Many fields, including Chiropractic and Medicine, have shown that spinal misalignments (subluxations) can create visceral disease and immune dysfunction. A major medical study showed this link in 2004. The controlled study showed that vertebral correction treatment to reduce vertebral misalignments in patients with atopic dermatitis and bronchial asthma. The study also focused on the different connections between visceral and immune dysfunction and vertebral deformities.
It Was a Large Study
Among 120 atopic dermatitis patients who received spinal correction treatments every day, 106 (88%) showed improvement in skin itching and 86 (72%) showed improvement in skin condition.Among 240 atopic dermatitis patients who did not receive spinal correction treatments every day, we could not obtain a sure treatment effect.
There was over a 70 percent improvement in allergic diseases. We found that vertebral misalignment is a common and characteristic finding in patients with atopic dermatitis and bronchial asthma.
“According to the results of this study the possibility may be considered that chronic nerve compression secondary to vertebral deformity in the thoracic region had a significant effect on the immune function of atopic dermatitis and bronchial asthma patients. The adrenal cortex functions of these allergy patients may be in the chronic decline condition with this chronic nerve compression.” 1
You Are the Answer
In order to understand the devastating effects of a Vertebral Subluxation and the Power of a Chiropractic Adjustment, you must understand adaptive physiology. When your body goes into a “Fight or Flight” response due to a stressor (bear jumping out at you, hearing about a tragedy, etc.), your body will respond accordingly. The first thing that happens is that your blood pressure, heart rate, blood clotting factors, blood fat, LDL cholesterol, insulin, and glucose go UP so you can adapt to your environment adequately. Your cell-mediated immune system weakens, and that which your sex hormone binding globulin resulting in a higher level of circulating sex hormones in your blood. This leads to cancers, colds, influenza, and other infections.
The #1 risk factor in determining whether or not you will get a site specific cancer is by the amount of sex hormones you have in your blood. Your body decreases serotonin which down regulates learning and up regulates anxiety and fear centers in brain so you can react to the stressor more effectively; however, this leads to increased anxiety, fear, depression, and learning and attention deficits. This response is called adaptive physiology.2 These are all great things when you are being chased by a bear but not when they are happening all day, every day and you’re trying to live an abundant health-filled life!
Movement of the Spine creates stimulation of proprioceptors in the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and discs. Proprioception and mechanoreception are essential nutrients for balance and health of the brain and the entire mind and body. When a human has a Vertebral Subluxation, proprioception is diminished which is recognized by the body as a Stressor eliciting the stress response, putting the body into adaptive physiology.3 If it is not removed it stays there chronically.
If you look at over 95% of chronic illnesses, they are all the result of chronic adaptive physiology due to a stressor: cancer, diabetes, chronic pain, obesity, heart disease, fatigue, depression, infertility, decreased libido, insomnia, acid reflux, constipation, auto-immune issues, Alzheimer’s, dementia, etc.
This is how “The 2004 Journal of Orthopedic Surgery” did a study and proved the relationship between vertebral deformities and allergic diseases.4 They concluded that chronic nerve compression secondary to vertebral deformity in the thoracic region had a significant effect on the immune function of atopic dermatitis and bronchial asthma patients. The adrenal cortex functions of these allergy patients may be in the chronic decline condition with this chronic nerve compression. A sure treatment effect cannot be obtained without considering the nature and the function of the autonomous nerves. Wow!
Tapio Videman, M.D. published in Clinical Biomechanics 1987, proved that when Immobilization occurs (Subluxation) in a joint and remains there for more than 10-15 days, that joint begins to degenerate.5 This was when post-operative patients of knee or hip replacements were forced to begin movement within 24 hours to prevent permanent damage.
A prospective study from “The Journal of American Geriatrics Society” 2004 proved that “Participants with hyperkyphotic posture had a significant, 2.4 times greater rate of death.”6 Reversing or stopping hyperkyphosis equals reversing or stopping death – according to the medical data!
The conclusion of one of the most prominent up to date studies proving what Subluxation is and does and that is not associated with pain most of the time, was a study out of Clinical Neurophysiology in 2007. This study proved that areas of reduced or restricted spinal motion causes spinal degeneration and changes in neurological communication between the brain and body are medically a fact and termed the Vertebral Subluxation Complex by Chiropractors.7 The study revealed that Vertebral Subluxation can be present without pain or with pain and getting rid of them requires a professional trained in detecting and correcting them much like a dentist does with symptomatic or asymptomatic cavities. Preventing them requires improving spinal range of motion and postural exercises!
Now the question could be, “where do they come from?” Just to make sure you know, according to the science, all humans that go through this experience are likely to have subluxation: the birth process.8
New research commissioned by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) reveals that 32% of us spend over 10 hours sitting down every day, adding up to an amazing 32 years and 4 months of our lives.9
- On average, we spend 16 hours awake per day and 9.4 million of us spend over 75% of our waking day sitting.
- 59% of the working population sit down all day at work, nearly 50% of those who work refuse to leave their desks, even for lunch!
- What do people do after work? 62% spend the majority of their evenings on their “behinds”.
“The typical classroom desk is uncomfortable and rigid and one size has to fit all students. In addition, students have to lean forward in the seat in order to take lecture notes.”10
Another study out of Cornell University and published in Computers in Schools found the following11:
- Children in elementary schools are at risk from sitting at improper workstations that have been designed with little or no regard for musculoskeletal development and this has implication for health problems.
- Sitting for more than short periods increase the risk for injury.
- Children’s developing musculoskeletal structures are especially vulnerable to postural trauma.
- Sitting not only causes Vertebral Subluxation Complex, it results in a lack of regular full spinal motion that is required to recover from the falls and accidents of normal daily life.
- The stressors associated with living in industrial society make it virtually impossible to avoid Vertebral Subluxation Complex without regular chiropractic care just like it is virtually impossible to avoid dental cavities without brushing and flossing your teeth.
Sitting is to your spine what sugar is to your teeth. We have no genetic defense against sitting. We are genetically programmed for constant movement. And this is just a small part of the research that has been done. According to the gold standard of all healthcare delivered in our world (research), no other healthcare delivery system has what we have. That’s a fact.
May this be the beginning. You are the answer!
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1 Y. Takeda & S. Arai : Relationship Between Vertebral Deformities And Allergic Diseases . The Internet Journal of Orthopedic Surgery. 2004 Volume 2 Number 1
2 McEwen, Bruce. Central effects of stress hormones in health and disease:understanding the protective and damaging effects of stress and stress mediators. Eur J Pharmacol. 2008 April 7;583(2-3): 174-185.
3 Seaman, D.R. Dysafferentation: a novel term to describe the neuropathophysiological affects of joint complex dysfunction. JMPT 1998 21 (4)
4 Y. Takeda & S. Arai : Relationship Between Vertebral Deformities And Allergic Diseases . The Internet Journal of Orthopedic Surgery. 2004 Volume 2 Number 1
5 Videman, T. Experimental models of osteoarthritis: the role of immobilization. Clinical Biomechanics 1987; 2 (also reviewed in Chiropractic Report)
6 Kado et al., Hyperkyphotic Posture Predicts Mortality in Older Community-Dwelling Men and Women: A Prospective Study Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2004 52 (10) 1662
7 Haavik-Taylor, H. & Murphy, B. Cervical spine manipulation alters sensorimotor integration: A somatosensory evoked potential study. Clinical Neurophysiology 118 (2007) 391-402
8 Guttman, G. Blocked atlantal nerve syndrome in babies and infants. Manuelle Medizin 1987 25 (also reviewed in Chiropractic Report 1989; 3(2))
9 British Chiropractic Association (BCA)
10 Kroemer and Grandjean. “Mental Activity” and “Fatigue”. Fitting the task to the Human: A textbook of Occupational Ergonomics. 1997
11 Cornell University Computers in Schools 1998 14 (3-4)