The first study took place in England with results reported in the scientific medical journal Spine. This national survey took a look at the outcomes of 19,722 Chiropractic patients who had received some form of neck adjustment. The researchers reviewed a total of 50,276 neck adjustments to see if there were any serious side effects from Chiropractic care. They defined serious effects to be those that resulted in the need to be referred to a hospital, or any that caused a worsening of symptoms immediately after treatment, or any that resulted in persistent or significant disability or incapacity.

The researchers arrived at very positive results. “There were no reports of serious adverse events,” they said. Overall, they found cervical neck adjustments to be a safe procedure in the UK when administered by trained and registered Chiropractors.

In the U.S., a study published in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research showed that Chiropractic adjustments had a profound effect on reducing Stage 1 hyper­tension. (Stage 1 is the first level of elevated blood pressure that causes health concerns.) The goal of the research was to determine if non-surgical procedures to properly align the Atlas (top) vertebra in the neck produced changes in blood pressure and heart rate.

This study compared two groups of subjects who had a history of Stage 1 hyperten­sion with no apparent cause or disease creating this condition. One group of patients received Chiropractic adjustment and the other received “sham intervention” similar to an authentic procedure.

Both groups were examined before and after the procedures, with blood pressure read showed that both the systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings were significantly reduced for the group who received an actual adjustment to their Atlas vertebra. “This pilot study shows that correction of misalignment of the Atlas vertebra lowers and sus­tains reductions in blood pressure for at least 8 weeks in people with Stage 1 hyperten­sion.”

Source: “Research Shows Chiropractic Helps Stage One Hypertension” and “Medical Study Demonstrates Chiropractic Safety for Neck Adjustments”, Kid Chiropractic, November 2007, www.kidchiropractic.com