Reviews

Dr. Ng is the director of the Humana Chiropractic Centre Pte., Ltd. of Singapore and Hong Kong.

This text contains 417 pages and is divided into three distinct sections. The first section deals with the description of the chiropractic approach to mechanical low back pain. Various modalities and nutritional supplementation and the rationale for their use are dealt with in detail. The second section deals with the pathogenesis, clinical features, examination, and treatment of mechanical low back syndromes. The third section contains an overview of some of the nonmechanical causes of low back pain.

One of the great features of this text is that it attempts to correlate Western studies with research from the Chinese literature relative to mechanical low back pain syndromes. There is also an extensive reference list of 22 pages.

The contents are broken down into 29 well-written, well-illustrated and clearly understandable chapters starting from the case history and progressing through each region of the spine, and finishing with pathological and entrapment neuropathies.

This text is an invaluable aid to the student studying differential diagnosis and struggling with the concept of "What to do next." This text eliminates a lot of the guess work by the use of numerous algorithms that are strategically placed throughout each chapter. Doctors of chiropractic who have not kept up-to-date with the current literature would be well advised to read this superb publication.

The only weakness I find in this text is in its liberal use of the term "viscerosomatic reflexes." There is no question that certain viscerosomatic reflexes are secondary to malignancy, aneurysm, infectious diseases, and many other conditions but to make a blanket statement that viscerosomatic reflexes are an absolute contraindication without concurrent medical care is to deny the existence of hundreds of research papers that state the opposite. Nevertheless, this is a wonderful text.

Innes rating: 8

Stephen Savoie, DC

As the title suggests, this is a book covering a wide range of topics in the management of women and children. Dr. Cohen has selected topics including menopause, osteoporosis, functional digestion, parasitology, chronic fatigue syndrome, digestive support for autoimmune dicorders, fibrositis, neonatal intensive care, attention deficit disorder and early childhood abuse.

Each chapter is organized with a discussion of the condition or problem and one or more holistic approaches to its treatment. The treatment options range from chiropractic adjustments, physiotherapeutics, homeopathic remedies, nutritional supplementation, herbal remedies and exercise.

The book provides an overall approach to these problems. The doctor then can decide which of these approaches to incorporate into their management plan for an individual patient.

This book is not for everybody. For those in our profession who take a broader view of patient management this book will provide additional tools for patient care. Those who are more conservative in their management will only find limited information they would be able to use.

The book does not necessarily follow an orderly progression by condition or age, and it covers diverse topics. The one criticism I have of the book is the documentation of the information. There is a bibliography at the end, but it would be more helpful to reference the material in the body of the work. In several instances studies were mentioned but not specifically noted or referenced. In this day of increasing scepticism of what we do, the more we can reference to original sources the better.

Savoie Rating: 7.5