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In TouchVol. 4, No. 11 November 2000 ISSN 1525-416X "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King, Jr. Patients With Ulcers Respond To Chiropractic CareA study in the June, 1994 issue of the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics finds that patients with ulcers experienced remissions of their problem quicker under chiropractic care than those under standard medical care. Using an endoscope to see the inside of the stomach, 35 patients, ranging in age from 18-44, were diagnosed with ulcers. While both groups were put on the same diet, 11 of the patients were given chiropractic care from 5-22 days and the other 24 patients received traditional medical drug therapy. The effectiveness of each approach was evaluated every week with another endoscopic test. Those patients who received the chiropractic care experienced pain relief in an average of 3.8 days and clinical remission of their ulcers an average of 10 days earlier than those patients treated by drugs. By way of commentary, this article does not suggest that chiropractic is a treatment or cure for ulcers. Indeed, in their conclusions, the authors say that normalizing the nerve supply to the stomach and the positive reaction of the whole body to chiropractic care were the likely mechanisms at work here. By removing interference to the nerve supply to the stomach, chiropractic care improved function to the point that the patient's bodies were in a better position to heal the ulcers themselves. Can restoring health and function in the body allow it to heal itself better than drugs? Apparently so, and in the case of ulcers, at least 10 days faster and without the toxicity and danger involved with the use of drugs. This study shows that chiropractic care restores function in the body so that it can repair and maintain itself in a higher level of function and health. Military Reservists Are Leaving Service To Avoid Anthrax VaccineA September, 2000 congressional study reported to the House Government Reform Committee finds that pilots and other aircrew are leaving National Guard and reserve units because they are concerned that the anthrax vaccine the Pentagon requires them to take is dangerous. Commercial pilot Tom Heemstra, who is a former reservist testified that he estimated that 2100 pilots from the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve would be lost if the vaccination program continued. He went on to provide coded names of more than 200 that have already resigned from several bases around the country because of the program. According to Heemstra, Pentagon officers "coerced, intimidated, threatened and punished in order to enforce this program." The 200 name list is somewhat at odds with prior Pentagon testimony. Maj. Gen. Paul A. Weaver, Jr., Director of the Air National Guard, previously testified that only one reservist had refused the vaccine. The latest disclosure prompted Committee Chairman Dan Burton (R-Indiana) to suggest that Gen. Weaver should face court-martial for lying to Congress. Burton went on to say that "The Defense Department has insulted the honor and integrity of anyone who has dared question the anthrax vaccine program." FDA Drug Advisers And Conflict Of InterestAccording to a report in the September 25, 2000 USA Today, more than half of the experts hired by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to advise the agency on which medicines should be approved had direct financial interests in the drug they were asked to evaluate. 54% of the experts consulted had financial conflicts of interest in the drugs they were evaluating, a violation of federal law. However, since 1998, the FDA had waived the restrictions more than 800 times. The conflicts involved included being employed by a drug company working on the development of a drug and then serving on an FDA committee to evaluate it, holding stock in the company involved, or receiving consulting fees or research grants from companies involved. While the FDA does reveal when a conflict of interest exists, it keeps the details of the disclosure secret. As a result there is no way to determine which drug company is involved or the financial interest at stake. With few exceptions, the FDA follows the advice of the committees that review drugs for approval. By way of commentary, this article points out one of the reasons that taking drugs has become so dangerous. Patient safety concerns come into question when the people responsible for saying the drug is safe are the same ones who stand to gain financially from its approval. As previously reported in this publication, studies report that serious Adverse Drug Reactions result in approximately 106,000 deaths every year. This figure accounted for nearly 5% of all causes of recorded death in 1994 making Adverse Drug Reactions the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. These conflicts of interest are intolerable at best and deadly at worst. Pain In Infancy Increases Pain Sensitivity Later In LifeThe July 28th issue of the journal Science reports that pain experienced by newborns (such as that from painful neonatal medical procedures such as circumcision) could increase their sensitivity to pain later on in life. Based on their experiments, researchers feel that painful experiences could change the baby's developing nervous system. According to researcher Dr. Mary Ann Ruda of the National Institute of Health "our primary interest was in learning how the brain circuitry can be affected and altered as it responds to pain." The researchers injected an irritant into the paws of newborn rats which caused swelling and pain for 5 days afterward. As adults, these same rats showed a much higher degree of pain sensitivity in the paws injected. According to Ruda, the tested animals also "had more nerve ending and thus more means for pain information to be transmitted." "If humans have a similar response to persistent pain during infancy as compared to the rats, it suggests that they would also have a greater response to pain later in life," Ruda said. "Ultimately we want to try and determine the mechanism for the growth of the nerve fibers---then we might be able to avoid creating these additional pain pathways in infants." By way of commentary, your chiropractor realizes the importance of keeping developing newborn nervous systems free of the types of persistent pain responses outlined in this article so that proper growth, development and adaptation can occur. Having newborns checked for spinal subluxation is the best way to make sure they grow into healthy, fully functioning adults.
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©2001 Virginia Institute of Chiropractic
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