Everyone has at least a rough idea of what a chiropractor does (ask most people and they’ll at least say ‘that’s a bone doctor, right?’) and so, the benefits of chiropractic care are sometimes obvious. There’s no doubt that someone with an injured knee will, more often than not, find their condition improving after sufficient treatment and therapy are given by a professional in the field of chiropractic care.
The benefits of chiropractic care go a little deeper than that, though. A person in need of chiropractic attention might not just be someone with an obvious physical injury, aching joints or a misaligned spine, there are also potential benefits for seemingly unrelated conditions and ailments such as poor eyesight or gastrointestinal maladies.
Many chiropractic professionals find themselves in the fortunate position of telling a surprised or even worried patient that yes, it is normal to experience certain changes that one might not list as being one of the benefits of chiropractic care. In the late 1990s, a study was conducted and reported in The Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. Interviewers each surveyed twenty consecutive patients who had just received treatment from 87 Swedish chiropractic professionals. Of the 1,504 patients, 26% were finding it easier to breath, 25% felt their gastrointestinal system had improved, 14% found their eyesight improving and 14% claimed improvements in blood flow and heart rate. For the uninitiated, the results seemed to have been merely perceived by the patients, something of a placebo effect, but chiropractic professionals were left unsurprised. The benefits of chiropractic care are felt first by the nervous system and musculoskeletal system, including the spine, so it stands to reason that, once the body’s main network is set to function properly, it’s only natural that other areas will follow suit, as every piece of the human body relies on a healthy spine and nervous system. This is not to say that the benefits of chiropractic care are omnipotent, of course. We all know that every field of medicine and therapy has its limits, and a capable professional will know these limits and recommend a patient to another professional with the right qualifications should their needs be beyond what chiropractic care can provide for.
The fact that some patients will come out of their first chiropractic session and enthusiastically (and sometimes wrongly) recommend every one of their friends, regardless of the ailment, to their chiropractor, should serve as evidence of just how far the benefits of chiropractic care can reach. Chiropractic care is not ‘The Answer’, but it is surprisingly effective for areas of the body reaching well beyond the back and joints.
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