Profound Yet Simple

by Earl W. Powell, Ph.D.

Many of the most profound ideas in life are really very simple and many of the most simple things in life are really very profound. For instance, the basic ideas of many religions can often be stated simply, but they are ideas that have been profound enough to change the course of millions of lives, and indeed, the course of history.

Simple ideas, or what is afterwards thought of as simple, often come through long study and research -- painstaking trial and error until at last the truth is found. Then upon this truth is built a great and lasting contribution of vital concern, sometimes to all mankind.

Much of the simple truth of chiropractic has come this way. Dedicated men and women searching for answers without closed minds, accumulating knowledge dating back even to the father of health philosophy, Hippocrates.

What is this simple idea that now benefits the health of millions people around the world? It is simply that the nerve system is the "message-carrier" of good health to every part of your body. When there is an interference with the messages to and from the brain, in the nerve system, ill-health will result.

There is no more perfectly ordered mechanism in all of creation than the living body. All that is essential to the maintenance of good health is contained WITHIN us and, so long as the life forces commanded by our innate intelligence are permitted to flow freely through the nerve system good health is the inevitable result. Because of the great wealth of knowledge developed over the years, chiropractors today can find nerve interference with greater ease and adjust the spine with greater accuracy to open "nerve contact" and let the message of good health get through.

The profound wish for good health can most often be fulfilled with the simple truth of chiropractic.

Avoid the Flu…Upper Cervical Care Can Help

The first line of defense against the flu or any contagious dis-ease is a healthy, fully functioning immune system. The immune system is affected by the nerve system through the connections with the endocrine and the autonomic nervous system. Stressful conditions lead to altered measures of immune function, and altered susceptibility to a variety of diseases. Many stimuli, which primarily act on the central nervous system, can profoundly alter immune responses. The two routes available to the central nervous system are neuro-endocrine channels and autonomic nerve channels. Upper cervical care improves this function by removing nerve interference and allowing brain to body communication to be resumed.

We encourage you to explore the wonders of upper cervical care if you currently know little about it. Who can benefit? – Everyone, from infants to seniors, mothers-to-be, athletes, and accident victims will benefit from a healthy spine and nervous system.

A Simple Concept

Upper Cervical Care is based on the universal law of cause and effect. For every effect or symptom (physical or mental), there must be a cause. Upper Cervical doctors focus their efforts on locating and correcting interference to the nervous system and this may be the cause of your health condition. Correcting this interference can allow the body to heal itself naturally. An Upper Cervical Correction is gentle and there is no forceful pulling, twisting or jerking motion of your neck. The correction is applied using a precise and controlled touch that allows the head, neck, and spine to return to their proper positions, restoring balance to the body and removing the interference.

What Is Upper Cervical Care?

Upper Cervical care is a rapidly growing form of chiropractic that focuses on the intimate relationship between the first two bones in the neck, called the Upper Cervical spine, and a vital portion of the nervous system, known as the brain stem. This relationship is essential to the body’s ability to preserve and restore health. Think of the brain stem as the control center that extends down an opening in the base of your skull, making it vulnerable to injuries or irritation around the upper neck. The brain stem works like a telephone cable with thousands of individual wires or nerve fibers sending signals back and forth between the brain and spinal cord to every cell, organ and system in the body. Every nerve impulse between the brain and the body must pass through the brain stem. The nervous system is responsible for all communication within the body. It coordinates and maintains your immune system, emotions, vision, hearing, balance, breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, muscle tension, posture, hormones, and every other function. Irritation or pressure within the central nervous system can interrupt communication between the brain and the body, thus contributing to a variety of health problems.

The top vertebrae, the Atlas, is especially vulnerable to injury or misalignment because it is the most mobile segment of the spine. If neglected, an Upper Cervical misalignment may lead to irreversible spinal degeneration and chronic ill health. Upper Cervical misalignments can be caused by falls, auto accidents, sports, job injuries, concussions, physical or emotional stress, poor posture, or even birth trauma.

To learn more about Upper Cervical Care, please visit www.uppercervicalcare.com or www.upcspine.com.

Two Reasons Why Upper Cervical Care is Attractive

Adapted from "Chiropractic is attractive because..."

by Bill Esteb 

1. It trusts the wisdom of the body.

Many upper cervical doctors overlook this when explaining upper cervical care to patients. Perhaps this is because the allure of showing up as the hero, mimicking the attitude of traditional doctors, is more gratifying than telling the truth about the nature of healing. In other words, doctors, of any ilk, don't heal. Nor do drugs. Or adjustments!

Recovering one's health is a shedding process not an acquiring process. Which is to say, we each have within us the ability to heal. Usually, health can manifest by reducing obstructions or interferences rather than filling a void because something is missing.

We're not flawed, we're merely blocked. We're not deficient, we're merely constrained from our fullest expression. We're not suffering a drug shortage, we're merely exceeding our ability to accommodate one or more stressors. Patients are fully equipped for health. It's not you, it's them.

2. It’s simple.

By the second quarter in college, many upper cervical doctors have lost the simple elegance and minimalism of the care they provide. Obfuscated by technique, practice procedures, physiology and beneath layers of dogma and seminar rhetoric, upper cervical doctors sometimes emerge later as spinal therapists, medical doctor wannabes, patient pleasers or just confused.

The principles of upper cervical care often take a backseat to the practice of it and the "how" of practice often eclipses the "why." In the process, patients rarely learn that their nervous system controls the whole show and releasing their potential to self heal and function optimally, mediated by the nervous system is the focus of upper cervical care—not pain relief, posture restoration or even "treating" subluxations.

Obviously, this creates a major communication challenge. This week ask your upper cervical doctor to tell you the truth. And to do it simply. Because as Einstein observed, "If you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well enough."