An IDEA whose time has come… part 2

Since 1895 Doctors of Chiropractic have cried out that a chiropractic adjustment can and will positively affect the immune system. This is no longer a biased opinion or theory as today’s researchers continue to demonstrate the existence of a critical link between the nervous system and the immune system. Even further, scientists and researchers are now documenting how chiropractic was right to begin with!
In 1974, physiologist Dr. Korr proposed that "spinal problems" (vertebral subluxations) are associated with exaggerated sympathetic (a division of the nerve system) activity. Basically what they were saying is that the nervous system has a direct effect on the immune system due to the nerve supply to the important immune system organs.
One of the most important studies showing the positive effect chiropractic care can have on the immune system and general health was performed by Ronald Pero, Ph.D., chief of cancer prevention research at New York's Preventive Medicine Institute and professor of medicine at New York University. Dr. Pero measured 3 groups of people: 1) the immune systems of people under chiropractic care as compared to 2) those in the general population and 3) those with cancer and other serious diseases. In his initial three-year study of 107 individuals who had been under chiropractic care for five years or more, the chiropractic patients were found to have a 200% greater immune capacity than people who had not received chiropractic care, and 400% greater immune capacity than people with cancer and other serious diseases. The immune system superiority of those under chiropractic care did not diminish with age. Dr. Pero stated: “When applied in a clinical framework, I have never seen a group other than this chiropractic group to experience a 200% increase over the normal patients. This is why it is so dramatically important. We have never seen such a positive improvement in a group…”
The chiropractic immunology connection was strengthened in 1991 when Patricia Brennan, Ph.D. and other researchers conducted a study that found improved immune response following chiropractic treatment. Specifically, the study demonstrated the “phagocytic respiratory burst of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) and monocytes were enhanced in adults that had been adjusted by chiropractors.” In other words, the cells that act like "Pac-Man" eating and destroying bad (cancer) cells are enhanced through chiropractic care.
Another important study was performed at the Sid E. Williams Research Center of Life Chiropractic University (I participated as a Chiropractor). The researchers took a group of HIV positive patients and adjusted them over a six-month period. What they found was that the “patients that were adjusted had an increase of (48%) in the CD4 cells (an important immune system component).” These measurements were taken at the patients' independent medical center, where they were under medical supervision for the condition. The control group (the patients that were not adjusted) did not demonstrate this dramatic increase in immune function, but actually experienced a 7.96% decrease in CD4 cell counts over the same period.
Even though someone is symptom-free, he or she can still benefit greatly from regular chiropractic adjustments just for the 200% increased benefit to the immune system alone!! With the decreasing effectiveness of antibiotics, we all owe it to ourselves and our families to avoid getting sick and to keep our immune systems working to their fullest potential. When we say, “tell your friends and family about Chiropractic”, it is not because we are trying to increase our bottom line. We are supporting an idea whose time has come… Maximized Health Improves Your Life!

Speak up and educate others,

Dr. Craig

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