Chiropractic Helps Asthma Sufferers Breathe Easy

Preliminary results in a world-first clinical trial underway at Macquarie University in Australia indicate that chiropractic treatment helps alleviate signs and symptoms for asthma sufferers.

Dr Ray Hayek, Director of Macquarie's Centre for Chiropractic, is the principal investigator for this study, which began in 2001 after two studies in 1992 and 1998. So far more than 100 volunteers have participated in the trial, and Hayek says that early indications are promising.

"It appears that asthma sufferers have a relatively consistent pattern of spinal joint dysfunction," Hayek says. "Generally they have an extreme lack of mobility in their chest area. This limits mechanical functioning of their ribcage, their thoracic spine stiffens, and as a result normal breathing mechanisms cannot take place."

Chiropractic treatment corrects and adjusts poor biomechanical function in the spine and related areas.

The pilot study in 1998 showed that regular chiropractic adjustments had profound benefits for asthma sufferers. "Spinal adjustments improved the biomechanical functions of the ribcage, neck and back. Our results demonstrated that this increased mobility promoted improved respiratory function," Hayek says.

The same pilot study found that when an asthma sufferer is under the anxiety of a looming asthma attack, the hormone cortisol increases. This acute increase in cortisol through a number of mechanisms can bring on an asthma attack.

"We also found that the anxiety experienced during an attack actually led to increased severity of the asthma episode," Hayek adds.

Dr Sinan Ali from Macquarie's Department of Biological Sciences and co-principal investigator of the study, explains how the chiropractic treatment impacts on cortisol and immunoglobulin (IgA) levels in the body.

"We have demonstrated that increases in circulating cortisol leads to a reduction in respiratory immunity as measured through salivary immunoglobulin, or IgA. As this is the first line of defence for the respiratory system against pathogenic invasions, any reduction in IgA will lead to further assault on the respiratory system, which exacerbates the asthma condition," Ali explains.

"One of the most significant things we've discovered is that people under chiropractic care showed a significant reduction in the amount of cortisol being produced, with the effect of stabilizing the levels of IgA. This increase in immune functioning could potentially ward off subsequent infections," he says.

"It appears that the chiropractic adjustment not only improves respiratory biomechanical function, but is also having wider physiological effects. The adjustment is most likely setting up a reflex pattern within the central nervous system mediated by the spinal cord and leading to changes in the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis (the pathway that leads to changes in cortisol levels)," Ali says.

Despite the promising results, Hayek warns that chiropractic treatment is not the panacea for the disease. Asthma sufferers can benefit from a co-management approach - supplementing their medications with chiropractic care, as this trial has shown.