The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor, Author at The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor

Sciatica: a word you have probably heard before. If you have low back pain, you have definitely heard of this word because sciatica is the result of chronic low back pain.

Today, I want to talk to you about sciatica because millions of people in America deal with this annoying condition.

What is sciatica? Sciatica is pain that stems from the low back. This pain can go into the buttocks, down to the knee, or even down to the foot. The pain can feel like a sharp sensation or a burning sensation. It can cause numbness and tingling all the way down to the foot. It can even cause sensory issues, meaning if the sciatica is affecting a region of skin, like the thigh, for example, that person would not be able to feel something touching their thigh.

The sciatic nerve, which is where sciatica comes from, is the largest nerve in our body. It is so large that it has its own arterial supply or its own blood supply. The sciatic nerve starts all the way up at the fourth lumbar vertebra. It has multiple branches that come through what is called the sacral plexus and eventually turns into the sciatic nerve, which goes all the way down to your toes. The sciatic nerve supplies your hamstrings and every single muscle in the foot and in the leg. It also supplies the skin to the leg.

What causes sciatica, or pressure on the sciatic nerve? Well, there are two reasons for this: One is the piriformis muscle. The sciatic nerve comes right under, over, or sometimes even through the piriformis muscle. If we have a tight or inflamed piriformis, it can put pressure on the sciatic nerve, causing sciatica.

Two is that, structurally, when your spine starts to present scoliosis or an abnormal curve in it, it can put pressure on the nerve roots of L4 and L5, causing sciatica.

People say, “Dr. Shaw, how can you help with sciatica? How can you help with the low back, or all the way down to the leg, when all you do is adjust the top bone in the neck?” Actually, it is very simple. By adjusting the top bone in the neck, we are getting to the cause of sciatica. A tight or inflamed piriformis, and/or an abnormal curvature in the lumbar spine, is all due to misalignment at the top of the neck.

How does this work? The top of the neck is your body’s balance center. When the top bone in your neck misaligns, it makes the brain unlevel. However, the brain must always be level due to something called the righting reflex. When the top bone in the neck misaligns from some type of trauma (car accident, slip, and fall, sports injury, chronic desk work, etc.), it causes the head to tilt, making the brain unlevel, causing the righting reflex to kick in. Since the body cannot remove this misalignment itself, it compensates to level the brain. Over time, this looks like a dropped shoulder, raised hip, and/or short leg.

Over time, these compensations from the misalignment at the top of the neck turn into weak spots. These weak spots can look like an abnormal curvature in the lumbar spine, putting pressure on the sciatic nerve. A hip can be a weak spot, causing a tight or inflamed piriformis. This is exactly why sciatica happens and why, when we see patients with low back pain and sciatica, we get them the relief they need – because we address the cause and not the effects.

Sleep Problems

Insomnia treatments

The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Feb 14, 2021

Did you know that 60 million Americans suffer from sleep problems or insomnia?! Hi, my name is Dr. Zach Shaw with the Upper Cervical Spine Center, and many of our patients come to us for a variety of different reasons, but almost always have sleeping issues as well. Sleeping problems are usually labeled under “ insomnia.” Insomnia causes a person to lay in bed and he or she cannot fall asleep, or they wake up multiple times throughout the night, or they wake up and they just can’t fall back asleep.

This becomes a problem because when we see people not get enough sleep, not only do they not function properly like they should, but they do not heal either. When you are in a deep sleep for a long period of time, your brain goes through certain wavelengths that allow your body to heal. When you do not sleep, the body cannot fully heal from whatever injury you may have or stress you are dealing with. Whatever it may be, if the body cannot heal or function as it should, not only do you not feel good, but you set yourself up for chronic problems in the future.

It is imperative that you get enough sleep. An awesome way to do that is to make sure you have a clear nervous system. How does an upper cervical doctor, like me, help patients get better sleep? It all has to do with the brainstem. The brainstem is surrounded by the top two bones in the neck, and that is why when we adjust one of those bones, taking pressure off the brainstem, we see people sleep better.

The brainstem houses something called the “reticular formation.” It is in the heart of the brainstem and helps us regulate sleep. A study done in 1949, showed that when the reticular formation in cats was destroyed, the cats would fall into a deep coma and never come out of it. This is because the reticular formation was not there to control the cats waking up. The reticular formation was then coined the “wakefulness center.” It allows us to be alert, but it also allows us to sleep.

Part of the study also stimulated animals’ reticular formation in their brainstem. What they found was when an animal was asleep, they immediately became alert when they stimulated their reticular formations. This proves that the brainstem, particularly the reticular formation, is the key to sleep. Therefore, when we remove pressure on the brainstem with a nice, simple adjustment, we allow the reticular formation to fire up and start working more efficiently. This allows our patients to sleep better, go to sleep easier, and not wake up as often throughout the night; all due to pressure being off the brainstem.

Neck Pain

Neck Pain Can Be Related to Headaches and Brain Fog

The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Feb 7, 2021

In modern times, people have mutated their lifestyle. Everyone is engaged with their technological gadgets. By the continuous use of mobile phones and laptops often you feel the heavy head in the effect of neck pain and ultimately it becomes a root cause of brain fog.

In this debate the key concern is your bad POSTURE like you are sitting with a laptop a little lower, your neck is bent, and you are constantly working and you using a mobile phone with your neck bent. These postures can cause neck pain radiating to the head and triggering a headache along with brain fog.

The headache due to neck pain is called a cervicogenic headache and it is different from migraine. Cervical spine misalignment in the neck region can disrupt the function of the nervous system – transmission- and this condition leads to brain fog, and you feel faint and confused.

What is a cervicogenic headache?

Cervicogenic headache is a secondary type of headache – secondary headaches are the symptom of another condition. Cervicogenic headache has a prevalence of 0.17- 4% and as the name suggests it is a headache caused by a disorder involving the cervical spine and its spinal disc and it is usually, but not invariably, go with neck pain.

At least two of the following criteria have to apply while qualifying it as a cervicogenic headache

Headache developed after the onset of the cervical disorder
Headache ameliorates in parallel with improvement of the cervical disorder.
Reduced cervical movement-based pain, suddenly worsened by provocative testing.
Headache vanishes after a diagnostic blockade of the cervical structure or its nerve supply.

What is brain fog?

Brain fog is not a medical term or a medical condition. It is a commonly used term to describe symptoms like memory lapses, lapses in concentration, forgetfulness, short-term memory issues, and thinking difficulty thus prevent people from doing multi-tasking.

These days, many people suffer from conditions related to brain fog. It is normal if these symptoms happen to you once in a blue moon but if you go through them very frequently and causing disruption in your daily life then you need to consult a professional immediately.

The relation between neck pain and headache:

When you talk about neck pain and headache happening due to that pain, that headache would be termed as cervicogenic headache, and it is a very frequently used term and often people suffer from this.

The symptoms of cervicogenic headache are down below:

It is generally mild to moderate
This headache is often unilateral- meaning on one side of the head.
It can usually start from the neck before traveling up and over into the head.
The pain will mostly be focused around the neck first.
There should also be a reduced range of motion of the neck – you may not be able to turn your head from side to side through its full range of motion.
People with cervicogenic headaches commonly experience nausea and vomiting.
Other symptoms include dizziness, tinnitus, difficulty in concentration, and also depression.

The causes of cervicogenic headache are many and you will see one by one down here:

Usually, people may have an injury or dysfunction at the neck, it could be having a fall or car accident, or any kind of whiplash injuries can cause pain to be referred from the neck and into the head
Most of the time cervicogenic headache sufferers have never experienced any trauma like this to the neck and in these cases, it is usually and more likely that the strain from adopting poor postures is the key contributor. For example, prolonged periods with your neck forwards like sitting in the chair using a computer having a poor posture will put excessive strain and stress on structures in your neck.
The neck can also be incidentally strained from occupations such as looking up at the ceiling like a painter or looking at a computer or you may even have a hunched posture, rounded shoulders, and your head is always poked forwards
Atlanta occipital joint which is the skull plus the first vertebrae in the neck, the Atlanta axial joint which is the first and second bone in the neck as well as C23 which is the second and third bone in the neck are the joints often responsible for cervicogenic headache.

The relation between neck pain and brain fog:

Cervical spine instability disturbs the blood flow to the brain and ultimately affects the nervous system while communicating. You feel the heavy head and fail to concentrate on the things. Dizziness is a common symptom of brain fog.

Causes of brain fog concerning neck pain are the following:

Muscle strain: if you suffer an injury that causes stress in the neck muscles that will resultantly cause brain fog along with a heavy head. Sometimes while lifting something heavy, there might happen misalignment in your spines that will cause you dizziness and brain fog.
Whiplash: it is a condition the disrupts the range of motion of your neck and you feel pain while moving your neck. The whiplash causes stiffness in the neck and thus makes you feel foggy and dizzy.

CONCLUSION

You can witness here that how one thing affects the functioning of other body parts. And I would say that is definitely due to our mutated lifestyle that is technology oriented. I would suggest that whenever you find spare time go for a walk for a few minutes for a stable body posture because that will serve you in the longer run.

Whenever our nervous system is affected, it will disturb the other aspects of the body and your nervous system is based on your spinal cord for communication. Whenever there is a problem in the upper cervical it causes headache and brain fog along with a heavy head the entire day. Just try to reconsider your lifestyle and an exercise or at least a few minutes’ walk will protect you from any such instability.

REFERENCES

How Common is Neck Pain Among Migraine Sufferers? (https://cureheadaches.org/2020/01/25/the-link-between-neck-pain-and-migraines/)

Neck Pain (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/neck-pain/symptoms-causes/syc-20375581)

Headache and Facial Pain (https://www.neurology.columbia.edu/patient-care/specialties/headache-and-facial-pain)

Caught in the thickness of brain fog (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2013.00063/full)

Asthma

Don’t Mask But Treat Your Asthma Today

The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Jan 30, 2021

Asthma is a very widespread condition across the US. It’s actually pretty widespread across many different age groups as well, such as into early childhood, all the way into late adulthood. What happens in asthma is the airways actually become constricted and they can also become inflamed, as well as produce a lot of extra mucous. So obviously you could think that that would be causing a lot of different breathing problems, especially during certain times where there are triggers that could cause this to get worse, such as stress, exercise, pollutants in the air, smoke, even cold air can cause this to even get worse and cause different asthma attacks.

When you think of asthma, it does bring up the question of what controls these airways to constrict and dilate like that? What controls the lungs and how the airways that fill up the lungs constrict and dilate is actually the nervous system. Actually, even more specifically in the nervous system are the respiratory centers within the nervous system, and the respiratory centers are actually located in the brainstem. The brainstem is actually protected by the top two bones in the neck, which we have right here, the atlas and the axis. What happens is there can actually be a subluxation there or a misalignment that is causing pressure at the brainstem affecting those respiratory centers, which are trying to send communication and messages to the airways of the lungs to properly dilate and constrict when they’re supposed to. So that you can be able to adapt to many different situations and those stressors that we talked about earlier.

Using the medical route, a lot of times, patients who have asthma and who are struggling with asthma and breathing problems are going to be given some medications as well as the most common which is an inhaler. What these do is temporarily stimulate the airways so that they can dilate. But what happens is when these areas are constricted like that, inflamed with the extra mucus and different things like that and a patient has an event where there’s extra stress to the system or the dilation of the airways isn’t taking place, that’s when the patient uses the inhaler in an event where they temporarily need some relief or pressure taken off of the airway so they can breathe again.

Well, in the upper cervical world, we have actually found that pressure here at the brainstem causes interference to the nervous system and the messages that go to these airways so that they can properly dilate and constrict the way they’re supposed to and so that they can adapt and function and heal the way that they were designed to do. There is hope other than just medications and inhalers and different things like that and we have seen amazing results within the upper cervical world through chiropractic care. When we actually just remove the interference from the respiratory centers right here at the brainstem, removing that interference so that the brain can communicate properly with the lungs so that they can adapt, function, and heal the way that they’re supposed to.

Fibromyalgia

What Exactly is Fibromyalgia?

The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Jan 28, 2021

What is fibromyalgia? If you break the word down, “fibro” meaning fiber, “myo” meaning muscle, and “algia” meaning pain, you get when you put all those together, muscle fiber pain. This is actually a pretty misunderstood, confusing condition because it can manifest in so many different ways throughout so many different people. Four million people across the United States are struggling with fibromyalgia. This can be manifested in ways of back pain, muscle type pain, upper back pain, low back pain, shoulder pain, etc. This can also extend out through extremities like the arms and the legs, any and or all of these areas could be affected by fibromyalgia. There are also other symptoms and things going on that are related to fibromyalgia, such as migraines, headaches, poor sleep, not feeling like you wake up rested, which is also huge when you have a muscular type condition because of needing to be able to recover at night and heal at night when you have things like that going on.

Also, another area of concern is anxiety and depression. The cause of fibromyalgia is up in the air, and a lot of times people deal with depression or anxiety beforehand, before being diagnosed with fibromyalgia. There are also other times when people have depression or anxiety come on after having fibromyalgia because feeling so bad for so long could definitely get somebody down and depressed after dealing with that for so long.

Another big deal with fibromyalgia, as I said, there’s not really a cause to be found or linked to fibromyalgia in the medical world, but they’re given many different medications and different treatments and things like that to try to deal with the symptoms of fibromyalgia, just to get some relief, a little bit of hope, but really all this is doing is just masking the symptom. It’s not fixing anything since they can’t find any cause, there’s not any cause to fix. Another term that is related to fibromyalgia is called abnormal pain processing perception, a term that means the body is not able to figure out how to process pain, fatigue, or muscle breakdown.

What we have found at Upper Cervical Chiropractic is a lot of these fibromyalgia patients end up having something in common, and that is being a trauma. Now, this could be any kind of trauma ranging from a car accident, a slip and fall, a bump on the head, a sports injury, even all the way from birth or birth trauma. What happens is that when one of the top two bones in the neck can misalign, it can start to put pressure on the brainstem, which has every single nerve that goes from the brain to the body. So that means that every message that goes from the brain to the entire body goes through these top two bones.

Well, when the brain can’t communicate to the body and the body can’t communicate back to the brain properly because of a misalignment here, putting pressure on your nervous system, which is trying to control everything and tell everything how to function and how to heal, there can be some disconnect there. And that’s when a lot of times people are starting to have different types of aches and pains and different things like that. Because what happens structurally is, when one of the top two bones go out of alignment, it takes your head with it because your head just sits on top. It doesn’t have anywhere else to go because it doesn’t have any other choice but to just move with those two bones.

When there’s a misalignment at the top of the neck, it takes the head with it, which can also start to bring a lot of compensations and different things that happen throughout the body, like bringing a shoulder or hip up. This is due to the righting reflex, which forces the brain to always be level. If the top two bones are out of alignment, it may take your head up to the right. It’s going to do everything it can by bringing the shoulder up, bringing a hip up, and causing all different types of weak spots throughout the rest of the spine, which can cause muscle pain and muscle fatigue.

All day, every day we are dealing with the weight of gravity. We’re always using muscles, always while we’re walking, while we’re sitting, while we’re standing, while we’re working, all those different things. If the spine is out of alignment, causing all those different types of compensations, then there can be weak spots like I said, and especially if the correct communication isn’t happening from the brain to body because of the interference at the top of the neck, then that’s when that abnormal pain perception processing can take place.

There is hope! We’ve had great success within the Upper Cervical Chiropractic world with fibromyalgia patients and cases. Just about a hundred percent of the time, once people start getting under care, allowing the brain to be able to communicate with the body the way it’s supposed to again, and the body can communicate with the brain. Then once we get our head on straight and all the compensations start to work themselves out through the rest of the spine, people see great results. There is hope!

Scoliosis

Scoliosis: It is a Problem for All Ages, From Young Teens to Our Elderly Population.

The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Jan 22, 2021

In our office, we see a lot of patients with this condition called scoliosis. Scoliosis is an abnormal curvature in the spine when looking side to side, rather than being perfectly straight. These abnormal curves cause problems because they pinch on certain nerves that go to vital organs. Scoliosis also causes abnormal muscle contractions, which can cause pain throughout the body. This is a common condition that can be very, very detrimental.

Unfortunately, the medical approach to scoliosis is not very promising. They start off with bracing, attempting to bring the spine back to normal. Rarely does this help. Eventually, scoliosis gets worse and worse, to the point where medicine recommends surgery. Surgery entails a big scar down your back and iron rods going through your spine, and, unfortunately, it does not have the best long-term results.

Why do those with scoliosis come to us? We get to the cause of their scoliosis. We locate the cause, correct the cause, and scoliosis eventually goes away. We have found that almost 100% of the time, the cause of scoliosis is a misalignment in the top of the neck. A misalignment of the top bone in the neck throws the head off-center. When that happens, the brain is not level, so the brain tells the spine to compensate in order to balance the head. What these compensations look like overtime is a dropped shoulder, a raised hip, tight hamstrings, and a short leg, with abnormal curves in the spine (scoliosis).

When we catch this in adulthood, usually the patient has shoulder pain, hip pain, knee pain, and/or foot pain. We start correcting the misaligned bone and that pain usually goes away. However, if scoliosis starts in the pre-pubescent years, or 11, 12, or 13 years old, we must remove the misalignment urgently because once the child goes through puberty, they grow very rapidly, and scoliosis gets rapidly worse. This is called childhood scoliosis. If it is not corrected at a young age, you see these people with “hunchbacks,” or with a severe antalgic lean.

Hopefully, now you realize that it is imperative to get our kids into an upper cervical doctor, so we can see if they present with scoliosis or its precursors. We can check the entire spine, see if scoliosis is starting to form, and correct the cause at the top of the neck before it gets any worse. If you are an adult with scoliosis, we can take care of you as well.

Trigeminal Neuralgia

Trigeminal Neuralgia: It Sounds Scary Because It Is Scary.

The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Jan 20, 2021

Trigeminal neuralgia: it sounds scary because it is scary. It is actually labeled the suicide disease. I am Dr. Zach Shaw with the Upper Cervical Spine Center, and many patients in our office experience trigeminal neuralgia. Unfortunately, they come to our office because our office is their last hope.

They have been everywhere – neurologists, pain doctors, all kinds of different doctors, yet no one can figure out what is causing the trigeminal neuralgia. Trigeminal neuralgia is a severe condition where the face feels like it is constantly in pain. Pain sensation ranges from pins and needles, to very sharp, stabbing pains, to burning sensations, and this can go all the way into the eye, teeth, and jaw. Frequently, it happens out of nowhere, but can sometimes be due to a specific accident. It is called the suicide disease for a reason. People literally cannot live with this condition. They cannot sleep. They cannot function. They cannot enjoy life. It is a terrible, terrible condition.

When people come to us with this condition, we feel so terrible for them, and we wish that more people (maybe you) could find an Upper Cervical doctor, so they can get the help that they need. Trigeminal neuralgia is characterized by severe facial pain. The trigeminal nerve, or the fifth cranial nerve, comes off the brainstem and innervates the face. It has three branches that separately go to your eye, cheek, and jaw. This is why patients have facial pain, whether it is on the top of their face, the bottom of the face, or possibly both. Why do patients seek out Upper Cervical care? Why do we get amazing results with trigeminal neuralgia patients? The reason is directly due to brainstem.

The nucleus of the trigeminal nerve starts at the brainstem. The brainstem is surrounded by the top two bones in your neck. When we see patients, we perform an exam and take x-rays of these bones. Almost always, we find an upper cervical misalignment or a misalignment in one of the top two bones in the neck that causes pressure on the brainstem. In their case, it’s affecting that trigeminal nerve. What we do is we locate the misalignment and correct it to take the pressure off the brainstem, thus freeing up the trigeminal nerve.

As we keep pressure off the brainstem, we see the trigeminal neuralgia go away. It is quite amazing stuff and usually, these people end up crying from happiness because they have finally gotten rid of this terrible, terrible disease called trigeminal neuralgia.

Neck Pain

A Safe Natural Treatment for Neck Spasms

The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Jan 9, 2021

Neck spasms are not only uncomfortable but very common to have due to an underlying problem. Without a neck spasm treatment, there is a possibility for your neck spasm to worsen over time with permanent damage.

Luckily, treatment does not have to be medicated with side effects or unpleasant. A natural, gentle neck spasm treatment exists that improves your body’s health at the same time.

What Causes a Neck Spasm?

Neck spasms are involuntary tightening of muscle in the neck that may occur from a variety of causes. The spasms themselves can cause you pain and discomfort.

After the affected muscle is relaxed and the spasms recede, the pain and discomfort from your neck spasm may last from a few minutes up to hours or days. Pain that occurs from a neck spasm is described as sharp and sudden, with one or multiple parts of the neck being affected.

If you suffer from a neck spasm, you may notice your neck muscles feeling tight or hard to the touch. This tightness restricts your muscles, making it difficult and painful for you to move your neck.

Some of the most common causes of a neck spasm include the following:

Emotional stress
Heavy lifting with one or both arms
Dehydration
Headaches
Exercise strain
Poor posture
Holding the neck in unnatural positions for long periods of time
Birth troubles (such as torticollis, known as stiff neck, where you were in an odd position while in the womb)
Trauma from an accident or a fall
Cervical dystonia (where the muscles of the neck involuntarily tighten – forcing the head to turn to one side)
Whiplash
Herniated disc
Temporomandibular joint disorder
Meningitis (an infection that causes swelling to occur within the brain and spinal cord)
Spinal stenosis (when open spaces of the spine begin to narrow)
Cervical spondylosis (a condition that is the degeneration of the spinal cord)
Heavyweight upon one shoulder
Overusing neck muscles
Ankylosing spondylitis (an inflammatory condition where vertebrae can fuse within the spine)

Symptoms of Neck Spasms

Neck spasm symptoms can interrupt your daily routine and make many tasks uncomfortable – especially if working in a job that requires lifting or for your neck to be held in a position for long periods of time – such as a desk job.

Driving can also become a challenge if the symptoms are painful as you turn your head to look around. If you are experiencing neck spasm symptoms, a neck spasm treatment should be considered sooner than later. Not having a neck spasm treatment could cause the following neck spasm symptoms to worsen or cause symptoms you may not have had before to begin to occur:

Headaches
Muscle knots
Stiffness
Muscle ache
Joint locks in a neck
Nerve pain that can flow to the arms or the legs
Reduced range of motion within the neck

A Natural Neck Spasm Treatment that Helps Your Body

Those who seek out a neck spasm treatment to help get rid of their neck spasm symptoms often leads them to take over the counter pain relievers and experiencing only temporary relief or having side-effects caused by the medication.

A healthier neck spasm treatment that can give permanent results lies within an all-natural neck spasm treatment that uses upper cervical adjustments.

The upper cervical spine consists of two vertebrae located beneath the base of your skull. When either of these vertebrae is knocked out of alignment, it can cause pressure and strain to that area.

Without treatment, the misaligned vertebrae can continue to weaken and cause inflammation to the surrounding area. Since your brain stem is protected by these top two vertebrae, a misaligned vertebra can press up against your brain stem and cause a disruption between the brain and body communication.

When this brain and body communication is disrupted due to a misaligned upper cervical spine, many different issues within the body may occur along with the onset of conditions you might have never had before.

This is because the body’s signals are no longer accurate or working as they should and in return, it negatively affects how your body responds to sickness and injury – making it more difficult for your body to heal from wounds or recover and fight against the disease.

An upper cervical neck spasm treatment is a natural way of realigning your upper cervical spine to help remove the pressure placed on the area that is causing you pain and discomfort.

When undergoing this natural neck spasm treatment, it also helps remove the pressure placed on the brain stem, allowing the brain and body communication to be restored and work properly. Without this interference with the brain to body communication, the body can send out the proper signals it needs to restore and heal injured areas.

This means your neck area can begin to heal as well now that the misaligned vertebrae that were causing your neck injury are now corrected, relieving you of your neck spasm symptoms.

If you or a loved one is currently experiencing neck spasms and are looking for an all-natural neck spasm treatment that can help correct the cause of it, an upper cervical adjustment is gentle, precise, and can help your body heal as your symptoms dissipate.

Scoliosis

Natural Treatment for Scoliosis in Adults

The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Dec 24, 2020

Scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine that affects about 2-3 percent of the population and may continue to worsen over time. Many treatments for scoliosis focus on helping the patient cope with the symptoms that come with it.

These treatments may range anywhere from physical therapy, medication, and surgery. However, there is one specific kind of treatment that has helped patients not only cope with the symptoms of scoliosis in adults but could in fact help your body in fighting against it for the best outcome.

What are the Signs of Scoliosis in Adults?

Noticing the signs and symptoms of scoliosis in adults can help you spot the beginning signs of scoliosis. If you have had scoliosis for a while, keep in mind there is a natural treatment that can still help improve your condition. As always, the earlier you can begin treatment for scoliosis in adults, the better.

Here are some of the signs and symptoms of scoliosis in adults:

Head not centered – The head may not be centered above the pelvis if you have scoliosis.
Body leans – The body may tend to lean to one side due to scoliosis.
Change of skin appearance or texture – Changes in skin appearance or texture can include abnormal color, hairy patches, or dimples.
Height of rib cage – Scoliosis in adults can cause the rib cages to be leveled at different heights.
Height Loss – Due to the curvature of the spine, scoliosis may cause you to become shorter in height.
Uneven shoulders – Scoliosis causes a tilt, which can cause your shoulders to become uneven (one lower than the other) or cause one or both shoulder blades to stick out.
Back pain – When your spine changes to an abnormal position, it is common for discomfort or pain to happen.
Trouble breathing – Scoliosis can reduce the area of your chest leaving less room for your lungs to expand.
Rotating spine – The spine can twist and turn as it moves its position.
Raised hips – Both hips may be raised unusually high. The same could happen to only one hip.

If you have noticed you have one or more of these signs or symptoms, there is a chance you may have scoliosis. It is best to see a professional right away to make sure you have the best outcome possible in treating your scoliosis. Scoliosis in adults can worsen over time, so it is important to not wait too long.

Causes of Scoliosis in Adults

The cause of scoliosis in adults can vary and depends on the type of scoliosis. Sometimes, there is no known cause – known as idiopathic scoliosis. Other times, it could be due to the natural aging process, or degenerative. Scoliosis in adults could also be a case of pediatric scoliosis that was not discovered until reaching adulthood.

A Natural Treatment for Scoliosis in Adults

While medication and surgery are options for most people who suffer from scoliosis, an all-natural treatment should be tried first to avoid unwanted changes to your body. Medication and surgery both come with side effects as they work to forcing your body to change a certain way to “ignore” the discomfort that comes along with scoliosis.

Upper cervical adjustments are effective treatments for scoliosis in adults. Upper cervical adjustments also try to correct your body from the inside by allowing your brain stem to support the proper brain to body communication and healthy spine health.

The upper cervical spine is located in your neck area, beginning at the base of your skull. What is unique about your upper cervical spine is that the rest of your spine will follow its lead. If your upper cervical spine is out of place, the rest of your spine will begin to twist, bend, and turn in ways to keep your head level.

While you may want to fix the lower part of your spine, it is your upper cervical spine that holds most of the influence over your spine’s alignment.

Unlike general chiropractic, upper cervical adjustments focus on the top two bones of your body and use very precise, gentle movements to correct the area. When an adjustment is made, pressure from any misaligned vertebrae will be taken off the brain stem allowing the proper brain to body communication to send signals back and forth properly again.

These signals help tell your body what to do in order to repair any muscles, ligaments, nerves, or soft tissue that was damaged during the misalignment.

In addition, the adjustment corrects the placement of your upper cervical spine and can help influence the positioning of the rest of your spine over time. Patients have reported feeling the rest of their spine shifting and moving into a better position after upper cervical adjustments.

Because of the entire spine being affected by the adjustments, it is quite common for the body to feel sore and is recommended to drink plenty of water.

If you or a loved one is currently battling scoliosis, upper cervical adjustments can help not only improve their symptoms but improve the overall health of the body and help it from the inside.

Upper Cervical Care

Popping an Advil, or an Ibuprofen Really Treat Your Conditions?

The Upper Cervical Spine Center Chiropractor Dec 1, 2020

Did you know that the most common way to “treat” neck and back pain is by popping an Advil, or an Ibuprofen? Ibuprofen is a non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug, or an NSAID. Chronic use of NSAIDs can cause a lot of problems. Research shows that they increase your risk of fatal peptic ulcers by five-fold! They can also cause acute renal failure, or kidney problems. They can cause problems with your heart, like increasing your risk for heart attacks, stroke, and even heart failure. Research shows that cognitive impairment occurs with chronic NSAID use. NSAIDs can counteract high blood pressure medications. If you are taking a blood pressure medication to keep your blood pressure lower, and then you take an Advil because you have neck pain, the blood pressure medication stops working, causing an array of issues throughout your body.

We want to try to avoid this use of Advil when we have neck and back pain. When it comes to taking an Advil for your neck and back pain, all it really does is mask the symptoms. It never gets to the cause of that neck and back pain. Think about it: You take an Advil; the neck pain goes away. Is it because you had a deficiency in Advil? Of course not. You have never had a deficiency of a drug, so a drug like Advil is never going to fix the problem. All it does is mask the symptoms. Therefore, we must get to the cause of your neck and back pain, and that is why I do what I do as an upper cervical chiropractor. I get to the cause of your neck and back pain by locating, analyzing, and correcting interference to the nervous system.

How does this interference, or a misalignment in the upper cervical spine, cause neck and back pain? Your brain has its own reflex, called the righting reflex, which forces the brain to always be level. However, a misalignment at the top of the neck in the upper cervical spine, caused by a trauma (birth trauma, a slip and fall, a car accident, a sports injury), throws this bone out of alignment, taking the head with it, and now your brain is not level. The righting reflex kicks in, forcing a chain reaction down the entire spine to compensate for the misalignment. This causes the spine to twist, turn, bend, and rotate in order to balance the head. This allows the brain to balance, but these compensations, over time, form weak spots in the spine. These weak spots are what turn into pain, especially pain in the neck and the back.

Now you know where neck and back pain come from. Popping an Advil, or an Ibuprofen, or whatever else, is only going to mask the symptoms.

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