"In comparison with many other common health care interventions, chiropractic adjustment is one of the safest and lowest risk options," said ACAC president, Dr. Clark Mills. "Side effects from chiropractic adjustment are typically minor and resolve quickly."

The most recent research into neck adjustment further supports the safety record. The results of a collaborative and multidisciplinary six-year study by the Bone and Joint Task Force on Neck Pain and its Associated Disorders into the causes, prognosis and treatment of neck pain were published in the peer-reviewed journal Spine in January 2008. The study concludes that Vertebral Basilar Artery (VBA) stroke is a very rare event in the population. The research indicates clearly that the risk of VBA stroke associated with a visit to a chiropractor's office appears to be no different from the risk of VBA stroke following a visit to a physician's office.

The study concludes that this type of stroke commonly begins with neck pain and/or headache which causes the patient to seek care from their chiropractor or family physician before the stroke fully develops.

Similarly, a British study of more than 19,000 chiropractic patients encompassing over 50,000 cervical spine manipulations published in October 2007 in Spine found "no reports of serious adverse events."

In Canada, a study conducted by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) states, "The evidence to date indicates that the risk associated with chiropractic manipulation of the neck is both small and inaccurately estimated. The estimated level of risk is smaller than that associated with many commonly used diagnostic tests or prescription drugs." The study was published in 2001 in the medical journal Stroke.

"The call for a limit on adjustment of the neck is unfounded and based on anecdotal reports," said Dr. Mills. "The body of published, peer-reviewed research internationally clearly supports the safety of this health care practice."

Chiropractic is a regulated health profession in Alberta. Chiropractors deliver health services under a legislated scope of practice. In Canada, chiropractors require a minimum of seven years of post-secondary education: three years at an undergraduate university level including science pre-requisites followed by an additional four years of specialized training at an accredited chiropractic college.

For further information please contact: Deb Manz, CEO, Alberta College and Association of Chiropractors
11203 - 70 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, T5B 1T1
(780) 420-0932

It was June 20, 1999, when I authored the first post announcing the beginning of a Planet Chiropractic News Service. It wasn't much of a post by today's standards, but it was the first official archived post announcing the service. Only days later, on Friday, June 25, 1999, there was something more right up our alley to report on. At that time, the director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection had announced the launching of a consumer education campaign, as a result of their growing concerns regarding 20 million Americans looking to the Internet for health information.

According to the article, the FTC's consumer education program was recommending that consumers interested in gaining medical advice online begin with US Government owned web sites, that provided links to reputable sources of information. Frankly at the time, I was surprised that more people were not in an uproar over the campaign. That article became one of the driving forces that motivated me to continue moving forward, and publish fresh chiropractic news content daily. It's been over 3825 days, and I'm happy to still be moving, and see how things have changed (or remained the same).

In the initial campaign, FDA officials reportedly recommended that consumers should stay away from sites that used phrases like "scientific breakthrough" or included impressive sounding terminology to disguise a lack of scientific proof. They also warned consumers stay away from sites that claimed the government or other groups had conspired to suppress a product. Seen any websites like that in the search indexes lately?

Fast-forward nine years later and there are about 536,000 results indexed in Google (in June 1999 Google was in its infancy, and it had just secured a round of funding from Sequoia capital and another firm) for the term: scientific breakthrough. Websites in the index include many dot-coms (such as Reuters and CNN), dot-orgs (like the International Food Policy Research Institute), newspapers (like the UK's Independent, The Guardian, and the New York Times), news magazines (like Time), and even dot-gov domains (scroll through the search results to see which ones).

In 2008 it almost seems ludicrous that a federal entity would suggest consumers what keywords not to be using when performing searches online. Or maybe it's not, they may still be doing so, for all I know. I honestly haven't been paying as much attention as I had back in 1999. I'm too busy blogging about curing cancer. :)

We've already established that millions are engaged in conversations across the Web, with services like Twitter providing us to follow people from all over the globe, and tune in to what they are doing. Someone may be celebrating their dog's birthday, having chocolate chip cookies for lunch, or tuned in to share that they just liked 5 miles to the bank to deposit a cashier's check. Whatever it is they're doing, there's a lot of it going on, and in the chaos of the net, it would likely appear as a meaningless mix of mumbo-jumbo, until we tune in and filter out the noise.

What if that person celebrating their dog's birthday was taking it to the chiropractor for its first adjustment? And the person going to the bank, what if they messaged that they were in their chiropractors reception area, when sending that message? The point is people are clicking, tapping, and talking on mobile devices all over, and communicating from their home computers, work computers, and even laptops. How do you know they're not talking about you?

Before you shake this off as something likely not very interesting (that mumbo-jumbo of meaningless information), let's take a look at several one-way conversations that took place during the past 24 hours or so, that involved a single term: chiropractor.

Some of these messages were received as recently as two minutes ago (while preparing this article) and some are as old as 16 hours. The messages have been filtered out from a ginormous database of discussions taking place. Each message is on a line of its own. Let's take a look...

1) Off to the chiropractor. Maybe he can cure my cold!
2) At the chiropractor...my back is jacked up!
3) Just visited my chiropractor for some work on neck and back - hope this helps. Also going to try acupuncture for the 1st time next week
4) off to chiropractor!
5) so, my boss's boss goes to a chiropractor for "carpal tunnel"; she gives me grief for being in pain and being incapable of sitting still.
6) chiropractor: (n.) Someone you pay to be a pain in the neck.
7) I wonder if chiropractor's ever say, "Oh Snap!"...?
8) my chiropractor thinks the dysmotility is a result of my back injury.
9) An unheralded member of Team Pemba is Brad's chiropractor. Today in particular we wish to thank him.
10) Wondering whether it was the Claritin or the chiropractor that made me so thirsty. Drank a liter of water on my way into work.
11) Chiropractor today! I can't wait!!
12) just finished feeding JD and now have a few minutes before I go to the chiropractor! Back is really bothering the past few days!
13) To call the chiropractor a snake oil salesman would be making her sound too noble. I'll blog about it later--crazy. And my hand is still numb.
14) Four clients plus a trip to the chiropractor equals lots of driving today.
15) Loving my chiropractor!

That's 15 messages in all, and there is a lot I think can be learned from them. In reality, they represent a tiny microcosm of the thoughts people are having about their chiropractors worldwide. The first one is thinking about something other than back pain, and the second one is thinking only about their back pain. Number 3 is considering acupuncture for the first time and #4 just wants us to know where they are going. There is a concern about work, two messages from comedians, someone having questions about medications and chiropractic, someone in great anticipation of their visit, someone not happy at all (and planning to write about it) with their chiropractic experience, someone driving, and someone in love... with their chiropractic care.

The messages will mean different things to different people, so I don't want to overanalyze them. Best to simply read through them objectively and view them as they snapshot of conversation in time. 15 thoughts on chiropractors for June 18, 2008.

I've said it before that you cannot out give the giver, and for a chiropractor practicing in the Culver City area of Los Angeles, the giving (source of our clientele) often comes from the Motion Picture Industry, Screen Actors Guild, Writers Guild, and the hundreds of independent companies that have a symbiotic relationship in the Los Angeles area film and television industry.

It's no surprise to me that just about a year ago this week I reported on summer movies and chiropractic, Die Hard, the beginning of summer really is an exciting time of year here in LA. Spreading that excitement got a bit easier for our chiropractic office as we tried something new this month. Rather than invest our marketing money in newspapers, coupon books, phonebook ads and such, we decided to buy movie tickets for our existing clientele. Not a single person has failed to express enthusiasm about going to the movies, and we're feeling good knowing we are helping support the cycle in an industry that provides us with much business.

The purchasing of movie tickets in quantity is less expensive then you may think. We purchased our tickets in bulk from Regal Entertainment Group, which is the company behind United Artist (UA) theaters, and I'm sure that AMC and other theaters have similar packages available as well. We went with premium tickets so that our patients could go see their favorite movies without any restrictions. We have an added bonus of having a UA Marina Del Rey 6 (4335 Glencoe Ave.) theater less than 2 miles from our office, which was reported by most of our clients, to be the neighborhood theater they go to most.

A really interesting thing has happened as a result of handing out all these tickets. Summer movies have become the hot topic in our LA chiropractic office, and I'm A-OK with that. Don't get me wrong, I love being a chiropractor and I can talk about it all day long, but this is LA, where movies and television is a topic many are comfortable talking about. As I mentioned earlier, I'm a nut for movies, so I've been going to see lots of stuff in the theater. The past few weeks we've been talking about Iron Man (loved it) and I've been reminding clients that until science offers them a powered exoskeleton, they'd better be taking care of their spine and posture, if they intend to perform like a technologically advanced superhero (or drive on the 405 freeway).

Another cool thing about Iron Man is that production took place in the former Hughes Company soundstages, located about a mile from my office, in Playa Vista. That same space is being used currently for the production of Transformers II (expected to be released summer 2009).

(photo: the tickets we had printed from Regal Entertainment Group included a custom thank you message from our office)

This weeks chiropractic movie topics have revolved around The Incredible Hulk, Kung Fu Panda, and You Don't Mess With the Zohan (Adam Sandler is one of my favorites when it comes to comedy). The Hulk has been getting rave reviews from folks in our practice, and I've been reminding them that chemical imbalances in the body magnify significantly when stressed or enraged. Some meditative breathing is a nice addition to a chiropractic adjustment. I haven't seen Kung Fu Panda yet but I'm hearing good things from visiting patients. It's on the list of movies to check out this weekend.

Hancock, starring Will Smith, is expected to be in some theaters July 1, and it was filmed in Los Angeles. I watched the previews when going to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (theater was sold out) and Prince Caspian: Chronicles of Narnia. Films like Hancock and Wanted (starring Angelina Jolie) provide health-care providers great opportunities to remind their patients to buckle up.

The Love Guru, starring Mike Myers, is due for release on Friday and from the previews I've seen it looks very funny. Looking forward to lots of laughter with that film. So spread the love and take someone to the movies this summer. If you are a business owner there's plenty of time to order tickets (search terms like corporate movie tickets or bulk theater tickets) so that you can share them with your favorite clients. When they go to the movies, they'll be supporting many of the people that have helped my business thrive, and I'm thankful for that.