There have been many studies showing that weight loss can improve knee arthritis pain and function, but this is the first study I have seen that shows weight loss can also lead to regeneration of cartilage! There is no drug that can do that. Did anyone think that was possible?

Shedding Pounds Protects Knee Cartilage

A new study shows that many years of efforts to get pediatricians to prescribe less antibiotics has generally not been very successful. They still prescribe antibiotics for viral infections for which they are useless 23% of the time, and over 50% of the time they prescribe broad spectrum antibiotics which make it much easier for bacteria to develop resistance! Currently thousands of people die every year from antibiotic resistant infections and this will increase dramatically if this over-prescription continues.

Superbugs Will March Unless Antibiotic Behavior Changes: View

1959 Chevrolet Bel Air vs. 2009 Chevrolet Malibu Crash Test

I have treated hundreds of patients for injuries from motor vehicle crashes and am very familiar with the great advances in auto safety, but this crash test dramatically demonstrates how far auto safety has advanced. The Bel Air's driver compartment severely collapsed while the Malibu's was preserved and the air bag minimized potential injuries.

1959 Chevrolet Bel Air vs. 2009 Chevrolet Malibu Crash Test

Here is a very good article on overuse of MRI’s, which I would agree with the orthopedist are grossly overused. I order them much less frequently than in the past. I would also agree that they lead to much unnecessary surgery and other dangerous medical treatments.
They also describe a new study in which people with asymptomatic shoulders had many abnormalities on MRI. This is the latest of a number of studies that have shown similar findings in asymptomatic areas of the body.

Sports Medicine Said to Overuse M.R.I.’s

Common pain relievers raise heart risk for healthy people

We have known for awhile that anti-inflammatory drugs raise the risk of heart events in people with pre-existing heart problems, but this new study shows that they also increase heart problems in healthy people. Here is a recent article from USA today on this new study.

Common pain relievers raise heart risk for healthy people

hondroitin reduces both cartilage loss and bone lesions in knee osteoarthritis patients

New randomized double blind placebo controlled trial from the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases journal showed that chondroitin supplementation significantly decreased cartilage loss and bone damage in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Sure beats a knee replacement :-) Many people do not know that a dirty little secret in medicine is that many of the knee replacements being done, especially on younger people are going to wear out, and it is much more difficult and dangerous to do a second knee replacement.

Chondroitin sulphate reduces both cartilage volume loss and bone marrow lesions in knee osteoarthritis patients starting as early as 6 months after initiation of therapy: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study using MRI

Sinus Headaches are Overdiagnosed Leading to Dangerous and Costly Tests and Treatments

Here is another study showing that sinus headache is grossly overdiagnosed with most of the patients actually meeting the critieria for tension headache or migraine headache. This leads to dangerous and costly tests and treatments. 73% of the patients had unnecessary chronic antibiotic treatment and 29% had unnecessary sinus surgery!

Causes of headache in patients with a primary diagnosis of sinus headache

Consumer Reports survey shows Chiropractic to be most effective treatment for migraines and headaches

Besides being voted the best treatment for back pain and neck pain by Consumer Reports readers, chiropractic care was voted the third most effective and the most effective non drug treatment for migraines and headaches!

Headache and migraine treatments

What helped our readers a lot

Neck treatments

What helped our readers a lot

This is from a recent Consumer Reports survey of 45,000 of its members on best treatments for neck pain. As with the results of the back pain treatments, chiropractic treatment was rated significantly better than all other treatments including prescription drugs.

Some Medical Tests, Procedures Do More Harm Than Good

This is a great article just published in Newsweek and the Daily Beast. Please take the time to read it and you may save yourself some unnecessary, costly, and/or dangerous medical tests and/or treatment. I have spent much time recently explaining these concepts to a patient of mine who just happens to be a nurse.

One Word Can Save Your Life: No!

Back-pain treatments What helped Consumer Reports readers a lot

A recent Consumer Reports survey of 14,000 of its subscribers showed that chiropractic outprerformed all other

back pain treatments, including prescription drugs! The link below shows a chart of all the treatments by

percentage effectiveness.

Back-pain treatments What helper our readers alot

Chronic NSAID use doubles CV deaths in elderly

A new study form the American Journal of Medicine shows that older patients with hypertension and coronary artery disease who use nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) chronically for pain are at significantly increased risk of cardiovascular events! We are finding more and more heart risks from NSAID's including ibuprofen and naproxen.

Chronic NSAID use doubles CV deaths in elderly

Back Pain Relievers Dr. Oz Touts the Benefits of Chiropractic Care and Spinal Manipulaiton | The Dr. Oz Show

Dr. Oz touts the benefits of spinal manipulation and chiropractic care and has a chiropractor adjust one of the audience members.

Back Pain Relievers | The Dr. Oz Show

Most people would be very surprised to know that many surgical procedures are performed that have no evidence of effectiveness. Each of these four surgeries in this AARP article are performed hundreds of thousands of times every year!

4 Surgeries to Avoid

Spinal Manipulation Proves Equally Beneficial as Surgery in Sciatica Treatment

I have had many new patients over the years with severe sciatica who were crying from the pain and/or saying they wish someone could cut off their leg! Here is a recent study showing that spinal manipulation/adjustments is just as effective as surgery for treatment of sciatica from lumbar disc herniation!

Here is a review of the research at the Foundation For Chiropractic Progress.
Spinal Manipulation Proves Equally Beneficial as Surgery in Sciatica Treatment

The five most wasteful procedures in primary care Archives of Internal Medicine

his article from the Archives of Internal Medicine reviews the top five most wasteful procedures in primary care. The first was the ordering of diagnostic imaging such as x-rays, MRI's, and CT's. The second was ordering bone density testing in woman under 65 and men under 70 with no risk factors for osteoporosis.

We now know that diagnostic imaging has a high rate of false positives meaning it can show many abnormalities that have nothing to do with a patients symptoms. This leads to much unnecessary further testing and treatments, some of them with dangerous side effects.

Current guidelines do not recommend bone density testing on woman under 65 and men under 70 with no risk factors for osteoporosis for the same reasons as diagnostic imaging.

The "Top 5" Lists in Primary Care

Even short term use of anti-inflammatory drugs increases risk of death and heart attack in patients with cardiovascular disease

NSAID's (anti-inflammatory drugs) are contraindicated in patients with cardiovascular disease, but continue to commonly be prescribed to this group. This study showed that even short term use (1 day!) increased the risk of death and recurrent heart attacks in patients with previous heart attack! The research on the dangers of NSAID's keeps accumulating and is now quite extensive. Here is a link to the article in the journal Circulation.

Duration of Treatment With Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs and Impact on Risk of Death and Recurrent Myocardial Infarction in Patients With Prior Myocardial Infarction

"America’s deadliest drug problem? Not heroin, not cocaine, not even crack cocaine. The larger problem is abuse of drugs that are perfectly legal: prescription pain medications. They kill an estimated two people every hour and send 40 more to emergency rooms with life-threatening overdoses."

It would be interesting to know how many lives are saved by patients choosing chiropractic treatment instead of drug treatment. Here is a link to the article.

When painkillers kill 2 people every hour, it's time to act

Chiropractic for Chronic LBP: Maintenance Care Better Than Short-Term Therapy

This is the first ever randomized controlled trial of manipulation maintenance therapy and was published in the prestigious medical journal Spine. There were three groups of patients with chronic (more than six months) low back pain consisting of a manipulation group of one month treatment, a sham manipulation group, and a manipulation group of one month treatment and an additional nine months of maintenance treatment. The real manipulation groups both showed significant improvement. This study found that patients who received an additional nine months of one visit per month maintenance treatment not only maintained their improvement, but they actually gained significant additional improvement!

Here is a link to a review article.

Chiropractic for Chronic LBP: Maintenance Care Better Than Short-Term Therapy

Chiropractic Care for Injured Worker's Results in Less Disability Compared to Medical and PT Care

Here is another study showing lower disability rates for patients with work injuries treated by chiros as compared to medical physicians and to PT’s! It was funded by Liberty Mutual Ins Co. and published in the April, 2011 "Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine". It was controlled for demographics and severity of cases.

It shows that a worker is twice as likely to become disabled after treatment by a PT and 60% more likely to become disabled after treatment to a medical physician compared to treatment by a DC!

Please remember that Illinois doctors of chiropractic are physicians and are fully covered by the IL worker's compensation system, even if your employer, WC insurance company or attorney might tell you otherwise.
You may be saving yourself from future disability. I have treated many patients over the years who were disabled by WC and other injuries, and it is always sad to see the effects on their lives.

Health maintenance care in work-related low back pain and its association with disability recurrence.

Santolin Chiropractic Clinic Website

This is an article reviewing a new study from the journal Health Affairs which concluded that most hospital errors go undetected and unreported, and actually happen in 1 out of 3 admissions. A recent large study showed that chiropractic patients have 40% less hospital admissions, so these patients are not being put at risk to suffer injuries from hospital errors.

Hospital Errors May Occur In A Third Of Admissions

Daring to Practice Low-Cost Medicine in a High-Tech Era New England Journal of Medicine

Here is an excellent letter to the editor by an MD to the New England Journal of Medicine. It points out the many drawbacks of our high tech medical system. Although it is counterintuitive, higher tech in medicine is not necessarily better.
This is the reason I sold my x-ray machine about 6-7 years ago. The current evidence based guidelines do not recommend the use of routine x-rays. I also order less MRI's and CT scans because of the current imaging guidelines. Many times the best diagnosis comes from a trial of treatment to see how the patient responds.

Daring to Practice Low-Cost Medicine in a High-Tech Era

Exercise Reduces Risk for Colon Polyps, Resulting in Less Colon Cancer

Another in a long list of reasons to get regular exercise, which is something I always encourage in my patients. Colon cancer is the third highest cancer killer for men and women. This new study, based on a meta-analysis of 20 studies, focused on colon adenomas, the precancerous polyps that are removed during sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy. The researchers found that regular physical exercise was associated with a 30% decrease in the risk of developing polyps that were large or advanced, and thus more likely to become cancerous.
Here is a link to a Medscape article entitled Exercise Reduces Risk for Colon Polyps, Resulting in Less Colon Cancer

Santolin Chiropractic Web Page

Santolin Chiropractic Facebook Page

Dr. Steve Santolin Twitter Page

Treat the Patient, Not the CT Scan

Great article from a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine. I have had many patients who while in severe pain were told by some doctor that nothing was wrong with them because their x-ray or MRI was negative! I know they were taught about functional disorders in school as these types of disorders occur in most of the body systems. This is similar to telling someone with symptoms from a heart arrythmia that nothing is wrong with them because the heart echocardiogram does not show any abnormalities of the heart structures.

Here is a link to the article: Treat the Patient, Not the CT Scan

Family practitioners and orthopedist very deficient in knowledge of evidence based guidelines for managing low back disorders

This study shows that family practitioners and orthopedist are very deficient in their knowledge of research based guidelines for the management of back disorders. The family practitioners scored poorly at 70% and the orthopedists did even much worse at 44%! Unfortunately many people hold up orthopedists as the experts for all back problems.

Orthopaedists' and family practitioners' knowledge of simple low back pain management:

Spinal manipulation as good as surgery for most patients with sciatica due to disc herniation

There surprisingly have been very few studies of any treatments for sciatica secondary to disc herniation, including surgery. Here is a new study comparing manipulation to surgery on patients with sciatica secondary to disc herniation. All the patients in the study had failed at least 3 months of management including treatment with analgesics, lifestyle modification, PT, massage therapy, and/or acupuncture. 60% of this population that had failed other medical management benefited from manipulation to the same degree as the surgical group!

Manipulation or Microdiskectomy for Sciatica? A Prospective Randomized Clinical Study

New Spine Journal Study Shows the Benefit of Chiropractic Spinal Maintenance Therapy

Here is the abstract of the first ever randomized study on manipulation maintenance therapy for chronic low back disorders that will be published in the prestigious Spine Journal. The maintenance group actually showed even further improvement after the 10 once per month treatments! This is a very important study because of the benefit to patients and because chiropractic maintenance treatment is controversial among many non chiropractic providers and stakeholders. Of course further future randomized trials will be helpful to more fully confirm the benefit.

Here is a link the the article: "Does maintained Spinal manipulation therapy for chronic non-specific low back pain result in better long term outcome?"

MD's Don't Follow Knee Osteoarthritis Guidelines

MD's not following current evidence based guidelines for management of back and joint disorders is unfortunately very common. Here is another study showing that MD's rely mostly on drugs to treat symptoms and a non evidence based surgery, rather than encouraging research validated exercise and weight loss. The authors note that current medical treatment is contributing to the skyrocketing cost of treating knee OA.

Docs Don't Follow OA Guidelines

Common pain meds can put you in a world of hurt

This is a very good article from last month's edition of Runners World magazine. It reviews our current knowledge of the damaging effects to the kidneys, G.I. tract, blood pressure, and sodium levels of taking ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatories which is greatly increased during exercise. It also reviews the damaging effect on the liver from acetaminophen (Tylenol), the inhibition of healing secondary to anti-inflammatories, and that anti-inflammatories do not decrease pain during exercise and actually increase inflammation during exercise. Please see link below for the article.

The Pill Problem

The right drug can relieve pain and discomfort—or put you in a world of hurt.

Why Health Care Costs for LBP Are So High Initiating care with an MD for back pain results in much higher health care costs than going to a DC, says

This is another is a long list of studies showing that chiropractic care of low back pain is significantly more cost effective than medical care. The study is from the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics and entitled "Cost of Care for Common Back Pain Conditions Initiated With Chiropractic Doctor vs. Medical Doctor / Doctor of Osteopathy as First Physician." This is a retrospective claims review of medium and large insurance plans of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee. It showed 40% less cost for chiropractic initiated care compared to MD initiated care and with risk adjusting still showed a 20% less cost.

Decreased cost with chiropractic care was seen in many of the previous studies even though non of them included all the indirect costs which constitute a majority of the medical costs.

Why Health Care Costs for LBP Are So High