Do you know?

Chiropractic Adjustment for High Blood Pressure

Lots of people consider a chiropractor vital to their good health, but few would consider seeing one for treatment to lower blood pressure. And so it was a real surprise when a new study from the University of Chicago's Medical Center demonstrated that a specific type of chiropractic manipulation of the first vertebra (Atlas) of the neck can do exactly that. The pilot study included 50 people with stage 1 high blood pressure -- 25 of them had an adjustment to the Atlas vertebra (the C-1 vertebra in the neck)... while the 25 controls had a sham adjustment. Results: Compared with the control group, those with the Atlas adjustment had, on average, a drop of 14 points in systolic (the upper) pressure and eight in the diastolic (lower) reading. Study authors concluded that the results were similar to the effectiveness of treatment with two blood pressure medications in combination.

How weird is that?

For insight I called study author George Bakris, MD, director of the Hypertensive Diseases Center at the University of Chicago. He said he'd heard about this particular treatment from a doctor in family practice who told him about patients who'd had the manipulation and significantly lowered their blood pressure. The adjustment had been to correct a very slight misalignment in the Atlas vertebra, which sits at the top of the spine and, unlike all other vertebrae, is not supported with a top vertebra and instead relies on muscle and ligaments for alignment. Their misalignments typically were the result of a head or neck injury at some point in their life, including some from long ago such as falling off a bike, a sports mishap or car accident. Dr. Bakris speculates that the resulting misalignment had likely created a kink or kinks in blood vessels in the area of the lower brain stem, either impeding blood flow to the brain or leaning up against a particular area of the brain stem, changing the autonomic nervous system in ways that affect blood pressure. At the end of six months, 88% were still corrected without follow-up treatment.