Study Shows Chiropractic Has Positive Effect on Brain Function
January 16, 2025
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The Journal Brain Science published a study on November 7, 2024, that documented the positive changes in brain function due to chiropractic care. The changes were measured by scientific technology measuring various aspects of brain function before and after chiropractic care.
The researchers involved in this study, who were primarily from New Zealand, were looking for possible mechanisms to explain how chiropractic care could have such a wide positive effect on people's health. They explained, "…the results from this study, exploring the impact of chiropractic care on subjective, behavioural, and brain network functional connectivity, help to explain the mechanisms of the wide-ranging clinical improvements observed following chiropractic care."
This study was conducted on 76 individuals who were all suffering from chronic lower back pain. The participants were randomly placed into two groups with 38 people in each group. One group was the control group while the other group received regular chiropractic care for four weeks. All participants were tested at the beginning of the study before any care was rendered. All the participants, including the group that did not receive chiropractic care, were tested again after their initial visit. Everyone was then again tested four weeks later.
To determine if there were changes in brain function, the tests that were performed included resting electroencephalography (EEG), somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs), clinical health assessments using continual reading on a Fitbit, and Patient-reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS-29). The results of these tests were reviewed for functional changes as well as for which parts of the brain were being affected by chiropractic care.
The results of this study documented that the participants who received chiropractic care showed improvements in all areas of brain functions that were tested. These improvements have positive effects on life situations such as sleep, anxiety, depression, fatigue, memory and pain.
Chiropractic care achieves the results in this study through the correction of vertebral subluxations. "Chiropractic care is based on the premise that correcting vertebral subluxations improves central neural function, improving human performance and clinical outcomes," states the study authors. They also explain, "Chiropractic adjustments have been shown to influence various aspects of neurophysiology, including somatosensory processing, sensorimotor integration, and motor control all crucial for executing motor tasks accurately and recovering from central nervous system injuries."