The Concept of Hygiene in Chiropractic

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The Concept of Hygiene in Chiropractic

• A Return to Ancient Wisdom?
• Victor G. Strang, D.C.

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Hygiene has roots dating to the Greeks
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Aesculapius

• Was a healer/priest who was eventually deified,
  becoming the Greeks god of healing
• Temples became destinations for the sick seeking
  healing

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Aesculapius symbol

• Aesculapius carried a staff about which were
  entwined two snakes
• Origin of the medical caduceus
• Serpent a symbol of regeneration/healing

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Panakeia

• One of Aesculapius several mythological
  daughters
• Represented to the Greeks the application of an
  immediate healing by actions of the healer/priest
• Origin of the panacea

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Hygeia

• Another of Aesculapius mythical daughters
• Instructed the Greeks that lifestyle contributed
  to illness
• Stressed balance in ones life

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Hygeia

• Stressed personal hygiene, including cleanliness,
  as important factor in health
• Exercise, fresh air, positive thinking also
  aspects of the hygienic lifestyle
• mens sana in corpore sano

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• Hygiene became linked with sanitation,
  particularly in post-Pasteur times
• hygiene and sanitation
• Became associated with a number of rules,
  including some laws and ordinances to enforce
  them
• Hygiene is now primarily equated with sanitation

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• B.J. Palmer did not reject the value of public
  hygiene and sanitation measures
• (from The Bigness of the Fellow Within)

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BJ Palmer on Hygienic Living

• The restoration of natural conditions, as far as
  possible, in the midst of civilized
  circumstances, is the meaning of the word hygiene
  in chiropractic.
• Hygiene, chiropractically, is the restoration of
  natural and healthful environmental conditions
  which have been made abnormal by the necessities
  of civilized life.
• Source Stephenson, Textbook of Chiropractic,
  1927, pp. 133-4

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BJ on Civilization

• Civilization is the sacrifices that individuals
  must make in the matter of personal likes and
  dislikes and even of necessities, in order to
  have community living to avoid infringing on the
  rights of others, to give service in
  coordination.
• Stephenson, Textbook of Chiropractic, 1927, p. 133

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One contemporary definition of Hygiene

• 1. The science that deals with the promotion and
  preservation of health.
• 2. Conditions and practices that serve to
  promote or preserve health.
• The American Heritage Dictionary of the English
  Language, 2000

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Another contemporary definition of hygiene

• The practice or principles of keeping yourself
  and your environment clean in order to maintain
  health and prevent disease
• The degree to which people keep themselves or
  their surroundings clean, especially to prevent
  disease
• Cambridge Dictionary of American English, 2003

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Which definition of hygienedoes contemporary
health care use, and what is happening as a
result?
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What are natural conditions in our
relationships with germs like bacteria and
viruses, and what are we now discovering about
the modern medical way of dealing with them? Is
sanitizing our immediate environment working?
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Asthma and Exposure to Germs

• children who attended day care in their first
  six months or had two or more older siblings were
  about half as likely to have asthma at 13 as
  youngsters who had one or no older siblings and
  did not attend day care until they were older

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• Bacterial or viral infections occurring during
  infancy as a result of exposure to many children
  may provide important signals to the newborns
  maturing immune system and guard against asthma
• The theory is that if the immune system isnt
  stimulated early in life by germs, it overreacts
  later to allergy-inducing substances

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• This echoes the hot new hygiene theory that says
  children who do not get outside and get dirty
  every now and then are not being exposed to
  enough germs to stimulate proper development of
  their immune systems
• Source New England Journal of Medicine 2000
  August

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Food-born, Oral-Fecal Infections Tied to Lower
Hay Fever, Asthma Risk in US

• -decline in exposure to food-borne and orofecal
  infections has contributed to the increase in hay
  fever, asthma and atopy in developed countries
• -the findings support the hypothesis that
  hygiene is a major factor contributing to the
  increase in atopic sensitization in westernized
  countries.
• Source J Allergy Clin Immunology
  2 002110381-387.

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Exposure to Dirt and Bacteria in Infancy Helps
Immune System Develop Properly

• children who live on farms much less likely to
  have allergies and asthma than urban children
• the higher the levels of bacterial components
  found on a childs mattress, the less likely the
  child would have allergies and asthma
• strongest evidence yet for the hygiene
  hypothesis
• Source New England Journal of Medicine
  2002347112

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The hygiene hypothesis

• reduction of early childhood infection due to
  widespread vaccination of children and use of
  antibiotics, coupled with trends of smaller
  family size and urbanization, has led to an
  increased prevalence of allergic diseases, such
  as asthma
• the key factor might be the overall frequency
  of childhood illnesses, rather than any single
  infectious disease. (i.e., measles, etc)
• Source JAMA January 19, 2000 2833

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Virgil V. Strang, D.C.Essential Principles of
Chiropractic, 1984
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The Calisthenic Dynamic Virgil V. Strang, D.C.
(1984)

• The human body is designed to adapt to continuous
  environmental change
• As the body is exposed to its environment at or
  near its limits, it increases its capability
  (training effect) it does not get weaker
• Chiropractic therefore rejects the idea that we
  need to control our environment to eliminate
  possible causes of disease

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What can happen when we overly rely on external
treatments for infections? (i.e.. Use
antibiotics when not essential)
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Antibiotic resistance in bacteria, with
increasing numbers of strains that are virtually
invulnerable to antibiotics superbugs- a
well-documented phenomenon
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Asthma and Antibiotics

• If ever used by a child, 2.74 times more likely
  to develop asthma compared to child with no
  antibiotic use.
• If used in the first year of life, 4.05 times
  more likely
• Wickens et al, Antibiotic use in early childhood
  and the development of asthma. Clin Exp Allergy
  199929766-771

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What happens when we attempt to prevent
infections in an unnatural way?
(i.evaccinations)
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Vaccines and Asthma

• A study of nearly 14,000 children showed
  vaccination against DPT or tetanus was
  associated with a 2.0X greater rate of asthma,
  1.81X higher rate of sinusitis, and 2.22X greater
  rate of nose/eye symptoms than in the
  unvaccinated
• Source Hurvitz Morgenstern, JMPT 2000
  231-10.

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Are there benefits to naturally-occurring
infections? (besides improving overall immune
capability)
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Could Chicken Pox prevent brain tumors?

• 134 glioma (the most common kind of brain tumor)
  patients were 60 less likely to have antibodies
  to varicella-zoster virus than a matched group of
  healthy individuals
• A person who has had chickenpox may have an
  immune system that is primed to fight gliomas
  before they become dangerous.
• Source Am J of Epidemiology 2001154161-165.

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Early childhood viral exposure due to having
younger siblings and risk of Multiple Sclerosis

• The more time a person had spent with a sibling
  under the age of 2 in the first six years of
  life, the lower the risk of MS later
• Possible mechanism is the incidence of viral
  infection and subsequent protection against
  virus-associated MS
• Source Ponsonby et al, JAMA , January 26, 2005

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The most significant implications to date of the
Hygiene Hypothesis

• 9/2005 Researchers from Sweden and Finland
  report to the World Congress of Pediatric
  Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery
• improved hygiene in early childhood might
  partially explain the greatest epidemic of the
  20th century, coronary heart disease

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Hygiene linked to heart disease

• Researchers found a consistent linear trend
  between the number of childhood infections and
  the reduction in coronary risk
• Six viral infections (varicella, scarlet fever,
  measles, rubella, mononucleosis, mumps) reduced
  risk of CHD by 90!
• (4- reduced 60 2- reduced 40)

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The Emergence of Evolutionary Biology

• The hypothesis that there is purpose in the
  bodys design, including its responses to
  environmental challenge
• Symptoms such as fever, loss of appetite,
  fatigue, vomiting, and diarrhea are adaptive
  responses, and as such, enhance survival value

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Evolutionary Biology

• The bodys design is not flawed it is perfectly
  designed to adapt to its environment
• What is needed is a restoration of the natural
  environment the body is suited for
• The speed of environmental change has exceeded
  the pace of evolution of the body