The Winsor Autopsies

Dr. Henry Winsor, a Pennsylvania MD said, “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?” So, he wanted to see if any connection existed, so he performed special autopsies, in cooperation with Pennsylvania University, and said, “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.” He proceeded to conduct 3 separate studies using 75 human and 22 cat cadavers.

What he found was, “Two hundred twenty-one 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.”

Anatomy books confirm that the nerves of the diseased organ come from (or correspond to) the misaligned vertebrae Dr. Winsor found.

The breakdown of autopsies found the following:

• Stomach Diseases – All nine cases of spinal misalignment in the mid-thoracic area (T5-T9) had stomach disease.
• Lung Disease – All 26 cases of lung disease had spinal misalignments in the upper thoracic spine.
• Liver Disease – All 13 cases of liver disease had misalignments in the mid-thoracic (T5-T9).
• Gallstones – All five cases with gallstone disease had spinal misalignments in the mid-thoracic.
• Pancreas – All three cases with pancreas disease had spinal misalignments in the mid-thoracic.
• Spleen – All 11 cases with spleen diseases had spinal misalignments in the mid thoracics.
• Kidney – All 17 cases with kidney disease were out of alignment in the lower thoracics.
• Prostate and Bladder Disease – All eight cases with kidney, prostate, and bladder disease had the lumbar (L2-L3) vertebrae misaligned
• Uterus – The two cases with the uterine conditions had the second lumbar misaligned.
• Heart Disease – All 20 cases with heart and pericardium conditions had the upper five thoracic vertebrae (T1-T5) misaligned.

Although Dr. Winsor published his findings long ago, in 1920, no authority has ever refuted his findings. As adverse to chiropractic old-time MD’s are, it is surprising that they did not object unless it was true.

• Some information for the Winsor autopsies was taken from publications by Dr. Ted Koren.
• 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
• Names in this section are not the names of the actual people, however, all other information is true. The examples represented are no guarantee of success in any case but do represent actual patients’ conditions that have been seen.