March 16, 2007 — A special chiropractic adjustment can significantly lower high blood pressure, a placebo-controlled study suggests.

“This procedure has the effect of not one, but two blood-pressure medications given in combination,” study leader George Bakris, MD, tells WebMD. “And it seems to be adverse-event free. We saw no side effects and no problems,” adds Bakris, director of the University of Chicago hypertension center.

Eight weeks after undergoing the procedure, 25 patients with early-stage high blood pressure had significantly lower blood pressure than 25 similar patients who underwent a sham chiropractic adjustment. Because patients can’t feel the technique, they were unable to tell which group they were in.

X-rays showed that the procedure realigned the Atlas vertebra — the doughnut-like bone at the very top of the spine — with the spine in the treated patients, but not in the sham-treated patients.

Compared to the sham-treated patients, those who got the real procedure saw an average 14 mm Hg greater drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure count), and an average 8 mm Hg greater drop in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom blood pressure number).

None of the patients took blood pressure medicine during the eight-week study.

“When the statistician brought me the data, I actually didn’t believe it. It was way too good to be true,” Bakris says. “The statistician said, ‘I don’t even believe it.’ But we checked for everything, and there it was.”

Bakris and colleagues report their findings in the advance online issue of the Journal of Human Hypertension.

Atlas Adjustment and Hypertension

The procedure calls for adjustment of the C-1 vertebra. It’s called the Atlas vertebra because it holds up the head, just as the titan Atlas holds up the world in Greek mythology.

Marshall Dickholtz Sr., DC, of the Chiropractic Health Center, in Chicago, is the 84-year-old chiropractor who performed all the procedures in the study. He calls the Atlas vertebra “the fuse box to the body.”

“At the base of the brain are two centers that control all the muscles of the body. If you pinch the base of the brain — if the Atlas gets locked in a position as little as a half a millimeter out of line — it doesn’t cause any pain but it upsets these centers,” Dickholtz tells WebMD.

The subtle adjustment is practiced by the very small subgroup of chiropractors certified in National Upper Cervical Chiropractic (NUCCA) techniques. The procedure employs precise measurements to determine a patient’s Atlas vertebra alignment. If realignment is deemed necessary, the chiropractor uses his or her hands to gently manipulate the vertebra.

“We are not doctors. We are spinal engineers,” Dickholtz says. “We use mathematics, geometry, and physics to learn how to slide everything back into place.”

What does this have to do with high blood pressure ?

Bakris notes that some researchers have suggested that injury to the Atlas vertebra can affect blood flow in the arteries at the base of the skull. Dickholtz thinks the misaligned Atlas triggers release of signals that make the arteries contract. Whether the procedure actually fixes such injuries is unknown, Bakris says.

Bakris began the study after a fellow doctor told him that something strange was happening in his family practice. The doctor had been sending some of his patients to a chiropractor. Some of these patients had high blood pressure.

Yet after seeing the chiropractor, the patients’ blood pressure had normalized — and a few of them were able to stop taking their blood pressure medications.

So Bakris, then at Rush University, designed the pilot study with 50 patients. He’s now organizing a much bigger clinical trial.

“Is it going to be for everybody with high blood pressure? No,” Bakris says. “We clearly need to identify those who can benefit. It is pretty clear that some kind of head or neck trauma early in life is related to this. This is really a work in progress. It is certainly in the early stages of research.”

Dickholtz has been teaching, practicing, and studying the NUCCA technique for 50 years. He says high blood pressure is far from the only thing an Atlas misalignment causes.

“On the other hand, if people have high blood pressure, there is a tremendous possibility they need an Atlas adjustment,” he says.

This weekend we went to an incredible gathering of 500 principled chiropractors from around the world.  It is always an inspiring experience to be surrounded by people who have a burning desire to serve humanity. I am so honored and humbled to be with people the desire to change the world with their two hands through the specific, powerful, innate chiropractic adjustment.
This weekend was a wonderful celebration of the gift of chiropractic in my life.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to share my gifts with everyone this weekend as one of the featured speakers.  God has called me to inspire others to become better chiropractors from the inside out.

With Love,

Justin Brown, DC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AofWcbL5o24

Many times people will come into the office telling me about the “miraculous” results they have experienced after getting a specific upper neck adjustment.  They literally think it is magic or some mysterious power healed them.  I often celebrate this wonderful change with them but know that the real miracle is the LIFE inside the living person.  The LIFE is distorted when the head and neck compress the brainstem and interfere with mental impulses through the central nervous system.  When we specifically correct the spinal misalignment and restore proper life force into the body the “miracle” takes place.  LIFE is restored.  The inborn, innate intelligence maximizes its potential to the cells, tissues, and organs.

How is it that we as humans know exactly what to do in order to get what we want in life, yet we still do not choose to do what it takes.  Every mentor of mine over the last 10 years has told me to wake up early EVERY DAY.  I know that is a success principle.  I don’t wonder if it works for some people and not for others.  In order to get completely clear, connected, and in tune with God, it takes at least 30 minutes of prayer, deep breathing, reading, and journaling to prepare for all of the people counting on me as their chiropractor.  I wake up early, 5:00 am most mornings of the week, BUT I was not waking up EVERY morning of the week in preparation.  Now it is public.  I have voiced that I am now a person that dedicated 7 days a week to waking up before the world does to prepare mentally, physically, and spiritually to serve the masses.  So I am now prepared to see more people, serve more, and save more people.  The time is now.  As you read this, think about how are you preparing yourself to achieve all you want in life.  Do the right thing today.  Let that one step propel you to the next 10 or 20 right things.  Wake up the next day, ON TIME, with purpose and do the right thing.  Do not become weary in doing good.  Whether it is our health, relationships, finances or anything else, the success consists in the climb.  Now is the time to make change and take charge.  God has a huge purpose for each of us so stop playing it safe.  The harvest is already there but do you believe you deserve it.  If so, go get it and enjoy.

The power that made the body heals the body. When I first heard this statement I thought it was interesting and a wonderful statement in describing Where healing comes from. As with anything in life my perspective has changed and so has my understnzding of life itself. The same exact statement has a much deeper and magnificent meaning to me today. As a principled chiropractor serving people for the last 6 years, I have come to see this statement as one of the most profound truths known to man. Let’s break it down and build it up again.

The POWER that made the body heals the body. What is the power? Where does it come from? The power refers to the all knowing inborn wisdom inside each of us that runs, regulates, controls, coordinates every function in the body every second of our lives. We call it innate intelligence because it is the internal wisdom we are born with and stays with us until the moment the body passes. The POWER builds us up,provides intuition, provides health, and
Provides all the proper parts doing exactly what is needed for survival. This power is what gives us a gut feeling. The power tells us when to look behind us because danger is coming. This power lives within every cell, tissue, and organ of the body. We can conclude that the power is transmitted through the nervous system being that the nervous system is the first system created in the fetus and is the MASTER system of all others. Where does the power come from? The power comes from GOD. Regardless of religious affiliations or beliefs, GOD is the universal intelligence of all. All includes you and I. If god has the ability to take 2 cells and create a live, viable, complex human being, do you believe that God can heal?

The specifically applied chiropractic adjustment removes interference to the nervous system allowing for proper communication from brain to body thereby restoring the Power to heal the body.

Innate Driven Life: Is your faith in rubber bands?: “You have probably heard of or own a rubber bracelet with a piece of shiny metal in it called a power balance band or some rip off of t…”

You have probably heard of or own a rubber bracelet with a piece of shiny metal in it called a power balance band or some rip off of the original. The power balance band touts itself as giving you balance and power and therefore giving you an edge over the competition. REALLY? Wow that sounds AWESOME. Listen up all of your powerband faithfuls. I don’t doubt for a second that the band will help you try harder, work harder and do more if you believe it will. But why not BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. My faith is in my creator and the all knowing power he put in me called INNATE INTELLIGENCE. By getting my atlas corrected I get a REAL edge in life. I tap into the dormant potential and achieve new levels of health, fitness, prosperity, love, and service. I live in full joy because of the chiropractic adjustment (giving and recieving). The adjustment restores physical, mental, and spiritual BALANCE and provides the essential POWER to do all that is necessary to MAXIMIZE LIFE.