Good Enough for The Yankees is Good enough for you!!!

This week in baseball the news is that New York Yankee outfielder Johnny Damon used his day off to travel to his Chiropractor in Orlando, Fla. Damon has used his Chiropractor for his entire career which has helped him to stay off of the disabled list (As of this writing Johnny has never been placed on the DL in 12 years of Major league service. Truely amazing!!!!


The truth is most professional athletes use Chiropractic care as part of their healthcare. An athletes body is their "tool of the trade", so they choose modes of care that not only minimize symptoms, but maximize performance.

Join Tiger Woods, Emmitt Smith, Lance Armstrong, and the thousands of other athletes who utilize Xhiropractic for better health!!!

Chiropractic Cuts Blood Pressure

This study was published recently on WebMD. It illustrates the link b/t the nervous system and the body's overall health. I can't wait to see the follow-up studies on a greater scale.

Chiropractic Cuts Blood Pressure

Study Finds Special 'Atlas Adjustment' Lowers Blood Pressure
By Daniel J. DeNoon WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
March 16, 2007 -- A special chiropractic adjustment can significantly lower high blood pressure, a placebo-controlled study suggests.

"This procedure has the effect of not one, but two blood-pressure medications given in combination," study leader George Bakris, MD, tells WebMD. "And it seems to be adverse-event free. We saw no side effects and no problems," adds Bakris, director of the University of Chicago hypertension center.
Eight weeks after undergoing the procedure, 25 patients with early-stage high blood pressure had significantly lower blood pressure than 25 similar patients who underwent a sham chiropractic adjustment. Because patients can't feel the technique, 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 got 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.

"When the statistician brought me the data, I actually didn't believe it. It was way too good to be true," Bakris says. "The statistician said, 'I don't even believe it.' But we checked for everything, and there it was."
Bakris and colleagues report their findings in the advance online issue of the Journal of Human Hypertension.

Atlas Adjustment and Hypertension

The procedure calls for adjustment of the C-1 vertebra. It's called the Atlas vertebra because it holds up the head, just as the titan Atlas holds up the world in Greek mythology.
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."
"At the base of the brain are two centers that control all the muscles of the body. If you pinch the base of the brain -- if the Atlas gets locked in a position as little as a half a millimeter out of line -- it doesn't cause any pain but it upsets these centers," Dickholtz tells WebMD.

The subtle adjustment is practiced by the very small subgroup of chiropractors certified in National Upper Cervical Chiropractic (NUCCA) techniques. The procedure employs precise measurements to determine a patient's Atlas vertebra alignment. If realignment is deemed necessary, the chiropractor uses his or her hands to gently manipulate the vertebra.
"We are not doctors. We are spinal engineers," Dickholtz says. "We use mathematics, geometry, and physics to learn how to slide everything back into place."
What does this have to do with high blood pressure?
Bakris notes that some researchers have suggested that injury to the Atlas vertebra can affect blood flow in the arteries at the base of the skull. Dickholtz thinks the misaligned Atlas triggers release of signals that make the arteries contract. Whether the procedure actually fixes such injuries is unknown, Bakris says.
Bakris began the study after a fellow doctor told him that 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.

Yet after seeing the chiropractor, the patients' blood pressure had normalized -- and 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.

"Is it going to be for everybody with high blood pressure? No," Bakris says. "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. This is really a work in progress. It is certainly in the early stages of research."
Dickholtz has been teaching, practicing, and studying the NUCCA technique for 50 years. He says high blood pressure is far from the only thing an Atlas misalignment causes.
"On the other hand, if people have high blood pressure, there is a tremendous possibility they need an Atlas adjustment," he says.

Advantages of Chiropractic Care During Pregnancy

Dr. C's comments: The following is an article from a chiropractic website (www.planetc1.com). The author (credited at the bottom) does a wonderful job of illustrating the importance of chiropractic during pregnancy. Enjoy...

Pregnancy and Chiropractic
By Martha Collins, D.C.

As I write this today, two of our beautiful practice members are awaiting the arrival of new additions to their families. Adjusting women through pregnancy is one of the most rewarding parts of our work, because a healthier pregnancy means an easier labor and delivery, and a better transition for the baby into this life. On Monday night at our workshop, a young woman told the story of the traumatic birth of her son, and the subsequent eight years of poor health he has suffered as a result. She was unaware that Chiropractic care through pregnancy would have given him a better start, and angry that she didn't know this prior to her son's conception. I promised her I'd get the word out. This article is dedicated to her and her son with the intent that this information will prevent another mother and child years of heartbreak. Chiropractic care through pregnancy is not only safe, it is essential. We can look at the implications of subluxation from a bio mechanical, hormonal and neurological standpoint. It is easy for all of us to see postural changes through pregnancy-the centre of gravity changes, the weight of the baby places increased pressure on the spine and pelvis, and towards the end of the pregnancy, changes are seen in gait pattern-the "waddle." What we can't see, are the millions of different hormonal changes and chemical reactions occurring both in the mother and the developing baby--all of which are controlled and coordinated through the nervous system.

Adjustments result in easier pregnancy, significantly decreased mean labor time, and assists new mothers back to prepartum health. In one study, women receiving Chiropractic care through their first pregnancy had 24% shorter labor times than the group not receiving Chiropractic, and multiparous subjects reported 39% shorter labor times. Thirty-nine percent-that's a massive difference. In addition, 84% of women report relief of back pain during pregnancy with Chiropractic care. Because the sacroiliac joints of the pelvis function better, there is significant less likelihood of back labor when receiving Chiropractic care through pregnancy.Body position during delivery is also critical. Any late second stage labor position that denies postural sacral rotation denies the mother and the baby critical pelvic outlet diameter and jams the tip of the sacrum up to 4cm into the pelvic outlet. In other words, the popular semi-recumbent position places the laboring woman on her back onto the apex of the sacrum, which closes off the vital space needed for the baby to get through the pelvic outlet. This delivery position is the main reason why so many births are traumatic-labor is stalled, the mom becomes fatigued and overwhelmed by pain, so the utilization of epidurals, forceps, episiotomy, vacuum extraction and cesarean increases. Just consider the analogy my husband uses-how hard would it be to have a bowel movement while lying on your back? You're right, very hard, and it may not happen. This is why squatting is the preferred position-gravity works to help and the pelvic outlet can open to a greater degree. Squatting during delivery results in decreased use of forceps and a shorter second stage of labor than the semi-recumbent position.Greater complications during delivery result in greater neurological insult to the newborn due to injury to the head and neck. Even after vaginal births, 4.6% of term neonates suffer unexplained brain bleeds and 10% suffer neonatal encephalopathy. Because so many children had been injured with forceps deliveries, (facial nerve palsy, tearing of cervical spine musculature) vacuum extraction was developed. Suction cups are placed on the newborn's head, and the baby is literally sucked out of the mother.When utilized, 120 pounds of pressure goes through the baby's head and neck. Decapitation occurs at 140 pounds of pressure, to give you an idea of the high forces involved. Remember when you were a little girl or boy and there was a new baby you were being introduced to? Our parents always said, "Watch his head-you don't want to hurt him." We're careful because the fontanel's of the skull are so pliable, and the neck and brain are fragile and unprotected. This is why so many babies sustain injuries to their heads and neck during vacuum extraction-the force is far greater than their little bodies can tolerate. Adjustments to newborns contain only ounces of force. But that force is directed into the spine to facilitate health and remove subluxations. We adjust babies as soon after birth as possible, to alleviate subluxations caused by in-utero constraint and the journey down through the birth canal. There has been a lot in the media lately about children not needing Chiropractic care, but there is no better way to get a head start in life. As you all know, Chiropractic care is not a cure for anything-it is a system of wellness to help us be who we're supposed to be. It is not a cure for ear infections, for colic, for allergies, for asthma, for frequent colds, nor for ADD/ADHD.When we listen to mothers' stories of their pregnancy, labor and delivery, the children who suffer the most from the above complaints, are the ones who've had the greatest trouble with their births. Even relatively easy deliveries can result in subluxations. That's why every child should be checked, before problems with their health even develop. That's preventive care in the truest sense-preventing subluxations in mothers to prevent subluxations in their babies during childbirth. This is why every woman needs Chiropractic through pregnancy-so that the arrival of their baby is a "wonderful experience", as one of my patients told me last week, after her son was born.

- - - - - - - - - - - -Dr. Martha Collins is a Family Chiropractor practicing in Kingston, Ontario with her husband Dr. Carl Weber. She is committed to spreading the message of Chiropractic around the world so we can all lead healthier, happier lives.

Welcome To the Rhino Chiro Center Blog page!!!

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Here you will find great articles on Chiropractic and health, happenings in the office, links to great services and webites to check out, AND much, much more....

Dr. C