When it comes to Upper Cervical Chiropractic, there are plenty of health symptoms that you may automatically think would be alleviated through an adjustment. In truth though, there are a lot of health issues you may never even consider seeing me for. High blood pressure is usually one of those things you would never even think of bringing up during your visit to me.
The good news is that a research study found that an “Atlas” adjustment in the upper cervical part of your neck could significantly lower your blood pressure. Dr. George Bakris, did a study in 2007 as the director of the University of Chicago hypertension center. Here’s what he found during his study.
“This procedure has the effect of not one, but two blood-pressure medications given in combination,” said Dr. Bakris. “And it seems to be an adverse-free event. We saw no side effects and no problems.”
In the study, none of the patients took blood pressure medicine. Half of those who were studied got upper cervical adjustments and the other half got “fake” adjustments. Those with the real adjustments had a significant drop in their blood pressure.
“When the statistician brought me the data, I actually didn’t believe it. It was way too good to be true,” said Bakris. “The statistician said, ‘I don’t even believe it.’ But we checked for everything and there it was.”
Bakris decided to do that study after a fellow doctor told him something strange was happening in his family practice. The doctor had been sending some of his patients to an upper cervical chiropractor and some of them had high blood pressure. After seen the chiropractor, the patients’ blood pressure had normalized and a few of them were able to stop taking their blood pressure medications. So Bakris decided to do a formal study of it.
“Is it going to be for everybody with high blood pressure? No,” Bakris said. “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. On the other hand, if people have high blood pressure, there is a tremendous possibility they need an Atlas adjustment.”
We’ve seen patients’ have great results in this area as well. In fact, I hope you’ll take the time to watch the testimonial video we’ve provided here as well. This patient was beside himself, because in spite of a change in diet and exercise and multiple medications, his blood pressure kept rising. He saw great improvement after just one adjustment.
So if you’ve gone to your primary care physician and you’ve gotten a diagnosis of high blood pressure, you should give us a call at 239-243-8810.