“I don’t believe in chiropractic.”
Truly I think to myself often that the above statement is
outrageous, ridiculous and that people are not willing to look at the science.
To me this statement says the same thing as “I don’t believe in exercise.”
Overtime, the more I look at this statement and think about
the reasoning behind it I see that
so many people think chiropractic is a “BELIEF” system. They think that one must believe in order for chiropractic to work.
so many people think chiropractic is a “BELIEF” system. They think that one must believe in order for chiropractic to work.
Take into consideration these statements:
“I don’t believe eating donuts everyday will make me fat.”
“I don’t believe exercising will make a difference in my
health.”
“I don’t believe that the government would lie to me.”
Whether or not you or anyone else believes these statements
they do happen and believe it or not many people ‘believe’ the statements
above.
The reality is that this statement can often be interpreted as: “I am unaware of
the science or research that proves chiropractic is an effective means of
health care to improve my nervous system function, therefore I don’t think it will help improve my symptoms or my health.”
It seems
unfortunate that one would need to validate chiropractic, which at its core is founded on very simple anatomical facts; the nervous system is the master system and the spine protects it and when the spine is out of place it interferes with the communication between the nervous system and the body.
To bring my point home I am going to attempt to make an
impact on ‘the belief’ in chiropractic by referring to 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, in my humble opinion, took it to the extreme to investigate
this new science and art of healing, chiropractic. When I mean new, it was 1921
when he performed his autopsies, a mere 26 years after chiropractic got its
beginnings.
After obtaining a Doctorate in Medicine, Dr. Winsor was
inspired by chiropractic and osteopathic care to experiment. The means of his
experiment was to dissect human and animal cadavers (not an easy task by hand)
to see if there was a connection between any diseased internal organ (from the
original autopsy) and the vertebrae associated with the nerves that went to
that specific 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."
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:
"Two hundred twenty-one structures other than the spine
were found diseased. Of these, 212 were observed to belong to 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.” Dr. Winsor couldn’t believe it, in other words, there was
nearly a 100 percent correlation between minor curvatures of the spine and
diseases of the internal organs.
All quotes taken from
Winsor, H., Sympathetic Segmental Disturbances- 11. The Evidence of the
Association in Dissected Cadaver of Visceral Disease with Vertebral Deformities
of the Same Sympathetic Segments, Medical Times, 49 1-7 Nov. 1921!
Over the years
chiropractors have experienced tremendous success in helping patients with all
kinds of health problems. In the short time Dr. Bret Wickstrom has been in
Greenville NC he has also experienced success in treating more than just back
pain. Most do not realize the implications spinal misalignment has on their
total health.
Most do not realize that
there is research and clinical findings that chiropractic does effect the
ability for the spine to be in it’s ‘normal alignment allowing nerve flow and
the body to function. This lack of knowledge leads more to not ‘believe’ in
chiropractic.
Now that you know share,
tell, inform, educate and believe in chiropractic.
