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

Back pain? Try some placebo surgery

Back Pain? Try Some Placebo Surgery.
That is the name of a recent article by a retired spinal surgeon about the dramatic increase of spinal fusion surgeries.
It may surprise you to learn that most spinal and joint surgeries including spinal fusion surgery have not been subjected to placebo controlled research trials, so we do not know if they are better than sham surgery (placebo). 
There have been a few good studies comparing spinal fusion to non surgical treatment and two of the studies showed no better results for the spinal fusion surgery.
We have the FDA trying to minimize harm for drugs, but no FDA like agency for surgeries. 
Back pain? Try some placebo surgery

Chiropractic care for pain relief

Information about chiropractic care from Harvard Medical School.
Notice the great posture of the DC in this pic bending from the hips and not from the back.
Chiropractic care for pain relief

Your chair, phone could be damaging your spine

Tips to help with and prevent back and neck disorders from Dr. Karen Erickson of the American Chiropractic Association.
Please remember that the low back disorders are the number cause of disability in the world and neck disorders are number 4.

Your chair, phone could be damaging your spine

To Prevent Back Pain, Exercise Is In

Does exercise help prevent back disorders? A new systematic review in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at 21 randomized controlled trials of over 30,000 people and found that exercise alone or in combo with education prevents future back disorders.
I am board certified in rehabilitation and spend a considerable amount of time every day educating patients in exercise and lifting techniques. 

To Prevent Back Pain, Orthotics Are Out, Exercise Is In