CANCER

An article published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics follows two case studies of patients with various types of serious cancer.  The article follows the chiropractic care and its effect on the patient’s pain and quality of life.

The first patient was a 57-year-old man with terminal pancreatic cancer.  This patient received chiropractic care during the later stages of the disease.  In the remaining time the patient had before succumbing to the disease it was documented that the patient had significantly less pain and was able to reduce his medications.  The article summed up the case by stating, “In this case chiropractic care was able to provide significant pain relief, reduce the amount of pain medication being taken (as well as the potential side effects), and temporarily improve the quality of life for a patient with terminal cancer.”

The second patient was a 54-year-old man recovering from surgery for lung cancer.  This patient was continually suffering from upper back pain and had gotten no relief for over a year.  At that point the patient began chiropractic care.  In this case the patient received immediate relief and was able to discontinue all pain medication after two chiropractic visits.

The principles of chiropractic make it simple, that the focus of chiropractic care is not to directly treat the patient’s pain but rather to assist the body and allow the body’s own healing abilities to work at its maximum potential.  These case studies show this ability and the effect it has on people suffering from serious conditions.  The article states it best when it said, “These clinical examples offer 2 specific instances of how chiropractic may improve the quality of a cancer patient’s life.”