What is Upper Cervical Chiropractic?
Upper cervical chiropractors practice a speciality of chiropractic that focuses on the upper cervical region of the spine.
C1/C2 or Atlas/Axis are the bones of the upper cervical region of the spine. An upper cervical chiropractor analyzes the alignment of these two bones relative to the head and the rest of the body.
We do this because there are so many important things that live in this region. Two major blood vessels pass through here, the vertebral arteries, and supply all of the blood to the brain. Cerebrospinal fluid enters and exits the brain through the foramen magnum, located at the base of the skull. The alignment of the foramen magnum and the upper cervical spine can impact the flow of CSF. Additionally, the brainstem also lives in this area. The brainstem is responsible for all of our primitive functions such as breathing, blood pressure, and hormone production.
Finally, the alignment of the upper cervical region to the head determines the alignment of the rest of the body. This is because there are special receptors called proprioceptors that tell your brain where your body is in space. A misalignment here causes your body to compensate and give you a high shoulder, or hip like this image:
So yes, you can have low back pain or knee pain that may be caused by a misalignment of the upper cervical spine!
There are many specialities within upper cervical chiropractic itself. At Anatomy, we practice Atlas Orthogonal Chiropractic. Atlas Orthogonal chiropractic is a low force speciality within upper cervical chiropractic. We know, it’s a lot of words ha!
This gentle approach to aligning the upper cervical spine is effective in treating headaches, migraines, dizziness, and many other neurological conditions.
