Norco and Mrs. Jones

Lately, more of my nice patients, like Mrs. Jones*, come in and tell me they got prescribed Norco by their M.D.’s. Mrs. Jones has it in her handbag right now. She’s going to take a dose later on at the office. She might share one with a coworker who looks like she needs it. Mrs. Jones doesn’t know what she’s getting involved with, and I am mad at her...

Sharon Martinez, Chiropractor vs. Prilosec for Stomach Pain

$13,900,000,000.00. That’s 13.9 billion dollars spent in the U.S. on prescriptions for proton pump inhibitors, or PPI’s, yearly, according to a 2010 Archives of Internal Medicine report. Drugs like Prilosec give temporary relief from heartburn, indigestion, or, if you like medical terminology, “gastro-esophageal reflux disorder.” People in the U.S. are the top consumers of prescription drugs, using 40.6% of the global market supply of these drugs. In comparison, Canadians...

Otoscope $24.00, Avoiding Antibiotics, Priceless

Your small child comes down with an earache. He’s hurting, he’s crying! What do you do? I was in this position more than once, as a young mother. “The eardrum will bust, your child will go deaf!” is what the M.D.’s told me. Should I fill the prescription for antibiotics, I wondered? Well, I didn’t. Much to the shock of my friends and relatives, my babies never had prescription...

Back Surgery? No Thanks, Doctor!

Say you hurt your back at work, and they sent you for an x-ray and an MRI, and they told you that you needed surgery? Would you agree to the surgery, just to get back to work sooner? Would you reason that, once you had the surgery, you could get by with less pain medication than before? Unfortunately, a study of 1,450 injured workers in Ohio tells a different...

Children on Prescription Drugs

Some childhood illnesses, such as earache and gastrointestinal distress, respond well to chiropractic care. Claudia Anrig is a Fresno chiropractor who specializes in pediatric chiropractic.  Kudos to her for pulling together the following information about children on prescription drugs.  She cites a Wall Street Journal article from December 2010, which reported about one in four children, and 30 percent of adolescents are taking medication for a chronic condition in...

Why There’s no Magazines in my Waiting Room

God Bless those of you who cheerfully thumb through my copy of Heinerman’s Encyclopedia of Nuts, Seeds and Berries when you come in for chiropractic care.  You may have noticed that I do not allow magazines like Ladies’ Home Journal into my office.  This is true in spite of the fact that magazine companies send me lots of freebies, hoping I will set them out. I have the Ladies’...