Study Shows Crooked Spines Helped by Chiropractic

A study published on November 2, 2021, in the Journal of Contemporary Chiropractic demonstrated in a series of cases that chiropractic was able to help patients with "crooked spines" that had lateral curves to the side.

The term "lateral coronal spine displacement" means that a section of the spine has curved to either the right or the left when looking at it from the back. This is commonly seen in scoliosis, but can also occur in just one area of the spine and not create the typical "s" curve seen in a scoliosis.

The study's title, "Reducing 'crooked' lateral spine subluxation (global coronal imbalance) in 5 patients with degenerative disc disease in their 6th and 7th decade of life" describes this study as a series of individual cases all receiving chiropractic care for lateral curvatures of the spine.

All the patients in this study were between the ages of 50 and 63 years of age with some degree of degenerative disc disease. The website Medical News Today describes this degenerative disc disease by noting that this condition is actually not a disease but rather a process, "Degenerative disc disease is an age-related condition that happens when one or more of the discs between the vertebrae of the spinal column deteriorates or breaks down, leading to pain." Degeneration of disc can lead to lateral curvatures of the spine.

All of the patients in this study received a chiropractic examination and spinal x-rays. The x-rays were used to measure the lateral curvatures of the spine. Specific forms of chiropractic care were then administered and after several months of care, a follow-up set of x-rays were taken to measure and compare to the findings on the original spinal x-rays. All participants in these cases were suffering with multiple areas of pain and other health issues.

The results of the cases were all positive. When comparing the follow-up x-rays to the originals, there was significant improvement. On average, the patients' spines originally measured 32.7mm lateral displacement. After chiropractic care, the curvatures were reduced to an average of only 4.2mm of lateral displacement.

In addition to the measurable improvements seen on all subjects' x-rays, each of the patients experienced symptomatic improvements as well as improvements in their quality of life. The study reports that one of the patients reported a "100% improvement in numbness in the feet and heartburn, a 90% improvement in migraines, an 80% improvement in cold feet, a 70% improvement in LBP and ankle pain, a 50% improvement in mid back cramping, and a 40% improvement in neck pain and stiffness."

All the patients in this study got improvements in a wide variety of health issues. Some of the other documented improvements reported by the patients included a 90% improvement in back pain, left leg sciatica pain and double vision, a 90% improvement in tingling into the hands and numbness into the right toes, a 50% improvement in constipation, and a 90% improvement in tingling into the hands. One patient reported not only a 90% improvement in low back pain and left leg sciatica pain, but also a 90% reduction of double vision.