I recently started reading The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. He introduces readers to a concept called the MED, or minimum effective dose. It’s the smallest dose (of anything) that will produce a desired outcome.

He uses two examples to demonstrate this point:

To boil water, the MED is 212°F … Boiled is boiled. Higher temperatures will not make it “more boiled.” Higher temperatures just consume more resources that could be used for something else more productive…

If you need 15 minutes in the sun to trigger a melanin response, 15 minutes is your MED for tanning. More than 15 minutes is redundant and will just result in burning and a forced break from the beach.

Interestingly, the developer of the chiropractic profession subscribed to this same idea. Even though he began “manipulating” every bone of the spine and pelvis in the early 1900’s, he later proved that less is more when it comes to providing chiropractic adjustments.

It took millions of dollars from his own personal fortune and decades of tireless research, but the diligent Dr. Palmer finally proved the “MED” of chiropractic care could be found at the first cervical vertebra, called C-1 or atlas. Instead of adjusting the entire spinal column, his very best results (between 1934-1961) came from addressing just 4% of the spine!