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REEF CHIROPRACTIC CARE
133 Reef Road, Fairfield, CT 203.259.4939
Dr. Brian C. Baker
www.reefchirocare.com
  
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March Healthy Living Newsletter
All right, the snow has melted! The winter is actually coming to an end. Here’s this month’s newsletter. When you done reading please forward this newsletter to your friends. Then call Anne and get in for an adjustment before the crocus blooms get the better of you!
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Do Maintenance Adjustments Help?
A recent study in the journal Spine says they do. Here’s the details.
Over a 1 month period, 60 patients with chronic, nonspecific low back pain lasting at least 6 months were randomized to receive either 12 treatments of sham spinal manipulative therapy (SMT), or 12 treatments consisting of SMT, but no treatments for the next nine months, or 12 treatments followed with “maintenance spinal manipulation” every two weeks for the following nine months. To determine any difference among therapies, the investigators measured pain and disability scores, generic health status, and back- specific patient satisfaction at baseline and at 1-month, 4-month, 7- month and 10-month intervals.
Patients in both second and third groups experienced significantly lower pain and disability scores than first group at the end of 1- month period. However, only the third group that was given spinal manipulations during the follow-up period showed more improvement in pain and disability scores at the 10- month evaluation. In the no maintained SMT group, however, the pain and disability scores returned back near to their pretreatment level.
Conclusion. SMT is effective for the treatment of chronic non specific LBP. To obtain long-term benefit, this study suggests maintenance spinal manipulations after the initial intensive manipulative therapy.
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Emergency Room Visits for Back Problems Tops Reaches Three Million
Roughly 3.4 million emergency department visits, or an average of 9,400 visits a day, that occurred at U.S. hospitals in 2008 were related to back problems, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
In addition, more than 663,000 inpatient stays — a daily average of nearly 1,820 stays that year — were mainly for back surgery or other back disorder treatments.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) also found the following back pain statistics for 2008:
- Adults ages 18 to 44 years were most likely to require just emergency department care for back pain with 1,569 visits per 100,000 people. Senior citizens aged 65 to 84 years were least likely to have such visits.
- Individuals ages 18 to 44 years were far less likely to be hospitalized, while seniors had the highest hospitalization rates;
- Men were less likely than women to need emergency department care or be hospitalized for back pain. with 1,005 visits and 209 admissions per 100,000 men vs. 1,244 emergency visits and 225 admissions per 100,000 women; and
- The overall costs for inpatient stays principally for back problems was more than $9.5 billion, making it the ninth most expensive condition treated in U.S. hospitals.
Maybe we need to start putting more Doctors of Chiropractic into the hospitals.
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March 2011
“Too many people resign themselves to living with chronic pain or relying on a steady diet of medication to get through the day. I believe there is a better way.
We offer a knowledgeable diagnosis and evaluation with actual hands-on care, along with lifestyle counseling, focused on your well being.”
Dr. Brian Baker
REEF CHIROPRACTIC CARE
133 Reef Road Fairfield, CT
203.259.4939
www.reefchirocare.com
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Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDS) Increases Risk of Erectile Dysfunction
I’m not making this stuff up! The target population consisted of men 50, 60 or 70 years old residing in the study area in Finland in 1994. Questionnaires were mailed to 3,143 men in 1994 and to 2,864 men 5 years later. The followup sample consisted of 1,683 men who responded to baseline and followup questionnaires. The researchers estimated the effect of NSAIDs on the incidence of ED in men free from moderate or complete ED at baseline (in 1,126). ED was assessed by 2 questions on subject ability to achieve or maintain an erection sufficient for intercourse.
Results:
The incidence of ED was 93 cases per 1,000 person-years in men who used and 35 in those who did not use NSAIDs. Among men with arthritis, the most common indication for NSAID use, ED incidence was 97 cases per 1,000 in those using and 52 in men who did not use NSAIDs. Compared with men who did not use NSAIDs and were free from arthritis, the relative risk of ED after controlling for the effects of age, smoking, and other medical conditions and medications was higher in men who used NSAIDs but were free of arthritis and in those who used NSAIDs and had arthritis. The relative risk was only somewhat higher in men who had arthritis but did not use NSAIDs.
Conclusions:
The use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs increases the risk of ED and the effect is independent of indication.
Oh, by the way typical NSAIDS used here in the US are Alleve, Advil, Motrin, Aspirin. I’ll say no more.
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90% of Antibiotics Pass through the Patient Without Being Metabolized
Amy Pruden is an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech University. In a paper she authored this year in Environmental Science and Technology, she details how little of antibiotics consumed by humans and animals is ultimately metabolized. The bottom line is that over 90% are not metabolized meaning that these drugs leave the body almost intact.
Guess what? The same is true when antibiotics are used in agribusiness in cattle, poultry, fish hatcheries, etc. The same 90% passes straight on through.
As a result, wastewater and watershed end up contaminated with the antibiotics and, for the most part, water treatment and sewerage treatment facilities are not capable of clearing these products from the water they receive and ultimately release.
“The presence of antibiotics, even at sub-inhibitory concentrations, can stimulate bacterial metabolism and thus contribute to the selection and maintenance of antibiotic resistance genes,” Pruden explains. “Once they are present in rivers, antibiotic resistance genes are capable of being transferred among bacteria, including pathogens, through horizontal gene transfer”.
Pruden says “new drug discovery can no longer keep pace with emerging antibiotic-resistant infections.”
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20 Worst Food Dishes
From Men’s Health Magazine. The MH folks have scoured restaurants across the country and come up with 20 cringe worthy dishes. Within the top twenty were some “of course” selections and some “no way” selections.
#18-a “no way” selection…Blimpie’s Special Vegetarian Sandwich, almost 1,200 calories and over 3,500 mg of sodium
#13 Cheesecake Factory’s Grilled Shrimp and Bacon Club, over 1,700 calories and 2,300 mg of sodium
#12-a second “no-way” selection…TGI Friday’s Sante Fe Chopped Salad with 1,800 calories
#11 Worst Chinese food dish…from PF Chang’s, Double Pan-fried Noodle Combo, 1,800 plus calories and, get this 7,600 plus mg sodium
#6 Worst Mexican food dish…Baja Fresh Charbroiled Steak Nachos with over 2,100 calories and almost 3,000 mg of sodium
#2 Worst dessert…Uno’s Chicago Grill Mega-size Deep Dish Sundae, 2800 calories with 136 grams of fat and 272 grams of sugar
For the full list direct from MH, visit: 20 worst foods
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Humor and Fun
From my brother in-law the retired police chief enjoying histhe new neighbors in Arizona:
SKYJACK
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