Some but NOT ALL - I agree - my spinal damage was extensive and over 15 years. I saw a Chiropractor then a Neuro physio, now I''m on my own clicking twistig until I click no more

Atlasprofilax: A potentially dangerous procedure.

Written by Dr. Michael Polsinelli, DC on September 17th, 2007March 2nd, 2015. 38 Comments

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Imitation as a form a flattery.
Two weekends ago, I had a booth at a health and wellness expo and I had a chance to observe a practitioner of a new form of atlas work called Atlasprofilax. Initially I was curious about what he was doing, I’m always open to learning new things.  But now have decided that this is a potentially dangerous procedure and do not recommend people receive it. Here are my reasons:

•  His literature states that the atlas moves out of alignment the same way in every person. This is not true!  In the thousands of x-rays that I have taken, I can demonstrate that each misalignment is unique and individual to each person.  This is backed up by decades of research by NUCCA and other upper cervical chiropractic procedures. To make this worse:
• They use an thrusting instrument on the upper neck, delivering multiple hard thrusts. If they are trying to move a persons atlas in a certain direction, only a percentage of their clients will have their atlases misaligned in the direction they they think it is. They could be moving the atlas in the wrong direction.
• Then they label any adverse reaction as a healing crisis. A healing crisis can
  occur when someone retraces an old injury and may feel pain and
  discomfort. A health crisis is when you have pain and problems from a
  new injury or an aggravation of an old one. It takes a qualified health
  practitioner to be able to listen, do an accurate and objective analysis
  (that includes a follow up visit) to determine if a person is having a
  health or healing crisis. Unfortunately, these lay people are using range of motion and palpation to fool themselves into thinking that they are realigning everyone.
• They don’t realign everyone. I was only able to asses three people that had received this procedure. All three were showing an atlas misalignment with stress on their nervous systems. I regularly screen individuals that do not have an atlas misalignment. These three were not one of them.
• They only see people one time. This practitioner and others travel to different towns, manipulate peoples atlases and then leave. The one that was here was from Los Angeles and seems to be making a circuit around the country.

Before I get a bunch of email, let me clarify. I know that they are helping some people (they are dealing with the atlas of course!), but I am giving my professional opinion on why this procedure could be dangerous. If you want to get your atlas realigned, go to one of the many excellent upper cervical chiropractic doctors around the country.