By Dr. George Goodheart

Summary: Given the physiological overlap of many animal species, it is not surprising that the fields of veterinary science and human nutrition have often illumined each another. One example of such discovery is discussed here by famed chiropractor Dr. George Goodheart, who describes how he came to use the trace mineral manganese as a successful nutritional adjunct in treating disc lesions. While observing a surgery to repair a slipped disc in a patient, he recounts, he noticed that the ligaments around the patient’s disc were exceedingly limp. After he then treated a patient for a recurring sprained ankle—caused, he suspected, by a loose tendon—it struck him that the lack of tone in the connective tissue in these cases was reminiscent of perosis, the famous “slipped tendon” disease in chickens. Manganese being a known veterinary cure for perosis, Dr. Goodheart began to administering the mineral to his disc patients with great success, and when he shared his therapy with colleagues, they observed too a marked improvement in the recovery rate of patients with disc lesions. It is the kind of “outside the box” thinking that made Dr. Goodheart, who introduced the method of Applied Kinesiology to the world, such a brilliant health practitioner. From the Journal of the National Chiropractic Association, 1954. Reprinted by  the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research.