TrojansOwl1
New member
- Joined
- May 1, 2013
Hello Nat Med Talk Community,
I'm posting this here because not too long ago I visited sites like this one, conducted daily searches through scientific and medical journals and visited medical specialists across the country trying to find answers to my health issues. Fortunately, I found them in a treatment called Upper Cervical Care, and I would like to share it with you. First, however, I'd like to briefly tell you my story.
On the morning of September 3, 2007 I woke up, and I knew something wasn't right. I had dizzy spells and felt a headache coming on. I thought perhaps I hadn't slept well so I went back to sleep, awoke a few hours later and found my symptoms had only worsened. Within a few weeks, I would develop most of the symptoms and conditions that I would suffer from non-stop for the next 32 months: one continuous headache, brain fog, decreased cognitive function, dizziness, neck and upper body pain, severe back spasms and muscle twitches, chronic fatigue, disk degeneration, anxiety, depression, insomnia, night sweats, tmj, digestion issues, "electric shock" feelings throughout my upper body, seasonal allergies -- you get the idea. It got to the point where I knew I wouldn't have a career or a job or a family and the person that I used to be was gradually fading, never to come back. After almost three years, you begin to take the elapsed time into consideration and think, "There's been billions of humans that have lived and died with pain. Why would I be any different from any body else? Why will I figure this out when no one has?" I saw medical specialists in Dallas, Houston, DC and Los Angeles, was administered every test, treatment and scan all without answers. I received some diagnoses but these labels were meaningless as nothing was being done to improve my health. Eventually, I saw a psychiatrist because you're made to feel like you're simply just stressed or that it's "all in your head". These doctors had good intentions, they just couldn't help me. What medicine did tell me is that they felt some of my issues were coming from my neck. Why that was or how to fix them though, they weren't sure. With this information, eventually I decided to look outside of mainstream medicine and that's when I found Upper Cervical Care. I always tell people that it was the last thing I found, but also the first thing that actually made sense. I started treatment, felt immediate relief and as the months passed my health gradually returned -- as they say in UCC, "top-down, inside out". The first night after my correction, for the first time in years, I slept eleven hours straight through the night. When I woke up and saw the sun shining through the curtains, I sat up and cried. Perhaps this story, or at least parts of it, resonate with some of you.
There are many health treatments out there both "allopathic" and "alternative" that really help people and I'm not here to argue about their effectiveness, but I do want to present a different option and a unique approach. The difference between UCC and every treatment I've ever come across is that it's not symptom-based -- it's principle-based. They're not going to treat you based on how you feel, where it hurts or what your symptom or condition is. That's what I see everywhere else: for example, if you have back pain, then let's do surgery or physical therapy; if you have allergies, then take these herbs. Upper Cervical Care does not work that way.
It's based on one principle: when the top bone (or two) in your neck are slightly misaligned then that creates pressure on the brainstem and causes the body to go into a state of degenerative health. As you may know, neurologists call the brainstem "the center of life" because it controls the automatic functions of our bodies, including blood pressure, cardiac function, breathing, sweating, balance, digestion, sleep, and perhaps most importantly for some with back pain, muscle tonicity through out the body, etc. It's where the nervous system bottlenecks as it goes back into the brain and if there's interference there, then the evidence suggests, the body malfunctions.
I often ask myself how or why we would have such an important area of our nervous system in such a vulnerable place. Those two bones are what allow us to pan and tilt our heads, but that flexibility comes at the expense of stability. Physical and emotional trauma such as falls, sports, emotional stress and even the birth process cause those bones to misalign or -- subluxate -- and they remain that way. Not only is the brainstem jammed but the body begins to compensate for the head being off center which is what appears to cause back pain and muscle aches throughout the body. When the "correction" is made, the brainstem is released and the body begins to work the way it's supposed to and when that happens symptoms and conditions resolve inside out. As far as back pain goes, when the head is on straight, the muscles relax and begin to pull the segments of the spine back into proper alignment. As long as that head's on crooked, there's going to be back issues.
So the approach is very different. I came across UCC when I was desperate for answers but it just made total sense to me. I though "Duh! No wonder I have a searing sensation in the back of my head!" A lot of people, however, don't experience neck pain or headaches. It affects all of us in different ways. There is not a symptom or condition I have not seen respond -- everything from allergies and asthma to male and female issues, physical or emotional conditions, it doesn't really matter. And again, it's not treating the symptom -- that's the difference. And the reason, I think, people get well.
It actually has a fascinating history as it was developed by the developer of chiropractic, B.J. Palmer. Back in the 1920s, he observed that people weren't getting well through general chiropractic care and he sought to find out why and how to get all or most people well not just some. He discovered the less he adjusted the better people got, until he narrowed it down to the top two bones in the neck. And he only adjusted when his tests showed it was needed -- not based on how a patient felt. Some of the major differences between UCC and chiropractic or physical therapy manipulation is that the correction are very gentle -- there is no popping or twisting or jerking, they don't adjust below C2 or C3 and because the corrections are precise, they hold. It's not the correction that heals you, it's holding the correction -- it's like the body performs internal surgery on itself once it's "connected".
Unfortunately, even though thousands of chiropractic and international medical studies are there, this information does not get out to the public in the U.S. because there's no money in UCC since there's no pharmaceuticals to sell so it's a patient-to-patient, very grass roots effort to inform people. A few years ago, the University of Chicago actually did a study on UCC's effects on blood pressure and the doctors were stunned at the results. It even got a 5 minute segment on Good Morning America. The NIH pledged 2 million dollars to fund more studies and then reneged. That is what usually happens. But one of the many great things about UCC is how transparent it is though, you can ask your own questions, make your own observations, visit an office yourself and come to your own conclusions. I am happy to say though, that in Europe, mainstream medicine has been much more receptive of UCC and people there, especially in Italy, are receiving the benefits.
What I've learned is that symptoms are your body's way of telling you that there's something wrong and to fix it -- to not just give it another pill. Many times people disparage medicine but perhaps don't offer a viable option. People want something tangible and accessible, something that they can understand, experience and that gets them well and I think UCC does a beautiful job of doing all those things.
I was 23 in September 2007 and 26 on May 20, 2010 -- the day of my first correction and also the best day of my life! When I resumed grad school, I made a documentary on it. Feel free to ask me for the link by the way. I am now going to be an Upper Cervical doctor to help others the way they have helped me, but in the mean time I wanted to pass this information along to others as I know what it's like to be in pain and have no hope. When I was sick, I wish someone would have told me about this but no one did. And that is the reason for my (long) post today
I hope this information is helpful and makes sense to some of you. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask. Thank you for reading!
TrojansOwl1
I'm posting this here because not too long ago I visited sites like this one, conducted daily searches through scientific and medical journals and visited medical specialists across the country trying to find answers to my health issues. Fortunately, I found them in a treatment called Upper Cervical Care, and I would like to share it with you. First, however, I'd like to briefly tell you my story.
On the morning of September 3, 2007 I woke up, and I knew something wasn't right. I had dizzy spells and felt a headache coming on. I thought perhaps I hadn't slept well so I went back to sleep, awoke a few hours later and found my symptoms had only worsened. Within a few weeks, I would develop most of the symptoms and conditions that I would suffer from non-stop for the next 32 months: one continuous headache, brain fog, decreased cognitive function, dizziness, neck and upper body pain, severe back spasms and muscle twitches, chronic fatigue, disk degeneration, anxiety, depression, insomnia, night sweats, tmj, digestion issues, "electric shock" feelings throughout my upper body, seasonal allergies -- you get the idea. It got to the point where I knew I wouldn't have a career or a job or a family and the person that I used to be was gradually fading, never to come back. After almost three years, you begin to take the elapsed time into consideration and think, "There's been billions of humans that have lived and died with pain. Why would I be any different from any body else? Why will I figure this out when no one has?" I saw medical specialists in Dallas, Houston, DC and Los Angeles, was administered every test, treatment and scan all without answers. I received some diagnoses but these labels were meaningless as nothing was being done to improve my health. Eventually, I saw a psychiatrist because you're made to feel like you're simply just stressed or that it's "all in your head". These doctors had good intentions, they just couldn't help me. What medicine did tell me is that they felt some of my issues were coming from my neck. Why that was or how to fix them though, they weren't sure. With this information, eventually I decided to look outside of mainstream medicine and that's when I found Upper Cervical Care. I always tell people that it was the last thing I found, but also the first thing that actually made sense. I started treatment, felt immediate relief and as the months passed my health gradually returned -- as they say in UCC, "top-down, inside out". The first night after my correction, for the first time in years, I slept eleven hours straight through the night. When I woke up and saw the sun shining through the curtains, I sat up and cried. Perhaps this story, or at least parts of it, resonate with some of you.
There are many health treatments out there both "allopathic" and "alternative" that really help people and I'm not here to argue about their effectiveness, but I do want to present a different option and a unique approach. The difference between UCC and every treatment I've ever come across is that it's not symptom-based -- it's principle-based. They're not going to treat you based on how you feel, where it hurts or what your symptom or condition is. That's what I see everywhere else: for example, if you have back pain, then let's do surgery or physical therapy; if you have allergies, then take these herbs. Upper Cervical Care does not work that way.
It's based on one principle: when the top bone (or two) in your neck are slightly misaligned then that creates pressure on the brainstem and causes the body to go into a state of degenerative health. As you may know, neurologists call the brainstem "the center of life" because it controls the automatic functions of our bodies, including blood pressure, cardiac function, breathing, sweating, balance, digestion, sleep, and perhaps most importantly for some with back pain, muscle tonicity through out the body, etc. It's where the nervous system bottlenecks as it goes back into the brain and if there's interference there, then the evidence suggests, the body malfunctions.
I often ask myself how or why we would have such an important area of our nervous system in such a vulnerable place. Those two bones are what allow us to pan and tilt our heads, but that flexibility comes at the expense of stability. Physical and emotional trauma such as falls, sports, emotional stress and even the birth process cause those bones to misalign or -- subluxate -- and they remain that way. Not only is the brainstem jammed but the body begins to compensate for the head being off center which is what appears to cause back pain and muscle aches throughout the body. When the "correction" is made, the brainstem is released and the body begins to work the way it's supposed to and when that happens symptoms and conditions resolve inside out. As far as back pain goes, when the head is on straight, the muscles relax and begin to pull the segments of the spine back into proper alignment. As long as that head's on crooked, there's going to be back issues.
So the approach is very different. I came across UCC when I was desperate for answers but it just made total sense to me. I though "Duh! No wonder I have a searing sensation in the back of my head!" A lot of people, however, don't experience neck pain or headaches. It affects all of us in different ways. There is not a symptom or condition I have not seen respond -- everything from allergies and asthma to male and female issues, physical or emotional conditions, it doesn't really matter. And again, it's not treating the symptom -- that's the difference. And the reason, I think, people get well.
It actually has a fascinating history as it was developed by the developer of chiropractic, B.J. Palmer. Back in the 1920s, he observed that people weren't getting well through general chiropractic care and he sought to find out why and how to get all or most people well not just some. He discovered the less he adjusted the better people got, until he narrowed it down to the top two bones in the neck. And he only adjusted when his tests showed it was needed -- not based on how a patient felt. Some of the major differences between UCC and chiropractic or physical therapy manipulation is that the correction are very gentle -- there is no popping or twisting or jerking, they don't adjust below C2 or C3 and because the corrections are precise, they hold. It's not the correction that heals you, it's holding the correction -- it's like the body performs internal surgery on itself once it's "connected".
Unfortunately, even though thousands of chiropractic and international medical studies are there, this information does not get out to the public in the U.S. because there's no money in UCC since there's no pharmaceuticals to sell so it's a patient-to-patient, very grass roots effort to inform people. A few years ago, the University of Chicago actually did a study on UCC's effects on blood pressure and the doctors were stunned at the results. It even got a 5 minute segment on Good Morning America. The NIH pledged 2 million dollars to fund more studies and then reneged. That is what usually happens. But one of the many great things about UCC is how transparent it is though, you can ask your own questions, make your own observations, visit an office yourself and come to your own conclusions. I am happy to say though, that in Europe, mainstream medicine has been much more receptive of UCC and people there, especially in Italy, are receiving the benefits.
What I've learned is that symptoms are your body's way of telling you that there's something wrong and to fix it -- to not just give it another pill. Many times people disparage medicine but perhaps don't offer a viable option. People want something tangible and accessible, something that they can understand, experience and that gets them well and I think UCC does a beautiful job of doing all those things.
I was 23 in September 2007 and 26 on May 20, 2010 -- the day of my first correction and also the best day of my life! When I resumed grad school, I made a documentary on it. Feel free to ask me for the link by the way. I am now going to be an Upper Cervical doctor to help others the way they have helped me, but in the mean time I wanted to pass this information along to others as I know what it's like to be in pain and have no hope. When I was sick, I wish someone would have told me about this but no one did. And that is the reason for my (long) post today
I hope this information is helpful and makes sense to some of you. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask. Thank you for reading!
TrojansOwl1
