the results do suggest that some athletes may be more susceptible to repeated head impacts that do not involve concussions, although much more research would be necessary to determine how to identify those athletes.

More work would also be necessary to determine whether the effects of the head impacts are long-lasting or permanent, and whether they are cumulative.

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The Coming Changes in Health Care: What DCs Need to Know

By Frank M. Painter|December 12, 2013|Health Care Reform|

The Coming Changes in Health Care: What DCs Need to Know

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: Health Insights Today

Interview with Gerard Clum, DC

by Daniel Redwood, DC

Gerard W. Clum, DC, was the first president of Life Chiropractic College West, holding office from January 1981 through January 2011. Dr. Clum has served on the board of directors or as an officer of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC), the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE), the International Chiropractors Association (ICA), the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP), the Chiropractic Summit and the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC).

He is now Presidential Liaison for External Affairs at Life University and director of The Octagon, a think-tank sponsored by Life University. In addition, he serves as a consultant and expert witness in matters related to chiropractic practice/care. He has been recognized as “Chiropractor of the Year” by ICA, “Man of the Year” by Dynamic Chiropractic and as one of the top five leaders of the chiropractic profession in a Dynamic Chiropractic readers’ poll. He has lectured throughout the world and has been recognized and honored for his efforts over the years by international, national, state and local groups. He can be reached at gerrycdc@aol.com.

In recent years, Dr. Clum has spoken to numerous employer, insurance and health industry groups on behalf of the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, providing powerful, fact-based presentations on the positive effects chiropractic inclusion can bring to both new and traditional forms of health care delivery. He is among the most knowledgeable people in the profession on issues related to the Affordable Care Act and the potential for chiropractic participation in the new entities (Patient Centered Medical Homes and Accountable Care Organizations) being developed as part of health reform.

What recent trends and changes in the health care landscape are most likely to affect present and future chiropractors?

The most immediate changes that are underway involve the refinement of the rules and regulations associated with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The roles of Congress and the president are complete, to some degree. Once the legislation is passed and signed, it’s turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or other government agencies, to begin the process of implementing the legislation. And as we all know, sometimes things get implemented differently than they were conceived by the legislators who passed them.

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Healthcare Reform: Implications for Chiropractic

By Frank M. Painter|December 9, 2013|Health Care Reform|

Healthcare Reform: Implications for Chiropractic

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: ACA News ~ December 2013

By James J. Lehman, DC

Earlier this year, Daren Anderson, MD, and I discussed healthcare reform, primary care teams and the integration of chiropractic services into the healthcare system as valuable members of the medical team with ACA News readers. [1] Since that time, the government of the United States was shut down for 16 days in an attempt to delay healthcare reform and defund the Affordable Care Act. [2] Yet the Health Insurance Marketplace is open with the task of finding quality health coverage for Americans through private companies. [3] Affordable Care Act funding continues as the law of the land. [4]

What follows is information regarding healthcare reform and suggestions for those chiropractic physicians interested in joining the healthcare delivery systems of the 21st century as valuable members of healthcare teams within coordinated care organizations.

Healthcare Reform

Healthcare reform is not a new concept. In the late 1800s, 11 industrial nations developed social/national insurance. Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th U.S. president, unsuccessfully supported progressive healthcare reform during 1912.

Former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole (R) expressed his concerns regarding our healthcare crises more than 40 years ago. Subsequently, he supported healthcare reform with Sen. Tom Daschle (D), urging “the joint leadership to get together for America’s sake.” [5]

President Bill Clinton introduced the Health Security plan on Sept. 23, 1993. One year later, healthcare reform died a quiet death. [6]

President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) and the Health Care Education and Reconciliation Act (H.R. 4872) — together known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — on March 23, 2010.

Affordable Care Act

The government promulgates the notion that the ACA will provide Americans with better health security by putting in place comprehensive health insurance reforms that will:

Expand coverage;
Hold insurance companies accountable;
Lower healthcare costs;
Guarantee more choice; and
Enhance the quality of care for all Americans. [7]

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