One of the most important studies was performed by Dr. Ronald Pero, Ph.D., chief of cancer prevention research at New York’s Preventive Medicine Institute and professor medicine at New York University.  It showed the positive effect that chiropractic care can have on the immune system and general health.

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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.

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

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Another study from 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 and monocytes (both are white blood cells) were enhanced in adults that had been adjusted by chiropractors.”  In other words, the cells that act like "Pac-Man" eating and destroying bad cells are enhanced through chiropractic care.

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Life Chiropractic University, produced an incredible study from the 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 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% decrease in CD4 cell counts over the same period.

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(Selano JL,et al., "The Effects of Specific Upper Cervical Adjustments on the CD4 Counts of HIV Positive Patients." The Chiro Research Journal; 3(1); 1994.)

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A groundbreaking study from Teodorczyk-Injeyan, et al, examined chiropractic's effect on the production of interleukin 2.  Interleukin 2 (IL-2) is an immunoregulatory molecule that is instrumental in the body’s response to microbial infection and for the body’s ability to discriminate between foreign (non-self) and self.  IL-2 is pivotal in T-cell-dependent immune responses and plays a major role in the development, maintenance and survival of regulatory T cells. Thus, it is of critical importance in induction and sustenance of immune response. 

 

The study followed 67 patients who had blood samples taken before and 20 minutes and 2 hours after receiving an adjustment.  The results showed that IL-2 synthesis significantly increased in the groups that received chiropractic adjustments and there was no change in IL-2 synthesis in the groups that did not get adjusted.

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In summary, it is important to remember that the nervous system controls all of the body’s functions, including the immune system. Chiropractic adjustments reduce interference of the nervous system by correcting subluxations that are blocking the nerves’ ability to transmit a proper and full signal. Many people are walking around with vertebral subluxations. Left uncorrected, these misalignments leave the body in a perpetual state of stress. Once corrected, the body is restored to its normal resting state with full nervous system and immune system function, and that means you are more prepared to fight a cold, the flu or other respiratory illness.