What Effect Does Chiropractic Have on High Blood Pressure?

A study conducted at The University of Chicago Hypertension Center demonstrated that patients who received Chiropractic adjustments showed lowered blood pressure equal to two blood-pressure medications.

Eight weeks after undergoing Chiropractic adjustments, 25 patients with early-stage high blood pressure had significantly lower blood pressure than the 25 similar patients who underwent a placebo chiropractic adjustment.

 

X-rays showed that the real adjustments realigned the Atlas vertebra (the bone at the very top of the spine) with the rest of the spine. The placebo-treated patients fake adjustments did not realign the Atlas vertebra.
Compared to the placebo-treated patients, those who received the real adjustment saw an average of 14 mm Hg greater drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure count), and an average 8 mm Hg greater drop in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom blood pressure number). None of the patients took blood pressure medicine during the eight-week study.

The study leader, George Bakris M.D., director of the University of Chicago Hypertension Center told WebMD “This procedure has the effect of not one, but two blood-pressure medications given in combination and it seems to be adverse-event free. We saw no side effects and no problems.”

 

“When the statistician brought me the data, I actually did not believe it. It was way too good to be true,” Bakris says. “The statistician said, ‘I don’t even believe it.’ But we checked for everything, and there it was.”
Bakris and colleagues report their findings in the advance online issue of the Journal of Human Hypertension.

 

 

Bakris, G. Journal of Human Hypertension, advance online publication, March 2, 2007. Grassi, G. Journal of Human Hypertension, advance online publication, January 25, 2007.George Bakris, MD, director, hypertension center, University of Chicago. Marshall Dickholtz Sr., DC, Chiropractic Health Center, Chicago.