I found this video on Mercola.com. Are we safe? Who should make our decisions?

Dr. Maurice Hilleman made astounding revelations in an interview that was cut from The Health Century — the admission that Merck drug company vaccines had been injecting dangerous viruses into people worldwide.

Bear in mind that Dr. Hilleman was the developer of Merck’s vaccine program. He developed over three dozen vaccines, more than any other scientist in history. He was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Science, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He received a special lifetime achievement award from the World Health Organization. Hilleman was one of the early vaccine pioneers to warn about the possibility that simian viruses might contaminate vaccines.

What Did You Think of Oz on Autism?

Today's Dr. Oz show is all about "Causes of Autism."  If that's not a hot button topic, I don't know what is!

If you've seen the show, let us know what you thought.  You're welcome to comment below - or, if you prefer, just click on a response in the poll.

I hope to chime in with my own perspective after I see the Tivo-ed version tomorrow!


What Did You Think of Oz on Autism? originally appeared on About.com Autism on Thursday, February 17th, 2011 at 12:13:27.

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Chiropractic Management of Migraine Headache

SOURCE: ChiroACCESS

Just as puzzles are completed piece by piece, the evidence for the positive effects of chiropractic care for migraines is slowly filling in and revealing a clearer picture. That picture depicts a more meaningful role for chiropractic care in both the prevention and treatment of migraine headache. A recent Norwegian systematic review of manual therapies for migraine prevention (4 Feb 2011) concluded that chiropractic spinal manipulation and some other conservative interventions appear to be equal to medications (propranolol & topiramate) in their ability to prevent migraines.

Although most of the published research supporting chiropractic treatment of migraine is based upon case reports, there have been other studies including a limited number of randomized clinical trials. A previous 2001 systematic review by Bronfort et. al. concluded that “SMT appears to have a better effect than massage for cervicogenic headache. It also appears that SMT has an effect comparable to commonly used first-line prophylactic prescription medications for tension-type headache and migraine headache. This conclusion rests upon a few trials of adequate methodological quality. Before any firm conclusions can be drawn, further testing should be done in rigorously designed, executed, and analyzed trials with follow-up periods of sufficient length.” Since this review favorable research continues to build. There is a great need for the profession to provide stronger support for research because the stronger studies are the most needed and the most costly.

Read the Full Text at: ChiroACCESS

You will find many more articles like this at our
Headache and Chiropractic Page

Approaching Social Situations

"I am the mother of a young adult son with ADHD. He has a job and is doing well with the work itself. His problem has to do with his coworkers. He wants everyone to like him, and he is a very likeable and sincere person, but does not seem to know how to approach people in new settings. Instead of his coworkers liking him, they shy away from him and he becomes an outsider. Do you have any tips?" --About.com Reader

Click Here to Read Response

Approaching Social Situations originally appeared on About.com ADD / ADHD on Wednesday, February 16th, 2011 at 12:30:17.

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ACO Conference 2011

The next International ADHD Coaches Organization (ACO) Conference is being held in Chicago IL on April 29 to May 1, 2011.

The ACO is a non-profit association created to advance the profession of ADHD coaching worldwide. ACO Conference 2011: "Call to Courage" brings together strong minds and hearts to explore the realm of Courage as it applies to coaches, coaching, and the people coaches support. With an inspirational keynote speaker in Gregg Krech from the ToDo Institute of Vermont and three streams of speakers of high renown in the fields of neuroscience, positive psychology, spirituality, and best coaching methodology, ACO encourages you to join them and explore new dimensions for your coaching practice.

For further information on presentations and speakers, or how to participate, you can access the ACO web site at www.adhdcoaches.org.

ACO Conference 2011 originally appeared on About.com ADD / ADHD on Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 at 16:22:33.

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Dr. Oz on Autism

On Thursday February 17,  Dr. Oz will be dedicating his popular daytime TV show to the topic of autism.

To create the program, parents were invited to a "Town Hall" event: "...for parents of children 0-12 months that are worried their children may be diagnosed with autism, as well as parents of children with autism."  The blurb describing the show says "The diagnosis parents fear most.  Tune in."

I received a press release yesterday listing all of the program's planned guests - an eclectic mix which should provide some significant fireworks and debate.  Here's the release:

Every 15 minutes, a family hears a diagnosis they fear the most. Today for the first time in the show's history, Dr. Oz is holding a town hall style discussion on the disorder that affects 1 in 110 U.S. kids: Autism. Panelists Alison Singer, President of The Autism Science Foundation, Dr. Bob Sears, pediatrician and author of  The Autism Book & The Vaccine Book, Dr. Irva Hertz Picchiotto, environmental epidemiologist at the Mind Institute at U.C. Davis, Dr. Ari Brown, pediatrician, AAP spokesperson and author of Expecting 411 and pediatricians Dr. Moshe Lazar,Pediatric Associates of Brooklyn LLP, Dr. Walter Molofsky, director of Pediatric Neurology, Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Dr.Lori Zbar, Mount Sinai Pediatrics, Dr. Michael E. Gabriel, Gabriel Pediatrics and PATH Family Center, Dr. Andrew Adesman, Chief of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics at Schneider Children's Hospital, Dr. George Lazarus, New York-Presbyterian hospital and Lenox Hill Hospital join the conversation about autism including the risks, importance of early detection and intervention. Parents Andrea (Bellmore, NY), Charles (Rosedale, NY),Kirsten (New York, NY), Janine (West New York, NJ), Tehya (New York, NY), Nancy (New York, NY), Arnand (Scarsdale, NY), Jennifer (New York, NY), Melissa (Floral Park, NY), Nicole (Yonkers, NY), Sharon (Rosedale, NY), Katherine (Greenwich, CT) and Jill (Totowa, NJ) ask questions, raise their concerns and share their fears and stories of autism.

What is Dr. Oz's perspective on autism?  It's a little unclear, especially since the Dr. Oz website, while it's loaded with questions and answers about autism, features answers NOT from Dr. Oz (as advertised) but from the Cleveland Clinic.  If we go by the Cleveland Clinic's responses to questions about autism, the perspective is very mainstream.  For example, their answer to a question about preventing autism in utero is simply: "Stay healthy, eat right, and follow your doctor's orders. There are no specific steps you can take other than those mentioned. Just try to be as healthy as you can."

And here's the "Ask Dr. Oz" response to the a question about vaccines causing autism (again provided by the Cleveland Clinic):

The available scientific evidence indicates that vaccines don't cause autism. The recent finding about a girl who experienced a negative reaction to a vaccine with autism symptoms resulting was due to a preexisting metabolic disorder that was made worse by the vaccine. This is very different than what most people mean when they are asking whether vaccines cause autism. If vaccines do play a role, it is in making symptoms worse or more noticeable as would any immune challenge. The data on this will continue to be collected, but given the strong genetic basis of autism, it can be said that it is unlikely that any environmental event, including vaccinations, plays a big role in the majority of cases of autism.

All this seems very straightforward - until you listen to Dr. Oz himself on autism in this recent talk about vaccines on The View.   On the one hand, Oz tells parents to follow the vaccine schedule that's recommended - but on the other hand he seems perfectly comfortable with the idea that parents might "spread vaccines out" if they have concerns about autism.  He says on the one hand that vaccines are safe and beneficial, but on the other hand seems to be saying that at least some children who "were going to get autism anyway," or who are vaccinated while suffering from the flu, or who have a sibling with autism, might indeed develop autism as a result of vaccines.

If you're a Dr. Oz fan (or foe) you probably know much more than I do about what to expect from Thursday's show.   Share your thoughts, concerns and insights!


Dr. Oz on Autism originally appeared on About.com Autism on Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 at 08:43:01.

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Obama’s New Budget Proposes A 2-Year Medicare ‘Doc Fix’

SOURCE: MedScape

February 14, 2010 — President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2012 would delay a massive reduction in Medicare reimbursement for physicians from January 1, 2012, until January 1, 2014, and freeze rates in the meantime.

Released this morning, the budget for fiscal year 2012, which begins October 1, would finance this so-called “doc fix” to the Medicare reimbursement crisis by, among other things, reducing the Medicaid provider tax threshold, reducing Medicaid outlays for durable medical equipment, and speeding new, lower-cost generic drugs to the marketplace. These measures would raise $62.2 billion, which would offset the $54.4 billion cost of the 2-year doc fix and yield an additional $7.8 billion in savings.

Last December, Congress passed a nearly $15 billion doc fix that delayed a 25% cut in Medicare rates from January 1, 2011, to January 1, 2012. The legislation froze rates at 2010 levels. If Congress enacts Obama’s new 2-year fix, physicians will not receive a Medicare raise for 3 years running.

The pay cut once scheduled for January 1, 2011, had been mandated by the so-called sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula that Medicare uses to set physician pay. Organized medicine has lobbied Congress for years to replace the SGR formula with one it considers more equitable for physicians. Congress has been overriding SGR-required pay cuts since 2003, causing them to balloon in size.

Obama’s new budget calls the 2-year doc fix a “down payment” on a permanent solution to the SGR problem and specifies $315 billion in “SGR relief” from 2014 through 2021. The budget lists a corresponding amount in unidentified offsets.

SGR relief is also on the radar of Congress. Last month, in a 428-1 vote, the House approved a measure calling for a permanent doc fix. Lawmakers are worried that cutting Medicare reimbursement by 25% or more would drive physicians from the Medicare program, reducing access to care for seniors as well as military families, whose TRICARE coverage is based on the Medicare fee schedule.

World Spine Care

Source WorldSpineCare.org

World Spine Care was founded in 2008, Scott Haldemanthe inspiration of Scott Haldeman, a leading figure in the assessment and treatment of spinal disorders. World Spine Care has rapidly attracted a world-class leadership team around its vision of universal care for the devastation caused by spinal disorders in the developing world. The Board of Directors includes Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and Chairman of the Musk Foundation. Active participants in the World Spine Care programs include medical physicians, surgeons, physiotherapists, chiropractors, and scientists from Canada and the U.S., with representation from Europe, Asia and Africa.

World Spine Care (WSC) has been launched to fill the profound gap in the treatment of musculoskeletal conditions found in the developing world. WSC is a multinational not-for-profit organization, bringing together the full spectrum of health care professionals involved in spinal health – medical physicians and specialists, surgeons, chiropractors, and physiotherapists. WSC is focused on providing evidence-based, culturally integrated prevention, assessment, and treatment of spinal disorders in the developing world. The flagship project involves developing and initial deployment of a universal model of care for spinal disorders, designed for practical application by front-line health care workers in developing nations worldwide.

The clinical model developed by WSC involves an inter-professional, multidisciplinary approach to spinal disorders that incorporates the best available scientific evidence into the cultural, political, medical, and economic values of targeted communities. WSC integrates its approach into existing local healthcare systems and takes steps to ensure that the care provided to people with spinal disorders continues on a permanent basis.

Each World Spine Care Center will act as a primary care clinic for any person seeking help with a musculoskeletal and more specifically a spinal complaint. The screening and assessment protocols that World Spine Care has developed will be used to determine the appropriate direction of care. The vast majority of the patient complaints will be managed within the World Spine Care clinics that will be staffed by clinicians with special training in low technology, low cost, evidence based protocols that include education, exercise and manual therapies directed at spinal conditions and musculoskeletal pain. For those patients who require secondary and tertiary care, they will be referred to medical specialists within the participating country, or to volunteer specialists that World Spine Care will recruit for short term visits to provide the required services (rheumatologists, spine surgeons, etc.).

The development of local capacity is a key focus for World Spine Care. In each community, World Spine Care will provide community education on the prevention of spinal injuries and spine hygiene. Local health care providers will be recruited and scholarships provided to allow advanced training in spine care. This will enable the spine care centers to eventually be run by local practitioners.

For more detailed information about the World Spine Care model and what you can do to help go to World Spine Care.

Using a Daily Report Card

Partnering with the school and keeping lines of communication open with your child's teacher(s) is an important part of an educational plan for students with ADHD. One way to foster this partnership is through daily report cards that track and monitor your child's progress at school.

Read more about How to Use a Daily Report Card

Photo © John Howard

Using a Daily Report Card originally appeared on About.com ADD / ADHD on Monday, February 14th, 2011 at 12:23:46.

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Share the Love

Is there someone you love in the autism community?

Share your Valentines love and tributes with the world!

Looking for some inspiration? Check out some of these wonderful love notes written by parents, grandparents and siblings of children (and adults!) on the autism spectrum:

Or send a "love note for special parents" to the mom or dad of a child with autism who's found a way to help their child live a fuller, richer life.

Share the Love originally appeared on About.com Autism on Monday, February 14th, 2011 at 08:11:03.

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Keeping Clothes on a Child with Autism

Earlier today, a mom wrote that her son with autism simply wouldn't keep his clothes on, and asked for suggestions.  I put her question on the Autism at About.com Facebook page, and there are already 15 suggestions for how to respond.  Take a look - and/or add your thoughts!


Keeping Clothes on a Child with Autism originally appeared on About.com Autism on Saturday, February 12th, 2011 at 18:13:30.

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Have you used our Search Tools lately?

Most of our search tools are now directory-specific, to make it that much easier to find what you want. Our website is so much more than just a Blog. We have been compiling materials into various sections since 1995, and no other chiropractic website has such a breadth and depth of material, conveniently arranged into topic pages, like the Low Back Pain Page, or the Chronic Neck Pain Page. Our LINKS Section is chocked full of many other pages of equal value. Look at the left-hand side of this page, and scroll down to RESOURCES to browse our Sections.

The Sectional Search Tools are very word specific, and can be adjusted to look for specific words, word strings, or even capitalizations. Please NOTE that each of the Sectional Search Tools only searches the directory they are named for. The Google tool searches all sections at once.

Here’s an example of how the LINKS Search Tool works. The LINKS Section contains almost half of of our collected materials. These steps (see the tables below) explain how to use each of the components of the Sectional Search Tool.

The “How-to Search” Section
A search with the phrase “Forward Head Posture”
(capitalized) can yield widely differing results.
The Case:   Sensitive or Insensitive   drop-down box
Case Sensitive will find the words with capitalization of the 3 separate words:     Forward,   Head or Posture
Case Insensitive will find all of the words:     forward,   Forward,   head,   Head,   posture or Posture

NOTE: “Insensitive” usually yields a much larger field of results. That’s why I always use the Case Sensitive mode.
The Construct:   drop-down box
Construct:

Any Search Term
will find all the articles with EITHER of the 3 terms:   Forward,   Head or Posture

Yield:
“Insensitive” yielded 94 articles
“Sensitive” yielded 29 articles
Construct:

All Search Term
will find the articles with ALL 3 of the search terms:   Forward,   Head or Posture

Yield:
“Insensitive” yielded 14 articles
“Sensitive” yielded 4 articles
Construct:

As a Phrase
will only find articles with the phrase:   “Forward Head Posture”

Yield:
“Insensitive” yielded 8 articles
“Sensitive” yielded 4 articles
In the “Hits” drop-down box, I usually use the “All Hits” selection,
to avoid having to view multiple pages in the search review.

Try it, you’ll like it!

Autism and "Splinter Skills": What Does Your Child with Autism Really Understand?

When our son, Tom, was in third grade he was able to do an entire page of double-digit multiplication quite accurately.  He could read a grade level book.  And he could tell you a great deal about the animals he'd learned about by watching Animal Planet.

Unfortunately, while he could calculate, he had no idea how multiplication could be applied in the real world - even in the context of word problems.   While he could read, he couldn't give you the plot of a short story.  And while he could recite paragraphs of information about lizards, he couldn't actually tell you anything about lizards in his own words.

This type of apparent - but not quite real - understanding is quite common among children in general.  Ask a neurotypical child, for example, to explain the significance of the pledge of allegiance...  or to explain what makes a square a square.  You'll find that many young children can recite a memorized script or identify an object without really understanding what they're saying or looking at.

For children with autism, though, it can be particularly tough to separate skills from understanding.  That's because kids with autism are often extremely good at reading at a very young age - and so appear to have advanced understanding of ideas that they really don't grasp at all.  They may be extraordinarily good at rote memorization, and able to rattle off whole paragraphs memorized from books or videos - yet understand very little of what they've said.  And they may be very good at working with numbers without having a clue as to how numbers might relate to real-world situations.

To what degree are these "splinter skills" really useful?   How can parents work with kids on the autism spectrum to help them use and build on such skills?  Tell your story!

Learn more about autism and splinter skills:

Autism and "Splinter Skills": What Does Your Child with Autism Really Understand? originally appeared on About.com Autism on Saturday, February 12th, 2011 at 16:32:41.

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Love and Romance on the Autism Spectrum

NOTE: RATHER THAN RESPONDING TO THIS BLOG IN COMMENTS, PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINKS TO SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS!

When children receive an autism diagnosis, their parents wonder and worry about the future.  Near the top of most lists of worries is the question of whether a child with autism will find a romantic partner.

While there are many people with autism spectrum disorders who don't date, partner or marry, there are certainly quite a few who do.   I personally know quite a few happy couples in which one member has an autism spectrum diagnosis.

For those who have found love in the autism community, what makes it work?  Please share your stories of successful romance on the autism spectrum!

For those struggling with romance and autism, please share your thoughts, concerns and ideas on the forum!

More on Relationships and Autism


Love and Romance on the Autism Spectrum originally appeared on About.com Autism on Friday, February 11th, 2011 at 13:04:35.

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New Study Ties Processed Foods To ADHD in 78% of Children

According to a new study, just published in Lancet Journal, a diet free of processed foods significantly reduces the symptoms of ADHD in 78% of 4-8 year old children. This 5-week study involving 100 subjects found that 63% of them experienced a relapse in ADHD symptoms upon re-introduction of problem foods into the diet.

This randomized crossover study was titled the Impact of Nutrition on Children with ADHD (INCA). Patients in the Netherlands and Belgium were enrolled via announcements in medical health centres and through media announcements. In the open-label phase (or first phase), children aged 4—8 years, who were diagnosed with ADHD, were randomly assigned to either 5 weeks of a restricted elimination diet (diet group) or to instructions for a healthy diet (control group). [1]

In the second phase, those children who responded positively (with an improvement of at least 40% on the ADHD rating scale) proceeded into the second phase, with a 4-week double-blind crossover food challenge, in which they were exposed to either a high-IgG or low-IgG food diet (classified on the basis of every child’s individual IgG blood test results).


Traditionally, food allergies have been defined as allergic reactions to specific foods which produce a Type I allergic reaction involving IgE (Immunoglobulin E) antibodies. An antibody is a protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects like bacteria and viruses. Actual IgE food allergies are somewhat uncommon, with estimates that 4% of the population have food-based allergic disorders. The most common food allergy triggers are the proteins in cow’s milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish and tree nuts. IgE allergic reactions to foods can occur within minutes or a few hours after the food is eaten and may lead to many different symptoms including hives, swelling around the mouth, asthma, diarrhea, vomiting, eczema and even life threatening anaphylaxis (which is a severe adverse reaction involving the major body systems).

An alternative theory regarding food allergies is that another, more subtle form of food allergy exists. This type of food allergy (sometimes also referred to as a food sensitivity), is said to involve IgG (Immunoglobulin G) antibodies, and is believed to be measurable by an IgG ELISA/EIA Food Allergy Test. This IgG allergy theory tends to be supported more by naturopathic medicine than by traditional allergists and immunologists.

According to the IgG food allergy theory, IgG antibodies are associated with non-atopic or “delayed” food reactions that can worsen or contribute to many different health problems. These reactions are more difficult to notice since they can occur hours or even days after consumption of an offending food. Often the offenders are frequently eaten foods that are hard to avoid, such as milk, corn, and wheat. These “hidden” food allergies are said to affect as many as 60% of the population, and are believed to contribute to a variety of disorders, including ADD/ADHD, migraines, Rheumatoid Arthritis etc. [2]


This is one of the most interesting aspects of the study, because these researchers actually tracked the children’s IgG levels, from before the study began, then again following the first phase, and once more after the IgG-based food challenges (the 2nd phase).

In the second, or challenge phase, following introduction of either high-IgG or low-IgG foods, relapse of ADHD symptoms were observed in 19 of 30 (63%) children, independent of the IgG blood levels.

The authors concluded that strictly supervised restricted elimination diets are a valuable instrument to assess whether ADHD is induced by food, however prescribing diets on the basis of IgG blood tests should be discouraged.

These findings agree well with previous studies that revealed that poor diet is strongly associated with ADHD, particularly when children are exposed to foods high in preservatives and food colorings, also known as processed food or junk food .

You may enjoy reviewing our ADD/ADHD Page for more on this topic.

REFERENCES:

1. Effects of a Restricted Elimination Diet on the Behaviour of Children With Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (INCA study): A Randomised Controlled Trial
The Lancet 2011 (Feb 4); 377 (9764): 494–503

2. IgG food allergies – are they real?
http://www.revolutionhealth.com/stories/view/99a870bcba9c42579a84dcb37ef7ad9a