Most of us understand that chiropractic care helps to restore motion, reduce pain and decrease muscle spasm. However, what is often overlooked is how beneficial chiropractic adjustments are to our bodies’ overall function and not merely to musculoskeletal symptoms.
We see this every day in practice and now there is increasing research to support this.
A new article published this year looked at how our physiology changes after chiropractic spinal adjustments. Scientists in Spain took 30 volunteers and had their blood tested before, and immediately after, a chiropractic adjustment. They found that three hormones produced by the body increased after a specific chiropractic adjustment: oxytocin which reduces inflammation, improves wound healing and increases feelings of trust; cortisol which activates anti-stress pathways in the body and also acts as an anti-inflammatory; and neurotensin which has a pain-reducing, anti-psychotic effect.
The benefits of Chiropractic
For sports enthusiasts, chiropractic has been reported to give a 30% increase in athletic ability after twelve weeks of chiropractic care. The areas specifically tested included kinaesthetic perception, power, reaction time, agility and balance. Furthermore, a randomised controlled trial on a football team revealed how their incidence of injury was significantly reduced when chiropractic was added to their standard medical and physiotherapy approach. Not only can chiropractic really raise your game, it can keep you in it!
Research performed in the United States found that for chiropractic patients over the age of 65 who had regular chiropractic check-ups, the number of medical visits were halved and they used less medication compared to over 65’s that used standard medical care alone.
As Hippocrates once said, “look well to the spine for the cause of disease.” As chiropractors we are highly trained to detect and remove interference from the nervous system, to enable our bodies to heal themselves. These studies reflect this and highlight the positive effects to your nervous system and more widely to your entire body, all instigated from an educated human touch.