Jeff LangmaidFounder, The Evidence Based Chiropractor

Your Body Releases This After an Adjustment

5 May 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:52

In this segment of Jeff Langmaid’s video, he discusses emerging research indicating that manual therapy, including spinal adjustments, can lead to modest increases in oxytocin. Although the evidence base is limited, the findings are promising. Oxytocin is linked to social bonding, emotional regulation, and reduced anxiety, which can manifest clinically as feelings of relaxation, connection, and safety. Langmaid connects these physiological effects to psychological outcomes, suggesting that when patients feel safe and relaxed, they are less likely to exhibit fear‑avoidance behaviors, thereby allowing rehabilitation exercises to progress more effectively.

Chapters

The second thing that the researchers noted was that the oxytocin research, it was limited, but it was pretty promising. So the evidence for oxytocin changes was smaller, but the findings that existed were, were pretty cool to dive into. So some studies reported increases in oxytocin following manual therapy, including spinal adjustments. Again, remember oxytocin, social bonding, emotional regulation, reduced anxiety. So when oxytocin rises, patients may experience things like a feeling of relaxation, a feeling of connection, a feeling of safety, which I think many of us observe clinically. And I tie this right in. I know it's like kind of one step removed, but like we talk about fear avoidance behavior. Like when somebody feels connected, relaxed, and safe, this is when your rehab exercises, in my opinion, can really move forward even more meaningfully when they're not just having abject fear avoidance behavior the entire time.