April 2010 Health Newsletter

It’s no secret chiropractic care works wonders for many suffering from back, neck and spinal related problems. However, many are unaware that chiropractic care also provides excellent results in a number of non-spinal related conditions including those related to the extremities. Manipulative treatments chiropractors often apply to the spine are similarly used by chiropractors on the joints of the extremities including the hip, knee, ankle, foot, hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder joints. Manipulation of these joints involves a safe, controlled and specific force that is skillfully applied in order to restore normal joint motion that in turn provides nutrients to the joint, reducing inflammation and pain. Researchers recently conducted a study to compare the outcomes of treating patients with shoulder complaints with usual care from a general practitioner (medical doctor) both with and without the additional care of manipulative therapy applied directly to the shoulder girdle. At 12 weeks after initiating care, those receiving the additional manipulative therapy had better outcomes related to shoulder pain, neck pain. At 26 weeks, those receiving the additional manipulative therapy had statistically superior outcomes in shoulder pain, shoulder mobility and mobility of the neck. If you’re suffering from extra-spinal problems such as problems with the legs, hips or arms, call our office for an appointment to see if safe, natural and effective chiropractic care might be the solution for you!

Older patients with lower back pain are increasingly getting more complex and costlier spinal fusion surgeries, resulting in higher rates of life-threatening complications and increasing costs for the healthcare system, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. A study of records from the federal Medicare program for the elderly and disabled between 2002 and 2007 revealed a 15-fold increase in the rate of complex surgeries to treat spinal stenosis -- a common condition in the elderly in which the spinal canal narrows, causing pain in the back and legs. And while the number of overall procedures to treat this problem dipped during the period, hospital charges for those surgeries rose by 40 percent on an inflation-adjusted basis, Dr. Richard Deyo of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland and his colleagues reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In a telephone interview Deyo said the trend in part is related to the introduction of new technology, such as spinal cages and special screws used to fuse vertebrae together. But it also reflects savvy marketing by orthopedic device makers such as Stryker Corp., Medtronic Inc. and Johnson & Johnson's DePuy unit, that has convinced surgeons more complex surgery is better, Deyo said. Studies, however, suggest complex spinal fusion surgeries offer little benefit over simpler procedures for most patients, and increase the risk of complications. "It is driving up the cost of care without much evidence that it is improving care," Deyo said. A study last year published in JAMA found that the cost of treating spine problems in the United States rose 65 percent in the past decade to $85.9 billion a year, rivaling the economic burden of treating cancer, which costs $89 billion. Yet, for all of the spending, they found people with spine problems actually felt worse. Deyo's team studied three specific surgical procedures for lumbar stenosis: decompression, in which part of the vertebrae is removed to ease pressure on nerve roots; simple fusion, in which one or two discs are fused together through an incision in the back or abdomen; and complex fusion, in which more than 3 vertebrae are treated or the surgery is done from both the back and front. Overall, the procedure rate fell 1.4 percent during the study period, but rates of complex fusion surgery increased from 1.3 per 100,000 patients to 19.9 per 100,000. "What happened was the most complex type of surgery increased 15-fold over that period of time, a far more rapid increase than we could explain just on the basis of more severe disease," Deyo said. "What we also found is these more complex operations are associated with a higher rate of serious complications." Patients in the study who had a complex fusion procedure had a nearly three times higher odds of a life-threatening complication compared with those who only got decompression. And overall hospital charges rose 40 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars, the team found. Dr. Eugene Carragee of the Stanford University School of Medicine in California said in a commentary that the study should remind patients, doctors and insurance companies to carefully weigh the options for spinal surgery. "... the efficacy of basic spinal techniques must be assessed carefully against the plethora of unproven but financially attractive alternatives," Carragee wrote, noting that "financial incentives and market forces do not favor this careful assessment before technologies are widely adopted."

According to a newly released report in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, the number of Americans ending up in the hospital due to overdoses from prescribed painkillers, sedatives and tranquilizers is rising steeply. In just 8 years, 1999 to 2006, hospital admissions from prescription drug overdoses increased an alarming 65 percent from 43,000 to 71,000. Another stunning statistic - Unintentional prescription drug overdoses surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of unintentional injury death in 2005 for those 35 to 54 years of age. There are many more jaw dropping statistics listed in the report that highlight the dangers of many prescription drugs, especially those prescribed for the purpose of reducing pain.

What if you could simply lose weight by getting more sleep, would you be interested? Well, new research indicates that this isn’t too far off. Researchers have found those who don’t get adequate sleep actually consume more calories than those who do. Researchers followed 12 healthy young men for two 48-hour sessions while recording their sleep, calorie consumption and activity level. They found those who got 4 hours of sleep versus 8 hours of sleep actually consumed 22 percent more calories. Thus, the lack of adequate sleep resulted in a significant increase in their caloric intake. Other studies have also found shorter sleep duration is associated with higher body mass index but this is the first to study the effects of sleep duration to calorie consumption in normal-weight individuals.