Author Archives: The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor

Categories Chronic Fatigue

An Ideal Treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also known as systemic exertion intolerance disease (SEID) or myalgic encephalomyelitis (MC), is a complicated medical condition with no known cause. This syndrome arises when you experience fatigue and a drop in activity levels for at least six months that cannot be relieved by sleep or rest. Chronic fatigue syndrome is not a result of strenuous exertion and will significantly lessen your body’s ability to normally function.

Those who have chronic fatigue syndrome may also fit the description of those with fibromyalgia syndrome and vice versa. Because of this, there is often confusion between these conditions especially when there is no known specific cause or test to help the diagnosis. In order to diagnose a person with either chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia syndrome, they mostly look at their symptoms. Both conditions include symptoms of fatigue, trouble or unrefreshing sleep, cognitive impairment, dizziness, chronic widespread pain, and impaired coordination.

The difference between these two conditions are their primary symptoms: the primary symptom of chronic fatigue syndrome is fatigue while the primary symptom of fibromyalgia is pain. In addition, chronic fatigue syndrome is more likely linked to flu-like symptoms.

Symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Each person with chronic fatigue syndrome will have their own unique combination of symptoms they will experience. Apart from this, the intensity of their symptoms can vary. To determine if a patient has chronic fatigue syndrome, they must be experiencing fatigue, post-exertional malaise, sleep problems, and either cognitive impairment (brain fog) or have their symptoms feel worse in an upright position (orthostatic intolerance). 

Listed below are common symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome:

  • Pain in muscles and joints 
  • Headaches
  • Sensitivities and intolerance to heat, cold, light, noise, or alcohol
  • Flu-like symptoms such as a low-grade fever, sore throat, or swollen lymph glands
  • Anxiety or irregular heartbeat

Those who have chronic fatigue syndrome may also experience overlapping conditions, such as:

  • Irritable bowel syndrome
  • Premenstrual syndrome
  • Endometriosis (when tissue that lines the inside of your uterus grows outside of the uterus)
  • Depression
  • Tinnitus (ringing in the ears)

Causes of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

While there is no known direct cause of chronic fatigue syndrome, experts believe it may be caused by genetic mutations with exposure to specific viruses or toxins. A handful of the following pathogens are believed to have a role in causing chronic fatigue syndrome: HHV-6, Lyme disease, enterovirus, and Epstein-Barr virus.

Those who have chronic fatigue syndrome are seen to have irregularities in their immune system: some have a chronically active immune system while others have abnormally active or low-functioning immune system cells. In addition, a disruption or dysregulation of the sympathetic nervous system and the hormones in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may be involved. The HPA axis regulates your sleep and controls your response to stress. In addition, the HPA axis plays a role in mood disorders, including depression.

A Safe, All-Natural Treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

While the main cause of chronic fatigue syndrome is unknown, the nervous system plays a great part in how the body fights against disease and when the nervous system is disrupted it grows weaker and the body will lose its ability to fight and heal itself normally. The most common treatments are meant to help the individual relieve their symptoms, not actually fight against the condition. The most common treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome are supplements, over-the-counter drugs, prescriptions, and therapies. 

For those not only seeking relief but wanting to help the body heal and fight against chronic fatigue syndrome, upper cervical could be a great option. Upper cervical is unlike general chiropractic; upper cervical doctors focus on the top two bones of the spine located just under the skull, the atlas and the axis, and these bones surround your brain stem. Your brain stem controls fundamental body functions including breathing, blood pressure, swallowing, heartbeat, and eye movements. When a misalignment occurs in the upper cervical area, your brain stem suffers and in return causes many negative changes throughout your body. 

Since a misalignment of the top two bones compresses your brain stem, your brain to body communication will be misinterpreted, causing pain throughout the body, impaired balance, headaches, sleepiness, low energy levels, and more. With an interference in brain to body communication, your body will have a more difficult time fighting against conditions and diseases as it is no longer getting proper signals to activate the body’s natural ability to repair and heal. Without proper communication, the body will be unable to fight against the symptoms and get down to correcting the cause of them.

an interference in brain to body communication, your body will have a more difficult time fighting against conditions and diseases as it is no longer getting proper signals to activate the body’s natural ability to repair and heal. Without proper communication, the body will be unable to fight against the symptoms and get down to correcting the cause of them. Patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome have experienced great results from upper cervical care including more regulated energy levels, reduction in pain and headaches, and an increase in mental health.

Upper cervical doctors look to find the root cause of the chronic condition in order to nullify it and give you your health back. In order to successfully combat chronic fatigue syndrome, your body needs to regain its proper functions, which is why many patients with chronic fatigue syndrome have seen great results from upper cervical care. In upper cervical care there is no “popping” or “cracking” involved but very precise and gentle movements to realign your upper cervical spine so you can get back to living your life with a healthy, pain free body.

Categories Headaches

Natural Treatment for Cluster Headaches

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

Cluster headaches occur in cyclical patterns or clusters and are one of the most painful types of headaches affecting 1 to 2 people in every 1,000. These cluster headaches are a series of very short, but extremely painful, headaches lasting anywhere from 15 to 180 minutes and occur every day for weeks or up to months at a time. This headache disorder consists of severe headaches focused on one side of the head with flushing or sweating of the face, red or teary eyes, runny or stuffy nose, or a sense of restlessness and agitation.

This headache disorder consists of severe headaches focused on one side of the head with flushing or sweating of the face, red or teary eyes, runny or stuffy nose, or a sense of restlessness and agitation. “Episodic” cluster headaches are diagnosed as such when the attack happens in periods lasting anywhere from 7 days to one year with a separation of pain-free periods lasting for one month or longer. For “chronic” cluster headaches, the attacks occur for more than one year without any remission or with a remission lasting less than a month. Out of those who experience cluster headaches, 80% have the episodic cluster headaches.

Are You Experiencing Migraine Clusters or Cluster Headaches?

Quite often, cluster headaches could be confused with migraine clusters. The differences between cluster headaches and migraine clusters are the following:

Migraine Clusters:

  • Throbbing or pulsing sensation
  • Sensitivity to light and sound
  • Nausea

Before a migraine hits, one could experience neck stiffness, constipation, change in mood, and increased thirst. Cluster headaches will usually occur in cycles of weeks or months and are extremely painful with pain located on one side of the head. Cluster headaches also do not last as long as migraines do, in which migraines can last for hours at a time (4 hours) while cluster headaches happen shortly in clusters (“in and out”).

When it comes to men and women, women tend to get migraines more than men while men are much likelier than women to experience cluster headaches. In addition, hormones seem to have a role in causing migraines while there is very little known about the cause of cluster headaches. Migraine sufferers also prefer to go into quiet, dark rooms, while experiencing a migraine whereas people with cluster headaches become agitated and unable to keep still.

Symptoms of Cluster Headaches

When having a cluster headache attack the pain is severe, unilateral (on one side of the head), and either orbital (near the orbit, the bone framing the eye), supraorbital (above the orbit bone), temporal (at the temple) or a combination of these areas and sometimes the pain moves towards the back of the head.

On the same side of the pain, you may have one or more of these symptoms occur:

  • Drooping eyelid (ptosis)
  • Nasal Congestion
  • Runny nose (rhinorrhea)
  • Eyelid swelling (edema)
  • Red eye (conjunctival injection)
  • Tearing (lacrimation)
  • Sweating on the face or forehead
  • Abnormally small pupil size (miosis)

Effective Treatment for Cluster Headaches?

Since the cause is unknown, most treatments for cluster headaches are only to alleviate your symptoms, such as injections, prescription medications, nasal spray with pain reliever, preventive medication (used to stop headaches before they start and to shorten the length and lessen the severity of cluster headache attacks), oxygen (breathed in through a face mask for 15 minutes), and surgery if nothing else has worked.  Most surgical procedures involve blocking your trigeminal nerve. The trigeminal nerve controls the area around the eye and is a main pathway for pain. However, if a mishap occurs with trying to block your trigeminal nerve it can cause weakness in the jaw and a loss of sensation in your head and face.

Other than surgical procedures, other treatments are used to hide your symptoms. None of the treatments above go after the direct cause, but only work to stop the pain from occurring. This is when upper cervical treatments shine the most for those who want more than pain relief. Upper cervical doctors focus on the top two vertebrae of your spine that house the brain stem. When any of these top two vertebrae are misaligned, they affect the brain stem’s functions which can send you mixed signals all throughout your body. Upper cervical adjustments exist to correct the atlas and the axis (the top two vertebrae) to ensure your brain stem is functioning normally.

In any case your upper cervical bones are aligned, your brain stem is greatly affected and can end up doing the following: disrupt brain to body communication, affect breathing, change blood pressure, raise heart rate, send painful signals when there is no pain, disturb digestion, and more automatic body functions. These changes can create many different kinds of chronic pain and conditions, including cluster headaches and migraines.  When the brain stem is compressed, which happens when a misalignment occurs, the change in blood circulation can create headaches while other pinched nerves inside of the brain stem trigger pain. Many patients with headache clusters find relief after adjustments correct their upper cervical area, releasing pressure off their brain stem and allowing their body to function and send signals normally.

By allowing your brain stem to function as it should, your body regains the ability to heal itself naturally and do its best to get everything back to normal, helping you find relief and an effective way to tackle the main cause of your pain without medication or surgery. For those struggling with cluster headaches, it is highly recommended they try an all-natural treatment before medication or surgery as both can have negative and threatening side effects.

Categories TMJ Dysfunction

TMJ Treatment

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

I’d like to talk to you a little bit today about TMJ, temporal mandibular joint, more specifically temporal mandibular joint dysfunction, or syndrome. Basically, it’s just excruciating jaw pain. Sometimes the jaw will actually get a little bit locked. It can be locked, where it doesn’t open all the way. I’ve even seen it where it won’t close all the way. And it drives you crazy. Actually, I had the same problem when I was younger. Mine would pop constantly every time I would chew. Everybody at the table would be looking at me because I’d go pop, pop, pop. And then, I would have just like somebody stabbed me in the face sometimes. The severe, severe pain within the joint.

The thing that drove me absolutely crazy is I’d go through these stages where I couldn’t open it all the way. I’d be like … trying to get the stupid thing to open. Well, I actually went to an upper cervical chiropractor and after he started to adjust me, within a few weeks I started to realize that my jaw didn’t pop anymore. As time went on, I realized that it never got hung up anymore. After that, it pretty much disappeared. I no longer had the pain anymore. That upper cervical doctor, I went to him, because I certainly didn’t go to him for my TMJ problem, I actually went to him for a lot of other things, sleep and energy and stuff like that, that totally changed. Anyway, I started asking him could this thing in my neck have anything to do with my jaw? He started to explain to me that yeah, this jaw is a free hanging bone.

This bone, basically you could take the jawbone off of your face. It’s only connected right here with these ligaments that connect to the jaw joint. It’s like a ball and socket joint on both sides. Both sides, it has these balls that fit up inside this little socket. That allows it to pivot and move so you can open, close, move your jaw. What happens is the ligaments that support this area, they hold the ball up into the socket and allow it to move in a normal fashion.

But, if the nerves that go to the ligaments aren’t a 100%, if somehow those nerve messages that keep those ligaments tight get interfered with, then the ligaments start to get a little lax. When that happens, the ball starts to shift inside the joint because the ligaments aren’t holding it tightly, so it’ll start to shift.

As it shifts, now it starts to wear abnormally. It gets out of the socket, and it can, for one, get hung up like mine used to do, where it won’t open all the way because the ball’s not in the socket anymore. And it can actually start to shift from side to side. It can tire out the muscles that are supposed to hold the jaw together and cause you to chew. If it gets a little shifted, drops on one side, now it kind of works abnormally and can start to fatigue, can start to get sore, painful, inflamed.

It can hit the nerves that come down through the jaw. Why would those ligaments get loose or lax? The nerves that supply this joint come directly out of the upper part of the neck and straight to that joint. Come off the brain stem, which are down in the top two bones of the neck. If one of the bones in the upper part of the neck is just a little bit misaligned, maybe you don’t have any neck pain because there’s no pain perception there, so you wouldn’t feel the actual bone out of line putting pressure, but it could still interfere with those nerves that go to that jaw joint, which could cause one side or both sides to get lax.

It could cause the jaw to shift, to work abnormally in the joint so that it wears out the joint, so that it could wear out the little disc that’s between there, so that it could get stuck. It could create all the symptoms that often are associated with temporal mandibular joint dysfunction. When I started getting this upper part corrected, what happened was it took the pressure off of the nerves that went to the joint or that controlled those ligaments.

When the pressure came off the nerves, the ligaments started to draw back up, started to tighten back up again and pull that bone back into that joint, so now I had normal temporal mandibular joint function. My jaw opened like it’s supposed to. Everything in that area was tight again, like it’s supposed to be. That’s how a misalignment in the upper neck can create temporal mandibular joint problems, and that’s also how, if the bone gets out of align, and we can correct it, temporal mandibular joint syndrome problems can actually heal. They can actually get better.

We all know that taking medications might mask the problem temporarily, but it’s not going to fix anything because you don’t have a drug deficiency that causes this. There’s something going on in your body. We need to figure out what that is, correct what’s going on in your body, rather than trying to mask it from something outside in so that your body can actually heal naturally.

No side effects, just getting your body back on track the way it’s designed to with those bolt jaw joints in there, nice, firm, tight, so you got that nice smooth jaw movement. If you have temporal mandibular joint problems, TMJ, or you have a family member that does, let’s find them an upper cervical doctor to help balance this back out to get this joint healthy again so it works the way it was designed to work, and get rid of the pain that goes along with it. Google upper cervical chiropractor in your area. Try to find a doctor closest to you.

Categories High Blood Pressure

High Blood Pressure and Chiropractic Treatments

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

Over the last 25 years, many of our patients have come to our office for a wide variety of symptoms, but not always for high blood pressure. They are very surprised when they find out that their blood pressure has come down significantly, even though they came in for other symptoms. Patients have even been able to come completely off their high blood pressure medicine. I want to explain to you a little bit about upper cervical and how it relates to high blood pressure.

People ask us all the time, “How in the heck can a bone out of line at the top of my neck cause blood pressure problems?” To answer that question, we do know this: all of the blood flow that goes to the brain obviously comes up through the neck. Specifically, there is the vertebral artery. When the brain calls for more blood, the heart is forced to beat a little harder, to push up against gravity, and up through those blood vessels to get to the brain.

As long as there’s no interference and as long as those blood vessels are not restricted, then the brain gets full blood supply without a problem. But if one of the bones up here at the top of the neck gets a little out of place, then it could very easily squeeze down or close down on the blood vessels and the artery that supplies blood to the brain. all the time, “How in the heck can a bone out of line at the top of my neck cause blood pressure problems?” To answer that question, we do know this: all of the blood flow that goes to the brain obviously comes up through the neck. Specifically, there is the vertebral artery. When the brain calls for more blood, the heart is forced to beat a little harder, to push up against gravity, and up through those blood vessels to get to the brain.

Now, the only way to get blood through a smaller opening is for the brain to force the heart to beat a little bit harder, which increases that blood pressure to push up through the smaller opening to get the blood to the brain. When these bones get out of line, they can prevent blood flow from getting to the brain, and by creating a smaller opening, the brain responds by upping your blood pressure so that it gets maximum blood flow.

There has been a lot of research on this subject. For example, here is a blood pressure pamphlet we did, and you can see there’s probably around 20 references just on the back of this one particular pamphlet. One of the few times Upper Cervical Chiropractic has actually been on national television was on Good Morning America. An upper cervical doctor and The University of Chicago Med School did a study a few years ago with a cardiologist. What they found, over a six-week period, was that the average blood pressure dropped, on average, 16 points after an upper cervical adjustment.

16 points is the equivalent of taking two medications, with both medications being valued at a billion dollars each. That’s a two-billion-dollar medication. Two billion dollars in medications relieved by six weeks of upper cervical care. That is the equivalent. Now, that was aired on television just one time and has never been heard of again since.

Why do you think that is? Obviously, if a simple upper cervical chiropractic adjustment could take the place of two-billion-dollar drugs, I don’t really think the pharmaceutical industry is too eager to get that information out there. And, considering 80% of all advertising is paid for by the pharmaceutical industry, then there’s not a lot of chance you’re going to see a whole lot of that story on national media, because they don’t want to lose their 80% of revenue paid for by the pharmaceutical industry. 

I’m trying to share with you now that research proved 16 degree drops in blood pressure, just from very simply correcting the position of the bones in the upper part of the neck allowing proper blood flow to the brain. Thus, there’s no need to have the increase in blood pressure because you have normal flow of blood to the brain. The brain tells the body, “Slow back down. We don’t need that heavy blood pressure any longer because we have full blood flow.” Natural blood flow with no interference.

It’s really that simple. Now, why have very few people ever heard of this before? Again, I just told you: a simple upper cervical chiropractic adjustment could take the place of two-billion-dollar drugs, so there’s not a lot of pharmaceutical companies out there advertising that. Therefore, not a lot of media is allowed to promote it.

If you have high blood pressure, that’s a direct side effect, and your body can actually heal itself. But I promise you, if you have high blood pressure, there’s probably something going on in your neck. There are probably other things happening within your body, including some structural compensations that have resulted from this bone being out of line. You may be experiencing neck, upper, and/or lower back pain. I do not know unless an initial consultation is set up, which is followed by X-rays and an examination. 

Categories Tinnitus

Ringing in the Ear (Tinnitus) and What to do About it

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

Tinnitus is a ringing in the ear, or a buzzing, and is a common issue that affects about 1 in 5 people. Note that tinnitus can be both ear ringing and clogged feeling in the ear. Tinnitus is not a condition, but rather a symptom of an underlying condition. To understand what these underlying conditions are and the ear ringing meaning, we need to pay attention to what causes severe ear ringing and how to stop it.

What Causes Severe Ear Ringing?

When it comes to tinnitus, there are a few things that can cause this ringing in the ear. Some of the answers behind the tinnitus ear ringing meaning include the following: 

  • Inner Ear Cell Damage – There are many tiny, delicate hairs in your inner ear that will move in relation to the pressure of sound waves. When this happens, ear cells release an electrical signal through the auditory nerve (located in your ear) to your brain. Your brain takes these signals and interprets them as sounds. If your hairs inside of the inner ear are damaged, it will cause them to “leak” random electrical signals to your brain, causing the ringing in ears.
  • Exposure to Loud Noise – When you are exposed to too much loud noise, it can lead to tinnitus and noise-related hearing loss. Music devices, like an MP3 player or an iPod, can cause noise-related hearing loss if they are played loudly for long periods of time. If you experience ear ringing and clogged feeling in your ear caused by experiencing loud noises for a short amount of time, such as attending a loud concert, this will usually go away; however, long-term exposure of loud noise can cause permanent damage to your ears. 
  • Earwax Blockage – Earwax helps protect your ear canals by trapping dirt and slowing growth of bacteria. Having too much earwax, however, will make it difficult for earwax to wash away naturally. This buildup of earwax can cause hearing loss or irritate your eardrums which may lead to tinnitus.
  • Age-Related Hearing Loss – It is very common for people’s hearing to get worse with age, usually around the age of 60. This type of hearing loss is called presbycusis and is a common cause of tinnitus.

Other causes of tinnitus that are not as common as above include the following:

  • Acoustic Neuroma – Acoustic neuroma, a condition also known as vestibular schwannoma, is a noncancerous tumor developed on the cranial nerve running from the brain to the inner ear. This condition normally causes tinnitus in only one ear.
  • TMJ Disorders – Those who have TMJ disorders may end up having tinnitus. The temporomandibular joint, located on both sides of the head in front of the ears, can cause tinnitus.
  • Meniere’s Disease – Meniere’s disease is an inner ear disorder that could be caused by abnormal fluid pressure in the inner ear. Tinnitus can actually be an early sign of having this disease.
  • Head Injuries and Neck Injuries – Any head or neck trauma could affect your inner ear, your hearing nerves or even brain function linked to your hearing. These injuries can cause tinnitus to appear in one ear.

Is There a Tinnitus Cure?

Tinnitus is a symptom – not a condition, so it is important to treat it as a symptom. What this means, is to not focus solely on the ear, but focus on the underlying cause: Age related hearing loss is a result of the degeneration of sensory cells, Meniere’s disease is from an abnormal fluid buildup and, of course, permanent damage to your ears could be from too much exposure from loud noise. Now that we look at the underlying causes, to cure tinnitus we need to correct what is causing it in the first place. If these problems can be corrected, there is a tinnitus ear ringing cure. Surgeries that are made to get rid of tinnitus are not always correcting these causes, only the symptom (tinnitus). Keep in mind if you get rid of just the symptom, the issue is still there getting worse over time.

Natural Tinnitus Treatment

Before jumping into surgery, it is best to see if your body can fight tinnitus naturally and safely. Using upper cervical treatment as a safe tinnitus ear ringing cure has shown great success and has for various reasons: Upper cervical adjustments correct your body’s communication to help cell growth which aid in healing your damaged ears from loud noises and helping you maintain sensory cells, improve your bodily functions such as correcting excessive buildup, and improves blood flow which has also been linked with Meniere’s disease. 

In a case study involving 139 patients who were medically diagnosed with Meniere’s disease, 97% of these patients have seen a significant improvement in their symptoms after an upper cervical chiropractic treatment. In addition, chiropractors are aware of the correlation between upper cervical spine dysfunction and neuro-otological symptoms, including tinnitus and sudden hearing loss. (Michael T. BurconBPh)

When it comes to loud noises, damage to the eardrum commonly occurs after but can usually heal itself. After a loud noise, symptoms of tinnitus (ringing in the ear) will often go away within 16 to 48 hours or a week or two if the noises were extreme. These noises can damage cells and membranes in the cochlea and if loud noises are listened to for a long time, they can overwork hair cells in your ear and cause those cells to die. Harmful effects can continue even after the exposure to loud noises has stopped. To help your ears heal and to quicken the healing process, upper cervical adjustments are recommended as they help make sure your body functions the way it should to fight these types of disturbances by distributing proper blood flow and body communication on cell production.

The upper cervical area of the spine is in the neck region and consists of the atlas and the axis bones. When the atlas is misaligned, this can affect the structures of your ear, including the Eustachian tubes. The Eustachian tubes drain excess fluid from the ears; however, if the tube function is repressed, this can cause fluid buildup and tinnitus. This means even if the ringing in the ears is caused by a blockage the underlying problem may still be in your neck. 

Drugs cannot cure tinnitus and surgeries are not a guarantee your tinnitus will be improved. Surgical treatment includes destructive procedures, neurectomies, stapedectomies and tympanosympathectomies. In a case study of 414 patients who had surgical removal of acoustic tumors, only 40% saw an improvement in their tinnitus. 68 patients who underwent translabyrinthine eighth nerve section, 80% had tinnitus preoperatively. Improvement occurred in 45% of patients while 55% reported their tinnitus was the same or worse. As for Stapedectomy, hearing improved in most patients, but the symptom of tinnitus was improved in only about half of the patients. (House JW) Because of the risks involved in different drug side effects or surgery with no guarantee of success, it is recommended to try a more natural treatment first. Upper cervical adjustments help correct the cause of tinnitus and could be the tinnitus cure you need.

Categories Neck Pain

A Natural Alternative to Advil for Neck Pain

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

The most often used treatment for neck pain, back pain, musculo-skeletal pain in the United States is actually Advil or Ibuprofen.I want to talk to you today a little bit about an alternative to Advil for neck pain, back pain, and musculo-skeletal aches and pains. Advil is never going to fix the problem because no one has ever had, in the history of mankind, an Advil deficiency. Taking Advil for neck pain is not going to fix the neck pain, it just masks it and covers it up, so you don’t actually know that there’s a problem there, even though the problem still exists. 

A matter of fact, if you look at one of the many, many side effects of Advil, is neck pain, unexplained neck pain based off of WebMD. Taking Advil can sometimes actually create the problem you’re trying to treat. If it does anything, it’s just going temporarily cover it up, but it’s still there. 

Where does neck pain actually come from, if not an Advil deficiency? Well, we have found that, in 25 years’ experience, is if one of the bones in the upper part of the neck gets a little bit out of its normal position then it changes the position of the head, because your head sits on top of those bones. Anywhere those bones go the head pretty much has to go with them. Your brain’s designed to be level always, so if one of the bones got a little bit misaligned, and how that happens is typically some sort of a trauma, and it could have been many years ago, a slip, a fall, an accident, like a car accident, sports injuries. Anything that just takes a little bit of a jolt to the body is enough to actually move one of those bones a little bit out of position. 

Then, as the body compensates for that misalignment the muscles on one side have to stretch while the muscles on the other side contract, because your body has to stay balanced. If your body leans a little bit then that means one side’s going to pull, the other side’s going to shrink, and then overtime, with gravity pushing down, that asymmetry starts to create discomfort. One side’s working harder than the other side, so many times it’ll go down into the upper back, the trap muscles across the shoulders, because these muscles are also working hard just trying to hold that head and keep it supported. 

What we have found is if we find the misalignment in the upper part of the neck, then if we can correct that, then that balances the brain back over the body, creates that symmetry again so the body is more balanced instead of trying to get balanced, and then the muscles start to relax. As they start to relax, pain goes away. Rather than taking an Advil, a very unnatural approach, try a more natural approach, something that doesn’t put anything into the body, something that has zero side effects. There are no negative side effects from keeping your body aligned, only positive ones. Try to find an upper cervical chiropractor. 

Upper cervical doctors focus all of our attention on keeping the head over the body and keeping the body perfectly balanced. As long as there’s perfect balance within the body there’ll be perfect symmetry. As long as there’s perfect symmetry then the muscles won’t be antagonistic, fighting against each other trying to keep the body level.

Categories Vertigo

Vertigo Problems Treated

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

We have patients come to us literally from all over the world with a variety of inner ear disorders such as vertigo problems. Now, what are vertigo problems? Well, vertigo problems are a whirling or a dizzy sensation, lack of balance that stems from something going on in the inner ear. Now, most of the time they go and look at the ear and they don’t see anything wrong with the ear.  At first glance, the ear seems to be okay, yet there’s definitely something that is creating this imbalance within the brain and within your ear that just doesn’t show its head.

Now, what we have found is most of the time, I’m going say almost 100% of the time, that when there’s no damage done to the ear that it comes from something a little deeper down inside the upper part of the neck that is affecting the vestibulocochlear nerve. You have 12 cranial nerves. There are no nerves that come off the brain that go to the head, face, and neck. You have 12 cranial nerves that come down off the brain stem, go back up inside the skull, and then they innervate your eyes, your vision, your taste, your smell, your hearing, and your balance.

One of those nerves is called the vestibulocochlear nerve. It starts off as one nerve leaving the brainstem and it goes to the inner ear and it’ll branch off into a vestibular branch and a cochlear branch. The cochlear branch is your hearing, and the vestibular branch controls your balance. What we have found is there’s nothing necessarily wrong with the ear itself, but the message leaves the perfectly good ear and says, “Everything is okay.” Now it has to send that message to the brain to tell the brain everything’s okay, but somewhere between the ear and the brain the message gets altered or distorted. You get one message from one side, a different message from the other side and it causes the brain to be confused, which creates the sense of dizziness or being off-balance.

How does that happen? Well, right at the upper two bones, where that brainstem comes through there, if one of the bones gets a little bit out of position, it will literally put pressure at the spot where that nerve comes into the brainstem so that by the time it’s transmitted to the brain, it’s a different message. This alters what the brain receives, thus creating the sense of dizziness, lack of balance.

Now, there’s medications that might “temporarily” mask that sensation. From my experience, they don’t work very well. The best thing to do would obviously be to get to that ultimate cause of that dizziness and vertigo problems. Remove the cause, the dizziness should then clear up. If you have vertigo, or dizziness, try to find an upper cervical doctor to analyze the upper part of the neck, the brainstem area, where that vestibulocochlear nerve goes to the brain and see if there’s a problem there. Within just a few minutes, a good upper cervical doctor should be able to identify the problem and explain to you what needs to be done now to correct it so that the pressure comes off of that vestibulocochlear nerve, the normal message leaving the ear arrives at the brain normally, thus everything should start to level out.

Categories Meniere's Disease

Meniere’s Disease Treatment

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

We’ve had 400, 500 Meniere’s disease patients. Meniere’s is kind of a mystery to the medical profession because they look at the ear, which is where the symptoms are, right? And they don’t see a problem in the ear, so they have a really hard time trying to figure out, well why do we have all these inner ear problems? The triad which makes up Meniere’s disease, vertigo, dizziness, ringing in the ears, and a loss of or diminished hearing, right? All three of those, combined together, give you the Meniere’s disease, which is basically some guy, Dr. Meniere, had the condition actually, founded it, and put his name on it.

If there is nothing wrong with the ear, then somewhere, the message between the ear and the brains got to be getting distorted, changed, altered, so that the brain is hearing something other than what the normal ear is transmitting to it? Your ear does two things. It sends hearing signals to the brain. That’s how you hear. And then it also tells the brain where it is in space. The fluid in there, okay? The message tells the brain where it is in space. You’ve got your own leveling system to make sure the head’s always level. It’s actually the same reflex that causes seasickness. That’s why if you have Meniere’s bad enough, you have drop attacks, your dizziness gets so bad you throw up because it’s like instant seasickness, because what happens is your eyes are telling the brain one thing, and then the ear tells the brain something else. It’s the same reflex as seasickness.

Regarding seasickness, you’re looking out on a flat horizon, so the eyes are telling the brain you’re still, but then your ears feel you going up and down, sendingmessages to the brain that you’re moving. The brain gets confused. That’s what creates the dizziness, the nausea, sometimes drop attacks and vomiting.

Interestingly, the ear is perfectly normal. It sends a message,and the hearing is fine. There’s no ringing in the ears. No tinnitus. I hear everything normally. It goes to the brain, and the brain gets the normal hearing. What about balance. Balance is okay. Our head’s level. We’re standing still. The ear sends those messages to the brain, and the brain gets it and everything’s normal. But, if the message is altered, that’s when we get the symptoms of Meniere’s.

Now, how could the message be altered? Well, there’s only one place the message can be altered, so let’s start here. There are no nerves that come off the brain. Okay? The nerves that control your vision, your hearing, your taste, your smell, the muscles in the face, your eyes opening, closing. Those are all come from 12 cranial nerves that come off down here. They come off the brain stem, go back up into the skull, and then they go to the eyes, and the ears, and your taste buds, etc.

Well, there’s one nerve that’s called the vestibular cochlear nerve. Vestibular being balanced. Cochlear being hearing, that comes off the brain stem, and it goes to the ear. At the ear, it splits into two nerves, the vestibular part, and the cochlear part. If the cochlear part is hearing everything normal and sends the message to the brain, that’s your hearing. As long as the vestibular parts gets to the brain normally, that’s your balance, but there’s one place and only one place, and that’s at the very top of the neck, up here at the brainstem, where that vestibular nerve comes out and goes back up into the head to the ear. If one of these bones here gets even a little bit out of position, that can actually close down on the nerve. It can interfere with the message getting to the brain, so it alters it. 

The ear is normal. Normal function travels through the nerve, but then when it gets into the neck at the brainstem, it alters the message so that now the brain hears ringing in the ears. It hears a lack of hearing. It has an altered position which creates the vertigo, the dizziness, the nausea. 

If you have a bone out of line in your neck, it can definitely alter the sensation from one ear or both ears to the brain, and you don’t have to have neck pain. You don’t have to have headaches. There’s no pain perception at the brainstem, so you don’t even have to feel anything whatsoever and still have the symptoms of Meniere’s.

Now, medications sometimes temporarily mask it, but they typically don’t do the best job at that. I’ve had patients come in and say that they had to have streptomycin therapy. That was their last resort where they’re going to go in and totally destroy the inner ear, which would mean there would be no message is going to the brain, no hearing, no balance, which means you’d be completely death, and you would totally be dependent on your eyes to know where you are in space, so your balance will be off. 

If you have the symptoms of Meniere’s, the triad of symptoms we talked about, find an upper cervical doctor near you. 

Categories Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia Symptoms and Treatments

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

Fibromyalgia symptoms are caused by a chronic pain disorder affecting 4 million Americans ages 18 and older. Although it is more common for Americans with fibromyalgia to be diagnosed at ages 35 to 45 years old, most of them have had fibromyalgia symptoms starting much earlier in life. Those who have fibromyalgia have widespread pain and tenderness very sensitive to touch that will come and go and move around the body. Those who have chronic (long-term) fibromyalgia often feel fatigued and undergo problems sleeping.

Because it is more common to be diagnosed at ages 35 to 45 even when you have it much earlier, it is important to recognize fibromyalgia symptoms and if you do have fibromyalgia symptoms, it is best to seek treatment right away before it worsens over time. When fibromyalgia is left untreated, the chronic pain could cause permanent changes about how your body perceives pain and worsen your fibromyalgia symptoms. 

The most common fibromyalgia symptoms include the following:

  • Pain and tender points – This fibromyalgia symptom is usually what causes sufferers to see their doctor. The pain is almost like tendinitis, osteoarthritis, and bursitis. The only difference is those with fibromyalgia ache all over the body.
  • Problems with peeing – Problems with peeing include the feeling of having to go a lot or having a leaky bladder. Urination can also hurt or be uncomfortable.
  • Irritable bowel syndrome – Those who have this fibromyalgia symptom will often experience belly pain, bloating, gas, constipation, diarrhea, or feel like throwing up.
  • Fatigue – When experiencing fatigue, simple tasks become very exhausting. Those who experience this fibromyalgia symptom feel completely drained after folding laundry, cooking a dinner, or become too tired to exercise.
  • Sleep problems – Those who happen to fall asleep can be easily disturbed, never reaching a deep sleep. Because of this, when they wake up, they still feel tired and having sleeping problems just adds to the fatigue.
  • Morning stiffness – After getting out of bed, those who have this fibromyalgia symptom feel as if they need to “loosen up” right away before their day starts. The muscles and joints of the back, arms, and legs are affected, and the stiffness involved is compared to those who have rheumatoid arthritis. The amount of time morning stiffness can last will differ from person to person, lasting anywhere from a couple of minutes to hours, or all day long.
  • Headaches – Tension headaches and migraines are very common fibromyalgia symptoms affecting up to 2 out of 5 people. This symptom is often caused by your tight neck muscles but may be caused by the pain in your upper back or tender points as well. 
  • Mood disorders – Depression and anxiety disorders affect about 50% of those diagnosed with fibromyalgia. As other fibromyalgia symptoms, such as pain and fatigue, start affecting your life it can be hard to cope with. This leads to having trouble keeping up with daily life and making it stressful. There is also a possibility that having the fibromyalgia symptoms depression and anxiety are as much part of fibromyalgia as the pain.
  • Restless Legs Syndrome – Restless legs syndrome affects the legs below your knees and your feet, making you feel uncomfortable. This can be very bothersome, as you feel the need to keep moving your legs to rest them and if this fibromyalgia symptom is experienced at night, it could keep you from sleeping
  • Numbness and tingling in hands, arms, feet, and legs – This fibromyalgia symptom happens quite randomly and may last for a few minutes or become constant. It is also possible to have swelling in these areas and while the feelings of having this fibromyalgia symptom can be bothersome, it usually doesn’t get in the way of things.
  • Concentration or memory problems, also known as “fibro fog” – One of the most common complaints out of the fibromyalgia symptoms with some sufferers expressing fibro fog to be more of a disability than the other physical symptoms. Fibro fog affects your ability to think, leading to confusion, memory difficulty, and losing concentration.
  • Painful menstrual cramps – These cramps can be unusually painful for women with fibromyalgia and women may have this symptom for years along with other existing fibromyalgia symptoms.

A Natural Treatment for Fibromyalgia?

If you or a loved one is experiencing one or a few of these fibromyalgia symptoms, it is best to seek help right away for a higher chance of overcoming fibromyalgia. Those who are diagnosed with this chronic pain disorder are often under treatments that help them manage their fibromyalgia symptoms rather than healing or keeping their fibromyalgia from getting worse. In order for your body to succeed in its battle against fibromyalgia, it needs to be corrected from the inside.

Upper cervical chiropractors help your body fight against these battles with chronic pain by correcting the position of the two upper bones of your spine located just under the base of the skull. When your upper cervical spine is corrected, your brain stem is no longer compressed; this opens and regulates the communication from your brain to the rest of the body to assist in its healing process.

If your brain stem is compressed, the communication is disrupted leading to mixed signals of pain when there is no pain which could lead to fibromyalgia.

Upper cervical care has been a very successful treatment for many fibromyalgia patients. If you feel you have or are diagnosed with fibromyalgia, upper cervical may be the natural and safe alternative you are looking for.

Categories Seizures

Epilepsy, Seizure Disorders and Its Relationship to the Spine, Specifically the Neck and Chiropractic

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

Today, I want to discuss epilepsy, seizure disorders and its relationship to the spine, specifically the neck and chiropractic. I’m an upper cervical chiropractor and we’ve been able to help lots of patients with a wide range of seizure disorders. Now, there’s four primary, so called, seizure titles or types of seizures. The most familiar is the grand mal seizure where people have spastic electrical shocking sensations through their whole body. They usually lose consciousness. If you’ve ever been around someone having a seizure, they want you to make sure they don’t bite their tongue and all you can do is really keep them calm until the seizure works its way out. Those can be devastating and if they last long enough can actually cause brain damage.

Then, there’s the petit mal seizure, which is when somebody just kind of zones out. They just kind of like aren’t there for a period of time. You have myoclonic seizure, which is where people have like twitching or they have certain movements in just a small segment of the body, but they’re still fully conscious, but it’s something that kind of keeps reoccurring. Then, you have drop attacks, which is where, basically, the person just all of sudden zones out, just drops and they’re out of it. Then, it’s usually only a second or two and then they wake up and they come back. 

If you look under WebMD or a classification of what is epilepsy, it’s basically a disorder in the brain of the over excitation of brain cells. It’s an electrical disorder, which they’re trying to treat. Typical treatment for seizure disorders and epilepsy are medications, which means they’re trying to use chemicals to treat an electrical disorder, which is why most epilepsy medications are not real, real successful. They often start with one medication, the body adapts to it, and then they take another medication, sometimes they pile on, I’ve had patient come in taking as many four different anti-convulsant medications. If you read the side effects, some of those medications actually can produce seizure disorders. 

What we have found is, it’s an electrical disorder, which makes sense because the entire nervous system is one big electrical circuit. What happens is, we have found that at the top of the neck, the brain stem comes out of your head, down through the top of the neck, and then it’s spinal cord the rest of the way down. It’s all electrical energy that travels from your brain to your heart, your liver, your lungs, your kidneys, your arms, your legs. It’s all electrical energy that controls every function in your body. If a misalignment gets out of align here, what it will do is it will actually create resistance in the electrical energy between the brain and the body. That resistance can actually build up in the brain. 

That electrical energy, if it can’t get through unimpeded to the body, then if it’s built up long enough, then eventually what happens is it can short circuit in the brain. That’s why we use wires to explain how the energy travels from the brain to the body. If one of the bones up here is out of align and creating pressure at the top of the neck and the brain stem area, then that electrical energy builds up to the point where it goes to a part of the brain and it short circuits, and you have this electrical energy that shoots through the body in the event of a grand mal. It can be in a different part of the brain that can cause you to kind of zone out. It could be in another part of the brain that can just cause you to just fall, right, and drop attack. 

What we have found in almost 100% of our seizure disorder epileptic patients is a bone out of align at the top of the neck that is interfering with the electrical energy from the brain to the body. As that electrical energy builds up, it can eventually get to the point to where it short circuits. We’ve had people come in having had as many as 50, 60, 70 grand mal seizure in a day, per day. I’ve had them have seizures in the waiting room, in the x-ray room, okay? But then, once they come in and if we can find the impediment, find where that electrical resistance is going and we can open it up, now, the electrical energy leaves the brain, travels to the body unimpeded, there’s no build up, there’s not resistance that creates that electrical overload that can short circuit the body, so then the body starts to function normal and the seizures start to stop. It can be totally eliminated without the use of medication. 

I can’t tell you how many, especially children, I’ve had as little as one year old having 40, 50, 60 seizures a day, on three different medications. Now, medication-free, seizure-free, living a perfectly normal life. If you know someone that takes these anti-convulsants, you know that they are mind altering, right? I mean, they have to be in order to stop what’s going on in the brain. 

If you have seizure disorders, or if you have a child, or a family member, or even a friend, please share this video with them. Please get them into an upper cervical doctor. Let’s check and see if there’s a probably at the top of their neck that’s creating their seizure problems. If so, we can change their life by removing the pressure, releasing the electrical energy as it’s supposed to be, and allow their body to function the way it’s intended, the way God designed it, and that is seizure-free. 

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