Chiropractic: More Cost-Effective.

Considering effectiveness and cost together, chiropractic care for low back and neck pain is highly cost-effective and represents a good value in comparison to other treatments, including medical care.
Mercer Health and Benefits, October 2009

Denver Chiropractic Center’s Health News for You…

Courtesy of:
Denver Chiropractic Center
1780 S Bellaire St #710
Denver, CO 80222
(303) 300-0424

“Face your life, its pain, its pleasure, leave no path untaken.”
~ Neil Gaiman

Mental Attitude: Advanced Math & Reading in Kindergarten Improves School Performance.
Regardless of economic background, a new study finds that exposing kindergarteners to more challenging math and reading content during their early education results in better performance in those subjects later in childhood.
American Educational Research Journal, March 2014

Health Alert: Drug-Resistant Bacterial Infections on the Rise.
Researchers report that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are infecting an increasing number of children in the United States. Though this type of infection is still rare, the researchers say it is increasingly found in children, predominantly those between the ages of one and five years old. Lead author Dr. Latania K. Logan adds, “These antibiotic-resistant bacteria have traditionally been found in health care settings but are increasingly being found in the community, in people who have not had a significant history of health care exposure.”
Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, March 2014

Diet: Does Diet Cause Depression?
Like heart disease, depression is associated with low-grade inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, and worse lipid profiles that suggest a poor diet as an underlying cause. Existing research has shown increased fast food consumption is associated with a greater risk for depression. On the other hand, the Mediterranean diet has been observed to reduce depressive symptoms. According to researcher Dr. Almudena Sanchez-Villegas, “It is difficult to be sure that the diet is responsible for depression – it could be that depressed people make bad food choices. Other study problems include ‘confounders’ which may influence dietary habits, such as marital status, exercise, alcohol (or smoking), medical conditions and social networks. Or simply genetics. To address these issues we need long-term, randomized clinical studies similar to ones successfully conducted for diet and cardiovascular disease risk. Only then will we really understand the impact of diet of depression.”
BMC Medicine, January 2013

Exercise: Kids Should Play More Than One Sport!
A report published by the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine recommends children avoid early sport specialization as it may increase their risk for overuse injuries and burnout. Overuse-related injuries account for 50% of sports injuries among youth athletes.
American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, January 2014

Chiropractic: Maintenance Care Recommended.
Chiropractors often recommend periodic visits to identify joint dysfunction and make corrections with skilled spinal manipulation or Active Release Techniques (if the doc is certified, of course;). These maintenance treatments are thought to prevent disease of both neuromusculoskeletal and visceral causes.
Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, January 2000

Wellness/Prevention: Vitamin A Intake During Pregnancy Affects Child’s Immunity.
An animal study involving mice has found that vitamin A deficiency during pregnancy leads to smaller lymph nodes and Peyer’s patches in offspring. Lymph nodes and Peyer’s patches are important components of the immune system and as a result, the vitamin A-deprived offspring in the study were more susceptible to viral infections later in life. The researchers further noted that giving vitamin A to deprived offspring failed to reverse the impact of deficiency during pregnancy.
Immunology, March 2014

Health Alert: One in Five Older Americans Take Medications That Work Against Each Other.

More than 20% of medications prescribed to older adults interfere with medications they may be taking for other health concerns, possibly worsening one or more of the conditions for which they’re being treated. Some of the most common competing chronic conditions in which medications for one condition may exacerbate the other include hypertension and osteoarthritis; hypertension and diabetes; hypertension and COPD; diabetes and coronary artery disease; and hypertension and depression. Many health care providers are aware of this problem but there isn’t much information available on how to address it.
PLOS ONE, February 2014

What Type of Doctor Should You See For Acute or Chronic Back Pain?

Have you ever considered who is the best suited to treat back pain?

Since there are so many treatment options available today, it is quite challenging to make this decision without a little help.To facilitate, a study looking at this very question compared the effectiveness between medical and chiropractic intervention.

Over a 4-year time frame, 2780 patients were followed with questionnaires. Low Back Pain patients were treated using conventional approaches by both MDs (Medical Doctors) and DCs (Doctors of Chiropractic). Chiropractic treatments included spinal manipulation, physical therapy, an exercise plan, and self-care education.

Medical therapies included prescription drugs, an exercise plan, self-care advice and about 25% of the patients received physical therapy. The study focused on present pain severity and functional disability (activity interference) measured by questionnaires mailed to the patients. It was reported that chiropractic was favored over medical treatment in the following areas:

  • Pain relief in the first 12 months (more evident in the chronic patients)
  • When LBP pain radiated below the knee (more evident in the chronic patients)
  • Chronic LBP patients with no leg pain (during the first 3 months)
  • Similar trends favoring chiropractic were seen for disability but were of smaller magnitude.

All patient groups saw significant improvement in both pain and disability over the four year study period. Acute patients saw the greatest degree of improvement with many achieving symptom relief after 3 months of care. This study also found early intervention reduced chronic pain and, at year 3, those acute LBP patients who received early intervention reported fewer days of LBP than those who waited longer for treatment.

While both MDs and DCs treatment approaches helped, it’s quite clear from the information reported that chiropractic should be utilized first.

These findings support the importance of early intervention by chiropractic physicians and make the most sense for those of you struggling with the question of who to see for your LBP.

The 1-Page Health News, Courtesy of Denver Chiropractic Center April 1, 2014

Mental Attitude: Is Stress Contagious?
A new report finds that not only do babies pick up on their mother’s stress but their bodies will also mimic physiological changes. Researchers found that when mothers were stressed and then reunited with their infant, the child quickly adopted his/her mother’s stress response, including a corresponding change in heart rate. Lead author Dr. Sara Waters writes, “Before infants are verbal and able to express themselves fully, we can overlook how exquisitely attuned they are to the emotional tenor of their caregivers… Your infant may not be able to tell you that you seem stressed or ask you what is wrong, but our work shows that, as soon as she is in your arms, she is picking up on the bodily responses accompanying your emotional state and immediately begins to feel in her own body your own negative emotion.”
Psychological Science, February 2014

Health Alert: Buckle Your Children Up!
Tragically, car accidents still claim the lives of over 9,000 American children each year. Researchers working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believe that nearly a third of these deaths can be prevented if parents simply secured their children in age/size appropriate car seats. They point out that in states where car seats are required until ages 7-8, more children are put into car and booster seats and serious injury rates are 17% lower than in states without such laws.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, February 2014

Diet: No More Than 2-3 Cups Per Day…
Using current research on the over-consumption of caffeine as a guide, Dr. Laura Juliano, co-author of “Caffeine Use Disorder: A Comprehensive Review and Research Agenda,” recommends healthy adults limit caffeine consumption to no more than two to three cups of coffee per day (about 400 mg/day) and pregnant women to no more than half that amount. She also recommends people with health problems such as anxiety, insomnia, heart problems, or urinary incontinence limit or even eliminate caffeine consumption.
Journal of Caffeine Research, February 2014

Exercise: Sitting and Disability.
For the first time, a study has labeled sedentary activity as a risk factor for disability for people over age 60. Using data on over 2,000 adults over 60 years of age, researchers were shocked to discover that being sedentary is just as large a risk factor for disability as not exercising, and the risk of disability dramatically increases for each additional hour spent sitting at a computer or on the couch watching TV.
Journal of Physical Activity & Health, February 2014

Chiropractic: Acute Low Back Pain Treatment Comparison.
In this study, researchers compared the efficacy of spinal manipulation to diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), for the treatment of acute low back pain. Based on outcomes including self-rated physical disability, function, time missed from work, and rescue medication use during the following 12 weeks, spinal manipulation proved to be a significantly better treatment.
Spine, April 2013

Wellness/Prevention: Mammography Recommended for Women in Their 40s.
While the United States Preventive Services Task Force’s 2009 guidelines recommend against routine mammograms for women in their 40s, new research shows that regular screenings would benefit this age group by helping doctors catch the disease when it can still be treated without extensive surgery or chemotherapy. Current statistics show that one in eight women will develop breast cancer, and if the disease is caught early enough, the five-year survival rate is 97%.
American Journal of Roentgenology, February 2014

Chiropractic and Neck Pain in Children

Children have been treated by chiropractors for spinal problems ever since chiropractic was founded in 1895, and neck pain is no exception. Neck pain is surprisingly common in kids, though not quite as common as it is in adults, reaching a similar occurrence rate by age 18. Studies conducted in the United States and in other countries report similar findings, leaving one to conclude there is a high prevalence of neck pain in kids all over the world. There are many causes of neck pain with a few being unique to children and some that could be a warning sign of something dangerous, such as meningitis. But far more commonly, neck pain in kids is NOT dangerous.
Let’s take a look!Looking at neck and shoulder pain in high-school-aged students, 931 males between 16 and 19 years of age were surveyed. More than two out of five students (44.3%) had recurrent neck and shoulder pain more than once a week with an overall prevalence of 79.1%. THAT’S A LOT! The study reported the student’s average sitting time was 10.2 hours a day, 59% did NOT sit up straight, and 11.9% reported that they stretched their neck and shoulders regularly throughout the day. Students with recurrent neck and shoulder pain also reported frequent fatigue and depressed moods. Looking specifically at 1,122 backpack-using adolescents, 74.4% were classified as having back or neck pain. When compared to non- or low use backpackers, there was nearly a two times greater likelihood of having back/neck pain! Also, females and those with a large body mass index (overweight) were also significantly associated with back/neck pain. Lastly, they found when compared to adolescents with no back/neck pain, those with pain carried significantly heavier backpacks.Another common cause of neck pain in adolescents is a condition called torticollis or, “wry neck.” This is basically a muscle spasm of certain neck muscles that rotate and extend the head from the neutral / normal position, often described as being “stuck” in this position. Though there are several types of torticollis, it can be triggered by almost anything including a change in weather, sleeping in a draft, following an infection like a cold or flu, maintaining a faulty prolonged posture, certain types of medications, and many others. Some studies describe torticollis as usually improving within one to four weeks, but in the hands of a chiropractor, it usually takes two to three days for the acute pain to subside and one week to completely finish the job! Of course, this varies depending on the case. Infants can be born with “congenital torticollis,” which occurs in 0.3 to 2.0% of newborns. Here too, chiropractic is VERY effective.

We realize you have a choice in whom you consider for your health care provision and we sincerely appreciate your trust in choosing our service for those needs.  If you, a friend, or family member requires care for neck pain, we would be honored to render our services.

Content Courtesy of Chiro-Trust.org. All Rights Reserved.

Does the Order of Cardio and Resistance Training Matter?

Fitness experts and researchers alike have long wondered whether the order of a workout routine matters when it comes to attaining maximum results. New information from an all-male participant study indicates that after six months, both groups (resistance first vs. cardio first) achieved statistically similar outcomes in physical performance and muscle development.
European Journal of Applied Physiology, April 2014

Chiropractic: When Self-Correction Does Not Work…

In 2007, the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society included spinal manipulation in their guidelines as one of several treatment options for practitioners to consider when low-back pain does not improve with self-care.
Annals of Internal Medicine, July 2007

Do Strawberries Lower Cholesterol?

A team of 23 volunteers agreed to eat 500 grams of strawberries (about 30 large strawberries) every day for over a month. Before and after blood samples showed that consuming strawberries led to lower levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol while levels of HDL (good) cholesterol remained unchanged.
The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, March 2014

High Stress Levels Increase Headaches.

New research links high stress levels to increased headache occurrence. This study involved 5,159 people who were questioned about their headaches and stress four times a year over a two-year period. The researchers found that for each headache type (tension, migraine, and combined), the more stress a person experienced, the more headaches they suffered each month. Researcher Dr. Sara H. Schramm writes, “The results add weight to the concept that stress can be a factor contributing to the onset of headache disorders, that it accelerates the progression to chronic headache, exacerbates headache episodes, and that the headache experience itself can serve as a stressor.”
The American Academy of Neurology, February 2014