Response to Holder Article

A recent study conducted by Jay Holder, a chiropractor and physician with the Exodus Treatment Center in Miami Beach, concluded that there is a significant relationship between addiction and the human spine. Many people in America and the world battle with addictions to various things. Most commonly people become addictedвЂ"knowingly or otherwiseвЂ"to drugs, alcohol, food, nicotine, and caffeine. The cause of addiction is most often a search for a “feel good” state, or high. Because people with addictions abuse their substance of choice so frequently, they produce lower levels of certain neurotransmitters. A lack of serotonin in particular can cause a state of feeling bad because it is responsible for the regulation of the sleep cycle, appetite, and most importantly the state of depression. Holder believes, however, that an additional cause for a lack of neurotransmitter production may be caused by problems in the spine. In healthy people neurotransmitters flow in a particular order down the spine which create a sense of general happiness. However, “subluxations or misalignments of the spine can cause pressure and tension on surrounding tissue, interrupting this feel-good sequence.” Holder conducted his study by exposing his experimental group to standard rehabilitation supplemented by chiropractic care within the Exodus Treatment Center. Called the Torque Release Technique, this method Holder used on his experimental group focuses on the alignment of nerves and tissues in the spine as opposed to bones. The study also included a control group which received only regular rehabilitation care, and a placebo group who received fake spinal adjustments. At the end of the study, 100% of the patients who underwent rehab along with regular spinal adjustments completed their program. The other groups, however, showed lower ratesвЂ"much like those of average recovering addicts. Holder concluded after his study that chiropractic care should always be a supplement to existing rehabilitation treatments, especially medicinal treatment, in order to be radically successful in people with addictions.

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