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In TouchKeeping you In Touch with what's happening in the world of Health Care Vol. 4, No. 9 September 2000 ISSN 1525-416X "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it." - Goethe CHILDREN WITH ENURESIS RESPOND TO CHIROPRACTICSeveral studies reported by the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (www.4icpa.org) vividly point out that children who suffer from enuresis, commonly known as bedwetting, have responded very favorably to chiropractic care. One study involving 171 children was reported in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapuetics (1991; 14(2):110-5). At the beginning of the study, the average number of bed wettings per week per child was 7. After a program of chiropractic care was administered the average number of bedwettings per week per child had dropped to 4. Also, while only 1% of the children were considered dry at the beginning of the study, 15.5% were considered dry at the end. Another study was presented at the October, 1993 National Conference on Chiropractic & Pediatrics. 46 children between the ages of 5 and 13 were studied over a period of 14 weeks. 31 received chiropractic care while the other 15 served as a control group, receiving only sham adjustments. The control group experienced no change at all while the children receiving adjustments averaged 17.9% fewer wet nights. Similar results were reported in yet another study in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapuetics (1994; 17(9): 596-600). While the children under chiropractic care had similar average reductions as the previous study, 25% of the treatment group experienced 50% or more reductions in wet nights. Bedwetting is a prime example of a loss of body control and function; function that is under control of the nervous system. Everyone, not just those suffering from specific health problems, should have their spine checked and adjusted by a chiropractor on a regular basis. Doing so will help correct the nervous system interference that results from spinal subluxation, misalignments of the small bones of the spine that interfere with body function and health. Keeping the body free of this interference allows a person to better maintain a higher degree of health and wellness on all levels.
HYSTERECTOMY CAN LEAD TO INCONTINENCE LATER IN LIFEThe August 12 issue of the British journal The Lancet reports that women who have a hysterectomy have a substantially greater chance of developing urinary incontinency, many times not until years after the surgery. In a literature review of 12 different studies, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found that women who had a hysterectomy were about 40% more likely to develop urinary incontinence than women who did not have the surgery. Women who were 60 years old and above were 60% more likely to become incontinent. More than 600,000 hysterectomies are performed every year. Only about 10% of these are done to treat cancer. About 90% of the time they are done to treat non-cancerous benign tumors and vaginal bleeding. According to the authors, "Women need to decide how much their uterine symptoms are affecting their quality of life today," they said. "Women should weigh what the immediate benefits are of a hysterectomy versus the long-term risks later in life."
HEPATITIS B VACCINE LINKED TO INCREASE IN DIABETESA study presented to the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association finds that children who are vaccinated with the hepatitis B vaccine are at a greater risk for developing type 1 diabetes than children who have never received the vaccine. Type 1 diabetes is where the body doesn't make enough of the insulin that it needs and is a relatively rare condition. In the study, 150,000 children who received the hepatitis B vaccine at 3 months of age were compared to 150,000 children who had not received the vaccine. Type 1 diabetes developed at the rate of 46 per 100,000 in the vaccinated kids and only 34 per 100,000 in the kids who didn't get vaccinated. Waiting to vaccinate until later in life also seems to increase rates. In kids who didn't receive the vaccine until they were 12 years old, the rate of type 1 diabetes was 17.8 cases per 100,000 while kids who had never received the vaccine only developed 6.9 cases per 100,000. This is not the first time problems have been documented with the hepatitis B vaccine. Data released at the 62nd annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in November, 1998, shows that the hepatitis B vaccine has also been linked to an increase in autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis in children and adults who have been vaccinated.
STUDY: EAR INFECTIONS CLEAR UP WITHOUT ANTIBIOTICSAn August 10, 2000 report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) finds that not only do the new and more expensive antibiotics provide no additional benefit for the treatment of ear infections, in many cases antibiotics are not needed at all. In the report, investigators found that almost two-thirds of children with "uncomplicated acute otitis media...recover from pain and fever within 24 hours of diagnosis without (antibiotic) treatment...and over 80% recover within 1 to 7 days." A nearly indiscriminate use of antibiotics in the treatment of ear infections is one factor that has lead to the major increase in strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the United States. Countries such as the Netherlands that don't routinely use antibiotics in the treatment of ear infections have a rate of bacterial resistance of about 1%. The US average rate of bacterial resistance is now around 25% and climbing. By way of commentary, we must ask why doctors keep treating ear infections with antibiotics when studies repeatedly show that it's ineffective and contributes to the more dangerous problem of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains? Perhaps part of the answer lies in the fact that the more than 5 million cases of acute ear infections that occur every year are treated at a cost of about $3 billion.
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©2001 Virginia Institute of Chiropractic
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