Does Chiropractic Boost Your Immunity?

The human body is very complex in it's incredible power to heal itself. In the philosophy of Chiropractic, we believe in universal truths. One of those truths I'd like to discuss today is, "The power that made the Body, Heals the body."

Think of it like this, there is only so much energy that one can put out in the expression of health. It is a finite amount energy that one has at their disposal to do all the incredible things your body needs to thrive in it's environment. Your body is always working to keep you in what we call, homeostasis or balance. The body is always giving 100% of it's best effort to keep you functioning and healthy. Always striving to do the best it can. Saying that, the body needs that energy to do a vast amount of physiological functions. It needs it to digest food, absorb nutrients, make new cells, tissues, and organs. You need it for your heart to beat, lungs to breathe, and several million other bodily functions that happen everyday. The vast communication for all these functions happens because of a properly functioning Central Nervous System, which happens to be surrounded and protected by bone. The skull surrounds and protects the brain, and the spinal cord is also surrounded and protected by 24 movable vertebrae. These vertebrae are the reason for our dynamic range of motion in the human body, they move in a coupled fashion like a snake. The motion happens because of an array of muscles that contract and relax to move our bones. And that's a key point, muscles have one job in the human body, and that is to move our bones. I often see patients in my office with a lot of tight muscles, in spasm, and just plain working too hard. The body's attempt to move bone and bring the person back to "homeostasis or balance". In short, it's the body's attempt to fix it'self. Now, we all know how much energy can go out when muscles are working hard to fix you, by days end people are drained. But what if you had that energy to go out doing other important bodily functions, such as your immune function. If your body is spending a lot of it's energy keeping house and worrying about structure and function, in the form of muscle activity. It's not a stretch to see there is less energy to go towards other important bodily functions, such as immunity. One of the earliest chiropractic studies or outcome reviews came during our last global pandemic, the Spanish Flu of 1918. In the state of Iowa, MD's treated 93,590 cases of Influenza that resulted in 6,116 deaths(6.5%). While Chiropractors treated 4,735 cases of influenza that resulted in 6 deaths(.12%). Evidence that a properly functioning nervous system is crucial to good health. Recent studies have shown that chiropractic adjustments increase white blood cell counts, reduce inflammation, and boost CD4 + T Cells, which all help in building your body's immunity. In times like these with Covid19 lurking around and sweeping through humanity, the best thing I could recommend is doing everything to help build a healthy immunity. Eat healthy, drink plenty of water, exercise, and get good sleep. And don't forget to get your spine adjusted! Remember, the seed only sets in fertile soil. Keep your immune system strong, through a chiropractic lifestyle.