Health News Summer '02

Health News-Summer‘02

Prepared By Burdi Chiropractic & Massage Group

Welcome to our chiropractic office newsletter. Please feel free to forward it to friends and relatives.

One grandmother is worth two MDs. - Robert Mendelsohn, MD

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Disc Surgery - Wait?
Death Rates In Prospective
Chiropractic & Spinal Research
References

Disc Surgery? Wait, It May Be Unnecessary - This study has to be a surgeon's nightmare. According to Spine, one of the most respected medical journals in the world, over 90% of people with disc herniations will get better without surgery by using "conservative" care such as chiropractic. An MRI (magnetic resonance image) scan will show a disc herniation in approximately 20% of people with no symptoms at all! For those with symptoms and were told they must get back surgery, the paper says something that would send shivers down the spine of any orthopedic surgeon: "Over time, most patients with disc herniations recover with or without surgery, so that outcomes after five years are similar when surgical and non-surgical approaches are compared..."(1) In other words disc surgery could be refused by nearly all patients with disc herniations and the ultimate outcome would be no different. But there's more: The failure of back surgery in so many cases is now called by a special name: Failed Back Surgery Syndrome. There are approximately 600,000 back surgeries performed per year with about 50% failure rate, or an FBSS rate of 300,000 per year. Suggestion, do not wait until a disc becomes "hot" before exploring chiropractic care. It can help prevent your spine from deterioration and herniation. Chiropractic Doctors have even helped people relieve the pain and frustration of failed back surgery (yes, you can receive chiropractic care here even after spinal surgery) and even prevent future operations (added stress to discs above and below surgical area). If you know anyone, including yourself, facing spinal surgery please have them call us to discuss the chiropractic approach.

Death Rates In Prospective - A study in the October 2, 2001 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal found only a 1-in-5.85-million risk a vertebral artery dissection from a chiropractic manual adjustment of the neck. In comparison, accident rates for some common medical procedures and everyday activities are listed below:

Risk		Frequency

Death per year from GI bleeding due to NSAID use for osteoarthritis & related conditions		400 in 1 million
Overall mortality rate for spinal surgery		700 in 1 million
Death rate from cervical spine surgery		700 in 1 million

A study titled "The reality and acceptance of risk," published in JAMA in 1980, found an even greater "voluntary risk" of death per person per year from many common procedures and activities :

Voluntary Risk		Risk of Death Per Person Per Year

Soccer, football		1 in 25,500
Motorcycling		1 in 50
Taking contraceptive pills		1 in 5,000
Power boating		1 in 5,900
Skiing		1 in 430,000
Pregnancy (United Kingdom)		1 in 4,350

Other scientific studies documented the high rate of deaths and disabilities resulting from common medical procedures, including 0.5% for laminectomies and 2.0% mortality rate for spinal fusions. Further, in a study of 1,000 workers' compensation patients who received lumbar fusions, after four years from their operation, 71% of single-operation patients and 95% of multiple-operation patients had not returned to work. (2) (Better to prevent with checkups rather than wait for more serious complaints. DrB)

Cough Medicine? - Save Your Money - The authors of a study in the Feb 9th, 2002 British Medical Journal had a simple goal: "To determine whether over-the-counter cough medicines are effective for acute cough in adults." So they reviewed all the controlled trials they could find - 328 studies - but only 15 were set up with a control group, were of adults, aged 16 or older who didn't have asthma, tuberculosis or cancer. Their review showed that "there is no good evidence" that over-the-counter cough medicines worked. On top of that antihistamines and antihistamine-congestant combinations were found to work no better than a placebo. (3)

Chiropractic and Spinal Research - Did you know there are thousands of journal papers on the wonders of chiropractic and spinal care in health and disease? Anyone who has any kind of health problem needs chiropractic care.
A 38-year-old male with hypertension After 14 years of high blood pressure and the side effects of medication which included bloating sensations, depression, fatigue, and impotency, a 38-year-old male began chiropractic care. Chiropractic analysis revealed vertebral subluxation complex at levels C6-7, T3-4, and T7-8. All medications were stopped after seven adjustments and blood pressure remained at normal levels.(4)
Children raised under chiropractic are healthier than children raised under medicine - 200 chiropractors and 200 pediatricians were surveyed regarding the health of their children. The survey revealed that the "chiropractic" children had dramatically lower antibiotic use and disease in general, especially ear infections compared to the "medical" children. If the "chiropractic" children did get measles, rubella or mumps, etc. it was reported that the diseases were quite mild compared to those exhibited by their classmates.(5)

References:

McCulloch M. Focus issue on lumbar herniation: macro- and micro-discectomy. Spine. 21(245):45s-56s.
ACA Newsletter 5/02.
Schroeder K, Fahey T. Systemic review of randomized controlled trial of over the counter cough medicines for acute cough in adults. BMJ. 2002;324-329.
Plaugher G, Bachman TR. Chiropractic Management Of Hypertensive Patient: Case Study. JMPT, 1993.
Van Breda WM, Van Breda JM. A comparative study of health status of children raised under the health care models of chiropractic and allopathic medicine. Journal of Chiropractic Research. Summer 1989.

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