THE THREE SENSES OF MEANING RESPONSE “Touch has a memory.” – John Keats This is, by far, the area where we as cli-nicians have the greatest opportunity to have positive meaning responses in our patients. What the patient sees, hears or feels can trigger neurohumoral reactions within the body that translate into win-dows of therapeutic opportunity. Vision In my clinic, I take the opportunity to stimulate the patients’ visual field by giv-ing them pleasant things to look at, such as the colours on the walls, the contem-porary furniture and even mother nature: several windows overlooking a treed for-est relax the patient as the occasional deer glides past. Because 90 per cent of what our brain perceives is interpreted via the visual field, it is important that we prime the patient’s parasympathetic nervous system by giving them pleas-ant and relaxing things to look at. Once in the treatment room, simply dimming the lights while the patient is undergoing treatment can enhance clinical results. Miwa (2006) published that providing a dimly lit treatment setting was shown to encourage patients to feel safe and re-laxed, and that under these circumstances patients developed more trust toward their treatment provider. Hearing and Touch It is important to provide patients with pleasant sounds on their visits to your office. During every visit, I ensure the patient’s favourite music playing in the background. I have an iPod dock in every treatment room. I find that music has posi-tive effects on pain management. Accord-ing to Siedliecki (2006) in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, listening to music dur-ing a treatment can reduce chronic pain from a range of painful conditions, includ-ing osteoarthritis, disc problems and rheu-matoid arthritis, by up to 21 per cent. The first thing I do when I greet a pa-tient is smile and shake their hand. In 2012, the Journal of Cognitive Neurosci-ence published a study on the handshake and found out how important it really is. The study was led by Beckman Institute researcher Florin Dolcos and Department of Psychology postdoctoral research as-www.canadianchiropractor.ca sociate Sanda Dolcos. They found that a handshake preceding social interaction enhanced the positive impact of approach and diminished the negative impact of avoidance behaviour on the evaluation of social interaction. Dolcos et al (2012) explained that shaking hands not only in-creases the positive effect toward a favour-able interaction, but it also diminishes the impact of a negative impression. Patient perceptions can facilitate hope, expectation, positive feelings, relief of anxiety and anticipation of improvement. This is done via physiologic processes that produce healthy neurohumoral responses that can actually accelerate healing. As chiropractors we should embrace and adopt the suggestions from the literature that is beginning to clarify the value of the i>}ÊÀiëÃiÊÊVV>Ê«À>VÌVi°ÊU F R MO FO O RE O N WE LL NE SS , VI SI S T WW W. CA C NA DI AN CH C IR OP O RA CT C OR O .C C A CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR \*5.%  s
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor June 2013 : Page 29
