Masha & Dasha
In 1949 a rare embryological accident occurred in Soviet Russia, resulting in the formation and birth of conjoined twin girls named Masha and Dasha.
These unfortunate children were joined at the hip and in such a way that surgical separation was impossible.
Between them they had four arms, but only three legs. The third leg had eight toes. Masha could feel pain in only four of them, and Dasha, the opposite four. They had two stomachs and two small intestines, which joined together to form a single large intestine. They had four kidneys, but only one bladder and often could not agree on when to urinate.
The girls' circulatory system was interconnected; if one were to drink poison, both would die. Their genetic makeup was identical. They had a common reproductive system and doctors said there was no physiological reason why the girls could not conceive and give birth. Although their spines were joined at the base, their nerves systems were entirely separate. The twins lived almost twenty years and provided some startling information to the doctors and scientists who observed them during that period.
Scientists have always disagreed over the primary cause of sickness and disease. One group held to the position that ill health was caused by external factors: germs, the weather, environment, etc. Another group disagreed and said that while external factors existed, the primary cause was the internal resistance of the individual.
Here, in Masha and Dasha, was an opportunity for the argument to be settled.
Both girls were exposed to the same external factors. More so than any other two human beings, they shared the same environment. They breathed the same air, went to bed and got up at the same time. With a common bloodstream what they ate would supply nutrition to both. They exercised together, learning to walk, dance, and even ride a bicycle!
Without realizing it, these two unfortunate children left the world a scientific truth and settled the external/internal argument for all time.
You see, Masha and Dasha got sick at different times!
Masha would get a cold and Dasha would not. One would get the flu and the other would not. One would have a fever; the other's temperature would be normal. They even contracted childhood diseases, like measles and chickenpox at different times.
Clearly, it is primarily the internal resistance that determine whether a person gets sick or not, with colds, flu, and even cancer. It is not the external environment that is the determining factor.
But a further principle was established that is important to chiropractors. For you see, they also shared a common internal environment, bloodstream, nutrition, genetics, etc. It was only their nervous systems and the vertebral column housing the spinal cords that were separate.
Chiropractors have maintained long before Masha and Dasha were born that a good nerve supply is a necessary requirement and a prerequisite to health, and further that an interference in the nervous system will adversely affect the body's internal environment and predispose one to sickness and ill health.
Two little girls living in Soviet Russia have helped to demonstrate the validity of chiropractic principles.