By Dr. Blackketter
We are excited to share another upper cervical testimonial story on a case of chronic neck pain, headaches, and Ulcerative Colitis. UC is an Inflammatory Bowel Disorder, or IBD. (Inflammatory Bowel Disorders have been called “autoimmune diseases” and they are not to be confused with a transient and less serious condition called Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS, or spastic colon). Crohn’s Disease (CD), aka regional enteritis, is another IBD like Ulcerative Colitis. In fact, Crohn’s and UC are so similar that sometimes the medical diagnosis is UC or CD or even the vague, Indeterminate Colitis.
All of these fancy words basically mean the same thing:
“Your colon is inflamed, sick, and not functioning properly.”
What a serious mess, literally. This dys-function, or dis-ease if you will, is very painful, inconvenient and troublesome for the afflicted, and messy…Whew!!
Back to our amazing case study. It is really a testimony of the recuperative healing power of the body.
Watch the video in her own words, and read about how this young woman suffered with an awful medical condition for many years. She had no hope until she experienced the life-changing results of our vitalistic upper cervical specific chiropractic approach to healthcare!
It started back in 1994 while in nursing school. She was originally told she had a colon condition or “functional bowel disorder” called IBS, and that it was stress and food related.
But in 2001 after a snowboarding accident which gave her a concussion, her signs and symptoms escalated to the point where she needed a colonoscopy (endoscope of lower GI tract). Through biopsies she was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis.
While pregnant with her 2nd child in 2003, she had a severe flareup of the UC symptoms and was hospitalized for a week. At that time they diagnosed her with Megacolon – a very serious condition – and told her that if she “ever went off of the extremely high dose of Asacol that she would end up with a colostomy!”
Her doctors did not connect the IBD or any of her health problems with the trauma, but said, “UC is a chronic disease whose precise etiology (cause) is still unknown. Take these pills and we’ll run regular scopes of your colon to monitor its condition.”
Fast forward to 2013:
12 years after the snowboarding concussion, this 38 year old female came into our office…she was still sick and still in pain.
Her original complaints were “daily chronic debilitating neck pain (for at least 9 years), also constant headaches in the back of her skull, as well as pain in the R shoulder, and middle & lower back.”
Living with the pain affected her sleeping, daily activities, and mood. She reported feeling irritable, mentally agitated, unable to focus, and depressed.
During the consultation she mentioned taking medication for depression and ulcerative colitis, in addition to some anti-inflammatory pain pills.
I told her we need to “correct the cause” of her problems rather than continue “treating symptoms” with prescription medication and physical therapy. She agreed…because these drugs and therapies were not fixing her problem, and she “didn’t want to continue going through life like a walking pharmacy!”
Prior to coming to see us, her new gastroenterologist was very concerned about the awful condition of her colon. She was questioned about the massive amount of medication she was using to deal with the symptoms. It was described as an aggressive dosage usually only taken at those levels for extreme acute flare ups of UC and “during the initial treatment phase of the disease, but not for long term maintenance.”
We found the problem was in her upper neck. She had tension & inflammation at the level of the brain stem resulting from a significant spinal misalignment (subluxation) between her neck and the base of her skull. We ran thermography scans, analyzed her posture, did leg checks, palpated the spine, and took the Blair upper cervical films.
The x-rays showed evidence of injury to the spine from a head and neck trauma.
She was adjusted using the Blair upper cervical specific technique. The vertebral segments involved were the Atlas and Axis (1st and 2nd cervical vertebrae in the upper neck).
There was no popping, no twisting, no cracking, and no traction on the spine. This conservative approach to correct the spine is a vector-based adjustment by hand which is formulated from precision x-rays. Specific Chiropractors customize each person’s adjustment for each individual’s unique anatomy.
Even though we performed an upper cervical adjustment only, her entire spine and nerve system AND digestive tract responded and immediately began to heal and function better.
After a short time she reported: “I’m feeling incredibly normal.”
No pain.
She was now able to sleep through the night, sit up straight, drive, and work without pain.
Thinking clearly was another great benefit!
A huge surprise was NO more colon symptoms. “I’m NOT constantly running to the bathroom anymore!”
Normal digestive and bowel function returned for the first time in many years.
No more medication for the colitis!!
And she reduced her depression medication by one-half at first and now (May 2013) she is only taking 1/4 of her depression meds and doing well!
Click here to read more of her story
(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.)
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