August 2010 issue Health & Wellness

• Resolution of Otitis Media in a Nine Month Old Undergoing Chiropractic Care - Case Study
• U.S. health care system: Worst in the world?
• Improvement in Autism with Chiropractic - a Case Study
• Woman with Seizures Helped with Chiropractic - Case Study
• Back Pain Sufferers Benefit from Chiropractic Care
• 40 Million Swine Flu Vaccines Written Off As Trash

Resolution of Otitis Media in a Nine Month Old Undergoing Chiropractic Care - Case Study

A case study involving a 9-month-old boy with a history of recurring ear infections, who was subsequently helped with chiropractic, was documented in the June 21, 2010 issue of the scientific periodical, the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal and Family Health.

The study author points out that the most frequent reason for physician visits for children under the age of fifteen in the United States, is otitis media, more commonly known as ear infections. Acute otitis media is the most common infection for which antibiotics are prescribed for children in the United States. The study also notes that by 3 months of age approximately 10% of infants will have had an episode of acute otitis media, and by 3 years of age 50% of children will have had more than three episodes of acute otitis media.

In this case the nine month old boy was brought by his mother to a chiropractor for evaluation and possible care. The case history noted that the boy was having recurring ear infections and there was consideration given to possibly having tubes placed in his ears. The child was born via cesarean section, and had no history of falls or accidents. The mother states that the ear infections started after vaccinations at the age of four months. The boy was suffering from episodes of the ear infections about every three weeks and was taking antibiotics regularly.

The chiropractic examination noted that in addition to the ear infections there was muscle tightness in the boy's neck. Thermal scans also showed asymmetry in the neck and a determination was made that multiple subluxations were present. Subluxations (a.k.a. Vertebral Subluxations) are when one or more of the bones of the spine (vertebrae) move out of position and create pressure on, or irritate spinal nerves. Spinal nerves are the nerves that come out from between each of the bones in the spine. This pressure or irritation on the spinal nerves then causes those nerves to malfunction and interfere with the signals traveling over those nerves. This can then cause changes in function in various areas of the body.

Specific chiropractic adjustments were initiated according to the findings of subluxation. The study reports that by the second week of care the young boy's mother reported that the child was pulling at his right ear and was not sleeping well. Upon examination, both ears were clear, with some wax but no fluid. By the third week of chiropractic care the child stopped pulling on his ears and seemed to be doing well.

A re-examination was performed in the fifth week of care documenting that the boy had not had any ear infections since the start of care. His mother reported that her son's naps were longer and he was getting better quality sleep. After seven weeks the boy was brought to his Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor, who confirmed that his ears were clear and there was no need for tubes, or antibiotics.

U.S. Health Care System: Worst in the world?

Multiple news sources have reported on a study released on June 23, 2010 by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based private foundation focused on health, concluding that American healthcare ranks highest in cost and last in performance among seven industrialized nations. The above headline comes from one of those stories that was published on June 24, 2010 in "The Week".

A June 23, 2010 Reuters news story starts off with the ominous statement, "Americans spend twice as much as residents of other developed countries on healthcare, but get lower quality, less efficiency and have the least equitable system." The Commonwealth Fund's president, Karen Davis PhD., stated, "On many measures of health system performance, the U.S. has a long way to go to perform as well as other countries that spend far less than we do on healthcare, yet cover everyone. It is disappointing, but not surprising, that despite our significant investment in health care, the U.S. continues to lag behind other countries.”

The factors looked at in the Commonwealth report were quality, efficiency, access to care, equity and the ability to lead long, healthy, productive lives. The study noted that Americans spend  $7,290 per person for healthcare which is twice as much as any other country studied in the survey conducted in 2007. The study reported that New Zealanders spent the least at $2,454 per person, while in the other 5 countries the amount spent on healthcare per person was $3,357 for Australians, $3,895 for Canadians, $3,588 for Germans, $3,837 for the Dutch and $2,992 for the British.

According to a June 23, 2010 Wall Street Journal article on the report, there are several key findings that need improving. They are:

• The U.S. ranked last in measures of safe care (an indicator of quality), cost-related access problems, efficiency, equity and the long, healthy lives measure.
• A full 54% of U.S. adults with chronic health conditions said they didn’t fill or complete a prescription, get a recommended test or treatment or visit a doctor when needed due to cost.
• Of those same adults with chronic problems, 19% said they’d visited an ER for something that a regular doctor could have handled had one been available. In Germany and the Netherlands, that rate was 6%.
• The U.S. has the highest “mortality amenable to health care” rate (from 2002-03), at 110 per 100,000 population. Australia was lowest, with 71 per 100,000. (That rate refers to the number of deaths before age 75 from ischemic heart disease, diabetes, stroke and bacterial infections.)
• We ranked no higher than fourth on anything — for effective care and patient-centered care.

In the Commonwealth study executive summary, the authors clearly state the problems with the US healthcare system when they say, "The U.S. health system is the most expensive in the world, but comparative analyses consistently show the United States underperforms relative to other countries on most dimensions of performance. Among the seven nations studied—Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the U.S. ranks last overall, as it did in the 2007, 2006, and 2004 reports."

Improvement in Autism with Chiropractic - a Case Study

A case study appearing in the July 5, 2010 issue of the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal and Family Health,  documented the case of a 6 year old boy who was diagnosed with Autism by a neurologist, and was helped by chiropractic care. According to the case study authors, autism is defined as a brain development disorder that causes impaired social interaction, decreased communication ability, restrictive repetitive or stereotypical behaviors, and decreased cognitive and learning abilities.

In reviewing previous studies, the authors note that the number of autism cases in Britain in 2005 was reported to be 16.8 per 10,000 children, while in the United States in that same year, the rate was 22.0 per 10,000. The latest numbers released in a report by the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), which is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services, shows that as of 2009, a full 1% (1 per 100) of all US children currently have an autism spectrum disorder.

In this case a 6 year old boy was brought to a chiropractor's office with autism which had been diagnosed by a neurologist one year earlier. The boy exhibited loss of social skills, inability to make eye contact, constant head rocking, and a jabbering type of speech pattern with minimal vocalizations. He had been subjected to a battery of tests including an EEG and MRI along with neurological consultations. All tests were negative for brain pathology and therefore an autism diagnosis was made. The boy had received all his vaccinations and was on daily Ritalin. He was getting twice weekly speech therapy by the school psychologist, who also confirmed the diagnosis of autism.

When the boy was brought to the chiropractor's office his mother was asked to fill out an Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) in order to have a point of comparison for the monitoring of future clinical changes in the boy. This test is designed to record the patient’s communication/speech abilities, sociability, sensory/cognitive awareness, and health/physical behavior. The chiropractic examination showed significant restriction of neck movement and multiple areas of spinal misalignments. It was determined that multiple vertebral subluxations were present.

Care was initiated for specific correction of the subluxations. After the 4th visit the boy's mother mentioned that her son no longer rocked his head and was jabbering less. After his 6th chiropractic adjustment, the case study documented that the child began spelling out the words on video cassette covers, which is something he had never done before. By the 7th week the mother reported that the child began to vocalize his name, as well as the words that he had been spelling. Improvement continued and by the 12th week of care it was reported that the child showed improvement in school and was performing exceptionally well in math and was reading in class.

In their conclusion, the authors of this study wrote, "This case demonstrates that there is a possible link between chiropractic care and the reduction of autistic signs and symptomatology, as seen by the improvements in subjective and objective findings."

Woman with Seizures Helped with Chiropractic - Case Study

A case study documenting the improvement of a 25 year old woman suffering from seizures who was helped by chiropractic was published in the June 2010 issue of the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine. In this case the woman was diagnosed at age 14 with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), and had suffered with the problem for more than 10 years.

The woman's history showed that the seizures started at age 14 shortly after a neck injury and just after her first menstrual cycle. She had been diagnosed with JME by the Michigan Institute for Neurological Disorders in 1998, 11 years before starting chiropractic care. She reported that at age 14 she fell out of bed and hit her head on a desk 2 to 3 months before the seizures began. At the time of her initial chiropractic visit she was taking 200 mg of lamotrigine per day to control the seizure activity. Over the previous 11 years, she reported that she experienced 1 to 2 seizures per month. She also noted that her menstrual cycles were severely abnormal lasting approximately 10 days, with 10 to 15 days between cycles.

Chiropractic examination was specifically focused on the upper cervical spine and care was initiated to correct a first cervical vertebrae (atlas) subluxation using specific chiropractic adjusting procedures geared toward the correction of atlas subluxations. The study reported that the woman received this chiropractic care over a 12 week period.

The results showed that the woman did report one seizure a few days after the beginning of chiropractic care. After that point she reported having 6 episodes of minor twitching that did not progress into seizure.  According to the study the woman did not experience any additional seizures from this point forward. In addition to the seizure benefits she also reported that her last 2 menstrual cycles lasted less than 7 days and were 28 days apart.

In their conclusion the authors wrote, "This case study demonstrated improvement in a young woman with a seizure disorder after she received upper cervical chiropractic manipulation. This case suggests the need for more rigorous research to examine how upper cervical chiropractic techniques may provide therapeutic benefit to patients with seizure disorders."

Back Pain Sufferers Benefit from Chiropractic Care

A study published in the June 2010 issue of The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, showed that people who used what the study called "Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)" received a "great deal" of benefit. Chiropractic was included in what this medical study defined as CAM care.

The study received attention in a number of news stories including an article in the July 4, 2010 Medical News Today, and in a June 30, 2010 Business Wire release by the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress. The study surveyed people who had suffered from back pain and had used at least one CAM therapy in the last 12 months. Of these participants the results showed that over 60% found remarkable relief using the top six CAM treatments. Those treatments were chiropractic care, massage, yoga/tai chi/qi Cong, acupuncture, herbal therapies, and relaxation techniques - with chiropractic care being the most popular choice.

The Medical News Today story reported that back pain is the second leading reason people walk into a doctor's office in the U.S. The survey looked at a total of 17 CAM therapies choices. Of those, Chiropractic care was the most popular approach at 74 percent, with massage a distant second at 22 percent.

Dr. Gerard Clum, Foundation for Chiropractic Progress spokesperson and president of Life Chiropractic College West noted, "What we are seeing with these studies is compelling evidence that there is a light at the end of the tunnel for back pain sufferers – more and more, that light is chiropractic care and other CAM approaches."

One of the interesting findings of the study was that an overwhelming number of the people in the survey did not go to a CAM practitioner because of a referral from a medical doctor. In fact only 24 percent of respondents with back pain who received CAM stated that care came at the suggestion of their conventional medical practitioner.

In their study conclusion, the authors of the study stated, "CAM is used by 40% to 60% of the population yearly, and back pain is the most common medical condition for which people use CAM. Using a nationally representative survey, our analyses documented that the majority of respondents who used CAM for back pain perceived great benefit and identified specific factors associated with perceived benefit."

In the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress release on the study Dr. Clum summed up the study by stating, "Back pain sufferers should be made aware of all treatment options, especially alternatives that have been scientifically proven to provide relief. While chiropractic care has in the past been considered alternative there is now a case to be made for making it the first choice for patients and in the process making interventions like injections and surgery the alternative approach."

40 Million Swine Flu Vaccines Written Off As Trash

The above is the headline from a July 1, 2010 story in Medical News Today documenting the large overproduction and waste of swine flu vaccines. Even amidst an ongoing push from the pharmaceutical companies and medical groups trying even now to persuade people to get a vaccine against a problem that never really materialized millions of doses of US taxpayer paid vaccine doses must be destroyed with millions more to follow.

According to the Medical News Today story, a full one quarter of the produced and paid for swine flu vaccines expired at the end of June 2010, and were to be incinerated. As more vaccines expire, that number will go higher and may mean that as much as half of all the swine flu vaccine produced will need to be destroyed. The cost for the vaccines that are being destroyed to date is estimated to be about $260 million.

The H1N1, swine flu turned out to be less serious than the normal seasonal flu and claimed less lives than the normal flu does. Criticism mounted as a review of the so called pandemic showed that the death toll was only one-third of what normally occurs during a normal flu season. Additionally, countries from all over the world are also destroying their stockpiles of vaccines as they also become worthless.

A July 2, 2010 story in the New American, reported on an investigation conducted by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism that exposed improper conflicts of interest among World Health Organization (WHO) scientists. The inquiry found that at least three of the organization’s “experts” were paid by vaccine manufacturers. The BMJ wrote, "Despite repeated requests, the WHO has failed to provide any details about whether such conflicts were declared by the relevant experts and what, if anything, was done about them."

In Europe the Council of Europe strongly criticized the World Health Organization’s fear-mongering and vaccine promotion by saying, “The handling by the WHO of the H1N1 pandemic led to a waste of large sums of public money and unjustified scares and fears about health risks faced by the European public. They went on to note that, "(There was), overwhelming evidence that the seriousness of the pandemic was vastly overrated by WHO.”

Dr. Ulrich Keil, a WHO advisor, conceded in an interview with the Associated Press, "Each time the so-called experts told us that millions of people would be killed worldwide by the respective viruses. We have learned that the experts were utterly wrong."