Chiropractic Treatment and Diabetes? - Diabetes and Chiropractic Treatment

Chiropractic Treatment and Diabetes?
17 Feb 2007
Dr Richard Petty, MD

Chiropractic Treatment and Diabetes?
There is an interesting, thought still preliminary, article in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research about the possibility that chiropractic manipulation may be able to make a valuable contribution to an overall program of wellness to help people with diabetes.

There is a case report of an insulin-requiring person with type 2 diabetes, whose diabetes stabilized as he had a short course of chiropractic manipulation. I've seen many such cases with acupuncture and homeopathy as well as osteopathic and chiropractic manipulation. But it has always been very difficult to tell if there was a causal relationship. Diabetes is such a variable group of illnesses that something as simple as stress reduction or a person sleeping better can both help normalize glucose levels, as least for a while.

What I really liked about the article was the measured tone: the editor makes it clear that it's an interesting observation but that it's still early days. Nothing so irritates people in conventional medicine than wild grandiose claims that some treatment or other can cure everything.

The editor also calls for more research, and I totally agree. I've spent the last 25 years trying to get research moving in the fields of complementary, alternative and Integrated Medicine, and we have already had a decent level of success in getting many projects funded and completed.

ÏThe simple exercise of stretching helps to counter the congestions, compressions, and adhesions which obstruct the flow of the vital force through the spinal column with its sixty-two branching nerves and thus to regain energy. This truth of the need of spine-loosening movement is instinctively known by every dog and cat, every lion and tiger, for they apply it immediately after awakening from sleep. The back, the legs, and even paws are bent and stretched and even rolled by them in this natural exercise.Ó
--Paul Brunton (English Spiritual Teacher and Author, 1898-1981)