Impulse® Adjusting Instrument

Impulse® Fares Best Among Chiropractic Adjusting Instruments

August 15, 2005

PHOENIX, Arizona – A comparison of biomechanical performance among chiropractic adjusting
instruments was published in the July/August, 2005 issue of the Journal of Manipulative and
Physiological Therapeutics. The study reported a broader range of forces and a superior frequency area ratio among electromechanical adjusting instruments over traditional spring-loaded activation devices specifically favoring the Impulse Adjusting Instrument®.

“In over a decade of researching chiropractic adjusting instruments, we discovered the importance of optimizing the frequency input to the spine. At the right frequency, more bone movement occurs and more nerve receptors are stimulated during the adjustment, said Tony Keller, Ph.D., a professor of Mechanical Engineering and Orthpaedics and Rehabilitation at the University of Vermont, a co-author of the study.

With the rise in popularity of using adjusting instruments in chiropractic practice improvements that better suit the patient and clinician are of great interest. Today, chiropractic adjusting instruments are the second most common type of adjusting technique, utilized by 72% of chiropractors on 21% of their patients.

Chiropractic adjusting, a more specific variant of spinal manipulation, is the most commonly performed intervention by chiropractors. Over the past three decades adjusting instruments have been developed to assist chiropractors in delivering forces to the spine. Benefits of chiropractic adjusting instruments include a more specific and targeted force application, controlled force and speed. These benefits culminate in easier adjustments on patients and the doctor too. “Speaking of speed,” says Colloca, “

Impulse® was found to be twice as fast as the spring type activation devices. That’s about 100 times faster than traditional manual type chiropractic adjustments too. Because force equals mass times acceleration (F=ma), increasing the speed of adjustments with a chiropractic adjusting instrument accounts for using a significantly decreased mass while achieving similar forces to traditional manual type thrusts. The faster speed allows the adjustment to be delivered faster than the patient’s tendency to tighten up and resist the adjustment.