Remember the recent post on chiropractic and ADD in children? Well, the timing of this new study couldn't be any more apropos.
A Swiss chiropractor named Dr. Yannick Pauli has published research which indicates that after two months of chiropractic adjustments, adults with ADHD improved their attention scores (in the Test of Variable Attention, or TOVA) as well as improving their ADHD symptoms! These results are fabulous, but not entirely unexpected. As we know, the chiropractic adjustment removes interference from the spinal portion of the central nervous system, which allows the entire nervous system to function appropriately. The bombardment of the brain with pain and inflammation signals alone might be enough to trigger attention-deficit symptoms. And when the brain is able to regulate itself properly, symptoms such as ADHD begin to diminish as health is re-established. This is tremendously exciting news, worth sharing with with your friends, relatives, and neighbors in Peoria, Peoria Heights, and the central Illinois area. A course of treatment with your friendly local Peoria Activator chiropractor might just help more than back pain: it might help you focus! Also, if your friends or relatives live outside of the Peoria region, contact me anyway: I'm always glad to refer patients to expert, knowledgable chiropractors in their area.
0 Comments
You might not be familiar with the Cochrane Database for Systematic Reviews. It's a medical research organization dedicated to parsing all the other medical research. The writers who submit to Cochrane sift through dozens of related studies in order to distill all that knowledge into useful nuggets. There might be fifty studies all looking at one issue: the Cochrane folks blend all those studies into one big study, one meta-analysis.
This year, Cochrane published a systematic review entitled "Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy adults". They included 15 clinical trials "funded by industry", which means that the vaccine manufacturers paid for these trials in order to prove the effectiveness of their own vaccines. It's like getting a stamp of approval before they submit their product to the Food and Drug Administration. Before I analyze this fascinating study, allow me to state: I believe that the decision to use or not use vaccines are a personal right and responsibility. I believe that there is a place for vaccines, and that vaccines have played a role in the eradication and suppression of many terrible diseases. I also believe that vaccines, like antibiotics, tend to be overutilized. I do not advise any patient for or against a particular vaccine, although I do try to collect facts. Bear in mind, too, that this article does not touch on the controversial issue of vaccinating children. This study specifically looked to healthy adults. So, suppose that you're a healthy person (I hope you are). You live in Peoria, in central Illinois, surrounded by millions of other healthy, vaccinated individuals. You see advertisements everywhere encouraging everyone to "Go get your flu shot!" You are told that if you don't get vaccinated, you put your Grandmother and your Children at risk. What to do? Dr. Charles Vega of Medscape wrote a very lengthy and excellent summary of the article, and so I will simply quote him here: "Overall, the current review finds that the evidence for universal vaccination of all healthy adults is underwhelming. Even when the vaccine was well-matched to the circulating virus, vaccination against influenza was far from fully protective against infection. Moreover, the flu vaccine had a minimal impact on the number of days of work missed, and it did not prevent complications of influenza. "Unfortunately, a recent review of influenza vaccination among adults at age 65 or older also suggested that the vaccine was of questionable efficacy. While vaccination appeared to reduce the symptoms of influenza, the heterogeneity and poor quality of the collected research prevented any strong conclusion regarding the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing complications of influenza in this high-risk population. "Analyses from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews regarding the use of the influenza vaccine clearly state a need for better evidence of vaccine efficacy, and they are also quite pointed in their critique of public health efforts to increase the usage of the vaccine. The current article states, 'The CDC [Center of Disease Control] authors clearly do not weight interpretation by quality of the evidence, but quote anything that supports their theory.'" Not only is universal flu vaccination a "theory", but it is weakly supported by facts. The reason is simple, and fairly well known by now: in order to create enough flu vaccine to inject every person, the manufacturers need plenty of time. It's not easy to produce billions of vials. That means that they need to start producing flu vaccine before the current flu strain is established, so they have to forecast the flu strain. In this respect, the flu vaccine is unlike any other vaccine. Whether the forecast is accurate or not, the product still needs to be sold or underwritten in order to reimburse the manufacturer. Beyond the economics, there are apparently a number of biochemical reasons why the forecasted strains react poorly with your immune system. Feel free to follow the above links to read the article itself, or Dr. Vega's comprehensive summary. The World Health Organization (WHO) has produced the "WHO Guidelines on Basic Training and Safety in Chiropractic."
According to the excellent summary by Frank at Chiro.org, "the Guidelines clarify that chiropractic is a separate profession rather than a set of techniques that can be learned in short courses by other health professionals. They also make it clear that medical doctors and other health professionals, in countries where the practice of chiropractic is not regulated by law, should undergo extensive training to re-qualify as chiropractors before claiming to offer chiropractic services. In some countries there have been recent efforts by medical groups to provide short courses of approximately 200 hours in chiropractic technique. The WHO feels this is a bad decision. "The World Health Organization guidelines indicate that a medical graduate should a require an additional minimum of 1800 class hours, including 1000 hours of supervised clinical training, before claiming to offer chiropractic services." Therefore, WHO has affirmed the necessity of proper and thorough training in chiropractic, which in turn affirms the importance of the chiropractic profession. What we do isn't merely "racking and cracking", it's extremely specific adjustments for specific results. "Chiropractic is not just for back pain." I know that seems like a constant refrain throughout this blog, but it's worth repeating because it's true. Here's a segment from the PBS show Healing Quest which aired in late November. Dr. Robert Adams stars as a Chiropractic Neurologist (that is, a chiropractor who chooses to attend further training and specialization in the field of neurology, although, truth be told, all chiropractors are neurologists at heart). The key take-away point from the video, in my opinion, is that the chiropractic adjustment in the spine affects nerve pathways in the brain. Most people, after receiving an adjustment, feel relief immediately in the area of concern: "It's my low back, Doctor... Ah, that's better." Because we feel pain in the low back, that's where we tend to focus our energies on feeling relief. But, as proven by Dr. Adams's work as well as multiple studies, the chiropractic adjustment has far-reaching impact on the entire nervous system, which in turn impacts every system and cell of your body.
Pretty exciting stuff, no? Note: Dr. Robert Adams is a graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic West, California, one of two sister schools of my alma mater Palmer College of Chiropractic, Iowa. The picture really has nothing to do with this topic. We're just going to spend a moment on a vitally important research article, and we might mention some numbers and statistics, so I thought I'd give you a fun picture to look at as a quick breather. The article poses this question: "Is there any evidence in the current research literature to support the use of spinal manipulation for patients with acute low back pain?" A rather narrow question, notice. It doesn't mention patients with neck pain, headaches, or even long-term low back pain. Also, it's important to note that "spinal manipulation" covers a lot of ground: the chiropractic adjustment is just one possible type of spinal manipulation. Most manipulations are significantly less specific and precise than the chiropractic adjustment. The article, which was published in the highly-respected journal Spine in October, examined 14 other random clinical trials, which included over 2,000 patients. The most common providers of "spinal manipulation" were chiropractors and physical therapists. Success was defined as an improvement in function: that is, after a course of treatment, was the patient more able to perform a given activity. Good news! The article concludes that "spinal manipulations" are just as or more effective than (articles like this abhor definitiveness as a rule) exercise, electrical stim, physical rehab, education, and the like. In other words, this whole "spinal manipulation" thing really works! In conclusion, the article recommends all spine care clinicians to discuss the possibility of "spinal manipulation" with their acute-low-back patients who need something more than home exercises. That means that going to your Peoria Activator chiropractor really IS worth it! Of course, we already knew all this, right? It's always nice to have published validation. |
Categories
All
DisclaimerUnless otherwise attributed, all content is written by Kyle Johnson, DC, of Johnson Family Chiropractic of Peoria.
All images used are under Creative Commons license. Although every effort has been made to provide an accurate description of our chiropractic care and its benefits, the information given on this website and blog is not intended to be, nor should it be interpreted as, medical advice for any condition. If you have any questions regarding your condition, you should seek the help of Dr. Johnson in person, so that he may properly assess your condition. This blog is provided by Johnson Family Chiropractic of Peoria, S.C., proudly located in Peoria, IL. |