Dear Abby does it again

   Abigail Van Buren, author of "Dear Abby," one of the most widely syndicated newspaper columns in the world, has once again given chiropractic a giant boost.

  In a recently distributed column, Van Buren printed a letter from a reader identified as "True Believer in S.C." The reader was responding to a previously published letter from "Desperate Mom," whose 20-year-old son still wet his bed. "True Believer" related a similar situation in her own household. Her twin sons, 15 years old, were daily bed wetters.

  "I took (them) to a chiropractor, " she related in print, "and within a month, both boys were cured of their bed-wetting. Regular medical doctors could not help them."

   "Believer" went on to say, "as this chiropractor explained it to me, there is a certain part of the spinal column that regulates the bladder -- I can't explain it very well -- but all I can say is it worked, which meant the world to me and my boys."

   In response, Abby acknowledged that "I have several hundred letters bearing the same message concerning chiropractors." She also admitted that "Some in the medical profession will criticize me for giving what sounds like a 'commercial' for chiropractors -- the 'stepchildren' of the medical profession -- but I would be less than honest if I did not publish your letter."

   In the same column, she also printed a letter from a reader who said her 16 year old son was cured of bed wetting by the use of a nasal spray called DDAVP (desmopressin acetate).

   This is not the first time the popular columnist has risked the ire of chiropractic opponents by highlighting the positive news of spinal care. In previous columns, she has printed articles from other readers relating good experiences with their D.C.s.

What is the Role of Chiropractic in Children's Health?

   "I was taught to manipulate children just like adults but with obvious differences in force and depth. I have excellent clinical results with children. Children respond more quickly as a rule and, I believe to a wider variety of conditions that adults do. many times I have measured a 2- or 3-degree drop in fever within 30 minutes after spinal manipulation of a child with an upper-respiratory infection. When this did not happen, I thought the fever was still necessary as a body response to a viral infection. Standards do need to be developed, but it takes time. We should not stop caring for children while we gather the evidence, and shame on us for not having done it sooner?"

                                                                           James Winterstein, DC

                                                     National Health Sciences University

                                                                                                Lombard, III.