What every chiropractic patient should know
Why the Atlas?
Restoring the atlas and the spinal column to their normal position on the vertical axis removes/reduces the excessive neurological flow throughout the spinal cord, and reduces spastic contracture of the spinal extensor muscles, which in turn realigns the spine and pelvis. The joints of the spine and pelvis can then work normally because their centres of gravity rest on the body’s vertical axis.
The atlas is located at the base of the skull and, thus, makes the central nervous system (i.e., brain and spinal cord) vulnerable to interference when the atlas subluxates, or misaligns. Because the atlas misaligns in more than one plane of motion relative to the skull and lower cervical vertebrae, x-rays in three planes are essential in determining these vertebral misalignments. Accurately measuring each person’s misalignment assures the proper adjustment for the person and increases the probability of correction.
From this, one can easily understand why the NUCCA adjustment is a very difficult motor skill to master. Chiropractors who become proficient in its use even after years of study and practice still must take x-rays after the first adjustment to determine if the maximum correction of the atlas has been made and all errors have been eliminated.
Chiropractors Don’t Heal
The adjustment does not heal the patient. Neither does it relieve symptoms. The healing is done by the patient’s own body, by its own immune system. What the adjustment does do is remove interference to normal nerve function. Normal performance of the patient’s nervous system is vital to the body’s ability to self-heal. The adjustment restores the normal activity of the nervous system affected by the vertebral subluxation.
Medical research is being done today to better understand this self-healing process. The science of neuro-immunology explores the ability of the body to combat and to conquer disease. It is now recognised that, had self-healing not existed, mankind would not have survived through the centuries. A simple example of self-healing is the ability of the body to mend a broken bone after it has been set. Interference to the nervous system by an atlas subluxation retards and/or prevents the ability of the body to heal itself. For this reason, regardless of the nature of the disease process – whether the common cold or cancer – the patient kept free of neurological interference will benefit, even in conjunction with other treatment.
Do Symptoms Matter?
Yes and no. Symptoms are merely signals from the body that indicate change. Not the problem, the signal. However, what causes symptoms for one person will not cause symptoms for another. Unfortunately, vertebral subluxation will produce imbalance in the body structure long before symptoms occur in most cases. Relief of symptoms, therefore, is a secondary effect of the adjustment. First, there must be a re-setting of the misaligned or subluxated vertebrace, and a period of time that the vertebrae hold their normal positions until the healing process is complete.
Moreover, symptoms are variables in that they are not really indicative of the patient’s true state of health. Many factors influence how a patient feels: stress, fatigue, weather conditions, state of mind, etc. Therefore, adjustments cannot be predicated on how the patient feels at any given time. “I feel bad” or “I feel good” is not a sufficient reason to adjust or not to adjust. The only safe and reliable method is to check the patient for the presence or absence of neurological interference and postural distortion. If no evidence of imbalance is detected, no adjustment is rendered.
Increased Body Awareness
Following the first adjustment, either immediately or within a few hours, the patient may experience a warming sensation or a tingling sensation in an arm, leg, lower back, or in the chest or abdomen. This response is observed to occur in patients with health problems in these areas. Reactions are attributed to an increase in the activity of the sensory or input nerves. Impressions to the brain are increased by the adjustment and the patient may be made more aware of his/her health problem. This phenomenon occurs only in cases where the subluxation is interfering with the sensory nerves by blocking off sensory information to the brain.
Occasionally, a patient may briefly experience an increase in his or her symptoms after the first adjustment. Again, the reason is the removal of the blocking of the sensory system, permitting increased sensation to the brain. Patients will not experience this phenomenon from healthy areas of the body. A full feedback by way of the sensory nervous system seems needed in self-healing.
Responsibilities
The doctor of chiropractic’s responsibility in upper cervical practice is to correctly analyse the subluxation and to measure its distortion effects on the patient’s body. The analysis consists of x-raying the C1 subluxation, measuring the degrees of the vertebral displacements into the planes of motion, and establishing the procedure for the adjustment in each case. Treatment consists of maximally reducing the misalignments of the atlas, restoring the spinal and pelvic distortions to the vertical axis of the body, and monitoring the patient’s progress.
It is crucial that a patient comply to obtain the best results because vertebral subluxation is a complex mechanism. The patient should be monitored until the body is stable in a balanced position. Muscular and ligament damage create weakness that will likely take weeks or months to stabilise. The patient should be checked for neurological interference regardless how he or she feels. S/he should also realise that some subluxations are more difficult to handle than others, and some cases are pathological whereas others are functional. The latter respond more rapidly to NUCCA care.
Recovery Time
A rough assessment of a patient’s rate of recovery depends on:
- His/her type of condition
- The length of the time the patient has been subluxated
- The time required for nerve and/or tissue repair
- The protection the patient gives his/her adjustment
- General state of the patient’s health and age
- Patient’s exposure to stress and fatigue
- Environmental factors affecting the patient
- The injuries the patient may suffer during the treatment period
- How long the adjustment holds its restored position
- The difficulty of the adjustment
The presence of anomalies, malformations, and pathologies in the cervical spine also delay recovery.
Patients should report all injuries to the doctor, however slight, as they may produce a change in the subluxation pattern, requiring a change in the adjustment. The healing process ceases whenever the subluxation recurs, and whenever the pattern changes the adjustment is no longer effective.
The patient who “holds” his/her adjustment (i.e., requires no adjustment) will obtain faster results. S/he may not immediately feel better because healing time is required, but response is more certain. There are, however, many reasons why subluxation recurs. Injuries and patient care of the adjustment have been discussed. In some cases tendons become stretched in the original injury that produced the subluxation. Tendons, once stretched, do not regain their tonicity. The head rests on the atlas and weighs about 10 pounds, resting on a very small surface. This arrangement makes for instability. Additionally, no bony locks exist, as in other spinal vertebrae, to hold the atlas in place after it has been re-set.
Exercise
Patients frequently engage in exercise programmes. These exercises, in some cases, can be harmful to patient progress. You should advise your chiropractor of the type of exercise they are currently engaged in and discuss their effects with them.
The NUCCA system of chiropractic practice is a natural health system that requires precise measurement of the displacements of the atlas vertebra, and those underlying vertebrae that are involved in the subluxation complex. From these postural and x-ray measurements, an adjustment (correction) is structured for each patient that will maximally reduce all the vertebral displacements. The purpose of the adjustments is to normalise the patient’s electro-chemical flow over his/her nervous system, restore the distortions of the spinal column to the body’s vertical axis, activate self-healing, and return the body to a state of health.