In October, Meggie will be speaking on the neurology of strength. She will discuss how you can improve your strength by improving the way your brain communicates with your body. She’d love you to join her!
Over the past 20 years, scientists have been showing that chiropractic care can change the way your brain works and how it controls your body, including movement and strength. ⁷⁻¹⁶
As Meggie discussed in the last blog post, a number of studies have shown that a single session of chiropractic care can result in an immediate increase in strength. ⁷⁻²⁰ In one of these studies, the researchers found a 16% increase in strength of leg muscles in a group of students after a session of chiropractic care.
But could chiropractic care help someone who has muscle weakness because they’ve had a stroke? A new study says maybe it can!²⁰ In this study, researchers looked at changes in strength in weak leg muscles after chiropractic care in people who had suffered from a stroke. ²⁰
The team of scientists that did this study measured the strength of weak leg muscles in chronic stroke patients before and after a single session of chiropractic care or a sham control session.
They also used electrical simulations of nerves in their legs, which could help them to work out whether any changes in strength came from their brain or something that was happening in their spinal cord. When they analyzed the data from their study, the scientists found an average improvement in strength of almost 65% in the affected leg of these stroke patients.
They also found that these strength changes were due to changes in the way their brain was communicating with these weak muscles, as opposed to changes in their spinal cord.
These results are really exciting, but remember that the scientists only looked at immediate changes after chiropractic care. We don’t yet have research addressing how long the changes last.
At Cora, I have seen people who have had lasting improvements to their strength after a stroke. While recovery after a stroke is a long road and there are many factors involved, patients at Cora have seen long term changes. I look forward to seeing studies on the impact of chiropractic care over time for patients with stroke!
In the mean time, join Meggie and Heather Collins of Monarch Fitness for a discussion of the neurology of strength on Tuesday, October 13th at noon.
Thanks to Haavik Research 2021
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