Just For The Health Of It- Study Shows Chiropractic Care Helps Patient Suffering from Tourette Syndrome

Sadly, chiropractic care is still often thought of by the public only in terms of relief from back and neck pain. I am hopeful that as you, my readers, continue to enjoy my column, you will understand that this is far from being the truth.

We doctors of chiropractic will continue to beat the drum about the benefits received by patients for a wide variety of ailments. Obviously, there are certainly no guarantees with any course of care, and every case depends on the specific factors associated with that case. But you know I am always on the lookout for the interesting case that most would not associate with chiropractic care that give rise to hope for many.

I found one such recent case study involving a 20-year-old female suffering from Tourette Syndrome symptoms since the age of 3.

The young woman exhibited uncontrollable throat-clearing and blowing of air through her nose. She also experienced muscle contractions in her face, rapid eye-blinking, and whole body shaking. Frequent and severe headaches also were a problem. Now that I think about it, it sounds a little like the recent case you may have seen on TV regarding the young girl, Lauren Johnson, who started sneezing in mid-October and hasn’t stopped since. She sneezes about 12,000 times per day. Just wondering what might happen to her if her parents take her to a chiropractor. Read on and you’ll see what I mean.

Tourette Syndrome is characterized by unwanted, irresistible movements of body parts and vocalizations, called motor and vocal tics. This particular patient and her family wanted to avoid traditional treatment for Tourette—pharmaceutical intervention. She presented herself for chiropractic examination, which determined the presence of vertebral subluxations.

Hopefully, you remember that a subluxation is a misalignment of the spine that disturbs normal nervous system function. Many chiropractic offices, including ours, have special, non-intrusive technology that allows them to conduct thermal and Surface Electromyography (sEMG) tests to assist in locating where such conditions exist.