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Here's what our members are saying about us...
"In late February, the local CBS affiliate ran a 3 minute "public interest" (?) story on 2 women that feel they were injured by a chiropractic adjustment. While my patients trust me and what I do to be safe, like most chiropractic patients, they needed help talking to friends and family members about the safety and effectiveness of their choice to continue getting adjusted.
Less than 2 weeks after the TV story, the In Touch Newsletter arrived at my door with its lead article being a review of the Spine article showing no statistical connection between chiropractic adjustments and stroke. I loved it. It is displayed prominently in my office."
Dr. Tim Knight
Arlington, MA
"Voice For Health is so well received - patients ask for them. It is a wonderful publication, entertaining and informative in the right kind of language."
Dr. Gerald Arndt
Coshocton, OH
"Thanks for your commitment to the cause and your great Voice For Health publication over the years."
Dr. Robson Timbs
Malvern, South Australia
"Continuous patient education is a MUST. The problem is, how do you do this and keep it fresh, interesting, and informative all at the same time? That’s where Dr. Kim Stetzel’s WEEKLY HANDOUTS Program comes in! She’s done the work. She’s created interesting and informative, full color handouts. All you have to do is put them in your patient’s hands and let the handouts speak for themselves! I highly recommend this program for anyone who is interested in growing and maintaining a Lifetime Family Wellness practice."
Dr. George Auger
Greenville, SC
"What a great program. With our busy schedule, we didn’t always get time to put out regular patient education. Now, we just print out quality, full color, professional looking handouts on our color printer each week. WOW! thanks for taking the work out of consistent patient education."
Drs. Kevorkian & Giuliano
Westwood, MA
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Death Rates for Flu Vary Widely from Year to Year
Michael Smith, MedPage Today
August 26, 2010
Death rates associated with influenza vary widely
from season to season, but are markedly higher when the more lethal
H3N2 strains are prominent among circulating flu variants, according to
new CDC estimates.
During those flu seasons in which H3N2 flu
predominated, the average mortality was 2.7 times higher than in
seasons when other strains were prominent, David Shay, MD, of the CDC,
and colleagues reported.
Over 31 consecutive flu seasons, on average there
were about 23,600 deaths a year linked to the flu -- varying from a low
of 3,349 deaths in 1986-1987 to a high of 48,614 in 2003-2004 -- Shay
and colleagues wrote in the Aug. 27 issue of Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report.
A central message of the new flu death estimates,
which add data for another four years to previous tallies, is that
"there are very few average seasons," Shay told reporters.
According to Shay, the death rate from flu depends
on four main factors -- circulating strains of flu viruses, the length
of the flu season, how many people get sick, and who gets sick -- and
it is impossible to predict whether the rates will be low or high for
any given season.
And, he added, researchers still "don't know many of
the factors that lead to these dramatic differences" between seasons --
including why seasons in which H3N2 strains were prominent had a higher
death rate.
A widely reported average of 36,000 influenza deaths
a year, Shay said, was based on earlier CDC data and refers only to the
years 1990 through 1999. But of the nine flu seasons in that period, he
said, eight had the more deadly H3N2 strain as a prominent player,
which led to the higher estimate.
The agency used statistical modeling to extract
estimates from death certificate data starting in the 1976-1977 flu
season, Shay and colleagues reported.
In all seasons, they found that pediatric deaths
from flu were the minority -- ranging from a low of 57 in 1981-1982 to
a high of 197 in 1977-1978.
The vast majority of deaths -- averaging more than
90%, Shay said -- occurred among people 65 and older, ranging from a
low of 2,344 in the 1986-1987 flu season to a high of 43,727 in
2003-2004.
Among the adult population, the lowest death rate
was 504 seen in 1981-1982 and the highest was 4,752 in 2003-2004, the
researchers found.
The CDC analysis has some limitations, the researchers noted.
Specifically:
- The statistical models do not take into account other pathogens,
such as respiratory syncytial virus, which circulate at the same time
as the flu.
- Estimates over time might not be comparable because national
influenza testing practices have changed over the past decade.
- Increases in the number of Americans 65 or older could have
contributed to a general increase in influenza-associated mortality.
- Because they rely on death certificate data, flu mortality
estimates are not directly comparable to preliminary estimates of
deaths associated with the 2009 H1N1 pandemic strain -- for which death
certificates are not yet available.
The study was prepared by the CDC. Authors are officials of the agency.
Primary source: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
Source reference:
Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention "Estimates of deaths associated with
seasonal influenza -- United States, 1976-2007" MMWR 2010; 59: 1057-1062.
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