Research on Asthma

Winter is a season that many asthma sufferers are afraid of. It is a time of the year when many asthma attacks occur. The International Chiropractic Pediatric Association  expressed in a press conference that currently there are about 4 million asthma sufferers in the US.

Asthma is a respiratory disease that cause the airway to be constricted due to foreign allergens, chemicals and the change of the weather.  In Hong kong, the mainstream treatment is to use medication such as beta2 agonist or steroid to allow the airway to relax and prevent the attacks.  Physician will suggest patients to avoid allergens and anything that will trigger the attacks.  In the point of a view of a Chiropractor, although the above treatment protocol is correct, but it is missing a very important component, it is the immue system.  If the body has a strong immune system, it should be able to destroy any foreign allergens that cause the attack.  A good spine without subluxation and misalignment will be sufficient to boost up the immune system.

Dr. Graham, a Pediatric Chiropractor, published a research article in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research, on the effectiveness of Chiropractic care in treating Asthmatic Children.  In his study, he divided 81 children, ranging from age 11 to 17, into two groups and performed spinal adjustments on one group and placebo adjustment on the other for a two months period.  All the children and their parents were given several questionnaires to report on the frequency of asthma attack. Result showed that 91% of the children with actual adjustments had significant decrease in the frequency of asthma attacks.  Boys had better improvements than girls.  The placebo group showed a 10% improvement.

The reason behind the significant decrease in asthma attacks is that our nervous system controls every organ and system in our body.  It is also responsible for our autonomic nervous system that regulate our heart beat, breathing, sexual drive, digestion, excretion etc.  When there is a subluxation in the spine, it will cause an impingement to the nerves that supply the autonomic nervous system.  This will result in an obstruction to the neurotransmission from the brain to the significant ogran and system.  Asthma attacks can be triggered by allergens but it can also be caused by a decreased amount of neurotransmission to the airway causing it to function improperly.  A Chiropractic adjustment will remove the subluxation in the spine and allow regular nerve to re-establish again.  Therefore, the children will have a reduced number of attacks after 2 months of Chirorpactic adjustment.  Please refer to the following links for detail.

www.jvsr.com/access/abstracts.asp?catalogid=67 and www.icpa4kids.com