Helpful information for: avid runners, cyclists, marathoners, weekend joggers, and triathletes. Especially helpful for endurance athletes who’ve experienced repeated injury, and chronic pain related to athletics.

Monday March 8th, 2010: 7 to 8 PM. Ames Public Library, Community Room (Upstairs). Everyone is welcome.

Includes:

• The history of examining posture as it relates to human performance and illness, highlighting the groundbreaking work of Joel E. Goldthwait, MD
• The phenomenon of the “short functional leg” as recognized by orthopedists, podiatrists, and manual medicine, and a survey of treatments currently available.
• The unique connection between the cervical spine and posture and what it means for human performance.

Thanks to D Sharon Pruitt for the image used below.

Poster for the event

Editor’s note: Dr. Johnathan Oliver is a friend and a colleague practicing in the Grandview Heights area of Columbus, Ohio. This is taken from his practice website, where he tells about his whole family’s experience with upper cervical chiropractic care.

My daughter story, though, is the real miracle in my opinion. She has had severe eczema and allergic dermatitis. At times her whole body has been covered in a rash. This all started at about 4 months old.

(Even before her first rash, my wife and I noticed that she was always restless; never once sleeping through the night in those four months, and requiring us to walk with her for an hour each night before she would sleep.)

Baby with eczema

We tried every cream we could find–as many as 50 different creams, oils, and lotions just to give her relief. Many would make her rashes worse, and even burn. We noticed that the creams with mineral oil, lanolin and other additives made her react the worst. The disturbing thing is the fact that most were labeled “for eczema”. The rash was so bad that she would scratch until she bleed on her hands, the creases of her arms, and the back of her legs. Our pediatrician recommended we see a dermatologist.

The dermatologist was a very kind man and said that is was one of the worse cases he had ever seen. He recommended steroid cream due to the risk of infection. He gave us one of the strongest steroids he could, one made for adults. He thought it would be the only thing that might help. We tried it, and it did help…for a little while.But her skin would always flare back up right after use.

We were then sent to a specialist in allergic conditions. My daughter’s skin was so bad that they could not do any testing. So they recommend 12 days of Prednisone to clear up the skin…enough to do the test. Once again it worked a little while, but as soon as we slowed the Prednisone down, it flared back up.

We tried everything but nothing helped. We started giving her a bath ever single night in slightly cool water because luke-warm water would hurt her. She would cry many times when first getting in, due to her rash. Immediately after the bath we would put on Vaseline to help seal in some moisture. At times, I would wrap her wounds with cotton cloth coated with Vaseline so she could get a few hours rest. We tried every elimination diet possible, except the water only diet.

It came down to the last straw when my daughter had a deadly allergic reaction to peanuts. She ate a natural protein bar, which had nuts in, and began swelling up. Her airway was threatened. We took her to the E.R. and they gave her a shot of epinephrine. We still an epi-junior with with us to this day. Not long after she started having wheezing, a sign associated with asthma. And this was it… I knew something different had to happen.

The same day she started wheezing we drove 16 hours to Florida, only stopping for gas and food. We took her to see a pediatric upper cervical doctor, who practices the gentle, precise technique of Orthospinology. [Ed.'s note: this technique is similar to NUCCA.]

And after her first adjustment we went to the hotel and she slept through the night. This was the first time that I could remember her sleeping so long without scratching. Amazingly, she has not needed any more steroids since that day. Or Vaseline, or any other other creams, or lotions. She has only had fits of wheezing three times. We still do not eat wheat, but avoiding wheat only helped after her atlas (first bone in the neck) was adjusted.

Upper cervical care has given us our daughter back . And she is happy and healthy.

One of the reasons I chose to build my chiropractic practice in Ames, Iowa around the upper cervical spine (the area between the head/neck) was because of the profound results I had personally seen in some friends and family under upper cervical chiropractic care. Stories of MS relief were part of that decision.

Now as an upper cervical doctor, MS often comes up in conversations that I have with friends, acquaintances, and even strangers. People want to know: can chiropractic care help MS? And what about upper cervical chiropractic care in particular?

For some people these are controversial questions, as they fly in the face of some of our assumptions about what causes MS and the role of chiropractic care. Yet, there is a plausible theory at work here- that could explain why.

Find out what I think in this video blog entry. Available in three parts.

As you can see medicine has already recognized that changes in blood flow in key areas of the body (think brain and spinal cord) are related to a number of diseases. MS might just be one of those diseases. And if upper cervical chiropractors can really influence blood flow at this level, then we can see why upper cervical chiropractic is appropriate for MS patients.

Additional thoughts: If you have watched all three videos, you have learned that the NUCCA correction decreases the amount of venous outflow in the brain. One may then conclude that there is more blood perfusion total in the skull cavity, which may mean more nutrition for key areas of the nervous system. How this may relate to a breakdown of the myelin is anyone’s guess. One point is clear: we need money for more research.

Editor’s note: This guest post from Dr. Ian Bulow, Upper Cervical Doctor in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. You can read more about Dr. Bulow and his practice here.

I started taking care of a little boy in the office last week. We will call him “Johnny” for the time being.

Johnny is 7 years old. To see him in the car next to you, you would think nothing of him. But to KNOW what he has been through is a different story.

Johnny came in to our office because a true friend of his mother told her to bring him in.

Johnny gets seizures.

I wonder what that must feel like for him not to have control of his body from time to time (20+ times a day when he first came in to my office.) I wonder what it must be like for a parent not to have control of their child. Not to be able to HELP them when they want to the most.

Maybe I don’t wonder about such things…why would I want to?

So now let me wonder about better things.

Johnny is doing much better now.

His mother took the advice of her true friend and brought Johnny in for an UPPER CERVICAL evaluation. Sure enough, Johnny has a lot of stress in the area of his brain stem. (He should. He was dropped on his head only a couple months before the seizures started, in addition to having a c-section birth).

One SPECIFIC UPPER CERVICAL ADJUSTMENT and Johnny is doing better than he has in MONTHS, and to date he is continuing to stabilize.

Now, who is to blame? An easy question to ask, but the wrong question for such a time. So, lets try again: Who is to thank?

Me? I don’t think so. I simply move the bone, God’s design does the healing. So let’s thank Him first.

Johnny’s mom? Without a question! In fact Johnny’s mom was told NOT to bring her in to my office by Johnny’s  primary care provider. But she did what she KNEW IN HER HEART was the right thing to do: SOMETHING DIFFERENT! (If you want a change in your life then guess what? Something has to CHANGE)

How about the friend of Johnny’s mom? Where would Johnny be today had his mother’s friend not shared what she KNEW about Upper Cervical Care? I dare not wonder such things.

Moral of today’s story:

I want to thank each and every one of you who has made a DIFFERENCE in the lives around you by letting them know about Upper Cervical health care. God does not NEED Upper Cervical doctors to get sick people well, but we sure like being used by Him from time to time. Please give me that gift this year. Please allow me to check those in your life that you feel need a second opinion, need some hope, need their health to be RESTORED.

I pray that you had a safe and wonderful New Year celebration. I pray that you are so incredibly blessed this year that you have no choice but to thank the Lord in everything you do.

God Bless,

Ian

Thanks to Dr. Ian for letting me share this story with you.

After a pilot study published in the Journal of Human Hypertension (featured on WebMD) showed an association between upper cervical corrections and reduced blood pressure, Palmer College is continuing the investigation with the help of the National Institutes of Health.

CHiP will be directed by project co-leaders Dr. Christine Goertz from Palmer and Gervasio Lamas, M.D., a cardiovascular scientist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami who is known for his expertise in the conduct of large, complex, multi-site clinical trials. In addition, Joseph Bergstrom, D.O., director of medical education, Trinity Terrace Park family practice residency program, will be performing the blood pressure screenings and physical examinations for eligibility. Quad-City cardiologist Michael Giudici, M.D., FACP, FACC, FHRS, serves on the study’s Data and Safety Monitoring Committee.

Read the whole article at ChiroAccess. Or for another take on the study, please refer to  Chiro.org.

“The concept that manipulation of the upper cervical spine could reduce blood pressure is both novel and appealing at the same time,” said Dr. Lamas. “It is novel because of its originality of thought, and because it is backed up by preliminary data. It is appealing because any treatment for high blood pressure that does not expose patients to drugs and their side effects should be investigated.”

Christmas Wish #1:  More doctors like Dr. Bruce Bell.

A couple of decades ago, upper cervical chiropractic care  wasn’t on the radar of Dr. Bruce Bell, a family practice physician in the suburbs of Chicago.

Being a guy who loved his patients and science, he began to notice a trend among his patient population: some of them saw improvements in health status after receiving chiropractic care. He investigated it and discovered the NUCCA upper cervical approach to spinal balance.

That began a personal investigation into upper cervical chiropractic care. And over several years, Dr. Bell sent thousands of referrals to an upper cervical doctor, Dr. Marshall Dichholtz, Sr. of Chicago, Illinois.

The fruits of the Bell and Dickholtz working relationship weren’t just limited to happier patients. Dr. Bell insisted on trying to document some of the changes that he saw in his patients, and began the long task of trying to form a research investigation into NUCCA.

That investigation ended in the very groundbreaking pilot study on upper cervical care and hypertension featured in the Journal of Human Hypertension. In that pilot study it was shown there was a strong association between NUCCA upper cervical care and the reduction of blood pressure in high blood pressure patients.

Now the National Institutes of Health is funding another study to see if these findings can be reproduced among a larger patient population. And thousands of patients are discovering chiropractic care.

All of this wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for Dr. Bruce Bell, who stepped outside his experience, and found good things were happening for his patients under upper cervical care.

Christmas Wish #2: More money for chiropractic research

Right now the Upper Cervical Research Foundation is researching the relationship between the upper cervical spine, and a number of conditions which cause human suffering. And they aren’t the only ones. A number of chiropractic colleges have strong, award winning research departments, whose studies have been instrumental in expanding our understanding about the human body. And the relationship between our health and health of the spine.

But it wasn’t until as recently as 1998 that chiropractic institutions began to get significant funding from the National Institutes of Health. Right now those funding dollars add up to several millions of dollars a year, often spread out over many projects.

Compared to several decades ago, things are better than they were. But compared to the tens of billions of dollars the federal government gives medical institutions for research, per year, the amount is almost insignificant.

There are now many studies which support the inclusion of chiropractic care for a limited number of health conditions. Far more than there were 4o years ago. But for the public and the health care system to benefit from chiropractic care, we need to be able to show how and why we help.

We can’t do that without more research money.

Christmas Wish #3: More children under upper cervical chiropractic care

“I wish I would have tried this 30 years ago,” is a common phrase heard in my office, and the office of other chiropractors.

My response, though I don’t always say it, is:  ” No, someone should have checked you right after birth.”

Now, not every baby has a difficult birth. And many of our modern birthing methods can save the lives of seriously threatened infants. Yet, they can also place a lot of stress on the upper cervical spine of infants as they move through the birth canal. A process that already places stress on the child’s head and neck.

As a result of this stress, many children come into the world with their bodies out of balance, and they show evidence of it as they grow. For many this shows up as inability or refusal to nurse on one side, a distorted sleep posture (c-shaped bent to the side), stronger motor development on one side of the body than the other, and colicky symptoms.

This imbalance may have other implications for the health and development of the child, as detailed in this article: Manual Therapy in Children.

I can tell you from personal experience, that each of my children has only received a handful of adjustments, they tend to maintain their alignment for a long time, and don’t experience the health problems that plague their playmates, like colic, headaches, and ear infections.

Perhaps if more parents were willing to actually see if their child’s “head was on straight” we might be able to avoid some of the more serious,  problems that bring people to the doctor later on in life.

Thank you for reading my Christmas wish list! Here’s how you can make each of these wishes come true:

1. If you’re a chiropractic patient who’s seen major improvements in health since starting chiropractic care, share those changes with your primary care physician. They deserve to know what you’re doing.
2. If you’d like to have more groundbreaking chiropractic research, consider become a donating sponsor of the Upper Cervical Research Foundation. This is where you can donate.
3. If you’re a parent with a child who has health challenges, consider the possibility that your child’s spinal alignment has a role to play in their health maintenance and healthy development. And get your child to a chiropractor.

Have a blessed Holiday!

Mary did the standard things her doctors told her to do, and went through a bunch of different headache medicines. None of them seemed to work. And the side effects weren’t helpful. So, after living with persistent daily headaches for years, she finally took matters into her own hands and took a chance on upper cervical chiropractic care.

And I’m glad she did. After several minutes of just looking at her posture, I could tell she was misaligned between the head and neck.

Click to listen to her story. Or read the transcript below.

I’ve really noticed headaches since probably early teens, for the most part. Noticing them everyday, definitely. Saw a few doctors in my hometown who were just like, “Hey, it’s headaches. Not much we can do about it.” So I was taking a lot of Excedrin, basically everyday, probably more than you should. So it’s good I’ve gotten away from that.

But also went to a couple of doctors in Iowa City, at the university, who’ve done MRIs, CAT scans, all kinds of tests like that…blood tests. Just to make sure there’s no tumors or anything , because they couldn’t figure anything out.

Until I found you.

It’s hard. Because a lot people really don’t have headaches that often. Maybe once a month or something like that. They really don’t understand what it’s like to have them every single day, and basically all day. It’s something really different for me not to have headaches, since I was having them everyday.

Until I came here I didn’t know what it was like to not have a headache for a day. It’s definitely been a drastic improvement. I haven’t’ really met a people who’ve had the same kind of problem.

The most surprising thing to me is that I’m holding the alignment so well for right now. It’s been, what, a month about, since the last adjustment, and I’ve been still headache free since then. Which is really good. And I was also just surprised after the first alignment, the next day, when I didn’t have a headache at all. It was really amazing to have that feeling of not having the pain. So that was definitely really surprising. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work, how quickly it would work. That was the biggest, best part for me.

It was good Mary  got all of that testing to rule out the tumors and other brain abnormalities. But, at the end of the day, she still had the headaches. And still suffered for years without anyone even thinking of recommending that she “get her head on straight” with our unique upper cervical protocol. The University of Iowa has all the advanced diagnostic imaging you can imagine. But they still don’t know the postural signs of an upper cervical misalignment.

Right now only consulting with an upper cervical chiropractor is the best way to know for sure if you might benefit from upper cervical chiropractic care.

Call the office to set up your complimentary consultation with the doctor and experience a completely new way of looking at the body. (515) 233-1623

If you’re out of the central Iowa area, email me and I’ll try to connect you with a doctor in your area. drzward at fastmail dot fm.

Thank you to Candy for allowing me to share her story so that others might know that a drug-free, surgery-free way is available.

BEFORE

I had severe muscle spasms in my neck. To the point to where it was just debilitating. I could do nothing but lay flat and hope there was no jar or movement. And when the actual spasm would go away: loss of range of motion, tenderness, continued pain that would be intermittent, stiffness in my shoulders, and between my should blades, and that stiffness would radiate on down to my lower back and my legs.

NOW

…I feel like a new woman. I’ve got really good range of motion in my neck. And all the shoulder pain is gone. The pain between my shoulder blades is gone. My lower back feels a lot less rigid, and my legs seem to be much more limber than they were before.

I sleep better because I don’t have the neck pain associated with laying my head on the pillow. And I just feel like I can function so much better.

…You can come in feeling rotten and leave feeling like you’ve got the world licked…

The surprising thing to me is how gentle the treatment is, and how much benefit you have. I come in with one leg significantly shorter than the other, and then after a few minutes, I’m all even with world again. And everything is level and my muscles are functioning correctly. The pain is gone. I just cannot believe that for the short amount of time that I need to spend here, and for as gentle the treatment is, that I get that much benefit.

If you are suffering and haven’t found the answer that you’re looking for, consider the possibility that upper cervical care might be that answer. Please see my “Am I candidate for NUCCA care?” answer sheet, or call the office to set up your complimentary consultation with the doctor and experience a completely new way of looking at the body. (515)-233-1623

If you’re out of the central Iowa area, email me and I’ll try to connect you with a doctor in your area. drzward at fastmail dot fm.

A local cycling expert Ronn Ritz gives us the history of cycling in America, coaches us on how to find a bicycle for us, and gives us his personal advice for living a balanced life.

As the geographic center of the crossing of State 30 and US 35, Ames, Iowa is often on the route for the famous RAGBRAI race, and is a great place to shop for a bicycle.

Click below to listen, or download a copy to go.

Also, see this excerpt from Cycling pain’s hidden cause and what to do about it on this site.