July 2010
Health Newletter from McKay & Jenkins Chiropractic
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Seasonal Flu Vaccinations Suspended for Children Under 5 in Australia
 Several news stories in the press in New Zealand and Australia reported on illnesses and a death occurring after administration of the Fluvax flu vaccine. Several of these stories aired on April 23, 2010 from Radio New Zealand and reported "New Zealand children have suffered serious adverse reactions after being given a seasonal flu vaccine."
One of these stories reported that the government of Western Australia temporarily suspended its free influenza vaccination program for children under the age of five after the reported reactions. High fevers and convulsions were reported at that time in 23 children who had received the vaccine.
The following day, the news agency TopNews reported that 60 children had severe reactions and that one child had died from the reaction. The article noted that warnings had been issued to Australian doctors telling them that they are not supposed to administer the seasonal flu vaccine to kids under the age of 5.
On April 24, Radio New Zealand published an article with the headline, "Health officials in Australia say the number of children suffering adverse reactions to the flu vaccine may be severely underestimated because they have no way of monitoring people's reactions."
On April 26, 2010, ABC News listed the facts of the situation by reporting the following:
- Dozens of children in Queensland and Western Australia suffered fevers, vomiting and convulsions after being immunized.
- In Brisbane, a two-year-old girl died a day after receiving the seasonal flu shot.
- Authorities have temporarily banned the vaccine for those under five.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) influenza centre says the cases involved several different batches of the vaccine.
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Study Shows Chiropractic Safe for Post Disc Surgery Patients
 A research article published on April 21, 2010 in the journal, Chiropractic & Osteopathy from Melbourne Australia looked at the safety of chiropractic care for patients who had previously had disc replacement surgery.
The study notes that spinal disc replacement surgery is becoming more popular. They also report that after such surgery it is common for patients to experience soreness and stiffness of the lumbopelvic region. Many of these people then turn to chiropractic care in the hopes of improvement from these post surgical problems. This study was designed to look at the safety of chiropractic care after the surgery.
This study looked at eight patients who underwent lumbar spine disc replacement, having 1 or 2 total lumbar disc replacements, and continued to have persistent, post-surgical, non-specific lower back or pelvic pain. These patients were referred for chiropractic by an orthopedic surgeon. All these patients were considered stable according to the surgical protocol.
For the purposes of this study, all eight patients were given from 8 to 10 chiropractic adjustments using one of the more forceful side posture lower back adjusting techniques. Safeguards were taken along with frequent examination procedures to make sure that no patients would be subject to any harm.
The results showed that none of the patients had severe or irreversible reactions after the spinal manipulations. There were several cases of moderate soreness after adjustments more common after the first few sessions. Most of these episodes were self-limiting and short lived lasting only between hours to a few days. The researchers noted that most of these small reactions were similar to what the general population experiences after the same procedures.
In their conclusion the authors wrote, "During the short treatment period, no major complication was encountered by the patients. Moreover, the benign side-effects reported after lumbar spine manipulation were similar in nature and duration to those frequently experienced by the general population."
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Preliminary Study Results Show Chiropractic Care Could Make Labor Easier
 On April 8, 2010, from the New Zealand news outlet Voxy News, comes a report on the preliminary results of a study that shows chiropractic care makes it easier for pregnant women to deliver their babies. The current study is being conducted at the New Zealand College of Chiropractic in Mt. Wellington, New Zealand.
This study looks at how chiropractic care may influence pelvic floor muscle function in healthy women before and after childbirth, and in women suffering from pelvic floor dysfunction. Researcher Dr. Jenny Kruger and research director Dr. Heidi Haavik-Taylor are in charge of the study and are optimistic about the final results.
Dr. Kruger noted, "We are working with a number of pregnant women here in New Zealand and the University of Australia in Sydney, which is also involved in the study, is testing hundreds of women." She continued, "We are using state of the art 4D ultrasound to visualize the pelvic floor of women, pre and post chiropractic adjustments. We want to see whether spinal adjustments can alter the way the pelvic floor works."
This new study should add to the body of evidence for the benefits of chiropractic for pregnant women. On their website, the American Pregnancy Association describes chiropractic by saying, "Chiropractic care is health maintenance of the spinal column, discs, related nerves and bone geometry without drugs or surgery. It involves the art and science of adjusting misaligned joints of the body, especially of the spine, which reduces spinal nerve stress and therefore promotes health throughout the body." The association explained some reasons for seeking chiropractic while pregnant. "Establishing pelvic balance and alignment is another reason to obtain chiropractic care during pregnancy. When the pelvis is misaligned it may reduce the amount of room available for the developing baby. This restriction is called intrauterine constraint. A misaligned pelvis may also make it difficult for the baby to get into the best possible position for delivery."
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Study Shows Chiropractic Helps Headaches
 A study published in the February 2010 issue of The Spine Journal, the official journal of the North American Spine Society, provided additional evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of chiropractic for certain types of headaches known as "cervicogenic headaches". A report on the results of this study was also published online on February 26, 2010, on the site "Modern Medicine".
In this study, 80 patients with chronic cervicogenic headaches were divided into three groups. Two of the groups received various forms of chiropractic adjustments, which the study authors called Spinal Manipulative Therapy (SMT), and one group received just a light massage so as to be able to compare the results. Results were calculated using standard pain scales. Data from the subjects was collected every 4 weeks for a 24-week period.
The researchers found that the groups that received chiropractic showed significantly greater improvement in pain scores as compared to the group that got just light massage. Those receiving the chiropractic care were more likely to have a 50-percent improvement in their pain. The two groups of patients who received chiropractic care were only given either 8 or 16 chiropractic sessions. The study did see a slightly better response for the group receiving more adjustments, but due to the study parameters, no data was available beyond 16 visits.
Dr. Mitch Haas and a team of researchers at Western States Chiropractic College, were quoted in their conclusion as saying, "Our pilot study adds to an emerging picture of spinal manipulative therapy dose for the treatment of headache. It showed that a plateau in intervention effect might be found in the range of eight to 16 treatment sessions, although a dose effect at these treatment levels cannot be ruled out. The study also adds to the support of spinal manipulative therapy in moderate doses as a viable option for the treatment of chronic cervicogenic headaches."
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