Degenerated and misaligned spines have a high correlation with disease processes.
Degenerated and misaligned spines have a high correlation with disease processes.
I was recently quite surprised to see statements made online and in social media regarding the ineffectiveness of chiropractic methodology on the immune system. I wondered why anyone would assume manipulative or physical therapeutics would be effective in treating cases of the coronavirus.
I suppose thoughts of chiropractic therapy influencing immune function, or any visceral functions for that matter, harken back to the professions early philosophical beginnings. But many, if not most, chiropractic colleges now deny such terminology as “subluxation” and “innate” in their teachings.
Surprisingly, these terms are now only found in more recent medical literature. In the last few years, medical science has found the missing link between inflammation, the first defensive step by the body in any pathological process, and autoimmune diseases. Ironically, they now use the very appropriate term “innate immunity” to describe the intermediary step between inflammation and autoimmunity. But I digress. I will discuss that development in Part II of this article next month.
For now, let us return to the term subluxation, which is now used by internists, ophthalmologists, and even dentists to describe organs and tissues “out of normal alignment or position.” I have been asked before speaking at a chiropractic college not to use the term “subluxation.” And a colleague of mine heard boos from his audience when he used the term during a speech in front of a chiropractic audience a few years ago.
I suppose there are those who still cling to original chiropractic philosophy and perhaps even mention the long-forgotten Winsor studies, done to prove or disprove the effectiveness of early chiropractic claims of correcting subluxations and their effect on health.
In 1921, the medical profession investigated chiropractic when Dr. Henry Winsor, a medical doctor in Haverford, Pennsylvania decided to investigate the new science and art of healing called chiropractic and postulated the following question:
“Chiropractors claim that by adjusting one vertebra, they can relieve stomach troubles and ulcers; by adjusting another, menstrual cramps; and by adjusting others conditions such as kidney diseases, constipation, heart disease, thyroid conditions, and lung disease may resolve - but how? ”
After graduating from medical school, Dr. Winsor was inspired by chiropractic and osteopathic literature to experiment. He planned to dissect human and animal cadavers to see if there was a relationship between any diseased internal organ discovered on autopsy and the vertebrae associated with the nerves that went to the organ. He wrote:
“The object of these necropsies was to determine whether any connection existed between curvatures of the spine, and diseased organs; or whether the two were entirely independent of each other. ”
The University of Pennsylvania gave Dr. Winsor permission to carry out his experiments. In a series of three studies, he dissected a total of seventy-five human and twenty-two cat cadavers. The following are Dr. Winsor’s results:
“227 structures other than the spine were found diseased. Of these, 212 were from the same sympathetic (nerve) segments as the vertebrae in curvature. Nine diseased organs belonged to different sympathetic segments from the vertebrae out of line. These figures cannot be expected to exactly coincide . . . for an organ may receive sympathetic filaments from several spinal segments and several organs may be supplied with sympathetic (nerve) filaments from the same spinal segments. In other words, there was nearly a 100% correlation between minor curvatures of the spine and diseases of the internal organs. ”
Dr. Winsor’s results are published in The Medical Times and can be found in any medical library. Winsor was not alone in his findings. Similar studies by other researchers have confirmed Dr. Winsor’s conclusion that degenerated and misaligned spines have a high correlation with disease processes.
ORGAN SYSTEM Heart Disease Lung Disease Stomach Disease Liver Disease Gallstones Pancreas Spleen Kidney Prostate/Bladder Uterus
CASES 20 cases 26 cases 9 cases 19 cases 5 cases 3 cases 11 cases 17 cases 8 cases 2 cases
MISALIGNMENTS T1-T5 T1 to T4 T5 to T9 T5 to T9 T5 to T9 T5 to T9 T5 to T9 T10 to T12 LI to L3 T9
All quotes are from: Winsor, H. Sympathetic segmental disturbances - II. The evidences of the association, in dissected cadavers, of visceral disease with vertebral deformities of the same sympathetic segments, The Medical Times, November 1921, pp. 267-271.
I stated previously that the chiropractic profession had never conducted clinical outcome studies to prove or disprove the effectiveness of their methods on visceralsomatic relationships. Be that as it may, it is beyond dispute that the interconnections (central and peripheral nervous systems) between visceral organs and the musculoskeletal system are set in place during the third week of embryonic life. The dispersion of the mesoderm with the endoderm and ectodermal layers is attested to within any embryology textbook written within the last 100 years at least.
Unlike the chiropractic profession, the osteopathic profession did extensively investigate these visceralsomatic relationships long before they fused their curriculum with medicine after World War II. Not to belabor my point, I’ll mention only one reference. Osteopathic Methods and the Great Flu Pandemic of 1917-1918
JAOA - Vol. 100 - No 5 - May 2000 - pages 309-328
Michael Patterson, PhD, JAOA Associate Editor
Dr. Patterson notes:
The great influenza pandemic of 1917-1918 has been legend in osteopathic lore. It killed almost 1.5 times as many people worldwide (10 million) in 6 months as did the entire World War I in more than 4 years (7.5 million).
Some sources put the death toll of the pandemic at closer to 20 million. “The osteopathic medical community treated patients with influenza and its more potent sequela, pneumonia, with various forms of manipulative treatment, rest, and hydration. After the death sweep had abated, the leaders of the profession surveyed osteopathic practitioners nationwide regarding their experiences with treatment.”
The results showed that patients treated by osteopathic physicians had a death rate of 0.5%, whereas medically treated patients had an average 6% death rate (up to 27% in Boston).
“Patients with pneumonia under osteopathic care had a death rate of less than 10%, as opposed to 33% of medically treated cases.” “It is apparent that osteopathic methods were highly effective in the epidemic.”
Patterson quotes a 1919 study indicating that “people receiving routine osteopathic care seemed to have contracted that influenza at a much lower rate than did the untreated population.” He discusses a 1937 article that indicated that drugs used to treat influenza, pneumonia, and other diseases by the medical profession were actually harmful to those receiving them.
Lastly, he notes that “the best defense against disease and infection remains health. Optimal health is the result of the optimization of the function of each individual. Osteopathic care that includes intelligently applied manipulative treatment is an excellent preventative treatment.”
And that is the point of this article, not to argue that manipulation would be an effective form of treatment in any viral disease, but that its purpose is within a broad range of health maintenance procedures designed to maintain health - and includes examination procedures to recognize early deviations from normal function that could be corrected before a pathological process can be diagnosed.
Next month, I would like to take a modern look at the body’s immune functions and discuss the idea that chiropractic methodology presents its patients with a wholistic approach to maintaining health and not treating diagnosed diseases.
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!, [email protected] 800-662-2630. Food Enzyme Institute, 478 Commerce Dr. Suite 201, Madison, Wl 53719
