Chiropractic / NUCCA
About: ATLAS SUBLUXATION COMPLEX
A misaligned spine can lead to a variety of problems in the body,
often in ways that may first appear to be unrelated.
If the top bone of the spine (Atlas or C-1) is misaligned and
distorted, signals from the brain which travel through the nerve system
that feeds all parts of the body, can be affected. Because the nervous
system has a dominant role in coordinating information and directing
responses, this can have a major impact throughout the body.
Atlas
Subluxation Complex (ASC), the misalignment of theAtlas/C-1, can cause
symptoms ranging from headaches, muscle pain, fatigue, allergies,
dizziness, ringing in the ears, depression, and high blood pressure to
name a few.
The proper adjustment of C-1 can remove
interference to normal nerve function and create an opportunity for the
body to heal itself.
The diagnosis and treatment is rather simple –
a chiropractor who specializes in the NUCCA System (National Upper
Cervical Association) will do a visual exam as well as a series of neck
x-rays to determine if treatment is required. The treatment itself is
fast, painless and very gentle – at least that has been my experience
and that of others I have spoken to. The number of treatments you will
need depends on many factors, including the type of condition you have,
how long you have been subluxated, your general health and how long the
adjustment holds its restored position.
For more information on Atlas Subluxation Complex, including articles, illustrations as well as to find a practitioner in your area, visit
www.nucca.org or call the National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association at 1-800-541-5799. Two other sites of interest are:
www.uppercervical.org and
www.upcspine.com.
How The Spine Influences The Nervous System
Can chiropractic help me? Isn't it just for neck pain or lower back pain?
I
hear these questions quite frequently, and will answer them and explain
the basics about how the spine influences the nervous system.
To
begin our understanding of the primary importance of the nervous system,
we must look at the growing fetus. The nervous system develops before
any of the other systems or organs; before there is a heart that beats,
before there are kidneys to filter the blood, before intestines exist to
break down and absorb food, there already exists a nervous system to
control and coordinate the development of the other systems of the body.
That relationship is maintained throughout our entire lives. Health
depends on maintaining our bodies in a state of balance (homeostasis)
with our internal and external environments. The nervous system is the
communication pathway that allows the brain to be aware of our
environment and respond appropriately to it.
What if the nerves
are not functioning at their best? For example, what if the nerves that
control and coordinate the stomach are irritated? Could there be
overproduction of acid, indigestion, heartburn? You bet. The one thing
that most strongly influences the health and function of the nervous
system is the spine. The spine consists of 24 movable bones that
surround and protect the delicate nervous system. But because the spine
is so flexible, it can also misaligned and become fixed, which irritates
the nerves that exit between each bone of the spine. These nerves have
target organs that they travel to in order to control and coordinate
their function. If the nerve suffers, the target organ will be affected
to the same extent. Some more examples of this might be: the fifth bone
in the neck strongly affects the muscles of the neck, shoulders, and
arms; the second bone in the upper back influences the nerves to the
heart, blood and lymph to the chest,shoulders, arms, and hands; the
eighth bone in the back influences the stomach, food allergies, and the
pancreas; the second bone in the lower back influences the bladder,
colon, and small intestines. Did you know that neck problems can be a
source of ringing in the ears, upset stomach, high blood pressure,
headaches, blurred vision, loss of balance or coordination, nausea,
problems concentrating, short term memory loss, moodiness, irritability,
depression? To get you thinking about this, search on
www.webmd.com
for a hypertension study that proved a good upper cervical adjustment
to the top of the neck lowered blood pressure. (Note: See reprint of
article below)
If you are looking for a natural, drug-free option
to help heal the body and return to a state of optimum health and human
performance, you owe it to yourself to look into chiropractic care.
Remember that the body is a self-healing organism, but only if you get
rid of the interference blocking that healing.
Christopher Dawson, D.C.
Christopher
Dawson has been a chiropractor since 1993 and expanded his specialty in
2002 as a member of NUCCA (National Upper Cervical Chiropractic
Association,
www.nucca.org). You can reach Dr. Dawson at nuccachris@gmail.com.
WebMD Article: Chiropractic Cuts Blood Pressure
The article below from the WebMD website (
www.webmd.com) concernsa University of Chicago research study indicating that
proper alignment of the C-1 (Atlas vertebra) can have a significant impact on lowering blood pressure.
One of the doctors conducting the study says that misaligment of C-1
can trigger release of signals that make the arteries contract,
effecting blood flow to the arteries in the base of the skull, which in
turn can have an impact on blood pressure. My husband has struggled with
high blood pressure for some time and is currently on medication to
control it. After one treatment his pressure is now in the low normal
range, and has stayed that way for the last week! I would strongly
suggest anyone with high blood pressure look in this type of
chiropractic procedure - but make sure you find someone experienced in
the NUCCA system (
www.nucca.org).
Study Finds Special 'Atlas Adjustment' Lowers Blood PressureBy:
Daniel J. DeNoonWebMD Medical News
Reviewed By:
Louise Chang, M.D.
March 16, 2007 -- A special chiropractic adjustment can significantly lower high blood pressure, a placebo-controlled study suggests.
"This procedure has the effect of not one, but two blood-pressure medications given in combination," study leader George Bakris, MD, tells WebMD.
"And it seems to be adverse-event free. We saw no side effects and no problems," adds Bakris, director of the University of Chicago hypertension center.
Eight
weeks after undergoing the procedure, 25 patients with early-stage high
blood pressure had significantly lower blood pressure than 25 similar
patients who underwent a sham chiropractic adjustment. Because patients
can't feel the technique, they were unable to tell which group they were
in.
X-rays showed that the procedure realigned the Atlas vertebra
-- the doughnut-like bone at the very top of the spine -- with the
spine in the treated patients, but not in the sham-treated patients.
Compared
to the sham-treated patients, those who got the real procedure saw an
average 14 mm Hg greater drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number
in a blood pressure count), and an average 8 mm Hg greater drop in
diastolic blood pressure (the bottom blood pressure number).
None of the patients took blood pressure medicine during the eight-week study.
"When the statistician brought me the data, I actually didn't believe it. It was way too good to be true," Bakris says.
"The statistician said, 'I don't even believe it.' But we checked for everything, and there it was."
Bakris and colleagues report their findings in the advance online issue of the Journal of Human Hypertension.
Atlas Adjustment and Hypertension
The
procedure calls for adjustment of the C-1 vertebra. It's called the
Atlas vertebra because it holds up the head, just as the titan Atlas
holds up the world in Greek mythology.
Marshall Dickholtz Sr., DC,
of the Chiropractic Health Center, in Chicago, is the 84-year-old
chiropractor who performed all the procedures in the study. He calls the
Atlas vertebra "the fuse box to the body.
"At the base of the
brain are two centers that control all the muscles of the body. If you
pinch the base of the brain -- if the Atlas gets locked in a position as
little as a half a millimeter out of line -- it doesn't cause any pain
but it upsets these centers," Dickholtz tells WebMD.
The
subtle adjustment is practiced by the very small subgroup of
chiropractors certified in National Upper Cervical Chiropractic (NUCCA)
techniques. The procedure employs precise measurements to determine a
patient's Atlas vertebra alignment. If realignment is deemed necessary,
the chiropractor uses his or her hands to gently manipulate the
vertebra.
"We are not doctors. We are spinal engineers," Dickholtz says.
"We use mathematics, geometry, and physics to learn how to slide everything back into place."
What does this have to do with high blood pressure?
Bakris
notes that some researchers have suggested that injury to the Atlas
vertebra can affect blood flow in the arteries at the base of the skull.
Dickholtz thinks the misaligned Atlas triggers release of signals that
make the arteries contract. Whether the procedure actually fixes such
injuries is unknown, Bakris says.
Bakris began the study after a
fellow doctor told him that something strange was happening in his
family practice. The doctor had been sending some of his patients to a
chiropractor. Some of these patients had high blood pressure.
Yet
after seeing the chiropractor, the patients' blood pressure had
normalized -- and a few of them were able to stop taking their blood
pressure medications.
So Bakris, then at Rush University, designed the pilot study with 50 patients. He's now organizing a much bigger clinical trial.
"Is it going to be for everybody with high blood pressure? No," Bakris says.
"We
clearly need to identify those who can benefit. It is pretty clear that
some kind of head or neck trauma early in life is related to this. This
is really a work in progress. It is certainly in the early stages of
research."
Dickholtz has been teaching, practicing, and
studying the NUCCA technique for 50 years. He says high blood pressure
is far from the only thing an Atlas misalignment causes.
"On the other hand, if people have high blood pressure, there is a tremendous possibility they need an Atlas adjustment," he says.
