Putting The Stroke Issue to Bed

Where I talk about the neurologist saying that these are common, well, these have a tendency to focus on neurologists over time and the aggregates, so in his or her world they become relatively more common. In the world of the coroner and the world of the chiropractor, in the world of the cardiologist, Dr. Oz, they're extremely rare. We're talking about the conventional wisdom holds that this thing occurs in the general population at the rate of about one per 100,000 population. That's just simply a dissection. Whether or not it leads to stroke is another subset of that. Whether or not it leads to injury from the stroke is a smaller subset. Whether it leads to fatalities is an even smaller subset. We're talking about fractions of fractions of fractions by the time we're done in this discussion, but those are excellent points. You're absolutely on target with those, Dr. Hoffman. To get back to the third question, after Dr. Shoshany went through the explanation of what his experiences was, then what the profession's experience had been in this regard, they moved on to the close of the show. The close is very important, because Dr. Oz basically said that dissections happen. They're a part of being human. They're a part of ... my words, not his at this point ... They're a part of just normal life and activity, and things happen and that this situation should not dissuade an individual from seeking care from their chiropractor and that chiropractic is remarkably safe in this environment. The third factor was the advice that was given to the consumer was to make sure you are fully honest and open with your chiropractor about any other symptoms that might be accompanying your neck pain. Don't dismiss any symptoms that you're having along with it. This tied back into a series of references that Dr. Oz made during the show to a concept that's been around our circles for 25 years that I'm aware of and that has to do with the five Ds, the A and the three Ns, being diplopia, dysphagia, disarthria, drop attacks, dizziness, ataxia, nausea, numbness and nystagmus. This being signs that when consumers have neck pain problems, if they're accompanied by difficulty swallowing, if they're accompanied by double vision, if they're accompanied by bouts of nystagmus, that's an emergency room consideration, not a chiropractic consideration, and whether the patient goes directly to the emergency room or the chiropractor sends them to the emergency room, that's the appropriate manner that that should be addressed in. Dr. Oz and Dr. Shoshany and Dr. Brockington used this as a very good public education opportunity to alert the public that when you do have neck pain in the presence of these neurological symptoms, such as dysphagia, disarthria, et cetera, that the first stop should be the emergency room. We would agree with that completely. In that sense, they brought good information, timely information, forward, and I think there was a very sincere attempt to be fair and balanced on the part of the Oz Show. The truth of the matter is the show content didn't live up to the hype of, "Can your chiropractor kill you?" What we don't know and we don't have any direct information about is the segment at the beginning of the show with the family. I'm anticipating that they have leveled their guns at the chiropractic world and at a chiropractor in particular

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