The Upper Cervical Spine And The Down Pillow

(Editor's Note:  Today's post is from my good friend Dr. Adam Tanase.  He discusses the problems with down pillows and there is a link to an article of his about how to select the right pillow.  My one suggestion would be that if you are seeing an Upper Cervical Chiropractor and you are maintaining your correction for long periods of time, use a down pillow and have issues with other pillows...keep using the down.  Each of us is different so for a few of us a down pillow may be best but in general I agree with Dr. Tanase's assessment of down pillow below...enjoy!)

The Worst Pillow Money Can Buy

by Dr. Adam Tanase

                                              

I’m not exaggerating when I say that the worst pillows you can buy are those made with down feathers.

In fact, it’s my professional opinion that feather pillows are the most unsupportive and inadequate sleeping pillows on the market. They interfere with quality sleep in three ways:

1) Inconsistent Support

There’s no uniformity or consistency of the sleeping surface. While you’re resting on them, the feathers might be clustered together near the shoulder, or pushed up close to the top your head. Maybe they’re bunched up behind your ear. That’s the problem - it’s never the same. At one moment you’re cozy and supported. Minutes later, your neck will be turned a few degrees because the feathers settle into a lower/flatter position. It’s almost as if you’re sleeping on an entirely different pillow each night. Your body isn’t a fan of this variability.

2) Heat Retention and Poor Air Flow

Down jackets are immensely popular in cold weather climates because of their ability to keep you warm. Similarly, down comforters are most popular during the winter months. See where this is going? Feathers = Heat. Your body doesn’t like to be too hot… so if this happens while sleeping, you automatically wake up to change positions. Doing this over and over again throughout the night interferes with your quality of sleep, causing you to feel groggy and unrested in the morning.

3) Imbalance Between the Head & Neck

The importance of maintaining proper head/neck alignment cannot be overstated. The feathers inside down pillows inevitably get bulked together creating a slanted/wedged pillow angle that bends the head/neck of side-sleepers in a “kinked” manner. This applies undue stress and strain to muscles, joints, and ligaments within the neck, which can trigger headaches, arm/hand pain, acute muscle spasms, or chronic neck tension.

What Should You Get Instead?

Here’s my review of six types of sleeping pillows that you might find useful. In short, I’m a big fan of latex pillows. They properly support the head/neck, last for nearly a decade, won’t retain heat, and are an overall great value.

Upper Cervical Care And Sleep Disorders?

Sleep Disorders

At least 40 million Americans each year suffer from chronic, long-term sleep disorders and an additional 20 million experience occasional sleep problems. Of the 70 known sleep disorders, the most common are:

Insomnia, the most prevalent of the sleep disorders, is characterized by an inability to fall asleep and/or by waking up during the night and having difficulty going back to sleep.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a potentially life-threatening disorder in which breathing is interrupted during sleep. An estimated 12 million Americans have OSA.

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a neurological movement disorder that often is associated with unpleasant leg sensations and an almost irresistible urge to move the legs.

Narcolepsy is a chronic disorder characterized by excessive and overwhelming daytime sleepiness, even after adequate nighttime sleep. Daytime sleep attacks may occur with or without warning and may be uncontrollable.

Many Americans struggle through episodes of sleep disorders on their own, while others may use over-the-counter drugs, prescription drugs, or sleeping devices to combat them. A growing number of people are seeking Upper Cervical Care with great success while avoiding the potential side affects or dependence on outside means.


Sleep and Overall Health

People spend about one third of their lives asleep. Nonetheless, people generally know little about the importance of sleep. Even scientists do not fully understand the function of sleep. They do agree, however, it is absolutely essential for good physical and mental health and for survival.

Loss of sleep creates an overwhelming, and sometimes uncontrollable, need to sleep and affects virtually all-physiological functions. Problem sleepiness is associated with difficulty concentrating, memory lapses, complex thought, loss of energy, fatigue, lethargy, impaired motor response and emotional instability. Problem sleepiness can even be deadly. Approximately 100,000 automobile accidents each year result from drivers who were “asleep at the wheel.”

The functions of many organ systems are linked to sleep cycles, like the endocrine system (hormone secretion), the renal system (blood filtering) and alimentary activity (digestion). Studies also show that sleep deprivation affects the immune system in detrimental ways. In addition, sleep loss can alter temperature regulation and increase the risk for various physical and mental disorders.


Sleep and The Brain Stem

Sleep is a highly organized sequence of events that follows a regular, cyclic program each night. It is controlled and coordinated in the brain stem and brain. The brain stem region, known as the pons, is critical for initiating REM sleep (the dream cycle).

The brain stem, which can be compared to a telephone cable with thousands of individual wires or nerve fibers sending signals between the brain and the body, controls nearly all vital, bodily functions. Misalignments in the upper cervical spine (neck) can affect the function of the brain stem, which can be a critical factor in many health problems including sleep disorders.

Misalignments may be caused by a number of things, including bumps, falls, car accidents and emotional stress, just to name a few. Health problems may appear immediately after the injury or several years later.


Upper Cervical Care and Sleep Disorders

Upper Cervical doctors are getting exceptional results with patients suffering with sleep disturbances. Clinical trials and case studies document the improvement in patients with sleep disorders while receiving Upper Cervical Care.

Disclaimer: (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 sleep disorders or any other condition, disease or symptom.)

Just How Does The Body Work?

How the Body Works

-Author Unknown

Most people have been led to believe eating nutritious foods (including supplements), drinking plenty of fluids, exercising regularly, sleeping well and having a clean air supply will keep you healthy.

Well ....

These things are a vital part of living a healthy lifestyle - but every function in your body is under the regulation and coordination of your nerve system, which must operate at 100% for optimal health.

The Nerve System Houses Your Brain Messages:

Think about it. Your brain isn't programmed to make you sick or diseased - ever. Each human brain and nerve system is totally 100% programmed for optimal health and wellness and will manifest this every time unless interfered with somewhere in the system. Your brain stores thousands of genetic coding far beyond our scientific understanding of the body.

Establishing an Uninterrupted Nerve Flow is a Major Key to Optimal Health:

Your brain is continuously producing vital messages which are brilliantly decoded into electrical impulses with the purpose of performing an important function in a specific place in your body. Millions of these messages are sent every second of your life passing from your brain to your body cells and equally important, from your body cells back to your brain. Anything that interrupts the proper flow of electrical impulses through your nerve system should set off loud beeping alarms in the body, but it often doesn't - usually not until a certain amount of damage has already been accumulated.

Take a moment, followed by a lifetime, to appreciate your body and your innate life force that controls all body functions. Periodic upper cervical care can contribute in a big way to maintaining your body balance and achieve optimal health.

Want More Sleep? Try Upper Cervical Care

13 Benefits Of Upper Cervical Care: Part 5

With all the labor-saving devices of our modern society, somehow we never seem to have more time to sleep. We just seem to have more activities to fill our time. Studies have demonstrated that most people do not believe that they get enough sleep. This, despite the fact that everyone knows that getting the proper rest is essential to health and well being. It is also interesting that you never hear someone say, “Boy, I’ve been getting too much sleep lately, I need to cut back.” They may say that about exercise or eating but never sleep. In fact, if a person continually gets a great amount of sleep they usually still do not feel rested and the conclusion often is that there is something physically wrong with them!

So how much sleep does the average person need? Actually, no one cares what the average person needs. Everyone really wants to know how much they need, and frankly, no one can tell you that. The amount each individual needs is an individual thing. It varies from person to person, and also from day to day depending upon physical and mental activity, as well as physiological changes taking place in your body on a given day and the general stress level in your life. If no one can know how much we need, how can we know what is the necessary amount of sleep?

The answer lies in listening to our bodies. Our bodies tell us when we are tired, when we need to go to bed and get some sleep. In a similar manner, we can know when we have gotten enough sleep, that is when we wake up refreshed and feel like we have more energy. We do not get drowsy during the course of the day and when we finally go to sleep at night, we quickly fall into a deep restful sleep. That is the way it should be, and for many people life is like that. These are the people whose bodies are working as they should. Their body is producing the right chemicals in the right amount for them to get a restful sleep and to wake up refreshed. We know chemicals make us sleep and keep us awake. After all, people take chemicals in the form of drugs to go to sleep or stay awake. The problem is that it is not the natural way. The body is not producing those chemicals and as a result, they have to have harmful side-effects.

How well your body is producing “sleep chemicals” and “awake chemicals” is a function of your innate wisdom and the nerve system which directs the production of those chemicals. How quickly and how deeply you fall asleep is also a direct function of your nerve system. When there is an interference in the nerve system due to head/neck misalignment, your body just cannot function as it should and the sleep-regulating system, as well as every other system in your body can be negatively affected. By checking your spine periodically, upper cervical care can correct these interference causing misalignments as soon as possible. This results in a minimum of nerve interference to the sleep-regulating mechanism. As a result, your body works better. You may be able to get to sleep sooner, get to a deeper, more restful sleep and awaken refreshed. Upper cervical care cannot provide more hours of sleep time in your day but it can make the hours that you do sleep more productive, more refreshing and more restorative and that may be even better than having more time to sleep.