News – Page 3 – Chiropractic Resource Organization

Downward Dog Gets Thumbs Up From California Judge

By Frank M. Painter|July 1, 2013|News|

Downward Dog Gets Thumbs Up From California Judge

I say BRAVO! to the California courts for allowing a San Diego-area school district to introduce Yoga as a twice weekly, 30-minute class.

Although some parents were miffed because they thought it promoted Eastern religion (???) a federal Judge ruled in favor of the school.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A judge is allowing a San Diego-area school district to teach yoga, rejecting the claims of disgruntled parents who called it an effort to promote Eastern religion.

Yoga is a religious practice, but not the way that it is taught by the Encinitas Union School District at its nine campuses, San Diego Superior Court Judge John S. Meyer said in Monday’s ruling.

Meyer said the school district stripped classes of all cultural references including the Sanskrit language. He noted that the lotus position was renamed the “crisscross applesauce” pose.

The judge said that the opponents of the yoga class were relying on information culled from the Internet and other unreliable sources.

“It’s almost like a trial by Wikipedia, which isn’t what this court does,” Meyer said.

An attorney for the parents, Dean Broyles, said he will likely appeal.

“It was the judge’s job to call balls and strikes and determine the facts. I think he got some of the facts wrong,” he said.

In the lawsuit Broyles argued that the twice weekly, 30-minute classes are inherently religious, in violation of the constitutional separation between church and state.

(more…)

0

Ohio chiropractors could make call on concussions

By John Wiens DC|June 4, 2013|News|

Source The Plain Dealer

By Brandon Blackwell, The Plain Dealer

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Some Ohio physicians are upset over a budget provision that would allow chiropractors to make the calls on putting student athletes with head injuries back in the game.

Senate lawmakers on Thursday are likely to pass a version of the budget, House Bill 59, that gives chiropractors the authority to clear the return of young athletes who are taken off the field for symptoms of a concussion or head injury. The move has upset those who say chiropractors do not have the proper training to handle the responsibility.

“I think that when we’re talking about serious head injuries to children, a physician’s training and scope of expertise is broader and more comprehensive than a chiropractor,” said Tim Maglione, senior director of the Ohio State Medical Association. “Chiropractors have a role in the continuum of care for athletes. We just don’t think it should go as far as assessing head injuries for young children.”

Supporters of the provision, however, say chiropractors receive rigorous training in neurology and are well qualified to make the assessments.

Current law gives doctors of medicine or osteopathic medicine the authority to clear a young athlete for a return to sports. The amendment would extend that authority to chiropractors.

Maglione sent a letter last month to the Senate asking lawmakers to toss the provision.

“The simple fact is that physicians are granted ultimate oversight…because they are best equipped in terms of education and training to act in that role,” Maglione said in the letter. “Those without adequate education and training should not be making return to play decisions independently.

“The training and education of a physician is vastly different and indeed more rigorous than that required for a chiropractor.”

The letter included signatures from officials with the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, Ohio Athletic Trainers Association, Ohio Hospital Association and the Ohio Osteopathic Association. (more…)

2

Danish researchers claim that antibiotics could cure 40% of chronic back pain patients

By John Wiens DC|May 7, 2013|News|

Source The Guardian

Up to 40% of patients with chronic back pain could be cured with a course of antibiotics rather than surgery, in a medical breakthrough that one spinal surgeon says is worthy of a Nobel prize. Surgeons in the UK and elsewhere are reviewing how they treat patients with chronic back pain after scientists discovered that many of the worst cases were due to bacterial infections.

The shock finding means that scores of patients with unrelenting lower back pain will no longer face major operations but can instead be cured with courses of antibiotics costing around £114. One of the UK’s most eminent spinal surgeons said the discovery was the greatest he had witnessed in his professional life, and that its impact on medicine was worthy of a Nobel prize.

“This is vast. We are talking about probably half of all spinal surgery for back pain being replaced by taking antibiotics,” said Peter Hamlyn, a consultant neurological and spinal surgeon at University College London hospital.

Specialists who deal with back pain have long known that infections are sometimes to blame, but these cases were thought to be exceptional. That thinking has been overturned by scientists at the University of Southern Denmark who found that 20% to 40% of chronic lower back pain was caused by bacterial infections.

“This will not help people with normal back pain, those with acute, or sub-acute pain – only those with chronic lower back pain,” Dr Hanne Albert, of the Danish research team, told the Guardian. “These are people who live a life on the edge because they are so handicapped with pain. We are returning them to a form of normality they would never have expected.”

The Danish team describe their work in two papers published in the European Spine Journal. In the first report, they explain how bacterial infections inside slipped discs can cause painful inflammation and tiny fractures in the surrounding vertebrae.

In the second paper, the scientists proved they could cure chronic back pain with a 100-day course of antibiotics. In a randomised trial, the drugs reduced pain in 80% of patients who had suffered for more than six months and had signs of damaged vertebra under MRI scans.

5

Lives Lived – Ronald Gitelman, DC

By John Wiens DC|November 22, 2012|News|

Source Globe and Mail

by Howard Vernon, DC

Chiropractor, husband, father, outdoorsman, craftsman. Born Jan. 26, 1937, in Trenton, Ont., died Oct. 7, 2012, in Toronto from pancreatic cancer, aged 75.

Whether it was seeing a patient, delivering a lecture, casting his handmade fly rod, carving a piece of wood into a beautiful bowl or walking with his beloved granddaughter, Jennie, nobody did it better than Ron.

He had a zest for life, a love of each day, a sense of humanity, a passion to experience things, and the most engaging smile.

Growing up in a small town close to countryside, Ron had an affinity to nature his whole life. He was happiest in the country, and sought it out all his life.

He was a natural athlete. While playing tennis as a teen, he developed a shoulder problem and an orthopedic specialist told him he needed an operation and that his tennis career was over.

Ron could not accept this, so he rode his bike up the mountain to the office of a man whom the kids used to call a quack who broke bones. Ron thought perhaps the man could help him.

The man was named Dr. Halett, and he was Trenton’s chiropractor. He examined the shoulder, and had Ron back on the courts, free of pain, in two weeks.

That encounter ignited the spark that led Ron to the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College.

After graduation, he devoted 40 years to his patients, his educational institution and the profession at large.

From 1963 to 1978, he made several fundamental contributions to chiropractic science: He developed the first scientific database for chiropractors; delivered a lecture at the 1975 National Institutes of Health conference on spinal manipulation, one of the few chiropractors to speak there; and was instrumental in developing chiropractic research.

Ron continued to practise until 2007, when he retired to his cherished chalet in the Beaver Valley near Georgian Bay, where he could devote all his time to his family, his many pastimes and his love of nature. He contributed greatly to the maintenance of the Beaver River.

Ron revelled in the successes of his children, who grew up to be a world-renowned bridge player, a nature conservationist and a teacher. He loved nothing more than to have his close and extended family enjoy the chalet and all the outdoor experiences it provided.

As Ron’s final illness emerged, he said he’d had a great go at life and his bucket was empty, though he thought there might be one last “permit” still in the bucket (still hoping to catch the big one!).

He challenged his illness like he did every other problem in life – head-on and with a sense of determination.

We know that Ron would want us to catch and release, stop and smell the forest, laugh at a good joke and celebrate life the way he did.

We lost a great friend, healer and teacher.

Howard Vernon is Ron’s friend.

0

Chiropractors can provide physicals

By John Wiens DC|November 9, 2012|News|

Source Wichita Falls Times Record News

Chiropractors may now provide pre-participation sports physicals to children in the Wichita Falls Independent School District for all secondary grades.

The belated approval came Monday, just a few months after WFISD board members barred chiropractors from giving the same physicals.

Until Monday, WFISD approved only medical exams given by physicians, licensed physician assistants or registered nurse practitioners.

WFISD board members changed the policy in a 6-1 vote. Board member Allyson Flack cast the one dissenting vote.

The policy change became effective immediately, according to Kenny Catney, WFISD athletic director.

The new policy reflects the same rules practiced by the University Interscholastic League.

During the years, chiropractors have had an in-and-out relationship with WFISD, according to board member Reginald Blow. This was the second time in his tenure that he’s voted on letting chiropractors examine students.

In past years, chiropractors were approved to give sports physicals to junior high students only. (more…)

2

Senate Investigation Reveals That Millions Were Paid for Positive Spin on Spine Fusion Product

By Frank M. Painter|October 25, 2012|Ethics, News|

Senate Investigation Reveals That Millions Were Paid
for Positive Spin on Spine Fusion Product

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: MedPage Today ~ October 25, 2012

By John Fauber

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today

Highly positive studies, published in peer-reviewed medical journals, depicted Medtronic’s spine fusion product as a major breakthrough in back surgery, but those studies were drafted and edited with direct input from Medtronic employees, while the doctors listed as authors were paid millions, according to a U.S. Senate investigation.

The company’s heavy, undisclosed manipulation of information about its bone morphogenetic protein-2 product called Infuse included removing and downplaying concerns about serious complications linked to the product and overstating its benefits.

The Money Trail

Over the course of 15 years, Medtronic paid $210 million to a group of 13 doctors who co-authored the series of now-repudiated papers about the product. The payments also included two corporate entities associated with some of the doctors.

The investigation by Senate Committee on Finance was prompted in part by Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigations that showed how the practice of medicine has been corrupted by conflicts of interest involving doctors, drug and device companies and medical journals.

(more…)

4