Is Chiropractic Care All It’s Cracked Up To Be?

By Lauren Roth, Winter 2010 - Online Exlusive

Do any of you suffer from Headaches? Poor concentration? Difficulty sleeping? Asthma? Indigestion? High blood pressure? ADHD? Back pain? If so, there may be something that can help alleviate those negative health problems without medication. This “something” I’m talking about is upper cervical chiropractic care.

Many of you probably think of a typical chiropractic visit as lying on your back as the chiropractor cracks your neck and back. Well, in some cases that is generally correct. However, there are several different techniques and forms of chiropractic care that are more specific and tailored to what a person needs in order to get their body functioning at its best.

Not all chiropractors are solely concerned with reducing back and neck pain. Actually, many of them have been quite outspoken about the various other kinds of conditions that they are able to help through treatment. This special type of care has been shown to reduce symptoms of all of those ailments listed above, as well as numerous others. You might be saying, “Then why haven’t I heard of it before?” Well, The National Institute of Health allocates only 1% of their funding to complementary, alternative, and preventative medicine research. Therefore, much of the current research is restricted to case studies. However, with increased funding, chiropractors will be able to conduct larger studies.

A 2007 pilot study by Bakris, Dickholtz Sr., & Meyer produced a 17 mm Hg drop in blood pressure over eight weeks, with 85% of participants in the treatment condition only requiring one atlas alignment.

Upper cervical specific chiropractors are concerned with the health of a particular part of the nervous system called the brainstem. The brainstem is integral in controlling and operating the entire body, making its functionality essential for overall health.

Dr. Clum from The Specific Chiropractic Center in Oakland states that the most common improvements she sees with her patients are in their sleep, digestion, back and neck pain, headaches, range of motion, and clarity of thinking and overall wellbeing.

Chiropractors recommend monthly checkups so that problems do not get worse over time. Just because we are absent of symptoms, doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem. Clearly this article is far from exhaustive, so if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask me for further information.