Since chiropractic’s inception in 1895 there has been an unique understanding of the crucial relationship between the integrity of the spinal column and the function of the nervous system as a whole and specifically the tissues and organs that they supply. The interrelatedness of the spine and nerve system–even way back then–was evident in its simplest of understandings.
It was this basic observation that led to the profession of chiropractic focusing on the function of the nerve system and how it is the main source for transmitting the inborn intelligence and information one requires to express their fullest health potential. In essence, to the degree one maintained a healthy nervous system, one free of interference and aberrant communication in relation to the spine, is to the degree one was able to express the fullest potential for life and health.
Chiropractors influence the function of the nerve system through the spine and spinal subsystems thereby allowing the body to increase its own inborn ability to self-regulate and self-heal.
Why Do Many Doctors Dismiss the Importance of Nerve Function?
Fast forward 120 years later.
I can’t tell you how many times I have a person in front of me to whom I explain these simple workings of the importance of nerve function in the role of their health. What is usually said next is highly predictable….
“Why didn’t my doctor tell me that?” My answer is usually something along the lines of, “Maybe they just simply don’t know and you should explain it to them.”
In truth I do not know the answer, but my best guess would be that these heath philosophy’s and practices were first and continue to be associated with chiropractic. The allopathic bias professionally is that chiropractic principles have not come from any medical research or any medically minded physician and therefore are not valid. Wait to you read the next paragraph…
Additionally, the Wilk’s Trial shed’s light on why there is so much negativity in the medical profession towards chiropractic- (In 1987, following 11 years of legal action, a federal appellate court judge ruled that the AMA had engaged in a “lengthy, systematic, successful and unlawful boycott” designed to restrict cooperation between MDs and chiropractors in order to eliminate the profession of chiropractic as a competitor in the United States health care system.)(Effects of these practices by the AMA carried on many years beyond the findings by the judge…. but let’s continue)
Well Fret No Longer
Thanks to a wonderful M.D. who spent many long hours in the lab we have results that support the basics of the chiropractic philosophy regarding the nerves and the function of the organs as they relate to the spine.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: The Winsor Autopsies!!
Henry Winsor, a medical doctor in Haverford, Pennsylvania, asked the 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?”
Dr. Winsor decided to investigate this science and art of healing–chiropractic.
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.
As he wrote: “The object of these necropsies (dissections) was to determine whether any connection existed between minor curvatures of the spine, on the one hand, and diseased organs on the other; or whether the two were entirely independent of each other.”
Some Details
The University of Pennsylvania gave Dr. Winsor permission to carry out his experiments. In a series of three studies he dissected a total of 75 human and 22 cat cadavers. The following are Dr. Winsor’s results:
“212 structures other than the spine were found diseased. Of these, 212 were observed to belong to the same sympathetic segments (nerve segment) 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 filaments from the same spinal segments. In other words, there was nearly a 100 percent correlation between minor curvatures of the spine and diseases of the internal organs.”
Diseases examined:
• Stomach Diseases: All nine cases of spinal misalignment in the mid-thoracic area (T5-T9) had stomach disease.
• Lung Disease: All 26 cases of lung disease had spinal misalignments in the upper thoracic spine.
• Liver Disease: All 13 cases of liver disease had misalignments in the mid thoracic (T5-T9)
• Gallstones: All five cases with gallstone disease had spinal misalignments in the mid thoracic.
• Pancreas: All three cases with pancreas disease had spinal misalignments in the mid thoracics.
• Spleen: All 11 cases with spleen diseases had spinal misalignments in the mid thoracics.
• Kidney: All 17 cases with kidney disease were out of alignment in the lower thoracics.
• Prostate and Bladder Disease: All eight cases with kidney, prostate and bladder disease had the lumbar (L2-L3) vertebrae misaligned
• Uterus: The two cases with the uterine conditions had the second lumbar misaligned.
• Heart Disease: All 20 cases with heart and pericardium conditions had the upper five thoracic vertebrae (T1-T5) misaligned.
November 1921
Dr. Winsor’s results are published in The Medical Times, November 1921, and are found in any medical library.
That’s right, folks: 1921.
What is incredible is that there is much more research, a majority of it done in recent years, that shows the benefit of chiropractic care in many aspects of health such as the immune system function, hormone function and mental/emotion function. Wouldn’t you want to know that chiropractic care could allow your family’s immune systems to be as healthy as they are meant to be?
Additionally, research shows people without any symptoms who receive chiropractic care IMPROVE their overall health.
That means there is valid scientific documentation that as you incorporate chiropractic care into your lifestyle you continue to get healthier even if you don’t have any current symptoms!
Now let me just acknowledge that many in our profession of chiropractic educate people to know that judging their health based upon symptoms, such as pain, and in my opinion is not wise and that even in the absence of symptoms someone can be quite sick.
What I Want
To simply shift the focus onto creating health, wellness and wholenes in your life and the ones you interact with everyday.
You have a choice!!! Either taking a passive and unaware role in the processes of creating a downward spiral of sickness and disease or an informed and proactive one in creating an upward spiral of health and vitality.
Which would you choose for yourself?
How about for your child?
How Many of us Receive Chiropractic Care?
The chiropractic profession has been educating, talking about, asking, and sometimes pleading with people to get checked for nerve interference by a chiropractor for over 100 years. Over 85 years ago the medical community itself validated chiropractic’s reasoning with science.
Sadly to this day only about 6% percent of our country’s population is under some type of regular chiropractic care.
We continue to get sicker as a country that encompasses less than 5 percent of the world’s population–who consume around 80 percent of the world’s pharmaceuticals. This concept of better health through better drugs is not working and, more importantly, it is killing us.
Conservatively speaking, the third leading cause of death in this country is the medical profession, arguably, it is the first leading cause of unnecessary death.
So whether you have a disease, an illness or symptoms, are without a symptom. want to create more health, or want to find out more about how your body works, you can benefit from a chiropractor.
Many of my colleagues across the country and world give health care classes, new patient orientations and speak to all sorts of groups. So contact me or your local chiropractor, find one that fits you well (there are many styles and techniques in chiropractic) and take back you life!!
Reference:
Much of this article was modified from an original article from Tedd Koren, D.C.
All quotes 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
Much of this article was modified from an original article from Tedd Koren, D.C.
All quotes 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
