Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor • June 2016 • Roundup

Fraud charges have been laid against practitioners at a Toronto clinic, including a chiropractor, following an investigation into alleged fraudulent auto insurance injury claims.

An Aviva Canada customer, who stepped forward after allegedly facing pressure to lie about accident injuries, prompted the investigation. Aviva Canada subsequently provided Toronto Police Service with video and other evidence that led to the charges.

In video footage obtained by Aviva Canada, a chiropractor and a clinic employee from Wellness Centres of Ontario in Toronto are shown explaining to two undercover investigators how they can work together to obtain insurance payouts – despite both investigators stating they are not hurt.

The video footage also shows a paralegal from Kovtman Law explaining in great detail, how to obtain insurance payouts. The undercover investigator was told he would get a $10,000 insurance settlement in approximately one year, of which $3,000 will be retained by the law office.

Aviva Canada president and CEO Greg Somerville stated, “Fraud costs honest insurance customers approximately $130 per year in Ontario and we continue to make every effort to stop it.”

A shortened version of the video footage has been posted to Aviva Canada’s YouTube channel.

Aviva Canada’s anti- fraud team worked closely with police detectives at Toronto’s 32 Division leading up to arrests and charges for the following parties:

• Edward Hayes (licensed chiropractor) – Fraud under $5,000 times three (one for each of the two undercover investigators and one for the Aviva Canada customer)

• Michelle Osacenco (clinic employee) – Fraud under $5,000 times three (one for each of the two undercover investigators and one for the Aviva Canada customer)

• Anna Kovtanuka (paralegal) – Fraud under $5,000 times two (one for each of the two undercover investigators), and possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000

“Consumers need to know that we have an over $1 billion fraud insurance problem in Ontario. We are hopeful that this typical example will raise public awareness that this hurts everyone, and encourage consumers to speak up when they see fraudulent activity,” continued Somerville.

Following the charges, Aviva Canada said it made formal complaints to the Financial Services Commission of Ontario, the College of Chiropractors of Ontario and the Law Society of Upper Canada. The company also notified the Insurance Bureau of Canada and all other major property and casualty insurers.

Older adults who met twice-weekly strength training guidelines had lower odds of dying in a new analysis by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Columbia University. The study is the first to demonstrate the association in a large, nationally representative sample over an extended time period, particularly in an older population.

Many studies have previously found that older adults who are physically active have better quality of life and a lower risk of mortality. Regular exercise is associated with health benefits, including preventing early death, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers.

But although the health rewards of physical activity and aerobic exercise are well established, less data has been collected on strength training.

One reason for this lack of data could be that strength-training guidelines are newer than recommendations for aerobic activity. Although the American College of Sports Medicine first issued aerobic exercise guidelines decades ago, it was not until 2007 that the organization and the American Heart Association released a joint guideline recommending that all adults strength train at least twice a week.

“This doesn’t mean that strength training wasn’t a part of what people had been doing for a long time as exercise, but it wasn’t until recently that it was solidified in this way as a recommendation,” said Dr. Jennifer L. Kraschnewski, assistant professor of medicine and public health sciences, Penn State College of Medicine.

To examine the mortality effects on older adults who meet strength-training guidelines, Kraschnewski examined data from the 1997-2001 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) linked to death certificate data through 2011. Researchers published their results in Preventive Medicine.

The NHIS collects overall health, disease and disability data of the U.S. population from a nationally representative sampling of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The 1997-2001 survey included more than 30,000 adults age 65 and older.

During the survey period, more than nine per cent of older adults reported strength training at least twice a week.

“That’s only a small fraction of the population, but it’s actually higher than we had anticipated,” Kraschnewski said.

The researchers followed the respondents for 15 years through death certificate data from the National Center for Health Statistics National Death Index. About a third of respondents had died by 2011.

Older adults who strength trained at least twice a week had 46 per cent lower odds of death for any reason than those who did not. They also had 41 per cent lower odds of cardiac death and 19 per cent lower odds of dying from cancer.

Older adults who met strength-training guidelines were, on average, slightly younger, and were more likely to be married white males with higher levels of education. They were also more likely to have normal body weight, to engage in aerobic exercise and to abstain from alcohol and tobacco.

When the researchers adjusted for demographic variables, health behaviors and health conditions, a statistically significant effect on mortality remained. Although the effects on cardiac and cancer mortality were no longer statistically significant, the data still pointed to a benefit.

Importantly, after the researchers controlled for physical activity level, people who reported strength exercises appeared to see a greater mortality benefit than those who reported physical activity alone.

The study is strong evidence that strength training in older adults is beneficial beyond improving muscle strength and physical function, the researchers said.

Regina – The annual report from the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board shows on-the-job injuries resulting in lost time declined 2.07 per cent in 2015 to their lowest level in more than two decades.

There were more than 25,000 accepted injury claims last year, with trucking, manufacturing and health care leading the way. Overall, 87 per cent of workplaces were free of any injury reports.

Peter Federko, the board’s CEO, said the figures are encouraging and give hope for achieving even better goals.

“We had set a target for 2015 of 2.2 per cent and we hit 2.07,” he said . “The target we had set for 2016 was two per cent, but we’re going to revisit that, given that we’re already at 2.07.”

Thirteen per cent of workplaces in the province accounted for all injuries reported last year, but Federko said it’s not that they’re negligent.

“Some of them because of their size have more challenges in bringing about a reduction in injuries. It’s not that they don’t want to do it. Some of them need more of our help than others and it’s just taking longer.”

Only B.C, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories have higher injury rates than Saskatchewan.

The potential of light as a non-invasive, highly-focused alternative to pain medication was made more apparent thanks to research conducted by scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital of McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre.

Researchers bred mice with a light-sensitive trait in peripheral neurons that were known to be responsible for pain transmission. The mice were genetically modified so that these neurons, called Nav 1.8+ nociceptors, express proteins called opsins, which react to light – a process known as optogenetics.

When these sensory neurons are exposed to yellow light, the opsins move ions across the membrane, reducing the level of bioelectric activity of the cells. This effectively shuts off the neurons, decreasing the mouse’s sensitivity to touch and heat.

“The opsins we added to these neurons were initially isolated from archaebacteria and sense yellow light,” explains professor Philippe Séguéla, a researcher at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital and the article’s senior author. “When we transfer these to neurons, we can control their responses simply by illuminating the skin with innocuous yellow light.”

Optogenetics is a growing field of research with a wide variety of applications. In this case the activity of pain-signaling neurons was reduced in a localized part of the mouse’s body, the hind paw, and the duration of the effect could easily be controlled by the amount of time the light was applied. The precision of this technique underlines potential advantages for use in humans.

Light therapy based on optogenetics would have the advantage of providing “on-demand” analgesia (pain relief) to patients who could control their pain by shining light on the sensitive part of the body.

It added, opiates are the most commonly used treatment for chronic pain today, but they are often used systemically and not directed to the specific region of the body affected by the pain. The duration of the opiate effects can be estimated, but without the same precision as a beam of light.

Further advances in neuroscience are necessary to apply this method of pain relief to humans. Séguéla says one possible way to make human neurons photosensitive would be through the use of a harmless virus that could temporarily deliver opsins to certain neurons without causing side effects.

According to a report in the Community Health Survey, one in 10 Canadians between the ages of 12 and 44 – about 1.5 million people – experienced chronic pain lasting over a period of months or years. Chronic pain is associated with a number of different medical conditions including diabetes, arthritis, cancer, shingles and sciatica, among others. Chronic pain reduces the sufferer’s ability to perform daily tasks and may lead to other health issues such as sleep disorders and depression.

“Chronic pain is an increasingly big problem clinically and for many years we’ve relied only on opiates,” says Séguéla. “It’s hard to treat because of tolerance, making it necessary to increase dosages, which leads to serious side effects. Optogenetic therapy could be a highly effective way to relieve chronic pain while avoiding the side effects of traditional pain medication.”

The research, published in the journal eNeuro, was made possible with the support of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Quebec Pain Research Network, and the Louise and Alan Edwards Foundation.