February 2006

Chiropractic's role in fighting bird flu

by Dr. David A. Jackson

"Governments should consider stockpiling vaccine against H5N1 bird flu now, before a pandemic starts." That's what the World Health Organization stated in a report last year.

In response, the US contracted manufacturers to make four million doses. Italy and France said they planned to stockpile two million doses each. Britain, France, Finland, Norway and New Zealand reportedly placed orders that would cover 20‑40% of their populations.

For drug companies, the bird flu became a cash cow. Roche's sales for the third quarter of 2005 rose a hefty 20%, thanks in great part to the bird‑flu vaccine Tamiflu. Stock prices for another vaccine maker, BioCryst, soared 60% because of interest in its potential avian‑flu treatment. After announcing a collaboration with NIH to develop a vaccine against several kinds of influenza, including avian flu, stock prices for drug maker MedImmune ran so high that A.G. Edwards & Sons had to downgrade the stock from "buy" to "hold."

No one knows how much revenue will be generated from all the vaccines and treatment drugs that will pour out of the pharmaceutical industry in response to the bird flu, but an estimate of several billion is probably conservative.

All for a disease that many scientists say will probably never become a real health threat and for drugs that could do more harm than good (according to an article in New Scientist, mass vaccinations of poultry for bird flu could "lead to the evolution of new strains ... increasing the risk of a human pandemic."

What if we had evidence ‑‑ solid, scientific data ‑‑ that chiropractic could strengthen the human immune system to a point that it could effectively ward off the bird flu as well as most other types of flu?

I'm not talking about anecdotal evidence or compiled case histories of the results we see in our offices every day. I'm referring to valid research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association or the New England Journal of Medicine.

With that kind of evidence, governments wouldn't be racing to place multi‑million dollar orders for unproven drugs and people wouldn't be stampeding to their medical doctors for another injection or pill. Chiropractic would get an infusion of millions of dollars from hundreds of thousands of new patients.

But even without these "pandemics," chiropractic would become the health choice of first resort, since the majority of health issues are related to the immune system.

If you doubt whether people will actually pay for preventive care to boost their immune system or their general state of wellness, take a look at the vitamin industry.

According to one supplier, the amount of nutritional supplements purchased every day would fill the Leaning Tower of Pisa. More than one half of all of American adults use vitamins, supplements or minerals, and 69% believe that taking vitamins and minerals is "an extremely important factor in maintaining a healthy lifestyle." These products bring in more than $11 billion each year with huge increases expected.

Compare that to how much chiropractors are making. In its 2005 "Salary and Expense Survey," Chiropractic Economics reported that the overall median personal income (salary plus other income from a practice) for chiropractors remained at the same level as in the last two years: $75,000‑89,900.

Worse yet, the outlook doesn't look good. The survey noted that fewer doctors were reporting increases in billings and collections.

Since you and I know chiropractic works, why is that 69% of all people realize vitamins are important to health, yet just a tiny fraction of that number understands that chiropractic has a positive impact on health as well. Why aren't we splitting an $11 billion a year market between us?

There's a good reason why we're not.

To put it frankly, we don't have the research needed to prove chiropractic's effectiveness for anything but a limited range of conditions, such as back pain in adults. When it comes to the immune system, even garlic has been studied more than chiropractic. More than a decade and a half ago, in 1990, when 40 researchers from 15 countries gathered in Washington, DC to plan garlic research, they launched a $20.5 million research project.

In the next few years, articles starting cropping up in research journals around the world. The World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology published "A Quantitative Assessment of the Anti‑Microbial Activity of Garlic" in 1993. In 1995, Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry ran a report on "Antioxidant Activity of Allicin, an Active Principle in Garlic." I could list dozens of other garlic research papers (there are more than 50 referenced in an article published by the University of Maryland Medical System) but you get the point.

When we begin to conduct and publish as much research on chiropractic as they do on garlic, we'll finally be able to establish ourselves as the true wellness providers. Sick people will come to us to get well. Well people will come to us to stay that way.

Unfortunately, for financial and political reasons, our colleges ‑‑ usually the primary providers of research ‑‑ aren't conducting any significant studies of chiropractic's impact on the human immune system. None of the research conducted today in our schools is aimed at showing how correcting vertebral subluxations can actually improve the immune response to such threats as viruses or flu, or to prevent or relieve immune‑related conditions and diseases.

Furthermore, the rift in our profession ‑‑ based on both political differences and personal animosities ‑‑ has made it impossible for us to work together as a unified force to fund and conduct this type of research.

The sole option for chiropractic is to have the private sector rise to the challenge and fill the research void. That's what RCS (Research & Clinical Science) is doing. Supported by a wide network of field doctors around the world, RCS is compiling the kind of extensive, population‑based outcomes data needed to find valid answers to the most compelling questions about chiropractic and health.

RCS Authorized Clinical Investigators recruit volunteers from their existing practice members and the general public and, after conducting their normal examination, input standardized data into web‑based RCS forms. This includes data on people who have never been to a chiropractor as well as those who may have had adjustments in the past. The examination findings are correlated with an extensive online Self‑Reported Quality of Life survey that each volunteer completes.

In addition, the RCS doctor inputs ongoing data for all volunteers who choose to receive chiropractic care as paid patients.

When the RCS International Scientific Advisory Board ‑‑ made up of highly respected PhD, MD and DC researchers ‑‑ correlates the data, it'll be able to draw conclusions about the relationships between various demographic elements and wellness levels. Further, using the "post care" data, the researchers will be able to quantify the impact of chiropractic on health.

I'm willing to bet that the conclusions drawn will be spectacular.

In a recent article in The Chiropractic Journal, Christopher Kent, DC, noted that "chiropractic care provided a beacon of light" during the 1917‑18 influenza epidemic, which killed an estimated 20 million people around the world.

Historian Walter Rhodes, writing for the mercola.com website, noted that in Davenport, Iowa, medical doctors treated 93,590 patients with 6,116 deaths ‑‑ a loss of one patient out of every 15. Chiropractors at the Palmer School of Chiropractic adjusted 1,635 cases, with just one death. Outside Davenport, chiropractors in Iowa cared for 4,735 cases with only six deaths ‑‑ one out of 866.

During the same epidemic, in Oklahoma, out of 3,490 flu patients under chiropractic care, there were only seven deaths. Furthermore, chiropractors were called in 233 cases given up as lost after medical treatment, and reportedly "saved all but 25."

Think of how many lives would have been saved had these same figures come from scientific research and been written up in medical journals. People would have "discovered" chiropractic back in 1917 and we wouldn't be facing many of the problems we are today.

But it's not too late. Let's not wait another hundred years before we do the kind of research we need. RCS is giving us the chance to become "Clinical Investigators" and conduct history‑making research that could help quell fears about the next pandemic.

With the right kind of research and published findings, governments won't need to stockpile drugs and send out vaccine promotions alerts. We'll be replacing doses of Tamiflu with adjustments, and redirecting the billions of dollars spent on drugs into chiropractic offices. And we won't have to rely on garlic to keep us healthy.

(Dr. David A. Jackson is chief executive officer of Research and Clinical Science ‑‑ RCS ‑‑ a private sector research program exploring issues of subluxation correction and chiropractic care as they relate to health and wellness. Previously, he served as president of the Chiropractic Leadership Alliance and Creating Wellness Alliance and was owner/operator of several private practice offices in California and Idaho that specialized in high‑volume, family wellness‑based care. For more information on RCS, call 800‑909‑1354 or 480‑303‑1694, or visit the RCS website at www.rcsprogram.com. Doctors of chiropractic may log on to a special limited‑access area of the site by using the username DC1 and password RESEARCH.)