New Hartford, N.Y. - Chiropractors have long pointed to the 1918 flu pandemic to show the correlation between their work and flu prevention.

In 1918 more than 50 million people world-wide died from the flu, but statistically people who had had chiropractic care survived at a much higher rate than the general population.

Studies in recent years have also shown that chiropractic care can be instrumental in people avoiding illnesses such as the flu.

Valerie and Adam Ellis are true believers that chiropractic medicine does just that.

The married couple has had their own practice, 'Ellis Family Chiropractic' in New Hartford, for about 20 years. We checked in with them on Friday.

Adam Ellis says the couple's clients have become believers as well, "A young lady of about 70 years old who every year would periodically spend from three days to a week in a hospital with bronchitis, she’s been with us for eight or nine years now she has not been back. And I’m not saying that she’s bulletproof, I’m not saying that she doesn’t get sick, but she’s not been in the hospital and that’s kind of a huge thing."

Valerie Ellis says the key to a healthy immune system is to have healthy lymph nodes, "When you get an adjustment it releases the muscles that could be tightening those lymph nodes up and when you have tightened lymph nodes they can’t drain appropriately so you’ll get fluid that backs up, bacteria that starts to grow. And so the adjustment helps work on two levels, it helps relax the muscle tension so the lymph nodes can drain, but also the nerve supply to those immuno organs is now reactivated, if you will, and now they can work appropriately."

Besides adults, Valerie is specially trained in the chiropractic care of children. She says the parents of the kids who have come in for care at Ellis Family Chiropractic are well aware of the connection between chiropractic care and the immune system, "At this time of the year when they start to see some stuffy noses and stuff like that going on, ear infections, they’ll come in more often to help prevent it and to clear things up."