When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
Vincent Esposito, DC
The Sacro Occipital Research Society International (SORSI) has presented its prestigious "1994 Annual Research Award" to the chiropractic brothers, Vincent and Carmine Esposito.
The award marks the second consecutive year that Vincent has received this honor. His research efforts date back to 1983 when he demonstrated improvements on pre/post MRI studies for patients with disc diseases.
Dr. Carmine Esposito began his research 1977, which led to the development of a range of function technique. The protocols of this technique blend aspects of many different chiropractic techniques, including variations of DeJarnette's pelvic categories, and orthopedic blocking, which allows any of the patient categories to be blocked in the supine position (due to the nature of most MRI machines, the patient is best placed in the supine position). These advances in technique allowed for better study of disc cases studied with MRI.
The doctors have been able to study and show positive results in variety of conditions: intervertebral disc desiccation; intervertebral disc degeneration; intervertebral disc rupture; intervertebral disc bulge; protruded discs; extruded discs; sequested discs; focal disc herniations; (with and without thecal impingement); central disc herniations; disc encroachment of the intervertebral forminal; hyper/hypolordosis; hyper/hypolyphosis, and scoliosis.
The doctors have been using cine-MRI to document changes in cerebral spinal fluid flow during chiropractic adjustment, immediately after it, and seven weeks postadjustment. Changes in signal intensity, which imply changes in function and structure, have been documented. These are innovative techniques creating new applications for the use of MRI technology.
The Esposito brothers have also performed pre/post chiropractic cranial manipulation studies demonstrating changes in intra-cranial architecture, coupled with positive changes in objective signs and tests and improvement of the patient's symptomatology. The research has been made possible with the use of Kings Medical Diagnostic Imaging and Brooklyn Medical Imaging Center.
A research grant proposal of the Esposito brothers involving disc studies, chiropractic care, and MRI, is currently under review at the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research.