Chiropractic Pediatric Research

Ask the Chiropractor- I was asked about a few different questions on Chiropractors role in regards to pediatric findings.  Children seem to have different health concerns as they age.  Has having a child under chiropractic care been beneficial in helping and preventing different alignments?  #healthy815 www.rockforddc.com

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- Hello, I'm Dr. Brant Hulsebus, and I'm coming at you today with another edition of"Ask the Chiropractor." On today's edition of"Ask the Chiropractor," I was emailed and texted over the weekend from a patient who had questions about one of their children and a health condition, and wanted to know if there was any references, or points, that chiropractic might be able to help. So I always tell you, if you have a question about chiropractic, ask the chiropractor, don't ask somebody else, ask the expert, the chiropractor. And that's what she did, she reached out to me and wanted to know an answer to a question. But I wanted to teach you today a little bit about my process, and how I find your answers, because some of you know that I do study a lot, but to know everything at all times, and at all availability, is really tough. So I have a couple places I go to check my references and to come up with answers. And also, I find, too, in taking care of a lot of young children, that even though I might tell Mom or Dad something, Mom or Dad still have to go read more about it before they make a decision, and I think that's a fabulous idea, I think that's a great idea, I think that's a parent's right and responsibility, to continue to research. So when you ask me a question about pediatrics, where do I get my information from, how do I research this? Well, let me start off first by taking a little poke at those insurance companies, because the insurance companies often do not cover chiropractic care for children, simply because they say there's no research on it, and that is the most crazy statement I have ever heard, the absolute craziest statement about, all time, is that there is no research on children's care for chiropractic. And I say that because there are multiple different programs to get your certification to taking care of newborns, pregnancies, and pediatrics, in chiropractic. And the one thing they all have in common is that, at the end of it, either you have to participate in a research project, you have to present a research paper, or you have to get published in a research journal in order to get your certification. So if you go back, and they've been doing this my entire time as a chiropractor, so we're talking 20 years, 20 years of research projects, research papers, and that's just my time, and it happened way before my time. So where do I go to look up stuff? Well, I always go to the International Chiropractic Association, because I'm a member of that, I'm the Illinois delegate, and I know that whatever they publish there, I know the people who run the papers, that they're some of the best people out there. So if you go to chiropractic.org, otherwise you can go to icapediatrics.com, and there you'll find the JCCP, the "Journal of Chiropractic Pediatrics," just amazing research and information put in there from what we see in the clinic, what they've seen at the office, like, okay, a child comes in, this is the complaint, this is the levels that we found that need to get adjusted, this is what we suppose is gonna happen after chiropractic care, and this is what does happen. Now, there are not double blind random control studies in chiropractic, because it doesn't work, you can't do a double-blind random control study in chiropractic, because we're not medicine. Double-blind random control studies work for medicine and medicine only. I'll give you an example, a double-blind random control study for heart replacement, you give one person a real heart, you give one person a fake heart, and see who lives. You don't do that, that's not how chiropractic research is done. So when you look at chiropractic research, we look at outcome assessments, we took 100 kids, this is the cure they all got, this is the symptoms they had before the chiropractic care, this is what happened after the chiropractic care, this is where we solved problems in their spine. this is the areas we took care of, and these are the results we got. And we're able to replicate this time, after time, after time again. That's how chiropractic research is performed, that's how chiropractic research is done. So I typically go to JCCP, the "Journal of Chiropractic Pediatrics," written by the International Chiropractic Association, for my information on pediatrics. So if you have a question about chiropractic care for tonsillitis, chiropractic care for ear infections, chiropractic care for colic, chiropractic care for constipation, for all these things for children, just go there, there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of articles written. Another good place is Heidi Haavik's research, H-A-A-V-I-K. Heidi, Dr. Haavik, runs an institute over in Australia, New Zealand, New Zealand, I believe, where the clinic is 24 hours, nothing but chiropractic research done by chiropractors and research scientists. They do all kinds of things, they've written some amazing papers on bedwetting there. So take a look at Heidi Haavik's research, the realitycheck.com, the realitycheck.com. By the way, "The Reality Check" is a fabulous book for people who are not chiropractors, but wanna learn more about what chiropractors do, written by Dr. Haavik and her research team. We've played many of Dr. Haavik's research videos here on this channel, we've played many of Haavik's research videos in my office about different topics, so take a look at Heidi Haavik's research. There's also the icpa4kids.org, they're a good place, that's the one I participated in, there we brought in parents who had kids that came under chiropractic care, and they filled out surveys about conditions their kids had prior to meeting the chiropractor, and then what happened after four months of regular chiropractic care for their children, what kind of problems they were having afterwards, and what had cleared up and what had gone away, and what had they had prior success with with medicine and what had they not had prior success with when treated with medicine. Now, there's a time and place for everything, I'm not saying,"Get a chiropractor, ditch your pediatrician," that's not what I'm saying, my kids have a pediatrician, he is a phenomenal medical doctor, when we need a medical doctor, he's the guy we go to. However, he is not the primary person that takes care of my children, The chiropractor myself is, I'm the first one to decide which level we need to go. I'm not telling you that chiropractor has to be your primary one, I'm just telling you that a lot of chiropractors are capable of being that gatekeeper and pushing in the right direction. So is chiropractic good for kids? Absolutely. I got adjusted my entire life, my father got adjusted his entire life by my grandfather. The kids staying home from school having all those problems, we just didn't have that. Recently we had an ice hockey player come to our team from a different team, he came to me and said,"Hey doc, I want to get my kids under care like I did with the last chiropractor, is that cool?" And I'm like, "Man, that's totally cool. You totally take care of kids." And he looked at me and he goes,"The main reason I want to do it is because my kids don't get sick. And I watch my teammates' kids get sick all the time, and I think it's great how my kids do better by going to a chiropractor regularly, they don't get the earaches and the other things that other kids deal with and suffer. Is it okay?" And absolutely, that's the number one reason why people bring their kids here. I mean, a lot of people are bringing their kids here because mom and dad grew up and they had chronic back problems, and they want to make sure their kids don't get the same back problems, because they believe it's genetics. Um... But whatever your reason, kids always seem to excel and do well in their chiropractic care. And again, I'm telling you my sources this time, I'm telling you to go look at JCCP, I'm telling you to look at that therealitycheck.com, take a look at Heidi Haavik's work, and of course, the ICPA for kids, they're a pretty good group too. So all these different people, tons of tons of papers, tons of tons of research on it, if you want more on a specific topic with children's care, let me know. Another thing I tell all the new moms, and, I say moms, but let's be honest, to new moms and dads, dads out there, right? But to tell all the new moms, if you ever go to the pediatrician, the pediatrician tells you something that doesn't make sense or doesn't feel right, to you as Mom, come see me afterwards, I might have a different answer. I had one little guy come in, Mom took him to the pediatrician, said he hadn't had a bowel movement in five days, and the pediatrician said, "That can happen." Well, I don't think that could happen. We put him right on his side, and we adjusted his little hips, and he had eight dirty diapers that night. And again, tons of papers on this, tons of research on this. Even my own kids, when they were in the NICU, my kids never did good with dairy, as newborns, and my twins were born prematurely, we left them at the NICU, and even though I told them no dairy, they gave them dairy, and they got backed up. And I remember going to pick up my wife, and I put the one on her side, and I adjusted her hips. I go, "Let's go get lunch real quick," because I knew what was gonna happen. I adjusted her hips, and we went and got lunch, and we came back, and she had destroyed her little Isolette, where they keep the newborns in, with the bowel movement. And I knew that was gonna happen, so I thought we should get out of there before it does, because we didn't make this mess, so we let them clean it up, sorry to the nurses out there. (laughs) But yeah, so we do that all the time, taking care of kids is our thing. Certain research, it just shows you, like when a kid's having an ear infection, when a molar tooth comes in, what happens is the blood rushes to the jawline and the jaw gets irritated, and you'll see a kid rub the side of their face, or maybe their ear. Also, with the swelling, it'll cause your eardrum to swell up. And sometimes the kid might even get a low-grade fever when the teething's coming in, and the kid's very uncomfortable. So now we have a kid who's uncomfortable going like this with a swollen eardrum, having all these aches and pains, and what do you hear all the time? Earache. Probably has an ear infection. Or maybe they'll say you have a tooth coming in. So those are the kind of little things we talk about and errors we look at. Again, we back it all up with this research, and just papers, after paper, after paper. So be the responsible parent, go to the website, look that stuff up.(uplifting music) JCCP, ICA Pediatrics, with an S, icapediatrics.com, the International Chiropractic Association. If I'm talking too fast, the icapediatrics.com. Go there, look at it, read it. Take a look for yourself, read the papers yourself. If you got a question about a paper, tell me what it is, cite it for me, bring it back to me, and I'll answer more questions about that paper. Or maybe you don't quite fully understand it, because you're not a chiropractor, and that's okay, go ahead and look at the information on that and get back to me. But as far as taking care of kids, and all the different research and data we got, there's just so much of it, and I'd like to share it all with all of you so you can read it yourself and make up your own mind. Again, that's why we do this, "Ask the Chiropractor," ask a chiropractor about chiropractic care, not anybody else. Only a chiropractor studies chiropractic, only a chiropractor knows when it's safe for someone to go with a chiropractor, or not safe for someone to go with a chiropractor. So look us up, talk to us, we'll give you the honest answers. And again, today I'm sharing the research, how to find the answers. All right, everybody, stay healthy, stay safe. If you have a question for"Ask the Chiropractor," leave a message below. Shoot me an email, go to my website, rockforddc.com, R-O-C-K-F-O-R-D-D-C, .com, and shoot me a message there, and I'll get back to you, and maybe next time, you'll be the subject of"Ask the Chiropractor." Stay healthy, stay strong, thanks for listening.