Discerning Hype From Science
Having a hard time discerning hype from science? As I come across good references I’ll pass them along on this part of our site. This includes on-line information, books, texts, journals, articles, and “good-as-gold” connections. Word of mouth referral is a way many people find their doctors. If you like what you see, send me someone I can help. I’ll put you in touch with health care providers I respect as well.
It’s like having a whole new horizon.
The information revolution has confused a great many people. Never has it been so
easy to research a topic, but what are you really reading? It’s time to ask critical questions. Is it accurate? Is it a double-blinded controlled trial, a retrospective study, or an anecdotal clinical experience?
Applying a double-blinded controlled trial may not be relevant when trying to understand something with origins that are multifactoral. Was it a research article published in a juried journal? If it was, does that make it the truth? Not always. There are all kinds of agendas and biases out there. Some research projects are poorly designed, and the results can be slanted by research funding or the researcher’s own bias. Lobbyists: from food producers, international corporations, Wallstreet, to pharmaceutical interests, are often ghost writing their “proof”, and influencing outcomes. Get Smart! Be enquiring.
Is it something sensational you read in a magazine? Who wrote it? Do they have any credentials at all, or are they just repeating opinions from other articles in the news? Just because a person is a writer, and writes an article on a health matter, doesn’t mean the information contained in it is good science. Just because someone with initials behind his or her name, signed on a research article, doesn’t mean he or she did it, nor that they were not influenced by those funding the research, and often receiving a stipend or payoff for the signature.
I’ll link you to good journals, or special articles, on hot health topics in the news on this page and others, information you can trust.
You might want to do a little “surfing” and see what comes up. Here’s a pretty good beginning over here on the right.
On the chiropractic sites, you can often research a condition.
What I’ve Learned for You Lately
Seminars, Symposiums and Relicensing
June 15, 16, 17, 2011 The California Chiropractic Association’s Annual Convention in Reno, Nevada. 12 hours in treating athletic injuries, orthopedic testing, chiropractic adjusting review. Review of chiropractic practice ethics, and changes in the laws governing our scope of practice.
May 21-24, 2010 Institute for Functional Medicine presented their annual symposium on cancer, at the La Costa Spa in Carlsbad California, home of Deepak Chopra. Over 28 hours.
“The 360 Degree View: Cancer as a Chronic Disease.” This seminar explored chemotherapy, nutritional therapies, prevention from an exposure and genetic risk context, bringing hundreds if not thousands of doctors of like mind, from all over the world, to learn and rethink and cooperate about how our view of cancer, can change the outcomes.
May 15, 2010, Adjusting the Mind, Dr. Mark Schillinger, San Jose, 12 hrs. A relicensing course aimed at focusing chiropractors on making a healing connection with each patient during each visit, that calms the mind, “adjusts our thinking” which affects how healthy we are in our daily lives.
July 25, 2009
Radiology 5 hours, Adjustive technique 4 hours, Tong Relicensing, Bakersfield CA
March 1, 2009
The Future of the Clinic, Long Beach, CA
Topics: Dr. Jeffrey Bland, PhD, Biochemist/ Metagenics Research Center Gig Harbor, WA
Addressing the Paradigm Shift in the treatment of Chronic Illness, with Natural Interventions, 6 hours
Nutritional Factors That Affect Genomic Stability•Biological Aging: Protecting Telomeres•Systems Biology as a New Model of Human Disease as a Network of Factors• Immune Factors in Autoimmune Disorders/Hormonal/Environmental/
•The Role of Inflammation in Cardiometabolic Syndrome
1. •Interventions that Lower CRP
2. • The Liver-Brain Connection to Neurotoxicity
3. • The Connection between Persistent Organic Pollutants and Diabetes,
Bridging LIFESTYLE MEDICINE and SYSTEMS BIOLOGY in Clinical Practice
Jeffrey S. Bland, PhD 6 hours -Note, I was unable to attend this seminar
•Vascular diseases
•Type 2 Diabetes
•Metabolic Syndrome
•Osteoporosis
Updated information on the IFM approach to using a systems biology model; focusing on treating the central, underlying physiological dysfunctions in various chronic diseases.
New validated clinical markers
Latest published research in lifestyle medicine for managing disease and applying it in practice ( in most cases without medicine or invasive procedures).
What I’ve Read for You Lately
These are a few of the publications I read that are specific to the work I do, and what I try to stay abreast of clinically.
•Alternative Therapies In Health and Medicine
•Integrative Therapeutics
•Spine Journal
•Journal of Manipulative and Physiologic Therapeutics
•Neurology Reviews
•The New England Journal of Medicine
•Natural Solutions
•American Journal of Medicine
•JANA; Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association
•CCA Journal; Journal of the California Chiropractic Association
•ACA Journal; Journal of the American Chiropractic Association
Other Links
Here’s one to get you logging in the miles you cover exercising, as if you are traversing the U.S. http://exercise.lbl.gov/index.html
Watch yourself get healthier and cover some ground at the same time.
Good Blogs
Karenkrahldc.wordpress.com
Check out Dr. Mark Hyman on the Huffington Post, under “Living”, also Alison Rose Levy’s blog on Integrative Health, Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Samuel Epstein, Dr. Frank Lipman, Dr. Mercola, Dr. Teresa Bourchart,
Favorite Research and informational Links
Click on the following url. For those with glasses the larger rendition is below.
This is a link to a site where my registered patients can subscribe to a great newsletter, and order the nutrients I may have recommended. It is a good source of scientific information on a broad number of topics and conditions.
http://thehumantouch.meta-ehealth.com/http://thehumantouch.meta-ehealth.com
The California Chiropractic Association, also a good place to weigh in politically to protect your rights as a chiropractic consumer.
They have a user friendly site also called www.californiachiropractic.com
The National Institutes of Health, a site with credible research, a place to get grants to do research.
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
This a wing of the NIH, and a great place to look up studies and research on herbs, nutrients, chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, etc.
The American Chiropractic Association, a national site where you can get good information as a chiropractic patient, and healthcare consumer.
Neurology Reviews, a place to get highly technical information on neurologic illnesses and conditions, such as Parkinson’s Disease, Lewy Body Dementia, and Alzheimer’s Disease.
The Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research, newsy site for chiropractors and those interested in what the profession is doing internationally.
htt://fcer.org
The World Federation of Chiropractic, This organization keeps chiropractors in touch with one another globally and conducts symposiums that bring us all together. This May 2009 the meeting is in Toronto. It is how you keep informed in regard to what countries are now building chiropractic schools and which countries have now licensed chiropractic. Watch us grow.
Up To Date, a website for doctors, patients, and educators, mostly conventional western medicine/allopathic medical approaches and pharmaceutically driven information.