Helping people get back into alignment is a fascinating thing.  The experience is different for every individual. 

I notice that people who work very hard every day often feel exhausted for the first 3-7 days after their first NUCCA spinal correction.  Its as if their brain finally gets the message their body has been trying to send it!  Sometimes the opposite is true. 

People may spend their days with a total lack of motivation, living in exhaustion, and when they get back into alignment, its as if the message their brain has been trying to send their body finally gets through!

Whatever the case is for you, when you are in alignment, you are better able to operate at your potential--in touch with your inner guidance--on both a conscious and sub-conscious level.

NUCCA practitioners facilitate the mind-body connection in a very objective manner.

                                         Before                                                       After

Which x-ray image do you think represents a more complete mind-body connection?  Feeling an internal disconnection?  Get your head on straight!

When I was in my Head and Neck Anatomy lecure in chiropractic college I remember the instructor referring to the jugular veins and the "Main Brain Vein Drain."  While that was a funny and catchy way to remember what the jugular does, I didn't realize the significance of that "drain" until recently.

A few months ago I heard about new research that is showing the migraine headaches, and even MS, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's disease are related to hypoxia (low blood flow through the brain).  In medicine this research has inspired new surgical techniques that are helping people with these conditions.  One surgical technique is called the CTOS technique.  It involves cutting some muscles in the lower neck, that are thought to impede blood flow into the brain when they are spastic.  Another procedure involves putting a shunt into the jugular vein to help the brain "drain."  Of course any surgical procedure involves risk.  Its always best to seek natural, non-invasive options as a first resort.

NUCCA has been shown to boost venous return (increase blood flow in the the jugular veins).  This was verified using phase-contrast MRI.  Currently NUCCA is leading a large clinical study to demonstrate this increase in blood flow in a research setting in people with migraine headaches.  Case studies have shown NUCCA to be helpful for people with MS, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. 

The anatomy of the cervical spine also has additional significance.  Considering that blood vesses actually pass through the boney extensions of the vertebrae.  The vertrbral artery passes through the sides of the atlas and wraps around and into the brain.  It isn't hard to concieve that stress at the head/neck relationship could impede the blood flow into the brain!

Other symptoms of low blood supply to the brain may include mental fog or sluggishness and forgetfullness.

If your brain isn't operating at its best, how can YOU be your best?  Get checked by a NUCCA specialist today! 

Every day in my office I hear stories of people going from doctor to doctor and never getting any help.  Very often,  these people began their journey when a significant health problem came on following a big trauma to the body, especially the head or neck.  Some of these people have consulted with the best neurologists, physical therapists, and orthopedists medicine has to offer.  The often have tried alternatives such as accupuncture, cranial sactral therapy, and massage as well.  Sometimes these interventions help the problem, sometimes they don't, sometimes it gets worse. 

The common thread is however, "I hit my head, and then.........."  Often it's that realization that brings them to me.  I specialize in helping people get their heads on straight (or in scientific terms, return the head and neck to orthogonal normal). 

When the head is not sitting squarely atop the spine, it stresses the human nervous system (and the rest of the physiology under its control) a great deal.  Sometimes people develop hypoxia (lack of oxegenation and blood flow) to the brain.  This may manifest as migraine headaches, or in advanced cases, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or Multiple Sclerosis.

At Wellspring Centre for Body Balance we are in the process of organizing a research study to track the incidence of these conditions in people with a history of head and neck trauma.  If you, or someone you know, has ex

perienced a trauma to the head and neck, do yourself a favor and get checked by a NUCCA specialist!

For the last year especially, everyone has been talking about health care reform.  Views from every side have been presented, fought over, dismissed, accepted, and distorted, etc.  The ironic thing about the whole argument of "health care reform" is that it never was about "health care. " It was always about "health insurance."  The United States is sick, we rank number 37 amoung industrialized nations for health, and it only keeps dropping.  One group blames the problem on our lack of a "single-payer" system, others blame corporate dominance on our health care system (and food system).  All the sides hold a valid part of the argument. 

The biggest issue, I feel, however is a tough one to swallow.  Thats because its really the only one we can personally do something about.  Its called personal responsibility!  We all have a tendancy to want to blame external "powers" for our problems, and from a certain perspective thats true, its just not productive. 

Both the government and big insurance companies see only one thing:  The bottom line.  How do YOU fit into the bottom line?  YOU don't.  YOU become a statistic.  What's the alternative?  The alternative is to stand up for YOU and take responsibility for your health.  The nice thing is that there are significant tax benefits to doing this as well! 

I am a big advocate of the Health Savings Account (HSA) coupled with catastrophic medical insurance.  The HSA is great because it allows you to save pre-tax money into an interest bearing account and spend it tax-free on health expenses.  The best part is that what the IRS deems health expense truely includes health expenses (not just medical expenses like insurance does).  This means rather than fighting an insurance company to cover your midwife assisted homebirth, your accupuncture care, and your chiropractic care, YOU pay for it becasue YOU deem it necessary!  Imagine that!  Talk about freedom.  Also, all of that money you save up just keeps rolling over from year to year.  No need to frantically spend it at the end of each year.  When you retire, it becomes a retirement account!

Accidents happen, no doubt, thats why coupling this HSA account with a qualified high deductible catastrophic medical insurance is great.  When your body is broken into bits from a car crash, you can't be responsible for your health care.  You need to turn it over to an institution that knows what they're doing, knowing it won't bankrupt you.  Pay a couple hundred dollars a month towards the insurance, and the rest of the money you'd be putting toward premium, save in your HSA.  Spend it if you need it!  Save it if you don't.  Taking repsonsibility begins to spread through other areas of your life: what you eat, where you spend your free time, etc will come into alignment with your ideals.

Every day in my office I help people get their heads on straight... Literally! 

Whether your head hasn't been on straight since birth, or it happened later in life, your body has been trying to adapt to this imbalance since!  Adaptations keep us alive in the moment, but aren't always the most ideal for optimal health.

Imbalance, especially imbalance over time, leads to wear and tear on the spine, and major joints, and stress on the nervous system.  Think about it.  The brain runs on information.  It gets information from every cell in the body.  It uses that information to get an idea of what is going on in the body and give instruction to coordinate all of the body's functions.  If the brain is getting stressed, imbalanced information, its going to give imbalanced instruction!

The goal of the NUCCA spinal correction is to put the head on straight, giving the brain vital balanced information so the brain can give the body balanced instruction.