With the WebMD report becoming a banner for Specific Upper Cervical, we are getting questions about “just what will Upper Cervical chiropractic cure”? First of all, we have to make certain a patient is a candidate for chiropractic care. Most people are, to one degree or another, but an exam and full upper cervical evaluation is necessary to really determine if a patient will benefit from care. I’ve always said that “if you don’t have a chiropractic condition, chiropractic won’t help but if you have a chiropractic condition, nothing but chiropractic will help“.

Just what is a “Chiropractic condition”? A classic chiropractic term that describes a chiropractic condition is SUBLUXATION. Now it seems as a profession, we seem to use the word less than we used to. But it is a chiropractic term. If I may use a definition that seems to represent the majority of chiropractors; A subluxation is an area of disharmony in the spine which interferes with the functioning of the nerve system. Adjusting subluxations removes the interference, restores proper nerve functioning, and allows your body to restore and fully express health through its own innate healing ability.

So who can benefit from chiropractic care? Anyone with a subluxation. Think of it this way. You are driving down the road in your vehicle and there is no problem with your vehicle, the tires are pressurized properly, the tires are balanced, handles very effortlessly with no pulling to either side. Unsuspectedly you hit a pot-hole in the road. It is a hard hit and you swerve a little. Now you notice your car pulling to the side and you have to maintain tension on the steering wheel to keep it in the lane. What just happened? Something got knocked out of alignment. Exactly the same thing happens with your spine. You have a car wreck, you fall on ice, you get hit hard play football or collide playing soccer. There are any number of incidents that can cause your spine to “get out of alignment or subluxated”.

The problem is that most people haven’t been educated to know the effects of incidents that cause subluxations. Typically, individuals seek to treat the symptoms that are caused by the subluxations but rarely do they understand what is takes to treat the underlying cause. We have not educated the public that we must adequately assess the spine for subluxations and get them corrected. Our job as chiropractors is to find the subluxations and fix them if possible. We are more concerned with the correction of the subluxation than the symptoms a person is feeling. If the symptoms are due to the subluxation then the body’s own innate ability to heal will remove the symptoms if the subluxation is removed.

Chiropractic is really pretty simple. Correct the subluxation, remove the interference, then let the body heal itself.

Now what if a person has cancer. Do we treat cancer? NO. But the patient should be evaluated for subluxations and get those corrected. Who knows, maybe the nervous system can stimulate the immune system strongly enough that the body could deal with the cancer internally and heal itself. It has been reported to have occurred.

When the nervous system is free of interference from subluxations, it will function at or near 100% regardless of age or health condition.