Spine
What’s your spine got to do with it?A lot of us experience life from a different angle, and we don’t even know it.
We live life with the constant grudge of back pain, be it the bain of your life, or twinges every now and then. Maybe you don’t even experience neck, back or arm pain, but have IBS or continual headaches.
Through blood assessments, we can determine the level of spinal misalignment that you may have going on, whether its upper (thoracic) or lower (lumbar) or related to hips being uneven. The blood has cellular memory and shows us, what it has remembered even though you may have long forgotten or do not experience any symptoms. We ‘remember’ the new stance in our body and it becomes the norm, which is why we don’t often know anything is wrong.
I first started noticing the nuances in spinal misalignment about 18 months ago and it became quite clear with what was showing in the blood, to pain experienced.
Here are some pics of spinal misalignment – from mild to severe. The image should show a strong curved line, not one with bits and chunks in it.
| Mild neck inflammation | Neck and shoulder pain | Horseriding fall | Severe whiplash |
| Constant pain | Lower back – bulging | Upper and lower back pain | Chronic Lower back pain |
This is severe, constant nagging from the neck, moodiness.
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In 1996 I suffered nerve damage in my right elbow, you know the funny bone? Not so funny as the pain set in about 12 months after the accident (I had to jump from a train with about 1000 other people during flooding and hit my elbow on the edge of the carriage door as I jumped out). I went to my doctor the same day of the accident and it was reported but nothing more was documented. After 12 months, I couldn’t move my arm, let alone my back and it was enough when using a hair dryer in the morning to put me into excruciating pain and drop to the floor not being able to move. Whilst it may sound like a bit of drama, and not being funny, those incidents would take me out of action for 4 or 5 days having to lie on the floor and taking copious amounts of anesthetising drugs just to be able to crawl to the bathroom.
For the years following, I could look forward to debilitating headaches, numbness down the whole of my right arm into my two little fingers, and pain right into the spine at vertebrae T3 and T4, as well as up into the neck at the Atlas (what our head sits on). Wearing rings on my right fingers is no longer an option, it triggers pain and numbness in my arm. Given that my right side is most dominant but also the weakest, the left side then starts to compensate and the muscles hold on even tighter with the instruction to do so. They hold on though, in the wrong direction, ultimately causing more issue.
Ever had the feeling, like you have an ice-pick stuck in either of your shoulder blades? Suffered that one for a long time and many massage therapists would try to ‘massage it out’ but what it was, were my back ribs also out of alignment and digging in to tissue. There is no amount of massaging that will correct this issue…and therapists, its not a knot. While traditionally not NUCCA, a chiropractor will be able to adjust all your ribs. I love this procedure, it brings the giggles and immediate relief even though the ribs might be sore for a couple of days.
There are times, when even the strongest of analgesic meds just don’t work, and this is for me always related to the spine being out of alignment. No amount of greens or alkalising can correct this experience, and sometimes drugs are necessary. At this point, sleeping it off is the best option as being awake and experiencing the pain is unbearable.
Cue years of ultra sound, physio treatment, osteopathic, cranial osteopathic, chiropractic, deep tissue body work, rolfing, myofacial release and acupuncture at my personal expense of £000’s. You name it, Ive had it. While everyone loves a good massage, the kind of body work I was experiencing was enough to bring tears to my eyes, and most times, leave me with internal bruising – all in the name of pain relief. Some times it worked, but I remember the days of 3 of these massages per week because the pain was so bad. It gets costly.
4 years ago I came across Dr Heidi Grant in London who is a N.U.C.C.A. Chiropractor. NUCCA stands for Neurological Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association. Having tried everything, I was reluctant to make an appointment and only did so at the beginning of January 2008 (although I had been sending clients along a lot earlier). Just by looking at my face and level of hips, it was clear to Dr Heidi that something was definately amiss, and it was time to take some xrays!
Just like with blood demonstrations getting to the root cause of your acid distress, NUCCA Chiropractic does exactly the same. Dr Heidi mentions that the body has the innate ability to heal itself. We know this by applying root cause alkalising regimes for cellular transformation, and when the spine is properly aligned, then the body starts to give real feedback as to what is working properly.
So lets jump right in to some more NUCCA information!
This gentle, non-invasive technique was developed more than forty years ago to create a radical new way of healing that can help restore body balance and perfect health. The focus of the NUCCA work is the relationship between the upper cervical spine (neck) and its influence on the central nervous system and brain stem function. It is this relationship that affects every aspect of human function from the feeling sensations in your fingers to regulating hormones, controlling movement, and providing the ability to hear, see, think, and breathe.
Remember the song….
The foot bone connected to the leg-bone,
The leg bone connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone connected to the thigh bone,
The thigh bone connected to the back bone,
The back bone connected to the neck bone
The neck bone connected to the head bone
And so Dr Heidi tells me that the head is supposed to sit on the neck is supposed to sit on top of the spine all in alignment…and when they do not, all kinds of issues start to show up in the body. The hips are supposed to be even, your leg length is also supposed to be even.
Spinal misalignment is usually related to a first incident, such as a severe fall, car accident, even birth trauma. These misalignments can cause the head to kick over the right or left, and the neck to rotate several degrees meaning that the eyes are not level horizontally and your view of the world is then skewed. This skew is what you determine as normal. When the atlas (Cervical Vertebrae 1 – C1) misaligns, it causes the head and neck to move on the spinal column, and the hips and legs to raise up on one side, and the shoulders to drop. We end up standing lopsided – one hip up, the shoulder on the same side, down. Compression like this, leads to nerve pinching, what you may know as sciatic pain (from lower back right down the legs).
Being out of alignment can cause you to be grumpy, from minor irritations to continual anger expression, and depression. You may know people like this, so consider if their spine is out of alignment there is another cause to their grumpiness. I know for myself, that as soon as my neck pops out, then I experience a couple of days of ‘out of the blue’ irritation and hormone like symptoms. Some have IBS, digestion difficulties, migraines just to name a few. Simple adjustments, can correct sinus issues, sore throats, bowel conditions…again just to name a few. When the spine sits correctly, then nerves are able to function properly again.
Alignment goals
The goal here is to get your atlas back to theoretical zero (head back onto the neck), which takes pressure off the brain stem. Your other goal is to ‘hold’ your adjustment for months and years. Holding means that the head stays on the neck stays on the spine properly without becoming misaligned.
You need to know, that there is no popping, twisting or cracking with this adjustment…it is a gentle correction at the neck. You cannot over apply force to the neck, it has a built in safety mechanism. And when you increase the length of the frequency, then you can reduce the power to the adjustment so cracking, is absolutely, not necessary. It only takes 2 seconds to make the adjustment and this treatment definately states that ‘less is more’.
The body acts like a pully system, of levers, engineering and physics. Basic trigonometry, its all about proper angles in lining yourself (the doc chiro) up for the correction. The body knows what to do to heal itself, it just gets good at adapting, coping and compensating for old injuries. Putting the spine back into alignment means that the innate intelligence that we spoke about above, can work again.
What to expect in a consultation
When you go for your initial consultation, Dr Heidi gets out her spirit level and tape measure, and starts to measure you up. The spirit level sits on both of your hips and determines how high or low your hips are, in degrees. Thats the first check. She also does this with your shoulders and takes a good look at your posture from both front and back. One interesting check is how far forward the ears sit from the shoulders. As a quick diversion for this point, the head weighs approx 12lbs when sitting on the neck and spine properly. For every inch forward the ears sit, you can literally double that number so two inches forward, the head weighs.
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Then its time for some xrays.
The xrays can show many things – facial trauma, breaks, neck rotation, decalcification of bone all through the head and neck, and the length and held position of your neck up into your head. After Dr Heidi has drawn lines on your xrays and spent considerable time working out the mathematics, she will then tell you how many degrees your neck is rotated, and how far your head kicks over to one side. This combined with the pelvic and leg assessments gives Dr Heidi all the information she needs to put you back together again.
Then its time for the adjustment. Dr Heidi will ask you to lie on your side on her special moveable table and put your ears, chin and arms into position. She then puts dots in your hair and behind your ears (this is part of the trigonometry bit for angles etc) and if you are lucky, she will take them off you when you leave the clinic. I have been known to walk out and get on the tube with blue dots on me (blonde hair) – yes, people stare.
She makes sure you are all lined up properly before beginning the adjustment, and there is a bit of shuffling of feet (hers) to get the correct position. Then she will work at your neck. It doesn’t hurt, in fact one client asked when she was going to get started, even though she had finished at that point. It was so gentle he didn’t realise she has been working.
At the first assessment, Heidi will take a second set of xrays to determine immediate effectiveness, and what further corrections need to be done either that day, or on another day. Then you are free to go.
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What to expect post consultation
Because you have just been adjusted, your brain will have been given a new set of instructions and information to realign itself. You may feel as if your balance and co-ordination is a bit off and its important to take everything slowly until your eyes and body catches up with the speed of your brain. This may last a day or so, but then your body sorts itself out again. Personally I felt like a new person after my first assessments, finally, a reason why I had been feeling dodgy for a long time. After each assessment I had, I was able to sashay down the street with my hips in alignment.
The best bit, no exercising, rebounding, lifting or hoovering for 3 days afterwards.
After experiencing incredible pain associated with my injury, I was able to be pain free, finally, within a few short weeks. Result.
Heidi recommends that you go back for a few assessments to see how well your adjustment is holding, and she may or may not need to adjust you. All the same she will get out her spirit level and do a pelvic and leg length check just to be sure. Because you are adjusting at root cause, it means that you don’t have to keep going back, going back and going back some more like you do with other practitioners (other therapies) who work with the compensations.
Putting your ‘neck out’ after you have been adjusted
Post adjustment, you want to be aware of some of the ways you can pull your adjustment out. Slipping over, or even ‘catching youself’ falling is one, emotional trauma or ‘hormonal sessions’ another. There are some other more unusual ways including sitting your head back in the basin at a hair salon, massage of the occipital ridge and neck (doesn’t matter what kind of massage, the therapists are usually unaware that this could be a cause and so they actually make the problem worse). Going to sleep on your stomach is another.
If you are going to bed, the better positions to sleep in are on your side with a pillow between your knees, or on your back with a pillow behind your knees. Both positions maintain the crevice of the neck.
Better types of pillows are millet, or buckwheat husk fillings.
Case Studies
Check out our case studies on the other pages…one female and one male, to see how they fared with their blood assessments and adjustments.
Who is Heidi then and what is she doing out of North America?
Dr Heidi Grant is the only NUCCA practitioner outside of North America. Canadian born, she emigrated to the UK quite a few years ago and has a clinic in central London. Heidi has a post doctorate in Neurology, and teaches Neurology at NUCCA conferences. She always seems to be studying and taking exams, and we reckon, is a very clever lady. You can read more about Dr Grant at her website http://www.nucca.co.uk/drheidigrant.html
To book an assessment with Dr Heidi in London, please go to her website http://www.nucca.co.uk/ for more information and phone number.
If you are outside the UK please source a practitioner here http://www.nucca.org/
For Australian practitioners, I personally know Dr Joe Ierano in Sydney – Chiropractic Ierano and
Dr Tom Dawson in Melbourne at Wellbeing Hawthorn, 365 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn. 9882 7135
Contact either Doctor above for other referrals for Australia.
I only wish, that I had booked my assessment four years ago instead of waiting. This is one of the best investments you can make in your health and if you have had any kind of accident, fall, road traffic or otherwise, please get it checked out. NUCCA, will change your life.
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