048- Drs. Imran Niazi and Kelly Holt Discuss Chiropractic, Neuroplasticity and Falls

Drs. Imran Niazi and Kelly Holt discuss with me their research on chiropractic, falls risk, and neuroplasticity in various populations. Imran Khan Niazi received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical engineering (specialisation: Biomedical Engineering) from the Riphah International University, Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2005, and his  Masters in biomedical engineering from University & FH Luebeck, Luebeck, Germany in 2009. Later he got his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Dario Farina from Center of sensory-motor interaction, Health Science Technology Department, University of Aalborg, Aalborg, Denmark in 2012. After working as a postdoc for a year, he moved to New Zealand in 2013, where he is currently working as Senior Research Fellow at New Zealand College of Chiropractic. He has an adjunct position in Aalborg University, Denmark and Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.

Dr. Niazi is interested in studying and understanding the altered mechanism of motor control and learning in neurological disorder to develop various technologies that can enhance the QOL of these patients. He has successfully co-supervised 4 PhD and 31 master thesis and currently has 4 active PhD students. He has authored 46 peer-reviewed journal papers and 82 conference papers (proceedings and extended abstracts including). His work has been cited more than 1100 times, and have an h-index of 16 according to google scholar. Over the last ten year, he has received funding worth around US $ 1.5 million from various sources. He is currently working as a review editor for Frontiers in Robotics and AI (Biomedical Robotics) and reviewer for more than 25 engineering/neuroscience journals.

Dr. Kelly Holt was a member of the 1998 inaugural graduating class of the New Zealand College of Chiropractic. Besides his chiropractic degree he also holds a Bachelor of Science majoring in physiology and a PhD in Health Science from the University of Auckland. His PhD focused on the effects of chiropractic care on sensorimotor function and falls risk in older adults. He has published work in a number of peer reviewed journals that investigated the effects of chiropractic care on nervous system function and the reliability of vertebral subluxation indicators and has won a number of international research awards. Kelly worked in private practice as a chiropractor for 10 years following graduation and has taught at the New Zealand College of Chiropractic since 2000 and is currently the Dean of Research at the College.   Kelly was named ‘Chiropractor of the Year’ by the New Zealand College of Chiropractic Alumni Association in 2012 and by the New Zealand Chiropractors’ Association in 2014.

View Dr. Imran Niazi’s research at researchgate.net and Dr. Kelly Holt’s research at researchgate.net.

In addition to Drs. Imran Niazi and Kelly Holt, you might also be interested in listening to the previous episode with Dr. Heidi Haavik, also from New Zealand College of Chiropractic discussing “brain adjustments”.

Below are the studies that we discuss in this interview.