Last month I wrote a blog on different ways to boost your immune system. Short review:
There are several things that you can do to help boost your immune system. Eat a nutritious diet full of antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables; get enough sleep; stay hydrated on a daily basis; minimize stress whenever possible; exercise regularly; and maintain your regular chiropractic treatments. Last month I focused on how regular exercise can improve your immune function, and this month the focus will be on how regular Chiropractic treatments can also improve your immune function.
Both medical Doctors and Doctors of Chiropractic agree that viruses and microbes don’t threaten us all equally, and that a healthy immune system helps keep us healthy despite being exposed to these viruses and bacteria.
The immune system protects us from the flu, as well as any other infectious diseases, and functions to get us well again when we do get sick. Our immune system, like every other system in the body, is coordinated and controlled by the nervous system. If the nervous system is not functioning at 100% then our immune system is not able to function at 100% either.
Chiropractors locate and correct spinal abnormalities called vertebral subluxations that result in interference of the nervous system. Since the nervous system controls all functions of the body, including the immune system, chiropractic care can have a positive effect on immune function.
There has been a lot of research that supports these claims.
One of the most important studies was performed by Dr. Ronald Pero, Ph.D., chief of cancer prevention research at New York’s Preventive Medicine Institute and professor medicine at New York University. The study showed the positive effect that chiropractic care can have on the immune system and general health.
Dr. Pero measured the immune systems of people under chiropractic care as compared to those in the general population and those with cancer and other serious diseases. His initial three-year study was 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 competence than those people who had not received chiropractic care, and they had 400% greater immune competence than those people with cancer and other serious diseases. The immune system superiority of those under chiropractic care did not appear to 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.”
Another study from Patricia Brennan, PH.D., leading a team of researchers, conducted a study that found improved immune response in her test subjects following chiropractic treatment. The study specifically demonstrated the “phagocytic respiratory burst of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) and monocytes were enhanced in adults that had been adjusted by chiropractors.”
Life Chiropractic University, produced an incredible study from the Sid Williams Research Center in 1994. 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 a forty-eight percent (48%) increase in the number 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 7.69% decrease in CD4 cell counts over the same period.
The immune system is affected by the nerve system through the connections with the endocrine and the autonomic nervous system. And chiropractic care improves the function of the nerve system through improving the movement of the spinal bones that encase and protect the spinal cord.
Stressful conditions lead to altered measures of immune function, and altered susceptibility to a variety of diseases. Many stimuli, which primarily act on the central nervous system, can profoundly alter immune responses. The two routes available to the central nervous system are neuro-endocrine channels and autonomic nerve channels.
Another fascinating study was done in the early 1900’s:
The Results of Chiropractic During the Flu Pandemic of 1918:
“[1] In Davenport, Iowa, 50 medical doctors treated 4,953 cases, with 274 deaths. In the same city, 150 chiropractors including students and faculty of the Palmer School of Chiropractic treated 1,635 cases with only one death.
In the state of Iowa, medical doctors treated 93,590 patients, with 6,116 deaths – a loss of one patient out of 15. In the same state, excluding Davenport, 4,735 patients were treated by chiropractors with a loss of only 6 cases – a loss of one patient out of every 789.
National figures show that 1, 142 chiropractors treated 46,394 patients for influenza during 1918, with a loss of 54 patients – one out of every 886.
In the same epidemic, New York health authorities (who kept records of flu as a reportable disease) showed that under chiropractic care, only 25 patients died of influenza out of every 10,000 cases; and only 100 patients died of pneumonia out of every 10,000 cases. This comparison is made more striking when viewed in the following table:
| Influenza | Cases | Death |
| Under Medical Care | 10,000 | 950 |
| Under Chiropractic Care | 10,000 | 25 |
| Pneumonia | Cases | Death |
| Under Medical Care | 10,000 | 6,400 |
| Under Chiropractic Care | 10,000 | 100 |
The same epidemic reports show that chiropractors in Oklahoma treated 3,490 cases of influenza with only 7 deaths. But the best part of this is, in Oklahoma there is a clear record showing that chiropractors were called in 233 cases where medical doctors had cared for the patients, and finally gave them up as lost. The chiropractors saved all these lost cases but 25.
So, please remember to eat properly, exercise on a regular basis, reduce stress whenever possible, and maintain your regular chiropractic treatments to keep your immune system functioning at its best.
If you have any questions regarding this blog or about your health in general, please feel free to contact me at: [email protected]