Back Pain, Headaches, Dizziness, and Unrelenting Cough with Pneumonia Helped by Chiropractic

In the Annals of Vertebral Subluxation Research comes a published case study on April 27, 2017, documenting the case of a woman suffering with lower back pain, headaches, dizziness, and a persistent cough, who was also diagnosed with Extramedullary Plasmacytoma and pneumonia, being helped by chiropractic.

Medscape describes a plasmacytoma as  ...a discrete, solitary mass of neoplastic monoclonal plasma cells in either bone or soft tissue.  The soft tissue variety is known as Extramedullary Plasmacytoma and is often associated with multiple myeloma. Since this is a type of cancer, it is often treated medically with radiation and/or chemotherapy.

The results of this type of treatment often cause the patient to have a lowered immune function which can be measured by various immune markers and blood levels, including neutrophils. The normal percentage of neutrophils present in the white blood cells should be between 42 and 80 percent.

In this case, a 48-year-old woman came to a chiropractor for help from the problems of low back pain, headaches, and dizziness. She had also been suffering with an unrelenting cough for which she recently received a medical diagnosis of pneumonia. The woman described her lower back pain as a burning feeling, and rated the severity as a 10 out of 10.

A chiropractic examination included palpation, thermography, and spinal x-rays. The examination revealed muscle tightness, edema, postural abnormalities, and thermographic temperature variations. From the examination, it was determined that subluxations were present and adjustments were started to correct them.

After about two weeks of care, the woman reported that her headaches and dizziness had been resolved. She also noted a significant decrease in her lower back pain, going from 10 out of 10 down to just 2 out of 10. However, she did report that her cough continued to persist, which led her to seek an additional medical opinion.

Through the use of computed tomography, the MD gave the woman a diagnosis of Plasmacytoma, and the chemotherapy drug Carfilzomib was started. One of the common and significant side effects of this type of drug is a decrease in the immune system that can be measured by checking the percentage of neutrophils present in the white blood cell count.

In this case, the woman's neutrophils percentage was checked on multiple occations and found to be 43%, 30%, 51%, 66%, and 61%. This means her neutrophils percentage remained within normal limits for all but one of the tests during the time she was receiving chiropractic and the drug Carfilzomib.

In their conclusion, the authors of the study focused on explaining how the immune function of this woman remained high even with the administration of a significant drug that normally lowers immune function. Through the correction of subluxation, the nervous system was allowed to function at a higher level and thus the control of the immune system was affected. The authors stated,  Scientific research has begun to focus on the connection between the immune system and nervous system. Current research has shown that the nervous system plays a vital role in helping regulate the immune system and its functions.