Can Upper Cervical Care Help Strabismus

By Dr. Philip Schalow

 

Strabismus is a disorder in which the eyes stray off their normal pathways. You might know someone who has an eye (or two) that wanders off to the side while you’re talking with them.

The eye muscles are managed by nerves that come out of the middle part of the brain, and are themselves subject to receiving proper blood flow in order to function normally.

With birth injuries or other early childhood trauma, the head and neck relationship can become misaligned and restrict blood flow, nerve flow and the flow of fluids in the brain. That’s one of the causes of strabismus.

Usually, the simple eye examination we do reveals the source of the problem, and the elegantly complex work of the upper cervical correction can correct it.

Does that mean the upper cervical doctor is in competition with eye surgeons? No. It only means that if conservative care like upper cervical chiropractic is indicated, and the wandering eyes fail to heal over time with the additional use of specialized eye care, then alternative care such as surgery may be considered.

Dr. Philip Schalow is a NUCCA practitioner in Rockford. He owns 1st Step Chiropractic, S.C., 4519 Highcrest Road, Rockford. Call (815) 398-4500 for details or visit www.MyRockfordChiropractor.com.

 

(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.)

Christmas Wishes of the Upper Cervical Variety

Adapted from "12 days of Christmas, but only 3 Christmas Wishes"

Dr. Zachary Ward

There are 12 days of Christmas, but if I were to drop a letter in the mail to old Kris Kringle I would only have 3 items on my list.

Christmas Wish #1:  More doctors like Dr. Bruce Bell.

A couple of decades ago, upper cervical care certainly wasn’t on the radar of Dr. Bruce Bell MD, a family practice physician in the suburbs of Chicago.

Being a guy who loved his patients and science, he began to notice a trend among his patient population: some of them saw improvements in health status after receiving upper cervical care (UCC). He investigated it and discovered the NUCCA upper cervical approach to spinal balance.

That began a personal investigation into upper cervical care (UCC). And over several years, Dr. Bell sent thousands of referrals to an upper cervical doctor, Dr. Marshall Dickholtz, Sr. of Chicago, Illinois. The fruits of the Bell and Dickholtz working relationship weren’t just limited to happier patients. Dr. Bell insisted on trying to document some of the changes that he saw in his patients, and began the long task of trying to form a research investigation into NUCCA.

In a story to long to tell here, that investigation ended in the very groundbreaking pilot study on UCC and hypertension featured in the Journal of Human Hypertension. In that pilot study it was shown there was a strong association between NUCCA UCC and the reduction of blood pressure in high blood pressure patients.

Now the National Institutes of Health is funding another study to see if these findings can be reproduced among a larger patient population. And thousands of patients are discovering UCC who wouldn’t have found it otherwise!

All of this wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for Dr. Bruce Bell, who stepped outside his experience, and found good things were happening for his patients under UCC.

Christmas Wish #2: More money for UCC research

Right now the Upper Cervical Research Foundation is researching the relationship between the upper cervical spine, and a number of conditions which cause human suffering. And they aren’t the only ones. A number of chiropractic colleges have strong, award winning research departments, whose studies have been instrumental in expanding our understanding about the human body. And the relationship between our health and health of the spine.

But it wasn’t until as recently as 1998, that chiropractic institutions began to get significant funding from the National Institutes of Health. Right now, those funding dollars add up to several millions of dollars a year, often spread out over many projects.

Compared to several decades ago, it’s better than nothing. But compared to the tens of billions of dollars the federal government gives medical institutions for research, per year, the amount is almost insignificant.

There are now hundreds of studies which support the benefits of care. Far more than there were even a few years ago. But for the public and the health care system to benefit from care, we need to be able to show how and why we help.

We can’t do that without more research money.

Christmas Wish #3: More children under upper cervical care

“I wish I would have tried this 30 years ago,” is a common phrase heard in my office, and the office of other chiropractors. Of course, sometimes it’s 10 years ago, or 2 years ago, but you get the idea.

My response, though I don’t always say it, is:  ” No, someone should have checked you right after birth.”

Now, not every baby has a difficult birth. And many of our modern birthing methods can save the lives of seriously threatened infants. Yet, they can also place a lot of stress on the upper cervical spine of infants as they move through the birth canal. A process that already places stress on the child’s head and neck.

As a result of this stress, many children come into the world with their bodies out of balance, and they show evidence of it as they grow. For many this shows up as inability or refusal to nurse on one side, a distorted sleep posture (c-shaped bent to the side), stronger motor development on one side of the body than the other, and colicky symptoms.

I can tell you from personal experience, that each of my children has only received a handful of adjustments, they tend to maintain their alignment for a long time, and don’t experience the health problems that plague their playmates, like colic, headaches, and ear infections.

Perhaps if more parents were willing to actually see if their child’s “head was on straight” we might be able to avoid some of the more serious problems that bring people to the doctor later on in life.

Thank you for reading my Christmas wish list! Here’s how you can make each of these wishes come true:

1.If you’re a person who’s seen major improvements in health since starting upper cervical care, share those changes with your primary care physician. They deserve to know what you’re doing.

2.If you’d like to have more groundbreaking research, consider become a donating sponsor of the Upper Cervical Research Foundation.

3.If you’re a parent with a child who has health challenges, consider the possibility that your child’s spinal alignment has a role to play in their health maintenance and healthy development. And get your child to an upper cervical doctor.

Have a blessed Holiday!

How To Misalign Your Head And Neck...Let Me Count The Ways

(Editor's Note:  Fifty to be exact and this is far from a complete list but it gets you thinking about why it is important to be checked periodically.)

by Dr. Deborah Sesker

In a perfect world, none of us would have been born by forceps, or by Cesarean, or with the doctor pulling with too much force on our heads.

In a perfect world, none of us would have fallen off the side of the bed when we were two, tripped down the stairs at age eight, or rolled our car in the ditch at eighteen.

But these things happen. And when they do they often stress the muscles and ligaments of the upper neck to the point where the bones misalign and lock-down, placing stress on the spinal column and the delicate nervous system inside.

If we were lucky enough to have our parents take us to an upper cervical doctor at a young age, we might have only lived with our neck misalignment for days, weeks, or maybe a few years before having it properly corrected.

But most of us aren’t, which means many of us live one, two, or six decades before we ever have our atlas unlocked by our upper cervical doctor. By this time ligaments are tightened, muscles have developed amnesia, and we have patterns of movements which place stress on the top of our spine without us even knowing.

All of this is to say, that even a really good upper cervical correction may not hold very well, especially in the beginning of our care. And if we want to make the most of our upper cervical  care, we’re going to need to be careful what we do on a day to day basis.  Here are 50 simple ways you could lose your upper cervical alignment.

    Sleeping on your stomach.

    Sleeping on your side without proper neck support.

    Reading in bed with a book on your chest.

    Watching television in bed with your chin on your chest.

    Falling asleep on the arm of the couch.

    Falling asleep upright in a chair.

    Falling asleep upright in a chair and waking up with an ear resting on one shoulder.

    Falling asleep anywhere other than your bed.

    Propping your head up on your hands, fist or palm under your jaw, for more than a few seconds at a time.

    Looking up for more than a minute at a a time, be it stargazing, birdwatching, or painting a ceiling.

    Stretching your neck by pushing it forward, backward, or pulling it to the the side with your hands.

    Having anyone else push or pull your head to stretch your neck.

    Stretching your neck by rolling your head in big circles.

    Staring down at a Smart Phone screen or tablet for hours everyday.

    Gripping a phone between your ear and your shoulder, instead of using headset or speaker phone.

    Having a small child hang from your neck.

    Having a small child jump on your head while wrestling in the living room.

    Having anyone hang from your neck or jump on your head.

    Whipping your head to the left or right or up and down while dancing, head-banging, or whatever it is you might be doing.

    Flipping your hair repeatedly to remove it from your face.

    Shaking your hair out to help dry it after a shower.

    Turning your head without moving your shoulder to look behind you while driving.

    Driving and hitting anything going more than five miles per hour.

    Driving and getting hit by anyone else going more than five miles per hour, for that matter.

    Getting into your small sedan by craning your neck to one side to sit down over and over again, instead of sitting down facing outward, and then rotating your body inward.

    Getting elbowed in the face while playing basketball, volleyball, tag, or any other amateur sport.

    Standing on your head.

    Heading a soccer ball.

    Smacking your own forehead.

    Falling on an outstretched hand.

    Doing a somersault improperly.

    Doing a cartwheel improperly.

    Doing certain yoga positions improperly.

    Doing ab crunches with your hands behind your head.

    Landing on your head from any height.

    Boxing.

    Martial arts with bad form.

    Bench pressing and watching your biceps, not the bar.

    Squatting and lifting your chin as you fatigue.

    Lifting without tucking your chin at work, at home, or anywhere.

    Getting dental work.

    Popping your own neck.

    Having someone else pop your neck.

    Chewing gum all day.

    Cracking a tooth.

    Deep tissue massage in the neck.

    Getting your hair washed, dyed, or dried backward in a salon sink.

    Getting into a pillow fight.

    Getting placed in a head-lock

    Getting up, turning over, or moving your body by leading with the head and neck, and not with the pelvis.

Does doing any one of these 50 things mean you’re going to need another adjustment? Not necessarily. Everyone is a little bit different. (Some kids have played high school football without losing their alignment.)

But they are common ways that you can set your upper cervical care backwards, and they’re worth considering if you’re having a hard time holding your alignment.

Birth, Kids and Upper Cervical Care

(Editor's note: I know that I just posted something on this recently but I have read a few birth stories over the last two days and wanted to post a bit more on the subject. Enjoy!)

How often have you heard people say, “One day I felt fine, and then the next day I was just. . .”? Probably enough that you do not even recognize the absolute absurdity of that statement. Except for severe traumas, such as car accidents, major falls, gunshot wounds, poisoning, etc., people do not suddenly become ill. Disease does not occur spontaneously. Small traumas, long-term abuse and negligence, though unnoticeable at first, take their toll on the body over a period of time. By the time the first symptoms appear, the body has already been malfunctioning for some period of time--often years.

This is the primary reason to have children evaluated by an upper cervical doctor. Studies indicate that up to 80% of children may sustain and injury to neck during the birthing process which is is not noticed at the time. Many of them will go 20, 30, or 40 years or possibly the rest of their lives with that injury creating interference in their nervous system. Even those who are not injured upon birth will have a variety of stresses put upon their neck and back as they grow. How many times does a child fall while he or she is just learning to walk? And after they learn to walk, don’t they run, skip, stomp, jump, and hop? Don’t they fall out of bed, fall out of trees, fall off their bikes, fight with their brothers and sisters, stand on their heads, play football, basketball, hockey, dance, gymnastics, and on and on and on?

Any one of these things is enough to injure the upper neck. Left uncorrected, the interference that results will also begin to take its toll on the body. Lowering the ability of the body to be well will make it less able to concentrate, less able to fight off disease, less able to coordinate and harmonize, less able to make the food that is eaten into usable form, and less able to clean the blood of toxins. It will make it less able to make the proper chemicals in the proper amount to control all the body’s functions, and less able to be strong, flexible and healthy.

It is important to note that the mechanism that originally brought two cells together and created the miracle that is you is still at work in you as it is in every other living being. It continually creates new tissue and maintains you in existence. The very mechanism by which we are able to be well is the same mechanism at work in the child. It is no less effective in the child than it is in the adult. Therefore, if it is important for you to be checked periodically by an upper cervical doctor to insure head/neck alignment and a nerve system free of interference, isn’t it equally important to have your children checked for the same interference?

Many people are concerned about the forcefulness of a correction to the upper neck for a growing child. This is not a concern with upper cervical care. Due to the precision involved, the corrections are gentle for everyone kids included. Children, on the whole, require far fewer corrections than adults, mostly because time and the results of abuse and negligence have not yet taken their toll. Who better than children to be under upper cervical care? Who could profit more than those who have not yet developed problems?

Birth Trauma and Upper Cervical Care

Birth Trauma during Deliveries Dangerous to Newborns

The most common cause of this damage is excessive traction and twisting of the infant’s neck when using the head as a lever to extract the infant from the birth canal, damaging spinal structures, the spinal cord and brain stem. Survival of the infant depends on brain stem functions such as respiration, heart activity and reflex actions.

Unfortunately, such damage often goes undiagnosed and unreported since many doctors are unaware of the significant trauma that can result. Routine examination of spinal structures is not normally done of newborns.

Spinal damage can occur in numerous ways. Rupture and tearing of the covering of the brain and spinal cord (Meninges), tearing of the spinal nerve roots and laceration, swelling and compression of the spinal cord and brain stem are common. While heart function may or may not be normal in such cases, respiratory depression soon after birth is a cardinal sign of brain stem injury.

By way of commentary on this article, Upper Cervical doctors correct the head/neck misalignments that can occur during even routine deliveries. If your child, or any you know, experienced a difficult delivery, it would be helpful that their head and neck alignment be checked by an Upper Cervical doctor. Upper Cervical correction of spinal problems should take place as soon after they occur as possible in order to help insure a lasting correction and good health.

Upper Cervical Care and The Larger Picture

Adapted from the article, "Chiropractic: Health care concerned with the well-being of human kind, Mind, Body, and Spirit"

Upper Cervical Care is based on the absolute science that every function in the human body is directed and coordinated by the nervous system. It is through this science that we know without a doubt that the body is a self healing and self regulating organism that knows how to heal itself from inside the same way it knew how to grow you from 2 cells into over two trillion cells in 9 months! The Power that made the body heals the body! The body heals itself through the communication of the nervous system. It will do this as long as there is no interference.

The upper cervical doctors primary goal is to help the body tap into this amazing, internal healing wisdom by removing interferences to the nervous system called "Subluxations", which result from head neck misalignment. The result of Subluxations is diminished function and communication. For some this may result in Headaches, in others it is Back Pain, others Irritable Bowel Syndrome or Asthma. In children Subluxations may reduce your resistence to Ear infections. If a Subluxation is left uncorrected it can affect the structure and function of the joints of the spine, and thus contribute to Scoliosis, or the cycle of Spinal Arthritis.

Subluxations like Viruses, can happen at anytime. They can be caused by Repetitive Strain injury, Sports Injuries, Prolonged Sitting at a desk or computer or Long Drives and more. Stress and the physical tension it creates can Subluxate the spine. Many Subluxations however are caused in childhood and show up as problems later in life. Learning to walk and falling, bumping the spine can cause Subluxations, and many times the Birth Trauma, of the delivery pulling on the neck or forceps can cause lifetime spinal problems.

Only Upper Cervical Doctors are trained to detect and correct head neck misalignment with a specific upper cervical correction, thus removing the nerve interference and restoring proper function of the spine. Upper Cervical Care is for all ages and a healthy spine and nervous system is a priority today, for healthier tomorrows.