Upper Cervical Care (Atlas Correction)
Upper Cervical Care (Atlas Correction)
“As goes the head, so goes the rest of the body.” – Dr. Salisbury
Our Upper Cervical approach uses a percussive sound wave to correct the Upper Cervical misalignment complex. The low force of this type of adjustment allows wider patient populations (such as those with osteoporosis, certain types of disc injuries, surgical fusions, etc) to be candidates for this treatment. Most patients are thrilled to hear that there is no cracking, popping or twisting involved.
As part of the West Jordan, UT upper cervical chiropractic care we provide, we use a device much like the one featured on the TV show, The Doctors:
When people talk about chiropractic “miracle” stories it’s usually from an adjustment to the upper cervical part of the spine, right where the top two bones in the neck meet the skull. The reason why upper cervical practitioners consistently see such dramatic results is because our education, experience, and tools allow us to pinpoint (down to the millimeter) how this complex is misaligned so we can appropriately and gently correct it.
So why does the alignment in this region even matter so much to begin with? There are many reasons for this, but each of these reasons has to do with the proximity this joint complex is in relation to the Brainstem, the junction between your brain and spinal cord, where all the autonomic functions of your body are controlled.
Research has indicated that even the subtlest misalignment at this critical junction point at the base of the brainstem can cause a sort of bottle-necking effect on the spinal cord, putting direct pressure on its sensitive tissue. Just as a wreck on the freeway causes major backup to traffic, any insult to this area blocks nerve signals traveling into and out of the brain. Removing this tension on the spinal cord with Upper Cervical chiropractic is like cleaning up the wreck and opening up more lanes on the freeway. Everything functions better.
When the top bones in the neck are not aligned correctly the head shifts and tilts to one side. This head tilt makes it so the eyes are no longer even with the horizon so your brain corrects this through the “righting reflex,” in an attempt to get the head and eyes level with the horizon again.
In the effort to keep the head over the center of the neck, the muscles on one side become tighter than the other, the spine and pelvis will twist as a result which then causes one leg to shorten. As a consequence, nearly every joint surface in your body below this point will wear unevenly resulting in compensatory neck pain, headaches, back pain, rib misalignments, hip pain, sciatica, knee degeneration and disturbances to one’s gait.
As upper cervical chiropractors in West Jordan, we see more dramatic results in fewer visits because we correct the cause and not all of the numerous bodily compensations. That way if we later need to address a fixation somewhere else in the body we aren’t fighting against a wound up rubber-band, so to speak.
Patients often say things like, “i feel like my back unwound and i no longer have that persistent pull in my back,” or “its as if my back self-adjusts now, and the pain doesn’t come back as it did when i used to have to go back again and again to my other chiropractor.” etc.
Getting your head on straight is not just an axiom, its a reality.
