Chiropractic Health and Research Articles

THINK ABOUT IT…

Your body performs some amazing functions that you may not even stop to think about.

In 24 hours:

• Your heart beats 103,689 times
• You breathe 23,240 times
• You eat 3 1/2 pounds of food
• You exercise 7,000,000 brain cells
• Your blood travels 168,000 miles
• You turn in your sleep 30 times
• You speak 48,000 words

When you think of all the things your body does, it is pretty thought provoking.  All these things the body does, it does under the control of the nervous system.  The nervous system even controlled the development of your body.

if you damage your body in any way, physically or chemically, you have to depend on the nervous system to send out impulses to cause the proper corrective response to occur.  If your spine is misaligned or subluxated, some of those nerve impluses that should be sent out and received by damaged areas will be blocked.

You believe in preventive maintenance for your car, your home and other material possessions, why not the same for the most valuable possession of all…Your Health.

United States Far From Healthiest Country in the World.

From the July 26th 2000 online issue of the journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and in the August 28th 2000 of the American Medical News, comes some sad statistics concerning the state of health in the United States. These numbers should be viewed in the light that Americans spend more by far on medical care than any other country in the world.  The United States spends 13.7% of it’s gross domestic product on medical care.  This is more than any of the 191 World Health Organizations member nations. Read these statistics and judge for yourself.

• US life expectancy ranked 24th of the WHO nations.
• The US ranked 37th in overall health system performances putting it between Costa Rica and Slovenia.
• The United States fell way down on WHO list according to fairness in financing it’s health care system. In this category the US came in at 54th, between the Republic of Korea and Fiji.

In a comparison done between 13 nations in the 1998 Oxford University Press, the United States also showed glaring weakness in it’s health care system.  Of the 13 nations in the study the US ranked.

• 13th (last) for low-birth-weight percentages
• 13th for neonatal mortality and infant mortality overall
• 11th for post neonatal mortality
• 13th for years of potential life lost (excluding external causes)

Other interesting facts came out of the report were:

• 12,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery
• 7000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals
• 20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals
• 80,000 deaths/year from nosocomial infections in hospitals
• 106,000 deaths/year from non-error, adverse effects of medications

These statistics reflect a medical system that is in need of revamping, not just creative refinancing.

Americans take more drugs

From the January 16th 2001 PRNewswire is a story that reveals some startling numbers. According to a survey conducted for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), 51% of American adults take two or more medications per day. Which include over-the-counter drugs, the study also showed that 46% take at least one prescription medication daily and 28% take multiple prescription drugs per day.

These figures show that an alarming rate of the adult population in the United States uses drugs of some kind. As expected the elderly have the highest rate of medication usage with 79% of those over 65 reported to be taking at least one medication daily. Americans who are over 65 and take medications take an average of 4 medications per day per person.

One of the concerns expressed by the ASHP president, Mick L. Hunt, M.S., was that medications could have bad interactions when mixed. Hunt said, “We want all patients to be aware of the potential for drug interactions that occur when mixing all these remedies, especially when taking multiple medications each day.”

Chiropractic is top choice for drug-free help with pain

In a report from the February 21st, 2002 PRNewswire comes a story of a national telephone survey conducted by Media General Research in December 2001, in which it was revealed that consumers rely most on chiropractic as the number one natural, non-drug choice for most pains and injuries. The survey found for example, that 42% of consumers have experienced back pain during the past year. The number one natural choice was chiropractic care. The study also found that of those patients who saw a chiropractor, 91% rated their care as “very” or “somewhat” effective.

While it is a common public belief to associate chiropractic with back and neck pain, the surgery also showed another area that is becoming more recognized by the general public when it comes to choosing chiropractic care and that area is the care of headaces. Although using drugs is still the most commonly used treatment for those who had experienced headaches in the past year, the second most popular choice of care for headache suffers was chiropractic care.

The report also noted that in 1998, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that chiropractic was the most frequently used drug-free treatment.  Additionally the report mentioned that chiropractic has been practiced in the United States for more than 100 years, and more than 3 million people visit one of the 60,000 chiropractors in the country every year.

Baby Boomers Seek Chiropractic In Large Numbers, and pay for it themselves

More people are visiting and paying for their care to go to chiropractors. This from a May 16th 2000 WebMD article reporting on a study published in the Journal of the Geriatric Society.  That study of more than 800 patients showed that more than half of people over age 55 seek chiropractic care for mild to moderate complaints, without visiting their primary care provider.

The study conducted through 96 various chiropractic offices in 32 states and two canadian provines collected data on 805 eligible patients aged 55 years and older during a 12-week study period.

The article listed the following as vital information concerning people who go to chiroprators:

• About half of people over age 55 seek a chiropractor for mild to moderate complaints, usually low back pain.
• Patients with more severe complaints tend to seek both traditional medical care and chiropractic care.
• People who use chiropractic care are more likely to be focused on wellness , eating habits, and healthy lifestyles, and prefer not to take medications, according to a new report.

Health Care In United States Reaches One Trillion Mark

On February 7th 2001 the US Censusu Bureau released figures that show just how expensive treating sickness in the US really is.  According to a census Bureau report, health care industry revenues hit $1.01 trillion in 1999, up 4.3% from the previous year. According to the report hospitals received $413 billion, while physician’s offices got $202 billion.

According to the July 26th 2000 online issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and in the August 28th 2000 issue of the American Medical News, The United States spends 13.7% of its gross domestic product on medical care. The amount of money listed above would make you think that we should have the best health care sysytem, and the healthiest nation in the world. However, according to the recently released report from the World Health Organization, the US ranked 37th in overall health system performance on the WHO list of 191 member nations.

In 1999 Chiropractic offices nationwide recieved $8.3 billion, which represents a 5.1% increase over the previous year. When you do the math, Chiropractors are a very small financial part of the total health care costs compared to the medical expenses. Even though estimates say that Chiroprators see from between 11 and 17% of the population in the US, the amount of money spent on Chiropractic represents only 0.75% (less than one percent) of the total health care costs.

Medical Errors Kill up to 98,000 Hospitalized Americans per year

USA Today, November 11th 1999 issue reported that medical mistakes kill anywhere between 44,000 and 98,000 hospitalized Americans each year. The report by the Institute of Medicine calls the errors syunning and demands major changes in the health care system to protect patients. They call for a 50% reduction in such errors over a five-year period as a target.

The report goes on to say that the problem is not as much cases of recklessness by individual doctors as much as basic flaws in the way hospitals and clinics operate. One of the reported problems is in reading the handwriting of doctors on their prescriptions. This is also compounded by the fact that many drugs sound alike.

The report states that health care is more than a decade behind improving safety compared with other high-risk industries. The financial impact of these mistakes is estimated to be approximately $8.8 billion dollars per yaer according to the report.

William Richardson, president of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and chairman of the institute panel that compiled the report sums his remarks up with, “These stunning high rates of medical errors…are simply unacceptable in a medical system that promises first to do no harm.”

Over 106,000 Drug Related Deaths per Year

The USA Today, Wednesday, April 15th 1998, page 1 finds a report on a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association addressing the subject of unintended side-effects of properly prescribed, properly administered medications. The authors estimate deaths from such events to exceed 106,000 deaths per year. To offer some perspective on this number-57,000 US soldiers died in the Vietnam War! Keep in mind: this number represents a completly different data set than Lucian Leape’s estimate of 180,000 hospital based iatrogenic deaths per year. Those deaths are associated with errors, not side effects pf properly prescribed and administered medications.