Planet Chiropractic

Fluoride recently began flowing through the tap water into millions of Southern California households. But the pipeline of information to warn the public about fluoride exposure is apparently clogged up with something.

The Associazione Italiana Chiropratici (AIC) has announced that 17 years after the presentation of the first law proposal for professional recognition, on December 21, 2007, chiropractic was recognized by the Italian Parliament as a primary health care profession. For more than three decades, the AIC has led a determined struggle to secure this vitally important legal recognition for chiropractic, in the face of equally determine medical opposition.

A summary of news articles posted since January 1 of 2008. The year kicked off with information about seminars to attend, news regarding money in politics, information about the storms that hit California, tips on healthy living, and more.

The opportunity to work with some of the greatest chiropractors on the planet and practice in an office of your dreams is available right now. Doctors of chiropractic graduating from US educational systems may soon find themselves practicing in chiropractic offices and wellness centers that provide them with everything they could desire when graduating from chiropractic college. These opportunities will not be available to unmotivated slackers and whiners, they will be fulfilled by hard-working and dedicated chiropractors that intend to see our nation get healthy, regardless of presidential nominations and US politics on health care policy.

I don’t know anyone that likes paying insurance deductibles but this is the time of year that they roll back to zero. If you haven’t made your insurance based visit to a health-care provider of this month, it’s likely you’ll be facing a new deductible, and it may be higher than it was in 2007.

This is the time of year when many of us begin counting carbohydrates, make plans to lose 18 pounds in four days, start checking out the rates on personal fitness trainers and local fitness facilities, begin smoking cessation programs, and even commit to environmental programs that will help us to enjoy a healthier and more sustainable planet. You may not be melting the fat away but 10 chiropractors from across the United States have offered some simple tips on better living in 2008.

Hurricane strength winds, mudslides, and as much as 10 feet of snow is not typical weather for any part of California. A series of storms have began hitting the state, with the northernmost parts of California experiencing the most rain and heavy winds. At the time of this post it’s raining in Cloverdale, Fairfield, Sacramento, Stockton, San Francisco and surrounding areas. Parts of Los Angeles are experiencing scattered showers.

During the past 10 years, national chiropractic associations have swung back and forth on financial support for both the Republican and Democratic parties. That trend continues as the 2008 election cycle is showing current chiropractic contributions are leaning back towards democratic candidates after three election cycles of primarily Republican support. Will 2008 be the year that chiropractic organizations go Democrat?

Happy 2008! A new year means new conference and seminar schedules for the health-care industry of chiropractic. Professional events for chiropractors are held worldwide and there’s lots of opportunity to attend a number of great conferences this year. I’ve compiled a brief list of known upcoming events taking place during the month of January 2008 along with some general information regarding attendance.

There is likely not many places you’ll go this holiday season where you can find bones hanging on the Christmas tree. They may be made of plastic, but this crazy chiropractor in Los Angeles likes to decorate the chiropractic Christmas tree with little spine key chains, which get handed out to patients during the upcoming week of Christmas. It beats giving them sugary candy canes.

Health-care related topics are reported to be one of the most researched topics on the internet, especially when one suspects they have symptoms of a particular disease or condition. A brief scanning of today’s health related news returns headlines related to carcinogens, bird flu, cancer risks, over-the-counter drug safety questions, prescription medication safety concerns, breast cancer and chemotherapy, vaccine recalls, reports of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in hospitals, and stories of mercury found in eye products like eyeliner and mascara. Nearly every major media web site features at least one health section that provides original health-care related content, or aggregates syndicated content from other popularly known health resources.

Don’t expect to read an article like this in the mainstream media. In the past three months internet supporters of 2008 presidential hopeful Ron Paul have worked tirelessly to push the Texas congressman’s website into the status of most popular among all those in the race for the 2008 US presidency. Had I not performed the research and recorded the data back in September of 2007, I may not have believed what I discovered today, people are increasingly becoming addicted to the Ron Paul Revolution.

I’ve noticed an increased amount of lists from 2007, top 10 articles of 2007, “best of” styled articles, and reviews from the year gone by on various websites. We’ve never really done month end reviews on Planet Chiropractic but after taking a look at some of the articles that appeared at the beginning of this year I noticed several that new readers may have passed up. Don’t expect me to do a review of every month in 2007 (I’m getting ready to go on vacation) but I’ll scan through some of the years previous articles and compile some kind of a list.

Small-business industries (like the chiropractic industry) are finalizing their conferences and continuing education seminars for the 2007 season. This is the time of year hotels are booked for holiday parties and festivities rather than professional advancement and educational seminars. Before you know it we’ll be in January of 2008 and business professionals will be scheduling out plans for conferences to attend. While it’s earlybird time and not everyone has yet posted schedules, an increasing number of 2008 chiropractic conferences are appearing in the Planet Chiropractic Seminar Database. Events can not only be searched and browsed via areas of interest, continuing education value, and title, users can select by hotel or resort.

The International Chiropractors Association is pleased to announce it will conduct its landmark Chiropractic Wellness Certification series for 2008 in Dallas, Portland and Philadelphia. “This groundbreaking educational program has proven to be one of the most successful certification offerings in chiropractic.

Among the most popular content searched on Planet Chiropractic is information regarding chiropractic employment, chiropractic jobs, salaries, income, and other career related topics. Those searches range from people seeking basic information about becoming a chiropractor, to specific resource information regarding job applications and hiring. The profession of chiropractic was ranked #4 among top jobs for 2005-2009 by Fast Company, and the industry was recognized as a popular choice for many young adults.

Bricks and mortar businesses, like chiropractic offices and dental clinics, are increasingly looking to the Web for online advertising opportunities. Some small-business owners are conducting their own local search paid advertising campaigns, also known as PPC, and many have signed up for programs that are managed by Internet yellow page companies. Here is some information I’ve gathered while traveling.

The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada will be host to an SEO Texas Holdem Poker Tournament on Thursday, December 6, 2007. The event is sponsored by Planet Chiropractic, Best of the Web, Chipotle, and SEOish.com. The idea for the tournament came from a San Diego chiropractor who has recently launched a company that will focus on search engine optimization services for chiropractors.

Taking the time to prepare goals and marketing ideas is important for any business. Those that are self-employed and those that run small businesses typically have to take on these tasks themselves, as there is no one organizing corporate goal setting events or marketing strategy meetings for the upcoming year. Entrepreneurial small-business owners must remain disciplined, and take things into their own hands, in order to celebrate their victories at the end of the 2008 season.

The Writers Guild of America strike has affected many businesses that you wouldn’t necessarily suspect had anything to do with the film industry. A chiropractor’s office located nearby a major studio would be one of those businesses.

News over the weekend regarding fluoride in tap water is evidence that the debate regarding the safety and effectiveness of the chemical process continues to be heated discussion.

I’m breaking from our traditional news today to cover some topics that are relevant to the Thanksgiving holiday activities going on the next few days in the United States. My office is located very close to LAX airport in Southern California and we’ve experienced a significant increase in travel related traffic.

Seminars for healthcare professionals typically focus on topics that are required for gaining continuing education credits in the state an individual is practicing in. For example, the state of California has a 12 hours per year requirement on continuing education for doctors of chiropractic that want to maintain active license status. While many of these 12 hour educational programs are typically taught over weekends in hotels, the chiropractic profession hosts a number of large events (some that also include education credits) that cater towards chiropractors and their families, other health-care professionals, and even the general public.

There’s been a number of Ritalin and ADHD drug related articles in the news this past week. Some articles suggest that the use of Ritalin shows no long-term benefit and others suggest ADHD drugs may be stunting the growth of children.

Not too many years ago, the search for employment as a chiropractor typically required contacting local chiropractic colleges for job postings, checking quarterly industry related health journals for back page advertisements, and scanning through classified ads of print publications and magazines geared toward the profession of chiropractic. Like so many other disruptive methodologies that have changed the way we do things, platforms that provide niche classified advertising in a centralized location are changing the ways we seek employment, products and services.

California Rep. Bob Filner has introduced vitally important legislation, HR 1471, the “Better Access to Chiropractors to Keep our Veterans Healthy Act (BACK Veterans Health Act),” which would provide for urgently needed reforms in the way veteran beneficiaries of the US Department of Veterans Affairs can access chiropractic services.

Each flu season between 5 and 20 percent of the population suffer symptoms of flu-related illness. Flu seasons come and go, and occasionally the flu shot is a “good match” with laboratory-confirmed influenza. Participation in the flu shot program has grown sharply during the past thirty years, but the death rate from flu-related illness has remained virtually unchanged the whole time.

Palmer College of Chiropractic’s Executive Director for Research Christine Choate, D.C., Ph.D., announced that the College recently received official notice of a grant award from the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. This is a one-year grant for $110,000, with an option for an additional three years at a total of approximately $750,000. This grant will aid in Palmer’s ongoing efforts to further develop faculty, create a more evidence-based curriculum and expand research efforts throughout the College.

Planet Chiropractic has teamed up with Stephen Colbert and others to produce a film that may just change the world, for at least one second. While Colbert, known to many as the greatest living American, has made a financial commitment to be a producer on this project, I decided to represent chiropractic in a big way with nearly double the funds (in cash!), so we could have our name on the credits above his, just in case Colbert became our next president of the United States.

Around October 23rd I received an e-mail from someone representing the network operations department that hosts web servers for Planet Chiropractic. It was one of those e-mails that would likely not be welcomed by many as it results in us investing a significant amount of money towards greater resources for the web site and related hosting servers.

Very young children come down with colds. Agreement with this statement is universal among parents, pediatricians, drug makers, and even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But there is less agreement over whether or not medicine is helpful to little ones suffering from a cold.

Numerous companies and corporations throughout the United States have made significant displays of generosity towards those affected by the 2007 California wildfires. While those actions are appreciated by many, there are thousands of people that dedicated their time and talents during the past two weeks, that the major media will less likely report about.

Thank you to all the friends, family, and colleagues who have been calling and e-mailing with concerns about our safety and well-being here in Southern California. I put together a list of charities and organizations that are accepting financial contributions intended to help those affected by the 2007 Southern California Wildfires.

There’s nothing like getting away from your daily activities to open up your mind to other possibilities and perceptions of the world in which we live. My favorite travel is international but I take advantage of opportunities for lots of local trips on weekends. Living close to Los Angeles International Airport I am fortunate that there’s plenty of affordable opportunities for travel that can be done over the weekend. I typically travel at least twice a month for chiropractic events but I find it’s also important to do some non-chiropractic related travel once in awhile.

I found a web site today that has organized a list of online mapping locations for the fires in Southern California.