Health Library

THE WINSOR AUTOPSIES

As early as 1921, the medical profession validated chiropractic. Henry Winsor, a medical doctor in Haverford, Pennsylvania, asked the question:

“Chiropractors claim that by adjusting one vertebra, they can relieve stomach troubles and ulcers; by adjusting another, menstrual cramps; and by adjusting others conditions such as kidney diseases, constipation, heart disease, thyroid conditions, and lung disease may resolve – but how?”

Dr. Winsor decided to investigate this new science and art of healing—chiropractic.

DISSECTIONS

After graduating from medical school, Dr. Winsor was inspired by chiropractic and osteopathic literature to experiment. He planned to dissect human and animal cadavers to see if there was a relationship between any diseased internal organ discovered on autopsy and the vertebrae associated with the nerves that went to the organ.

As he wrote:

“The object of these necropsies (dissections) was to determine whether any connection existed between minor curvatures of the spine, on the one hand, and diseased organs on the other; or whether the two were entirely independent of each other.”

UNIVERSITY PERMISSION

The University of Pennsylvania gave Dr. Winsor permission to carry out his experiments. In a series of three studies, he dissected a total of seventy-five human and twenty-two cat cadavers. The following is Dr. Winsor’s description of his findings:

“221 structures other than the spine were found diseased. Of these, 212 were observed to belong to the same sympathetic (nerve) segments as the vertebrae in curvature. Nine diseased organs belonged to different sympathetic segments from the vertebrae out of line. These figures cannot be expected to exactly coincide… for an organ may receive sympathetic filaments from several spinal segments and several organs may be supplied with sympathetic (nerve) filaments from the same spinal segments. In other words, there was nearly a 100% correlation between minor curvatures of the spine and diseases of the internal organs.”

DR. WINSOR’S FINDINGS:

• Heart Disease
  All 20 cases with heart and pericardium conditions had the upper five thoracic vertebrae misaligned (T1-T5).
• Lung Disease
  All 26 cases of lung disease had spinal misalignments in the upper thoracic area.
• Stomach Disease
  All nine cases of stomach disease had spinal misalignment in the mid-thoracic (T5-T9) area.
• Liver Disease
  All 13 cases of liver disease had misalignments in the mid-thoracic area (T5-T9).
• Gallbladder
  All five cases with gallstone disease had spinal misalignments in the mid-thoracic area (T5-T9).
• Pancreas
  All three cases with pancreas disease had spinal misalignments in the mid-thoracic area (T5-T9).
• Spleen
  All 11 cases with spleen disease had spinal misalignments in the mid-thoracic area (T5-T9).
• Kidney
  All 17 cases with kidney disease were out of alignment in the lower thoracic area (T10-T12).
• Prostate and Bladder Disease
  All eight cases with prostate disease had the lumbar vertebrae misaligned.
• Uterus
  Two cases with uterine conditions had the second lumbar misaligned.

IN CONCLUSION

Dr. Winsor’s results are published in The Medical Times and are found in any medical library. Winsor was not alone in his findings. Similar studies by other researchers have confirmed Dr. Winsor’s conclusion that degenerated and misaligned spines have a high correlation with disease processes.

Despite the continued research and literature correlating the maintenance of health with the maintenance of the spine and the nervous system, chiropractic is the only modern health profession that takes this approach toward health. An unhealthy spine and nerve pressure will cause the body to function at less than 100%. When the body is not functioning properly, it is more susceptible to disease. A chiropractic spinal check-up and adjustment can help in the care and prevention of sickness and disease through a properly functioning nervous system.

POST-SCRIPT

Dr. Henry Winsor’s insights and research are prophetic. Scientists from many parts of the world that continued to research the relationship between spinal misalignments (vertebral subluxation complex) and internal organ disease have expanded upon his studies. This field of somato-visceral disease relationship (its scientific term) is one of the fastest growing and most exciting areas of research in the health care sciences—and chiropractic thrives as its leading advocate.

Reference:
All quotes from: Winsor, H. Sympathetic segmental disturbances – II. The evidences of the association, in dissected cadavers, of visceral disease with vertebral deformities of the same sympathetic segments, The Medical Times, November 1921, pp. 267-271.