Chiropractic and the Immune System Part II
LOOMIS
IMMUNITY
(Continued from May 2020)
By Howard F. Loomis Jr., DC
Last month, I ended part I of this article by suggesting that the best defense against disease and infection remains the maintenance of health. Perhaps one of the roles that the chiropractic profession brings to the healthcare marketplace is maintaining health by recognizing, with its unique diagnostic methods, early deviations from normal body functions, both visceral and structural. In that way, chiropractic restores normal functions before a disease or pathological process begins. After all, optimal health is the result of the optimization of the function of each individual and not about whether each of us fit into a statistical average for society as a whole.
In that regard, symptoms become an early warning sign. Most will first run to the pharmacy to relieve a symptom by blocking it with a perfectly safe over-thecounter preparation. The alternative would be to recognize the source of the symptom and restore normal function by whatever means necessary—rest or exercise, nutrition or hydration, and using chiropractic services.
Obviously, an accurate early-warning diagnostic system of examination would be required. It is there, and I believe the chiropractic profession offers society a unique service that is underappreciated today. Last month, we spoke of the structural-visceral relationships connected through the central and peripheral nervous systems. Stress from any source—chemical, mechanical, or emotional—threatens the continued maintenance of the fluid environment that bathes the body’s cells, bringing nutrients and removing metabolic waste. This sets off the transmission of signals between the affected structures, the brain, and its control mechanisms. If unable to meet the challenge, we develop symptoms, i.e., early warning signs.
So, let’s look at a modern limited summary of our immune system and the information transmitted through those visceral-structural pathways.
Inflammation
The simplest, most fundamental reaction of the body to tissue irritation is inflammation. In fact, inflammation is defined as the local reaction of the body to irritation. From this definition, it is evident that any irritant may cause inflammation, and a full list of causes would include every known irritant. Inflammation is the most common and most carefully studied of all the fascinating changes that the body undergoes as the result of disease. Its history is the history of pathology.
Inflammation is characterized by symptoms of fever (heat), redness, swelling, and pain, and features a two-phase response. First, white blood cells surround the irritant and involved tissue to wall it off, if possible. Neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, and monocytes (macrophages) use the vascular system as a means of rapid transit to the affected area. They can leave the blood and enter the interstitial tissue to attack the irritant and destroy it. Anti-inflammatory medications relieve the symptoms of fever, redness, and swelling, while analgesics can relieve any associated pain. While convenient, these remedies interfere with the process and delay healing.
The second phase of inflammation, which is often totally ignored by clinicians, features repair of the injured tissue, if any. It is protein that is used by cells to repair themselves. Obviously, any delay in healing is a symptom of protein deficiency.
How many times do we examine patients following an inflammatory response to see if the body is capable of restoring normal function? The question is, “How would you know?” Well, there is a little-known fact about inflammation that is under appreciated today. There are more than four symptoms of inflammation. Yes, fever, redness, swelling, and pain, but there is also a fifth— involuntary muscle contraction. This has been known since 1898 and was reported by Rudolph Virchow, who is known as “the father of cellular pathology.”
Involuntary muscle contractions, whether caused by visceral, structural, or emotional stress, change posture and cause structural alignments as the body struggles constantly to oppose gravity. Who in today’s healing marketplace would be able to utilize a physical examination procedure to quickly identify lingering and incomplete healing following any inflammatory response? I respectfully submit only chiropractors have the training to do so.
Basic physical examination procedures can determine the cause of seemingly unrelated symptoms much more quickly than laboratory results, which occur later, as well as record loss of normal physiological mechanisms and warn of an approaching pathological eventuality.
Therein lies the secret that this profession has to offer modern society. No antiquated philosophy here.
Innate Immunity and Adaptive Immunity
Backing up its fundamental inflammatory response, the body has two additional protective immune processes. No need to describe these processes in depth here, so a brief summary of the two-step progression following inflammation will suffice.
The innate immune system recruits natural killer cells—T and B cells—to sites of infection and the production of chemical factors, such as cytokines. Next, there is activation of the complement cascade to identify bacteria, activate cells, and promote clearance of antibody complexes or dead cells. This process includes identifying and removing foreign substances present in organs, tissues, blood, and lymph.
Finally, activation of the adaptive (or acquired) immune system is achieved through a process known as antigen presentation. This system creates immunological memory after an initial response to a specific pathogen and leads to an enhanced response to subsequent encounters with that pathogen. This process is the basis of vaccination.
With such impressive and fast-acting (0 to 72 hours) immune mechanisms available, one wonders how a virus could enter the body, enter its cells, and commandeer the intrinsic cell defenses, including suppression of cell signaling and suppression of host cellular reproduction. That brings us to the point of this article and the contri-
bution that the science of chiropractic brings to the healthcare marketplace.
Mucosal Membranes
The coronavirus is considered highly contagious but rather weak. This is witnessed by the large number of people who have contracted the virus, test positive for the antibodies, and have recovered with only mild symptoms. However, others develop high fevers, cough, lung congestion, and pneumonia, from which many do not survive.
To understand the difference in clinical outcomes, consider the mucous membranes that line the nasal passages, mouth, throat, trachea, and airways of the lungs. Don’t forget the mucous membranes that protect the esophagus and entire gastrointestinal tract, all the way to its termination.
It is important to remember that these protective mucosal membranes occur on the surface of the body. That’s right—you digest your food outside the body, you move air through your lungs on the outside or surface of the body. To enter the body through the lungs or G.I. tract, the foreign pathogens must pass through the protective mucous, which contains aggregated lymphatic follicles (pockets of white blood cells). This is where the initial inflammatory response (heat, redness, swelling, and even pain) and involuntary muscle contractions share neurological innervation with the affected tissue. These contractions cause structural misalignments and a loss of joint range of motion.
"This is witnessed by the large number of people who have contracted the virus, test positive for the antibodies, and have recovered with only mild symptoms."
Compromised Protective Mucosal Linings
A pathogen’s ability to enter the body through its airways or digestive tract depends on compromised or ineffective protection. What compromises the mucosal linings? Prolonged or chronic stress, regardless of whether the source is visceral, structural, or emotional. The body’s “fight-orflight” stress response is identical, and it always signifies an energy deficiency in one or more of its tissues that cannot perform its responsibilities to maintain either homeostasis (visceral), oppose gravity (structural), or maintain emotional and cognitive stability (brain and CNS).
Conclusion
I would like to close by saying that many doctors of chiropractic run “science-based general chiropractic practices” that examine the visceralmusculoskeletal connective tissue pathways given to each of their patients when they entered this world.
Utilizing physical examination techniques taught in every medical, osteopathic, naturopathic, and chiropractic college, the chiropractor is then positioned to develop a treatment plan that wifi restore normal body functions. Such plans, in addition to chiropractic methods, utilize accepted methods of maintaining health, such as improved levels of rest or exercise, adequate hydration, modification of dietary intake, reduction of “bad” lifestyle habits, and reduction of stressors that affect the anatomical, physiological, or emotional and cognitive stability of the patient.
Such patients are then better positioned to follow public health guidelines and recommendations, and regardless of age, survive a healthcare emergency such as the coronavirus pandemic.
Howard F. Loomis, Jr., DC, has an extensive background in enzymes and enzyme supplements. He is the founder and president of the Food Enzyme Institute"^. His extensive knowledge of physiology, biochemistry, and enzymology has made him a sought-after speaker and a prolific writer. Dr. Loomis published ENZYMES: The Key to Health in 1999, as well as The Enzyme Advantage: For Healthcare Providers and People Who Care About Their Health, in 2015. and The Enzyme Advantage for Women in 2016. Most recently, in 2019, Dr. Loomis published What is Your Nutritional Deficiency?: Find It, Fix It, and Feel Better! You can contact Dr. Loomis at [email protected] 800-662-2630. Food Enzyme Institute, 478 Commerce Dr. Suite 201, Madison, Wl 53719
