Health Problems? … Cause/Solution

By Dr. Daniel Clark

Brain to Body Communication

When the brain can send unrestricted health and healing messages to all parts of the body, it has the natural, self-healing ability to regain and maintain optimal health.

Restricted Brain Messages

Head/Neck misalignment interference at the point where the head and neck join can disrupt or distort the normal flow of brain health and healing messages to the body. This can easily lead, or contribute, to the development of acute and chronic health problems.

Muscle or Joint Pain

Muscle or joint pain in the body is an indication of restricted brain to body communication.

Symptoms

Pain and Symptoms indicate restricted flow of brain healing messages to the body.

Optimal Health

We enjoy optimal health when the brain can communicate with all parts of the body without any interference.

Health Problems

Health problems develop when the brain is restricted from sending sufficient healing messages to the body due to misalignment interference at the top of the neck.

Body Imbalance

When the head (10 to 14 lbs. same as a bowling ball) is not perfectly balanced on top of the neck, the rest of the body will compensate to the shift of weight.

The spine and pelvis will twist, often causing one shoulder to move down and one hip to move up bringing the leg up with it to create body imbalance. (Short leg)
This can lead to the development of muscle and joint pain and numerous other health problems.

Maintaining Optimal Health

For the body to maintain optimal health, the head must stay straight and perfectly balanced on top of the neck to prevent brain to body misalignment interference.

The Upper Cervical Procedure

Precision Upper Cervical adjusting is a little-known chiropractic procedure that corrects the position of the top vertebrae of the spine, the atlas and/or axis. By correcting the tilt, shift or rotation of these vertebrae, the body is better able to overcome the affects or, in some cases, completely eliminate many different conditions.

The atlas is a single, 2 oz. doughnut-shaped vertebra at the top of the spine. Trillions of nerve fibers from the brainstem travel through the small opening in atlas and flow down into the spinal column. Because of the smallness of the opening and because of the atlas’ close proximity to the brain stem, if the atlas has moved out of position even a fraction of a degree, two very serious things can result.
Body Imbalance

When the atlas and/or axis are out of their proper position, the head moves off center of the body. This creates body imbalance from head to toe. More weight shifts to one side of the body than the other. If these vertebrae are also rotated out of position, they can twist your entire spinal structure, including the pelvis, so that one leg becomes shorter than another. (See illustrations.) Not having your atlas corrected to restore body balance is like continuing to drive a car that is misaligned. Your tires are going to wear out prematurely. You can keep replacing the tires, but unless you have the car aligned, you’ll just be wasting your money. The same thing is true for headaches or ADD or hundreds of other conditions that have been known to respond well to Upper Cervical health care. You can keep taking medication, but if your atlas is out of its proper position and causing the problem, it’s not going away until you get your atlas corrected and body balance restored.

Restriction or Distortion of Brain Messages to Different Parts of the Body

The second serious result of an atlas and/or axis being out of position is the restriction or distortion of critical messages from the brain to all parts of the body. Every cell, organ or tissue that is not receiving adequate nerve supply from the brain will suffer and degenerate. Example: Ball your hand into a fist. This represents your head. Extend your index finger as if you are pointing at someone. Your index finger represents your body. Take a rubber band and wrap it tightly around your index finger where it is attached to your hand. The rubber band represents your atlas, which is wrapped around the spinal cord right near the brain stem and has moved out of its proper position. Wait a few minutes. Your entire finger begins to turn white and blue due to the circulation being cut off by the rubber band. You can massage your finger to restore circulation. You can inject a syringe with pain medication to stop the pain. In severe cases you can cut off the finger to erase the pain. However, only the symptoms of the problem have been addressed, not the cause. The rubber band is the cause.

The same thing is true for an atlas that has moved out of its proper position. It can constrict or distort proper brain messages to organs and limbs throughout the body. Your feet may hurt or you may be having kidney problems, but the cause of the problem may not be in those areas at all, but in your neck where a misaligned atlas is restricting or distorting brain messages to areas throughout the body. If your atlas remains out of position for years, degeneration of organ, muscle and cell tissue can result. Over time, that could be serious, since in many conditions, pain is the last symptom to occur.

Now, here’s the Good News! Repositioning the top vertebrae of the spine brings healing! The repositioning of the atlas vertebrae is done by hand or by instrument. Depending on the doctor’s technique, it feels like a light tap, a brisk thrust, or a soft massage at the side of the neck as the atlas is moved precisely back into its correct position. It is completely “underwhelming.” There is no twisting of the neck. Patients are often surprised how anti-climactic it is until, over a period of time, they feel their bodies healing. The procedure cures nothing. It simply restores body balance and brain-to-body communication so that organs, limbs and tissues can resume normal functioning. The body can now self-heal. That is why we see many different conditions responding to the same procedure. However, too many of us wait too long to get our atlas corrected. This is mainly due to ignorance of the vital role the atlas plays in the health of the entire body throughout life.

It is becoming increasingly clear that parents should have their children’s atlas examined as soon after birth as possible and have regular atlas check ups throughout their lives. Countless problems could be avoided entirely. A rightly positioned atlas is so fundamental to good health; children to grandparents need to get their atlases examined now.

Frequently Asked Questions About Upper Cervical Care: Part I

“Just what is Body Imbalance and how do I know if it has happened to me?”

Body Imbalance occurs when the C1 or Atlas, and/or the C2 or Axis, the top two vertebra in the neck, are misaligned and out of their proper position. This can occur as a result of an accident, emotional trauma, or chemical toxicity in the body. Childbirth itself can move the atlas out of position because of the massive amounts of pressure on the head and neck of the baby as it passes down the birth canal. Or childhood accidents like falling from a tree, bike or skates can misalign it. In adulthood, the atlas can be shoved out of position during minor or major accidents such as sporting accidents, automobile accidents or slips and falls. Some of the worst cases of atlas misalignment and resulting pain have been caused by minor car accidents such as being rear-ended. One indication of body imbalance is having one leg slightly shorter than the other. You may also notice that when you stand in front of a mirror one shoulder is slightly higher than another, and one hip is higher than the other. Another indication your atlas may be out of position is by having different symptoms in your body that your medical doctor cannot explain or find the cause for on any tests.

“How can Body Imbalance cause me to have physical problems?”

The C1 or Atlas is a donut-shaped bone that your skull rests on. Your spinal cord coming out of your brain and brain stem passes through the center of the donut shape. Your spinal cord at that point consists of trillions of nerve fibers (the nervous system) that “bottle-neck” through the small opening in the atlas. These fibers eventually branch off carrying information to every part of your body. If the C1 is out of its proper position it can irritate, constrict or disrupt vital nerve signals to any portion of your body. This can cause muscle or joint pain, organ dysfunction, lowered immune system and countless other conditions that you would not ordinarily relate to a problem originating in your neck.

“Why do you call it Body Imbalance rather than a neck imbalance?”

Because it effects the entire spine and body. Wherever your atlas moves, your head moves with it. If this top bone in your neck has shifted out of position ever so slightly, no more than the thickness of a fingernail, it can move your head off center of your body. In an effort to keep the head over the center of the neck, the entire spine and pelvis will twist, pulling one hip up and one leg with it. You are now walking around on one leg that is shorter than the other. This places more weight on one side of your body than another. The wear and tear on your entire body is exactly like driving a car that is out of alignment. The result can be muscle and joint pain anywhere in the body. Without correcting the problem, which originated with a single bone (Atlas) at the top of your neck moving out of position, your entire body is now imbalanced.

When this continues over time, something else starts to happen. Because nerve flow is disrupted or distorted, degeneration of cells in organs can occur, causing internal physical problems that may not show up for years.

“Is it painful to correct?”

Fortunately, no. The Upper Cervical Correction can be described as a slight pre-determined direction of pressure applied to the first bone (Atlas) or second bone (Axis) in the neck. Depending on the technique, it can feel like a brisk thrust, a light tap, or a massage on the side of the neck just below the earlobe. That’s where the atlas is. Sometimes this is accompanied by a loud pop or series of tiny ticks as the bone moves back into place. There is NO twisting of the neck. This correction is engineered to reposition the weight of the head (10 to 14 pounds) over the center of the body in order to restore body balance and restore brain to body communication. When the correction is made, muscles begin to relax, blood and oxygen circulation is increased, the brain is able to communicate with the affected area, and the body’s natural healing process begins. The healing process continues as long as body balance is maintained and the brain can communicate with all parts of the body.

Another Thought On Upper Cervical Care

Think of your body like a highway. There are always construction zones, detours, accidents, road blocks, repair zones, etc. on a highway. This interferes with your ability to get where you want to get when you need to get there. In terms of the body, you know that the nervous system is the system that controls and coordinates every other function and system in the body. The roadblock of the body’s nervous system is head/neck misalignment. The message will still get there but not at the right time or in the appropriate quantity. All of the problems that the body can have often times can be traced back to a communication breakdown of some kind. In many cases this communication breakdown is due to a head/neck misalignment.

Upper Cervical Doctors, by correcting this imbalance, remove these roadblocks or interference. When the body is clear of this interference it is like having a highway with no work being done to it. You know at your present speed how long it will take to get where you are going and that the road your on takes you right there. Everything is communicating in the body at its most optimum capacity.

Upper Cervical Care by removing interference in the nervous system promotes the maximum expression of the body's inborn potential for life. Upper Cervical Doctors don't cure or treat anything. Only the body can do that. After all that is what it was designed to do. The body is so much more miraculous then so many people give it credit for.

I was reading some things that I have collected over the years and one of them that comes to mind was about the 7 wonders of the world. It was about a grade school class and they came up with your usual choices; Taj Mahal, Great Pyramids, etc. but one little girl had some trouble. She had this list: 1. To see 2. To touch 3. To smell 4. To taste 5. To hear 6. To laugh and 7. To love. This small girl hit it right on the head. The seven, if not more, wonders of the world are with us all the time.

Our own bodies deserve so much of our appreciation. It truly is amazing what it does every single second to keep you alive. Give your body a break and make sure that its’ communication system (nervous system) is free of that nasty roadblock known as head/neck misalignment. It’s the least that you could do. Especially after all that it has done for you.

Upper Cervical Care: Two Questions To Consider

When a person with any type of symptom enters an Upper Cervical Care office for the first time, there are two questions that person needs to consider for the Upper Cervical Doctor to be sure that the person understands the Upper Cervical objective. This is important so there are no misconceptions or failed expectations on the part of the person seeking care. The first question is:

What will you do if following the Upper Cervical correction your symptoms do not go away?

If the answer is that you will seek care elsewhere, further clarification is required. If a symptom of a medical problem does not disappear under Upper Cervical Care care, it may be a wise decision to be examined by some other professional. It is critical for people to understand that Upper Cervical Care does not provide treatment for medical conditions. It corrects Head/Neck Misalignment so that the body can work closer to its maximum potential. The hope is, of course, that in so doing, the body will have a greater ability to heal itself, enough so that the cause of the symptoms will be in part, or wholly resolved. While that is something everyone would like to see happen, it is not the Upper Cervical Care objective, simply because it is something your Upper Cervical Doctor has no control over. It is up to every individual body to heal itself. Here is the point: if the symptoms do not go away, the body still needs a good nerve supply and it still needs to have a full complement of vital mental impulses, life’s information traveling to all the parts in order to function at its best. In other words, regardless of whether the problem goes away or not everyone still needs to have their spine checked and Head/Neck Misalignment corrected. Body Imbalance decreases everyone’s quality of life. They cause the body to work at less than its intended level. If someone has a medical condition that needs to be treated, he/she still needs (maybe especially needs) the body to work at its highest level possible. So the answer to the above question should include continuing under Upper Cervical Care.

The second question is:

What are you going to do if following an Upper Cervical Correction your symptoms do go away?

It is interesting that both questions address opposite circumstances but both should elicit in part, the same answer. Again, everyone would like to see symptoms go away while under Upper Cervical Care. However, there is no way to know whether that is a direct result of being under Upper Cervical Care. We do know that by being under Upper Cervical Care the body can work better than it would if it were in a state of imbalance. But the Upper Cervical Doctor's real interest and objective is making sure the body works at the highest level it is able to at all times. That necessitates having your spine checked periodically regardless of how you are feeling or whether any particular symptom has gone away. When it comes down to it, the answer to both questions is based upon the fact that the Upper Cervical Care objective is to enable your body to work better and that is important for all people, under all circumstances, at all times.

We are not saying that you need to get checked constantly but we are suggesting that periodic check-ups are helpful once our objective of care has been established. We want to accomplish our objective as quickly, precisely and completely as possible so that we can see you for the rest of your life as few a times as possible.