Chiropractic Care

The type of chiropractic care we specialize in is called upper cervical chiropractic. There are several different ‘techniques’ in chiropractic just like there are different branches of medical care (cardiology, endocrinology, neurology, etc).

Even though it’s called upper cervical (cervical means neck) it doesn’t mean this type of chiropractic care is only useful for people with upper neck pain. Quite the opposite actually. This type of chiropractic care is good for the whole body. 

Both the alignment of the entire body and the function of the entire body are affected by the alignment of the upper neck, specifically the top two bones in the spine, often called atlas and axis, or C1 and C2. The unique relationship between the upper neck and the rest of the body is rooted in the nervous system. 

Whole body alignment:

The body will automatically align itself to keep the head level. The eyes and ears need to be kept as level as possible in order for us to keep our balance, so any tilting of the head (which also tilts the eyes and ears) will cause the rest of the spine and hips to compensate. The top two bones (atlas and axis) cause a slight head tilt when they are misaligned, but they don’t often cause pain in the upper neck, hence they often get overlooked. 

This is why some people get dozens of chiropractic adjustments to their lower back yet fail to see any lasting relief from pain or any change in their overall alignment (they get the same adjustment week after week for months and only get temporary relief). In cases like this both the  patient and the doctor are simply chasing pain and the location of pain doesn’t always lead to the root cause of the problem. 

Whole body function:

Every system of the body is controlled and coordinated by the nervous system. The brainstem (located at the base of the skull)  is where the decisions for how to control all the various bodily functions are made and those decisions are sent as signals over the nerves. Any disruption of the signal will cause problems in the body.

The upper neck has unique and powerful neurological connections to the brainstem. Which means any problem in the upper neck will cause a problem with the brainstem. Like a line of dominoes, knock the first one over and the rest will eventually fall down too.

The testing process:

Not every person with a chronic or recurring health problem has the type of problem in the upper neck that we trained to fix. We need to use specialized equipment to determine if someone is a candidate for this treatment or not.

Digital infrared thermography is how we test the function of the nervous system. This test will let us know if there is, in fact, a disruption of the signals between the brainstem and the rest of the body. Much like how a medical cardiologist will use an EKG test to evaluate the function of the heart. 

We also use x-rays to help determine if there is an alignment problem in the upper neck related to the nervous system problem we found using thermography. What we’re looking for in the top two bones of the neck (atlas and axis) cannot be seen with the standard x-ray views, so we take a couple extra x-rays from different angles.