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DEEP THOUGHTS: The Joy of Life

By Frank M. Painter|May 2, 2011|Announcement|

DEEP THOUGHTS:
The Joy of Life

“This is the joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one: being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no “brief candle” to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

~ George Bernard Shaw

If you enjoyed this, then visit
The THOUGHT for Today Page

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Immune Responses to Spinal Manipulation

By Frank M. Painter|May 1, 2011|Immune Function, Research, Spinal Manipulation|

Immune Responses to Spinal Manipulation

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: Dynamic Chiropractic ~ May 6, 2011

By Malik Slosberg, DC, MS

For many years, chiropractors have observed in their own practices that their patients sometimes demonstrate improvements of complaints related to immune problems: the disappearance or lessening of allergy symptoms, quicker recovery from or less frequent and severe colds and other respiratory infections, and so on.

In the scientific literature, there have been occasional case reports that corroborate such findings, but no sound evidence to really document their veracity. These clinical observations remain suspended in that grey area unsubstantiated by scientific data to confirm their validity. Significant limitations of changes attributed to spinal manipulation in individual patients include

1) there is never a control group;
2) there is no blinding;
3) the improvement may simply be due to time;
4) they may be a nonspecific effect of care and attention;
5) it may be a regression to the mean; or
6) the result may be due to something other than spinal manipulation.In some large studies, it has been found that chiropractic care for nonmusculoskeletal conditions is only weakly to moderately successful, but rarely harmful. [1-2] The most recent and thorough systematic literature review found that the evidence for effectiveness of spinal manipulation was inconclusive for nonmusculoskeletal conditions. [3]

Despite the lack of evidence of clinical effectiveness for nonmusculoskeletal conditions, a series of recent studies from several international research groups is systematically building the case that spinal manipulation appears to reduce the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and increase the blood levels of immunoregulatory cytokines. Cytokines are small cell-signaling protein molecules that are secreted by numerous cells of the immune system and are a category of signaling molecules used extensively in intercellular communication.

There are more articles like this in our:

Chiropractic and Immune Function Page

(more…)

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Who’s Asleep Over at MedScape?

By Frank M. Painter|April 27, 2011|News, Stroke|

Who’s Asleep Over at MedScape?

The Chiro.Org Blog

In general, I find the reporting at MedScape to be top notch, but I have significant problems with their 4-20-11 essay titled: “The Potential Complications of Chiropractic Therapy”.

Answer this question:

If I sneeze, and there is a car accident across the street,
have we discovered the *cause* of car accidents?

The scientific method would propose that we sneeze a hundred times, and count the car accidents.

That’s how you begin to determine if there is an actual relationship between one event (like drinking milk) and it’s potential consequences (like developing cancer).

The Bone and Joint Decade Task Force was appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to look at the causes of, and treatments for neck pain, and after years of review, they published their results in the prestigious Spine Journal. One of the most relevant articles (to this conversation) was titled:

“Risk of Vertebrobasilar Stroke and Chiropractic Care: Results of a Population-based Case-control and Case-crossover Study”
Spine 2008 (Feb 15); 33 (4 Suppl): S176–183

CONCLUSION: VBA stroke is a very rare event in the population. The increased risks of VBA stroke associated with chiropractic and PCP visits is likely due to patients with headache and neck pain from VBA dissection seeking care before their stroke. We found no evidence of excess risk of VBA stroke associated chiropractic care compared to primary care.

There was an association between chiropractic services and subsequent vertebrobasilar artery stroke in persons under 45 years of age, but a similar association was also observed among patients receiving general practitioner services. This is likely explained by patients with vertebrobasilar artery dissection-related neck pain or headache seeking care before having their stroke.

This Blog (and our website in general) has published regularly on this topic:

WARNING: Conducting an Orchestra Can Cause Vertebral Artery Dissection and Stroke
https://atlas.chiro.org/?p=5005 (more…)

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The Evidence-based Rap, or What’s Wrong With My Pain Meds?

By Frank M. Painter|April 23, 2011|Low Back Pain, Research, Safety|

The Evidence-based Rap, or What’s Wrong With My Pain Meds?

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: A Chiro.Org Editorial

Based on: A Systematic Review on the Effectiveness of Pharmacological Interventions for Chronic Non-specific Low-back Pain ~ FULL TEXT
Eur Spine J. 2011 (Jan); 20 (1): 40–50

OK, maybe this isn’t a genuine Rap, and I’m not rhyming-Simon, but somebody needs to bust-a-cap on the pain-med industry, because they hold themselves to a much lower standard than they expect my profession to maintain.

Fortunately (and, to the rescue) comes this study from the Dutch Institute for Health Care Improvement. They actually *busted a cap*, by deciding to explore “the effectiveness of pharmacological interventions [i.e., non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), muscle relaxants, antidepressants, and opioids] for non-specific chronic low-back pain (LBP)”.

This article is a real eye-opener!

I say Bravo, because these drugs are medicine’s sole conservative approach for managing LBP. This Blog has previously published numerous (and recent) studies suggesting that chiropractic management for low back pain is orders of magnitude more effective for pain relief, and is also significantly more cost-effective than standard medical management. [1-8] (more…)

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Happy Easter from Chiro.Org! (2011)

By Frank M. Painter|April 22, 2011|Announcement|

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Landmark Legislation Passes In The Texas Senate

By Frank M. Painter|April 21, 2011|News|

Landmark Legislation Passes In The Texas Senate

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: Texas Journal of Chiropractic

The Texas Chiropractic Association reports that on Thursday, April 14, 2011, the Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 1001. Says the Texas Chiropractic Association:

“This landmark legislation is significant for two reasons: It allows chiropractors to form professional associations with medical doctors, and it ensures that chiropractors will be treated fairly by insurance companies that decide to cover services that can legally be provided by chiropractors and other types of practitioners. …We have been trying to pass this type of legislation for more than 20 years.”

The Senate Journal reflects that “Senator Carona offered the following amendment to the bill”:

These amendments include:

“A COLLABORATION BETWEEN PHYSICIANS AND CHIROPRACTORS. a person licensed under Subtitle B, Title 3, and a person licensed under Chapter 201 are authorized to: (1) collaborate with each other in providing services to a client ….”

Title 3 is the Health Professions portion of the Occupations Code.

Subtitle B relates to Physicians.

Chapter 201 of Subtitle C relates to Chiropractors.

“ASSOCIATIONS.

(a) a person licensed under Subtitle B, Title 3, and a person licensed under Chapter 201 of this code may form a partnership, professional association, or professional limited liability company according to the requirements of this section and any other applicable law. (more…)

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