Chiropractic Medicine is Nothing to Sneeze At

By Dr. Dave Edenfield

When most people think of chiropractic medicine, they conjure up images of people who need their back 

Jim Dubel demonstrating adjustment protocals (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

and neck adjusted, or someone in pain.  The last thing they would contact their chiropractor about would be to help them alleviate their allergy symptoms.  While we chiropractors do concern ourselves with the spine, what most people don’t realize is that the nervous system controls much more than just their sense of pain.  Among other things it also controls the sinuses.

When most people deal with allergies, they customarily either reach for a pill or go to their allergist for a shot.  While providing temporary relief, shots and pills do not cure the problem.  They only relieve the symptoms.  Add to that the problems associated with antihistamines, including drug resistance and even possible heart complications and you can see why many allergy sufferers are eager to try a drug-free treatment that can offer relief.

Chiropractic care for allergies has been around for more than a century.  Yet this option is often news to many patients.  This is in part due to the fact that general practitioners and even most allergists were never trained in chiropractic techniques when they attended medical school.  In fact, the way that chiropractic care helps allergy sufferers is not by treating the allergy directly, but by locating and correcting areas of nervous system inflammation called subluxations.  Subluxations can disrupt communication between the nervous system and the brain. Correcting these subluxations then enables the brain and nervous system to communicate more effectively, which in turn helps the body. Allergy patients would benefit from improved communication between the brain, nervous system and immune system to combat allergies, among other things.

Immune response is critical in fighting off everything from disease and infection, along with dealing with stress.  Responsible for warding off all kinds of foreign invaders, the immune system represents the body’s defending army which is martialed by the nervous system.  Therefore when a chiropractor aligns the spine and removes anything that can interfere with nerve impulses this in turns allows the immune system to function at its peak.

In many cases, allergy symptoms are actually caused by an overreaction of the immune system to allergens.  In order to deal with anything from pollen to pollution to dust to mold or pet dander, the body sometimes overproduces histamine in dispatch the invading organisms.  As a result, allergy sufferers start wheezing and sneezing and their eyes start tearing as the body tries to flush out the allergens.  This is also why those who suffer from allergies are customarily prescribed antihistamines, which tend to dry the sinuses.  The problem is that the over-prescription of antihistamines can have adverse or even deadly side effects if combined with other medications. 

Allergies affect more than 40 million Americans and can start at any age.  Particularly in children, a compromised immune system can be responsible for everything from illness to asthma. 

“In a recent study, children with asthma showed an overall improvement in the lung capacity after only 15 chiropractic adjustments. In a Danish study of 115 families with children ages 0 to 7 years suffering from asthma, diabetes, and epilepsy. One third of the children underwent chiropractic adjustments, after which 93 percent of the parents surveyed reported improvement in their child’s asthma condition. Other findings documenting abnormal spinal mechanics associated with asthma were performed by the famous osteopathic researcher Alan Stoddard. Stoddard stated that many diseases are due to mechanical lesions (vertebral subluxations). There is ample research documenting the intimate connection between the spinal column, the nervous system, and the respiratory system. Vertebral subluxations in the neck and upper back can produce associated muscle spasms, which cause a restriction and stasis of the lymphatic drainage from the head and neck. As a result, the body is unable to wash out the bacteria , debris, and foreign material to which it is exposed. Chiropractic adjustments in many cases will produce immediate relaxation of the neck musculature responsible for obstructing the lymphatic (neck) drainage. These adjustments improve respiratory function by restoring normal nerve function, which in turn may result in symptomatic improvement in bronchitis and asthma.”

Even adults who had no childhood history of allergies can sometimes wind up becoming allergic to environmental pollutants or even food such as nuts or certain types of grain later in life.  Not only do these late stage allergies require those affected to alter their lifestyle, but many times sufferers are forced to carry epinephrine pens in order to self-administer an injection should they be accidentally exposed to allergens which can cause their throats to swell and their airways to become blocked.

So when it comes to dealing with allergies, the emphasis should be put on correcting any imbalances which can adversely affect the body’s immune system.  A healthy body is better able to ward off invading organisms than any bottle of pills ever was.  And that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Dr. Dave Edenfield  and Dr. Steven Warfield are part of the team of doctors and therapists at http://www.lakewoodchiropracticjax.com/who are dedicated to helping you and your family lead  healthier, happier and pain-free lives.