The Texas Chiropractic Association is reaching out to our members and to all Doctors of Chiropractic in Texas through our TCA Tour of Texas in 2016. The goals of this grassroots initiative are to bring high-level speakers who will help you; to educate you on the key legislative and legal issues impacting chiropractic in Texas; inform you about the benefits of TCA membership and how to take advantage of them; and connect you with other DCs in your area. We are excited to launch our Tour of Texas with stops in Dallas on Monday, Jan. 11, and Fort Worth on Tuesday, Jan. 12.

Giving you a first look, TCA News Bytes are random snippets of news. These are just bytes of information to provide you with news one byte at a time.

According to the American Medical Association, direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising should be banned. AMA board chair-elect said in a statement, "Direct-to-consumer advertising also inflates demand for new and more expensive drugs, even when these drugs may not be appropriate."

Testosterone has been primarily used to treat a relatively rare condition defined as abnormally low testosterone due to genetic problems or damage to the testicles. But drug companies have broadened that definition to include low testosterone levels that occur due to the natural aging process. CME funded by the company that marketed the nation's top-selling testosterone product told physicians they could safely prescribe testosterone to men with prostate cancer. This advice was offered despite treatment guidelines warning that testosterone should not be given to men with prostate cancer.

In 45 states and the District of Columbia, doctors are required to take continuing medical education courses to keep their license. Drug companies have long been associated with CME courses, but their funding of such courses dropped following congressional investigations showing they had misused the programs to market unapproved uses for their products. The drug companies have discovered that money paid for teaching an accredited course doesn’t have to be disclosed, and today, drug company CME funding is again on the rise.

• Chiropractic Treatment Plans, SOAP Notes, Report Writing, CPT Coding and ICD 10, Dec. 5–6, DFW, TX
• Personal Injury, Dec. 5–6, Houston, TX
• The Stuff We Wish They Taught Us in Chiropractic School, Dec. 12–13, Dallas, TX
• Understanding Holistic Functional Medicine to Improve Patient Outcomes, Dec. 12–13, Dallas, TX
• Total Practice Integration, Becoming Musculoskeletal Specialists, Dec. 12–13, Austin, TX
• Personal Injury, Dec. 12–13, New Orleans, LA
• 2015 Changes in Coding and EHR with Ethics and Myofascial Release, Dec. 12–13, Houston, TX
• Personal Injury, Dec. 19–20, Dallas, TX
• Personal Injury, Coding Compliance and& Documentation, Dec. 19–20, Irving, TX

To access a list of January events, visit www.chirotexas.org/jan.

The Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners has published proposed rules changes. Proposals would require every facility and licensee to have an email registered with the TBCE, propose new Rules to Prevent Fraud and amendments to complaint procedures.

Last month, ACA officially launched a national grassroots campaign designed to achieve full physician status for doctors of chiropractic in Medicare. This campaign, the National Medicare Equality Petition, is an ongoing and highly robust campaign that will ultimately replace an archaic law. The success of the campaign will depend on your participation to marshal the widespread support needed to sustain the intense grassroots lobbying that will pressure Congress into taking action. Learn how to participate and take action now!

Following the 1910 publication of the Flexner Report, early medical schools were challenged for their existence while at the same time Texas’ first chiropractic college and other historic chiropractic facilities were established. Shortly after the onset of World War I, state chiropractic licensing laws were established in Arkansas, Kansas and North Dakota, and the process of forming a Texas state chiropractic association began. When the Texas State Chiropractic Association was formed in 1916, chiropractors were being sued by the medical community and the need for a chiropractic licensing act in Texas drove the legislative agenda of the association. By 1918 there were at least 54 indictments across the state, and by 1919 chiropractic doctors were headed to Texas "to face the Chiropractic fight for medical liberty in Texas." The fight still continues.

Periodically we have the opportunity to seek for our patients the basic information that they need to choose a new doctor in a new city. One doctor has shared with us the letter that he provides his patients seeking care in other cities.

Become an important part of chiropractic’s grassroots lobby effort. TCA’s MentorMyLegislator is a unique mentoring platform that puts DCs and other chiropractic supporters in direct contact with their state-elected officials. The platform is very user-friendly. MentorMyLegislator also serves as a digital town hall forum for legislators and TCA to communicate with large groups of chiropractors in an electronic town hall setting. Be a part of this unique TCA mentoring program and play a key role in advising your local state representative on the issues impacting your profession, your neighborhood and the state of Texas. This site has been designed for "on the go" doctors like yourself!

After a VA report that found that more than 61 percent of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn veterans who sought health care from the VA over a 13-year period were treated for musculoskeletal ailments, the U.S. Senate has approved legislation that will improve the delivery of benefits to America's veterans, bringing them one step closer to gaining further access to the essential services provided by doctors of chiropractic at major Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers. The act calls for the chiropractic benefit to be implemented at no less than 50 percent of all medical centers in each VISN within three years of enactment.

In light of the U.S. Supreme Court case stating that State regulatory Boards are not immune from being sued for taking actions that violate antitrust laws and are not inherently shielded from antitrust challenges, a number of lawsuits have piled into federal courts across the country. Here are six to keep an eye on.

No amount of alcohol is safe during pregnancy. The CDC found that 7.6 percent of women report continued alcohol use during pregnancy and 1.4 percent report binge drinking. Exposure to alcohol during the first trimester of pregnancy can impact the brain, as well as the musculoskeletal, ocular and auditory systems. Any exposure to alcohol during pregnancy increases a child's risk.

Adults in the United States view the problem of prescription opioid use and abuse mainly as a public health problem rather than a law enforcement issue. Half the people in this study reported having pain serious enough to go to the doctor for treatment, and of these, nearly 80 percent were offered opioid pain relievers. Forty-five percent of respondents reported that their physician also offered them a nonmedication pain management alternative at the time they were offered an opioid. Only half of the respondents indicated that their physician had informed them about the risk for addiction when offering them an opioid medication.

A recent study reports that older adults who diet and exercise are more likely to experience bone loss if they engage in only aerobic training rather than resistance training.

Lifestyle factors such as diet can modify the risk of bone loss and fragility fractures. The effects of some nutrients such as calcium and vitamin D on bone have been studied extensively, but less is known about other dietary components such as protein. This study demonstrates that a protein-restricted diet among young women resulted in significant decreases in calcium absorption.