The November/December 2000 issue of Todays Chiropractic reports that patients with persistent asthma that ranged from mildly persistent to severely persistent not only improved dramatically under chiropractic care but maintained that improvement for a two year follow-up period.
In the study, 47 patients from age 7 to 42 participated. The patients were seen between 14 and 44 times and most began care at 3 visits per week for the first 4 to 8 weeks.
Improvement was based on the patient's improvement in their symptoms as well as their use of asthma medication. All 47 of the patients showed significant improvements from 87 to 100 percent. At the two-year follow-up, all 47 of the patients also reported that they maintained the improvements they made at the beginning of the study.
The authors in this study point out that 17 million Americans suffer from asthma and 14 people die in the United States every day as a result. Annually, we spend more than $13 billion treating asthma medically, more than three times the total amount spent every year on chiropractic care. Yet, asthma is the leading cause of hospitalizations of children and has shown an alarming 58% increase in its death rate since 1979, one of only three diseases to do so.
By way of commentary, it seems obvious that throwing money and medicine at asthma patients clearly isn't working. In fact, a good argument could be made that it is making the situation worse. Might that $13 billion be better spent, with better results, if it was spent on restoring asthma patient's health and function with chiropractic care? We think so.
The patients in this study achieved improvements in their asthma symptoms not because chiropractic is a cure for asthma. They improved because chiropractic care helps restore normal body function by removing interference to the body's master control system, the central nervous system.
$13 billion worth of medical care every year and the problem has only gotten worse. Everyone of the patients in this study improved a minimum of 87% under chiropractic care. The choice seems very clear.