Monday, November 2, 2020 - 14:50 Research News Staff
Historic, First Ever Conference on Chiropractic & Immunity Reveals Widespread Evidence for Role of the Profession

Thousands Raised for Ongoing Projects

On October 24-25 2020 over 120 chiropractors, faculty, students and laypeople attended the historic, first ever Conference on Chiropractic and Immunity in Spartanburg South Carolina. The event was hosted by the Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation and Sherman College's Center of Scholarly Activity.

The Conference hosted 13 speakers including DC's, MD's, MPH's and Ph.D's, who held two days of incredible discussions on the impact of chiropractic on immune function.

Speakers and their topics included:

The Conference on Immunity follows the publication of several papers from the Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation reviewing the literature on the topic, reviewing the literature on immune biomarkers and proposals for a series of projects to further explore health and immune outcomes in those receiving chiropractic care.

CLICK HERE for more on that research

The Foundation has established a Steering Committee to guide the implementation of its plans and oversee its management that includes:

Work has already begun on the next phase of the project that involves the completion of an Integrative Review of the Literature. As that project unfolds efforts are underway to develop a series of protocols that can be used by researchers to explore the health outcomes related to immune function, biomarkers and quality of life following chiropractic care focused on vertebral subluxation.  In addition, a Best Practices statement on chiropractic and immunity and a related document has been drafted that will be sent out for peer review shortly.

One of the things the Conference and the preceeding reviews of literature revealed is that despite false claims to the contrary, the topic of immunity and chiropractic has been studied. A number of very positive studies on immune function, biomarkers and chiropractic were completed in the 80's and early 90's but that stopped rather abruptly as the research infrastructure within chiropractic was essentially taken over by the medically oriented faction of the profession.

With the shift in the mid 90's towards chiropractic care for back pain heralded by the infamous Mercy Center Guidelines, research in chiropractic shifted from any focus on visceral relationships to a focus on stuck joints and musculoskeletal pain syndromes.

Despite the chiropractic profession's shift in focus, other disciplines, including osteopathy, continued doing research in these areas.

As COVID hit, the profession soon realized how important this research is, especially since those who seek to marginalize the management of vertebral subluxation in a vitalistic, salutogenic model immediately began attacking and silencing any discussion of the role of chiropractic on immune function.

Wasting no time and no opportunity to harm the profession, the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC) and its now disbanded and disgraced Research Committee released a highly flawed document that was then adopted, endorsed and promoted by several state and national organizations as well as regulatory boards around the world. Those organizations included the American Chiropractic Association among others.

Within days of the release of the WFC hit piece, the President of Parker University, William Morgan DC and Parker's Director of Research Katie Pohlman DC, Ph.D were circulating a video where they endorsed the flawed document, falsely claimed there was no credible research to support a clinical role for chiropractic and threatened chiropractors that they would be "under the hand of the law" should they state otherwise.

CLICK HERE for more on those stories

In the United Kingdom, even organizations that espouse traditional views on chiropractic management adopted statements similar to the WFC claiming they felt threatened to go along.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of chiropractors around the world were then hauled before their licensing boards as a legion of Subluxation Deniers were trained by WFC and ACA supporters to troll chiropractors social media and websites and find any mention of immunity and then file complaints against those chiropractors. These actions were encouraged by WFC and ACA leadership. Members of the WFC Research Committee were giddy as schoolchildren in their comments denigrating chiropractors in their social media feeds. 

The actions by the WFC, ACA and Parker were roundly criticized by numerous state, national and international chiropractic trade organizations and other groups within the profession. Dozens of them, representing tens of thousands of chiropractors signed a statement rejecting the false claims of the WFC, ACA and Parker University.

CLICK HERE for more on this

Recently six key members of the World Federation of Chiropractic's (WFC) Research Committee that wrote and distributed the flawed document abruptly resigned from the Committee claiming they ". . . no longer feel it is possible to function as independent academics".

CLICK HERE for that story

The Researchers who resigned are well known Subluxation Deniers within chiropractic and include:

Greg Kawchuk DC PhD Canada - Chair
Simon French, PhD, MPH, BAppSc(Chiro) Australia
Iben Axén DC PhD Sweden
Jan Hartvigsen DC PhD Denmark
Martin Descarreaux DC, PhD Canada
Carolina Kolberg DC PhD Brazil

Those remaining on the controversial Committee as of this writing include:

Christine Goertz DC, Ph.D
Mitch Haas DC
Scott Haldeman DC, MD, Ph.D

All three are known Subluxation Deniers.

The resignations follow on the heels of 17 corporate partners, malpractice companies, nutritional support companies, equipment manufacturers and schools that have pulled their sponsorships of the WFC following the publication of their report.

CLICK HERE for more on that story

The claims made by WFC, ACA and Parker leaders are based on a dismantling of the model of evidenced informed practice that has been well entrenched for decades. This model incorporates the best available evidence, the needs and values of the patient, the clinical needs of the patient and the expertise and experience of the clinician when helping a patient make an informed decision about their health.

Realizing that such a model holds plenty of evidence for the management of subluxation in a vitalitistic and salutogenic manner the Deniers and the Chiropractic Cartel that run the profession have attempted to systematically dismantle the model. This started over a decade ago with the Bronfort Report in the United Kingdom, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and most recently in Canada with the adoption of the infamous APPENDIX N by chiropractic regulatory boards there.

CLICK HERE for more on APPENDIX N

The adoption of these flawed policies are buttressed by restrictions on free speech regarding what chiropractors can say to their patients and even worse - compelled speech that forces chiropractors to make statements that are not true.

Thus far the Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation has raised over $80,000.00 to fund crucial research focused on chiropractic, vertebral subluxation and immunity. But more is urgently needed. At least $250,000.00 is needed to get through Phase III of the project and the development of research protocols.

Make no mistake however - Not only is there acceptable and credible research demonstrating that chiropractic improves immune function - there is a great deal of it. And thanks to all of those who attended the Conference and have donated to the Foundation - there is going to be much more.

Besides individual donors, several groups and organizations have stepped up and have donated to the efforts including:

We are grateful for everyone who has supported these efforts. Please consider donating to these efforts yourself.

Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation