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HEALTHBEAT SHOW NOTES .... Episode #38 - Recorded March 31, 2006

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 –  

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 –

• Diagnosing Rheumatoid Arthritis

• Rewards for Exercising

• Exercise Improves Arthritis

• Senate Bill Proposes to Eliminate Chiropractic State Legislation

• Tips for Avoiding Chronic Low Back Pain

• Telephone Contact for Smoking Cessation

• And Finally, Health Corner looks at the connections between Nutrition and Cancer

For HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow.

Welcome to HealthBeat Podcast #38, recorded March 31, 2006.  HealthBeat is Chiropractic OnLine Today’s radio program, providing current news and commentary about Chiropractic and Health.

This week’s Episode is sponsored by DaVinci Laboratories.  Please surf to our web site at ChiropracticRadio.com and click on the DaVinci link for your Health and Nutritional needs.

As a quick reminder, please remember to surf to our parent web site, Chiropractic OnLine Today, located at chiro-online.com.  We have many articles from some of the leaders in the Chiropractic and Health profession, including articles from Dr. L. John Faye, Dr. Louis Sportelli, Dr. Jan Corwin, Dr. Donald Murphy and Dr. David Lemberg, to name a few.

We also have a Chiropractic Referral Directory and a Classified Advertisement section.

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And Now for some news ….

Diagnosing Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a chronic, progressive inflammatory disease that results in many ocular complications, affects approximately 1% of the adult population in the United States .  Certain Asian populations have a slightly lower prevalence, while certain Native American populations have a higher prevalence.

RA belongs to the same autoimmune disease category as psoriatic arthritis, juvenile polyarthritis, amongst other arthritic conditions. RA can afflict patients of any age, but it typically occurs in patients between 40 to 70 years old.  Disease prevalence is 2.5 times greater in women than in men.

Although the specific etiology of RA is unknown, one current theory suggests a genetic predisposition in which an unknown trigger (perhaps several) initiates multiple genes.  Another theory: RA may be associated with female sex hormones. This theory considers the increased prevalence of RA in women, remission during pregnancy and the increased risk of RA postpartum.

Autoimmune diseases—such as RA, Graves’ disease, MS, SLE, and giant cell arteritis—occur when the patient’s immune system mistakenly attacks tissues of the body. Lymphocytes initiate the destructive immune cascade by producing cytokines, which cause damage and inflammation.

The onset of RA is usually insidious over a period of weeks to months. RA progresses from swelling of the synovial lining to synovial thickening and, eventually, deformity of the joints. A diagnosis of RA is based on a patient’s health history, physical examination, serology and imaging studies.

Common symptoms of RA include symmetrical stiffness in multiple joints, morning stiffness in the joints for more than one hour and generalized fatigue. Clinical signs of RA include joint swelling and tenderness.

An important reason for all doctors of chiropractic to perform differential diagnostic procedures is illustrated in the fact that approximately 25% of patients who have RA will report ocular manifestations.  RA can also affect other exocrine glands and cause decreased perspiration, dry skin, dry nose and dysphagia.

Surf to our Show Notes for a link to the full article about Rheumatoid Arthritis - http://www.revoptom.com/index.asp?page=2_1611.htm

Rewards for Exercising

The number of companies rewarding members for working out has increased in the past few months as several companies, including Virgin Life Care and Fitnsurance, announced their reward plans. Now, ItsMyBod (IMB) is stepping into the limelight with its rewards program. The program will receive a helping hand from the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), which will promote the IMB Healthy Activity Rewards Program to IHRSA member clubs.

The IMB Healthy Activity Rewards Program provides members with reward points every time they register daily Healthy Activities into their accounts on www.ItsMyBod.com. They can redeem points for merchandise and services through local and national participating airlines, car rentals, health clubs, hotels, restaurants and retailers.

Surf to our Show Notes for information about how to participate in these programs - http://fitnessbusiness-pro.com/news/syndicate/idea_rewards_031706/

Exercise Improves Arthritis

A report from the National Council on Fitness and Strength discussed a WebMD article about how it has long been accepted that medication is one of the primary methods of treatment for patients suffering from arthritis. However, physicians are now also giving credit to exercise programming for alleviating some of the pain and discomfort commonly associated with articular stress.

In a reported published by WebMD, regular exercise programming has been shown to have benefits associated with arthritis such as:

1. the maintenance of normal joint movement;

2. increased muscular flexibility and muscular strength;

3. the maintenance of a healthy body weight, thereby reducing the stress on joints;

4. keeping bone and cartilage strong and healthy; and

5. the improvement of endurance and cardiovascular fitness.

Traditionally, the problem seen with arthritic individuals is stiffness, pain, and swelling leading to discomfort and a reduction in joint movement capabilities. This leads to decreased levels of activity, causing significant muscle loss and excessive weight gain. Personal trainers must pay special attention to this sub population of clients to ensure proper exercise programming.

A balanced program focusing on both strengthening and flexibility components will lead to increased muscular force and endurance as well as enhanced movement capabilities. This report demonstrates that clients suffering from arthritis can improve their condition through a structured exercise program dedicated to their specific needs. (WebMD, 2006)

Chiropractic has long recommended exercise therapy, where appropriate, as a preventive and therapeutic method.  Contact a Qualified healthcare provider for more information as how to incorporate exercise into your daily lifestyle activities.

U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE TO VOTE ON BILL ELIMINATING CHIROPRACTIC PROTECTIONS AT THE STATE LEVEL

According to the ACA, U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) Chairman of the U.S. Senate Health Education and Labor (HELP) Committee is the primary sponsor of S.1955, proposed legislation intended to help small businesses and associations obtain more affordable group health insurance for their employees.

While well intended, this legislation would extend ERISA’s preemption to cover the small group insurance market now regulated at the state level.  

ERISA is a federal law passed in 1974 to regulate the administration of employee benefits plans. By 1974, employee benefits plans had become common place, and concerns about the integrity and reliability of some of these plans had arisen. Congress sought to protect plan participants and beneficiaries through "requiring the disclosure and reporting to participants and beneficiaries of financial and other information ..., by establishing standards of conduct, responsibility, and obligation for fiduciaries of employee benefit plans, and by providing for appropriate remedies, sanctions, and ready access to the Federal courts".

ERISA does not mandate that an employer provide particular benefits. The main protections of ERISA relate to the employer's administration of a plan, but do not dictate the specific benefits to be provided in connection with a plan. The Act does, however, provide a remedy for individuals who have been denied benefits under a plan. The Department of Labor is responsible for administering and enforcing the non-tax provisions relating to welfare plans.

As a practical matter, this legislation would render useless state-enacted legislation such as chiropractic specific mandates, any-willing provider, and insurance equality laws intended to protect health care providers and consumers. If enacted into law, S.1955, would preempt all state mandated benefit legislation not just those that are specific to the chiropractic profession.

Surf to our Show Notes for more information about this Senate Bill and make sure to contact your State Chiropractic Association to see how your voice can become heard –

http://www.nysca.com/?id=360

http://www.resna.org/taproject/goals/other/healthcare/erisa.htm

Tips for Avoiding Chronic Low Back Pain

A study in the March 15, 2006 edition of the journal Spine investigate whether pain-related fear predicts future perceived disability and participation in patients with acute low back pain.

The results suggest that interventions aimed at reducing pain-related fear in the acute stage of LBP might prevent restrictions of activity and participation because of pain, and might be a way of preventing the transition from acute to chronic LBP.

For more information, surf to the March 15, 2006 edition of the journal Spine - http://www.spinejournal.com/pt/re/spine/abstract.00007632-200603150-00010.htm;jsessionid=ElmSDLkZFn2YU42IMuGWLl9j1N6NcLaumKL1BjEqBU7BNLOzShoM!-1070481199!-949856145!9001!-1

Telephone Contact for Smoking Cessation

A study in the March 13, 2006 edition of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at whether telephone care increases smoking cessation compared with brief clinician intervention as part of routine health care.

Brief clinician intervention and telephone counseling are both effective aids for smoking cessation. However, the potential benefit of telephone care above and beyond routine clinician intervention has not been examined previously.

The results of this study found that telephone care increases the use of behavioral and pharmacologic assistance and leads to higher smoking cessation rates compared with routine health care provider intervention.

As always, COTs Healthbeat recommends discussing this and any Lifestyle Modification with a Qualified Healthcare Professional.

For more information, surf to the March 13, 2006 edition of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine - http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/166/5/536

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.

Health Corner – In this edition of Health Corner, we present some comments from the Wall Street Journal’s Health writer (http://online.wsj.com/public/us).  The discussion focuses upon current knowledge about how Nutrition, particularly poor Nutrition, can lead to many of the different types of cancers that affect Western Civilizations today.

As always, COT’s Healthbeat recommends discussing all Nutritional and Lifestyle changes and modifications with a Qualified Healthcare provider.  While the commentary focuses on Allopathic or Medical care, it is important to remember the Preventative nature of Chiropractic and Alternative Healthcare philosophies.

Included in this commentary is mention of the connection between Vitamin C and Cancer.  It is recommended that listeners do additional research on this topic…. Surf to our Show Notes for a link to commentary from the Linus Pauling Institute - http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/new/vitamincancer.html

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Finally, I leave you with the following quote:

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." 
- Philip K. Dick

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

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