Effects of Chiropractic Adjustments on Spinal Joints

NUHS Research Department receives $1 million grant to study Effects of Chiropractic Adjustments on Spinal Joints

The National Institute of Health (NIH) recently awarded National University of Health Science (NUHS) in Lombard, Illinois, a $1,007,000 grant to study the effects of chiropractic adjustments on spinal joints. The project is titled “Z Joint Changes in Low Back Pain Following Adjusting” and the Principal Investigator is Gregory D Cramer D.C. Ph.D. The new grant will allow researchers to continue important studies on the cornerstone of chiropractic medical treatment – the spinal adjustment.

The new four-year study will evaluate “gapping” in subjects with acute low back pain and assess relationships between gapping and changes in pain, function, number of treatments and audible release during adjustments. Gapping is an increase in open space within the joint and is considered beneficial in that it breaks up adhesions and re-establishes joint motion.

The NUHS research group completed initial studies on the effects of chiropractic adjustments on the zygapophysial joints in 2002 by measuring the gapping that occurs in the spinal “Z” joints after a single adjustment. Using healthy subjects and MRI scans, they were able to show that gapping did indeed occur after chiropractic adjustment. The previous study’s conclusions, published in Spine (2002) led to the desire for continued research in patients with acute low back pain.

“The purpose of this work is to deepen our understanding of one of the proposed mechanisms of action of chiropractic spinal adjusting,” says Dr Cramer, who is also Dean of Research for NUHS.

National University of Health Sciences Press Release. January 23, 2006.




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