Archive for September, 2007
« Previous Entries Next Entries »Lots of Flu Shots but Little Science in 2007
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007by Michael Dorausch, DC
The influenza flu propaganda machine is rolling, with news reports that there will be plenty of injectables and nasal sprays available for mass vaccination. But as we’ve seen in the past, promotion of the flu vaccine does not come without reports from medical journals questioning the effectiveness of such a vaccination program.
Reports began appearing online last week with news that there would be massive amounts of flu vaccines available this season, with many clinics beginning to give shots as early as October 1. From the Saginaw news in Michigan, comes a short post that health authorities promise to have lots of flu vaccine stockpiled, as many as 132 million doses, apparently more than the nation has ever produced. Yet, the Seattle Times today has an article from a health reporter covering a recent report in a medical journal, suggesting that the benefits of flu shots for the elderly have been greatly exaggerated. According to the report, public policy on flu vaccination has been based on flimsy, and even nonexistent, evidence.
After following flu vaccine stories year after year, it certainly has become apparent that local and state officials have a considerably different viewpoint regarding mass vaccination, in comparison to those of scientific researchers and experts in the field. One may begin to wonder whether there is bias in either of these groups and if so, where is the public safe to get their help information from? Do we give researchers greater trust, or are they hell-bent on promoting journals, or secretly out to trip up the government? Do we trust our elected officials to filter out what’s best for our health and longevity, or are they puppets of special interest groups?
One of the best ways to follow topics related to flu vaccines this season is to regularly check what’s appearing in the news. Historically, the majority of articles have been of a position of public health benefit but there’s always a few slipping through that are citing reviews and reports in medical journals, with data that contradicts what’s appearing in the major media. When it comes to your health, you’ve got to make the best choices for you. It doesn’t hurt to be well-informed and aware of all viewpoints.
Search through Google News for flu shot benefits and flu shot risks throughout the 2007 flu season, if you want to keep up on the latest news related to the topic.
Check out some Planet Chiropractic content with articles related to previous flu seasons…
November 2004: Flu Season Wellness Plan Should Include Chiropractic Care
July 2006: Flu Vaccine for Pregnant Moms
October 2006: Poor evidence to support flu vaccine effectiveness
October 2006: 2006: Deaths After Flu Vaccine Halt Vaccination Program
October 2006: How do you spell fear? FLU
November 2006: Flu Vaccine increases risk for neurological disorder
Spotting Fraud on Nervo-Scope Ads
Friday, September 21st, 2007by Michael Dorausch
Here is a quick post of a type of email to watch out for when placing chiropractic classified ads on the main website. While pages are getting thousands of views each week and there is lots of user activity, everyone is advised to be aware of fraudulent attempts to purchase products. No need [...]
Current List of Kentucky Doctors of Chiropractic
Thursday, September 20th, 2007The lists are coming along slowly and all content is being provided by volunteers practicing in the states they are building listings for. Here is an updated list featuring Kentucky Chiropractors with the remaining info, such as schools, available on Planet Chiropractic.
Family Chiropractic Center
Robert E Simone, D.C.
3180 West Parrish Avenue
Owensboro, KY 42301
270 683-1188
Family Care Chiropractic
9130 [...]
The SEO Reputation Solution
Thursday, September 20th, 2007by Michael Dorausch, DC
Sometimes you’ve just got to evangelize for others, and get the message out for all those people who may be thinking negatively about an industry. SEOs, bear with me.
If you’re a small-business owner, chances are you already know people calling themselves SEOs (short for Search Engine Optimizers) and SEMs (Search Engine [...]
Fluoride in the Fountain
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007By Darrel Crain, DC
Fluoride enthusiasts are having their way here in California, having succeeded in prying open the valve that controls additives to municipal water. Fluoride has the distinction of being the only chemical (so far) to be added to public water for the purpose of treating the person, rather than treating the water.
California’s law stipulates that all municipal water shall soon contain a form of fluoride, a tasteless and colorless “co-product” of the phosphate fertilizer industry, mostly hydrofluosilicic acid and a couple of its chemical cousins.
Some may argue a “co-product” is a pleasant euphemism dreamed up by our thoughtful leaders at the CDC (Centers for and Disease Control) for use in polite conversation. The actual meaning of co-product in this context is “a fluorine gas-containing hazardous industrial waste more toxic than lead that would be hideously expensive to dispose of properly, but instead gets sold to cities to dump into the public water supply.”
Contrary to repeated rejection of fluoridation by voters in various cities around the state, California legislators joined the dentists and climbed on board the fluoride bandwagon a few years ago. It wasn’t long before they wrote a law requiring municipalities throughout the state to begin pouring fluoride into the water as soon as possible so that people can shower, wash their clothes, water the lawn, wash the car, fill the pool, wash the dog, cook, drink and brush their teeth using special water designed to fight cavities.
Some readers may construe these words as an unscientific rant from one of those cranky anti-fluoride tree-hugging granola-munching back-to-nature wackos who doesn’t care if children in the inner cities get rotten teeth or not. I hasten to point out that I am not cranky. And besides, the comments in this essay are easily verified in the published literature.
First off, there is no such thing as a fluoride deficiency disease that we can conveniently blame for causing bad teeth. Fluoride is not now, nor has it ever been, a nutrient. Not one single metabolic or biological function of the human body at any time has ever required any form of fluorine in any amount to do its job correctly. Kids with bad teeth are lacking either proper nutrition or proper dental hygiene, or both.
For the record, let’s verify this point of view with the Supreme and Undisputed Authority on human physiology, Guyton’s Textbook of Medical Physiology (Ninth Edition). “Fluorine does not seem to be a necessary element for metabolism. Fluorine does not make the teeth themselves stronger but has a poorly understood effect in suppressing the cariogenic process.” What Dr. Guyton is telling us is that fluoride can help reduce tooth decay but we are uncertain as to how or why this is so.
A concise pro-fluoridation statement appears on the CDC website (Centers for Disease Control) as follows, “The health effects of fluoride have been analyzed by numerous studies and reviewed repeatedly by expert scientific groups over the past 60 years, and water fluoridation at optimal levels for oral health benefits has been found to be safe and effective in reducing tooth decay.”
Sounds like a rather airtight case, we might even be tempted to say “watertight.” And yet that same governmental agency in March of 2007 updated the rate of dental fluorosis among U.S. schoolchildren at a conference for the International Association of Dental Research. The CDC reported that 41 percent of U.S. children ages 12-15 have visible signs of fluorosis, while 36 percent of children ages 16-19 are shown to have fluorosis.
Dental fluorosis is a disorder of the teeth characterized by white-spots, yellow or brown stains and/or pits in the tooth surface. According to Taber’s Medical Dictionary fluorosis is caused by “chronic fluorine poisoning” typically from ingestion of “too much fluoride in drinking water.”
This raises an important question. If we know that more than a third of the kids in this country are already getting enough fluoride in their bodies to disfigure their teeth from the foods they eat and beverages they drink, shouldn’t we be trying to reduce fluoride exposure rather than add more fluoride to the water?
“For governmental and other organizations to continue to push for more exposure in the face of current levels of over-exposure coupled with an increasing crescendo of adverse toxicity findings is irrational and irresponsible at best,” according to scientists at the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The stated purpose for adding fluoride to the water has always been to reduce tooth decay. Isn’t it interesting that fluoride provides zero benefit in preventing “pit and fissure tooth decay,” which accounts for 85 percent of the tooth decay children experience. That means under the best of circumstances fluoride can only impact 15 percent of kids’ cavities.
In the largest survey ever conducted in the U.S. comparing the dental health of children in fluoridated versus non-fluoridated communities, only a tiny difference in tooth decay could be detected. The difference was not clinically significant nor shown to be statistically significant, according to authors J.A. Brunelle and J.P. Carlos, reporting in the Journal of Dental Research in 1990.
J. William Hirzy, Ph.D. is a spokesperson for the union that “represents, and is comprised of, the scientists, lawyers, engineers and other professionals at the headquarters of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency” in Washington, D.C. Hirzy writes in a letter to a constituent:
“Our members review of the body of evidence over the last eleven years, including animal and human epidemiology studies, indicate a causal link between fluoride/fluoridation and cancer, genetic damage, neurological impairment and bone pathology. Of particular concern are recent epidemiology studies linking fluoride exposures to lower I.Q. in children.”
Apparently our leaders at the CDC believe that the risk of cancer, genetic damage and even lower I.Q. are outweighed by the benefit of preventing a few cavities. Then again, maybe CDC scientists are keeping their heads in the sand for other reasons. If our government were to admit that fluoridating public water for six decades has been a terrible mistake, there could be some serious liability issues to deal with.
But back to the water. I’m wondering if dentists realize the enormous historic precedent they have set through successfully getting drugs into the water supply. Dentists have effectively dispensed with the need for the expensive and time consuming medical tradition of examining an individual patient before prescribing a specific dose of a specific drug and then following the patient’s progress as normal good doctoring. The floodgates are surely swinging open wide to begin delivering a whole range of other drugs in the water.
Disruptive kid in the classroom? The teacher can just sit the kid down with a glass of tap water with a dose of amphetamines already in it. Everyone gets depressed now and then, right? Don’t worry, be happy, drink your drugs from your water glass. Mandatory vaccines for childhood infectious diseases? Hey, put them in the water. No record-keeping hassles, no problems at all, just line the kids up at the drinking fountain at the beginning of each year.
The possibilities are endless. The dentists have ushered in a whole new era allowing us to fight everything from dental illness to mental illness, and all we need is a good stiff drink of tap water.
If this sounds crazy to you, thank goodness. Our health leaders ought to consider these words from Peter Mansfield, M.D., a British physician and government advisory board member who reviewed the idea of public water fluoridation for that country:
“No physician in his right senses would prescribe for a person he has never met, whose medical history he does not know, a substance which is intended to create bodily change, with the advice: ‘Take as much as you like, but you will take it for the rest of your life because some children suffer from tooth decay.’ It is a preposterous notion.”
Despite pressure from dentists, 99 percent of western continental Europe has rejected, banned, or stopped fluoridation due to environmental, health, legal, or ethical concerns. Perhaps it is time to just say no to fluoridation in the United States.
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Dr. Darrel Crain is a chiropractor, practicing in Alpine, California
Pain Management Manipulation under Anesthesia
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007by Michael Dorausch, DC
I received a fax at my chiropractic office today with a headline that read Pain Management Manipulation under Anesthesia. There’s nothing unusual about the office receiving faxes, we get several a day. This one caught my attention than I thought it was pretty funny (you may think it’s pretty sad).
Some event is [...]
Tushy Massage and Naked Yoga
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007by Michael Dorausch, DC
While many are seeking alternative health care, many others still have their minds in the gutter.
I was doing some search engine keyword research today in preparation for an article regarding the popularity of terms related to chiropractic and words chiropractors are accustomed to using. While the article was focused on chiropractic centric [...]
Jenny McCarthy on Oprah Discussing Vaccines and Autism
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007by Michael Dorausch, DC
Tuesday, September 18, 2007: Jenny McCarthy, actress and author of a new book, appeared on today’s Oprah television program, along with Holly Robinson Peete, wife of football superstar Rodney Peete. News of the broadcast is spreading quickly, and posts in the blogosphere are appearing faster than you can say… thiomerisol.
The first related Oprah Autism post I stumbled upon was authored by Barbara Fischkin ( An Autism Mother Rages: Oprah Winfrey’s Historic Autism Program ) and it appears on today’s Huffington Post, one of the world’s most popular blogs.
According to Barbara, this was not just another show on autism, it was a broadcast which every parent who has an autistic child can use as a guide. Barbara hopes some philanthropist will help to provide millions of copies of the broadcast, handing them out like samples for physicians to pass on to their patients. She suggests the approach would be like handing out pharmaceuticals, except that the only side effect would be outrage.
A second post comes from the featured blog section of the Chicago Tribune and it is authored by Julie Deardorff. The article titled Today’s Oprah: Jenny McCarthy on Autism opens with a sentence suggesting that parents of autistic children that have been trying to publicize a biomedical treatment approach have gotten exactly what they’ve been looking for, a celebrity. The blog post was submitted before the show aired, and it mentioned that McCarthy was a former Playboy Playmate of the Year. The article features some submissions from parents of autistic children.
Another blog post comes from the Daily Blabber, a celebrity gossip blog at iVillage. The post, Jenny McCarthy Talks Autism on Oprah, features a photo of McCarthy and talks about Jenny first revealing her son Evan was autistic on the program The View.
After that we have the Celebrity Baby Blog with a title that includes both Jenny McCarty and Holly Robinson Peete discussing their battles with autism on Oprah. This blog post features many quotes directly from the program, such as “I open the door and run to his crib and I find him in his crib, convulsing, struggling to breathe, his eyeballs rolled to the back of his head. I picked him up and I started screaming at the top of my lungs…the paramedics came, and it took about 20 minutes for the seizure to stop.” Be sure to visit the Celebrity Baby Blog post to view all the related quotes.
The story is also in today’s online version of People Magazine. Wow, I’m just discovering all these posts while preparing this article, the list is continuing to grow. The People article, Jenny McCarthy Opens Up About Her Autistic Son, authored by Stephen Silverman, mentions the title of Jenny’s new book, Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism.
Many articles appearing on traditional news web sites, are removed after 30 days. If that’s the case for any of the above articles, you can use the following links and perform a Jenny McCarthy Blogosphere Autism Search or a Jenny McCarthy Autism news related search.
You can also view dozens of archived Autism News Articles, browse through general content that includes the term autism, and you can also search the chiropractic blog pages on vaccines.
1895 to 2007 Marks 112 Years of Chiropractic Vocabulary
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007by Michael Dorausch, DC
According to historical reports, September 18, 1895 is the day Daniel David Palmer gave the first chiropractic adjustment, which took place in Davenport Iowa. It was not long after that day that Palmer needed a name for his developing science. The Reverend Samuel Henry Weed, born in Indiana in 1843, is credited with creating the word chiropractic, around the time of January 1896. The word has its roots in the terms Cheir and Praxis.
Other terms that became popular within the space of this new healing science included innate and vertebral subluxation. Thanks to the Internet, in 2007 we have the ability to utilize software that can scan through millions upon millions of typed in search terms and discover their level of popularity. How does the vocabulary of this healing arts profession measure up?
The following comes from keyword research based on searches done in the United States over the past 90 days.
The term innate has a score of 22, while the term innate intelligence has a score of 16. Interestingly, the term in8 (such as used for in8chiropractic) also has a score of 16. The term subluxation has a score of 98. However, the most popular related term is shoulder subluxation (score of 19), considered by many to not be a chiropractic centered term. The term vertebral subluxation receives a score of 13, spinal subluxation receives a score of 10, and subluxation station, receives a score of eight. The last term represents a brand of product marketed to chiropractors.
While the numbers are miniscule I found it interesting that the following terms were being searched, which are listed here in the order of their current popularity: subluxation of the spine (8), subluxation prevention (5), phase 1 subluxation (4), eliminating subluxation (4).
Wondering if there would be any chiropractic related relationship, I performed a search for the term Palmer. The top results were for the term Robert Palmer, with a score of 2216. Robert Palmer is probably most famous for his song and MTV video titled Addicted To Love. Not surprisingly, after Robert we get Emerson Lake and Palmer (the music group known to many as ELP), with a score of 440. Not sure whether people are searching for golf legend or a mixture of iced tea and lemonade, but Arnold Palmer comes up in the results with a score of 139. I continued scanning through search results to see if I could locate anything remotely related to the founder of this hands-on healing art. Towards the bottom of the list was the phrase palmer college of chiropractic, with a score of 28. Looks like the college is currently receiving more search queries than the founder.
I decided to do a more specific searching to see if any results could be produced. The term Daniel David Palmer brought back a score of 6, while the terms DD Palmer and BJ Palmer brought back scores of zero, meaning no related searches were on record (below threshold). Getting even more specific and searching for the term B.J. Palmer resulted in a score of 14. I believe BJ said to always be as specific as possible.
While popularly used, but not exclusive to the practice chiropractic, I performed a search on the term adjustment. Top results included the term adjustment disorder, with a score of 69. The term cost of living adjustment, returned a score of 59. There was also the term adjustment disorder anxiety and depression, which produced a score of 26. The term chiropractic adjustment made it on the list with a score of 21. Notice that the term chiropractic adjustment receives about the same amount of searches as the term innate and a combination of the various subluxation terms.
While I haven’t seen it used in chiropractic vocabulary, the term adjustment disorder could potentially be applied to an individual who practices the art of therapeutics, disguised as the practice of chiropractic. Perhaps we’ll see an increasing popularity of adjustment disorder related phrases. How this could be used in a sentence… Chiropractic graduates who provide foot rubs while in clinic, rather than focusing on ones spine, are likely candidates for a condition known as adjustment disorder, and will often display symptoms of anxiety and depression after entering the field of chiropractic practice.
On September 18, 1895 that first spinal racking thrust was given. There have been numerous variations on the term, but the original term chiropractic, produces a score of 480. According to the results, it’s more popular than the term chiropractor, which makes the page with a score of 361. To see where these terms fair in the scope of other health-care discipline related terms, I performed some other searches. The term medicine scores at 3090. The term alternative medicine scores at 1063. The term herbal medicine scores at 379.
You may be surprised to find that the term massage comes in with a whopping score of 8448, with the most popular related term being prostate massage (2482) followed by breast massage (1592). As not to offend even more people, I won’t include some of the other top related massage terms appearing on the results list. Results for the term yoga are similar, with the root term resulting in a score of 3501, and the two most popular related terms being nude yoga (2539) and naked yoga (1499). While both the terms massage and yoga are outscoring terms such as medicine and chiropractic, a glimpse into the search results shows the obvious reasons why.
Internet search related research gives us a current snapshot of this profession’s terms and their popularity in the nation’s vocabulary. While not as popular as some doctors of chiropractic would like, the root term chiropractic (chi·ro·prac·tic) (ki”ro-prak´tik) is still TICking.
LWCC Gerald Clum and Council on Chiropractic Education
Monday, September 17th, 2007United States Department of Education Transcripts
The following is part of our 2007 Chiropractic History Month coverage. This content comes from transcripts, provided by the World Chiropractic Association (WCA), regarding June 6, 2006 proceedings that took place in Arlington, Virginia. Gerald Clum speaks regarding the Council on Chiropractic education.
Chairperson D’amico: Gerald Clum, President, Life Chiropractic College West.
Dr. Clum: Madam Chairperson, members of the committee, thank you very much for your time, your patience and your diligence in this process. I’m the most senior member of the chiropractic college community in the educational circle. I’ve been President of Life West for 25 years, was on the faculty, the founding faculty of Life University, then Life Chiropractic College in 1975, and on the faculty of the Palmer College of Chiropractic before that. In addition to serving as President of Life West, I presently serve as the First Vice President of the World Federation of Chiropractic and, barring any unforeseen foolishness on my part, will assume the presidency of that later in the month.
You’ve heard a great deal about the history of the profession, the recent traumas of the profession, the problems with the agency, the differences of opinion and viewpoint, and as I think about this discussion today, it comes down to issues: does the agency fulfill the requirements of the Secretary and does it do so in a fair and equitable fashion with the institutions it accredits? My experience over the last 25 years is that I’ve been on the winning side of votes and I’ve been on the losing side of votes. I’ve helped make good policy and I’ve helped make bad policy. I’ve made good decisions and bad decisions. In the fullness of time, the agency has served the profession and the institutions and the public most importantly very well. Its continued recognition to serve that public, to serve the institutions and the profession at large is my deepest desire from you today.
The goals of the Council on Chiropractic Education I believe are for the betterment of the chiropractic profession. Those goals have been applied by persons who have frailties, who have faults, who have not exercised the best judgment over time, to institutions that have done the same. Today, the agency I think is as well positioned as it has ever been with good solid professional staff in its administrative offices and very sincere, well-intentioned leadership within its executive ranks to fulfill the expectations of the Secretary and this committee for its functioning on behalf of the public of the United States. Thank you very much the opportunity to present.
Event History: Tuesday, June 6, 2006
Hilton Arlington Hotel Arlington, Virginia 22203
United States Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education
National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality And Integrity
The Council on Chiropractic Education, Commission on Accreditation
Action for Consideration: Petition for Renewal of Recognition
Transcripts of Proceedings*
Complete transcripts have been made available via the WCA JVSR CCE Transcripts
PDF Complete 36 Page Document: PDF CCE 2007 Transcripts