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HEALTHBEAT SHOW NOTES .... Episode #102 - Recorded June 22, 2007

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of HealthBeat, Chiropractic OnLine Today’s Health, News and informational Podcast.

In this week’s news:  We’ll Look At –

• Final GMP Nutritional Regulation goes to FDA

• Medicare Plans to Deny Coverage of Artificial Disks

• Skin Biopsy and Peripheral Neuropathy

• And Finally, Chiropractic Corner presents continues with part Three of our Interview with Dr. Louis Sportelli

For HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow.

Welcome to HealthBeat Podcast #102, recorded June 22, 2007.  HealthBeat is Chiropractic OnLine Today’s radio program, providing current news and commentary about Chiropractic and Health.

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And Now for some news ….

Final GMP Regulation goes to FDA

The final regulations establishing good manufacturing practices (GMPs) for dietary supplements has cleared review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and is now back at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be finalized for publication in the Federal Register.

According to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who along with Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), has been pushing to have the regulation released, the FDA could have the GMP rule ready for publication “in the next five weeks.”

GMPs establish standards to ensure that dietary supplements and dietary ingredients are manufactured correctly, free of contaminants, and are labeled accurately to reflect the active ingredients and other ingredients in the product.

Surf to our Show Notes for some background information about Dietary Supplements and for more about GMPs.

Natural Products Association - www.naturalproductsassoc.org

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cgmps.html

Office of Dietary Supplements - http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/DietarySupplements.asp

http://www.chiroeco.com/news/2007/May/GMP.php

Medicare Plans to Deny Coverage of Artificial Disks

Government regulators said recently that Medicare, the federal insurance program, planned to deny coverage for artificial disks implanted in the lower spines of older patients.

The preliminary decision, which is expected to become final in August, extends to the ProDisc-L made by Synthes a national coverage ban imposed a year ago on the Charité lumbar disk made by Johnson & Johnson; the Food and Drug Administration cleared the Pro Disc-L for sale last summer. It also signaled that Medicare will not cover Medtronic’s Maverick lumbar disk when that device reaches the market.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that administers Medicare, said that none of the clinical trials used to gain F.D.A. approval of the devices included patients over 60, leaving Medicare with no basis for saying the devices were a reasonable or necessary therapy for such patients.

Surf to our Show Notes for more information - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/26/business/26device.html?ref=health

Skin Biopsy and Peripheral Neuropathy

A study in the June 2^nd edition of the British Medical Journal discussed peripheral neuropathies.

The prevalence of peripheral neuropathy is about 2% in the general population, but it rises to 12% and 17% in people with one or two recognized risk factors.

Diabetes is one such risk factor and the most common cause of this disorder—about half of patients who have had diabetes for 25 years have peripheral neuropathy.

Peripheral neuropathy describes damage to the peripheral nervous system, which transmits information from the brain and spinal cord to every other part of the body.

More than 100 types of peripheral neuropathy have been identified, each with its own characteristic set of symptoms, pattern of development, and prognosis. Impaired function and symptoms depend on the type of nerves -- motor, sensory, or autonomic -- that are damaged. 

Some people may experience temporary numbness, tingling, and pricking sensations, sensitivity to touch, or muscle weakness. Others may suffer more extreme symptoms, including burning pain (especially at night), muscle wasting, paralysis, or organ or gland dysfunction.

Peripheral neuropathy may be either inherited or acquired. Causes of acquired peripheral neuropathy include physical injury (trauma) to a nerve, tumors, toxins, autoimmune responses, nutritional deficiencies, alcoholism, and vascular and metabolic disorders.

The early symptoms of diabetic neuropathy and other peripheral neuropathies are due to degeneration of small somatic nerve fibers, which may remain the only nerves involved.  However, "small fiber neuropathy" may not be detected by traditional physical, neurophysiological, and neuropathological tests.

In the past decade, skin biopsy has become a popular method for investigating small nerve fibers.  It allows general practitioners and non-specialists—such as diabetologists and specialists in orthopedics—to diagnose neuropathy (thereby avoiding delayed or incorrect diagnosis), to investigate its etiology, and to focus treatment, in particular for neuropathic pain.

Surf to our show notes for more information:

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/peripheralneuropathy/peripheralneuropathy.htm

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/334/7604/1159?etoc

Chiropractic Corner – In this edition of COT HealthBeat’s Chiropractic Corner, we present the third part of our Interview with Dr. Louis Sportelli.

Dr. Sportelli has served in many capacities throughout his 41 year career in chiropractic.  He has served as Chairman of the Board of the ACA, as well as president of the World Federation of Chiropractic, which represents 80 chiropractic organizations around the world.

In addition, Dr. Sportelli currently serves as president and CEO of the NCMIC Group in Des Moines, IA. One of the subsidiaries of this Group, NCMIC Insurance Company, is the largest chiropractic malpractice insurance company in the nation insuring more than 36,500 doctors of chiropractic in the USA.

As always, please surf to our Podcast Show Notes at ChiropractiRadio.com for a full listing of web references mentioned in today’s show.

And remember - COT’s Healthbeat always recommends discussing any nutritional or exercise lifestyle modifications with a qualified healthcare professional.

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Finally, I leave you with the following quote:

"If you delay till tomorrow what ought to be done today, you overcharge the morrow with a burden which belongs not to it."
– Hugh Blair

For Chiropractic OnLine Today’s HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow.

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