"As the population ages and the first baby boomers hit their 60s in the next decade, record numbers of seniors are expected to seek out chiropractic treatment for what remains the most common health ailment among the elderly -- lower back pain.
"Indeed, at a time when other health care providers face slowed revenue growth, and in some cases lost ground due to managed care belt-tightening, chiropractors are poised for their flushest period yet."
Source: Excerpt from "Medicare Restriction on Chiropractic Care Lifted," September 8, 1997 edition of the Los Angeles Daily News.
Smoking Your Spine Away
"Chronic cigarette consumption has significant adverse effects on the human spinal column. Multiple mechanisms induced by tobacco use lead to less strong, less healthy, mineral-deficient vertebrae with reduced bone blood supply and fewer and less functional bone-forming cells among chronic smokers. Compared to nonsmokers, chronic smokers develop advanced bony degradation, are more likely to suffer from spinal column degenerative disease, and seem more susceptible to traumatic vertebral injury. Spinal fusion procedures in chronic smokers are less often clinically and radiographically successful, compared to similar procedures performed among nonsmokers for definitive biological, physiological, and mechanical reasons."
Source: Hadley MN, Reddy SV. Smoking and the human vertebral column: a review of the impact of cigarette use on vertebral bone metabolism and spinal fusion. Neurosurgery July 1997; 116-124.
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