Seniors & Alternative Medicine

by Cindy Hall & Dave Merrill

More than 80% of adults age 65 and older are aware of alternative medicine. Fewer than one-third have tried the following types:

	Chiropractic................................32%
	Massage Therapy......................16%
	Acupuncture................................9%
	Homeopathy................................4%
	Naturopathy.................................3%
	Chinese Medicine......................3%

USA TODAY...August 1999

Kids Catch, Keep Healthy Habits

Teaching children about the benefits of eating right and staying fit can have an impact long after the lesson is over, a study out today shows.

The report draws conclusions from the 4,000 eighth-graders in the study who say they still practice health habits learned in elementary school.

From 1991 through 1994, 96 ethnically and racially diverse elementary schools in California, Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas participated in the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH). Fifty-six schools took part in the health program; 40 did not and served as control groups.

The program targeted third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, considered the most receptive age group.

"They're old enough to start making decisions on their own, yet they're still very involved in their families," says Elaine Stone of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which financed the study.

Children were taught to classify foods into three groups: 90 (vegetables and fruits), slow (foods slightly higher in fat) and whoa (high-fat foods).

CATCH also encouraged gym teachers to use activities and sports that let every child become active. Researchers revisited the pupils three years later and found that children who were in the program maintained healthier lifestyles than those in the control group, with more physical activity and lower-fat diets.

While the results are encouraging, researchers are concerned that health differences between the groups could diminish by high school.

"The impact is fading," says Phillip Nader, the study's lead author. "We need to continue to give kids in middle and high schools these intervention opportunities to continue healthy behavior."

USA TODAY...July 1999

Yearly Health Review Finds USA's Kids Making Gains

By Steve Sternberg

America's children fare better on several fronts than in past years, with marked declines in teen smoking, infant and children mortality, teen pregnancy and teen crime, federal officials reported Thursday.

Despite the gains, most children and adolescents would benefit from better nutrition, particularly from drinking more milk and eating more fruits and vegetables.

The report is the government's third annual effort to gauge the health and well-being of the nation's children. A compilation of statistics from I11 government agencies, the report revealed a marked shift in economic status - more children in rich and poor families and fewer from middle-class families.

Health officials lauded the results, particularly the drop in teen smoking. "Finally, we've turned the comer on teen smoking," says Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

"After heading up every year since 1992, we've finally got a downtrend - from 25% among 12th-graders to 21%." Among other findings:

	Only one of every eight girls and four of every 10 boys get enough calcium to build strong bones by the time their bodies permanently stop storing calcium at age 20.
	Infant deaths continued to fall, reaching 7.1 per 1,000 live births, bringing the rate to within one-tenth of a percent of the Public Health Service goal for the year 2000. That's still almost twice as high as global leaders Japan and Finland.
	The percentage of children attending preschool programs increased. There was a 10% increase among black children from 1996 to 1997.
	The teen birth rate dropped from 38.7 births per 1,000 girls in 1991 to 32.1 in 1997.
	The gap between rich and poor widened. The proportion of children in high-income families (more than $64,599 for a family of four) grew from 17% in 1980 to 25% in' 1997. Overall, 19% were living in poverty (an income of $16,400 or less for a family of four), a proportion that hasn't changed much since 1980.

William O'Hare, of the Annie B. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, says that figure is depressing. "Even though the Dow Jones is at record levels and the unemployment rate is at a 25-year low, child poverty has only changed by a couple of percentage points., One-fifth of our children are still living in poverty," O'Hare says.

"It is even. more, telling because it forecasts the future," he says. Kids who grow up with Internet access, good schools and summer camp will go one way, O'Hare says. Kids who have no such advantages "are going another way."

USA Today...July 1999

Chiropractic Health Care Develops Course Guidelines

The chiropractic health care section is working to ensure that chiropractic students learn the importance public health has for themselves and their profession.

Section members are crafting a curriculum for use in U.S. chiropractic health colleges that will address a spectrum of public health issues. When it is completed later this year, the curriculum will be distributed to chiropractic college deans, course planners and chiropractic organizations as a teaching guide.

Chiropractic is a profession that really focuses on wellness, and meshes well with public health," said Lisa Killinger, DC, who with Cheryl Hawk, DC, PhD, co-chairs the project's committee. "We'd like to do a better job of telling our students what public health is about."

Section members started the project by surveying how public health is taught at chiropractic colleges and asking whether instructors were APHA members. The Section found that while public health is taught at all chiropractic colleges as part of a standard curriculum, courses vary from school to school or do not encompass a wide army of public health topics.

Some courses primarily focus on public health in terms of microbiology, or on topics such as environment and sanitation. By contrast, the Section's pro posed curriculum provides a broader view of public health, including health promotion, prevention and public health problems such as tobacco, drugs and violence.

"We want to bring both standardization and modernization to the public health information that is taught in chiropractic schools," said Rand Baird, DC, MPH, the Section's publicity chair. "Otherwise students may be unaware of the key role public health can play in chiropractic care."

The Section plans to ask that chiropractic certification exams include questions on a wider range of public health topics, using the curriculum as a guide. Chiropractic instructors may then be more open to expanding what they teach, Baird said.

The Chiropractic Health Care Section, upgraded from a Special Primary Interest Group in 1995, is APHA's most recently created Section. The Section's 400 members work to educate chiropractors about public health practices and programs and to involve chiropractors in cooperative public health efforts.

"The Chiropractic Health Care Section has come a long way within APHA, "Hawk said. "This project typifies the kinds of important strides its members can make in public health."

In 1983, APHA passed a resolution recognizing chiropractic spinal manipulation as "safe and effective for certain musculo-skeletal disorders, and particularly, low back pain." Seven of the accredited U.S. chiropractic colleges and two chiropractic associations are APHA agency members.

For more information on the curriculum project, contact Killinger at (319) 884-5854, e-mail killinger_l@palmer.edu or contact Hawk at (319) 884-5199, e-mail hawk_c@palmer.edu.

The Nations Health...June 1999

Pain Pills May Damage Kidney In Elderly

As people get older, they often experience more aches and pains due to everything from lack of exercise to arthritis. To combat that pain, many take over-the-counter or prescription medications such as ibuprofen or indomethacin. However, these drugs - which contain non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents, also known as NSAIDs - may increase their risk of kidney damage.

That was the conclusion reached by Dr. Terry S. Field of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, and colleagues reporting in the May 1999 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

"This study contributes to the growing, but not fully consistent, body of research suggesting that these agents may have an adverse impact on renal function in this population," the report warned.

Prior research has shown that frequent use of NSAIDs can impair kidney function in patients of all ages. However, this latest study indicates that it may be particularly damaging in older adults since they tend to have a weakening in normal renal function.

During the study of more than 4,000 elderly patients, researchers took blood samples and measured creatinine and blood urea nitrogen (BUN). Levels of these substances will increase in the blood if the kidney is damaged and unable to excrete waste. The study revealed that elderly patients who took NSAID users were nearly twice as likely to have abnormal results of these tests.