Chiropractic and the Immune System

Summary

Researchers now know that there is a critical link between the body’s central nervous system and the immune system. Something chiropractic researchers have been aware of since the 1918 flu epidemic, when it was found that the rate of chiropractic patients that got the flu was less than half that of non-chiropractic patients.

In 1974, physiologist Dr. I.M. Korr proposed that “spinal lesions” (similar to the vertebral subluxation complex) are associated with exaggerated sympathetic (a division of the autonomic nerve system) activity.[1]

Sympathetic activity has been shown to release immune regulatory cells into the blood circulation, which alters immune function. Drs. Murray, Irwin, and Reardon were the authors of the report that stated: “Growing evidence suggests that immune function is regulated in part by the sympathetic nervous system. Sympathetic nerve endings densely innervate lymphoid tissue such as the spleen, lymph nodes and the thymus, and lymphoid cells have beta 2 adregenergic receptors.” [2]

So, what they were saying is that the nervous system has a direct immune system effect through the nerve supply to the important immune system organs. One of the most important studies was performed by Ronald Pero, Ph.D., chief of cancer prevention research at New York’s Preventive Medicine Institute and professor of medicine at New York University. It showed the positive effect that chiropractic care can have on the immune system and general health.

Dr. Pero measured the immune systems of people under chiropractic care as compared to those in the general population and those with cancer and other serious diseases. His initial three-year study was of 107 individuals who had been under chiropractic care for five years or more. The chiropractic patients were found to have a 200% greater immune competence than those people who had not received chiropractic care, and they had 400% greater immune competence than those people with cancer and other serious diseases. The immune system superiority of those under chiropractic care did not appear to diminish with age. Dr. Pero stated:

“When applied in a clinical framework, I have never seen a group other than this chiropractic group to experience a 200% increase over the normal patients. This is why it is so dramatically important. We have never seen such a positive improvement in a group…”³

The chiropractic immunology connection was strengthened in 1991 when Patricia Brennan, Ph.D., leading a team of researchers, conducted a study that found improved immune response in her test subjects following chiropractic treatment. The study specifically demonstrated the “phagocytic respiratory burst of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) and monocytes were enhanced in adults that had been adjusted by chiropractors.” [4]

So, through chiropractic care, the function of the phagocytes, the white-blood cells that go on the search and destroy missions for the body, the ones that engulf and destroy bad cells, is enhanced.

Another important study was performed at the Life Chiropractic University, Sid Williams Research Center in 1994. The researchers took a group of HIV positive patients and adjusted them over a six-month period. What they found was that the “patients that were adjusted had a forty-eight percent (48%) increase in the number CD4 cells (an important immune system component).” These measurements were taken at the patients’ independent medical center, where they were under medical supervision for the condition. The control group (the patients that were not adjusted) did not demonstrate this dramatic increase in immune function, but actually experienced a 7.96% decrease in CD4 cell counts over the same period. [5]

Those are very impressive results with important implications, yet they were ignored. You would think that we’d have seen it as front-page, headline news, or heard a special report about it. However, as they say in the news business, “if it bleeds, it leads.” (We were probably too busy watching OJ Simpson’s bizarre ride in the white SUV after his wife’s and their pool boy’s murder. You know … the truly important stuff.) Another paper published in 1987 found a connection between the autonomic nervous system and the immune system through endocrine channels. Dr. Felton and his team of researchers reported that “the neurotransmitter, norepinephrine is present in sympathetic nerve fibers that innervate lymphoid organs and act on the spleen.” [6] The authors proposed that norepinephrine in lymphoid organs plays a significant role in the regulation of the immune system. They stated:

“Stressful conditions lead to altered measures of immune function, and altered susceptibility to a variety of diseases. Many stimuli, which primarily act on the central nervous system, can profoundly alter immune responses. The two routes available to the central nervous system are neuroendocrine channels and autonomic nerve channels.” [6]

Thus, the immune system is affected by the nerve system through the connections with the endocrine and the autonomic nervous system. And chiropractic care improves the function of the nerve system through improving the movement of the spinal bones that encase and protect the spinal cord.

[1] Korr IM: “Andrew Taylor Still memorial lecture: Research and Practice – a century later.” J Am Osteopathy Assoc 1974 73:362.

[2] Murray DR, Irwin M, Reardon CA, et al. “Sympathetic and immune interactions during dynamic exercise. Mediation via a beta 2 – adrenergic-dependent mechanism.” Circulation 1992 86(1): 203

[3] Pero R. “Medical Researcher Excited By CBSRF Project Results.” The Chiropractic Journal, August 1989; 32.

[4] Brennan P, Graham M, Triano J, Hondras M. “Enhanced phagocytic cell respiratory bursts induced by spinal manipulation: Potential Role of Substance P.” J Manip Physiolog Ther 1991; (14)7:399-400.

[5] Selano JL, Hightower BC, Pfleger B, Feeley-Collins K, Grostic JD. “The Effects of Specific Upper Cervical Adjustments on the CD4 Counts of HIV Positive Patients.” The Chiro Research Journal; 3(1); 1994.

[6] Felton DL, Felton SY, Belonged DL, et al. “Noradrenergic sympathetic neural interactions with the immune system: structure and function.” Immunol Rev. 1987 Dec;100:225-60.

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