in healing to cause healing. According to the article scientists are now
starting to understand some of the brain functions that may explain some of the results
gotten from placebo treatments. Many drugs that are eventually shown to be ineffective can
attribute their original success to the placebo effect.
The Times article goes on to talk about a study in Texas where a group
of patients with similar knee problems underwent three types of surgical care. One group
had their knee joints scraped, one group had the knee joint washed, and one group had
incisions made to look like the other procedures but nothing else was done. Amazingly two
years later, the group that got nothing (but believed they had surgery) had the same pain
relief as did those who actually had surgery.
From a chiropractic standpoint, the placebo effect can be simply
explained. Placebos only work because people believe they are getting some form of real
care, so they heal themselves. Fundamental to chiropractic is the premise that the body
heals itself. Chiropractors depend on this self-healing ability for the results we see.
For over 100 years chiropractors have understood that the body heals itself. We believe
that what a doctor should do is remove any interference to that healing ability. In
chiropractic, we recognize that the most common form of interference to the bodys
ability to heal itself is a spinal subluxation.
A subluxation is when one or more of the bones of your spine
(vertebrae) move out of position and put pressure on or irritate spinal nerves. Spinal
nerves are the nerves that come out from between each of the bones in your spine. This
pressure or irritation on the nerves then causes those nerves to malfunction and interfere
with the signals traveling over those nerves. The result of subluxation is a decrease in
the bodys ability to function properly and heal itself. By correcting subluxations,
chiropractors allow the bodys healing ability to function at a higher level and
healing is the natural result.