 Can chiropractic help with the coronavirus? I'll give you my thoughts and more in this video. I'm Dr. Nathan Cash and host of Explorer Chiropractic and I wanted to share my thoughts about the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China. This virus known as SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for the disease which has been named COVID-19. The spread has increased rapidly around the world starting originally in Wuhan, China and the cases increase exponentially in a given region. The mortality rate is estimated to be higher than other conditions such as influenza but not as high as conditions such as SARS and especially Ebola which had a mortality rate greater than 50%. Most individuals who contract COVID-19 have symptoms similar to a cold, coughing, fever, running nose and sneezing but certain individuals are at a greater risk. The risk of serious complications increases with age those over 55 being at the greatest risk. Risk of complications including death are greater in those with pre-existing conditions such as respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, type 1 and 2 diabetes and especially those with otherwise compromised immune systems. Fortunately there have been no reports of children younger than 9 dying or having serious complications from this disease however young healthy adults 20 to 30 years old have contracted this disease and had serious complications and even died so we're not immune to this risk. So how can a chiropractic adjustment help you? It can't there's no reason to assume that getting adjusted by your chiropractor will help you prevent the disease or decrease your symptoms. Chiropractors love to cite historical facts and figures that show a benefit for instance in this 1918 Spanish flu those treated by chiropractors had a much lower mortality rate than those treated by medical doctors. The problem with these data is number one they're incomplete and old they're focused on very particular areas and there may be conflicting factors confounding factors that play into this scenario. For example those who were treated by chiropractors may not have had serious cases of the disease. If you have a serious case of the flu you're more likely to go to the hospital not to a chiropractic school to be treated. Chiropractors also love to cite papers in the scientific literature that show benefits like increasing interleukin 2, other inflammatory and immune markers. These papers are interesting and exciting to consider but we do not know the effect on clinical outcome meaning that while an adjustment may make immediate changes to the blood markers that we look for to measure immunity these are just a few of the tens if not hundreds of the immune markers that can be measured and the impact on the overall immune system is unknown and there have not been any studies other than these historical anecdotes to show that patients being treated by a chiropractor are less likely to get sick or less likely to have symptoms when they do get a disease and there certainly have been no studies done to measure the impact of chiropractic on the novel coronavirus. The best thing that a chiropractor can do can act as a knowledgeable and well-informed healthcare professional in your community to reiterate what has been said by the CDC the world healthcare organization as well as your local state or county health department. Chiropractors can encourage you to wash your hands regularly using soap and warm water spending 20 seconds getting into all the nooks and crannies and under the nails. Chiropractors should also be encouraging you to stay home if you have symptoms of the cold or flu. Chiropractors should certainly be maintaining healthy hygienic practices for themselves and their clinic washing the table with antibacterial wipes in between patients encouraging patients to stay home and staying home themselves if they have symptoms or are concerned that they've contracted this condition or other conditions such as the flu. We should also be encouraging otherwise healthy habits staying physically active eating well avoiding crowds and large gatherings where the spread of the virus is more likely to happen. If you have other suggestions i'd love to hear them below so please type in the box down below letting me know what you think chiropractors should be doing to spread awareness of the novel coronavirus encouraging healthy habits to improve the wellness and public health in their communities if you happen to know of scientific studies that i haven't mentioned that i'm not aware of please link to those below as well thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next one