California Letters

Blah blah boards

Dear Editor:

Upon reading Dr. Bradley Wolff's comments in the "We Get Letters" Sept. 12, 1994, I decided to ask our profession some vital questions.

How should we go about protecting the public and assuring that chiropractors are minimally qualified? Here's my answer: First let's make sure that our colleges provide the necessary curriculum to produce good doctors. To guarantee that the colleges do such, let's put together a council that will police these colleges. We could call it the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE).

Furthermore, we should test the knowledge students need to acquire during their college years to assure competency. Since we will test all chiropractic students, we'll call it the National Boards. At this level three different exams would be given so no incompetent slips by.

Sounds awesome? Let's do more. Add to all these competency gates a clinic entrance and exit exam to further test clinical competency. If you succeed and pass through all these gates, you get a doctorate degree and the right to practice in the land of competency.

With all this, if an incompetent slips by, it will be shear luck. If many incompetent graduate, we should blame and adjust the proper gate, but not add more.

There is no place for state boards. They don't make the difference. Or, maybe the answer is county boards ... city boards ... blah blah boards ... etc.

Michel Gagnon, DC
Morgan Hill, California

Dear Editor:

The Sept. 23 issue of "DC" had three big articles on the front page and a letter, all about otitis media. They all said essentially the same thing: lots of kids get it, the medical profession makes a bundle on it, their treatment is risky and not that effective, and maybe chiropractic adjustments can help. In other words, lots of words, and no solutions. In looking for a cause, cigarette smoke is discussed, and they mention that bottle fed babies have a higher incidence.

I'm always amazed how this topic is treated. You won't see many discussions on emphysema. You know why? Because we all know that almost all of the people who suffer with it are smokers. We are not puzzled about the cause.

The cause of almost all cases of otitis media in kids is also a no brainer. Many pediatricians know it, although you won't hear them say it, but cow's milk is the main, if not the only cause of otitis media. Kids who suffer with otitis media, no matter what you call it, have been exposed to the milk protein casein, either in their formula (milk or sodium caseinate), milk itself, milk products like yogurt or cheese or pudding, or in breast milk from a mom who is ingesting dairy foods. Certainly other factors contribute, like cigarette smoke, exposure to sick kids, etc., but the presence of casein is required for the condition to become manifest.

These kids don't need tubes in their ears, or antibiotics, or cervical adjustment. Just eliminate dairy foods and the problem will clear up, period.

How about those kids with nose bleeds, asthma, and bedwetting? Same treatment.

Daniel Twogood, DC
Barstow, California