As flu season hits full swing, it may be time to give your immune system a boost. Visiting your Mississauga chiropractor is not only great for reducing back pain and migraines, but it can also improve overall immunity.
Your nervous system controls all body functions, including your immune response. Chiropractic adjustments remove interference to the nervous system, allowing it to effectively communicate with your immune system.
Improved Nerve Function
While many people associate chiropractic care with alleviating musculoskeletal issues like back pain, neck pain, and headaches, emerging research suggests that this type of treatment can also boost your immune system. It does so by ensuring that your nervous system can send and receive messages effectively.
Your body’s nervous system is primarily housed within your spinal cord. When your body’s defense mechanisms need to act, such as releasing antibodies or firing off white blood cells, your brain will send a message via the spinal cord. If this message is interfered with by pressure on the nerve pathways, it will not be received or delivered quickly enough, and your immune system will be weakened.
Spinal adjustments eliminate the interference, allowing your immune system to send and receive messages with ease. The more efficiently your immune system can communicate with the rest of your body, the faster it will be able to respond to health threats.
A study published in the Journal of Chiropractic & Osteopathy found that patients who underwent chiropractic treatments had higher immunoglobulin levels than those that did not. In addition to the immune boosting effects of chiropractic adjustments, they also improved nerve function and reduced stress hormone levels.
Maintaining a strong immune system requires consistency, and scheduling regular chiropractic adjustments is one way to keep your immune system healthy. Your chiropractor will use spinal manipulation techniques to align your spine, which will promote efficient communication between the brain and body so your immune system can react quickly to health threats.
As you may have seen in the news, some chiropractors have made controversial claims that their treatment can prevent coronavirus infections by boosting your immune system. While there are some studies that report changes in immunological parameters following SMT, there is currently no clinically significant evidence of this effect. However, researchers are continuing to investigate the relationship between SMT and immunity. Hopefully, more research will help us understand exactly how SMT impacts the immune system, and what long-term benefits it has for overall health.
Reduced Stress Hormones
Your immune system is your body’s first line of defense against disease. It detects foreign invaders like viruses and bacteria, and releases antibodies to destroy them. Unfortunately, a variety of factors can weaken your immune system and leave you vulnerable to infections. One of the most common is stress.
Chiropractic adjustments help relieve the symptoms of stress and restore normal function to your nervous system, reducing the production of stress hormones in your body. When your nervous system is functioning normally, it is less likely to perceive foreign invaders as a threat and produce excessive levels of cortisol, which are known to weaken the immune system.
A study published in 1977 found that the immune system of three patients who received chiropractic care saw an increase in antibody levels, which helps your body fight off infections more quickly and efficiently. Having healthy immune function allows your body to fight off infections without needing the extra help from antibiotics or other medications.
Despite the lack of research to prove that spinal manipulation can boost immunity, some chiropractors still promote this idea on social media. For instance, Ryan Armstrong has filed 34 complaints against the College of Chiropractors of Ontario after seeing a video featuring practitioners who promoted that spinal manipulation could help fight coronavirus.
The video was posted by a practitioner named Erin Mills Optimum Health in the Greater Toronto Area. It features three practitioners in front of a whiteboard with the words “Coronavirus” and “Boost Your Immune System” written on it. The CBC reports that the video has since been removed from Facebook.
Another study, published by Life Chiropractic University, examined a group of HIV positive patients who were adjusted over a six-month period. Compared to the control group, the adjusted patients experienced a 48% increase in CD4 cell counts, which are an essential component of the immune system.
In addition to boosting immune function, regular chiropractic care also aids in proper lymphatic drainage. This is important because the lymphatic system carries lymph, which is fluid filled with white blood cells that combat infections, throughout your body. Misalignments in the spine can inhibit lymph flow, leading to a buildup of toxins in your body that can impair immune function. When you receive regular chiropractic care, spinal misalignments are corrected and the lymphatic system is able to drain properly, with this being a commonly done thing by the Fort Wayne chiropractors.
Increased White Blood Cell Counts
As you may already know, a healthy immune system is the body’s best defense against diseases and infections. A large portion of our immune health is controlled by our white blood cell counts. If you have a low white blood cell count, your body is less likely to fight off invaders and will take longer to recover from illness. Regular chiropractic adjustments can help to increase white blood cells and improve overall immune health by improving spinal alignment and nerve function.
The nervous system controls all functions in the body, including the immune system. When the spine is misaligned, or subluxated, this can interfere with the proper communication between the brain and immune system. When the communication is interrupted, your immune system can fail to react to potential threats in a timely manner and may become more susceptible to infection. Chiropractic adjustments can correct this problem by realigning the spine and removing any interference to the nervous system.
A study conducted in the Journal of the Australian Chiropractic Association showed that patients who received chiropractic treatment experienced higher levels of immunoglobulins than those who did not receive care. This was a significant finding, as immunoglobulins are antibodies that help to combat germs.
Another way chiropractic boosts the immune system is through the lymphatic drainage process that occurs during an adjustment. Lymph fluid naturally rises in the body after an adjustment, transporting waste and soothing inflamed or infected areas. This can help to remove toxins and stimulate the production of new blood cells, which can also enhance immune function.
The immune system is a complex network of tissues and cells that work together to protect the body from disease and infection. A variety of factors can impact the immune system’s ability to function optimally, including poor nutrition, lack of exercise, excessive stress, and a compromised nervous system. Keeping your spine in optimal spinal alignment, receiving regular chiropractic adjustments, and practicing other lifestyle habits can all improve immune function and help to maintain a strong and healthy immune system.
Reduced Inflammation
Your immune system consists of complex organs, cells, and proteins that work together to protect you from harmful viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, and other microbes. When your body produces these “immune system fighters” in sufficient numbers, they can efficiently attack and neutralize threats. However, many factors can derail the body’s natural defense mechanisms. These include inflammatory foods, lack of restful sleep, stress, and certain lifestyle behaviors.
If left unchecked, these imbalances can lead to chronic inflammation that weakens the immune system and leaves you vulnerable to sickness and disease. Fortunately, chiropractic care can help restore these imbalances and boost your body’s immunity.
In addition to the benefits of reducing stress hormones, chiropractic adjustments can improve your white blood cell count and reduce levels of inflammatory chemicals called neuropeptides. These chemicals can cause a host of health problems including joint pain, sinus issues, and digestive issues. By adjusting the spine and relieving nerve pressure, chiropractic adjustments can decrease these chemical messengers and reduce inflammation throughout the body.
Another way that spinal adjustments can fight inflammation is by promoting healthy lymphatic drainage. This is important because the lymphatic system plays a critical role in immune function. The lymphatic system removes waste and toxins from the body, and it also transports lymph – a fluid that contains white blood cells that combat infections – to different tissues. Misalignments in the spine can restrict lymphatic drainage, which can back up toxins and lead to a weakened immune system. Chiropractic adjustments can correct these misalignments and promote lymphatic drainage, which can strengthen the immune system and keep you healthy this winter.
If you’re interested in receiving chiropractic adjustments to increase your immune system, contact us to schedule an appointment. Our chiropractors will examine your spine and determine if there are any misalignments, or subluxations, that may be contributing to a weakened immune response. The good news is that the bones of the spine do not actually crack when being adjusted. The sound you hear during a chiropractic adjustment is the result of gas bubbles popping in and out of the joints.
