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HEALTHBEAT SHOW NOTES .... Episode #152 - Recorded June 6, 2008

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of HealthBeat, Chiropractic OnLine Today’s Health, News and Informational Podcast, and Proud to be the #1 Search Result for Chiropractic Podcasts in the iTunes Podcast Directory.

In this week’s news:  We’ll Look At –

• Mini-open anterior spine surgery for anterior lumbar diseases

• Female Athletic Injuries

• And Finally, a Medicare conference focuses on public-policy challenges

For HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow!

Welcome to HealthBeat Podcast #152, recorded June 6, 2008.  HealthBeat is Chiropractic OnLine Today’s radio program, providing current news and commentary about Chiropractic and Health.

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Mini-open anterior spine surgery for anterior lumbar diseases

A study in the May 2008 issue of the European Spine Journal, looked at Mini-open spine surgery.

Minimally invasive surgeries including endoscopic surgery and mini-open surgery are current trend of spine surgery, and its main advantages are shorter recovery time and cosmetic benefits, etc. However, mini-open surgery is easier and less technique demanding than endoscopic surgery. Besides, anterior spinal fusion is better than posterior spinal fusion while considering the physiological loading, back muscle function, etc.

The authors of the study aimed to introduce the modified “mini-open anterior spine surgery” (MOASS) and to evaluate the feasibility, effectiveness and safety in the treatment of various anterior lumbar diseases with this technique.

The study concluded that nearly all cases had improved back pain (87%), physical function (90%) and life quality (85%). Most cases (95%) achieved solid or probable solid bony fusion. There were no major complications. Therefore, MOASS is feasible, effective and safe for patients with various anterior lumbar diseases.

Surf to our Show Notes for more information - http://www.springerlink.com/content/02n1113471j51775/

Female Athletic Injuries

An article in the May 11th issue of the NY Times discussed the differences in Injuries amongst athletic males vs. females.

This casualty rate appears to be part of a national trend in the wake of Title IX and the explosion of sports participation among girls and young women. From travel teams up through some of the signature programs in women’s college sports, women are suffering injuries that take them off the field for weeks or seasons at a time, or sometimes forever.

Girls and boys diverge in their physical abilities as they enter
puberty and move through adolescence. Higher levels of testosterone allow boys to add muscle and, even without much effort on their part, get stronger. In turn, they become less flexible. Girls, as their estrogen levels increase, tend to add fat rather than muscle. They must train rigorously to get significantly stronger. The influence of estrogen makes girls’ ligaments lax, and they outperform boys in tests of overall body flexibility — a performance advantage in many sports, but also an injury risk when not accompanied by sufficient muscle to keep joints in stable, safe positions. Girls tend to run differently than boys — in a less-flexed, more-upright posture — which may put them at greater risk when changing directions and landing from jumps.
Because of their wider hips, they are more likely to be knock-kneed — yet another suspected risk factor.

This divergence between the sexes occurs just at the moment when we increasingly ask more of young athletes, especially if they show talent: play longer, play harder, play faster, play for higher stakes. And we ask this of boys and girls equally — unmindful of physical differences. The pressure to concentrate on a “best” sport before even entering middle school — and to play it year-round — is bad for all kids. They wear down the same muscle groups day after day. They have no time to rejuvenate, let alone get stronger. By playing constantly, they multiply their risks and simply give themselves too many opportunities to get hurt.

Comprehensive statistics on total sports injuries are in short supply.  The N.C.A.A. compiles the best numbers, but even these are based on just a sampling of colleges and universities. For younger athletes, the numbers are less specific and less reliable. Some studies have measured sports injuries by emergency-room visits, which usually follow traumatic events like broken bones. Anterior Cruciate Ligament - A.C.L. - and other soft-tissue injuries often do not lead to an E.R. visit; the initial examination typically occurs at the office of a pediatrician or an orthopedic surgeon. Studies of U.S. high-school athletics indicate that, when it comes to raw numbers, boys suffer more sports injuries. But the picture is complicated by football and the fact that boys still represent a greater percentage of high-school athletes.

Girls are more likely to suffer chronic knee pain as well as shin splints and stress fractures. Some research indicates that they are more prone to ankle sprains, as well as hip and back pain. And for all the justifiable attention paid to concussions among football players, females appear to be more prone to them in sports that the sexes play in common. A study last year by researchers at Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, reported that high-school girls who play basketball suffer concussions at three times the rate of boys, and that the rate for high-school girls who play soccer is about 1.5 times the rate for boys. According to the N.C.A.A. statistics, women who play soccer suffer concussions at nearly identical rates as male football players. (The research indicates that it takes less force to cause a concussion in girls and young women, perhaps because they have smaller heads and weaker necks.)

In many sports, a youth athlete’s paramount relationship is now with a club rather than a school team. Annual fees and travel to tournaments often run into the thousands of dollars. Parents pay for camps and private sports tutors. The guiding principle is that childhood sport is too important to be left to volunteers and amateurs. The quality of coaching, in terms of skills and tactics, is probably better than in past generations, but it is also narrower. Rather than being coached by educators who see them during the school day and have some holistic sense of them as children, young athletes are now mentored by coaches who cultivate only their athletic side.

Surf to our Show Notes for a link to this article -
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/magazine/11Girls-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all

Medicare conference focuses on public-policy challenges

Representatives from state and national chiropractic associations, chiropractic colleges, allied health professions, and consumer organizations joined individual doctors, students, and staff on April 24^th  in Washington, D.C., for the profession’s first National Conference on the Future of Chiropractic in Medicare.

In an information-packed, day-long session, 17 presenters covered a wide array of subjects including the new Recovery Audit Contractors program Medicare has implemented, documentation challenges, the recently concluded Medicare Demonstration Project, and Medicare Savings Accounts. Additionally, speakers reviewed the national political landscape in a wide-ranging discussion on Medicare’s political and economic future.

Issues such as reducing medical errors, reducing administrative costs, reducing drug costs and prescription abuses, and finding ways to control the costs of emerging technologies were common themes among all legislators, regardless of party. All speakers agreed that all beneficiaries in the system would be called upon to pay a greater share of the costs.

Surf to our Show Notes for more Information - www.chiropractic.org

http://www.chiroeco.com/news/chiropractic-news.php?id=3319

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"When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: admit it, learn from it, and don't repeat it."
– Paul "Bear" Bryant

For Chiropractic OnLine Today’s HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow.

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