Category Archives: Upper Cervical Care

The immune system is one of the essential systems in the human body. Its purpose is to identify any harmful element (microbe, bacteria) that enters your body and destroy it. This is your body’s first line of defense against various infections and illnesses. Thus, you should strive to keep it in good working condition. In this article we will answer a frequent question we get from people: can chiropractic boost your immunity?

What Is the Connection between Chiropractic and Immunity?

You may wonder – can I really try chiropractic for better immunity? This type of therapy is for neck and back pain and various other conditions associated with joints and the spine. That is correct. However, you should know that your immune system does not work independently from the brain.

Everything in your body is connected to the brain through nerves, even the various glands that form the immune system. And all the nerves pass through the spinal cord to meet the brain. Thus, when your spine is partially blocked or compressed by misaligned vertebrae, you get poor nerve function.

One of the functions which may be negatively affected by a spinal subluxation is the one controlling the immune system. 

How Can Chiropractic Boost Your Immunity?

In our clinic, patients come with a series of complaints: tense muscles, stiff neck, back pain, joint pain, etc. Many of them also suffer from various recurring health problems, all of them traceable to reduced immunity.

Here is one of the things that chiropractors learned over the year: chronic pain and stress can have a negative impact on your immunity. Your nervous system is focused on helping you cope with pain and/or stress, thus working overtime on this issue.

Meanwhile, you are experiencing poor appetite and a reduced energy level to be active and stay fit and healthy. Together, all these factors can make your immune system work less effectively.

Ways in Which Chiropractors Improve the Immune Function

Now, you probably want to hear about the practical ways in which chiropractic boosts your immunity. Here are some simple examples of procedures and their beneficial effect on your immune system:

1. Spinal Adjustments

Spinal adjustment is the most frequent type of chiropractic manipulation. Our chiropractors will identify the misalignment in your spine and apply manual adjustments to resolve it.

When the vertebrae regain their proper alignment, your spinal cord will pass signals from the brain to all parts of your body without obstructions or delays. 

2. Decompression

Spinal decompression is performed using a special table. The purpose of this procedure is to gently and safely stretch the spine, in order to relieve back pain or leg pain. Once you no longer have to live with chronic pain, you will be able to embrace a healthier, more active lifestyle. At the same time, your immune system will receive the proper signals from the brain, and it will regain its full function.

3. Massage

Chiropractic massage is specialized to provide pain relief, reduce muscle tension, and improve blood flow. As part of preventive and ongoing chiropractic care, massage helps patients:

• Relieve pain
• Improve muscle strength and flexibility
• Recover after trauma faster.

It is also one of the ways in which chiropractic boosts your immunity, by helping you feel better and improving the overall nervous system function.

If you feel that your immunity is low, we can help you. Call our clinic to book and initial appointment and we will create a personalized chiropractic therapy plan for you to boost your immunity!

Humans are the only being on this planet to stand erect and walk on two legs. This gives us an extra horizon of vision, as well as the ability to perform many complex physical tasks. However, the modern world requires us to perform more tasks with our mind, using computers, and less physical activities.

This kind of lifestyle has a negative impact on our posture, with many negative consequences. In this article, our chiropractors will explain why good posture is important for your health. We will also explain to you how chiropractic can help you correct poor posture and regain your full health and well-being.

What Exactly Is Posture?

Many of our patients are surprised when we tell them that they have poor posture and tell us: “but I don’t have a desk job.” They wrongly believe that correct posture is related only to how you are sitting at a desk and working on a computer.

In reality, posture is the way we carry our bodies at all times:

• When we stand up and wait in a queue
• When we walk or run
• When we sit down at lunch, on a sofa or at the desk
• When we lie down in bed to sleep.

The Importance of Good Posture

Now, why do chiropractors insist on correcting their patients’ posture? There is one simple answer: because this is how your body is supposed to be aligned in order to work properly.

Poor posture means that you are putting excess pressure on a specific part of your body, instead of distributing it evenly across all joints, muscles, and ligaments. Over time, this can lead to:

• joint misalignments
• Bulging spine discs
• Inflammatory conditions (such as tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, and plantar fasciitis)
• Tense muscles.

In turn, these problems caused by poor posture will lead to more health issues, from a stiff neck to chronic back pain and the sensation of numbness in hands and feet. If poor posture is not corrected over a long period of time, it can lead to serious health conditions, such as:

• Poor sleep quality
• Reduced range of movement
• Weakened muscles
• Digestive problems.

How Our Chiropractors Help You Regain Good Posture

After looking at the problem, let us detail the solution for correcting poor posture. Our chiropractors know that each patient is unique, thus, each chiropractic care plan is tailored to their specific needs.

However, these plans generally include the following therapies:

1. Joint Adjustments

The first and foremost concern for any chiropractor is restoring the joints to their natural position. Poor posture can actually make your key joints become misaligned. Yes, your knees, hips, spine, and shoulders can be affected. Instead of moving smoothly, like a perfectly oiled mechanism, they will work at a reduced range, pinch nerves, and generate inflammation in the muscles around them.

The firm and precise adjustments will solve this initial problem. Afterward, the chiropractor will focus on helping the patient regain and maintain a correct posture at all times.

2. Chiropractic Massages

Therapeutic massage is highly specialized. Each technique aims to solve specific problems, from deep tissue relaxation to improving blood flow in the area. Massage for posture correction aims to strengthen the muscles in the affected area and encourage them to regain their flexibility.

Weakened muscles are the result of favoring one side of the body over the other when performing repetitive physical activities, such as lifting weights. The chiropractor aims to solve this issue so that the patient will gain a correct posture and distribute their weight evenly to all joints.

3. Teaching the Patient How to Keep a Good Posture

Poor posture can become second nature to many patients. This is especially the case with poor posture while working at the desk or using a mobile phone. In our experience, it takes an effort of will to keep a good posture after years of using a non-ergonomic chair or bending over the phone screen.

However, with a little effort and determination, plus the chiropractor’s support, it is possible to regain a good posture.

Our chiropractors are ready to help you correct your posture and regain your full health and use of your body, so call us now to schedule an appointment!

In almost every article on this blog, we have discussed about joint subluxations as the core reason for many health issues. From pain and numbness to digestive problems and ringing in your ears, we explained that a subluxation is the real cause of these symptoms. Since many of you wondered, we decided to dedicate an article to a detailed discussion on joint subluxations. 

What Is a Subluxation?

The subluxation is a partial dislocation of the joint. Any joint consists of a combination of bones, cartilages, muscles, and ligaments. They fit together like the pieces of a puzzle and allow smooth motion to the fullest range. When a subluxation occurs, one of these elements, usually a cartilage or a bone slips out of its natural position.

Despite the fact that we mostly talked about spine subluxations, this condition can affect almost all the joints in the human body. 

Causes and Symptoms of Joint Subluxations

A subluxation can be caused by several issues:

• Physical trauma – such as falling down or getting hit
• Overuse of the respective joint in work or sports
• Hyperextension – when a joint is extended beyond its normal range of movement.

Although minor subluxations can go unnoticed, in most of the cases the patient is aware that something is wrong. The most frequent symptoms of joint subluxation are:

• Sensation of instability
• Pain and swelling in the area
• Loss of movement or limited mobility of the joint
• Numbness
• Bruising.

As we said above, almost all the joints may suffer from subluxation, but some are more at risk than others. We will detail them below in decreasing order of risk.

Types of Joint Subluxation

1. Vertebral Subluxation

The spine is probably the biggest series of joints in the human body and the most vulnerable to wear and tear. The spine keeps us in an erect position and has to bear all the extra load we carry in our hands or on our backs.

Thus, vertebral subluxations are very frequent. From a herniated disc (one of the most serious types of subluxations) to very slight misalignments, any subluxation of the spine puts pressure on the spinal cord and causes a wide range of conditions and symptoms in the human body.

2. Shoulder Subluxation

When we fall down, we tend to put our hands forwards instinctively. While this may break the fall and protect the head and torso, it may also cause the shoulder bone to pop out of the socket in the shoulder blade. 

Alternatively, this type of joint subluxation may be caused by continued repetitive rotating movements of the shoulder, which cause the ligaments to become loose. This situation is frequent among tennis, baseball, and volleyball players.

3. Knee Subluxation

This type of subluxation is quite frequent among children and teenagers. It is caused by a sudden fall on the knee, causing the kneecap to become dislocated. As children learn to bicycle, skate or rollerblade, this is a very common injury.

4. Elbow Subluxation

Elbow subluxation can be the result of trauma or overuse (this situation being better known as the tennis elbow condition). Unfortunately, many parents cause their small children this type of subluxation by mistake, when they lift them in the air by the hands and swing them. During the first years of life, the elbow is not fully developed to support the child’s weight.

Elbow subluxations often go undiagnosed for a long period of time in adults, because the joint may appear to be working properly. 

Why Should You Try Chiropractic for a Joint Subluxation?

Chiropractors probably know more about the joints in the human body than other doctors. Our specialization focuses on identifying joint subluxations and helping them return to the natural position in a non-invasive manner.

Although chiropractic manipulations appear strong and energetic, in reality the specialist applies the exact pressure necessary to achieve the maximum benefit with minimum discomfort for the patient.

If you feel any kind of pain or difficulty in moving a joint, call our clinic and book an appointment. We will give you a thorough physical examination, identify the issue and create a custom treatment plan for you. Contact us today!

Many people experience less than optimal eyesight, but there is no clear reason why. Tests perfumed by ophthalmologists do not indicate any problems, nor the need to wear eyeglasses. With all their options exhausted, some people come to accept that they have to live with poor vision. We believe that chiropractic care for eyesight is the right choice for this people.

Why Chiropractic Care for Eyesight?

When you think of going to a chiropractor, your first mental image is that of spinal adjustments to get rid of a stiff neck or chronic back pain. However, you must remember that every organ in your body is controlled by your brain through nerves. The same thing is true for your eyes.

We say that we see with our eyes; but we actually see with our brain. The image captured by the retina and sent to the brain through the optic nerve is upside down. The brain decides that the sky should be up and the earth down and makes us see things as they really are. Thus, chiropractic care for eyesight is not such a far-fetched idea. In fact, it may be the only solution to help you improve your clarity and depth of vision.

How Does Chiropractic Care for Eyesight Work?

Now, let’s talk about what may be wrong with your eyesight that a chiropractor can correct. In the course of your daily life, you put a lot of stress on your spine, even if you are not aware of it.

Here are just some issues that may lead to minor subluxations of the spine:

• Sleeping in an incorrect position or using a pillow and mattress that do not offer you optimal support
• Poor posture sitting down at the desk
• Performing repetitive movements
• Lifting heavy weights, including grocery bags.

Now, you may not be able to feel these slight misalignments of the vertebrae of your spine if you were to palpate yourself. But even a 0.4 mm misalignment can put pressure on the nerves in your spinal cord and cause them to work improperly.

What can a chiropractor do to help improve your eyesight?

1. Chiropractic Care for Eyesight Improves Nerve Function

Spine adjustments can be the solution to your eyesight problems. The chiropractors at our clinic are well trained and have extensive experience in identifying and solving subluxations of the spine.

Depending on the severity of the case, the chiropractor will prescribe adjustment sessions every few days, and then every few weeks. After the first few sessions, you will already notice an improvement in your eyesight.

2. Chiropractic Manipulations Restore Blood Flow to the Optic Nerve

Adjustments and massages performed by a chiropractor can restore blood flow if it is interrupted by tense muscles or joint misalignments. In many cases, chiropractic care for eyesight also improves other conditions the patient was complaining of, such as a stiff neck or muscle knots between the shoulder blades.

After all, if the optic nerve is affected, it is likely that other nerves are also not working properly. By solving the issue that causes your poor eyesight, the chiropractor will also improve your overall health and restore the full use of your body. 

3. The Chiropractor Can Lower Pressure in the Eye

High blood pressure or pressure on the optic nerve can cause permanent damage to the eye, including glaucoma (which can lead to blindness). Various case studies have proven that chiropractic care for eyesight can help reduce pressure on the eye and/or the optic nerve and improve the condition of patients with glaucoma.

You should not ignore eyesight problems, because they can degenerate into blindness. If the ophthalmologist cannot find any specific problem causing your poor vision, try chiropractic care for eyesight. Call our clinic now to set up an initial appointment!

I am finding, in our offices and in daily conversation, more and more that people don’t have a firm grasp on what illness and disease really is. This is not anyone person’s fault. The public’s understanding is subject to what they are told by the ‘authorities’ of any field. What are the ‘authorities’ on health defining disease? I hear plenty of different points of view on this question. Let’s narrow things down to one type of disease for now.

Bacterial Infection

Ear infections, Staph infections, Strep throat, Pneumonia, etc. These are some of the diseases a microbiologist would think of when they think in terms of bacteria. Ok, we have certain types of bacteria, which cause certain types of infections and have certain symptoms. Let’s look at Staph infections for a moment. Staphylococcus aureus is the species responsible here. What is commonly referred to as a ‘staph infection’ is a large boil in the skin tissue.

When skin gets exposed to these bacteria it leads to a boil…… Right? Wrong! Staphylococcus aureus is always on your skin. In fact, the skin is the home of this bacteria. It thrives in places like your armpits, moist creases, and between your toes. Yeah, it’s responsible for those stinky feet smell. No one is without these bacteria.

However, most of us are not suffering from boils, so how does the infection start? Well, the bacteria need to find a break in the skin barrier so they can multiply underneath. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been cut plenty of times, accidentally poked myself with sharp things, and even punctured myself with a knife in a moment of clumsiness. How many of us experience a staph infection after that? 

For me, personally, never. What could be happening that keeps me from contracting this sort of infection? Why am I not getting boils on my face every time I cut myself shaving? What is it that is preventing bacterial infection? The answer is, I have an immune system. There are nerve fibers picking up information on every square millimeter of skin on my body which start an inflammatory reaction when I get any sort of irritation to the skin barrier. Immediately, this inflammation is slowing down the invading bacteria. This stops it from getting into the bloodstream and other areas of the body.

Then, little white blood cells flock to the area to put up a fight. They literally eat any sort of bacteria and keep the bacteria away from where they don’t belong. Since Staphylococcus aureus is all over my body, my immune system recognizes it right off. It knows where it is and how to kill it. Natural Ear Infection Care In our office Ok, we know how we get the infections and that our body can stop them…

Why do some people get a full infection, and some don’t? There must be something wrong with their immune system. What could go wrong? There could be a compromise in the immune system. The reason that you may have heard about MRSA(medication-resistant staph) is that it is a big deal in hospitals. 

People in the hospital who are recovering from surgery and that sort of thing are more prone to infection than others since their bodies are in a state of severe repair. There is just too much going on to deal with fighting off bacteria too. This leaves a higher rate of these types of infections within hospitalized populations than outside. Normal people out in the world are getting these infections too. Why? Here is the bottom line:

If your immune system isn’t up to par, you are open to infection. If your nervous system cannot properly direct the immune system, you are at risk of infection. Here is how we are preventing bacterial infection in our office: our offices work to restore optimum function in the nervous system so that the body can provide organs, like the lymphatic system and the thymus, with all the information that they need.

Many people live with chronic pain. Neck pain, lower back pain, hip, or foot pain – they are energy draining and cause you to take lots of over-the-counter pain pills. They help relieve the symptoms for a while, but the pain comes back – always. This is because all the drugs you take are not designed to solve the cause of your pain, only numb the symptom.

A chiropractor can identify the root of your ongoing pain and apply a non-invasive method to solve the problem itself.

How Chiropractic Treatment Works

The chiropractor’s adjustments involve manipulating joints in order to relieve muscle stress, reduce inflammation and realign bones. These three issues are the main causes of pain in various parts of your body.

They are induced by poor posture, standing up for too long (retail workers know this all too well), lifting heavy weights, or making wrong movements in the course of training for professional and amateur athletes. 

Here are some of the most common conditions your chiropractor can help you with:

1. Neck Pain

Neck pain can be a nuisance or even disabling, leading to unbearable headaches. It affects especially office workers who do not have an ergonomic chair and a healthy posture while working on the computer. When the laptop screen is not at eye level, you tend to bend your head down to see properly.

This constant bending keeps the muscles contracted and leads to cramps and chronic pain. In other situations, making a wrong movement while stretching can misalign your vertebrae and cause ongoing neck pain.

Through careful adjustments, the chiropractor can realign these vertebrae and bring you much-needed relief from neck pain.

2. Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is another condition associated with working long hours sitting down. If your chair does not offer proper lumbar support, the muscles in your lower back will become tense, and, in time, chronic pain sets in.

In the worst instances, lower back pain is disabling, preventing the patient from getting up from bed. A complete course of chiropractic treatment will help you say goodbye to back pain and regain your mobility and energy levels.

3. Tennis Elbow

Tennis elbow or epicondylitis is a condition afflicting all persons who play racquet sports frequently. The repeated movements of the forearm cause a tendon in the elbow to become swollen and painful. 

When tennis elbow sets in, the patient is unable to perform even simple tasks, such as lifting a glass of water, due to the intense pain. A chiropractor will prescribe a complex treatment consisting of adjustments and physical therapy to heal the inflamed tendon and restore it to proper functionality.

4. Hip Bursitis

The bursa is a sac filled with liquid, acting as a sort of shock absorber between bones in major joints. As you know from your everyday activity, a lot of pressure is put on the hip joint, which has to support the weight of the upper body and allow the free movement of the legs.

When the hip bursa becomes inflamed, the pain can be unbearable. Patients with hip bursitis usually have to take time off work and rest in bed. Chiropractors report a good success rate in treating this condition without any invasive methods.

5. Plantar Fasciitis

Your feet carry all your body everywhere you go. And sometimes they get damaged – more precisely a thin muscle layer in your heel becomes inflamed. Your heel will become swollen, tender, and sore and you will walk with great difficulty.

Chiropractic treatment, especially soft tissue therapy, as well as recommendations to wear custom-made orthotics, will help your leg heal and you will be back walking and running.

Chiropractic can help you solve many painful conditions without surgery and drugs. 

Sleeping is one of the most favorite things of people to do but honestly, it is not the favorite thing of a lot of people because they are uncomfortable when they sleep. People often question their pillow, their bed, sleeping position. Among all these questions the main concern is your sleeping position.

There are a few basic sleeping positions that are mandatory for everyone to opt to have a comfortable and relaxing sleep and reduced lower back pain. These recommended positions will prevent back pain in the future too.

It is also likely to reduce the likelihood that you might develop scoliosis so the twist in your spine since you are going to be spending about a third of your life sleeping. If you are sleeping in the wrong position for a third of your life you can develop some adaptive change.

Better sleep is the ultimate desire of everyone as it regulates your hormonal regulations, mental well-being and also increases the healing process.

You are going to see a few very comforting sleeping positions for your back that will help you in a long run and positively impact your health in general. 

Causes of morning back pain

Back pain is common among many people. Most of the time, it is the first thing one feels after getting up from the bed. Stiffness among the joints of the spinal cord is one of the main causes. 

Many other causes of morning back pain are following:

• Bad sleeping posture: sleeping position can be the bad guy. The bad posture puts pressure on the spine and distorts its normal curve. Sleeping on your stomach can aggravate the situation and you will feel back pain more frequently. Stomach sleeping position can be detrimental to your overall health too.
• Old mattress: sometimes bad mattress plays a very triggering role in activating back pain. Replacing your old mattress with a new one can be a useful technique in this regard.
• Disc degeneration: it is a disease in which the disc between the vertebrae of the spinal cord starts deteriorating. This condition causes severe pain in the back, and it is higher in the morning after sleeping. 
• Pregnancy: pregnancy also puts stress on the backbone and after a long period of rest in the night, the pain can be worse in the morning. 

These are a few causes that amplify the back pain in the morning and the best sleeping positions can help you in this matter.

Best sleeping position for your back

Every person sleeps differently so everyone will need a different sleeping position to hamper back pain. Here you will see some best sleeping positions to reduce your back pain 

Back sleeping: this is probably the best go-to way to sleep on your back. However, when you lay down depending on how soft your bed is, the weight of your legs may be pressing downwards, and this can cause your hips to go into anterior hip tilt. Therefore, making your lower back go to lumbar extension, if you already suffer from lower back pain this will cause you to have lower back pain. If you think this is the cause of your lower back pain or you are suffering from lower back pain, try placing a pillow under your legs. This will elevate your legs higher and create posterior hip tilt and make your lower back go into a more neutral position or flatten it out a little bit providing you a bit of relief.

If you still don’t feel like you are getting any relief, you can always add an extra pillow to raise up your legs even more so that way it flattens up your back a little bit more. This will reduce the tension from the legs that are created from the gravity pulling down your spine, your muscles, and even your nerves. 

Side sleeping: it is one of the most natural positions for sleeping. Some professionals even call it the fetal position, since you look like a position that a baby would be in an expecting mother. However, as we get older our limbs get a lot longer and our body can twist and turn in the middle of the night. Even if we start off in a perfect sleeping position. Sometimes the legs may move forward or even back this will create torsion and rotation in the lumbar spine. 

If you develop a habit of sleeping on a preferred side, you will create either more mobility on one side or stiffness on the other side of the lower back. The lower back can then be locked up or cramped up due to the long duration that some of these areas are being compressed. To combat the twisting is to place a pillow under your leg that moves too far in front of you causing your body to twist. 

Most chiropractors recommend you place a soft pillow between your legs when you sleep as this pillow will stop your legs from twisting your legs. 

To support the lower back from stooping just add a soft pillow between your rib cage and your hip bone.

Some patients also use a dedicated memory pillow for side sleeping to help them stay in a position to support their legs.

CONCLUSION

A natural symmetrical sleeping position can help you to have a comfortable back with no stress and strain. If you are already suffering from back pain so being in an asymmetrical position can cause you to have scoliosis or even lower back pain just replace your mattress that has lost its firmness or that is a too soft cause that will cause more harm to your spinal cord than anything could ever do. 

To avoid your spine to twist the middle of the night, place a soft pillow between your legs and also down the rib cage. 

In case of prolonged and frequent back pain, consult your health care professional and a chiropractor immediately. 

REFERENCES

Identifying relationships between sleep posture and non-specific spinal symptoms in adults: A scoping review (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6609073/)

How to Sleep With Lower Back Pain (https://www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-health/how-to-sleep-with-lower-back-pain#:~:text=The%20best%20sleeping%20position%20for,make%20this%20position%20more%20comfortable.)

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. 

We are licensed and trained chiropractors, so when people find out I’m a chiropractor, usually their first thing is, “Hey, I got back pain. Can you crack my back?” And I say, “No, because I do something a little bit different. I focus on the upper cervical spine.” Now, why do I do that?

Research shows us that a subluxation, or a misalignment in one of the top two bones in the neck putting pressure on the brainstem, can cause a variety of conditions. If I can take care of that subluxation, or that misalignment at the top two bones, then the body can take care of itself. Let me explain to you how this happens.

An upper cervical misalignment, or subluxation, which is pressure on the brainstem, happens due to a trauma at some point in someone’s life. This trauma could have been all the way back at birth. It could have been a slip and fall as a kid. It could have been a sports injury or a car accident… We don’t know until we take X-rays. However, when this misalignment happens, two things occur.

Number one, like we already talked about, it puts pressure on the brainstem. It is important to note that the brain, the brainstem, and the spinal cord the rest of the way down, have no pain perception. What that means is you could have had a misalignment here for years, even decades, even since the day you were born, and never have any headaches or neck pain. However, if this subluxation occurs, it is interfering with the messages from your brain to the rest of your body. These are the messages that go to your stomach, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, etc. Every single cell, organ, and tissue has these messages from the brain and brainstem.

We like to call the brainstem “Houston Control.” It’s like our relay center. Every single message from the brain to the body has to go through the brainstem, and even messages from the brain to the brain itself always relay through the brainstem. This is why we see awesome results with things like anxiety, depression, panic disorders, and even learning disorders. We see things clear up like Crohn’s disease, constipation, diarrhea, or issues with the gastrointestinal tract. We’ve seen kidney failure get better. We’ve seen your typical neck and back pain, migraines, headaches… Really any condition you can think of, it’s worth it to see if an upper cervical issue could be causing that condition.

We’ve talked about brainstem pressure. The second thing that can happen is, structurally, your head sits on top of the first bone in your neck, or the atlas. When a misalignment at atlas occurs, maybe decades ago, taking this bone outside of its normal physiological space, meaning it’s not where it is supposed to be, it takes the head with it. The brain has its own reflex, called the righting reflex, which forces the brain to always be level. When this misalignment occurs, taking the head with it, obviously taking the brain, too, now the brain is not level. The brain does not like this. It sends messages down the spine, forcing a chain reaction of twisting and turning, bending, and rotating – whatever the spine has got to do to get the head level.

What that looks like overtime is compensations throughout the spine. This is why we see weaknesses in the spine, and these weaknesses basically turn into pain. This could be neck pain, upper back pain, low back pain, all the way down to hip, knee, and foot pain. All due to that atlas bone being misaligned, forcing weaknesses throughout the spine.

We can work on those weaknesses all we want, but the body put them there for a reason. They’re literally compensatory to the misalignment at the top, which is why we don’t want to touch the rest of the spine. We only want to touch the top two bones in the neck because that is the cause of the pain that’s going on, or even the pressure on the brain stem causing a variety of systemic issues throughout your body.

Today, I want to talk to you about cranial nerves. I’ve had some questions recently on why, when we take the pressure off the brain stem, do things just work better? We know in upper cervical care, our results speak for themselves, but we need to back it up with science, and that is what I’m going to do for you today. I’m going to give you lots of vocabulary and lots of science, so we can show you exactly why upper cervical care works. Cranial nerves 3 through 12 come right off the brainstem. The brainstem in a living person comes all the way down to the second bone in the neck. The top two bones in your neck are the atlas and the axis. Since the cranial nerves come off of the brainstem, when we take the pressure off of the brainstem due to an upper cervical misalignment, we can see things improve.

Cranial nerves three, four, and six are the oculomotor nerve, trochlear nerve, and abducens nerve, respectively. These are all nerves that innervate the muscles of the eyes. People with ocular dysfunction, for example, may have interference to one of these nerves. Maybe you see a child and they have what’s called a lazy eye. When we take the pressure off the brainstem, we relieve those nerves to the eyes and the eye muscles, and thus, the eye muscles start to work better, and we see the ocular dysfunction go away.

Cranial nerve number five is the trigeminal nerve. The trigeminal nerve has three branches that come across the face, and when we see pressure on the trigeminal nerve, we see something called trigeminal neuralgia – a very, very serious pain condition that has been dubbed the suicide disease. However, when we take the pressure off the brainstem, we see amazing results with those who experienced trigeminal neuralgia.

Cranial nerve number seven is the facial nerve. This nerve controls the muscles of the face. Maybe you’ve seen someone with a condition called Bell’s palsy. Bell’s palsy is a condition where the facial nerve isn’t working properly, so half of the muscles of the face just aren’t working. You will see a drooping eyelid, or the patient can’t smile properly. If you’ve seen a stroke victim before, this is similar to what these people look like. 

Cranial nerve number eight is the vestibulocochlear nerve. “Vestibulo” means balance and “cochlear” means hearing. People who suffer from vertigo, hearing loss, or hearing dysfunction in general and Meniere’s disease may have interference to this nerve. When we can take the pressure off the brainstem and restore the flow of the vestibulocochlear nerve, we see these conditions go away.

Cranial nerve number nine is the glossopharyngeal nerve. This nerve basically innervates the tongue and the throat, and it’s involved with taste and swallowing. 

Cranial nerve number 10 is the vagus nerve. This is the longest cranial nerve in your body. It actually goes all the way down to your gut tract. That’s why when we take the pressure off the brainstem with someone who may have interference to their vagus nerve, we see digestive issues go away. We see heart rate improve; we see breathing issues improve, because the vagus nerve innervates all of these organs. It has a big job with the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the rest and digest part of the nervous system.

Cranial nerves number 11 and 12 innervate muscles of the tongue and the neck. Cranial nerve number 11 is called the spinal accessory nerve. It innervates our sternocleidomastoid muscles and our traps. Patients who experience upper back pain, neck pain, they can’t turn their head very well, and/or they get muscle spasms in the neck likely have interference to this nerve. When we can take the pressure off the brainstem, thus restoring the flow to the spinal accessory nerve, we see this type of condition improve. Cranial nerve number 12 is the hypoglossal nerve. It innervates the tongue, so if the patient can’t move their tongue properly, or they have dysfunction with their tongue, it is likely this nerve is not working properly. We take the pressure off the brainstem and things just work better.