Dr.Mercola jm@lists.mercola.com

Doctors Crack Code on Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic care is poised to make a big splash in the medical realm. Wellness care by doctors of chiropractic may reduce health care costs, improve health behaviors and enhance patient perceived quality of life.

However, what many researchers have focused on is the fact that chiropractic adjustments affect the chemistry of biological processes on a cellular level.

Researchers found that chiropractic care could affect the basic physiological processes that influence oxidative stress and DNA repair.

Comparing serum thiol (primary antioxidant; measure of human health status) levels in nearly 50 patients receiving short- or long-term chiropractic care with 30 patients who were treated with non-chiropractic methods, researchers found:

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Independent of age, sex or taking nutritional supplements, long-term chiropractic care of two or more years re-established a normal physiological state in patients.

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Patients receiving chiropractic care showed higher mean serum thiol levels, compared to patients with active disease, and produced some values that were higher than normal wellness values.

Moreover, chiropractors apply spinal adjustments to correct disturbances of nerve function; thus, chiropractic care appears to improve a patient's ability to adapt to stress.

I'm a strong believer in traditional chiropractic philosophy, which places a strong emphasis on the body's innate healing wisdom and relies much less on Band-Aids like drugs and surgery.

Like many other traditional healing methods, such as naturopathic medicine and Chinese medicine, chiropractic promotes the idea that there are certain phenomena, including spinal misalignment, which create imbalances in the normal function of the body.

These imbalances, if left in place for too long, can result in pathology of one sort or another. To manifest true healing from a disease, traditional medicine says that these imbalances must be corrected.

Once this is accomplished, your body will typically heal itself. I have seen examples of this process thousands of times in my practice, using a number of different therapies, either alone or in combination, that also help to re-establish balance in the body.

One of the most powerful methods I know of to balance the function of your body involves eating healthy foods in the proportions that are right for your metabolic type. When my patients implement such changes, not only do their symptoms improve, but it is also easy to find objective proof that their bodies are changing for the better.

Dr. Christopher Kent, one of the authors of the study, is a friend of mine. He is the vice president of the World Chiropractic Alliance, president of the Council on Chiropractic Practice, and one of the major leaders in the chiropractic profession.

He also happens to be a strong follower of the Total Health Program. He was born with a tendency toward a specific type of hyperliprotenemia and most likely this was a factor in why he developed a stroke at 35 years old. It is unclear if this was the primary issue as he hadn’t yet manifested the high triglycerides yet, but most likely had other underlying metabolic abnormalities that contributed to the stroke. When I congratulated him about his study he told me in the last six month from following the program his:

* Waist has gone from 36" to 32"

* Blood pressure dropped from 145/90 to 126/72

* Pulse dropped from 90+ to 70

* Triglycerides dropped from 860 to 125

* HDL went up from 25 to 67!

He told me that he achieved the above results, "All in less than six months from sane eating and walking a minimum of 45 minutes/day. Cost: Zero. Actually cheaper than what I used to eat."

Absolutely amazing. Congratulations Dr. Kent, for adding about 30 years to your lifespan so you can continue to help advance the transition to a wellness paradigm.