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HEALTHBEAT SHOW NOTES .... Episode #73 - Recorded December 1, 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 –  

• Surgical vs. Nonoperative Treatment for Lumbar Disk Herniation
• CCGPP main focus of annual COCSA meeting
• Logan College Receives Grant
• ACA Urges Letter Writing Campaign
• And Finally, Health Corner discusses Hiding Adverse Drug Reactions from the public

For HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow.

Welcome to HealthBeat Podcast #73, recorded December 1, 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.

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Finally, Chiropractic OnLine Today has always provided our news and education content for free and plan on continuing this policy.  However, we do request that if you are enjoying these podcasts, that you surf to ChiropracticRadio.com and consider clicking on our PayPal link to make a donation to keep these Podcasts airing.  We thank everyone for their continued support.

And Now for some news ….

Surgical vs. Nonoperative Treatment for Lumbar Disk Herniation

A study in the November 22/29th edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at Lumbar diskectomy being the most common surgical procedure performed for back and leg symptoms in US patients. However, the efficacy of the procedure relative to nonoperative care remains controversial.

The study identified standard open diskectomy vs. nonoperative treatment individualized to the patient.

Adherence to assigned treatment was limited: 50% of patients assigned to surgery received surgery within 3 months of enrollment, while 30% of those assigned to nonoperative treatment received surgery in the same period. Intent-to-treat analyses demonstrated substantial improvements for all primary and secondary outcomes in both treatment groups. Between-group differences in improvements were consistently in favor of surgery for all periods but were small and not statistically significant for the primary outcomes.

The study concluded that patients in both the surgery and the nonoperative treatment groups improved substantially over a 2-year period. Because of the large numbers of patients who crossed over in both directions, conclusions about the superiority or equivalence of the treatments are not warranted based on the intent-to-treat analysis.

For more information about accessing this free article, surf to our Show Notes - http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/296/20/2441

CCGPP main focus of annual COCSA meeting

In a follow-up story from earlier HealthBeat coverage, the Council on Chiropractic Guidelines and Practice Parameters (CCGPP) document on low-back pain took center stage with more than eight hours of debate at the annual meeting of the Congress of Chiropractic State Associations (COCSA), in Baltimore November 9-11, 2006.

According to Janet Jordan, COCSA executive director, COCSA membership included that CCGPP:

1.   Consider written recommendations for revisions;

2.   Change the name of the document to reflect its real intent and use;

3.   Ensure expanded input to allow elected CCGPP representatives to act as liaisons between the member associations and the CCGPP board;

4.   Consider redrafting the low-back document’s overview and introduction to make it easier to read and understand, with a shorter narrative written in nonacademic language;

5.   Include other organizations and researchers in the process;

6.   Consider rewriting the research compilation to make it more user-friendly to those affected;

7.   Advertise the commentary process well in advance to engage all stakeholders; and

8.   Consider the use of clinical experience and case and course studies in the absence of higher levels of evidence and research.

CCGPP unanimously agreed to “resubmit the low-back draft to stakeholders for comment on the ‘user-friendly’ status.” CCGPP said that the chiropractic profession, as well as all other stakeholders, will receive 45 days notice before release of this new draft and will be given an additional 45 days to respond to the draft when it is released.

For more information, surf to our Show Notes for a link to this article – http://www.chiroeco.com/news/2006/November/CCGPP.php

Logan College Receives Grant

Rodger Tepe, PhD, dean of research and development at Logan College of Chiropractic, is pleased to announce that Logan has been awarded a $234,000 grant by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to fund Logan ’s Musculoskeletal and Obstetric Management Study (MOMS).

Since 1998, internal funding from Logan College has been supporting this project, resulting in a successful and on-going collaboration between Logan College of Chiropractic and Washington University School of Medicine’s clinics at Barnes-Jewish and Missouri Baptist hospitals. Under the direction of Dr. Clayton Skaggs, MOMS has developed solid interdisciplinary relationships among chiropractic physicians, medical physicians and nurses in hospital-based clinic settings serving the health care needs of pregnant women in the St. Louis community.

Logan College ’s current research initiatives encompass studies of numerous chiropractic spinal manipulation (adjusting) methods and, under the direction of Dr. Skaggs, cooperative research at a Barnes-Jewish Hospital clinic specializing in musculoskeletal pain in pregnancy. Other research is studying acupuncture and pain processing, using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

For more information, surf to www.logan.edu

ACA Urges Letter Writing Campaign

The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) is urging doctors of chiropractic to launch a letter-writing campaign to Bottom Line Publications, a national publisher of books and e-newsletters, who is using scare tactics and misinformation about chiropractic to sell subscriptions to its publications.

In a recently circulated direct mail piece, Bottom Line Publications issued an "urgent, medical warning" about chiropractic care, claiming that chiropractors "can do permanent damage to your body and your bank account." The flyer also states that chiropractic is a "limited therapeutic field" and that long-term care by a doctor of chiropractic can "ultimately harm your health."

In response, ACA President Richard Brassard, DC, sent a strongly-worded letter to Bottom Line Chairman Martin Edelston pointing out the glaring inaccuracies included in the one-page marketing piece. Dr. Brassard also took Edelston to task for publishing sensational and grossly inaccurate statements that completely ignore the chiropractic profession's record of safety and efficacy.

The ACA urges doctors nationwide to let Bottom Line Publications know that the chiropractic profession will no longer tolerate comments such as these or allow them to go unchallenged.

Surf to our Show Notes for information about what to write and mailing instructions:

Write, fax or call the publisher with your own comments, or use ACA's letter of response as an example. Contact information for Bottom Line Publications is as follows:

Martin Edelston
Chairman, Bottom Line Secrets
281 Tresser Boulevard, 8th Floor
Stamford, CT 06901-3246
Phone: (203) 973-5900
Fax: (203) 967-3086
E-mail: editors@boardroom.com

www.acatoday.com  November 13, 2006

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

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– Victor Hugo

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

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