How Strong is Your Signal?

By Dr. Adam Tanase

Most people are familiar with the concept of “bars” that identify the strength of a cell phone signal. When I used to be a Sprint customer, I could be in the same room with another Sprint customer who had the same phone as me, but we’d have different signal strengths. It was puzzling because one would have a full signal, and the other was struggling to maintain just one bar.

Similar to how your cell phone won’t work properly without a strong signal, your body depends on a strong signal between the brain and body via the nervous system.

Upper Cervical chiropractors use a technology called Computerized Infrared Thermography, or CIT for short, that primarily evaluates this “signal” balance between the brain and both sides of the body. It’s comparable to the “bars” on your cell phone.

Muscles, tissues and cells within the right half of the body should be receiving the same quality of nerve signals as the left half of the body. Lopsided “signal strength” favoring one half over the other suggests an imbalance in body function and performance.

One of the advantages of receiving Upper Cervical Care is that after the doctor makes an atlas-correction, we’re able to remeasure your body’s communication signal, and confirm that balance was restored. So there’s no guesswork involved… patients are able to see their improvement.

(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.)

Where Each One of Us Truly Lives

Where Do You REALLY Live?

From the Weekly Sticky

What do you use to see with?  If you said your eyes… you're wrong.  How about hearing?  If you said ears… wrong again!   You don't see or hear with your eyes or ears.  Those are just end organs for collecting light and sound waves.  To actually see and hear you have to interpret those waves with your nerves and brain (Nerve System) first. 

In reality, you LIVE in your Nerve System.  EVERYTHING you experience in life is processed through it… what you see, what you hear, what you feel. That's why upper cervical doctors care so much about it keeping it free of interference.  If your Nerve System is stressed, there goes your ability to interpret your world, and there goes your ability to successfully navigate life.

periodic corrections keep your Nerve System clear so you can respond to life's challenges in a positive way.  If you're feeling a little foggy, or just disconnected from the world, maybe it's time for some Nerve System house cleaning.  Give your upper cervical doctor a call today and get reconnected to Life.

Recognizing Your Potential With Upper Cervical Care

What major league pitcher in 1916 won 23 games while only losing 12? He had an American league leading earned run average of only 1.75 and led the league in shutouts (9). During the second game of the World Series that year he pitched 14 innings of Game 2, giving up only one run and six hits. With a season like that you would expect that this pitcher would be one of the great pitchers in the history of baseball. If you had to guess, you might say it was Walter Johnson, Christey Mattheson, Cy Young or Grover Cleveland Alexander. Whoever it was, you would conclude that he must have had a great pitching career. Yet while his career lasted 19 years, despite those 23 wins in 1916 (and 24 wins in 1917), he only won 94 games. The reason his total was so low was that from 1920 to 1933 he only pitched in five games (winning them all). Had he pitched more, he may have been one of the all-time greats. But in 1920 the New York Yankees changed Babe Ruth’s position from pitcher to outfielder. One thing is certain, playing in thirty or forty games a year as a pitcher, Babe Ruth would not have become associated with hitting home runs. He would never have reached his potential as a hitter. He had to focus on hitting rather than pitching, to be all that he could in the game. Had Babe Ruth begun his career in today’s American League, he never would have recognized his potential due to the designated hitter rule.

How many other people, for one reason or another, never recognize their potential? Not necessarily as a baseball player but in other areas of life. How many potential concert pianists never sit down at a piano? How many great statesmen never enter politics? We could conjecture forever about lost opportunities. But the one I would like to address is the person who does not recognize his or her potential because of a physical problem. Wilma Rudolph, who passed away sometime ago, was an Olympic track champion. But she had to overcome a physical problem, polio, as a child. She had to recognize her potential despite her childhood disease and then have the wherewithal to pursue that goal. It is not enough to recognize it; you also have to realize it. There are so many factors in both of these areas, factors such as inspiration, willpower, desire, motivation, and natural ability. There are many gifted people who recognize their potential but because of lack of motivation, desire, or willpower, they never realize their potential.

Upper Cervical Care plays a unique role in this entire concept. The upper cervical correction removes interference in the nervous system and allows the entire body to work better. The individual’s mental processes can work better, allowing greater recognition of potential. The individual’s physical processes can work better, energy levels can be improved, coordination can be better and stamina can increase. Everything works better with a good nerve supply. All of us will not be great athletes or concert pianists. But we all have the potential to be great at something. Whether it is a business executive, an employee, a house painter or a portrait painter, a college professor or a college student, a housewife or an auto mechanic. Whatever your role in life is, be excellent at it. Whatever else it takes, it starts with a properly functioning nervous system, free of interference. Upper Cervical Care doesn’t have all the answers but it has something to offer everyone.

One TN Patient's Experience

Perhaps their experience will guide you to the light at the end of your dark tunnel.

My story began 10 years ago with a fast onset of terrible pain. I went to the G.P., general dentist, oral surgeon, ENT, chiropractor, neurologist, neurosurgeon. It was the ENT professional who first diagnosed this after I had had the "usual" treatment of root canal and my dental fillings all changed to composites. After the diagnosis I was sent to the neurologist and on to the neurosurgeon who seemed gleeful to see me. When I balked at the first consultation, he assured me I "would be back." I have wandered through the usual maze of drug therapy, staggering, falling, and feeling in a daze. I have listened to others who swore by acupuncture (it did nothing for me); crystal therapy (yes, I tried that too!); chiropractic maneuvers (made it worse), and even having the offending nerve cut by an oral surgeon (permanent numbness but pain returned, of course). I have been depressed, given antidepressants, been more depressed, considered ending it all. But through it all I have worked! Have to. How? It has been an absolute heroic event. Finally, this past fall someone tried to convince me to try a "specialized chiropractic treatment" upper cervical. Sure, I thought. Another voo doo thing. I was sent a tape to listen to. The tape sat on my desk for months. One day I thought I would listen to it before I threw it out. Listened to it and thought, this is absurd. I listened to it several times and then thought, well, I'll try one more shot at voo doo. Finding one of these specialized people was hard. I did careful research, finally calling the national organization and spending a long time on the phone with the person in charge. I came away with two names of certified practitioners. I made an appointment and cancelled. Waited another few months. The pain was bad. Made another appointment and kept it. The specialist told me about the atlas bone in my spine. I was unconvinced, but now what did I have to lose? It was one more try with witchcraft or on to surgery. So, I gave it a try. I got better. I was skeptical. I am a tough patient. Since I started, I have had very good success with this procedure. I am now down way down on my meds. I can now function and eat and talk. I am still unwilling to say unequivocally that what I am doing will work for anyone else, but so far it has given me relief. At least the pain is gone...for now.

The Cream of the Crop

From NUCCA and Dr. Marshall Dickholtz

C1-THE BASIC SUBLUXATION

Throughout the history of chiropractic, the tendency has been to locate and adjust the "major" vertebra, or vertebrae thought to cause neurological harm to spinal nerves. This procedure was called "full spine adjusting" and is still widely practiced. In the 1920's B. J. Palmer, the developer of chiropractic, concentrated his research on the upper cervical spine as the predominant subluxation. This research was conducted at the Palmer Chiropractic Clinic at Davenport, Iowa for several years.

The move of chiropractic to the cervical spine (neck), although not too widespread in the profession, is justified if only for the reason that vertebral malposition in this area can detrimentally affect the brain stem and the upper spinal cord. This leads to detectable signs of postural defects in the subluxated body. If normal nerve supply cannot pass from the brain down through the brain stem and spinal cord, it is not logical to adjust lower vertebrae to restore this nerve flow at the top. The properly aligned Atlas (C-1) is the gateway to this restoration of nerve flow.

NUCCRA (National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Research Association) research findings confirm that the top vertebra, called the Atlas or C-1, of the spinal column is the predominant subluxation (Figure 2). The reasons for C-1 being the predominant subluxation are numerous.

SUMMARY

The NUCCA doctor's work is based on the Restoration Principle. This is his/her concern for the patient. While medical doctors base their treatment on making an exact diagnosis, the NUCCA doctor bases his/her services to the patient on an accurate analysis of the Atlas subluxation and its restoration to normal position, a process that helps the sick body to effectively combat its disease processes. This is the process of self-healing and is evident in every and any disease which the body contracts.

It has been truly said that man is his nervous system. He feels with it; sees with it; hears with it; detects and identifies odors with it; thinks with it, it relates him to his environment; it shapes his personality; he digests his food under its control; circulates his blood under its regulation; breathes because of its influence; it regulates his heart action; causes his organs to work and his body to move; its gray matter is the source of his life. In short, the extent to which man functions and the degree to which he lives depends on the activity of his nervous system.

Misaligned cervical vertebrae at the base of the skull change the electro-chemical flow of impulses through the nervous system, harmfully affecting normal functions at all levels of the body and causing bodily distortions and disease. When these misalignments occur, interfering with the normal electro-chemical nerve energy flow, their correction is essential to a patient's ability to heal.

The examination, analysis, and restoration of these misaligned vertebrae and their harmful effects on the body constitutes the service rendered by the NUCCA doctor.

Blood Pressure Emergency

HYPERTENSIVE Emergency Returns Within Minutes to the Pre-crisis Level Following an Upper Cervical Spinal Adjustment

Paul Mullin, D.C., and Robert Sinnott, D.C., L.C.P. (Hon.)

ABSTRACT

Objective: To define hypertension, hypertensive emergency, and to report a case in which a patient found immediate resolution of a hypertensive emergency subsequent to the delivery of an upper cervical adjustment. Authors are cited who have published hypotheses attempting to explain a possible link between upper cervical dynamics and lowered blood pressure.

Clinical Features: A 71-year-old male, who was experiencing a hypertensive emergency (300/204 mm Hg) with signs of encephalopathy, found immediate resolution following an upper cervical adjustment when four days of hospitalization and pharmaceutical measures had failed.

Intervention and Outcome: Upper cervical X-rays were analyzed for subluxation. A thermal pattern of the cervical spine, implying subluxation, was established using the Tytron 3000 paraspinal scanner.

The subluxation was then adjusted using the Palmer Upper Cervical Specific Toggle Recoil on a Zenith toggle table with a drop headpiece. The patient experienced immediate relief from the vertigo, and the blood pressure quickly returned to a pre-crisis level of 156/96 mm Hg. The patient has been feeling well, and his blood pressure has been stable for more than two years. The atlas subluxation has only been adjusted twice during the entire time frame.

Conclusion: The prompt drop in blood pressure and remission of associated symptoms following an upper cervical adjustment begs the question: Is there a relationship between these seemingly unrelated entities? Previous reports and hypotheses regarding hypertension and hypertensive emergencies are cited in an attempt to explain possible mechanisms.

HYPERTENSION AND NEUROLOGY

BY GILBERT SCHMIEDEL, D.C.

Blood pressure of 140 mm Hg systolic and 90 mm Hg diastolic is now considered by many authorities to be high blood pressure—hypertension.

Why? Is this a condition unto itself or is it compensation or a normal reaction to the demands of the body? Certainly the blood pressure (controlled ultimately by the nervous system) will elevate to accommodate exercise or increased body activity or other body needs. The blood pressure is often elevated during periods of stress or anxiety. However, increased blood pressure is often associated with pathological conditions that increase the body’s demands for increased circulation; vascular disease, kidney or respiratory conditions, obesity and hormone disturbances invariably place an abnormal demand on the heart. Many of these conditions and others are, of themselves, often responsive to Upper cervical care and therefore, concomitantly, high blood pressure may be alleviated. Some of these conditions may be the subject of future articles.

I would like to specifically address what might be called idiopathic hypertension—with no apparent etiology. Toward that end, let’s consider the neurological implications of cardiac control. The heart is one of those organs mutually innervated by two major components of the autonomic nervous system: vagal and sympathetic elements.

The autonomic elements of the vagus nerve arise from the nucleus ala cinerea in the medulla oblongata. Fibers from these neurons synapse with neurons in the cardiac plexus (at the base of the heart). The fibers from these neurons are generally inhibitory for the myocardium and constrict the coronary arteries.

The sympathetic elements arise from intermedio lateral cells of cord levels T 1-4. These fibers are conducted out of the neural canal through intervertebral foramina formed by upper thoracic vertebrae and ascend via the cervical part of the sympathetic gangliated trunk to the superior cervical ganglion (lies alongside C 2-3 vertebrae), middle cervical ganglion (at juncture of C 5-6 vertebrae), and stellate ganglion (at C7–T1 vertebrae). Fibers from these cells pass through the cardiac plexus and carry impulses that are the accelerators for the myocardium and cause dilation of the coronary arteries.

In addition to the autonomic (visceromotor) elements given above, there are vaso afferent structures that reflexively influence cardiac activity. The carotid body (glomus caroticum) located near the juncture of the common carotid artery and carotid sinus, which is a dilation at the commencement of the internal carotid artery, are respectively concerned with chemoreception (CO2 and O2) and baroreception (blood pressure reception). Other chemoreceptor cells are located in the heart wall. The glossopharyngeal, vagus and sympathetics supply these specialized receptor cells. The nucleus of the tractus solitarius (which receives impulses from the baroreceptors and chemoreceptor cells), nucleus ala cinerea and reticular formation (which carries autonomic impulses from the brain centers of the hypothalamus to intermedio lateral cells of the spinal cord) are found in the medulla oblongata, specifically that part of the medulla oblongata supplied exclusively by the lateral branch of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (a branch of the vertebral artery).

Atlanto occipital complex is most directly related to the neurovascular elements influencing cardiac function. Misalignment of the atlas or occiput may physically affect the medulla oblongata and the neuronal elements concerned with cardiac function; including the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (ala cinerea), nucleus solitarius (which receives vaso afferent impulses from blood pressure receptor cells and chemo receptor cells), and the reticular formation (of which some fibers synapse with intermediolateral cells in upper thoracic cord levels).

Along with neuronal elements directly affected, the vascular elements may be compromised, including the posterior inferior cerebellar artery, the lateral branch of which is the only source of blood to vital parts of the medulla oblongata. In conclusion, high blood pressure is often the consequence of many other predisposing factors—many of which are amenable to Upper Cervical care. High blood pressure may, however, be due to interference with the complex control system of the heart. In this case, interference at the atlanto occipital level is most likely and should be especially scrutinized by the Upper Cervical doctor.

The Mouse That Roared: Connecting the Nervous System to Diabetes

Excerpt from Dynamic Chiropractic, Jul 16, 2007 by Rosner, Anthony L

With a clarion-like pronouncement that would do Gabriel proud and which brings tears to the eyes of basic science researchers seeking their day in the sun with a medical breakthrough, researchers from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto proclaimed a link between the nervous system and diabetes. In a paper published in the basic sciences journal Cell, Razavi and her colleagues stated: "Our observations open new avenues for therapeutic strategies, raising the possibility that sensory nerve dysfunction may contribute to prediabetes initiation and progression in diabetes-prone humans."...

...What does all this mean? A neuropeptide is intimately connected to a hormonal defect leading to diabetes. In addition to suggesting further research leading to a possible new means of treating this debilitating and fatal disease, it tells us in no uncertain terms that the nervous and hormonal systems are intertwined. This obviously leads to the question of neural integrity and chiropractic. It offers more than a modicum of support to the very sparse observations in anything but the established frontline refereed medical journals that manipulation seems to have a palliative effect in diabetic patients:

1. One very preliminary observation tells us that in two patients undergoing a neurovascular technique, such complications as vision deterioration or development of foot ulcers seen in diabetic patients did not occur.

2. In another observation that was only barely more robust, using markers that are far more objective and reliable, Kfoury demonstrated that in a single patient, both glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin levels returned to normal after chiropractic adjustments.

Granted that these two factoids may be equated by some to reading tea leaves, they still provide food for thought when coupled with the thorough and groundbreaking findings of Razavi and her colleagues. This entire story emphasizes on no uncertain terms how basic research can uncover such key information to understanding the processes of disease and degeneration. It is the only way in which future productive clinical trials can be designed. And even though the chiropractic community can bask in the glory of having its central premise of chiropractic (the connection between neural integrity and health) supported in this research, it must learn from this key investigation to never lose sight of the basic sciences in being able to justify its means of health care delivery.

And of course Upper Cervical Care is targeted at removing, as precisely and completely as possible, the irritation to the most important part, the brain stem!