Diabetes – Blood Sugar and Chiropractic – Amazing studies

Diabetes – Blood Sugar and Chiropractic

By Murray Galbraith, DC.
Diabetes is the fifth deadliest disease in the United States and a growing epidemic worldwide. Now, researchers are finding evidence that chiropractic adjustments might be able to make a valuable contribution to an overall program of wellness care to help diabetes sufferers.

I would bet that if you asked the average-man-in-the-street how diabetes and chiropractic were connected, you would get a quizzical look. What does doing something to your back have to do with blood sugar? From a casual perspective, it’s a fair question, until you look at the anatomy and physiology of the spine, nervous system and organs. Very often, an electrician understands this faster than most people. There are circuits in a home that allow different areas and appliances to work. Interfere with the current flowing through the wires and the appliance or areas of the house lose normal function or might even cause a fire.

If the nerve supply from the upper neck or middle back (the two areas that supply the pancreas) are disturbed, the function of the pancreas will suffer; maybe in it’s ability to produce the necessary enzymes for the digestion of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, or maybe insulin production, or both. Regardless, the body suffers. Blood sugar and digestion become unbalanced, resulting in either in diabetes or hypoglycemia.

Diabetes research

If we look at the diabetes research that’s coming out, there is a lot of documentation showing this chiropractic-spine-nerve-blood sugar connection. A study published in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research, focused on the positive response to chiropractic when used as part of an integrative treatment in the care of a patient with adult onset diabetes (diagnosed by a medical doctor). Along with chiropractic care, the patient also received nutritional and exercise guidance.   The chiropractic care was directed toward correcting misalignments in the spine, called vertebral subluxations, which affect the relationship between the nervous system and organs. After one month of being on the program, the patient’s glucose blood and urine levels normalized and remained stable. His medical doctor, who monitored his progress, said the patient would not need insulin if the condition remained stable. Is this a diabetes reversal?

There needs to be more diabetes research funding to help change a disturbing trend. The potential for chiropractic to help people with diabetes is a particularly important line of inquiry. Between 1990 and 1999, incidence of diabetes increased by more than 40 percent. By the year 2000, nearly seven percent of the population was affected by diabetes. In 2005–2008, based on fasting glucose or hemoglobin A1C (A1C) levels, 35 percent of U.S. adults ages 20 years or older had pre-diabetes and 50 percent of adults ages 65 years or older. In 2011, it’s now 8.3 percent or 25.8 million Americans. Unless something changes, the future looks bleak. Roughly one out of every three men and two out of every five women born in the year 2000 will suffer from diabetes in their lifetime.

Canadian diabetes research

Canada may be leading diabetes research. Here’s what was reported in the National Post.

DIABETES BREAKTHROUGH: In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body’s nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians. Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children. “Mice with diabetes suddenly didn’t have diabetes any more.” The excitement of the team from Sick Kids, whose work is being published today in the journal Cell, is almost palpable.

They also conclude that there are far more similarities than previously thought between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and that nerves likely play a role in other chronic inflammatory conditions, such as asthma and Crohn’s disease. It turns out the nerves secrete neuropeptides that are instrumental in the proper functioning of the islets. Further study by the team, which also involved the University of Calgary and the Jackson Laboratory in Maine, found that the nerves in diabetic mice were releasing too little of the neuropeptides, resulting in a vicious cycle of stress on the islets.

A recent case study published in the November 2011 edition of the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal, & Family Health documents a case of a 4-year-old child with diabetes who had terrific results stabilizing her blood sugar through chiropractic care. The patient was diagnosed with spinal subluxations in the upper cervical region. She began chiropractic care and was seen a total of 24 times over a 2-month period. During this 2-month period, she experienced a decrease in hemoglobin A1C from 7.2% to 6.5%. She also decreased the amount of insulin used from 15 units to 11 units per day. These results are quite remarkable because the literature states that intensive medical treatment of type I diabetes often does not succeed in lowering A1C levels under 7.0%.

Chiropractic care works by optimizing the neural connections throughout the body. This enhanced brain-body connection works to better coordinate immunity and hormone function. Chiropractic care should be considered a viable part of any plan to manage and improve diabetes.