Category Archives: High Blood Pressure

I want to talk to you about high blood pressure. Why is it that our patients who experience high blood pressure, or hypertension, have great results with upper cervical care? 

When we look at the nervous system, the brainstem comes out of the bottom of the head and down to the second bone (called Axis) in the neck. The brainstem houses 10 out of 12 cranial nerves. Number nine – the ninth cranial nerve – is called the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is responsible for mediating our parasympathetic nervous system.

Our parasympathetic nervous system does things like rest and digest. It has control over heart rate, too. But, when there is a misalignment in the top of the neck putting pressure on the brainstem, that vagus nerve can have interference to it. This means that the vagus nerve is not communicating with the rest of the body like it should, including the heart. This may cause the heart rate to speed up, which research shows us that increased heart rate is associated with high blood pressure. That is why an upper cervical adjustment, taking pressure off of the vagus nerve, allows the blood pressure to reduce.

Correcting the misalignment fires up that parasympathetic nervous system, allowing the vagus nerve to communicate with the heart like it should, telling the heart, “Hey, you can slow down,” and thus, the blood pressure is able to come down for long periods of time. Actually, chiropractic research shows that upper cervical adjustments were found to have a hypotensive effect and that six of eight patients under chiropractic experienced relief of symptoms and lowered blood pressure after chiropractic care. 

Now, our bodies are constantly in a sympathetic state. We are constantly stressed out by dealing with everyday life and a big reason for that is pressure on the brainstem. When we remove that pressure and allow the parasympathetic nervous system to express itself, we see things like lower blood pressure and an overall increase of function in general. 

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.