Chiropractic physicians around the world view the assessment and management of immune system dysfunctions from a holistic perspective and seek to identify how other systems that may be amenable to integrative chiropractic care affect its functioning. 

Chiropractic physicians have a vital role to play in this era of COVID-19 ‘analysis and enhancement’ where chiropractic approaches (structural, biochemical-nutritional, and psychoneuroimmunological) can strengthen patients’ innate and specific immunity. 

The chiropractic profession has developed immunological approaches to COVID-19 some of which are presented in this inaugural issue of the Asia-Pacific Chiropractic Journal. We know that areas of structural immobility can become immunosuppressed, possibly because of the stasis of lymphatic fluid and hindrance of muscular function. Improved joint and muscle function reduce such stasis, where it exists. 

With the global increase in antibiotic-resistant strains of pathogenic microbes and its incalculable effect upon patients and societies around the world, the appeal of the chiropractic approach to immune system impairments will increase. Not only doctors and their patients but also the governmental agencies who supervise them must come to understand in the very near future the major components of acute and chronic viral infections.

We are in a phase where rapid learning must occur with regard to how better address each of those components to achieve greater resistance to as well as control over virus-induced illness. The sad and ongoing situation is that medical training provides little if any education in nutrition. 

On the other hand chiropractors receive extensive training in both clinical nutrition and functional neurology. A prototypal search of Medline (31 May 2020) returned over 60,000 articles to the query ‘nutrition’ and ‘immun*’. Chiropractors are yet to explore this area; the Index to Chiropractic Literature returned just 3 papers for the same search string. 

Nevertheless we maintain that chiropractors are able to read and understand the literature of well-studied and highly-effective antiviral treatments and strategies and we strongly urge an attitudinal change from hypercriticism masked as a ‘rapid review’ to writing that is more exploratory and relevant to daily practice.

Nutritional advice is an important element within a chiropractor’s scope of practice, and its influence upon the immune system is elegantly presented in the important papers offered in this issue. 

The Editors