CEO Newsletter 2008 - #4

CEO - Home of Neurologically Based Chiropractic

Contents
1. Ken’s Corner -
2. Battle Concussions Tied to Stress Disorder
3. Chiropractic Care May Help Adult ADHD

1. The Mystery of Chronic Pain Jan. 3: Many medical experts call it the country's No. 1 public health problem: Chronic, debilitating pain. NBC's Robert Bazell reports. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/10695935#10695935

Chronic pain a head case?Jan. 5: Scientists are using advances in understanding chronic pain and how much the brain controls its perception to help patients try to learn to control the pain. NBC's Robert Bazell reports. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/10726662#10726662

Editor’s notes: While speaking with Dr. Jay Holder last weekend, I heard him make a comment that I think is critical for this profession. The comment was, “From here on, Chiropractic needs to be a ‘heads up’ profession!” We continue to see the shift in the concepts of how Chiropractic activates the nervous system. This has never been a question with regard to Chiropractic care. Our great deterrent has been our steadfast defense of vertebral fixation and nerve root interference in defining how Chiropractic gets results. It is past time to let go of this concept. Chiropractic is much bigger than this!

2. Battle Concussions Tied to Stress Disorder By Benedict Carey - Published: January 31, 2008

About one in six combat troops returning from Iraq have suffered at least one concussion in the war, injuries that, while temporary, could heighten their risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder, researchers are reporting.

The study, in The New England Journal of Medicine, is the military’s first large-scale effort to gauge the effect of mild head injuries — concussions, many of them from roadside blasts — that some experts worry may be causing a host of undiagnosed neurological deficiencies.

The new report found that soldiers who had concussions were more likely than those with other injuries to report a variety of physical and mental symptoms in their first months back home, including headaches, poor sleep and balance problems. But they were also at higher risk for the stress disorder, or PTSD, and that accounted for most of the difference in complaints, the researchers concluded. Symptoms of the disorder include irritability, sleep problems and flashbacks.
Experts cautioned that the study had not been designed to detect subtle changes in mental performance, like slips in concentration or short-term memory, that might have developed in the wake of a concussion and might be unrelated to stress reactions. Many returning veterans are still struggling with those problems, which can linger for months.

The findings are in line with previous research linking concussions to post-traumatic stress disorder that develops after frightening events outside a military context, like car accidents; concussions from athletic collisions rarely lead to the disorder.
“This study is a very good first step, and an important one, but like any first step it should lead us to ask further questions about these injuries,” said Brian Levine, a neuropsychologist at the Rotman Research Institute and the University of Toronto, who was not involved in the study.
Now that the prevalence of combat concussions is better known, Dr. Levine said, the next step should be to assess troops’ cognitive functioning early on and track it over time, before and after combat.
In the study, military psychiatrists had 2,525 soldiers from two Army infantry brigades fill out questionnaires asking about missed workdays and dozens of kinds of physical and emotional difficulties, including symptoms of PTSD. The soldiers had been back home from Iraq for three to four months.
The questionnaires also asked about concussions and their severity. A concussion is an injury from a blow or shock to the head that causes temporary confusion or loss of consciousness, without any visible brain damage. The investigators found that 384 of the soldiers, or 15 percent, reported at least one concussion. One-third of that 15 percent had blacked out when injured.
The severity of the concussion was related to the risk of developing the stress disorder, the survey showed. Nearly 44 percent of the soldiers who had blacked out qualified for the diagnosis, about three times the rate found in soldiers with other injuries. Among soldiers who did not black out, the rate of PTSD was 27 percent, significantly higher than the 16 percent rate among veterans with other kinds of injuries.
“There’s a lot we don’t know about these injuries, but we do know that context is important,” said the lead author, Dr. Charles W. Hoge, director of the division of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. “Being in combat, you’re going to be in a physiologically heightened state already. Now imagine a blast that knocks you unconscious — an extremely close call on your own life, and maybe your buddy went down. So you’ve got the trauma, and maybe the effect of the concussion is to make it worse.”

In an editorial that accompanied the study, Richard A. Bryant, a psychologist at the University of New South Wales in Australia, emphasized that concussed troops “should not be led to believe that they have a brain injury that will result in permanent damage.”
On the contrary, Dr. Bryant and other experts say, the link to post-traumatic stress suggests that mild brain injuries have a significant psychological component, which can improve with treatment.
Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said the study, and the interest of doctors and military officials in brain trauma, were long overdue.

Editor’s notes: The InVision’s “Stress Response Evaluation” (SRE) reveals a tremendous amount of very valuable information. One of the interesting finds has been the number of adults displaying ADD type responses when even slightly stressed. Their brain response to stress goes to increased Theta activity (Light sleep-subconscious) rather then Beta activity (Alert -flight/fight). It is not a good idea to go to sleep when a car suddenly cuts in front of you. The latest research now suggests that there is a direct link to PTSD and ADD response patterns. The brain just shuts down when stressed. As we know brain response patterns are critical when dealing with health issues. This is why the Chiropractic profession desperately needs to look beyond x-ray analysis and range of motion to be able to determine the application and effectiveness of care.

3. Chiropractic Care May Help Adult ADHD
A pilot study, published in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research (www.jvsr.com), suggests that chiropractic care may help adults suffering from concentration problems and attention deficit (ADD/ADHD).
The study was performed by Yannick Pauli, DC, director of the "Centre Wellness NeuroFit" in Lausanne, Switzerland. Dr. Pauli is a chiropractor specializing in wellness neurology.
"In this pilot study, we used objective outcome measures to evaluate attention in nine adult patients before and after two months of wellness chiropractic care. All patients experienced significant improvement in concentration and 88% normalized parts of the test," explained Dr. Pauli. "Although the results are preliminary and more research is needed, the outcome of the study suggests that patients suffering from attention deficit benefited from chiropractic care."
Research has shown that the ability to concentrate is affected in a number of disorders such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), traumatic brain injuries, dementia, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
In the United States, between 1-6 percent of adults and 3-10 percent of children suffer from ADHD. Problems with attention go far beyond the ability to concentrate. Epidemiological studies have shown that individuals suffering from ADHD suffer greater risks associated with daily living such as higher rates of car accidents, increased risk of substance abuse, greater risk of failing school, increased likelihood of divorce and even greater difficulty managing money.
According to Pauli, concentration problems affect all parts of our life and even possibly our ability to heal. Although most people think of attention as the ability to focus on the external world only, new health paradigms indicate that we can direct our attention inward as well. The clinical experience of Pauli and his colleagues suggests that our ability to heal is highly dependent upon the ability of our brain to pay attention to what is going in the body.
"Studies done with people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suggest that those patients suffer when parts of their brain become deactivated, such as the prefrontal cortex, while others become hyperfunctioning," Pauli noted." Our hypothesis is that this leads to an inability for the brain to pay attention to the body's internal processes, resulting in decreased body awareness and decreased ability to access healing resources. Our study is part of a first attempt to document whether chiropractic care could be helpful to improve attention, and therefore all areas of life that are dependent upon this crucial cognitive function."
Usually, attention deficit is a clinical diagnosis. But to avoid potential subjectivity, Pauli used an objective measure of attention, called a continuous performance test. "It is a computer-based evaluation that objectively measures various parameters of attention" he explained. "This system is also used by some neurologists and psychiatrists to find the exact dosage of medication they are going to prescribe for attention deficit sufferers. Our preliminary results suggest that attention can be improved naturally with chiropractic."
The connection between attention, a process occurring in the brain, and chiropractic, which is generally associated with spinal health, is not readily obvious to most people. Yet, the research emphasizes the direct link between the spine and brain activity.
"As a chiropractor specializing in wellness neurology, I understand that the spine is as much about neurology as it is about biomechanics" Pauli states.
The articulations and the muscles of the spine are rich in mechanoreceptors, which are sensors that send information to the nerve system. "Each time we work with the spine, we activate neurological circuits in the direction of the brain and bring the nerve system into balance," the researcher says.
Pauli also notes that chiropractors affect, in particular, a small part at the back of the brain called the cerebellum. Studies have shown that this structure is involved in attention. "Higher parts of the brain are also dependent upon the proper balance and function in the cerebellum," he elaborated. "If the cerebellum does not function at par, the rest of the brain becomes somewhat clumsy and by activating the spinal receptors and balancing the cerebellum, we help the brain function better."
According to Matthew McCoy, DC, editor of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research, "this preliminary study is exciting. It is part of an increasing amount of research suggesting that chiropractic care may be an effective natural choice for people suffering from ADD/ADHD. It offers the possibility of a new option for millions of children and adults that are seeking to manage their conditions naturally."

Editor’s Note: Need I say more – visit the web site - Ask for the free report - Call DeDe for more information or just pick up the phone and Call me

Ad Summum Nitamur!

Richard G. Barwell, DC,Chiropractic Equity Offices Inc., #503 - 188 Pinellas Lane, Cocoa Beach Fl, USA – 32931 Phone 321 868 5690 E-mail: tequityc@aol.com Web site: http:www,subluxationinhd.com

CEO Newsletter 2008 #3

Contents
1. We Get Letters
2. Stress is a Killer at Work, say Doctors
3. Linking Your Cholesterol To Stress
4. Selling Monkeys

1. We Get Letters
Hi Richard, - Thanks a great call again last night.

I would like to acknowledge you and Susan and all the people associated with CEO for all the hard work that you do and have done. Your commitment to Chiropractic, to health and to the globe is an inspiration.

I thought that I could express to you my experience with CEO in my first year. My first year with CEO was one of the most challenging but also rewarding years that I have had as a chiropractor. This year saw many changes take place within the practice across the board from our dialogue, technique, hiring new staff, our health care class and the understanding about what it is that we do in the practice. To illustrate the changes, our declaration of intent changed and evolved 5 times to where it is now.
For me the most significant changes and growth occurred with my understanding of the nervous system, the brain, consciousness and how we as chiropractors with the adjustment can influence and engage the nervous system on profound levels. I also understand and acknowledge that it is so much more than that.
I have also had the opportunity to read the Green books with new eyes and understanding with all the conversations and information that I got from our discussions and conference calls.

In short, my science, art and philosophy has been significantly engaged and awoken and I am very grateful to CEO for that.
Thank you

Ricardo Jorge D.C.
Editor’s notes: Thanks Ricardo, Your commitment to Neurologically Based Chiropractic will change the course of the profession in South Africa. I know that you have already reached across the ocean, and because of your efforts we now have a CEO member in Dubai. I do hope you are successful in getting me to speak at the South African Congress.

2. Stress is a Killer at Work, say Doctors - Wednesday January 23 2008 - Independent.ie
Work really can kill you, according to a new study providing the strongest evidence yet of how on-the-job stress raises the risk of heart disease by disrupting the body's internal systems.
The findings from a longrunning study involving more than 10,000 British civil servants also suggest stressinduced biological changes may play a more direct role than previously thought, said Tarani Chandola, an epidemiologist at University College London. “This is the first large-scale population study looking at the effects of stress measured from everyday working life on heart disease,” said Chandola, who led the study.
Sceptical “One of the problems is people have been sceptical whether work stress really affects a person biologically.” Heart disease is the world's leading cause of death. It is caused by fatty deposits that harden and block arteries, high blood pressure which damages blood vessels, and other factors. The researchers measured stress among the civil servants by asking questions about their job demands such as how much control they had at work, how often they took breaks, and how pressed for time they were during the day. The team conducted seven surveys over a 12-year period and found chronically stressed workers — people determined to be under severe pressure in the first two of the surveys — had a 68pc higher risk of developing heart disease. The link was strongest among people under 50, Chandola said. “This study adds to the evidence that the work stress-coronary heart disease association is causal in nature,” the researchers wrote in the European Heart Journal. Behaviour and biological changes likely explain why stress at work causes heart disease, Chandola said. For one, stressed workers eat unhealthy food, smoke, drink and skip exercise all behaviours linked to heart disease.
In the study, stressed workers also had lowered heart rate variability — a sign of a poorly functioning weak heart — and higher-than-normal levels of cortisol, a “stress” hormone that provides a burst of energy for a fight-or-flight response. Too much cortisol circulating in the blood stream can damage blood vessels and the heart, Chandola said. “If you are constantly stressed out these biological stress systems become abnormal,” Chandola said.

Editor’s notes: Thanks to Dr. Tammy Verlaan for this article. Once I read it I thought the next article from Dr. Rich Aplin was a perfect follow up - thanks to Dr. Aplin as well. Dr. Aplin runs a Chiropractic office called InVision Chiropractic and it is a 100% CEO Neurologically based, InVision supported office.

3. Linking Your Cholesterol To Stress
NEW YORK - For some people, the body's reaction to stress may raise the odds of developing high cholesterol, the results of a new study suggest. Researchers in the U.K. found that healthy middle-age adults whose cholesterol rose in response to a stressful task were more likely than their peers without this increase to have high cholesterol several years later.
It's been known that blood cholesterol can show a short-lived rise in response to stress. The new findings suggest that these transient increases may predict long-term elevations in cholesterol. A number of studies have linked chronic stress to a higher risk of heart disease, and it's possible that stress-related changes in cholesterol may contribute.

To see if stress-related spikes in cholesterol can have long-range effects, the researchers followed 199 middle-aged adults over 3 years. At the start of the study, participants performed two moderately stressful computer-based tasks; blood samples were taken before and after the tests to measure any changes in cholesterol levels. The men and women were then divided into three groups based on the extent of their cholesterol response.

Three years later, participants had their blood cholesterol measured again. Those in the group with the greatest cholesterol response to stress were the most likely to have high cholesterol. Overall, 56

percent had a total cholesterol level that surpassed the cut-off for diagnosing high cholesterol, compared with only 16 percent of the group whose cholesterol levels had been least affected by stress.

Changes in metabolism
Even when the researchers weighed other factors such as age, body weight and smoking, the group with the highest stress response was 13 times more likely than the group with the lowest response to have high cholesterol 3 years later. They were also four times more likely to have high levels of LDL cholesterol, the "bad" form that contributes to artery-clogging plaques.

The findings suggest that chronic stress can contribute to high cholesterol in some people, though the reason is unclear. One possibility, they note, is that changes in metabolism in response to stress ultimately cause the liver to boost production of LDL particles.

There is also evidence that stress can temporarily limit the body's clearance of cholesterol from the blood. According to the researchers, it's possible that such effects could be modified if people changed their conscious reactions to stress.

Stress management has been shown to lower levels of the stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine. However, to date, no study has been conducted linking stress management to lowering cholesterol.

Dr. Aplin’s Note:
It is amazing that I was having this very conversation with some patients last week. Let me offer some “light” to “The Rest of the Story”. When our nerve system adapts poorly to stress, our body releases stress hormones. It does so as part of the “fight or flight” response. These stress hormones are inflammatory products and are released into your bloodstream. Cholesterol is released, as a protective measure, in response to these inflammatory products – to cover areas of irritation along the arterial walls. The body may use this process as a feedback mechanism to monitor its response to stress.

Reducing this protective material with cholesterol reducing drugs may well worsen the stress response. This may be the missing link in the increased occurrence of life threatening cardiac arrest and the use of cholesterol reducing drugs.

Improving the stress response makes more sense than ever before. The Center for Family Wellness is dedicated to helping our family of patients improve their stress response.

To learn more, ask about our NeuroDynamics Program.
Dr. Aplin

4. Selling Monkeys
Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 ! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. 'Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.' The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere! Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.

Editor’s Note: Nuff said!

Ad Summum Nitamur!

Richard G. Barwell, DC,
Chiropractic Equity Offices Inc.,
#503 - 188 Pinellas Lane, Cocoa Beach Fl, USA – 32931
Phone 321 868 5690
E-mail: tequityc@aol.com
Web site: http:www,subluxationinhd.com