Oct.2010 issue Health & Wellness

• We're Having A Baby! -- Chiropractic Care Great for Moms-to-be
• H1N1 Swine Flu Was No Worse Than Seasonal Flu
• Chiropractic Improves Quality of Life for Child with Cerebral Palsy: A Case History
• Chiropractic Management of Candidiasis and Chronic Ear Infections: A Case History
• Chiropractic Helps Child with Headaches, Neck Pain, Asthma, and Reading Disabilities
• New Mothers at Risk of Type 2 Diabetes if They Do Not Breastfeed Their Infants

We're Having A Baby! -- Chiropractic Care Great for Moms-to-be

On September 10, 2010, a feature article appeared in the Indiana Gazette with the above title. The article notes the reasons that pregnant women should seek chiropractic care and the benefits they get from this care.

In one instance the article reports that some women seek care due to a problem with the pregnancy that they feel can be helped by chiropractic. Such was the case with Kirsten who came to the chiropractor as a last resort. According to the story Kirsten was told by her medical doctors that she was probably going to need a c-section to deliver her baby.

The problem was that Kirsten's unborn baby was not in the proper position for birth. She was told by her doctors that if they could not manually "push" the baby into place that she would have to have a c-section. Instead of undergoing the medical procedure, Kirsten went to see a chiropractor, Dr. Santoro, who the article noted is a mother herself.

Dr. Santoro explained how chiropractic care could help Kirsten by saying that chiropractic works with the body. The article points out that Dr. Santoro finds a knot in the ligament supporting the womb, and through chiropractic care, works to help that ligament relax. The result is that the baby shifts into the normal head-down position after that knot has relaxed, and the baby can be born normally. According to Dr. Santoro it worked for Kirsten.

"The spine is a communication pathway,'' explained Dr. Santoro. "When it is in perfect alignment, all the nerves can send their signals smoothly. But when the vertebrae shift out of position, what chiropractors call a subluxation, those signals can be disrupted even if the person does not feel any pain or discomfort."

The article continues to tout the benefits of chiropractic care for both the mother to be, and the newborn child. Dr. Santoro further explained the importance of correction of subluxations so that the nervous system can function without interference. "Your body needs to be fully functional. By the time something becomes symptomatic, we now have damage.'' she said. "You need to know how important a properly functioning nervous system is."  Dr. Santoro notes how important she believes chiropractic care is for pregnant women by stating, "I recommend every pregnant woman be adjusted. It's very, very safe, it's very effective."

H1N1 Swine Flu Was No Worse Than Seasonal Flu

The above headline came from a September 7, 2010 WebMD article, and was based on a study published on September 8, 2010 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In that study researchers showed that "The risk of most serious complications was not elevated in adults or children with 2009 H1N1 compared with recent seasonal strains."

It has become obvious that the H1N1 flu scare was much less serious or wide spread than was initially declared by health authorities or the press. This study adds yet another piece of evidence to the growing speculation that the Swine Flu scare was grossly over exaggerated.

In a Medical News Today article on September 8, 2010 reporting on the same study, the authors noted that the results of this study showed that when compared to the seasonal (H3N2) flu, the H1N1, "was not linked to higher rates of hospital admission or pneumonia among children."  Additionally they reported that," In adults, a similar picture emerged, with no significantly higher rates of hospital admissions or pneumonia for 2009 H1N1 swine flu than for seasonal flu."

This study comes on the heels of a report released by the World Health Organization, and reported on by the CBC News out of Canada on August 12, 2010, disclosing that at least 6 of the 15 WHO advisors who were instrumental in the H1N1 pandemic declaration had conflicts of interest and ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

The issue is further complicated by the fact that in May of 2009 the WHO, after the urging of various nations' health authorities, changed the definition of pandemic thus allowing the H1N1 to be declared a pandemic. It was after this declaration that billions of dollars were prioritized for the creation and production of vaccinations. Millions of these doses have gone unused and have since been destroyed. 

Chiropractic Improves Quality of Life for Child with Cerebral Palsy: A Case History

A research article published on August 24, 2010 in the scientific periodical, the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal and Family Health, documented the case of a severely disabled sixteen year old girl suffering from Cerebral Palsy with muscle spasticity and sleep disturbances. She was unable to sleep through the night which was causing her family much distress.

The case study noted that the girl was severely disabled and was confined to a wheel chair and was severely physically and cognitively impaired. The girl could not communicate and was unresponsive to others. She had been fed through a feeding tube and she appeared to be in discomfort and occasionally made screeching sounds. At the age of seven, surgeons placed metal rods in her back fusing her spine from just below the neck down to the base of her spine.

The mother of this girl brought her to the chiropractor for correction of subluxations in the hope that chiropractic care might somehow help her daughter improve her quality of life. The authors noted that the examination was difficult but they did determine that there were subluxations that could be safely addressed at the top and bottom of her neck, C1 and C7 respectively.

Care was initiated at a frequency of twice per week. Since the young girl was unable to give feedback, and since she was frightened due to so many invasive medical procedures in the past, the chiropractor eased into care slowly starting with very light adjustments to accommodate this unique situation.

The results showed that by her sixth adjustment, the patient’s mother reported that she was sleeping normally and uninterrupted throughout the night. Subsequent testing done on her ninth visit showed an improvement in her muscle spasticity as measured by specific instruments.

In this case the expectations would not have been a total recovery. However, the goal would have been to reduce the subluxations found as much as possible to allow the nervous system to function at a better level without the interference due to subluxation. Under these circumstances, even small improvements can seem monumental to the patient and their family. The conclusion of this study by the authors noted that "The patient and her family were able to return to a normal sleep schedule as well as enjoy improved quality of life."

Chiropractic Management of Candidiasis and Chronic Ear Infections: A Case History

Published on August 3, 2010 comes a case study in the scientific journal, the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal and Family Health that documents the case of a 6 year old girl who was helped with chiropractic after suffering with recurring acute ear aches, oral yeast infections, fatigue, and immune-system compromise.

According to this study, the young girl's history revealed that the ear infections occurred monthly and would occur after exposure to wind or water. This problem altered her activity to the point where she never went swimming and she would always wear a beret that covered her ears when she went outdoors.

The ear infections were so debilitating they caused the girl to lose her balance, walk into walls, and constantly cough. The recurring nature of the ear infections resulted in numerous trips to the medical doctor with 25 rounds of antibiotic therapy having been administered since she was 4 months old.

A specific form of chiropractic care involving kinesiology was used for analysis and care of this patient. This approach suggests that subluxations might result from 3 areas of concern, which comprise chemical and mental elements in addition to structural. Chiropractic care was initiated using this specific protocol.

After 3 months the patient’s oral yeast infections, ear aches and ear infections and their associated muscular imbalances were resolved. In their results, the study authors noted, "It was now possible to expose the patient’s ears to cold air and/or water without complaint. The patient’s distressing 5 ½ years of ear infections, oral thrush, and immune system compromise have not returned for the past 2 years."

Chiropractic Helps Child with Headaches, Neck Pain, Asthma, and Reading Disabilities

The September 2010 issue of the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, from the National University of Health Sciences, documented a case study showing how chiropractic helped a 10-year-old boy who was suffering from a variety of health problems including headaches, neck pain, asthma, and reading disabilities.

In this case the 10 year old boy was brought to a chiropractor with a history of suffering with headaches and neck pain for 3 years. The history taken revealed that the boy had been injured 3 years earlier while wrestling, and had neck problems for three weeks after that injury. It was noted that the headaches also began at that time. Unfortunately, because the young boy was also suffering from a number of other chronic health problems, these new problems were viewed as part of a poor health pattern.

Some of the other health issues the boy was experiencing included asthma, associated with nasal allergies and sinusitis. As a result the boy was taking a variety of drugs for his health problems, and had been through a battery of medical testing.

A chiropractic kinesiology examination of this boy was conducted, positive findings were noted and care was initiated. After only three weeks of care the study documents that the boy's symptoms were gone. This included his headaches and neck pain. Additionally, The boy was able to discontinue his asthma medications with no return of respiratory symptoms. The authors also documented how this young boy's schoolwork also dramatically improved. The authors wrote, "His performance in school was dramatically improved; and his mother, teachers, school nurse, and pediatrician reported how his scholastic performance, comprehension in reading, and physical endurance had gone from low average to above average."

The conclusions written in this study, although plainly stated do not do justice to how dramatically the young boy's life was changed. They simply stated, "After 3 years of neck pain and headaches and 4 years of asthma, reading difficulty, and learning disability, this patient's symptoms resolved. The patient has remained free of symptoms in these areas of difficulty for 2 years since his initial treatments."

New Mothers at Risk of Type 2 Diabetes if They Do Not Breastfeed Their Infants

Research published in the September 2010 issue of The American Journal of Medicine, reports that women who do not breastfeed their infants have as much as twice the risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those that do.  This study confirms what previous studies have shown, but goes further by showing that even as little as one month of breast feeding can cause a significant decrease in the risk of the mother developing diabetes later in life.

The research was reported by several news outlets including a September 10, 2010 Reuters article which quoted the lead author Dr. Eleanor Schwarz of the University of Pittsburgh, "What we found that was somewhat surprising was the pretty dramatic benefits for moms who breastfed as short as a month after the birth of their child."

The research studied 2233 woman in a large California health plan. In this group 1828 were mothers, of which  56% had breastfed an infant for greater than one month. The researchers then compared the risk of type 2 diabetes among women who consistently breastfed all of their children for more than one month to those women who never had children.

The finding showed that the risk for type 2 diabetes in women who breastfed for a month or more was similar to that of women who had never given birth. However, when researchers compared these groups to women who had given birth but had never breastfed their infants, or who had done so for less than a month, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes was much higher in those that had children, but did not breastfeed for at least a month.

What was interesting in this study was that researchers found that the increased risk of type 2 diabetes for women who did not breastfeed was independent of their physical activity or body mass later in life. The conclusion of the researchers was, "Mothers should be encouraged to exclusively breastfeed all of their infants for at least 1 month."