Patients Are Powerful

Archive for September, 2009

Remember the days of Caesar Chavez and the protests and marches on behalf of farm workers? I don’t know about you, but I boycotted grapes for years! Well, we may need to organize once again. As a chiropractor, I am concerned about health, in general, but I have a particular focus, as you can imagine, on the nervous system since chiropractic adjustments can benefit the nervous system in many ways. That’s way I was particularly disturbed about a new U.S. study that appears in the September issue of the Archives of Neurology. The study found that people whose jobs bring them in regular contact with pesticides may be at increased risk for Parkinson’s disease.

Researchers interviewed 519 Parkinson’s patients and 511 people without the disease about their work history and asked them about their exposure to toxins, including pesticides and solvents. The study found that 8.5 percent of Parkinson’s patients reported pesticide exposure, compared with 5.3 percent  of those without the disease.

The study found that three compounds were associated with a more than threefold increased risk of Parkinson’s– an organic (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), an herbicide (paraquat), and an insecticide (permethrin). Laboratory tests have shown that all three compounds have effects on dopaminergic neurons, which are affected by Parkinson’s disease. “Other pesticide exposures, such as hobby gardening, residential exposure, wearing treated garments or dietary intake, were not assessed. Because these exposures may affect more subjects, future attention is warranted,” said lead researcher, Dr. Caroline M. Tanner of the Parkinson’s Institute in Sunnyvale, California.

For now, the finding suggests an association between work-related pesticide exposure and increased risk of Parkinson’s and that should be enough for all of us to sit up and take notice, and then stand up and get active against such harmful pollutants in the environment.

For the full article, go to alegent.com

Technorati Tags: Parkinson's disease, pesticides

Chairman of the California Senate’s Select Committee on Obesity and Diabetes, Sen. Alex Padilla (the very same Senator who led a campaign requiring big restaurant chains to disclose calories in meals), announced on Thursday he planned to hold hearings in November on the link between soda consumption and obesity. His announcement coincides with the release of a study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, that indicates that 62 percent of children aged 12 to 17, and 41 percent of children aged 2 to 11, drink at least one sugar-sweetened beverage a day. This is certainly a statistic that we, parents, need to contemplate. Overweight children with poor diets, in the past, generally became adults with a variety of weight-related diseases. But, experts say that overweight adolescents are starting to suffer problems that used to plague mainly middle-aged adults — early heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

“I don’t think that most parents truly appreciate the role soda pop has in causing weight gain,” Padilla said. “It is unfortunate that soda is actually cheaper than milk and even bottled water in many instances.”  Padilla said California needs to do more to educate the public about the health effects of drinking too much soda and to consider its options for reducing soda consumption among children.

Let’s get behind our legislators who have taken a powerful role in helping to tip the scales in a healthy direction for our children.

For more information, go to reuters.com

Technorati Tags: diabetes, heart disease, obesity, sugar-sweetened beverage

I have to say that as a patient advocate,  I’ve done a lot of thinking about chiropractic marketing.  Why? Well, maybe my view is skewed a bit, but I don’t like to think of doctors, especially alternative doctors like doctors of chiropractic, as “business people,” anymore than I like to think of my minister that way. And, of course, altruistically, we as patients want to believe that those who’ve studied chiropractic medicine didn’t do it  “for the money.” But, these days there seems to be a whole lot of chiropractic marketing going on, especially on the internet.

However, realistically, I know that chiropractors, like any other professional, can’t do what they love to do, i.e., help people to feel better, get out of pain, and get their life back again, without the money necessary to keep their offices open.

So, I’m going to “lighten up” my attitude towards the business needs of all chiropractors, including my own. What helped me to be more open, and less judgmental, was an article I read recently indicating that medical doctors (who, let’s face it, we’ve all sort of viewed as being influenced by the financial gains of mainstream medicine) are finding themselves “business-challenged.” That’s right! Physicians who are going to business school to get their MBA. Apparently, nationwide more doctors are finding it both useful and necessary to add business fundamentals to their core of medical know-how, according to health care organizations and observers.

The effort encompasses more than just learning tools for helping doctors run their offices; it is about reclaiming their voice in a sector that has become dominated by nonmedical professionals, such as managed care firms, professional administrators and accountants. “Physicians nowadays need to appreciate and understand business concepts and thinking,” said Dr. James Anderson, a Cornerstone Health Care pediatrician and member of the practice’s board who is working toward a business degree. “The way we train in medicine and the way we approach problems in medicine is different than in the business world.”

The conviction that physicians can no longer be blind to the ways of business is at the center of Dr. Bill Applegate’s efforts to retool the curriculum at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Applegate, dean of the medical school, said he intends to take “a slice” of Wake’s Babcock Graduate School of Management content and implement it for the medical campus’ doctors in training. He figures it may take another two years for it to happen.

Patients are powerful. If we support the efforts of chiropractors, and medical doctors, too, for that matter, to take care of business. Then, when it comes to health care costs, we will be dealing with the very professionals who offer the care, rather than big insurance companies who are definitely “in it for the money.”  In fact, I’m looking at my chiropractor in a whole, new way: He maintains the “heart of a doctor,” but he also has the mind of a business professional.

Technorati Tags: chiropractic marketing, patient advocacy, patient issues

As a chiropractor in Tampa, health care issues always get me to sit up and take notice. So, “fairness” in media coverage, in my opinion, is essential.  I have to say that if we were to believe the news media these days, it would appear that senior citizens are being “scared away” from supporting health care reform. The inference, of course, is that it doesn’t take much to convince older people to believe what you’re saying to them, whether you’re a con artist trying to steal their savings,  a telemarketer trying to sell them a useless gadget,  or an insurance company trying to extract from them ever-rising costs for health insurance. But, I don’t think that older Americans simply believe what is being “fed” to them, and as a chiropractor who treats patients of all ages in my clinic, I can personally vouch for the mental clarity and social/political savvy of the seniors I see on a daily basis.

So, I was particularly happy to read that an AARP survey of 500 members in Iowa aged 50 and older indicating a strong backing for Congress to take action to curb health-care costs and strengthen Medicare.

“This survey is a firm rebuttal of the notion that older Americans don’t want health-care reform this year, and in fact, it shows our members believe just the opposite,” said Bruce Koeppl, Iowa state director for AARP. “After the past few weeks of well-documented concerns, myths, town hall protests, and far too often uncivil debate, this survey shows majorities of Iowa AARP members still believe change is necessary and the status quo is not sustainable.”

I’m sure that, despite media proclamations to the contrary, the seniors of Iowa are not the only older Americans who feel this way.  Such “civil” surveys should be taken by AARP in other states. And, wouldn’t it be a lovely change if the gentel, worldly-wise voices of those who’ve lived in America long enough to witness its many social chances could finally be heard in this debate?

Technorati Tags: AARP, chiropractor, health care reform, older Americans, seniors