The above headline came from a February 4, 2011, article on the site ScoopHealth.net. The article is reporting on research published in issue 40 of the Chiropractic Journal of Australia showing that a single chiropractic adjustment enhanced creative thinking.
This pilot study checked the creative responses of ten people after a single chiropractic adjustment. In this study the participants were initially given an “alternate uses test” to have a standard to be judged against. Dr. Louise Hockley, BSc., a Wellington-based chiropractor , explained how the test works by saying, “The procedure for the alternative uses test is to write down as many uses for an object as possible during a ten minute period.” Dr. Hockley continued, “For example, naming all the different ways you could use a newspaper was one of the questions used, as was naming all the different ways you could use a chair, followed by naming all the different ways you can use a shoe.”
Participants were initially tested, then each subject was assessed for subluxation. The article reports that a subluxation is a complex of functional and/or structural and/or pathological articular changes that compromise neural integrity and may influence organ system function and general health. Based upon the chiropractic analysis and the conclusion that a subluxation was present, participants were given a single chiropractic adjustment.
Between two and eight days after the chiropractic adjustment, each subject performed the alternate uses test again using a different version of the test. The results were then compared to their earlier test to see if there was any change in how they performed. The results showed that six of the ten subjects experienced a post-adjustment improvement in their performance on the alternate uses test. Seven of the subjects showed new directions in a real-world creative task, and six participants showed renewed energy towards a creative project already planned.
Dr. Hockley commented on the results by saying, “Taken as a whole, the results indicated improvement in real world creative tasks during the two to eight day period after the adjustment, which is very exciting.” Dr. Hockley related, “Naturally, due to the small size of the study, these conclusions must be considered preliminary, pending verification by future studies.
