Harvard Health Content API

Spinal manipulation and home exercise may relieve neck pain better than medicines, new research suggests. The study included 272 people. They had felt neck pain for 2 to 12 weeks before the study began. They were randomly divided into 3 groups. One group received spinal manipulation treatments. The second group took over-the-counter pain medicines, or prescription drugs if needed. The third group was trained to do home exercises for the neck. The study lasted 12 weeks. By the end, 82% of the spinal manipulation group reported that their pain was reduced by at least half. This compares with 69% of those on medicines and 77% of those who did home exercises. At least 30% of the spinal manipulation and exercise groups said all of their pain was gone. About 13% of the medicine group reported no pain.

Only about 3% of cochlear implants in children fail and need to be replaced, a new study finds. But failure is more likely among children who had meningitis before their first implant. That’s what researchers concluded based on medical records for 738 children. All of them received a cochlear implant in the last 20 years. In all, 34 needed to have the implant replaced. Seven of the children with implant failure had meningitis before they got their first implant. On average, failure occurred about 5 years after the first implant. Most of the children heard and spoke at least as well with the second implant as with the first. The journal Archives of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery published the study. HealthDay News wrote about it December 22.