This Issue's Feature Articles:
• Arnold Schwarzenegger Praises The Chiropractic Profession
• Chiropractic Is The Only Proven Effective Whiplash Treatment
• Attention People In Pain! Chiropractic May Be The Answer
• Chiropractic For PMS
• Bed Rest - An Unhealthy Choice For Back Pain
• Smoking Increases Back and Extremity Pain

• Arnold Schwarzenegger Praises The Chiropractic Profession • At the recent 8th Annual Symposium on Natural Fitness in Columbus, Ohio, chiropractic advocate Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the chiropractic profession. According to Arnold: "Chiropractic is about health and fitness. Chiropractic is about natural, preventive health care. I have experienced this for the last 30 years myself on my own body, that whenever I have a problem or even if I don't have a problem and I go to a chiropractor, my problems are gone for a long time." SOURCE: 8th Annual Symposium on Natural Fitness in Columbus, Ohio. TOP

• Chiropractic Is The Only Proven Effective Whiplash Treatment • A recent study published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Medicine states chiropractic is the "only proven effective treatment" for chronic whiplash. Results from this study found 74 percent of chronic whiplash patients improved with chiropractic treatment. This is a remarkable number given the extreme difficulty in treating chronic whiplash sufferers. According to the authors of the study, "Conventional treatment of patients with whiplash symptoms is disappointing. A retrospective study... demonstrated that chiropractic treatment benefited 26 of 28 patients suffering from chronic whiplash syndrome." This study helps support the superiority of chiropractic in the management of whiplash patients. SOURCES: Khan S, Cook J, Gargan M, Bannister G. A symptomatic classification of whiplash injury and the implications for treatment . Journal of Orthopaedic Medicine 1999;21(1):22-25. Woodward MN, Cook JCH, Gargan MF, Bannister GC. Chiropractic treatment of chronic whiplash injuries. Injury 1996;27:643-645. TOP

• Attention People In Pain! Chiropractic May Be The Answer • A Gallup Poll surveying 2,002 U.S. adults was conducted recently to determine the most common types of frequently suffered pain. According to their findings, 89 percent reported "some sort of pain on a monthly-or-more basis," 68 percent experience pain weekly, and 42 percent experience pain daily. The most frequently encountered pain experienced daily or every few days included: joint pain - 23 percent, backache - 22 percent, sore feet - 21 percent, muscle pain - 20 percent, arthritis - 18 percent, nonarthritic pain - 14 percent, headache - 13 percent and neck pain - 12 percent. Fortunately, chiropractic has had great success with these types of pain. If you're one of the millions of Americans suffering from any of the above symptoms, please schedule an appointment so we determine if chiropractic care is appropriate for your condition. SOURCE: Gallup Organization of Princeton, New Jersey. TOP

• Chiropractic For PMS • A new study shows chiropractic treatments may just be what the doctor ordered to combat premenstrual syndrome. In the study, 25 women were randomly selected to receive either a "true" chiropractic spinal adjustment or a placebo/sham spinal adjustment. After evaluating their findings in the 9 month study, researchers found symptom scores using a standard PMS questionnaire decreased after chiropractic treatment for most women. While these results are promising, researchers point out that additional studies are needed. SOURCE: Walsh MJ, Polus BI. A randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial on the efficacy of chiropractic therapy on prementrual syndrome. Journal of Manipulative and Physiologic Therapeutics, Nov/Dec 1999:22(9), pp582-85. TOP

• Bed Rest - An Unhealthy Choice For Back Pain. • Relying on bed rest to remedy your back pain and other musculoskeletal ailments is not only likely to NOT improve your condition, but instead, could actually worsen it. A group of researchers evaluated 39 trials on bed rest as a treatment for a number of health conditions. In trials investigating bed rest following a medical procedure, 24 trials did not result in significant improvements and 8 trials actually resulted in a worsening of the condition. The other 15 trials evaluated bed rest as the primary treatment for a number of health conditions. Again, none of the trials resulted in significant improvement and 9 resulted in a worsening of the condition. If your health care professional recommends bed rest for those aches and pain, it might be time for a second opinion. SOURCE: Allen C, Glasziou P, Del Mar C. Bed rest: a potentially harmful treatment needing more careful evaluation. Lancet 1999:354, pp1229-33. TOP

• Smoking Increases Back and Extremity Pain • Yet another study has shown smoking to be a significant contributor to low back pain as well as extremity pain. This recent study was conducted over a period of one year on a group of high-school students in Montreal, Canada. According to their findings, on average adolescents who smoked experienced back pain twice as often as those who did not smoke; back pain was defined as pain occurring at least once a week in the previous 6 months. Additionally, moderate to heavy smokers experienced more back pain than did the light to moderate smokers. SOURCE: Feldman DE, Rossignol M, Shrier I, et al. Smoking: a risk factor for the development of low back pain in adolescents. Spine, Dec. 1, 1999:24(23), pp2492-96. TOP