Gene And Ginger's Upper Cervical Care Experience

“The MD’s don’t seem to know what’s wrong with me…”

By Dr. Brandon Harshe

Gene had a pain in his side for 10 years, degeneration in his spine, shoulder pain, and vertigo. Ginger had sciatic pain for 15 years, had been taking hormones for the previous 30 years, and had frequent hot flashes. Then they came in to see me and get under Upper Cervical Care. Read on to find out what happened in their own words.

“My husband Gene and I started going to Dr. Harshe about 2 months ago. Gene had been to the typical chiropractor several times throughout his life, but I never had been to one and was very skeptical about going. A friend had asked me to consider going to an Upper Cervical (Doctor) a year prior, but I just graciously said I don’t really have confidence in them.

She called after my husband had gotten sick and said I really wish you would go to Dr. Harshe in Carrollton. Her Upper Cervical (Doctor) recommended him, so I told her I would tell Gene. He said sure, let’s give it a try, the MD’s don’t seem to know what’s wrong with me.

We called for an appointment and I let my husband see him the first visit and then the second visit I agreed to see him. After hearing Dr. Harshe explain the adjustment he does, it made perfect sense to us. God created our bodies to heal themselves and we felt God could work through Dr. Harshe to help our bodies function as they were created.

Gene had a pain in his side that had hurt for 10 years and a pain in his hip that gave him lots of trouble. After his first adjustment, these pains were gone and he has been free of that pain since. Gene was also having some dizziness and the MD’s had told him that he had severe vertigo and that the casing around his spinal cord was calcifying and would probably close in time and recommended we see a surgical doctor for the spinal cord. He was having what seemed to be a pinched nerve.

With patience, the dizziness is gone and the pain in his shoulder has subsided. We did not see any other doctor for his health issues except for Dr. Harshe.

I have had trouble with a sciatic nerve for more than 15 years. After my first adjustment, my hip pain was gone and has not returned. I have taken hormones for more than thirty years and am now free of taking hormones and have no hot flashes.

We are looking forward to our bodies feeling better and better as we reach the point of being able to stay in adjustment for longer periods of time. I am looking forward to be able to get off my blood pressure meds in the very near future. We are thankful for Dr. Harshe and his practice of common sense chiropractic and for God working through him to help our bodies function as they were created to function.

We encourage you to schedule a visit with Dr. Harshe and gain a wealth of knowledge about how your body is created to function and have your first adjustment for a healthier, drug free YOU!!!!!!”

Gene and Ginger K.
Fort Worth, TX

(Editor's note: Remember the objective of upper cervical care is to correct head neck misalignment that is interfering with proper brain to body communication. When this is corrected the body functions at a higher level and can often correct other problems more efficiently on its own. Please do not confuse upper cervical care as a treatment for any condition, disease or symptom.)

Questions About Upper Cervical Care?

adapted from: Frequently Asked Questions About Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care

By Dr. Brandon Harshe

Below are typical questions regarding Upper Cervical Care by new patients. If you find you have a question about Upper Cervical Care that is not addressed below, contact Dr. Harshe here (or myself and we) will be happy to answer it for you.

What is Upper Cervical Care?

Upper Cervical Care is a very specific technique in which a misalignment of one or both of the top two cervical vertebrae is reduced. These misalignments cause interference to nervous system communication between the brain and body. The specific direction of the misalignment is carefully analyzed so that restoring normal alignment of one of these two upper cervical bones will be as precise as possible. The specificity of Upper Cervical Care is what makes it so gentle. The top vertebra in your spine, the Atlas, is the only vertebra capable of freely moving and narrowing the opening in which the spinal cord travels through. Because of its relative instability compared to the other 23 vertebrae, the Atlas only requires a quick, gentle force to restore its proper position.

Is Upper Cervical Care painful?

No. As stated above, the specificity of the Upper Cervical analysis allows for a very gentle force to move the Atlas (C1) and/or Axis (C2) in a very specific direction. This allows the body to begin its return to its optimal spinal alignment and thus proper brain to body communication.

Will Upper Cervical Care make me sore?

Usually no. In some rare cases, people might experience more pain after an upper cervical correction simply because their spine is realigning, doing something it hasn’t done in a while, maybe ever. This is similar to exercising for the first time after being sedentary for years. In these cases, healing may take longer.

Is Upper Cervical Care a one time thing?

No. However, the goal of Upper Cervical Care is to have you holding your spinal alignment as long as possible. Depending on the person, this may be days, weeks, or months at a time. It is similar to getting in shape. You won’t achieve the level of fitness you desire after one workout, and the alignment in your spine won’t return to its optimal position after one office visit. It may change significantly, but in most cases, will take time to restore completely. Holding your alignment is what keeps the stress and tension off your spinal cord. This allows your body to function at its highest potential and heal itself optimally. We want you to only come in as often as your spine dictates to us, ie. if you are maintaining your correction on multiple visits in a row then we need to see you less.

Will Upper Cervical Care relieve my pain?

It depends. When the Atlas has become misaligned, it can cause endangering stress or tension on the spinal cord near the brain stem. This can result in any combination of symptoms; from conditions like low back pain and headaches to digestive issues and high blood pressure.

The goal of Upper Cervical Care is not to relieve your pain, but to open up the nervous system communication between the brain and the body so that your body can heal itself effectively. This happens by reducing head neck misalignment. This will not only reduce the stress and tension on the spinal cord, but may also balance the body by returning it to a more optimal alignment.

Often times when these things happen people experience an immediate reduction in their painful symptoms.

If you only practice Upper Cervical Care, does that mean you can’t help the back or other parts of the body?

No. Reducing the misalignment in the upper cervical spine allows the spine to reduce its compensations. If you think about the spine as three segments, it makes more sense. There is the skull, the Atlas (c1), and the rest of the spine from Axis (C2) down to the sacrum. Since the rest of the spine from C2 and below is connected by intervertebral discs and ligaments, it moves similar to a wave when head/neck misalignment is present. Think of it as if the spine has been wound up. This winding up involves vertebral compensations, stress and tension on the nervous system pathways, with often a resulting muscular and/or visceral disfunction.

By reducing head/neck misalignment, the spine is able to unwind, so to speak. As a result, the spinal compensations diminish, the nervous system can communicate optimally with the body, and overall bodily function improves.

In short, reducing interference at the level of Atlas affects the entire body, not simply the upper cervical spine.

Thank You For Recognizing The Upper Cervical Blog

Over the past few months the Upper Cervical Blog has received some recognition from various sources that you will see referenced below. We do not share this to toot our own horn but as a way of giving thanks to the power of upper cervical care and the chance to share it with others who in turn, we hope, will share it with others still and so on. Thanks to all that read the blog and please share with others that may be helped by the information contained within it.

Our first one comes from Ken Martin with nursingschools.net:

Hi Travis,

We at “Nursingschools.net”, wanted to let you know that we featured your blog in one of our recent articles on our own blog. (50 Best Blogs in the Chiropractic Community), is linked below and could be a fun way to share this announcement with your readers.

(http://www.nursingschools.net/blog/2011/01/50-best-blogs-in-the-chiropractic-community/)

Either way, I hope you continue putting out great content through your blog. It has been a sincere pleasure to read.

Thanks
Ken Martin

The second one comes from Dr. Brandon Harshe at The Atlas of Life and his post: 5 Top Quality Chiropractic Blogs For Your Blog Reading List:

THE UPPER CERVICAL BLOG - Dr. Travis Robertson

Dr. Travis Robertson hardly gets any recognition for his blog and I think he deserves a lot more. His blog is great. He posts 3-4 times a week and it is always quality material. He has a passion for upper cervical just like I do, but his blog is dedicated solely to it. I think his site is a great resource for people interested in looking into the benefits of Upper Cervical Chiropractic care. Check it out here.

And finally the last one comes from Dr. Zachary Ward at Upper Cervical Websites and his post: The top 8 upper cervical chiropractic blogs for patients?

Dr. Travis Robertson-Marion, IA
It’s hard to read anything about upper cervical chiropractic care online, without running into Dr. Travis Robertson. Along with Dr. Harshe, he is one of the most prolific upper cervical chiropractic bloggers around. Which is probably why he shows up in Google on multiple occasions. There is something so simple and unassuming about Dr. Robertson’s blog that I love. It’s clearly not about him, but about the power of upper cervical chiropractic care. His tongue-in-cheek tag line is perfect: Upper Cervical Care: Simply the Greatest Health Care the World Has Never Considered. Beginning upper cervical bloggers should refer to Dr. Robertson’s page for the breadth of article ideas that he has.
Dr. Robertson blogs on Blogger and is hosted on Blogspot.

Just as a reminder the posts mentioned are also full of other great sites where you can find a wealth of information on Upper Cervical Care.

Thanks to Ken Martin, Dr. Brandon Harshe and Dr. Zachary Ward for your recognition of The Upper Cervical Blog, it is appreciated more than you know.

Upper Cervical Care And The Girl With Cerebral Palsy

(Editor’s note: This is a message from Dr. B.J. Kale about a trip to Nicaragua to provide Upper Cervical Care and was also recently posted on The Atlas Of Life.)

My team just returned from Nicaragua where we had some truly phenomenal care given.

One case that stands out from the many thousands that we delivered care to is a little 13 year old girl that has cerebral palsy. After giving her an initial scan and gaining her listing, she was adjusted on the wall because she could not get out of her wheelchair.

We kept her in day care for the morning, checking her every half hour. She kept a straight scan for over three hours, her demeanor was ever so pleasant, and she had a tremendous change after the first adjustment.

Then after the third hour she began to present a very distinct movement in her scan so we elected to adjust again. After this adjustment and with about 30 minutes of rest, her next scan was zero and her mother started crying because she was beginning to act like she never had before… she wanted to EAT. Something that simple. Her mom said she would normally have to force feed her, and even through that, Maria would only eat about a handful.

Not this time, NOT AFTER THE REMOVAL OF THE SUBLUXATION that has been with her since her VERY TRAUMATIC BIRTH.

She was calm, she sat, and ate an ENTIRE PLATE of food… then began reaching for another plate and yelling “MAS..MAS”. Then we began to notice that she was sitting up on her own without any assistance in her wheelchair.

After asking the mother if this was this normal, her mother cried and said “NO!!” Her mother explained to us that she has NEVER seen her sit up on her own, NOT ONCE! Then the little girl began to stand up and began to walk. Her mother was completely blown away with excitement. Maria took a ‘lap’ around the church we were in, all with smiles and giggling. She was so happy.