Patients Are Powerful

Archive for August, 2011

My patients are powerful and I listen to them. Though I like to think of myself as the Ultimate Chiropractor or the Preeminent Bone Man because I palpate, examine, and adjust bones all day long as part of my chiropractic treatment protocol, I have to say that my patients teach me every day that there isn’t a “one size fits all” approach to the human body. Sadly, medical doctors often feel compelled to approach there patients as if there were. Though there are many, many case studies that prove my point, being a Bone Man, I was especially interested a new study that suggests that many women who get screened for osteoporosis (a bone-thinning disease in which bones become fragile and vulnerable to breaks) may not actually need such testing.

“Expert” guidelines suggest that women age 65 or older should get a bone scan, and many women feel that it is better to be safe than sorry. But in this case it’s not the case. There is a “downside” to unnecessarily exposing the body to X-ray. And, in addition, treatment is often given in “borderline” low bone density cases. In these cases medical doctors often feel “compelled” to treat these women, often unnecessarily, with risky bisphosphonate medications, hormones, and other drugs that carry extremely negative side effects such as increased odds of stroke, breast cancer, and heart disease, and in rare cases thigh bone fractures and even bone death of the jaw.

Researchers found that of 615 women who underwent osteoporosis screening at Connecticut clinics, 41 percent did not meet those criteria. Forty-one percent!! As an advanced chiropractor, I am dismayed at that percentage rate!  My suggestion? If you are in a high risk group of women, like those who smoke, ask for a bone scan. But, if you are a women who sees her chiropractor regularly to keep her musculoskeletal system in good shape, and you eat nutritiously with a well-balanced diet rich in calcium and vitamin D, and you get regular exercise, you may be wise to just say “no!” to bone scan that you most likely don’t need.

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