Scott Cuthbert, DC
The Collected Papers of the
International College of Applied Kinesiology has been published both
annually and bi-annually since the founding of the ICAK in 1976. There
has been a concerted effort by the organization to present the
research, outcomes assessment, and clinical investigations of its
members to the organization as a whole and to the chiropractic
profession at large. There have been over 2,000 papers in 40 Annual
Yearbooks published by members of the organization.
As patient-based outcomes assessment are a growing part of evidence-based health care throughout the healing professions, more studies are needed that evaluate patient responses to therapy.
This compilation of structured abstracts from the Collected Papers of the International College of Applied Kinesiology for the years 2007-1995 provides you with a large number of clinical trials documenting the links between AK manual muscle testing methods and human health and disease. The functional mechanisms of manual muscle testing are explored here, and links between the status of the muscular and nervous systems are demonstrated. Applied kinesiology’s relevance to neuroimmunology, pediatric, and emotional health is also documented. These studies include new approaches from the chiropractic, osteopathic, biomedical, nutritional and biochemical research literature. This information is then applied to the distinctive methods of AK chiropractic examination and treatment methods.
The ICAK has understood from its founding that research will help insure chiropractic’s future, and publishing this research helps protect the future of AK. These research papers demonstrate the commitment within AK to staying current and progressive within chiropractic art and science, as well as to testing the principles upon which AK is based.
Much of the fascination of AK lies in the fact that it is a relatively new but rapidly maturing method of diagnosis and treatment that incorporates many other chiropractic, osteopathic, cranial, nutritional, manual medicine, and Traditional Chinese Medicine assessment methods, all of which are based on the traditional and foundational principles of chiropractic health care. AK combines many existing therapies into one inseparable system of health care.
This compilation of structured abstracts shows that measurements of posture, pain level, vital capacity, body temperature, blood pressure, muscle strength, range of motion, visual acuity, hearing acuity, coronary function (measured by auscultation, sphygmomanometer, or endocardiograph), thyroid and adrenal function, blood chemistry, lingual ascorbic acid time, and salivary pH show beneficial changes following AK corrections to functional disturbances in the patients described in these reports.
Through evaluation of the function of certain muscles pre- and post-treatment, therapeutic efficacy for particular problems can be evaluated. Applied kinesiologists theorize that physical, chemical, and mental imbalances are associated with secondary muscle dysfunction – specifically a muscle inhibition (usually preceding an overfacilitation of an opposing muscle). Applying the proper therapy results in improvement in the inhibited muscle.
D. D. Palmer’s original theory of chiropractic included three basic forces producing human illness or dis-ease: 1
As patient-based outcomes assessment are a growing part of evidence-based health care throughout the healing professions, more studies are needed that evaluate patient responses to therapy.
This compilation of structured abstracts from the Collected Papers of the International College of Applied Kinesiology for the years 2007-1995 provides you with a large number of clinical trials documenting the links between AK manual muscle testing methods and human health and disease. The functional mechanisms of manual muscle testing are explored here, and links between the status of the muscular and nervous systems are demonstrated. Applied kinesiology’s relevance to neuroimmunology, pediatric, and emotional health is also documented. These studies include new approaches from the chiropractic, osteopathic, biomedical, nutritional and biochemical research literature. This information is then applied to the distinctive methods of AK chiropractic examination and treatment methods.
The ICAK has understood from its founding that research will help insure chiropractic’s future, and publishing this research helps protect the future of AK. These research papers demonstrate the commitment within AK to staying current and progressive within chiropractic art and science, as well as to testing the principles upon which AK is based.
Much of the fascination of AK lies in the fact that it is a relatively new but rapidly maturing method of diagnosis and treatment that incorporates many other chiropractic, osteopathic, cranial, nutritional, manual medicine, and Traditional Chinese Medicine assessment methods, all of which are based on the traditional and foundational principles of chiropractic health care. AK combines many existing therapies into one inseparable system of health care.
This compilation of structured abstracts shows that measurements of posture, pain level, vital capacity, body temperature, blood pressure, muscle strength, range of motion, visual acuity, hearing acuity, coronary function (measured by auscultation, sphygmomanometer, or endocardiograph), thyroid and adrenal function, blood chemistry, lingual ascorbic acid time, and salivary pH show beneficial changes following AK corrections to functional disturbances in the patients described in these reports.
Through evaluation of the function of certain muscles pre- and post-treatment, therapeutic efficacy for particular problems can be evaluated. Applied kinesiologists theorize that physical, chemical, and mental imbalances are associated with secondary muscle dysfunction – specifically a muscle inhibition (usually preceding an overfacilitation of an opposing muscle). Applying the proper therapy results in improvement in the inhibited muscle.
D. D. Palmer’s original theory of chiropractic included three basic forces producing human illness or dis-ease: 1
AK evaluation and treatment methods have
helped elucidate this fundamental chiropractic principle and make it
demonstrable and explicable in the examination and treatment of
patients.
Applied kinesiologists also theorize that specific muscles are associated with specific areas of the body. There are organ-muscle, gland-muscle, meridian-muscle, spine-muscle, and reflex-muscle relationships. (The relationships between specific spinal nerves and specific muscles are taught in chiropractic colleges.) The papers presented here offer some of the clinical trials that have been done to evaluate this contention.
Research literature is produced in quantities far exceeding the ability of even the narrowest specialist to stay abreast of the information flow, and so the vast number of studies cited here have been given structured abstracts that abbreviate their findings. I hope this will enable the busy physician to find in the unending twistings and turnings of these research studies that span more than 2,000 papers and 30 years the essential importance of these reports to the practice of chiropractic and AK. Understanding the published research allows us to grow, learn and modify our technique to match our discoveries and to stay current in the scientific community worldwide.
It should be noted that the ICAK does not require strict conformity to controlled clinical trial research design for paper presentation in its yearly-published Collected Papers. Not all members of the ICAK are professional or paid researchers, but clinicians who work with sick people in the trenches of private clinics. So the authors of some of these papers are not educated in strict research designs.
However, many chiropractic authors and researchers have described the shift away from strict experimental design (“randomized controlled clinical trials”) toward the acceptance of outcome studies. While working on the AK Research and Literature Compendium 2005 (also published at SOTO-USA), I have also come to realize that controlling all of the variables in any study that involves human beings is not possible. The unreliability of physical, mechanistic measurements in defining outcomes has led to a shift toward using patient-reported perceptions as outcome measures. AKs emphasis on health rather than disease, and treatment of the whole person rather than the symptoms, makes it difficult to fully describe all the effects of AK treatment on patients’ function through currently existing physiologic measures or controlled clinical trials.
Chiropractic and applied kinesiology now enjoy the highest public visibility and patient utilization rate in its history. Part of our new status in the health care marketplace is the result of studies demonstrating the effectiveness and patient satisfaction using AK procedures in the management of pain, functional organic disorders, and improvement in quality of life for patients of all ages.
Keating recommends the deliberate development of chiropractic clinician-researchers:
Evidence-based decision making in clinical practice requires, first of all, evidence. This compilation of structured abstracts from the Collected Papers of the International College of Applied Kinesiology for the years 2007-1995 offers you a part of the growing abundance of AK treatment outcomes and evidence.
1. Palmer, DD, The Chiropractor’s Adjuster, 1910.
2. Keating, J. Toward a philosophy of the science of chiropractic: a primer for clinicians. Stockton Foundation for Chiropractic Research, Stockton, CA. 1992:91
Applied kinesiologists also theorize that specific muscles are associated with specific areas of the body. There are organ-muscle, gland-muscle, meridian-muscle, spine-muscle, and reflex-muscle relationships. (The relationships between specific spinal nerves and specific muscles are taught in chiropractic colleges.) The papers presented here offer some of the clinical trials that have been done to evaluate this contention.
Research literature is produced in quantities far exceeding the ability of even the narrowest specialist to stay abreast of the information flow, and so the vast number of studies cited here have been given structured abstracts that abbreviate their findings. I hope this will enable the busy physician to find in the unending twistings and turnings of these research studies that span more than 2,000 papers and 30 years the essential importance of these reports to the practice of chiropractic and AK. Understanding the published research allows us to grow, learn and modify our technique to match our discoveries and to stay current in the scientific community worldwide.
It should be noted that the ICAK does not require strict conformity to controlled clinical trial research design for paper presentation in its yearly-published Collected Papers. Not all members of the ICAK are professional or paid researchers, but clinicians who work with sick people in the trenches of private clinics. So the authors of some of these papers are not educated in strict research designs.
However, many chiropractic authors and researchers have described the shift away from strict experimental design (“randomized controlled clinical trials”) toward the acceptance of outcome studies. While working on the AK Research and Literature Compendium 2005 (also published at SOTO-USA), I have also come to realize that controlling all of the variables in any study that involves human beings is not possible. The unreliability of physical, mechanistic measurements in defining outcomes has led to a shift toward using patient-reported perceptions as outcome measures. AKs emphasis on health rather than disease, and treatment of the whole person rather than the symptoms, makes it difficult to fully describe all the effects of AK treatment on patients’ function through currently existing physiologic measures or controlled clinical trials.
Chiropractic and applied kinesiology now enjoy the highest public visibility and patient utilization rate in its history. Part of our new status in the health care marketplace is the result of studies demonstrating the effectiveness and patient satisfaction using AK procedures in the management of pain, functional organic disorders, and improvement in quality of life for patients of all ages.
Keating recommends the deliberate development of chiropractic clinician-researchers:
“The
clinician-researcher could be the saving grace for the broad traditions
of the chiropractic art. If we were to train our doctors to be bold in
generating clinical hypotheses, to be meticulous in documenting
observations, to be cautious in what is claimed about the value of
chiropractic methods in not-yet-legitimized areas of practice, and to
publish what goes on in the clinical setting, we could set in motion a
research enterprise fueled by curiosity and pointed at the broad
horizons envisioned by the Founder.” 2
Evidence-based decision making in clinical practice requires, first of all, evidence. This compilation of structured abstracts from the Collected Papers of the International College of Applied Kinesiology for the years 2007-1995 offers you a part of the growing abundance of AK treatment outcomes and evidence.
1. Palmer, DD, The Chiropractor’s Adjuster, 1910.
2. Keating, J. Toward a philosophy of the science of chiropractic: a primer for clinicians. Stockton Foundation for Chiropractic Research, Stockton, CA. 1992:91