Fwd: The Latest Stuff from Gerry

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Forwarded for your perusal. has some good stuff.

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www.springbrookclinic.com

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The Latest Stuff from Gerry

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October 1, 2010

Volume 11

Number 7

In This Issue

California Legislates Nation's First "Health Exchange"

Drug Companies Issuing Mea Culpas and Writing Big Checks

"A Hugely Expensive Public Health Disaster"

Current understanding of the relationship between cervical manipulation and stroke

Revisions to the CCE Standards

Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Suggests Chiropractic Care!

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are associated with increased neuritic plaques

October Will Be a Busy Month at Life West

California Legislates Nation's First "Health Exchange"

On Thursday, September 30, 2010, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law AB 900 creating the first "Health Exchange" as envisioned under the Affordable Health Care Act. Exchanges will be clearinghouses for information about health plans, services provided, costs, etc. The easiest was to look at it is to think about Orbitz and air travel. You can find flights, costs, times, etc. and you can sort by any of these criteria. Imagine the same thing for health care. That is what an exchange is intended to do.

The legislation begins the process; however, it didn't define it or finalize it. Health care services insurance will not be available under programs such as this until 2014. Nonetheless. it is a start down the long and winding road that will be the implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act!

Drug Companies Issuing Mea Culpas and Writing Big Checks

Novartis will be paying a penalty of almost $425 million for inappropriately marketing an epilepsy drug for unapproved uses. There was also an issue from the perspective of the feds that Novartis was paying kickbacks (that is such a nasty word...) to physicians for prescribing the epilepsy drug (Trileptal) and several others. Novartis pled guilty to distribution of a misbranded drug as they agreed to pay the criminal penalties in question.

& , the long-standing flagship of the over-the-counter medical products world, testified before Congress on September 30 regarding lapses in safety and quality control on their part. The lapses in question led to the withdrawal from the market last spring of some of their most widely known and recognized products for children including Tylenol.

Among the J & J stable of companies, there have been recalls of everything from Children's Tylenol, to Motrin to Benadryl to contact lenses to hip implants-I'll bet that is a painful withdrawal!! Collectively, these will result in losses for J & J of about $600 million. Before you get teary-eyed over their loss think about the fact that this represents less than 1% of their $60 billion+ sales...

"A Hugely Expensive Public Health Disaster"

Let's see what are we talking about..H1N1 vaccine programs...no. The overutilization of antibiotics....no. What could it be? How about the PSA test! By the way, this judgment is offered not by some wide-eyed, wild-eyed anti-everything health zealot, it is offered by the guy who invented the test, Dr. Albin! This is NOT a criticism of his efforts, quite the contrary, it is a round of applause for his honesty and candor for something he did that didn't work out as hoped. If only the rest of us were this honest.

The PSA (prostate specific antigen), once the standard for whether a man is headed down the prostate cancer road, is now recognized as being "no better than a coin toss". Countless men have been operated on, irradiated or drugged in response to the results of a PSA. Many times, those procedures were applied unnecessarily and with considerable harm.

The holy grail in the deal is finding tumors that are aggressive versus those that aren't. Once found, leave the non-aggressive ones alone. Let the gentleman involved decide what to do about the aggressive one. The truth of the matter is that if men live long enough, they will have some degree of prostate cancer. Most often this is something a fella is going to die with and not from. Clearly men have died and continue to die from the effects of prostate cancer. The concern is not to add to the suffering unnecessarily.

This subject was focus of a major article in the San Francisco Chronicle written by two physicians, one a professor of medicine at UC and the other a professor of emergency medicine at USC. The gentlemen were ultimately writing about a course for men offered by urologists at UC that encourages men to "know their numbers" (their PSA numbers that is) while not advising them of the vagaries of the data and the relative value, or lack thereof of the same. The gentlemen raising the question wonder if this isn't simply about promoting the bread-and-butter service of the urologist-treating prostate cancer--at the expense of the facts and of the system.

"Current understanding of the relationship between cervical manipulation and stroke; what does it mean for the chiropractic profession?"

How's that for a title of a paper, a commentary to be precise! This one comes from Don (Rhode Island) as opposed to Dan (California) and appears in the online journal Chiropractic & Osteopathy (2010;18:22).

This is an excellent review of the history of this problem from the lore to the data. offers a very fair and balanced appraisal of the literature and the context in which it was created. He carefully reviews the progression from "causation" on the part of the chiropractor to the need for "recognition" on the part of the chiropractor. He carefully lays out the importance of looking at this from the perspective of who and what walks in the door, as opposed who and what gets off the adjusting table.

As many of you know, this has been an area of interest of mine for a number of years. It was my pleasure to work with and on behalf of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC) to provide a lecture on this subject that has now been made available to over 70,000 chiropractors worldwide. I am very pleased and gratified to report that there is not a word in the ACC presentation that is inconsistent with the commentary of Dr. Don . It could be that is why I liked the article so much! This is a must read for every D.C. As a result, we have posted a copy of this article to our website at www.lifewest.edu/tls/October1/cva.shtml

Revisions to the CCE Standards

The opportunity for comment on the proposed revisions to the Standards of the CCE came to a close on September 24, 2010. I have had a couple of messages from people wondering why they haven't heard more from the CCE about the feedback. Give 'em a break! They will need some time to review the input, categorize it, analyze it, and then determine by whom it will be entertained. This is going to take some time. Give them a chance!

That being said, something remarkable happened in the course of the generation of feedback on the revisions. When was the last time you were aware of Cleveland Chiropractic Colleges (KC and LA) Life University, College of Chiropractic, Life Chiropractic College West, Logan College of Chiropractic, Palmer College of Chiropractic (DF & C), College of Chiropractic Sherman College of Chiropractic, ACA, ICA and COCSA essentially saying the same thing on 80% of the changes in question? The only two things I can think of in my career that yielded this kind of common response was the Medicare effort in the 1970s and the Centennial event in the 1990s. The feedback of the profession was noteworthy to say the least.

Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Suggests Chiropractic Care!

All I can think of as I bring this one to you is the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy. This tidbit comes from Joe Ierano, D.C. of Australia and from , D.C. of New Zealand who brought a publication from Pfizer to my attention.

Of interest is "Pfizer Australia HEALTH REPORT #2 Parkinson's Disease", a glossy eight-page, four-color discussion of Parkinson's Disease from the perspective of the patient, the family of the patient and the primary caregiver of the patient. On page 7 of the pub, they assert "Combination of therapies is the best treatment" among the elements falling in this category is "chiropractic and the technique which will be helpful to many patients" As Mr. Dylan so prophetically wrote and sang, the times they are a changin'".

The full publication can be found at http://www.healthreport.com.au/Reports/2.pdf

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are associated with increased neuritic plaques, Sesson et al Neurology, September 28, 2010

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Observational and experimental studies suggest that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may protect against Alzheimer disease (AD); however, clinical trials and other observational studies, including the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study, show no protection or promotion of AD. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship between common dementia-associated pathologies and mid- to late-life NSAID exposure.

Methods: We examined the association of mid- to late-life NSAID use with neuropathologic findings on 257 autopsies from ACT, a population-based study of brain aging and incident dementia. Cumulative standard daily doses (SDD) of nonselective NSAIDs were determined from >/=10 years of computerized pharmacy dispensing data. Analyses were adjusted for selection bias to broaden generalizability of results to 3,026 eligible participants in the ACT cohort. Seven pathologic indices were evaluated: intermediate or frequent score for neuritic plaques, Braak stages V or VI for neurofibrillary tangles, > 2 cerebral microinfarcts, the presence of any neocortical Lewy bodies, any macroscopic infarcts, any amyloid angiopathy, and moderate or severe atherosclerosis.

Results: Of the neuropathologic indices evaluated, only neuritic plaque score was significantly increased in participants with greater use of nonselective NSAIDs (p= 0.065), specifically in those with high levels of cumulative use: 1,000-2,000 SDD (adjusted relative risk [RR] 2.16, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02-4.25, compared to light/nonuse [<60 SDD]) and >2,000 SDD (adjusted RR 2.37, 95% CI 1.24-4.67).

Conclusions: Increased neuritic plaque accumulation may explain the association between heavy use of nonselective NSAIDs and increased risk of dementia among ACT participants. Neurology® 2010;75:1203-1210

October Will Be a Busy Month at Life West

September and October are the nicest months of the year here in the San Francisco Bay Area! September is already in the books and October is lining up to be a busy but productive time!

4th-7th The College will welcome a site visitation team from the Council on Chiropractic Education. This is our reaffirmation visit. The College's last reaffirmation took place in 2002. Many people on campus, including 100% of our student body, have never been through the process. It is anxiety-provoking for everyone. The process, in the fullness of time, is very constructive; when you are in the middle of it however, it can seem crazy-making. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers this week in particular!

11th For almost 30 years, and I have hosted a Thanksgiving Dinner for our Canadian students. As the CDN T-Day is October 11th, we will be enjoying turkey and dressing with our friends from north of the border one more time. This is a nice tradition that we held in our home until we couldn't handle it anymore! The crowd got bigger and we got older!

11th Scheduled date for the "soft" opening of the College's new Fitness Center. This should be an exciting day. The finishing touches are going on in the shower/locker room areas, the exercise equipment is to be delivered and installed this week, and we are scheduled to sweat as of the 11th. We are still looking for a generous, kind and noble donor to name the facility after.... Contact Cheryl at 510-780-4500, ext. 2400 for more information!

15th General Halstead and the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress come to Life West. We are looking forward to welcoming the General and Mr. Cuneo from the Foundation. Exciting stuff they are up to.

22nd-23rd Homecoming, our annual "SPA" Days (Science, Philosophy and Art). If you are interested in some grand fellowship, some exciting and stimulating continuing education, and some fun by the Bay, please join us for Homecoming. For more information, call at 510.780.4500, ext 2420.

Life Chiropractic College West

25001 Industrial Blvd.

Hayward, California 94545

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The Latest Stuff from Gerry is a FREE newsletter from Dr. Gerry Clum, President of Life Chiropractic College West (http://www.lifewest.edu). The Latest Stuff from Gerry keeps you in the know by giving you a brief summary of the news and events of importance to your practice, your patients, and your family.

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Life Chiropractic College West | 25001 Industrial Blvd. | Hayward | CA | 94545