F4CP Lauds CDC Opioid Prescribing Guidelines, Chiropractic is Safer, Non-Drug Approach for Pain Relief

Americans consume 80 percent of the world’s opioid (narcotic drugs) supply, despite comprising less than five percent of the global population! That is an amazing statistic.
In 2014, the increased utilization of opioids led to 28,647 deaths – or 61 percent of total drug overdose fatalities in the U.S. 
In response to the new federal guidelines issued by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding opioid prescribing, the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP) notes that many individuals are prescribed opioids for pain associated with musculoskeletal conditions, including low back and neck pain are unaware of the effectiveness of alternative care, which includes chiropractic.

F4CP Lauds CDC Opioid Prescribing Guidelines, Chiropractic is Safer, Non-Drug Approach for Pain Relief

Epidural Steroid Injections Segment from Dr. Oz

Although some of this Dr. Oz segment is overdramatized as is common with TV and news articles, it still informs on some important points. Epidural steroid injections are performed about 9 million times a year and providers may earn up to $2000 for this 10 minute procedure. These steroids have never been approved by the FDA for injection into the spine and even carry labels stating that fact, and have recently been banned in Australia and New Zealand.
Studies have shown that they may provide marginal short term relief for a small segment of patients whose main symptom in sciatica (radiating leg pain), yet 3/4 are performed in patients without sciatica. There are also infrequent but potentially severe adverse effects.
There is also a part two to this video segment. 
Epidural Steroid Injections, The Truth... Finally!

Release suggests peanuts reduced kids’ risk for obesity, but maybe it was the exercise Health News Review

Wouldn't you expect a news release from a academic medical center to be of high quality? Unfortunately that is often not the case.
My last post was about the website Health News Review which grades news articles and news releases on 10 quality criteria and assigns a 5 star rating. This recent news release from the University of Houston suggesting peanuts reduced kids’ risk for obesity only passed 3 of their 8 quality criteria (2 did not apply) and only received a 2 star rating.
This poor quality reporting is one of the reasons we get more confused about medical and health study results. Please review this free site and it will help you make better medical and healthcare decisions in the future.
Please let me know if you have any questions on their quality criteria.
Release suggests peanuts reduced kids’ risk for obesity, but maybe it was the exercise

Five Principles to Red Flag News Articles on Medical and Health Issues

Unfortunately many news articles on medical treatment and health issues are of poor quality. Gary Schwitzer is an adjunct associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and runs a website called Health News Reviews which reviews and rates medical and health news articles and press releases on a five star criteria. 
Below is an article in which he discusses five basic principles that everyone can use to red flag articles for quality. The last two principles concerning observational studies and relative vs absolute risk may be somewhat harder to grasp, so let me know if you have any questions on these concepts.

5 tips for fact-checking claims about health