Autism and Chiropractic Care

From the British publication, the Manchester Evening Star, comes an August 13, 2007 article about an eight-year-old boy Daniel, whose life has been changed for the better by chiropractic.

The story starts with Daniels mother, Susan Crisp taking Daniel to the chiropractor (Evening Start picture right) and notes that Susan and her husband, Gary, firmly believe that this care has been key to the recent improvements they've seen in Daniels development. "His communication has improved tremendously," says Susan.

Susan Crisp chronicled Daniel's progress by stating, "He has started putting three or four words together and it is not in response to questions from us. It's spontaneous. At one time, if he wanted something out of the fridge he would drag me to it and point. Now he'll say, 'Mummy, I want'. "He doesn't seem so closed in as he once was and is interacting more with his three older sisters."

The article reported on another instance where a television reporter Quentin Willson had done a story on his own son's improvement with chiropractic. The article noted that it was this television story that prompted Susan to take her son, Daniel to see a chiropractor. Susan recalled, "It was a coincidence that I saw it. I had the TV on and it really caught my eye because there were so many similarities between what he was talking about with his son and Daniel." She continued, "It stayed on my mind. I told Gary about it and we felt we should give it a try. We thought, 'If nothing happens, that's the worst that can happen'. At the time, Daniel was walking on his tip-toes and his feet were pointing inwards when he walked - which can be symptoms of autism. I was worried about it and we thought that the chiropractic might be able to help with his posture."

Daniel's success adds weight to two separate papers published in two scientific journals in March of 2006 where studies documented a significant improvement in autistic children under chiropractic care. In one of those studies involving 14 children, 12 showed significant improvement and two of the children improved so much that they no longer met the criteria to be classified as autistic.

The British article concludes with comments from Daniel's mother, Susan, where she notes how he enjoys the care, "But it's not just a matter of Daniel enjoying it. Within four to six weeks we noticed a huge improvement in his condition. "We took him in June and by August people who don't see him regularly commented that his speech had come on tremendously. He started to initiate sentences - it was a real surprise, to us." She concluded by saying, "The chiropractic was like turning a key, opening the door and it all came out of him. "It's not a cure but it can alleviate some of the difficulties."