Response to Holder Article

A recent study conducted by Jay Holder, a chiropractor and physician with the Exodus Treatment Center in Miami Beach, concluded that there is a significant relationship between addiction and the human spine. Many people in America and the world battle with addictions to various things. Most commonly people become addicted—knowingly or otherwise—to drugs, alcohol, food, nicotine, and caffeine. The cause of addiction is most often a search for a “feel good” state, or high. Because people with addictions abuse their substance of choice so frequently, they produce lower levels of certain neurotransmitters. A lack of serotonin in particular can cause a state of feeling bad because it is responsible for the regulation of the sleep cycle, appetite, and most importantly the state of depression. Holder believes, however, that an additional cause for a lack of neurotransmitter production may be caused by problems in the spine. In healthy people neurotransmitters flow in a particular order down the spine which create a sense of general happiness. However, “subluxations or misalignments of the spine can cause pressure and tension on surrounding tissue, interrupting this feel-good sequence.” Holder conducted his study by exposing his experimental group