Does Being Under Chiropractic Care Help Reduce Medications? What Else Can I Do Besides Take Drugs?
The headline above comes from an article published on September 4, 2016, in the Los Angeles Daily News. The article was originally produced on August 30, 2016, by Kaiser Health News, and highlights the over usage of prescription medication on seniors.
The article begins with observations by Dominick Bailey, a clinical pharmacist specializing in geriatric care at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, California. In performing his job of reviewing medication that the patients are taking, he noted several medications for elderly patients that were contraindicated and could cause harm. One 74-year-old patient, who had a history of multiple health problems, was on 36 different medications. Bailey’s reactions was, “This is actually a little bit alarming.”
Dr. Maristela Garcia, director of the inpatient geriatric unit also at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, commented, “This is America’s other drug problem-polypharmacy, and the problem is huge.”
The article reports that, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the elderly account for about 35 percent of hospital stays. However, they note that over half experience drug-related complications causing hospital stays to be extended by an average of about three days.
One of the issues pointed out in the article is that many medications are being given to the elderly with no time line to ever consider discontinuing them. “There’s a tendency in medicine every time we start a medicine to never stop it,” stated Dr. Ken Covinsky, University of California, San Francisco researcher and physician.
One of Bailey’s responsibilities at the UCLA Medical Center is to reduce the number of medications the elderly are taking. He also explains his concepts to other pharmacists and young interns at his center. In one such exchange, he explained that there is a fundamental difference on how drugs affect older people, “As you know, our elderly are already at risk for an accumulation of drugs in their body,” he told the group. “If you put a drug that has a really long half-life, it is going to last even longer in our elderly.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among older Americans (aged 60 and over), more than 76% used two or more prescription drugs, and 37% used five or more.
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The authors of this study explain that the vagus nerve is a major controlling pathway for the parasympathetic nerve system. It is the parasympathetic system that has been shown to have a broad effect over autism-like behaviors and problems. This study looks at four children to see if correcting subluxations affecting the vagus nerve can have a positive effect on children suffering with autism behaviors.
The study begins by defining MS by saying, “Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, degenerative disease of the nervous system that is demyelinating and inflammatory in nature and is characterized by patchy sclerosis of the central nervous system (CNS).” They note that MS affects 400,000 people in the United States and over 2 million people worldwide. Half of those with MS also experience depression, and almost all patients with MS have a shortened life expectancy.
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MRI studies show that when discs begin to degenerate there is a loss of water in the center of the disc known as the nucleus. The goal of care for a person with disc degeneration is to re-hydrate the disc.
This case study reports on seven-month-old fraternal twin boys who were brought to the chiropractor by their mother. The baby boys were suffering from chronic acid reflux and difficulty feeding since birth. The history noted that at 33 weeks into the woman’s pregnancy, the amnionic membrane of one twin ruptured which resulted in an emergency Caesarean section. This premature birth resulted in both twins being in a special care unit for three weeks after birth.
In this case, a 15-year-old girl went to the chiropractor complaining of lower back pain and joint pain. Her history also revealed that she was suffering from digestive dysfunction, seasonal allergies, diarrhea, and significant abdominal pain. She was diagnosed with JIA at the age of twelve and was given Nabumetone and Neurontin by a medical doctor.
