A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has shown what the medical community is calling an “astounding result,” but one that chiropractors have known for many years. Adjustments of the atlas, the top vertebrae, showed a significant drop in both systolic and diastolic blood pressures.These results are groundbreaking because we now have more definitive evidence that chiropractic adjustments are about more than ridding a patient of back pain. We restore the body’s ability to function properly and remain healthy. If we have adjusted your atlas, you know the profound effects.In this study, researchers took 50 patients with stage 1 hypertension who had either never been on hypertensive drugs or had stopped taking hypertensive drugs for at least two weeks.All of the patients were evaluated by a chiropractor for misalignment of the C1 vertebrae, using radiographs and leg-length checks. Half of the patients received spinal manipulation of the C1 vertebrae. The other half received a sham treatment that was indistinguishable from a real treatment.Eight weeks after undergoing the procedure, 25 patients with early stage high blood pressure had significantly lower blood pressure than 25 similar patients who had undergone a sham chiropractic adjustment. Because patients can’t feel the particular technique used in this study, 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 had received 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.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” because the nervous system is like the body’s electrical system. The atlas is the vital top bone of the spine, just under the base of the skull. It’s called the atlas vertebra because it holds up the head, just as the titan Atlas holds up the world in Greek mythology. Any slight misalignment of this bone can interfere with arteries and nerves at this important location of the spine and nervous system. If realignment is deemed necessary, the chiropractor uses his or her hands to gently manipulate the vertebra.The drop in blood pressure was so impressive the authors state that it “is similar to that seen by giving two different antihypertensive agents simultaneously.” Furthermore, 85 percent of the patients needed only one treatment to realize the improvement in blood pressure.Study leader George Bakris, M.D., began the 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 a chiropractor. Some of these patients had high blood pressure. After seeing the chiropractor, the patients’ blood pressure had normalized. 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. “This procedure has the effect of not one, but two blood pressure medications given in combination,” Bakris said. “And it seems to be an adverse-free event. We saw no side effects and no problems.”This study doesn’t mean that everyone who has high blood pressure will see a significant decrease in their numbers after a chiropractic adjustment, but if people have high blood pressure there is a tremendous possibility they need an atlas adjustment. High blood pressure is far from the only thing an atlas misalignment will cause.The study also documented the degree of pelvic misalignment and the position of the C7 vertebra. These measurements are used with this particular method of chiropractic to diagnose dysfunction of the C1 vertebra. Just as they found with the results for blood pressure, the degree of misalignment was reduced dramatically in the treatment group but not the control group.In our office, we explain to the patient that we are not treating high blood pressure. We are treating the subluxation (the spinal misalignment): and, if the subluxation is responsible for the high blood pressure, then it should go down. It is fun to see the expression on patients’ faces when a pre and post blood pressure check is done and they can see the difference for themselves.
