Monday, November 4, 2013

Chiropractic Researchers Study Lunar Effects.....

Falls Church, VA- Though long believed to significantly impact human behavior and biology, modern reductionist science has yet to find convincing evidence. Skeptics vehemently deny that the moon plays a role in human health but believers are plentiful, and they have proposed a variety of potential mechanisms of action for so called lunar effects. But just how the moon might increase fertility, for example, or delay blood clotting remains largely a mystery.

There are far more questions than answers when it comes to the moon. What is it? How did it get up there? What is the source of its light. Who? But chiropractic researchers at the headquarters of the International Chiropractic Association in Falls Church may finally have a few answers.

"Let's face it, we don't know much about the moon," chiropractic researcher Jill Alcabaz explains. "But that doesn't mean we can't harness its healing powers. It would be foolish to let something as irrelevant as basic scientific plausibility stand in our way when there are literally millions of potential patients out there that need our help."

Alcabaz and her team of experts on the human spine at the ICA set out gain a better understanding of lunar effects a little over one year ago. And what they found may change the way western science thinks about the moon and chiropractic healthcare. 53,000 patients with really bad headaches were recruited to take part in the trial, which involved half being assigned to chiropractic care during a full moon and the other half receiving a pamphlet on self-administered home chiropractic care to be done on any day other than when the moon was full. Headache severity was assessed using a standard scale of one to five, with one being no headache and five being a really really bad headache.

After the year long observational period concluded, of the 42 patients who completed the study an astounding 97% of participants undergoing chiropractic care during a full moon either did not have a headache at the time, or their headache was a 4 or less on the headache severity scale. Of the participants who received the informational pamphlet, only 3 were headache free and 1 had a score less than 5. But what does this mean according to Alcabaz:

"After some pretty sophisticated statistical analysis, we found that combining chiropractic care and the beneficial rays of the full moon led to a statistically significant improvement in headache severity and likelihood that a subject's headache resolved completely. I can't say that about the subjects who performed home chiropractic."
 
The results of the study aren't surprising to many in the chiropractic community. Frank Grimes DC, who has been a practicing chiropractor in Belvidere, NE for over twenty years, has seen first hand the miraculous results of quality chiropractic administered by a trained professional. "You can't just do it at home and expect the same results. I went to school for 4 years to learn how to do this. I question the ethics of this study."

The paper, which will be published on the ICA website next month, may have proven that the full moon does effect the human body but it leaves open the question of how. Alcabaz does have some ideas. "The human body is mostly comprised of water, carbon, protein and energy. Chiropractic impacts the flow of energy and the moon causes the ocean tides. It seems pretty obvious what is going on here." 
 


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