Immune system and the left pre-frontal cortex

From Keiran Shanahan, DC
Originally Posted on [braintrainer] Digest Number 2535 by: "Karen Duncan" Source: BBC Thu Oct 4, 2007 8:47 pm (PST)

Negative Thoughts Can Make You Ill
Having negative thoughts really could make you more illness-prone, say scientists. A study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences links "negative" brain activity with a weakened immune system. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied people with high levels of brain activity in a region linked to negative thoughts.
Those with the highest activity levels responded worse to a flu vaccine. Scientists already knew that pessimists - people rated as more sensitive to negative events - show more activity in a part of the brain called the right pre-frontal cortex. More activity in the left pre-frontal cortex is linked to positive emotional responses.Dr. Richard Davidson, who led the research, studied 52 people aged between 57 and 60. Each of them was asked to recall one event which made them feel very happy, and one which left them feeling sad, afraid or angry.
The electrical activity in these parts of the brain was measured to check whether their left or right pre-frontal cortex was more active. Afterwards, each volunteer was given a standard flu vaccine shot. Vaccines work by eliciting an immune response which should hopefully persist and help the body tackle a genuine infection threat if it should arrive. Each research subject was tested over the following six months to gauge the success of the vaccine by measuring the levels of antibodies generated by the vaccine.
Those who had shown the most powerful right pre-frontal cortex activity also had the worst immune reactions. The reverse was true for those who had the most powerful reactions in their left pre-frontal cortex, the side associated with happy reactions. Dr Davidson said: "Emotions play an important role in modulating bodily systems that influence our health... We turned to the brain to understand the mechanisms by which the mind influences the body."

An Open letter to the Profession (First part)

Christopher Kent D.C., J.D., President, Council on Chiropractic Practice

Dear Chiropractic Colleagues

Your ability to offer subluxation/wellness care is being challenged as never before Insurers, managed care groups, state boards and other regulators are targeting subluxation centered chiropractors
One managed care group - with roughly half the U.S. profession as members, has identified 68 methods that would not be covered under their plan because they are considered unsubstantiated, unsafe, or both. Using 53 would render the practitioner ineligible to participate as a provider. On the list are upper cervical care, functional leg checks, AK, BEST, NET, NSA, the use of various instruments and vertex and nasium x-rays!

CCGPP is producing condition-based "best practices" which could adversely impact your ability to practice as you please. A chapter draft gave an “I” rating — indicating a lack of sufficient evidence to support a recommendation — to many services now offered by chiropractors, including "Spinal manipulation for health promotion and/or disease prevention." Case studies were excluded stating, "even though there are a large number of patients described in case reports, these reports can only provide evidence that patients with the conditions described have sought care from chiropractors; case reports cannot provide convincing evidence to support best practices."

Even if you are a cash practioner, you are not protected as regulators target your style of practice. Lifetime wellness care is being challenged by leaders of such “mainstream” groups as the WFC. The Secretary-General of the World Federation of Chiropractic, David Chapman-Smith has written:

There is a public and medical perception that chiropractic treatment is endless…. (T)he perception is fueled by and is consistent with some practices and some practice management schemes that boast lifetime care, promote unreasonable frequency of care, and press patients for large advance payments for future treatment. As has been the case in Australia recently, licensing boards need to deal aggressively with unprofessional behavior in these areas.”

Editors Notes: Where do I even begin here! Chiropractic has been treading on thin ice for the last 100 plus years because of being stuck in dogma. The question has never been about results but rather the challenge for the profession to come up with viable explanations and constructs of not only what we do, but how it gets results. The old Bone-on-nerve explanation has been invalid for at least 40 years and yet here we are still trying to defend it. Not only that, somehow it is now wrapped up in a package of very questionably ethical management programs.

Lord help this profession!!!

Then add to this mess, a lawyer (now that's a professional Image of which to be proud) running the Chiropractic profession from a medical model of diagnosis and treatment. Hey, Mr. Chapman-Smith, go straighten up your own profession or take some time to learn about Chiropractic.

First lesson - Chiropractic isn't medicine. Our philosophies are different and that doesn't mean that medicine is automatically right and ours wrong!
To start with we don't diagnose and next we don't treat! Chiropractic is not involved in the treatment of disease - that is medicine! We are not licensed to practice medicine; though many DCs would like to think they are MD s, it is not who we are!

This said, I agree with you with regard to the abuse in care management going on in the profession today.

I ask you however to consider this, what if we can prove by current accepted scientific computer based testing that:
1. the patient needs on going care to normalize neurological responses.
2. that this holds for children as well.
3. that we can demonstrate a change in the patient's neurological response during or after a specific duration of care.
4. that Chiropractic deals directly with neurological responses and is not based on the old bone on nerve concept.
Anyone interested? I’d love to demonstrate of what I write.

Health scare of the week - THE WEEK September 28, 2007

More bad drug reactions

All medications have the potential to cause serious side effects - a fact that people seeking relief from pain and disease symptoms often forget. But as Americans take more and more medications, reports of “adverse events” are soaring, says the Los Angeles Times. Nearly 90,000 bad drug reactions were reported in 2005, with many resulting in hospitalization and 15,100 ending in death. Those numbers have tripled since 1998, when the FDA made it easier for consumers to report side effects of their prescription drugs. Nearly nine out of 10 of the adverse reactions were attributed to just 20 percent of the drugs, some of which are commonly prescribed painkillers and immune system suppressants for arthritis. Five of the six drugs that caused the most deaths were painkillers: OxyContin, Fentanyl, morphine, acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol), and methadone. These same painkillers, along with estrogens, insulin, warfarin (an anti-clotting medication), and Paroxetine (an antidepressant ) caused the most nonfatal adverse reactions. “The clear finding is that we are losing ground in terms of drug safety,” says Thomas J. Moore of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. “That ought to be of great concern.”

Editors Notes: If this doesn't back up my last comment, then no one is paying attention. – Paroxetine (Paxil) research shows that it suppresses hippocampus activity and activates the frontal cortex - so thanks boys - by using this drug I can now have ongoing ruminating thoughts at a suppressed emotion level. That should make life worthwhile! Nothing but the best from Big Pharma!!!

A Bipolar Epidemic? THE WEEK September 21 2007

The number of new bipolar-disorder diag­noses in children has jumped dramatically in recent years, says a new study. Over the nine years between I994 and 2003, the number of children diagnosed with the mental disor­der increased by an astounding 4,000 per­cent, “I have been studying trends in mental health services for some time," study author Dr. Mark Olfson tells The New York Times, "This finding really stands out as one of the most striking increases in this short a time." Most of the kids diagnosed with bipolar dis- order, also known as manic depression, are treated with drugs, including anti-psychotics, mood stabilizers, antidepressants, and stimu­lants. The new finding comes amid growing concerns that kids are being overmedicated. "You get a sense looking at the data that doctors are generalizing from the adult lit­erature and applying the same principles to children," says Olfson. This can be danger­ous, because many of' the drugs were not designed for young bodies and brains.

Editors Notes: Don't you just love how the medical boys continue to create new crises which require more meds - then the more meds require more meds until real damage occurs. My challenge here - Diagnosis by whom and by what standard???? Sounds like another ADD/ADHD mess to me with teachers guessing at the need for care. We at CEO are miles ahead of all of this with Neurologically Based Chiropractic and the InVision unit. EEGs can prove if the 6 year old brain activity is underaroused, overaroused or shows bipolar shifts, and whether your care is changing the activity. How does it get any better than that?