Can chiropractic help cure high blood pressure? A study done by Dr. Bakris shows that for some, it can be. Bakris noticed an interesting trend where patients who initially suffered from hypertension had dramatically decreased blood pressure after receiving treatment. He decided to run an 8 week placebo controlled trial with 25 patients in each case group to test his hypothesis. The results shockingly confirmed his hunch. Eight weeks after undergoing the procedure, the 25 patients with early-stage high blood pressure had significantly lower blood pressure than 25 similar patients who underwent a sham chiropractic adjustment.
To understand the physiology of what was going on Dr. Bakris decided to take a step further and did some imaging on the trial patients to analyze further. Imaging showed that by realigning the Atlas vertebra more blood flow was able to reach the base of the skull. The researchers on the study believe that misalignment of the Atlas trigger artery contraction, reducing the amount of blood that was able to go through spinal arteries and, concurrently increasing the amount of blood built up behind the misalignment.
Compared to patients who received the placebo treatment, patients who received the real procedure saw an average 14 mm Hg greater drop in systolic blood pressure, and an average 8 mm Hg greater drop in diastolic blood pressure. High blood pressure increases the risk for several other life threatening diseases, including heart disease and stroke. Of course high blood pressure is caused by a variety of factors, and not all patients will see benifits from this treatment. However, for patients who suffer from high blood pressure it is worth trying chiropractic treatment, as there are no serious side effects to the treatment, and treatment can potentially solve several other physiological issues.
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