Consortial Center for Chiropractic Research
Principal Investigator: William C. Meeker, D.C., M.P.H.
From NCCAM's website, the Director Stephen E. Straus, M.D. has
released his "Comprehensive, National Research Strategy for Complementary and Alternative Medicine".
This is the chiropractic program:
Consortial Center for Chiropractic Research - The
faculty and administrators from five chiropractic institutions (the Palmer Center
for Chiropractic Research, Palmer College of Chiropractic,
Davenport, Iowa; University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Los Angeles College of
Chiropractic, Whittier, California; National College of
Chiropractic, Lombard, Illinois; Kansas State University, Manhattan,
Kansas; and Wolfe-Harris Center for Clinical Studies, Northwestern College
of Chiropractic, Bloomington, Minnesota) have formed the Center to
provide an infrastructure to examine the potential effectiveness and
validity of chiropractic healthcare and to provide the appropriate
clinical, scientific, and technical assistance to chiropractic
researchers in developing high-quality research projects.
The Center is investigating the:
- load
distribution during bilateral thoracic manipulation;
- effectiveness of chiropractic for chronic pelvic pain (Phase I
clinical trial)
- effectiveness of chiropractic relative to conservative
medical care for sciatica and neck pain;
- effects
of spinal manipulation on immune function;
- utility of joint end-play assessment (palpation);
- effect of spinal manipulation on muscle excitability;
- effect of vertebral loads on sympathetic nerve regulation; and
- facet capsule biomechanics
