Showing posts with label chiropractic care for headache. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chiropractic care for headache. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Chiropractic good enough for NFL? Ask Dr. Rodgers

Super Bowl MVP is “Well-Adjusted”

Professional athletes recognize the value of chiropractic care

CARMICHAEL,Calif.– March 15, 2011–From his son’s first “stingers” to various neck, back and other injuries resulting from playing football, Dr. Ed Rodgers–Dad of championship Green Bay Packers’ winning quarterback Aaron Rodgers–was always there to make an adjustment. It was the care he received following a college football injury that led the Super Bowl MVP’s father to pursue a chiropractic career.



“The structure of’ the human body, especially the spine, and its relationship to function can be impacted by the physical nature of accidents, falls, poor posture and injuries,” says Dr. Rodgers. “That’s why chiropractic care is so valuable for many acute and chronic health problems.”‘



While providing chiropractic care for his three sons who played multiple sports during their’school years, as well as his patients in Chico, California, Dr. Ed finds the natural hands-on methods of’chiropractic care to be of great value. He points out that every NFL football team and the majority of’college and high school athletic programs have a doctor of chiropractic available to treat their players. Athletes from all sports credit chiropractic care for their ability to recover from neck, back and other joint injuries, and play the game at a high level. Reflecting this expertise, 2010 marked the first time that chiropractors occupied the two top positions for the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) medical team.



Jack Dolbin DC, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, was the starting wide receiver for the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII. His father and grandfather were chiropractors, as is his daughter.



“Patients of all ages are learning to appreciate the clinical skills of a chiropractor for conditions including headaches, neck and back pain and other health issues that are related to the spine and influenced by injuries and posture,” says Dr. Dolbin.



Jerry Rice was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2010 and was recently chosen as the “greatest” pro football player of all time by a blue ribbon panel at the NFL Network. As a spokesperson for the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, Rice says this about his legendary 20-year pro career: “I did a lot of things to stay in the game but regular visits to my chiropractor were among the most important.”

Dr. Schaffnit Views:
Clearly NFL player are fine tuned human machines that need more than just regular adjustments. Chiropractic and Rehabilitation are small facets of overall health that these players use to keep their competitive advantage. All ranges of athletes, from weekend warrior to elite athlete, benefit from taking care of the bodies. Shouldn't you start? Visit us Schaffnit Chiropractic

Monday, December 27, 2010

NSAID Use Associated With Future Stroke

September 8, 2010 (Stockholm, Sweden) — Short-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) was associated with an increased risk of stroke in a Danish population study including only healthy individuals.
Presenting the study at last week's European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2010 Congress, Dr Gunnar Gislason (Gentofte University Hospital, Hellerup, Denmark) said the results could have "massive public-health implications."
"First we found an increased risk of MI with NSAIDs. Now we are finding the same thing for stroke. This is very serious, as these drugs are very widely used, with many available over the counter," Gislason told heartwire. "We need to get the message out to healthcare authorities that these drugs need to be regulated more carefully."
Cochair of the session at which the study was presented, Dr Robert Califf (Duke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, NC), agreed that the results raised a major public-health issue, especially in the US, where many NSAIDs were available without a prescription.

For the current study, Gislason and colleagues examined the risk of stroke and NSAID use in healthy individuals living in Denmark. He explained to heartwire that information on each individual in the Danish population is kept in various national registries. His team started with the whole population of Denmark aged over 10 years. To select just the healthy individuals, they excluded anyone admitted to the hospital within the past five years or those prescribed chronic medications for more than two years. This left a population of around half a million, who were included in the study. By linking to prescribing registries, the researchers found that 45% of these healthy individuals had received at least one prescription for an NSAID between 1997 and 2005. They then used stroke data from further hospitalization and death registries and estimated the risk of fatal and nonfatal stroke associated with the use of NSAIDs by Cox proportional-hazard models and case-crossover analyses.

Results showed that NSAID use was associated with an increased risk of stroke. This increased risk ranged from about 30% with ibuprofen and naproxen to 86% with diclofenac.


Risk of Stroke With Various Nsaids
NSAID
HR (95% CI) for risk of stroke

Ibuprofen
1.28 (1.14–1.44)

Diclofenac
1.86 (1.58–2.19)

Rofecoxib
1.61 (1.14–2.29)

Celecoxib
1.69 (1.11–2.26)

Naproxen
1.35 (1.01–1.79)


Gislason noted that there was also a dose-relationship found, with the increased risk of stroke reaching 90% (HR 1.90) with doses of ibuprofen over 200 mg and 100% (HR 2.0) with diclofenac doses over 100 mg. He pointed out that the results were particularly striking, given that this study was conducted in healthy individuals.

He conceded that his results could have some confounding but noted that the data were controlled for age, gender, and socioeconomic status and the patient population did not include those with chronic diseases. "We also have to think about the degree of confounding needed to nullify risk. It would have to increase risk four- to fivefold, which is very unlikely," he commented.

He said he did not find the results that surprising in view of the accumulating evidence of increased MI risk with these drugs, adding that the mechanism was probably the same. There have been several hypotheses about the mechanism linking NSAIDs with cardiovascular events, including increased thrombotic effect on platelets, the endothelium, and/or atherosclerotic plaques; increasing blood pressure; and effect on the kidneys and salt retention.

Gislason told heartwire that there is reluctance among the medical profession to limit the prescribing of these drugs. "The problem is that we don't have randomized trials, and it is very hard to change the habits of doctors. They have been using these drugs for decades without thinking about cardiovascular side effects."

He also stressed that the public needs to be protected by not allowing NSAIDs to be bought without a prescription. He has had some success in this regard in Denmark at least, where diclofenac became available over the counter recently, but after some of the MI data came out, Gislason's group campaigned the health authorities, and it has now become a prescription-only drug again. But he noted that many more NSAIDs are available over the counter in the US.

He believes the harmful effects of these agents are relevant to huge numbers of people. "If half the population takes these drugs, even on an occasional basis, then this could be responsible for a 50% to 100% increase in stroke risk. It is an enormous effect."

These results have been partly published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes earlier this year [1]. Gislason told heart wire that the novelty of the results presented at the ESC meeting was that "we had further analyzed our data regarding specific stroke and looked at the risk of ischemic stroke, and we confirmed that the risk of ischemic stroke was substantially elevated." He added: "We are in the process of analyzing these data related to time to risk and the effect of duration of treatment on stroke risk."
-By Sue Hughes

References
1. Fosbøl EL, Folke F, Jacobsen S, et al. Cause-specific CV risk associated with NSAIDs among healthy individuals.
Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes 2010; 3:395-405.

Sue Hughes is a journalist for Medscape. She joined theheart.org, part of the WebMD Professional Network, in 2000. She was previously science editor of Scrip World Pharmaceutical News. Graduating in pharmacy from Manchester University, UK, she started her career as a hospital pharmacist before moving as a journalist to a UK pharmacy trade publication. She can be reached at Shughes@webmd.net.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Headaches, its a pain in the neck

Great article on headaches and conservative care of them:

One of the most common ailments encountered by doctors is headache. More than 40 million people in this country suffer from severe headaches, according to the Center for Disease Control, and the number is increasing steadily. The majority of these people are women between the ages of 18 and 45 years, but many men also are affected. Unfortunately, many headaches are misdiagnosed and people continue to suffer, often becoming reliant on various medications to function in everyday life.

One of the most common of these headaches is called the cervicogenic headache. The term cervicogenic simply means that the headache is caused by the cervical spine (the seven bones that make up the neck). These headaches are typically more severe on one side of the head than the other and can cause pain at the base of the head, the temples and behind the eyes. They can last from hours to weeks and often are accompanied by pain and stiffness of the neck or shoulders.

Common daily activities such as driving, reading, gardening, sports, watching television, sleeping and even everyday stress can all contribute to the wear and tear on the joints of the neck. When these joints stop working properly they can become a source of constant irritation to the nerves and lead to pain.

Research into cervicogenic headaches has been gaining a lot of steam in recent years, which is good news for sufferers. Only 10 years ago, the idea that headaches could be caused by the neck was a foreign concept. The cervical spine (neck) is now thought to be one of the most common causes of headache. The real transition in thinking occurred in 1995 when a group of medical doctors and researchers at Syracuse University established the neck as the cause of a significant number of headaches. According to Peter Rothbart, M.D. and president of the World Cervicogenic Headache Society:
“We couldn’t believe it at first. We’ve been able to put together a scientific
explanation for how neck structure causes headaches — not all headaches, but a significant number of them. It’s true that chiropractors have been saying this for years.”

It’s interesting that many of the patients I see who suffer from these headaches come to my office for other reasons. Neck pain, back pain, numbness or tingling in the arms or fingers, and pain in the shoulders or between the shoulder blades are among the most common. Only through questioning the patient does it come to light that they’re also suffering from chronic headaches; headaches they believe are migraines and thus
totally unrelated to their other symptoms. These headaches can show up years after an auto accident or fall, or may be the result of years of activity such as sports, physical labor, or daily wear and tear. As their headaches continue, people begin to sleep poorly, feel tired and moody, and lack
energy. Overuse of headache medications can further complicate the problem by producing more severe headaches called “rebound headaches.”


Chiropractors have been helping patients successfully with headaches for decades now. Not all headaches are cervicogenic headaches, but many are. In most cases, with reduction of headache comes better sleep, increased energy, a better sense of health and well being, and a return to normal activity. Perhaps most important, people become less reliant on medications and are less likely to be subject to the serious side effects that come with them. A healthy diet, exercise, and good posture can go a long way in preventing their return.

– (Originally published in the Puget Sound Consumer, June 2005)

If this interested you visit our website at http://www.gechiropractic.com