Prevention

Advising on Prevention in Chiropractic: A Look at Public Health Promotion

By Frank M. Painter|April 19, 2011|Chiropractic Technique, Education, Prevention|

Advising on Prevention in Chiropractic: A Look at Public Health Promotion

SOURCE: Topics in Integrative Health Care 2011: 2 (1)

Harrison Ndetan, M.Sc., MPH, DrPH, Michael Ramcharan, DC,
Marion Willard Evans, Jr., DC, PhD, MCHES, CWP

Chiropractic care is among the more commonly used Complementary and Alternative Medical (CAM) therapies. Spinal co-morbidities include many of the most common causes of premature death and disability. Health promotion and disease prevention have been used in the profession and taught in educational settings but not yet fully embraced in usual practice. This manuscript reviews areas in which health promotion has been emphasized in chiropractic education along with instances in which health behavior theories (HBTs) have been applied. Chiropractic clinical and educational programs should consider application of HBTs to move clinicians and interns forward regarding better advising roles with patients related to prevention and health promotion.

Introduction

The actual causes of death in the United States include many chronic diseases that are attributable to modifiable behavioral risk factors such as tobacco use, physical inactivity or sedentary lifestyle, alcohol consumption, poor nutrition or eating habits. [1]An increased emphasis on prevention, health promotion (HP), and education has been recommended for decades but has failed to reduce many of the threats related to premature morbidity and mortality. [2,3]Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use has also increased; in many cases aimed at chronic disease management. [4-7]

Chiropractic care is one of the most frequently used professional CAM health care systems in the U.S. [4,5,7]Musculoskeletal conditions such as low back and neck pain, which are among the most common reasons patients visit medical physicians in the U.S., [8]are also among the conditions most frequently treated with chiropractic care. [7-9]The relative efficacy and cost effectiveness of chiropractic and medical care have emerged as important issues in the broader debate on evidence-based healthcare. [10,11]

Chiropractors and health promotion

There are more articles like this at our:

Health Promotion & Wellness Page

(more…)

0

Community cuts heart attacks by 24 percent with preventive health

By John Wiens DC|April 3, 2011|Prevention|

Source Scientific American

The town of New Ulm, Minn., some 90 miles outside of Minneapolis, is small. With a population of about 15,000, the self-proclaimed polka capital of the U.S. might not seem like the most obvious locale to roll out an aggressive, unconventional attack on heart disease.

But for the past couple years, a local health system has been doing just that, using an array of preventive health tactics that include everything from state-of-the-art electronic health records to free water aerobics classes.

Early results suggest that the preventive health program has been working. In the some 10,000 adults in the target zip code (56073), the rate of acute heart attacks fell by 24 percent in 15 months, according to research presented this week at the American College of Cardiology meeting in New Orleans. Fewer than 50 people in the area suffered a heart attack in 2008—before the reduction efforts kicked in—so the stats are slight, but the approach could have implications for larger population bases.

The program “encourages a large population to embrace healthy lifestyle changes, such as smoking cessation and improved nutrition that could improve long-term health,” Jackie Boucher, of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, said in a prepared statement. Area residents can join an organized walking group, take a cooking class or participate in workplace health screening. (more…)

0

Heart Attacks and Folic Acid

By stevev|February 6, 2011|Nutrition, Prevention, Supplementation|

Randomized trials have suggested that folic acid may not have any beneficial effects for preventing heart attacks especially a second episodes. However in a meta-analysis published Wednesday (2/2/11) Wald,et. al. suggest that previous studies have failed to account for the use of aspirin by study participants. The authors suggest folic acid could be a part of a preventative measure to reduce first attacks but not second due to the use of aspirin by those suffering from a previous attack.

The study was published online as part of the PLoS site, an open access peer reviewed site. You can download the study in its entirety here;

Wald DS, Morris JK, Wald NJ (2011) Reconciling the Evidence on Serum Homocysteine and Ischaemic Heart Disease: A Meta-Analysis. PLoS ONE 6(2): e16473. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016473

2

Vaccination

By Frank M. Painter|June 21, 2009|Education, Ethics, Health, Immune System, Prevention, Safety|

Vaccination is a controversial topic with chiropractors because of our non-drug and non-surgery approach to health.

The Vaccination Page attempts to present both sides of the vaccination issue.

5

Low Back Pain and Chiropractic

By Frank M. Painter|June 6, 2009|Chiropractic Care, Health, Low Back Pain, Prevention, Research, Safety, Spinal Manipulation|

Low Back Pain and Chiropractic

The Chiro.Org Blog

As you may know, until the late 90s, all chiropractic research was funded by our schools, or by research organizations like the FCER and the ICPA.

Even since then, the Federal Government has funneled homeopathic doses of cash towards chiropractic research. For this reason, much of early the funded research focused on Low Back Pain. (more…)

3

Do Kids Need Chiropractic?

By Frank M. Painter|May 27, 2009|News, Nutrition, Prevention, Research, Safety|

Our Pediatrics Section contains a wide variety of materials pertaining to children’s health.

The Kids Need Chiropractic, Too! page contains many articles by the profession’s foremost pediatric specialists. (more…)

1