Stuart Warner on January 23, 2001

This section is compiled by Frank M. Painter, D.C.
Send all comments or additions to:    Frankp@chiro.org

My name is Stuart Warner. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this distinguished commission. I'm in private practice in Point Pleasant, New Jersey with a focus on children under the age of seven. I'm also part of the post-graduate faculty of several chiropractic colleges and instruct chiropractors around the world in the care of children. And I'm also a cofounder of Kids Day America International as well as the World Children's Wellness Foundation.

Today's a day when childhood illness is considered normal. Rates of asthma, autism, otitis media, ADHD, and other diseases are increasing at all-time highs in our society. This is resulting in lost educational opportunities, lost work days, for parents increased costs, lost of frustration. Medical intervention starts after the symptoms appear, which may not be the best approach. And children are being targeted with drugs by doctors that lack training in how to prescribe many of those drugs, and there have not been safety studies to determine the safety of the drugs given to children. Chiropractic care offers children a very safe and effective approach to obtain extraordinary health and wellness that's a pro-active approach.

Our emphasis is to correct vertebral subluxation in children that interferes with proper nerve function. That essential nerve function directly controls that child's immune system, biochemistry, hormones, as well as every cell tissue and organ in that child's body. We advocate regular chiropractic check-ups for all children starting from birth onward. In fact, studies are now showing that the first three years of that child's life is the most important time, the critical time, to get them started on the path to health and wellness because that's when they develop their habit patterns.

Children are especially susceptible to vertebral subluxation and nerve interference from stresses and traumas early on, such as birth trauma or in-utero constraint positions, normal falls and postural stresses. For example, a child that has a subluxation in their spine which creates an imbalance, the muscles may be pulling more to one side than the other. When this child is going through their growth spurts and developing, these subluxations and imbalances will be accentuated and cause more problems. Just as a dentist will correct a cavity before the symptoms appear, need to correct vertebral subluxations in children before symptoms appear.

Millions of parents report to thousands of chiropractors that when their children grow up with chiropractic care, their children do not succumb to all the childhood illnesses that the rest of the children do. And if they get sick, they respond far quicker than children who have chronic vertebral subluxation. In addition, parents report that children under chiropractic care sleep better, they behave better, when those stresses are removed from their spine. We would like to see parents have full access to having their children checked for vertebral subluxation by chiropractors to prevent illness, optimize their health and wellness, and dramatically reduce medical costs.

In closing, we need to also look at raising funds for research to characterize and demonstrate the benefits of chiropractic care for children, and we need to find more effective strategies to educate and distribute information on chiropractic care for children to a parent. And this also should evolve into an area where chiropractors can be very effective as gatekeepers for raising healthy children. And I thank you for your attention.

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