Planet Chiropractic

Sometimes I skim through news articles so rapidly that I misread headlines. One part of my mind may be moving faster than I have a chance to process the information or I may simply be conditioned to read what I expect to see. It’s not uncommon for me to view headlines like “vacation policies must be changed” or “departments to fill vacancies” while my mind is doing a word twist resulting in me initially seeing words like “vaccination policies” and “fill vaccines.” I viewed some headlines on an Internet news page today that I thought read “medical terrorists” prompting me to do a double take and check the headlines again.

The importance of good nutrition for good health is not exactly news. Over 2,000 years ago Hippocrates advised, “Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.” But not until 1757 did Scottish physician James Lind become the first person to demonstrate a direct link between a major illness and a specific nutrient. Using one of the first controlled medical experiments in history, Lind showed that sailors supplied with citrus fruits and sauerkraut were able to avoid the telltale signs of scurvy: bleeding gums, rough skin, muscle weakness, poor wound healing, anemia and death.

It’s good news for tech folks, an even greater news for chiropractic tech folks, the greatly anticipated Apple iPhone goes on sale Friday. According to reports on several websites, and the presence of a new URL titled reader.mac.com, it looks as though the Apple iPhone is going to have its own RSS interface.

Bruce Willis, the man who starred in the greatest action movie of all time, is at it again, and he’s still doing his own stunts. The film, “Live Free or Die Hard”, opens nationwide in theaters this Wednesday, June 27, 2007. It’s the actor’s fourth in a series of Die Hard films, with the 1988 release recently being named “Greatest Action Movie of All Time” by Entertainment Weekly.

A fish out of water and a human without water are not so very different. A fish can survive outside water for a few minutes, while a human being can last only a matter of days without fresh drinking water. Our need for water is more immediate than our need for food, because we can live for thirty days or more without eating. Only air is more critical to short term survival than water.

Today we are celebrating nine years of delivering Chiropractic News online. These past few days I was taking a look at our news image archives and I saw the many faces of chiropractors that have had a part in making planet chiropractic a successful destination on the Internet. Not that many web sites can tout nine years of continuous original content development, and there’s no way planet chiropractic would’ve done this without the support received by thousands of chiropractors, chiropractic students, and advocates of chiropracticly based lifestyles. We’d like to thank everyone who has ever submitted an article (especially those that have written a significant amount of content), forwarded chiropractic news stories, and taken an active role helping us become the success we are today. Many blessings to you!

The Film Documentary by Michael Moore entitled “Sicko” has been pirated online and appeared this past weekend on Video Sharing Websites, on BitTorrent, and in UseNet groups.

My other chiropractor used to adjust me differently. “Are you going to do that thing my old chiropractor used to do?” “Wow, that was really different than my last chiropractic adjustment.” Ever wonder why chiropractors use different techniques? There are nearly as many ways to deliver a chiropractic adjustment as there are chiropractors. How is it possible that adjustments can be so different and still get good results?

Sherman College’s Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the appointment of Jon C. Schwartzbauer, D.C., as the fourth president of Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic.

I have been a chiropractor for over 15 years. When I went to Chiropractic College, there was an incredible complexity taught. At the time, it appeared that the goal of our college was to make us as much as possible like medical doctors. The implied thought was that there was something sacred or ultra important about the medical profession. In fact at that time, there was a huge push throughout the chiropractic profession to make us fit into the mainstream health care system of the time.

If you are traveling to New York City, be careful. Trans fats are now illegal in that town, so empty that stash of stick margarine from your trunk before you drive into the city. Word from the street is that they won’t arrest you for carrying a small quantity for personal use, but I wouldn’t push my luck.

When it comes to the press, the near 5000 parents suggesting vaccines were the cause of their child’s autism and who are seeking compensation from a federal vaccine fund, have a better chance of getting Paris Hilton elected as president in 2008 than they do getting their stories told without bias in the news.

Nearly 5,000 families of autistic children have filed claims for compensation from a federal vaccine injury fund, with many parents believing a mercury compound (thimerosal) found in vaccines is at least partly responsible for their childrens autism. Cases began being heard today in US court.

The International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA) is on a continued growth spurt and may soon become the largest organization representing chiropractors worldwide. While membership numbers in some US based national chiropractic associations have been dipping downward, membership in the ICPA has been continuing to grow, putting the Pennsylvania based international organization on track to become the largest professional organization to represent chiropractors and chiropractic students worldwide.

The Michael Moore I know is no Sicko, he is a third-generation chiropractor serving masses of people in Redding, California. Dr. Michael Moore is a 1980s graduate of Palmer Chiropractic College in Davenport, Iowa. Since that time, he has been serving not only his community with chiropractic care, he has educated hundreds of other chiropractors, and has participated in numerous humanitarian mission trips to other countries, bringing the wonders of chiropractic to those that would not have access to it otherwise.

Ever wonder what your chiropractor is doing on the weekend? Some may be golfing, fishing, exercising, spending time with family, organizing their chiropractic office, or participating in countless other activities that people typically do on the weekends. For those of you that are receiving chiropractic care, at times you may have heard your chiropractor mention they were going out of town for a conference, seminar, or some other chiropractic event. I recently spent some time with a chiropractor doing just that and wanted to share his story.

The current King of all Internet, Google has announced on Friday, another jewel in their crown, with the purchase of Chicago-based company FeedBurner. The Really Simple Syndication (RSS) company, FeedBurner, is a distributor of what is known as syndicated content, typically used with blogs, news and other media websites.

It’s May 31st, 2007 and I am excited about the Fedora Project and todays release of the Fedora 7 Operating System (aka Moonshine). It must be a Linux day since I posted earlier about Ubuntu installs on Dell. Anyway, I’ll be downloading Fedora 7 tonight and upgrading at least one of the servers (currently on Fedora core 6) we use here at Planet Chiropractic.

PC maker Dell recently announced that they will begin shipping computers in the USA loaded with Ubuntu, an open source community developed Linux based operating system that is loaded with features for the desktop user.

Thanks to advances in Internet technology such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS), web content that in the past may have only been available in one location, can now be distributed through a potentially unlimited number of channels, offering much greater access to the source information. For example, a current news article written about whales in San Francisco, could potentially appear in minutes across thousands of web sites thanks to the technology behind RSS.

I received my monthly “information age” e-newsletter from chiropractic internet company Now You Know (NYK) earlier today. As I browsed through the copy I found myself thinking “these guys are still right on and standing tall for chiropractic.” I figured it’s better to share some of those thoughts rather than just keeping them to myself.

Google’s announcement last week that they have begun incorporating video content, photo content, and other multimedia content, into regular organic search engine results, has motivated me to open up the channels so that people like you can have access to numerous feeds of chiropractic video.

A picture is worth a thousand words but written content is still king. This past weekend, Planet Chiropractic updated the way we do RSS feeds so that now images and photos can be included in the syndication of our news releases.

Early Saturday morning, May 19, professional golfer Bob Gilder was thinking of withdrawing from the Regions Charity Classic due to back problems he was having. According to news articles, the 56 year old, nine time winner on the 50 and over tour, was feeling very skeptical about golfing on Saturday, having concerns about his back.

John K. Maltby, DC, FICA, of Blythe, California has been honored as the 2007 Chiropractor of the Year by the International Chiropractors Association (ICA). Dr. Maltby was presented the Association’s highest honor at ICA’s 81st Annual Meeting in Washington, DC on April 28, 2007. This award, which was created by ICA’s Founder Dr. BJ Palmer in 1950, is presented annually to one exceptional individual who has distinguished themselves throughout their career through extraordinary service to the ICA and the chiropractic profession.

It seems the whole Search Engine Optimization world today was talking about the changes that just took place at Google. The search behemoth said on Wednesday that it was changing its approach to Internet searches by combining results from sources such as Google News, video, maps, and other Google properties, into organic search results.

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Tuesday (May 15, 2007) by voice vote approved six veterans’ health care bills that would expand free care for war veterans, establish brain injury research centers and make chiropractic care more accessible, according to news reports.

I received notice today from the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) that US Representative Bob Filner’s legislative initiative to provide program wide chiropractic staffing at all US Department of Veterans Affairs facilities, H.R. 1470, has passed out of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs and will now be considered by the Full House of Representatives.

The International Chiropractors Association (ICA), the world oldest international professional organization representing chiropractic minded individuals, was lead to action recently when a group representing state chiropractic associations issued a statement pushing for merger of the organization with another, the American Chiropractic Association (ACA).

Los Angeles: The New York Yankees and chiropractic have been in the news the past few weeks thanks to major-league baseball player Johnny Damon. In most recent news, the New York Times reported earlier this week that the Yankees would be hiring a team chiropractor, apparently on the advice of Johnny Damon.

Earaches bring more unhappy children to emergency rooms and pediatric offices each year than just about any other health disorder. Antibiotics remain the most popular medical treatment for earache, with doctors reportedly writing 15 million prescriptions per year in the United States alone. It is estimated that at least half of the prescriptions are unnecessary and ineffective for helping this problem.

Los Angeles: Keeping any organization going requires support and input from members. After all, it’s not one individual player that makes an organization successful, it’s the combination of working together as a team in pursuit of the organization’s mission that makes it so great.

This may come too late as voting on this bill was yesterday, April 25, 2007. Information is being included here on planet chiropractic for educational purposes only. A copy of the bill (AB 16) is available below PDF format. It is recommended that you visit the link for more information. A bill being considered by the California legislature would strip parents of the right to exempt their child from vaccination. California residents who wish to express their views on this should contact legislators immediately.

Southern California University of Health Sciences in Whittier, California is seeking a new college president after an announcement by Dr. Reed B. Phillips that he will be stepping down as the institution’s president. The California chiropractic college had been known as Los Angeles Chiropractic College (LACC) until only a few years ago when the school decided to add acupuncture to its curriculum and change the name of the institution to SCUHS.

Editor’s commentary: In March of 2007 Dr. Darrel Crain had an article published in a biweekly column of a local San Diego newspaper regarding the Human Papilloma Virus vaccine. With the author’s permission, a copy of that article appeared on Planet Chiropractic later that month. Apparently, a local San Diego orthodontist was not happy with the contents of the article that appeared in the San Diego newspaper.