Upper Cervical FAQ

How can Body Imbalance cause me to have physical problems?

The C1 or Atlas is a donut-shaped bone that your skull rests on. Your spinal cord & brainstem coming out of your brain, passes through the hole in the center of the donut shaped vertebra. Your spinal cord at that point consists of trillions of nerve fibers (the nervous system) that “bottle-neck” through the small opening in the atlas. These fibers eventually branch off carrying information to every part of your body. If the C1 vertebra is out of its proper position – it can irritate, constrict or disrupt vital nerve signals to any portion of your body. This can cause muscle or joint pain, organ dysfunction, lowered immune system and countless other conditions that you would not ordinarily relate to a problem originating in your neck.

When head tilt develops and the body becomes imbalanced, the spinal cord, just below the brain stem, becomes irritated, restricting or distorting the flow of healing messages from the brain to that part of the body serviced by these irritated nerves. This can cause pain and suffering and decrease the quality of your life.

When the body is balanced, spinal cord irritation and tension is removed. Proper communication from the brain to the affected areas of the body is restored. A balances body will maintain health at optimum level.

Is it painful to correct?

Fortunately, no. The Upper Cervical Correction can be described as a light percussion sound wave aligned to a predetermined direction to the first bone (Atlas) in the neck. It is 100% painless. You will not even feel the adjustment itself – but after it is done, you will start to feel and see amazing things happen. When the correction is made, muscles begin to relax, blood and oxygen circulation is increased, the brain is able to communicate with the affected area, and the body’s natural healing process begins. The healing process continues as long as body balance is maintained and the brain can communicate with all parts of the body

Does it have to be corrected often?

That depends on your own body. Some people can hold their correction for several months, even year’s at a time. Others have to be corrected a couple of times in the first several weeks or months. Everyone is different. The Upper Cervical doctor’s objective is to make as precise an Atlas Upper Cervical correction as possible. Then the Atlas doctor must help you maintain the correction with as few corrections as possible so that you may live pain free and enjoy a better quality of life. Periodic Upper Cervical checkups, just like dental checkups and physicals, should be part of your personal preventive health care program.

I am concerned about radiation from the x-rays. Are they completely necessary?

Yes, they are the cornerstone of the Upper Cervical Atlas Orthogonal doctor’s practice and these x-rays are very specialized, and unlike those you would normally get at a regular chiropractor or medical doctor. Modern chiropractic equipment today along with lead aprons keeps radiation down to a minimum. X-rays used in hospitals can generate 10-20 times more radiation than the x-rays used by UC doctors. Also, you get more radiation from sitting in front of your TV set for 10 hours than from UC x-rays. Another example, you get more radiation from 8 hours in the hot Florida sun, than you would from 4 UC x-rays.

Plus, any minimal danger from radiation, in our opinion, cannot be compared to the destruction that is going on in your body every minute your atlas obstructs brain to body communication. Any shift the atlas makes can cause multiple health problems. But sometimes that shift in position is no greater than a few millimeters. The Upper Cervical doctor has to rely on x-rays to determine the exact position your Atlas vertebra have misaligned. The specific analysis of the x-rays will allow the doctor how to reposition your atlas back to the correct position it should be.

After correcting the Atlas, a second series of x-rays (might) be taken as ‘post x-rays’ to determine how well the Atlas re-aligned and helps the doctor predict future patterns. These are referred to as pre and post x-rays. You will NOT be x-rayed every visit. Only a few x-rays in the beginning… and you are than on your way to feeling better & good health.