This is a recent Wall Street Journal article by a surgeon who has worked at Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, D.C. General Hospital, Harvard and others). One of the benefits of chiropractic care is we have a much lower patient hospital admission rate so our patients have a decreased risk of being injured or dying in hospitals.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444620104578008263334441352.html

This is a new study from the European Spine Journal which reviewed nine previous studies on patients with chronic neck pain with and without pinched nerves. It found no better results for surgery than non-surgical treatments. 
Why do insurance companies pay billions of dollars for ineffective, expensive and dangerous treatments and then always state that they need huge increases in premiums to keep up with the increasing medical costs?


http://www.healio.com/orthopedics/spine/news/online/%7B240B53CC-40C2-4912-B8FC-6BA2BF748F69%7D/Spine-surgery-did-not-improve-outcomes-for-patients-with-chronic-neck-painhttp://www.healio.com/orthopedics/spine/news/online/%7B240B53CC-40C2-4912-B8FC-6BA2BF748F69%7D/Spine-surgery-did-not-improve-outcomes-for-patients-with-chronic-neck-pain

Here is another in a now long list of studies showing increased harm of anti-inflammatory drugs in people routinely using them before exercise mistakenly believing they will decrease soreness or injuries. In fact inflammation is an integral part of the healing process and these drugs actually delay and interfere with healing.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/05/for-athletes-risks-from-ibuprofen-use/

Meningitis outbreak brings attention to treatment of back pain

Very good article in the Chicago Tribune that features an Illinois doctor of chiropractic with a discussion of the dangers of several types of back treatments. http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/bs-hs-chiropractors-meningitis-20121104,0,7986435,full.story Any thoughts on the topics of this article?

This new study from the New England Journal of Medicine documents that death from advanced cancers have not decreased in the last 30 years. Please read this article to understand how cancer and other screening tests are causing a huge amount of overdiagnosis leading billions of dollars of unnecessary and dangerous treatments. This understanding can help you make better informed decisions in the future.

Cancer Survivor or Victim of Overdiagnosis?

Epidural Corticosteroid Injections in the Management of Sciatica: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

This is a meta-analysis and systematic review from the Annals of Internal Medicine which pooled the results from many previous studies comparing epidural cortisone injection to placebo for sciatica. If found that it offered only a small short-term benefit for leg pain and the authors question the clinical utility from the small temporary benefit. 

http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleID=1390546

Armstrong's fraud paralleled EPO-makers' feud

I have followed the unethical and illegal marketing tactics of drug companies for a long time, but I was unaware of these EPO (a drug that increase the amount of red blood cells) cases. This unfortunately is this the last in a long list of illegal and dangerous activities by some pharmaceutical companies. Below is a link to a recent article about a new book concerning the marketing of EPO by the drug companies Any thoughts on Armstrong or how we can reduce future illegal activity by these companies? 

Blood Money

Benefits of Xylitol on Dental and Teeth Health

I have posted a couple of previous articles on xylitol. This was the first sugar approved for diabetic use and it has many benefits for oral health. It kills harmful bacteria and de-acidifies the mouth and teeth. It can be taken as a lozenge, gum, or granular. Here is a recent article focusing on xylitol gum.

Your Assignment for Today: Chew Gum

Here is a trailer from the recently released movie "Doctored" which chronicles how the medical profession has literally monopolized healthcare in our country.
"Writer-director Bobby Sheehan (who also directed the the Acedemay Awards short l

ist film "On Native Soil") begins by exploring chiropractic care and presents a case that, despite mainstream medicine's longtime crusade to brand it "quackery," it is a highly viable, at times superior alternative to standard surgery and prescription therapy."

Doctored Trailer

New Spine journal research shows chiropractic spinal manipulation to be more than an anti-inflammatory for acute low back pain

I recently posted a study showing spinal manipulation to be more effective than drug therapy for chronic neck pain. Here is a new double blinded randomized controlled trial study from the prestigious Spine Journal showing spinal manipulation to be more effective than an anti-inflammatory drug and better than placebo for acute low back pain.

Spinal HVLA-Manipulation in Acute Nonspecific LBP: A Double Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial in Comparison With Diclofenac and Placebo.

Here is a very good article by the ground breaking researcher Dr. Dean Ornish in which he reviews the current research on his suggested eating habits and the Atkins diet.

Eating for Health, Not Weight

I have been certified and practiced acupuncture for over 22 years. Here is the most rigorous and detailed study to date recently published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. It is a meta-analysis of 29 high quality radomized trials which shows that acupuncture is effective for osteoarthritis, migraines and chronic back, neck and shoulder pain. What are your thoughts?

Acupuncture Provides True Pain Relief in Study

The Institute of Medicine estimates that $750 billion is wasted in the US medical system every year! Many people say fraud is a big factor, but this study like others found that only 10% of the waste can be contributed to fraud. The majority is because of over treating, over testing, duplication of services, and lack of communication between the providers. How would
you correct these inefficiencies?

Waste in the Health Care System

A from a new study from the Archives of Internal Medicine is the first to look at burnout among practicing MDs from varying specialties and shows that 1 out of 2 show classic signs of burnout!
Have any of you noticed signs of burnout in any of your medical doctors and what do you think can be done about this problem?

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/the-widespread-problem-of-doctor-burnout/

This is a review from the National Institutes of Health concerning a recent study from the Annals of Internal Medicine. This was a meta-analysis which looked at data from 89 research studies and found no benefit and evidence of harmful side effects with hyaluronic acid injections. This procedure is very costly and unfortunately is another in a long list of medical treatments for joint and back problems that been as shown to be ineffective and more dangerous than previously thought. Exercise and weight loss have been proven to be beneficial for knee arthritis and I will continue to recommend these to my patients as I have for the last 22 years.


http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_126142.html

Letter: ‘Cut’ proves costly to state

The state of Illinois thinks it is saving money by cutting out chiropractic and other non-medical services from Medicaid. But as this article by a Mattoon chiropractor illustrates, one always has to think about the law of unintended consequ

ences. Why do you think politicians and insurance companies commonly think that cutting chiropractic and non-medical services will save money instead of looking at the big costs like surgeries, drugs, and unnecessary testings?

Letter: ‘Cut’ proves costly to state

This is a very good article by Dr. Sunjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and chief medical correspondent for CNN. I would be one to argue that Americans health suffers because of too much medical treatment and testing which leads to much additional patient disability and cost. Do you think Americans get too much medical treatment or not enough treatment?

More is not always better in medicine

This Olympics has the most chiropractors ever treating the athletes. There are 27 chiropractors working in the polyclinic for all the athletes and 28 chiropractors working as individual team doctors!

2012 Olympics: World's fastest man, Usain Bolt, utilizes chiropractic care

Here is an article by a fellow chiropractic physician that does a good job of explaining the commonly misunderstood difference between relative benefit vs. absolute benefit. Please learn the difference of these research terms as it my make a difference in your decision to start taking a drug.

STATINS–THE WONDER DRUG THAT ISN’T

Very good new public service video giving information about chiropractic management of back pain.


Low Back Pain and Chiropractic Medicine 

This is a link to the FDA website which list deaths from prescription drugs at 100, 000 per year making it the 4th leading cause of death in the US. One can only imagine how many less deaths there would be if some of these people first started with less dangerous treatments like chiropractic.

Why Learn about Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR)?

This is a new study from the Annals of Internal Medicine which reviewed 89 randomized controlled trials on knee hyaluronic acid injection for knee arthritis which showed minimal or no benefit and significant risk . This is another case of a highly popular orthopedic medical treatment being shown to be of little or no benefit and/or more dangerous than previously thought.

Viscosupplementation for Knee OA: Little Gain, Big Risks

Chiropractic Care at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA)

I recently saw Dr. Terry Yochum speak at a seminar sponsored by the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Most of the audience did not know it , but he informed us that every one of their hospitals in the country contains a chiropractic clinic!


Chiropractic Care at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA)

Xylitol The Decay-Preventive Sweetener California Dental Association

Here is a position paper on Xylitol from the California dental Association. I've been using it as part of a new preventative dental program for the last year which is working out great! I have done much research on it and found that it lowers mouth acidity by about 2 pH and also kills harmful dental bacteria.

http://www.cda.org/popup/xylitol

I recently had a new patient who was involved in a rear impact auto crash. She came in about 10 days after the crash and was very surprised she was still in so much pain, and said she thought she would have been greatly improved in just a few days. Many people do not realize how much damage can be inflicted by this type of injury.  There have been several long term studies showing a high percentage of patients having symptoms 5-10 years later. Here is a summary of a prospective study showing 71% of patients continuing to have symptoms after 7.5 years!

Whiplash Recovery Time

How Long Does Whiplash Last?

Low Back Pain After Lumbar Disc Surgeries

I have a patient that was recently referred to me by a neurosurgeon. He had performed three disc procedures in two surgeries and she still had low back pain. I recently performed a progress exam after treating her over seven visits and she reported a 50% improvement! That is better than I would have expected. I treat many patients who have had back and other surgeries and although they don't have as good of a prognosis, many still get good improvement with chiropractic care.

Thrust Manipulation Better Than NonThrust Manipulation for Mechanical Neck Pain

Another interesting manipulation study by PT’s. This one showed
significantly better results for mechanical neck pain with thrust vs non thrust manipulation of the cervical and thoracic spine. In other words, the quick manipulation that can cause cavitations (cracking sounds which are just a release of gas in a joint) was better than the slow mobilization sometimes used by PT's.  

Upper cervical and upper thoracic thrust manipulation versus nonthrust mobilization in patients with mechanical neck pain: a multicenter randomized clinical trial.

Spinal Surgery has high complication rate

This study finds that spinal surgery complications are even more frequent than previously thought! I had a pt a few months ago that was made worse by a neck artificial disc surgery :-( He luckily had good improvement from chiropractic care :-)

Morbidity and mortality of major adult spinal surgery.  A prospective cohort analysis of 942 consecutive patients.

A Drug-Free Way to Treat Headaches: Chiropractic Care

I often am angry and saddened with media articles that never mention anything but drugs as a treatment for headaches, as there is a significant amount of scientific literature showing benefit with non drug treatments. Here is an article from my newsletter reviewing this topic.


http://www.toyourhealth.com/mpacms/tyh/article.php?id=1550

Presciption narcotics are the new number one drug problem in the US. Current estimates are that just this one class of drugs killed 15,000 in 2008 and mortality is increasing every year! And the real tragedy is these drugs have not been shown to be very effective for treating chronic back and joint disorders. How can some in the medical profession see data like this and say the chiropractic treatment is dangerous?

Tightening the Lid on Pain Prescriptions

Very interesting new study showed that cutting the amount of walking in half in healthy people led to significant spikes in blood sugar after meals. This is probably one of the reasons why exercise has been shown to decrease the onset of diabetes.

Why It’s So Important to Keep Moving

Dr. Steven Santolin The Four Questions of New Chiropractic Patients

I have finally produced an informational video after contemplating

this for almost two years. In it a try to answer what I have found are

the four most common questions of new chiropractic patients. Those

are " is it new", " does it work", "what causes back neck and joint disorders

and pain, and "what is the solution".

Dr. Steven Santolin The Four Questions of New Chiropractic Patients

Statins Up Diabetes Risk in Older Women

Now here is a review of data from the Women's Health Initiative showing that statins increase the risk of diabetes in older women by up to 50%!

Just last month I posted an article reviewing the latest scientific evidence that statins (cholesterol drugs) do not decrease mortality except for males with previous heart attack under 65 years old and are of not health benefit at all for woman.

Statins Up Diabetes Risk in Older Women

For Neck Pain, Chiropractic and Exercise Are Better Than Drugs

New study from the Annals of Internal Medicine reviewed in yesterday's New York Times showed that manipulation/mobilization and instruction in exercises was significantly more effective than medications for mechanical neck disorders.

For Neck Pain, Chiropractic and Exercise Are Better Than Drugs