It is no secret that chiropractic adjustments are very effective in relieving mechanical types of pain in the spine. But really what else does a chiropractic adjustment do? Ever wonder? Lots of research has been done on this subject especially as it relates to neck and back pain. In our bodies the brain runs the show. It tells all parts what to do and when to do it. The brain sends messages out to all parts of our body and recieves messages back from all parts. A researcher by the name of Dr. Heidi Haavik, a chiropractor, along with some of the worlds leading researchers none of whom are chiropractors set out to see what chiropractic adjustments do to the brain, what kind of effect it has. The results are amazing and surprising. They used somatosensory evoked electroencephalography and transcranial magnetic brain stimulation to find out. That is they hooked people up to equipment to show what happens to our brain waves when we get adjusted. People were divided into multiple groups and some got adjustments from non chiropractors, some got “sham” adjustments and some had things done that were not even close to adjustments while still others got adjusted by chiropractors. They recorded the results from the patients as to how they felt before and after the “adjustments” and looked at the brainwaves before and after. 90% of the people that got sham adjustments or no adjustments at all said they were much improved. None of the adjustments by non chiropractors changed the brainwaves. None of the “sham” adjustments changed the brainwaves. However adjustments by chiropractors changed things, adjustments by chiropractors improved the brasinwaves and thereby improved function of the body. They found that one adjustment improved muscle strength by 16%. I will talk more about chiropractic adjustments and research on my next blog. Take care.