November 2007

Statistics spotlight US health care problems

The statistics are shocking. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States ranks 37th in the world's health systems. While the U.S. comprises just four percent of the world's population, its citizens take 42% of all the drugs manufactured in the world.

It gets worse. About one quarter of hospital stays are due directly to the side effects caused from prescribed, FDA‑approved drugs. Acute liver failure from the over‑the‑counter pain reliever, acetaminophen, causes 450 deaths annually. And, 150,000 individuals lost their lives last year from complications from drugs the FDA had approved as "safe and effective."

In comparison, dietary supplements cause less than .0001 percent of deaths (the lowest number on record), less than caused by insect stings or lightning, according Ron Law, former executive director of the New Zealand National Nutritional Foods Association. In fact, Law points out, dietary supplements have averaged fewer than five confirmed deaths per year over the past 25 years in the USA. Most of those relate to a single batch of genetically engineered tryptophan introduced in the late 1980s (www.laleva.cc/petizione/english/ronlaw_eng.html)

These figures come as no surprise to chiropractor‑turned‑ nutritionist and health care educator, Kurt Donsbach, who touted the benefits of vitamins and supplements long before the topic became popular in the mainstream press.

"Health is a frame of mind, a matter of attitude, of eating, and proper nutritional supplements," says Dr. Donsbach.

Seen by many in the "traditional" health‑care arena as a maverick, Donsbach encountered extreme opposition and criticism for promoting the use of dietary supplements. During his 50‑year career, he has been wrongfully accused of practicing medicine and has been forced to defend himself in court against those who had a financial stake in maintaining the status quo of the drug and medical establishment.

This kind of opposition is familiar to chiropractors. "To take in a new idea you must destroy the old, let go of old opinions, to observe and conceive new thoughts," BJ Palmer said. "To learn is but to change your opinion."

Yet times are changing and, in recent years, numerous medical studies have vindicated Donsbach's beliefs concerning the health benefits of nutritional supplements.

Prevailing medical opinion has slowly changed and MDs are re‑examining supplements and their relationship to overall health. Donsbach ‑‑ who still wears the "maverick" label with pride ‑‑ is no longer considered a crackpot but rather, a man who was ahead of his time by some five decades.

In fact, the use of dietary supplements is increasing significantly. A report in the Oct. 1997 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine revealed that almost one third of US children aged 18 and younger take some kind of dietary supplement, mostly multiminerals and multivitamins. Approximately 57% of American women and 47% of American men take dietary supplements, the researchers noted.

Even the Mayo Clinic, long noted for its reluctance to recommend any non‑medical approach to health, states that "Many people don't receive all of the nutrients they need from their diet because they either can't or don't eat enough, or they can't or don't eat a variety of healthy foods. For some people, including those on restrictive diets, dietary supplements can provide vitamins and minerals that their diets often don't. Pregnant women and older adults have altered nutrient needs and may also benefit from a dietary supplement."

Still, the medical industry often lags behind the chiropractic community in regard to nutrition and nutritional supplements. All too often, MDs practicing today received little or no formal education in nutrition and little financial incentive to "prescribe" supplements to patients.

More and more, patients are turning to chiropractors for advice on nutrition. The landmark 2003 report "How Chiropractors Think and Practice," published by the Institute for Social Research, confirmed the association between nutrition and chiropractic: 87.7% of chiropractors surveyed provided general nutrition advice and 72% gave specific vitamin and herbal recommendations. Almost all doctors of chiropractic (96.7%) said they felt giving such advice was appropriate to the practice of chiropractic.

With numbers like that, and people like Donsbach to lead the way, the chiropractic profession may be instrumental in changing the WHO numbers and putting the U.S back on top of the health care rankings.