March 16, 2000 [Volume 1, Issue 5]

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In this issue of To Your Health:

• Use of Alternative Medicine Increasing
• Not Safe Enough? The Dangers of Surgery
• Exercise Reduces Diabetes Risk in Postmenopausal Women
• Fight Lead Poisoning with Vitamin C

Use of Alternative Medicine Increasing

In November 1998, many American Medical Association (AMA) publications featured studies on alternative medicine. The centerpiece of the alternative medicine issue of the AMA's flagship publication, JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association), was a national telephone survey by Dr. David Eisenberg and his colleagues that was a follow-up to their landmark survey of 1991.

Far higher percentages of people sought alternative care and vastly greater sums were spent on alternative treatments in 1997 than in 1990: There were 629 million visits to alternative practitioners--more than the total visits to all U.S. primary care physicians.

The conclusions were inescapable: Alternative medicine in all its forms must be taken more seriously, must be studied and understood better, and traditional organized medicine must do more to recognize the utility of effective alternative approaches such as chiropractic.

The Eisenberg study found that "the highest condition-specific rates of alternative therapy use in 1997 were for neck (57%) and back (47.6%) problems." This fact--plus the high degree of satisfaction patients express for the treatment their chiropractors provide--places chiropractic at the center of the movement toward alternatives to traditional medicine.

Eisenberg DM, Davis RB, Ettner SL, et al. Trends in Alternative Medicine Use in the United States, 1990-1997. Journal of the American Medical Association, Nov. 11, 1998; vol. 280, no. 18, pp1569-75.

Not Safe Enough?

Technology and research advancements have taken surgery to a new level as we enter the 21st century. However, the dangers associated with such invasive procedures remain a discomforting reality, a fact emphasized by a recent study that appeared in the journal Surgery.

Researchers examining data from 15,000 hospital discharges in Utah and Colorado in 1992 found that three percent of patients undergoing an operation or child delivery experienced an adverse event, and that 5.6% of those patients died as a result. Most distressing perhaps is some of the specific data on such events:

• Technique-related complications accounted for nearly 25% of all adverse surgical events;
• Drug-related errors, diagnostic errors, and errors in therapy of choice accounted for 12% of these events; and
• Fifty-four percent of these complications were considered ìpreventable.

Doctors always warn patients that surgical procedures carry a certain risk independent of the condition or injury being treated, but these results seem to suggest that the surgeons could be doing more to reduce the risk. If you or a loved one is considering surgery or has been advised to undergo a surgical procedure, make sure you get a second opinion and investigate nonsurgical alternatives. Your doctor of chiropractic can provide you with information on conservative care that may be as effective as (and definitely safer than) going under the knife.

Gawande AA, Thomas EJ, Zinner MJ, et al. The incidence and nature of surgical adverse events in Colorado and Utah in 1992. Surgery 1999: Vol. 126, No. 1, pp66-75.

Exercise Reduces Diabetes Risk in Postmenopausal Women

The natural changes associated with menopause can be accompanied by added risk for osteoporosis, heart disease and diabetes. Fortunately, evidence also suggests that consistent exercise may be one of the ways to reduce the risk of developing these debilitating, chronic conditions. (See ìMaintain Strong Bones with Exerciseî in the Sept. 1999 issue of To Your Health, and ìKeep Your Heart Healthy with Resistance Trainingî in the Aug. 1999 issue.)

A study in the American Journal of Public Health suggests that exercise may also help prevent diabetes in postmenopausal women. Nearly 100,000 women (aged 55-69 years of age) completed a diet and lifestyle questionnaire in January 1986, and subsequent questionnaires mailed, completed and returned over the next 12 years documented new diagnoses of diabetes.

For the 41,836 women who completed all questionnaires, greater leisure-time physical activity was associated with a reduced risk of type II (adult) diabetes. This association was stronger with increasing levels of activity, such that the most active women had approximately half the risk as the least active women in the study. These results were maintained even after the authors considered other potential factors such as smoking, alcohol intake, hormone replacement therapy, and family history of the disease.

Folsom AR, Kushi LH, Hong CP. Physical activity and incident diabetes mellitus in postmenopausal women. American Journal of Public Health, Jan. 2000: Vol. 90, No. 1, pp134-38.

Find more information on women's health at https://www.chiroweb.com/tyh/women.html

Fight Lead Poisoning with Vitamin C

Muscle and joint pain, headaches, memory and concentration problems, nerve and digestive disorders, slowed growth -- these are just a few of the potential consequences of lead poisoning. Lead poisoning is caused by exposure to lead from our environment -- in old water pipes, old painted toys or furniture, or foods/liquids stored in lead crystal or lead-glazed pottery. And if you live in a house built before 1978, the paint on your walls probably contains lead.

Increasing evidence suggests that nutritional deficiencies also affect levels of lead in the human body (See "Get the Lead out with Vitamins" in the September 1999 To Your Health). A recent study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that subjects with high levels of vitamin C intake had less measureable lead in their bloodstream than subjects with low levels of vitamin C intake. Specifically, the data showed that:

• Children with the higher vitamin C intake were 89% less likely to have elevated blood lead levels compared with youths with the lowest intake; and
• Adults with the highest vitamin C intake were 65-68% less likely to have elevated blood lead levels compared with adults with the lowest intake.

If you think lead poisoning isn't a problem anymore, think again. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed screening programs to identify childhood blood lead levels; among adults, work-related lead exposure has been targeted as an area of concern by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Your doctor can tell you more about the dangers of lead poisoning and what you can do to limit your exposure.

Simon JA, Hudes ES. Relationship of ascorbic acid to blood lead levels. Journal of the American Medical Association, June 23/30, 1999: Vol. 281, No. 24, pp2289-2293.

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