Chiro.Org Blog: Substantial recent research examines the efficacy of many types of complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies. However, outcomes associated with the "real-world" use of CAM has been largely overlooked, despite calls for CAM therapies to be studied in the manner in which they are practiced. Americans seek CAM treatments far more often for chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) than for any other condition. Among CAM treatments for CMP, acupuncture and chiropractic (A/C) care are among those with the highest acceptance by physician groups and the best evidence to support their use. Further, recent alarming increases in delivery of opioid treatment and surgical interventions for chronic pain--despite their high costs, potential adverse effects, and modest efficacy--suggests the need to evaluate real world outcomes associated with promising non-pharmacological/non-surgical CAM treatments for CMP, which are often well accepted by patients and increasingly used in the community.

One man’s long, noisy, asymmetrical adventure gets him a high five. Source Scientific American By Steve Mirsky The latest physical anthropology research indicates that the human evolutionary line never went through a knuckle-walking phase. Be that as it may, we definitely entered, and have yet to exit, a knuckle-cracking phase. I would run out of [...]

Source Enhanced Online News The Federal government has awarded the University of South Florida (USF), School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences $1.42 million to research the effectiveness of specific exercise interventions for reducing the risk of back injuries amongst some of the nation’s most vulnerable — firefighters and military personnel. “Back injury is a [...]

Chiro.Org Blog: Should you stop your vitamins? It depends. To be exact, it depends on the quality of the science, and the very nature of scientific research. It is very hard to know things exactly through science. The waste bin of science is full of fallen heroes like Premarin, Vioxx and Avandia (which alone was responsible for 47,000 excess cardiac deaths since it was introduced in 1999).

Chiro.Org Blog: Dr. Kelly, for those who haven't had the pleasure of meeting you yet, can you share some of your experiences from your tenure as president of New Zealand College of Chiropractic (NZCC)?

Chiro.Org Blog: Low back pain (LBP) affects approximately 80% of adults at some time in life [1] and occurs in all ages [2, 3]. Despite billions being spent on various diagnostic and treatment approaches, the prevalence and disability related to LBP has continued to increase [4]. There has been a recent movement toward comparative effectiveness research [5], i.e., research that determines which treatment approaches are most effective for a given patient population.

Chiro.Org Blog: If the public is to be better educated about the benefits of chiropractic care, doctors of chiropractic must be the ones to do the educating. Research is the strongest tool we have to promote our healing art to those unfamiliar with its value and to defend it from unwarranted attacks. We owe it to our patients, our profession, ourselves and future generations to know the facts so that we can share them far and wide.

Chiro.Org Blog: The Research Department of Logan College of Chiropractic invites all D.C.s to participate in a new practice-based research program titled: ICON — The Integrated Chiropractic Outcomes Network

Chiro.Org Blog: Scott Haldeman chaired the Bone and Joint Decade 2000-2010 Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Related Disorders, the most comprehensive multidisciplinary review on neck pain ever undertaken. As with similar projects, the Task Force reviewed and evaluated all existing research on the diagnosis and treatment of neck pain. But it went further, initiating original research in insufficiently explored areas, including the now-renowned study by David Cassidy and colleagues which demonstrated that strokes are no more likely after a visit to a chiropractor than after a visit to a medical doctor. In this Health Insights Today interview, Dr. Haldeman discusses the major findings of the Neck Pain Task Force and their implications for the management of this challenging condition.

Chiro.Org Blog: I have had the privilege of being associated with chiropractic and chiropractic ideas all of my life through my father and grandmother, both of whom were practicing chiropractors. I have also been lucky to have participated in one of the most exciting phases in the evolution of chiropractic over the past 35 years. I thought that it would be of interest to younger researchers and clinicians to present my views on how the profession has evolved to its current position in society and how this evolution has impacted our understanding of chiropractic. I plan to discuss how we can put the changes in the role of science over the past 100 years in perspective and how these changes are likely to impact our lives as researchers, chiropractors, and physicians studying and treating patients with spinal disorders.

Chiro.Org Blog: From the point of view of clinical practice, however, especially in areas in which physical treatments are applied, the principles of fastidious treatments and blinding begin to wear thin and in a few recent examples regarding spinal manipulation, appear to have fallen apart completely. This difficulty is by no means confined to physical treatments, as the literature pertaining to the use of medications has also suggested that the inexperienced use and/or uncritical acceptance of the results of RCTs can lead to confusion.

Chiro.Org Blog: Anthony Rosner, Ph.D., Director of Research and Education for the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research, presented testimony on behalf of chiropractic research and practice standards at hearings conducted at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Chiro.Org Blog: Until 25 years ago, chiropractic research was vastly underdeveloped and appeared to some as an oxymoron. In 1975, a conference at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) concluded that "There are little scientific data of significance to evaluate this (chiropractic's) clinical approach to health and to the treatment of disease." [1] From that time onward, both clinical and basic research have advanced to the point at which (i) over 40 randomized clinical trials comparing spinal manipulation with other treatments in the management of back pain have been published in the scientific literature, [2, 3] (ii) meta-analysis and systematic reviews attesting to the support of spinal manipulation in the management of back pain [4, 5] have also appeared, and (iii) multidisciplinary panels representing the governments of the United States, [6] Canada, [7] Great Britain, [8] Sweden, [9] Denmark, [10] Australia, [11] and New Zealand [12] have expressed similar recognition of the robust evidence base in support of spinal manipulation for managing low back conditions.

Chiro.Org Blog: 187 certified nurse-midwives filled our an on-line, self-administered survey designed to gather their opinions on the safety of chiropractic, and the scope of chiropractic practice. It also captured demographic information relating to their professional training and their personal and professional clinical experiences with chiropractors. The results were most revealing:

Chiro.Org Blog: The following is a collection of studies related to the cost effectiveness and efficacy associated with chiropractic care and the procedures that doctors of chiropractic provide. The American Chiropractic Association, The International Chiropractic Association, The Congress of State Associations, and the Association of Chiropractic Colleges appreciate the opportunity to provide these materials for your review.