The effects of chiropractic care on kids’ brain function, as well as subjective and objective health and quality of life measures.

Funds from the past few years ‘The Kids Summit’ (TKS) conferences, alongside donations from the New Zealand College of Chiropractic’s (NZCC) Centre for Chiropractic Research (CCR) Supporters have been pooled to fund a very exciting study. This research study has collected EEG data from the brains of teenage kids before, during and after 12 weeks of chiropractic care. As the previous research has shown that a single chiropractic adjustment session alters pre-frontal cortex (PFC) activity in adults, this randomised controlled trial we have conduced in children also focussed its subjective and objective health and quality of life measures around known prefrontal cortex functions. This part of your brain is responsible for your executive functions (your intelligence), and it plays a key role in how you experience pain, is vital for emotional control and mental health, and is critically involved in regulating your endocrine function, immune system and autonomic nervous system, enabling you to relax, sleep and heal.

Dr Heidi Haavik is a chiropractor who has also gained a PhD in human neurophysiology and is one of the most popular chiropractic speakers in the world today. Dr Haavik graduated from the New Zealand College of Chiropractic in 1999 and has practiced for over 20 years. She was awarded her PhD degree by the University of Auckland in 2008. She is the Vice President Research and Dean of Research at the New Zealand College of Chiropractic where she established the Centre for Chiropractic Research.

She is the author of the book ‘The Reality Check: A quest to Understand Chiropractic from the inside out’ (www.heidihaavik.com or Amazon). This book describes in easy to understand language what happens in the brain when a chiropractor adjusts dysfunctional segments in the spine. Dr Haavik has used her neurophysiology expertise to study the effects of adjusting subluxations on the function of the central nervous system. Dr Haavik is the director of Haavik Research Ltd, a company that enlightens the world about the science of chiropractic at www.therealitycheck.com, and she runs an online learning academy at www.chirosacademy.com.

Dr Haavik was a member of the World Federation of Chiropractic’s Research Council for ten years. She has received numerous research awards and has published a number of papers in chiropractic and neurophysiology journals. She has presented her work to both chiropractic and neuroscience communities around Australasia, Africa, North America and Europe. She is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics and Journal of Chiropractic Education and is a Review Editor in Movement Science and Sport Psychology for Frontiers in Psychology and Sports Science. She was named Chiropractor of the year in 2007 by both the New Zealand Chiropractic Association and the New Zealand College of Chiropractic Alumni Association.