The Impact of Chiropractic Care On Health ~ Why Maintenance Care Makes Sense
The Impact of Chiropractic Care On Health
Why Maintenance Care Makes Sense
SOURCE: A Chiro.Org Editorial
Coulter and researchers at the RAND Corporation [1] performed an analysis of an insurance database, comparing persons receiving chiropractic care with non-chiropractic patients. The study consisted of senior citizens >75 years of age.
Recipients of chiropractic care reported better overall health, spent fewer days in hospitals and nursing homes, used fewer prescription drugs, and were more active than the non-chiropractic patients.
As part of a comprehensive geriatric assessment program, the RAND Corporation studied a subpopulation of patients who were under chiropractic care compared to those who were not and found that the individuals under continuing chiropractic care were:
- Free from the use of a nursing home [95.7% vs 80.8%];
- Free from hospitalizations for the past 23 years [73.9% vs 52.4%];
- More likely to report a better health status;
- More likely to exercise vigorously;
- More likely to be mobile in the community [69.6% vs 46.8%].
Although it is impossible to clearly establish causality, it is also reasonably clear that continuing chiropractic care is among the attributes of the cohort of patients experiencing substantially fewer costly healthcare interventions.
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In another study, Van Breda et al [2] interviewed 200 pediatricians and 200 chiropractors, to determine what, if any, differences were to be found in the health status of their respective children, since their families were being raised under 2 very different health care models.
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The Nordic Maintenance Care Program: The Clinical Use of Identified Indications for Preventive Care
The Nordic Maintenance Care Program: The Clinical Use of Identified Indications for Preventive Care
Chiropractic & Manual Therapies 2013 (Mar 6); 21: 10
Iben Axén and Lennart Bodin
Intervention & Implementation Research, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Nobels väg 13, Stockholm 171 77, Sweden
Background Low back pain (LBP) is a prevalent condition and has been found to be recurrent and persistent in a majority of cases. Chiropractors have a preventive strategy, maintenance care (MC), aimed towards minimizing recurrence and progression of such conditions. The indications for recommending MC have been identified in the Nordic countries from hypothetical cases. This study aims to investigate whether these indications are indeed used in the clinical encounter.
Methods Data were collected in a multi-center observational study in which patients consulted a chiropractor for their non-specific LBP. Patient baseline information was a) previous duration of the LBP, b) the presence of previous episodes of LBP and c) early improvement with treatment. The chiropractors were asked if they deemed each individual patient an MC candidate. Logistic regression analyses (uni– and multi-level) were used to investigate the association of the patient variables with the chiropractor’s decision.
Results The results showed that “previous episodes” with LBP was the strongest predictor for recommending MC, and that the presence of all predictors strengthens the frequency of this recommendation. However, there was considerable heterogeneity among the participating chiropractors concerning the recommendation of MC.
Conclusions The study largely confirms the clinical use of the previously identified indications for recommending MC for recurrent and persistent LBP. Previous episodes of LBP was the strongest indicator.
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From the Full-Text Article:
Background
In the past few decades, the prevalence of low back pain, LBP, has been found to be extremely high [1] and the resulting costs of the condition are substantial [2] . Upon further scrutiny, the condition has been found to be recurrent in most cases and persistent in some [3-5] . These facts invite preventive approaches, both from a personal and societal perspective. Secondary prevention, to minimize the recurrences or the impact of episodic LBP, and tertiary prevention, to minimize the effects of persistent LBP, seem warranted.
Combination of Acupuncture and Spinal Manipulative Therapy: Management of a 32-year-old Patient With Chronic Tension-type Headache and Migraine
Combination of Acupuncture and Spinal Manipulative Therapy: Management of a 32-year-old Patient With Chronic Tension-type Headache and Migraine
J Chiropr Med. 2012 (Sep); 11 (3): 192–201
Bahia A. Ohlsen
Chiropractic, Acupuncture and Yoga Center,
Buffalo Grove, IL.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this case study is to describe the treatment using acupuncture and spinal manipulation for a patient with a chronic tension-type headache and episodic migraines.
CLINICAL FEATURES: A 32-year-old woman presented with headaches of 5 months’ duration. She had a history of episodic migraine that began in her teens and had been controlled with medication. She had stopped taking the prescription medications because of gastrointestinal symptoms. A neurologist diagnosed her with mixed headaches, some migrainous and some tension type. Her headaches were chronic, were daily, and fit the International Classification of Headache Disorders criteria of a chronic tension-type headache superimposed with migraine.
ECG for Eyes Sorts Strokes from Vertigo
ECG for Eyes Sorts Strokes from Vertigo
SOURCE: MedPage Today ~ March 05, 2013
By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner
A new device, described as an ECG for the eye, appears to accurately distinguish stroke from other causes of dizziness in the emergency department.
Note that the bedside device feeds webcam video from goggles mounted with an accelerometer to computer software that looks for abnormal corrective eye movements when the head turns.
A device described as an ECG for the eye accurately distinguishes stroke from other causes of dizziness in the emergency department (ED), a small proof-of-concept study showed.
When tested on 12 patients in the ED for acute vestibular symptoms, the device picked out all six vertebrobasilar strokes that were subsequently diagnosed with MRI, David Newman-Toker, MD, PhD, of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and colleagues reported online in Stroke.
The bedside device feeds webcam video from goggles mounted with an accelerometer to computer software that looks for abnormal corrective eye movements when the head turns. (more…)
New data concerning the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine
Source Huffington Post
Flu vaccine is not as effective as public health messaging traditionally has claimed, says a new report that suggests overselling of flu shots is getting in the way of developing more effective and longer lasting vaccines.
The project that led to the report was called the CIDRAP Comprehensive Influenza Vaccine Initiative, and it involved mining more than 12,000 documents, articles and meeting transcripts as well as more than 5,700 peer-reviewed vaccine studies published from 1936 through April 2012. The full report can be found here.
In recent years studies by a variety of research groups have shown that the long-quoted claims that flu shots offered 70 to 90 per cent protection against influenza have been off the mark.
Somewhere in the order of 50 to 60 per cent, in healthy adults, is more accurate, the newer studies suggest. Efficacy rates are lower in the elderly or people in poor health. Vaccine effectiveness in those 65 and older against both influenza A and B was 27% (95% CI, -31% to 59%), and against H3N2 it was 9% (95% CI, -84% to 55%), but both numbers are statistically not significant.
The report suggests that the higher numbers came from old studies done on vaccines that were not formulated the way current shots are. It also suggests that the belief that universal vaccination for flu would be useful and desirable, rather than solid scientific evidence, was what drove decisions to recommend flu shots for all in the U.S. (The study did not look at decisions made in Canada or elsewhere.)
Even the vaccine used in the U.S. during the 2009 pandemic — where there was a perfect match between the virus in the vaccine and the strain infecting people — didn’t offer better protection. Studies cited in the report pegged the U.S. vaccine’s effectiveness at 56 per cent.
A key argument of the report is the fact that the current vaccine that offers moderate protection is actually getting in the way of developing long-lasting flu vaccines that offer more effective protection — vaccines, for example, that might require a shot every five or 10 years. Currently flu shots are reformulated every year to try to keep up with the evolution of flu viruses.
Even though a flu shot is a relatively inexpensive vaccine, manufacturers sell hundreds of millions of doses of them a year. In fact, the report notes that the global market for flu vaccine is estimated at US$2.8 billion — a decent chunk of the estimated US$20 billion annual market for all vaccines combined.
For an interesting article of influenza and the protectiveness of Vitamin D please read On the epidemiology of influenza