Chiropractic and AIDS: Interview with Adrian Wenban
Explore how chiropractic, a natural health approach, can positively influence the quality of life of people with AIDS. Dr. Adrian Wenban shares his experience.
Chiropractic and AIDS
Interview with Adrian Wenban, Doctor of Chiropractic. Author of a study analyzing the relationship between chiropractic care and the increase in quality of life in seropositive individuals. He is about to start another research focused on the incidence of Chiropractic on the autonomic nervous system and, by extension, on the cardiovascular system, for which he has obtained a grant from the AEQ.
“The AIDS reflects the problems of society”
-Why AIDS as a subject of study?
AIDS is a disorder of the immune system that incapacitates the body to defend itself against external aggressions. AIDS affects millions of people worldwide and reflects the problems of society. We were interested in studying how Chiropractic improves and influences the quality of life and well-being of people who have developed AIDS.
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– Does chiropractic care increase the quality of life of these patients?
The goal of Chiropractic is to detect and correct subluxations, the nerve interferences, of the spine. One possible explanation for seropositive individuals noticing an improvement in their quality of life with chiropractic care is that subluxations cause our sympathetic nervous system to become hyperactive.
And an overstimulated autonomic nervous system weakens the body’s immune system. Since Chiropractic strengthens and treats the nervous system, it acts on the immune system as it enhances the defenses and the body’s ability to defend itself, thus substantially improving the quality of life of patients, especially in those cases, as happens with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, where the disorder itself weakens the immune system.
-The study shows that the use of so-called alternative and complementary medicines to mitigate disorders derived from AIDS is very high.
Of these, Chiropractic is one of the most valued. Why?
Chiropractic does not seek to compete with allopathic medicine. The ultimate goal of both is different.
The ultimate goal of chiropractic care is to optimize each person’s health potential and educate them to maximize their quality of life. It should be noted that the quality of life levels in countries around the world do not always coincide with the efforts and resources dedicated to improving and promoting it.
It is absurd that in countries like the United States, 97% of resources are allocated to medicines and only 3 percent to the promotion of well-being, an important fact considering that in the last hundred years, the life expectancy of the Western population has doubled.
It is essential to consider other factors such as climate, diet, family and emotional environment, or genes, as the improvement of the environment and living conditions have been the true responsible for the growth of life expectancy and health levels.
Only 10% of problems have been medically resolved. Chiropractic takes all these variables into account and by impacting the health of our nervous system, it directly affects the strengthening of the immune system, a system that is absolutely weakened both in patients who have developed AIDS and in those who are carriers of antibodies.
-There was a statistically significant improvement in the quality of life of individuals before starting chiropractic care and after six months of weekly adjustments.
After three months, patients already experienced an improvement, and this trend consolidated after six months under chiropractic care. It is a pity that the study had to be limited to a number of patients and could not be extended over time to obtain more accurate results regarding this correlation and gain the endorsement of the international scientific community.
It should also be noted that many patients do not inform their allopathic doctor that they have visited a chiropractor or that they have combined their care with other alternative or complementary therapies. But the results obtained are a correct pathway that confirms the general trend and serve as an encouragement to continue researching the effectiveness of Chiropractic.
In this type of studies, many patients drop out halfway, and it is very difficult to persuade them otherwise because the researcher cannot control the process directly and individually; they work with data provided to them, mainly through questionnaires. For Chiropractic and chiropractors, these results are an encouraging success that could be extrapolated to other types of ailments, such as oncological ones.
-You have received a grant from the AEQ for a new study. What will be the focus of this study?
This grant will allow us to purchase a machine called Powerlab 4/20 (Power spectral analysis of heart rate variability) that will measure the effect that Chiropractic produces on the nervous system and thus study to what extent chiropractic care acts on it and to what extent it strengthens and impacts heart rate and rhythm.
It will be a high-level and far-reaching study for which I will need about 40 collaborators. In Japan, a similar line of research has started that has shown that of the two analyzed groups, the one that received chiropractic care improved the quality of its nervous and cardiovascular system compared to the group that was treated with a placebo.
I will also start another study on my own with the aim of analyzing the benefits of chiropractic care in the maintenance phase. I am interested in investigating, in the phase after intensive care, to what extent Chiropractic increases quality of life and well-being and its impact on socio-economic and health aspects.
-Is it very difficult to research in Spain?
Researching is very difficult everywhere. It is challenging to combine research with the daily practice of the profession. In Spain, as there are no Chiropractic universities, it is complicated to study because, unlike what happens in the United States or England, there are no stable working groups nor is there any specific and updated chiropractic literature to refer to.
It is also more difficult to obtain funding for projects and studies. For now, here in Spain, researching is part of our ethical option and is an act of voluntariness and respect towards Chiropractic and towards the people who entrust us with the care of their health.
Marc Bony,DC .bcchiropractic.es
