A Story of Sound

Over the past two weeks I have touched on stories from around the country involving chiropractic care. The first was a story of Doug Harkey, who regained his sight after 12 years of blindness in one eye. The second was the story of Winifred Gardella, who regained her ability to walk unaided after having once been the poster child for the March of Dimes. She had once suffered from polio-related complications and had worn cumbersome leg braces.

From blindness to restored sight, or leg braces to strolls in the park, it is evident that chiropractic plays a vital role restoring optimal health.

What you may not know is the origin of chiropractic. It officially started in 1895 with a man named Daniel David Palmer. Palmer was approached by a janitor named Harvey Lillard, who had one day gone deaf after bending over and experiencing a loud pop in his back. Lillard remained deaf for several years.

Upon examination of Lillard’s spine, Palmer found a lump from a spinal bone that was grossly out of place in his back. Using a gentle adjustment, Palmer moved the bone back into place. Immediately, Lillard reported that he could hear the sound of a horse-drawn cart on the street outside.

And so began the early history of chiropractic. Palmer began studying the relationship between his adjustment and the amazing result of Harvey Lillard.

Flash forward about 111 years and we can see Palmer’s results supported in a 2006 case study by the Scientific Journal of Chiropractic and Osteopathy. The case-series study examined the effect of a single chiropractic adjustment on the hearing of 15 patients, between the ages of 34 and 71, who visited a chiropractic clinic in Italy. Interestingly, none of the patients complained of hearing problems when entering the clinic; most presented with a primary complaint of neck pain or low back pain.

Upon entering, each patient was subjected to a series of audiometric screenings using a hand-held audioscope. During the screening, patients were asked to indicate whether they could hear four separate audio tones, at three different fixed decibel levels, in each ear.

After just one adjustment, most of the participants experienced significant hearing improvement at various tone levels. Using a standardized testing process known as the Ventry & Weinstein criteria, improvement was shown at various levels of hearing. At 40dB, 6 subjects had hearing restored, 7 subjects improved and 2 had no change. At 25dB using the Speech-frequency criteria, none of the subjects were totally restored. However, 11 had shown improvement, while 4 had no change and 3 missed a tone.

The results of this limited study add further credibility to the story of the first chiropractic adjustment.

The researchers concluded, "The observations documented in this case series provide limited support to previous works indicating that, when hearing is tested immediately after a single chiropractic adjusting visit, hearing may be improved in both ears."