Health-E-Newsletter -- Volume 1 - Issue 8     
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A service of Essence of Wellness Chiropractic Center, Eaton, Ohio
 
Saturday, February 24, 2001
 
*INTRODUCTION
*WHAT IS?- Subluxation - Part II
*HEALTH NEWS - The latest news in health
*FEATURE ARTICLE -  Back Injuries
*HEALTH RESEARCH - Current research you should be aware of
*HOW TO CONTACT US
 
                                                         
INTRODUCTION
 
Welcome to the eighth issue of Health-E-Newsletter, a weekly newsletter for those interested in a wide variety of up-to-date health news.  Our mission is to provide informative, useful, and current health news for the betterment of our community.  This information was found online and in peer-reviewed health and medical journals and is not intended to be a replacement for professional health care.  Please forward this to friends, family, discussion groups and others so that they may benefit as well.  If you have questions, comments, suggestions for future articles, or to subscribe/unsubscribe, please let us know at: Essence of Wellness
 
Yours in health,
Dean L. Smith, D.C., M.Sc.
Jane Palmer Smith, D.C.
We look forward to serving you.
 
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WHAT IS?
 
This week we continue to discuss the fundamental concept of chiropractic, namely the vertebral subluxation or just subluxation. This is Part II.  Last week we discussed subluxation in terms of basic anatomy, and relation to nerve supply.  This week we continue on with the significance of subluxation. 
 
Effects of subluxation: Motion
As we mentioned last week the traditional philosophy of chiropractic is that subluxation is the cause of "dis-ease".  Subluxations generally have two basic components.  Firstly, there is an associated biomechanical (movement) problem.  The second component associated with subluxation is interference of neurological function.  So what does this all mean?  Well, if there exists a condition in the spine whereby motion and neurologic integrity are compromised, wellness is compromised.  I will briefly review the movement problem this week and the neurologic problem next week.
 
Take for example the old advice to those suffering back pain: bed rest.  We now know that complete lack of motion is incredibly detrimental to biologic tissues.  What does immobility do?  Every connective tissue component of an articulation (joint) is affected by immobilization, these include the articular cartilage, synovium (joint lining and fluid), articular capsule, periarticular ligaments, subchondral bone, the intervertebral disc and the meninges (nerve tissue coverings).  Inherent in the concept of subluxations is the idea that degeneration of one area of the body, i.e. spinal joints leads to the degeneration of other body areas remote from the site of initial degeneration. What is clear is that degeneration of one joint leads to degeneration of other joints remote from the site of the principal subluxation.  In studies on the spine, it has been shown that lesions in one area of the spine lead to structural and functional alterations in other parts of the spine, the effect being greatest in discs immediately adjacent to fused joints. It has also been noted that degenerative discs often occur in areas adjacent to previously degenerated discs, but the correlation depends greatly upon the spinal level considered, with a strong association above L3, but not at L4 and L5.
 
Spinal degeneration can be related to biomechanical alterations.  Subluxation is an alteration of spinal biomechanics. 
 
                                                          
HEALTH NEWS
 
A fair amount of research, some of which we've reported in previous issues, suggests that exercise can positively affect bone content. The majority of this research has investigated bone mineralization in adults. However, because evidence supports the notion that mechanical loading on bones and joints can stimulate growth, the authors of this study in Pediatrics evaluated whether exercise could exert the same bone-building influence in infants.
 
LONDON, England -- Children who drink sugary soft drinks are at higher risk of becoming obese, researchers in the United States report. Their work, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, is the latest in a string of studies warning that American teenagers are increasingly putting their health at risk by consuming too much junk food.
 
Talk about a guilt trip. Recent media coverage of a new study wagged a finger at married career women -- with headlines such as "Working Wives Have Ill Effect on Husbands." But the papers could just as easily have scolded, "Husbands Don't Know Squat About Taking Care of Themselves."
 
A new report says more research is needed to determine if using modified tobacco products like nicotine patches truly reduces the risks of disease associated with smoking.
 
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FEATURE ARTICLE
Back Injuries
By: Dean L. Smith, D.C., M.Sc.

Back injuries have been the leading cause of disability in the United States for people younger than 45 years and have been the most expensive health care problem for the 30- to 50-year-old age group. "Low back pain should be viewed as a chronic problem with an untidy pattern of grumbling symptoms and periods of relative freedom from pain and disability interspersed with acute episodes, exacerbations, and recurrences" (1). Two consistent observations about low back pain include: firstly, a previous episode of low back pain is the strongest risk factor for a new episode, and, secondly, by the age of 30 years almost half the population will have experienced a substantive episode of low back pain.

It is a common misconception that most episodes of low back pain will resolve within one month. In fact, most people who consulted a general medical practitioner continued to have long term low back pain and disability (1). Effective early treatment could reduce the burden of these problems and their social, economic, and health impact.

One intervention that has been used in attempt to prevent back injuries is the back belt. Despite scientific uncertainty about effectiveness, wearing a back belt with the hope of preventing costly and disabling low back injury in employees is becoming common in the workplace.

The use of back belts to prevent musculoskeletal injuries has been controversial. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, 1994) conducted a literature review in which they concluded:

…the effectiveness of using back belts to lessen the risk of back injury among uninjured workers remains unproven…there is insufficient evidence indicating that typical industrial back belts significantly reduce the biomechanical loading of the trunk during manual lifting….backbelts do not mitigate the hazards to workers posted by repeated lifting, pushing, pulling, twisting and bending...

A recent study in the December 6th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (2) was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of using back belts in reducing back injury claims and low back pain. Material-handling employees in 160 new retail merchandise stores were included in the study. Of the 13 873 material handlers at these stores, 9466 people completed a baseline interview and 6311 people completed both the baseline and follow-up interview.

Results of this study indicated that neither frequent back belt use nor a store policy that required belt use was associated with reduced incidence of back injury claims or low back pain.

On a personal note, I have been involved in a project at Miami University along with Drs. Marvin Dainoff, Leonard Mark, and graduate student Shawn Oates entitled "Wearing a Back Belt Affects Working Posture During Reaching". This presentation has been selected for the 4th Annual Applied Ergonomics Conference, March 12-15, 2001 in Orlando, Florida.

References:

  1. Croft PR, Macfarlane GJ, Papageorgiou AC, et al. Outcome of low back pain in general practice: a prospective study. BMJ 1998;316(7141):1356-1359.
  2. Wassell JT, Gardner LI, Landsittel DP, et al. A prospective study of back belts for prevention of back pain and injury. JAMA 2000;284:2727-2732.

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*HEALTH RESEARCH
 
One in four deaths among men aged 15-29 in Europe is now attributable to alcohol, as "binge drinking" penetrates youth culture in both the industrialised and developing world, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), told a European ministerial conference on young people and alcohol in Stockholm.
 
The results indicate that palpation and vectored atlas adjustment causes a significant decrease in systolic blood pressure in patients with putative upper cervical subluxation/joint dysfunction in comparison with resting controls. Similar results were also demonstrated when subjects acted as their own controls.
 
This Commentary discusses the importance of recognizing and documenting the influence of vertebral subluxation and the results of it’s correction and reduction on women’s health. The discussion explores several themes including the active participation of women in health care, the gender gap that exists in research and an overview of the allopathic approach towards women’s concerns.
 
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HOW TO CONTACT US
 
Essence of Wellness Chiropractic Center
Dean Smith, D.C., M.Sc.
Jane Palmer Smith, D.C.
890 South Barron St.
Eaton, Ohio 45320
(937) 456-4555  
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