Its common to hear that chiropractic care can add life to your years and years to your life. Now the first part (adding life to your years) makes sense, as we can correct some of the reasons why we are having those aches and pains that stop us from truly living our life. When it comes to adding years to your life… how is that possible?
A recent study showed that a 35 year old woman had increased telomere length, increased heart rate variability, as well as resolution of neck pain, back pain, and nocturnal polyuria following a course of chiropractic care. Telomeres are the end caps of our DNA and protect it similarly to the plastic ends of our shoelaces. Without the plastic ends, our shoelaces would fray and not last very long and similarly without telomeres, our DNA would get damaged and cell wouldn’t be able to do their job.
Research has shown that telomere length is associated with disease and dysfunction throughout the body as well as mortality. Additionally, lifestyle choices such as diet, tobacco and alcohol use, physical activity and sleep habits have been shown to affect telomere length. Research shows that healthy interventions or removal of unhealthy stressors will have a positive effect on telomere length.
We are constantly making copies of our cells, and every time they do this, the length of the telomere gets shorter. As the telomere gets shorter over years of replicating, that causes our cells to age.
In this case, the patient had blood taken before and after a course of 5 months of chiropractic care. The patient maintained the same lifestyle. They found that the telomere length increased greatly by over 8 percent. This shows that chiropractic has a positive impact on removing unhealthy stressors.
Of course, more data and studies should be performed to see just how big of an impact chiropractic care can have on telomere length, but this is a great reason why each and every individual should be receiving regular chiropractic care.
