About 80% of people will suffer from back pain at one time or another in their life. However, what if you are dealing with chronic back problems that are starting to affect your work, home, and social lives? Then it is time to find natural alternatives that offer long-term relief. You can’t spend your entire life reaching for a bottle of pills every time the pain starts back up again. That’s why you want natural relief. But what is the best way to take care of your spine?
We are going to take a look at a specific form of chiropractic care that has been able to help many patients to get lower back relief despite focusing care higher on the spine. You may not have heard of upper cervical specific chiropractic before, but that’s okay. We’re going to explain to you what makes it unique and how it can help with chronic cases of back pain.
Table of Contents
There are a few things that you need to understand in order to know how this specific form of chiropractic may be able to help relieve chronic back issues. We are going to begin by looking at four ways upper cervical chiropractic care may be different from what you are currently using to try and get back pain relief. Then we will conclude by explaining the link between the upper neck and the lower back.
Upper cervical chiropractic focuses on just the top two bones in the spine, the C1 and C2 vertebrae. Since spinal health flows from the top down, this makes a lot of sense (but more on that later). For now, the vital thing to understand is that the top two bones in the neck balance the skull, protect the brainstem, and help facilitate blood flow to the brain. They are so crucial to good health that even the slimmest of misalignments can have far-reaching effects in the body.
Diagnostic imaging helps us to get a three-dimensional look at the C1 (atlas) and C2 (axis) location. Most practitioners will not perform the first adjustment on the same day as the x-rays. This is because time is needed to measure the misalignment precisely and to calculate an adjustment that is unique to your needs. However, this precision is crucial to the success of the correction.
Upper cervical chiropractic care does not involve any of the twisting or popping of the spine that people usually associate with chiropractic care. This is because the adjustments are so precise that they can be gentle. We may be moving your C1 and C2 just a fraction of a millimeter at a time, so there is no cracking or jerking motion necessary. Depending on the methods of your practitioner, the adjustment may be made manually or with an adjusting instrument preprogrammed with your precise correction. Either way, the adjustment will be safe for patients of all ages and health levels. In the rare case where a person’s neck cannot handle an adjustment, this would reveal itself in the initial x-rays, and an alternative form of care would be recommended.
Because the corrections are gentle, the body doesn’t immediately begin to work against them. In fact, once the surrounding soft tissue has stabilized, upper cervical adjustments may hold in place for weeks, months, or even longer. In other words, most patients can begin to space their appointments out after just a few adjustments. That also makes upper cervical chiropractic care very cost-effective when contrasted with many other ways to deal with chronic back pain. Just think about all the money you may have spent over the years on over the counter pain relievers such as NSAIDs. Upper cervical chiropractic may provide some medical savings in the long-run.
These are a few things you may not have known about this specific form of chiropractic care. However, we still need to explain the link between upper cervical misalignments and your back pain.
We have already mentioned the concept that spinal health flows from the top down. The delicate balance of the skull plays a critical part in this connection. If the C1 and C2 become misaligned by even a fraction of a degree, the body causes other changes to take place along the spine to keep your head correctly aligned. However, this can lead to a difference in shoulder heights, hip heights, and even leg lengths.
As the changes move down along the spine, they often become greater and greater in degree and may lead to a stressed position for the spine, disc issues, or even pinched nerves. Therefore, while the underlying problem is in the neck, you are feeling the pain where the most dramatic changes have taken place.
While you can address issues at the location of the pain, unless the underlying problem is relieved, the pain will just keep coming back. That is why upper cervical chiropractic care has been the ultimate solution that some patients with chronic back pain have been searching for.
If you are dealing with chronic back pain, especially if you have a history of head or neck injuries in the past, this may be the natural form of care for you. To learn more, schedule a no-obligation consultation today.
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TV show host Montel Williams describes how specific chiropractic care has helped his body.
The content and materials provided in this web site are for informational and educational purposes only and are not intended to supplement or comprise a medical diagnosis or other professional opinion, or to be used in lieu of a consultation with a physician or competent health care professional for medical diagnosis and/or treatment. All content and materials including research papers, case studies and testimonials summarizing patients' responses to care are intended for educational purposes only and do not imply a guarantee of benefit. Individual results may vary, depending upon several factors including age of the patient, severity of the condition, severity of the spinal injury, and duration of time the condition has been present.
