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...

Vegan Cookbooks are Hot Reading

If you’ve read my blog article “Why There’s No Magazines in my Office” you may wonder, what can you do if you’re stuck in my waiting room besides watch the clock and read Heinerman’s Encyclopedia of Nuts, Seeds, and Berries?  I know some chiropractors have big aquariums.  That’s nice.  We have a coffee and tea bar, and lots and lots of books you can grab and read or borrow. ...

On the Front Lines of Research–Chiropractic and the Military

Could the government save money and improve our nation’s safety by making chiropractic care available to soldiers? My opinion: yes, SIR! A $7.4 million-dollar research project has just been awarded jointly to the Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research, the RAND Corporation and the Samueli Institute. The four-year study will focus on the effects of chiropractic care on the military readiness of active-duty military personnel. While chiropractic care is currently...

Chiropractor vs. MD for Lower Back Pain: Let the Evidence Decide

One of the positive things coming out of health care reform is that health care providers are going to have adhere to “evidence-based practice guidelines.” That means, if clinical studies provide evidence that one thing works better than another for a certain condition, doctors should advise patients about the thing that works better. An example would be, if eating cherries cleared up gout just as well as an expensive...

Un-Bag It for your Health

Why does everything we bring home have to come in a bag or some plastic wrap? It turns out, a lot of plastic is not recyclable, even if it does have a little number in a triangle on the bottom. And it’s bad for us. How is that, you say? In the documentary, Bag It, you’ll find out. I watched the movie Friday night at the Packing House in...

Fibromyalgia Smells Lemony Fresh

When you have fibromyalgia, you hurt all over. Your purse feels like it weighs a ton. You wake up feeling like you need to get some rest. You go in for lab work to see if anything can explain why you are feeling so badly, but the tests come back normal. Sometimes, even going to the chiropractor can make you feel worse instead of better. Frustrating, isn’t it? I...