Back to School And Pain Free--Pack your Backpack Right!

(Article from Backpack Safety America)


Are you sending your child off to the first day of school with a brand new backpack slung over his or her shoulder? If you're like most parents, a new backpack was on your child's back to school shopping list. Although these bags have become as common as pencils and chalkboards in schools across America, according to chiropractors, you may want to think twice before putting you youngster on the bus with this school yard staple. New research reveals an alarming danger associated with childhood backpack use.

This research stems from the increasing number of reports of childhood back pain in recent decades. By the end of their teens, more than 50% of youths experience at least one low back pain episode (Spine 1998; 23;228-34). And new research indicates that this increase may be due, in part, to the improper use of backpacks. But you don't need to be a scientist to understand the effects of backpacks on young spines; watch children in any school yard struggle to walk while bent sideways under the weight of an overloaded backpack on one shoulder and you'll quickly realize the potential danger of this commonplace item.

But your child doesn't have to be the only "un-cool" kid without a backpack. Read on to learn how your youngster can carry a backpack and keep his or her back pain and injury free!

Backpacks Attack on Backs

How exactly does carrying a backpack affect the spine? "Common sense tells us that a heavy load, distributed improperly or unevenly day after day is indeed going to cause stress to a a growing spinal column," explains Dr Marvin T Arnsdorff, chiropractor and co-founder of the Backpack Safety America school education program. "The old adage 'as twigs bent so grows the tree' comes to mind. We are seeing a growing concern about the improper use of backpacks and the relatively scare amount of educational and preventive information available to young people."

The Consumer Product Safety Comminsion estimates that 4, 928 emergency foom visists each year result from injuries related to book bags and back carriers. Schlepping around a backpack can cause not only acute injury, but also long term damage.

Five Steps to Preventing backpack Related Injuries

• Ensure that your child's backpack is sturdy and appropriately sized. Some manufacturers offer special child sized versions for children ages 5-10. these packs wiegh less than a pound and have shorter back lengths and widths to prevent slippage.
  
• Consider more than looks when choosing a backpack. An illfitting pack can cause back pain, muscle strain, or nerve impingment. To help distribure the load, look for packs with padded shoulder straps and waist straps.
• Ensure that the weight of your child's pack does not exceed 15% of his or her body weight. Avoid overloading by prioritizing the items you child carries and eliminating unnecessary contents.
• Teach you child to pack his or her backpack by evenly distributing the contents throughout the pack

• Insist that your child never carry a backpack over one shoulder. Both shoulder straps--as well as the waist strap--should be used at all times.

Hauling a heavy backpack over one shoulder every day may provoke serious postural misalignments. Postural imbalances ofter trigger a condition called vertebral subluxation. Vertebral subluxations are dysfunctinal areas in the spine where moement is restricted or bones (vertebrai) are out of alignment. This disorder predisposes patients to a myriad of aliments such as neck and back pain, headaches, and osteoarthritis.

A Cure for the Back Pain Blues

Fortunately, there is a solution to this childhood health care condition: chiropractic care. Chiropractors are experts in spinal biomechanics and backpack safety techniques. As prevention specialists, chiropractors work to educate the community about the proper use of backpacks. in addition, doctors of chiropractic offer spinal checkups for youngsters. These checkups include a thorough postural assessment, evaluation for vertebral subluxations, and specific recommendations for injury prevention. If you're a parent, don't ignore this potential threat to your child's health. Schedule a chiropractic evaluation for your youngster today.

Chiropractic for kids???

source: yourspine.com


Chiropractors for kids: Could working on a child’s back help more than just aches and pains?

Some D.C. area parents say yes!

31-year-old Marietta Watts is concerned her five-month-old baby, Hugh, is going to develop asthma and allergies. So right after he was born, she took him to the chiropractor.

“His dad does have asthma, did have asthma as a child and I had allergies as a child as well, so. It could be hereditary but if we can prevent it, we will,“ she said.

Watts is part of a growing number of parents taking their children to chiropractors. A recent National Institutes of Health report found that three percent of American children were cared for by a chiropractor, making it the 2nd most common type of alternative medicine for children.

“Parents should bring their kids regardless if there’s something wrong or not,“ said Natasha Smith, who is a chiropractor.

Natasha Smith says manipulating a child’s spine or giving “adjustments” can help with more than just back problems. She believes it can cure chronic ear infections, allergies, colds, even bed wetting and problems with sleep.

“Our main goal, our main function is to remove any nervous interference that affects the body’s ability to heal. So with all of our patients, that is our goal. We are just assessing the spine, feeling for any type of misalignments,“ Natasha Smith said.

She also says when the nerves along the spine become compressed, that can cause problems in other parts of the body, even other organs.

“Once you remove that spinal misalignment that’s putting pressure at the nerve, the nerve is then able to function better, so as a result of the nerve functioning better, you’re able to supply those muscles, organs in the body better and therefore overall, feel a lot better,“ she said.

While a 2007 safety review found that injuries were rare, some medical experts worry that one wrong move could seriously injure a child.

“The biggest concern that I have is that some chiropractors, probably all chiropractors are trained to do high velocity movements, but I think that some chiropractors have used them on children and that’s very, very dangerous,“ Dr. Sally Evans, a pediatrician, said.



Dr. Sally Evans from Children’s National Medical Center says since a child’s ligaments are more flexible, some types of sudden, quick movements could cause spinal cord injuries.

But Smith says, she’s very gentle when it comes to working with children. The amount of pressure she applies to the back is similar to how a person would feel a ripe tomato.

“I believe that if there is a way that you can treat a child or treat a person non conventionally, in the sense of using medicine, why not try it?,“ she said.

Doctors say that if you are going to bring your child to the chiropractor, make sure that the person is board certified.

There are some chiropractors who specialize in working with children. Dr. Peter Scher at Whole Body Balance treats patients 5 and up.

New Problems with Spinal Fusion

original source: NY Times

A new study links the bone growth agent in the Medtronic Infuse Bone Graft to life-threatening problems after neck surgery, where it may cause swelling that makes it difficult to breath. This can lead to an emergency tracheotomy or death.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the actions of Medtronic, Inc. and their off-label promotion of this product in violation of federal law.

While the Infuse Bone Graft is only approved for use in the lower lumbar spine, it has been widely used off-label in the cervical spine which has been associated with life–threatening problems, such as:

• Difficulty Breathing
• Difficulty Swallowing
• Difficulty Speaking
• Swelling of the Neck
• Compression of Airways
• Nerve Damage
• Death

The close proximity of the cervical spine to the airway has caused a number of serious complications associated with use of the Medtronic Infuse bone graft in the cervical spine or neck fusions.

The FDA issued a warning to healthcare providers in July 2008 highlighting at least 38 reports of cervical spine fusion problems with the bone morphogenetic protein in the Medtronic Infuse. The serious and life-threatening complications caused by airway compression have required a number of patients to receive respiratory support, tracheotomies, insertion of feeding tubes anti-inflammatory medications and additional surgery.

A number of Medtronic Infuse lawsuits have been filed on behalf of individuals who experienced problems with breathing and swallowing that developed days or weeks following their neck surgery.

In November 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice initiated an investigation into the actions of Medtronic, Inc., and whether they actively promoted and marketed the Medtronic Infuse bone graft for use in the cervical spine. While doctors are allowed to use FDA approved medical devices for non-approved purposes, the manufacturer is not allowed to promote or encourage such uses that they have not established as safe and effective.


The Medtronic Infuse bone graft is a man-made liquid bone graft that includes a biologically engineered protein called bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), made by Wyeth.

The bone stimulator is used to encourage bone growth and replace damaged spinal disks by filling the gaps between vertebrae. The Infuse is soaked in a sponge-like material and implanted between spinal vertebrae, enclosed in a metallic cage.

Since it was approved by the FDA in 2002, the Medtronic bone graft has been widely used during spinal fusions and has generated sales of over $3 billion.

Most of the Medtronic Infuse bone stimulator complications have occurred within 2 to 14 days after surgery as the neck swells, compressing the airway and nerves.

According to research previously presented by a group of North Carolina surgeons, the Medtronic Infuse cervical spine complication rate is about 59%, compared with a complication rate of 21% for bone grafts or collagen used in conventional cervical spine fusions.

The new study, conducted by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was published June 30 in The The Journal of the American Medical Association and found that Medtronic Infuse and other products use a bioengineered bone growth protein called BMP that appears to be the cause of the higher incidence of neck surgery problems when they are used during cervical spinal fusion procedures to correct neck pains.

The study looked at both Medtronic Infuse, and a Stryker product called OP-1 Putty, which is used in a very limited number of patients where other spinal fusion methods are not an option.

Use of BMP has become popular because it allows bone to heal faster after surgery. It also tends to require less repeat surgeries, and doctors do not have to harvest the bone from other parts of the body, such as the hip.

The study found that patients who received bioengineered proteins in upper spinal fusion procedures suffered a complication rate of 7 percent; 50 percent higher than those who did not. When used on lower spinal, or lumbar, fusion procedures, there was no increase in complications, however.

Researchers say the rate of complication is probably higher, because the study only looked at patients who suffered complications while still in the hospital recovering from surgery. Many patients likely had complications after they left the hospital that went unreported.

Editors Note: Safe, natural, effective chiropractic care should always be the first choice for spinal problems. Proper spinal health care can reduce or eliminate the need for risky invasive procedures utilizing drugs and surgery.

Chiropractic, part of overall health care

(thanks to NaturalNews) Chiropractors have, for the past 112 years, treated sickness and infirmity without the use of drugs and with the goal of avoiding surgical removal or repair of any of the body's organs or structures. Chiropractic's message is that the proactive care of one's body and wise lifestyle choices are necessary to achieve health. Chiropractors have held and maintained this view, even before it became fashionable and long before evidence made it clear that the drug and surgery model of "health care" is really nothing more than "disease care", waiting for disease to occur and then treating the effects. Chiropractic takes a preventive approach tto health care: eliminate the cause of disease.

Chiropractors have always maintained that interfering with the transmission of the electro-chemical signals that connect your brain, the master control system for the human organism, to every organ and cell in your body has a detrimental effect on health.

This system is so delicate and of such vital importance that the body has designed the most elaborate set of protection, armor if you will, to protect it. The skull is a protective vault that houses and protects the most sensitive of systems: the eyes, the mouth, the ears and most importantly, the brain. The next critical organ in your body, the spinal cord, is guarded by your spine. This masterpiece of engineering is 24 vertebrae, each one a unique bone, that serves not only as the axis of your musculoskeletal system, giving you the unique ability to walk upright, but also has a unique set of nerves that run through it to every other system of the body through individual holes called foramen.

What travels through the spine and the foramen that protect them is the very essence of your being. From your brain, your spinal cord and the millions of nerves that branch out from it are the core from which your body functions. Before you came into the world, you formed a brain and a spinal cord and developed a body around it. And so it is today that the brain regulates the rest of your body through this delicate system of nerves protected by your spine.

Chiropractors maintain the proper position of these delicate joints and the precious cargo which they protect, your nerve system.

Pressure on the root nerves that leave the spine through the foramen to control and regulate all of the other organ systems of the body can affect millions of nerve fibers. Pressure on the brain stem, where it leaves the skull and enters the spine can also affect millions of nerve fibers. Interfering with these nerve fibers can have disastrous affects on your health.

Chiropractors detect and correct the cause of this interference, allowing your body to self regulate, adapt and heal. The care and maintenance of the spine and nervous system is a necessary component of any natural approach to health and wellness.

Chiropractors have been outspoken opponents of water fluoridation, mass vaccination, over-use of prescription drugs, food additives and have always maintained that it is better to find and correct the cause of disease, rather than merely treat or cover up symptoms.

Today, chiropractors embrace and support the growing body of evidence that health is a result of - a fully functioning nerve system, consuming natural, nutrient rich food, clean pure water, proper exercise, natural sleep and emotional/spiritual well being. A healthy spine allows your body to adapt, regulate and fully realize the benefits of all of these other natural methods of avoiding disease and achieving health. See your chiropractor today to have your spine checked and begin to extricate yourself from the disease care system of treating symptoms.