Author Archives: The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor

Categories Chiari Malformation

Chiari Malformation, Symptoms, and Causes

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

I’d like to talk to you about today is something that we’ve had people literally travel to our office from all over the world, and that’s for a condition that’s become a lot more aware lately with the advanced imaging, and that’s called a Chiari malformation.

If you searched and you found this video, or this blog, then more than likely you’re familiar with Chiari malformation, if you’re not what happens is part of the lower brain, particularly the cerebellar tonsils, the lower part of the cerebellum, will actually come down through the opening of the head down towards the cervical spine.

Now medicine’s approach to this is they see the effect, which is the brain being pushed down through the foramen magnum, the opening, so their approach is to go in and actually remove the bone around the brain, brain stem, upper part of the neck and they literally surgically will remove the bone so that the bones now do not put that pressure on the cerebellar tonsils and the lower brain. Well, what we do at the Upper Cervical Spine Center is we have found that most of the time, those people with Chiari malformation, the cause is because those upper bones are out of alignment. Now the misalignment isn’t necessarily what’s causing the pressure on the brain, brainstem, and tonsils, but that’s what’s created the whole pushing down of the brain.

Through the top two bones in the neck, around the head we have something that’s called the dura mater, and it is basically a sac that goes inside the skull, comes out and around the brain stem, goes around both the top two bones, and when those bones get misaligned, it’ll actually twist and it’s like twisting a bread bag around the brain stem, while the cerebral spinal fluid is produced in the middle of the brain. So it’s produced in the brain as your brain is producing more and more fluid it circulates down through the spinal cord, and that sac goes all the way down, well if one of those bones are misaligned and squeezing down and closing off that bread bag, the brain’s still producing cerebral spinal fluid, but it doesn’t have anywhere to go.

What happens is it literally pushes the brain down, through the lower opening of the skull, the foramen magnum, creating the visual effect we see in Chiari malformation on an MRI or CT scan, which in turn creates the pressure too which can lead to … We have such a wide range of symptoms; headaches, neck pain, dizziness, foggy headed, pain down in the extremities, so we see all kinds of crazy symptoms and it’s just because that pressure’s pushing down on the brain, pushing that brain stem deep into those top two bones, when all along the problem isn’t the brain, or the cerebellar tonsils, but the problem is actually created when these bones got misaligned some time ago, could have been a car accident, a fall, a trauma of some kind to the head, neck or back caused one of those bones to get out of align and that’s what’s creating the Chiari malformation.

So if you have Chiari malformation, somebody’s diagnosed you with it, then I would suggest go and see an Upper Cervical doctor, see if there’s an Upper Cervical misalignment here that could be creating the Chiari malformation, if so then hopefully they’ll be able to correct it and actually remove the Chiari, which in turn is going to give you your life back. I would absolutely suggest this before doing anything invasive like surgery. I’ve had some post-surgical patients that were in much worse shape after the surgery than beforehand. If you’ve been diagnosed with a Chiari, find an Upper Cervical doctor near you.

Categories Upper Cervical Care

Welcome Dr. Ray Drury to Charlotte Today

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

Female Host – If you live in chronic pain, you know how terrible it can be, and if you feel like you’ve tried just about everything to make it go away, sit up and pay attention to our next guest.

Male Host – Welcome Dr. Ray Drury with Upper Cervical Spine Center to the show. Hello, sir, and how are you doing today?

Dr. Ray Drury – Doing great. Doing great. Thank you for having me.

Female Host – Of course. Welcome to Charlotte Today. It’s great to see you. Let’s start by talking about chronic pain. Unfortunately, it’s something that so many people suffer from. Where does it come from? I know that’s a general question because it’s different in each case-

Dr. Ray Drury – Right.

Female Host – … but in … but where does it come from?

Dr. Ray Drury – So, first I hope we can all agree that pain doesn’t come from a lack of pills, okay. So, for example, somebody has headaches. It doesn’t come from a Tylenol deficiency. So, taking something like Tylenol is never going to fix the problem. It just kind of temporarily masks it. So, you don’t know it’s there, but it’s still there.

Dr. Ray Drury – So, where does pain come from? So, pain’s your body’s like alarm system or its cry for help. For example, if you put your hand on a hot stove, right? Real quickly, your body hollers at you like hey, dummy. Move your hand. Okay. So, pain is actually your body’s way of trying to say hey, something’s not right. Something needs to be addressed. Covering it up, masking it, rather than correcting the cause doesn’t really make a whole of sense.

Female Host – Right.

Male Host – So, you find out what is the root cause, where it’s coming from, and then you find out how to go ahead and take care of it. Can you explain about that?

Dr. Ray Drury – Okay, yeah. So, for example, if you have migraines or headaches, neck, back pain, even nerve pain, right, that goes down the arm, down the leg-

Male Host – Sure.

Dr. Ray Drury – Um, there’s something amiss, some internal stress within the body that’s creating those symptoms. So, what we do is we want to try to find out uh where is that stress coming from? What’s creating that stress? If we can remove that stress on the body, then it quits hollering at us, right? Then the pain starts to subside, and your body can heal natural.

Female Host – I had a friend, um, who used to come see you. She would drive from Ashville to come in and visit you, and I thought, boy, that’s a long way to drive. Then I find out you have patients literally from all over the world. Patients who are coming from Mexico, Canada. Why do you think that people are traveling such a distance to come see you? What makes you different, your practice different, your office different?

Dr. Ray Drury – Okay, so, at the Upper Cervical Spine Center, we focus primarily on the upper part of the neck. Uh, we use the latest in technology like uh infrared thermography, which helps us to narrow down exactly where the problem is. We do, uh, advanced imaging like digital x-rays, uh, to find out exactly how the bones are out of position so we know exactly how to correct them, and most recently we’ve added a uh cone beam 3D scanner which actually gives us a three dimensional image of the spine, which gives us a better idea of how to more specifically correct the problem so that it heals faster and stays put longer.

Female Host – Because a lot of the pain we’re experiencing elsewhere in our body could be something that’s happening right here.

Dr. Ray Drury – Well, so, from the top down, the whole body will compensate, and then all the nerves from your brain to your arms, legs, even your internal organs go through the top of the neck. That’s how a problem there can affect globally.

Male Host – Okay, why is it such an epidemic of people having pain? When we get older, is it something a little bit more pervasive after you get older?

Dr. Ray Drury – Yeah. So, prevention is key, right? I mean, there’s no preventative medication, right? You can’t take a drug to prevent a problem, but the more your body stays aligned, the better you can deal with gravity, stress as we grow older, and so the more fit you’ll stay, the better … the less pain you’ll have.

Female Host – Uh, you wrote a book called the Best Kept Secret in Healthcare. It’s now an Amazon bestseller. Um, there we see it right there.

Dr. Ray Drury – Right.

Female Host – Um, you must be very proud of that work (laughs).

Dr. Ray Drury – Absolutely. I was kind of surprised Dana wasn’t talking about it earlier.

Female Host – (laughs)

Male Host – (laughs)

Dr. Ray Drury – But, uh, yeah, absolutely. So, uh, actually it was a four-time bestseller, and one of the categories was alternative health, which is a huge category. So, yeah. Very proud. We’ve had a lot of people reading the book.

Female Host – I think a lot of people are tired of just like you said masking the pain with medication. They might feel better temporarily, but it’s not fixing what’s really wrong.

Dr. Ray Drury – Exactly right. That’s our whole key. If we can get the underlying problem corrected, uh, you know, we literally put ourselves out of business, right? So, people come in, they get feeling better,and don’t need us anymore. That’s our goal.

Female Host – Thank you so much. It’s great to see you.

Dr. Ray Drury – Thank you for having me again. Good to see you again.

Categories Trigeminal Neuralgia

Trigeminal Neuralgia the “Suicide Disease”

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

Trigeminal Neuralgia. Considered by experts to be the most painful condition on the face of the earth. Year after year, people are afflicted with this horrible disease. The pain is not constant pain. Not a pain with which you can become accustomed. 

The pain is never constant and will flare up from the smallest of sensations. The wind blowing, a feather across the face, eating a small bit of food, or even a soft pillowcase can cause an uproar of pain that the rest of us can only imagine. What are the options for these people? The typical route is painkillers, but even the strongest of these cannot cover that amount of pain. Another route is to snip the trigeminal nerve. 

The signals of pain travel along this nerve and when snipped the pain will stop. Although many times, all sensation in the face is taken away as well. In addition, this technique only lasts for a few months as the nerve regenerates and begins the same process again. Finally, microvascular decompression surgery can be performed but finding a practitioner is problematic and there is a chance of death and permanent paralysis.

This is how Trigeminal Neuralgia got the name the “Suicide Disease.” Because when these people seek help from the sources they are used to asking, they are told that there is no fix. There is no reliable help. “Just live with it.” 

The trigeminal neuralgia nerve is what carries the pain. It carries it from the brainstem. Is the brainstem the culprit or is something happening to the brainstem? MRI studies have shown that pressure from vertebral subluxation, or misalignment in the upper cervical spine, is being put on the part of the brainstem that the nerve comes from. An artery that has been displaced is usually what puts on this pressure. Much of the time, the top bone of the spine can slip out of alignment from some sort of trauma. 

It begins to cause this problem, moving blood vessels and sometimes displacing them onto the brainstem itself. When this is the cause, only an exact upper cervical chiropractic adjustment to the top bone in the spine can remove that pressure. Once the pressure is reduced, the cause of the disease is also removed. The only way to cure a disease for good is by taking care of the cause. Upper cervical specific chiropractic gives hope for these suffering folks, who have no other answers or solutions. 

If you, or a loved one, are battling this awful condition please seek out an upper cervical chiropractor that can address the cause. It can make all the difference in their life and yours.

Categories Meniere's Disease

Meniere’s Recovery With Upper Cervical Treatment

Author The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Posted on

Meniere’s disease causes patients to suffer from debilitating vertigo attacks that in many cases are not stopped until the patient is doped up on drugs in the hospital. Many of Meniere’s sufferers are dragged through countless medical procedures including endolymphatic shunt surgeries. While these surgeries at times can offer temporary relief, many get relief only to be followed by more attacks. Medical science admits they do NOT know what causes Meniere’s and, furthermore, have few treatments that give long-lasting relief or cure. Don’t take our word for it. Listen to what patients are saying about the relief they have found from Upper Cervical Care here in Los Angeles with theirs.

In our office, we have seen well over 100 Meniere cases. We find that the vertigo attacks, ear fullness, hearing loss, and cognitive fog respond quite well. This can be explained by neurological pathways that affect the muscles of the Eustachian tube and pathways that control the vestibular apparatus. Research has shown that whiplash-type traumas can cause damage to the joint surfaces of the upper cervical spine that then cause abnormal signals to the vestibular nucleus and cerebellum, which are responsible for the balance. Upper Cervical Doctors are trained to correct spinal misalignments in the upper neck region, which then allows the joints, brainstem, and associated spinal nerves to function normally. This results in healing and in most cases remittance of Meniere’s type symptoms. We hope that this blog has been helpful and finds its way to those who are looking for a solution to their health challenges.

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