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Chiropractic and the Flu
The 2009 outbreak of the swine flu had everyone panicking. People would not go outdoors without wearing a mask. Everyone was a potential carrier of this threat. Fortunately for us, the swine flu did not get out of control. The swine flu even affected my final year chiropractic internship class in Mexico City – for weeks we more masks. The world was not so fortunate in 1918 with the Spanish flu.
The Spanish flu was a pandemic that spread across the world from January 1918 to December 1920 killing between 20 and 50 million people. It killed more persons in two years than four years of World War I (1914 – 1918) which claimed the lives of 9 million combatants. Some historians attribute the end of the war to the Spanish flu.
What does the Spanish flu have to do with chiropractic?
The chiropractic profession was founded in September 1895 in Davenport, Iowa, USA. Until the Spanish flu outbreak, the young science of chiropractic suffered many challenges and struggles due to its obvious lack of popularity as a new system of healing. The following statement from an old chiropractor of that era echoes the sentiment of the collective at that time. “I was about to go out of business when the flu epidemic came – but when it was over, I was firmly established in practice.”
Why? The answer is reasonably simple. Chiropractors got fantastic results from influenza patients. Statistics reflect a most amazing, almost miraculous state of affairs. In the United Sates, national figures show that 1,142 chiropractors treated 46,394 patients for influenza during 1918, with a loss of 54 patients – one out of every 886. Non-chiropractic patients were dying at a rate of one out of every 15.
A Simple Flu Remedy
In my own practice I have also witnessed the power of the chiropractic adjustment in this respect. Whenever any of my patients, family members or staff gets sick, I encourage them to make an appointment as early as possible for a chiropractic adjustment. After getting adjusted they recover much quicker than they otherwise would, sometimes even by the next day.
I also recommend a very simple flu symptom remedy – a mixture of ½ cup honey, 1 lime, 2 cloves of garlic and 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder. Drink 1 to 2 tablespoons full of the blended mixture 3 times per day. (Caution – do not give honey to an infant less than 1 year of age).
Chiropractors adjust the spine, which protects and serves as a conduit for the nervous system. There are special receptors within the joints of the spine, that when stimulated by the chiropractic adjustment, activate different parts of your brain and nervous system. Since the nervous system controls the immune system, the chiropractic adjustment therefore can and does improve immune function.
This article serves to point out the effectiveness of chiropractic treatment for the treatment of some non-musculoskeletal conditions, but I must caution that no one approach is a panacea, not even chiropractic. If there is a condition that you are wondering if chiropractic might be able to help, then the best person to ask is your family chiropractor.
