Posture

Low Back Pain: Understanding, Correcting and Managing Healthy Lumbar Curvature and Pelvic Tilt

March 9, 2017 Balance and Equilibrium, Exercise, Movement, Pain Relief, Performance, Posture, Strength, Uncategorized No Comments

Spinal curves are essential for balance, flexibility, and stress absorption and distribution.

Lumbar Curve and Pelvic Tilt Mythology

Of the 80% who have low back pain, an inordinate number seem to be getting, and worsening this condition from believing in some common low back pain-perpetuating myths. These myths surround misconceptions about the role played by the lumbar curve and the pelvic tilt. Their lumbar curve and pelvic tilt assumptions come from an uninformed aesthetic, structural and functional point of view.

Sitting in forward flexed “C-Shape” flattens your low back curve.

Flattening Your Lumbar Curve

Forward bending exercises and stretches, without objective assessment of lumbar curvature, may cause you to develop an abnormally flat low back.

Sitting in a “C- shape”, the shape forced upon us when we sit in a bucket seat, will flatten your low back too.

Ligament Injuries

Flattening your lumbar curve moves your spinal load forward, stretching open and spraining the posterior ligaments of your lumbar spine. Injured ligaments cause joints to become unstable — predisposing them to further misalignments and resulting nerve, inflammation, muscle and pain problems.

Disc Injuries

Chronic straightening and loading of your lumbar with spinal loading forces the intervertebral disc’s nucleus posterior, increasing your risk for nerve encroachment from disc herniation.

Flattening your lumbar curve overloads your front-side lumbar discs, increasing your risk for acute disc injury (bulging, herniation, rupture) and disc degeneration. Flattening your lumbar curve removes or decreases that curve’s spring-action, shock-absorbing function. Therefore, pounding forces traveling through your spine, previously absorbed by this spring, are focused upon your anterior lumbar discs.

Posterior Pelvis Rotation

Rotating your pelvis in the posterior direction additionally flattens your lumbar curve, adding to your already elevated risk for acute lumbar disc injuries and degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine.

Also, by rotating your pelvis in the posterior direction, it is often believed that you activate your abdominal core muscles, stabilizing your pelvis, low back and rib cage. Unfortunately posterior pelvic rotation does not activate your abdominal core. By assuming that it does; and by using this maneuver during spinal loading activities like lifting, pushing and pulling; you exposes your unstable pelvis, low back and rib cage to joint misalignments and acute joint injuries.

Hyperlordosis (excessive lumbar curve) with accompanying anterior pelvic rotation loads your posterior spine.

Excessive Lumbar Curve

On the other hand, excessive lumbar curve and forward rotation of your pelvis shifts the loading down your posterior lumbar spine. Doing so stretches and sprains your lumbar spine’s anterior ligaments, resulting in associated ligament-injury problems.

Posterior loading of your lumbar spine takes the load off your intervertebral discs and shifts it upon your lumbar facet joints. Overloading of these joints causes compressive joint ligament injuries and joint surface wear and tear, bone deformation and arthritis.

Overloaded lumbar facet joints compress, jam, fixate, inflame and are painful.

Joint Pounding

Your lumbar discs cushion and absorb shocks passing along your spine. Shifting loading forces from your lumbar discs to your facet joints exposes these joints, and also joints throughout your entire body, to excessive pounding.

Abdominal core activation compresses abdominal contents, producing a “fluid-filled” column supporting up to 40% of your weight transferred between your thorax to your pelvis.

Bypassing Abdominal Core

Posterior lumbar load-shifting will bypasses the the critical weight-bearing/weight-transferring work performed by your abdominal core musculature.

Bypassing Lumbar “Leaf-Spring”

Furthermore, posterior loading of your lumbar spine diverts shock-producing forces from becoming dissipated through the leaf-spring action of the lumbar curve and into the posterior facet joints of your lumbar spine.

BoulderChiropracticClinic.Com

Neuromuscular Education of Your Knee & Joints

January 17, 2017 Balance and Equilibrium, Exercise, Movement, Performance, Posture, Strength, Trauma Release, Uncategorized No Comments

Neuromuscular re-education is an attempt to teach your body to move normally through analysis of your abnormal movement and then learning and practicing the normal movement. Theoretically, your normal movement patterns involve specific nerve signals transmitted through specific nerve tracts between your muscles and your brain. By practicing normal movement repeatedly over time, these nerve tracts become reinforced and these normal muscle movement patterns are learned and remembered. It is thought that normal muscle movement patterns are disrupted when nerves or muscles are injured, and normal movement may be regained through Neuromuscular re-education.

I find it is true that abnormal movement results from nerve and muscle injuries and may be relearned. However, it is my clinical experience that certain conditions must be in place for that to occur. Namely, movement-disrupting injuries are more extensive than those to nerves and muscles, and to restore normal movement, these injuries must be healed.

The traumas which injure muscles and nerves will most likely injure your joints too. In most of my cases, joint injury is the primary injury and the nerve and muscle injuries are secondary to (they are caused by) the joint injury. Joint injuries occur from both acute and repetitive stress traumas. Acute traumas abound in contact sports and motor vehicle collisions, where excessive forces sprain your ligaments, strain your muscles and bruise your nerves, and worse. Accompanying these sprains and strains are displacements of your bones from their healthy, neutral alignments within your joint capsules.

Your joints contain bone, cartilage and synovial fluid encapsulated by ligaments, muscles and membranes. Your joints contain nerve endings (mechanoreceptors) which deliver feedback such as information about the alignment of the bones within your joints, joint capsular pressure, ligament, tendon and muscle tension/tone and the position of your limbs in space. When your joints are injured, and therefore misaligned, feedback from these injured joints to your central nervous system becomes abnormal. You’ve heard the expression “garbage in — garbage out”. The control of the nerves associated with those injured joints is disrupted or lost and abnormal motion of the joints ensues.

In this case, treating the abnormal muscles and nerves without realigning the joint and healing the ligament and other soft tissue injuries can only go so far. Based upon my clinical experience, I propose that the injured ligaments, tendons, muscles and nerves will not effectively heal until their associated joints are realigned and are moving normally in the first place.

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Overcoming Anterior Head Carriage Affliction, By Dr. Tom Groover

December 19, 2016 Movement, Performance, Posture, Respiration No Comments

Anterior head carriage with elevated Frankfort Line, a syndrome afflicting almost everyone, is the basis for acute neck injuries and long-term restricted breathing, arthritic degeneration, weakness, stiffness, inflammation and pain. Posture and movement training and spinal joint corrections align and stabilize your head – shoulder relationships for vibrantly healthy living.

Odds are you have anterior head carriage accompanied by superior Frankfort Line. Anterior head carriage exists when your ear canal protrudes forward beyond mid-shoulder and superior Frankfort Line when your inferior eye socket is elevated above your ear canal. These pervasive, acute and repetitive stress-induced, head and neck trauma-related disorders account for widespread headache, neck stiffness, fatigue, pain; even anxiety and depression. Understanding this condition, making the necessary lifestyle modifications and getting the proper professional help could change your life for the better — forever.

Posture and Movement Origins

Our bed pillows, car seats, chairs, couches and desks; at home, work and leisure; forwardly flex our bodies, for many hours per day, into C-shapes. The forms taught to us for gym workouts and even yoga practice do the same. Our activities of daily living train our front side muscles to become short and strong, and back side muscles to become long and weak. Our world is so full of forward flexion and forward interaction, that we are not too aware of the space immediately behind us. We tend to move into, and relate very well to the space before and beside, but not behind us. Therefore, when asked to stand up completely erect, almost everyone’s body curves forward while they insist that they are standing completely upright.

Whiplash Origins

Whiplash thrusts your head and neck backward and then forward, injuring neck ligaments and muscles; misaligning your vertebral joints, bending your neck forward and forcing your face upward. Whiplash injuries frequently occur during car crashes, but also from sports collisions and slips and falls.

Ligament Traumas

Torn and overstretched ligaments of your neck’s vertebral joints injure nerve endings within these ligaments responsible for maintaining your spinal stabilization system. Your spinal stabilization system protects your spinal joints from injuries and vertebral misalignments by activating and coordinating your core stabilizer muscles. These muscles maintain the alignment of your spine during movement and exertion. Neck ligament injuries disrupt the nerve control of your neck stabilizer muscles, making them weak, contracted, painful and unresponsive. Cervicogenic headache is the headache generated from such neck injury. Destabilization of your neck causes susceptibility to acute injury, and causes abnormal neck movement and neck joint wear and tear leading to degenerative neck arthritis.

Spinal Nerve Injuries

Spinal nerve roots emanating from your neck undergo tension, compression and congestion stress when your neck miss-aligns. Associated nerve disruptions impair your muscle and organ functions and interfere with your righting mechanism, disturbing your balance and sense of where your body is located in space.

Postural Stress

Your forward positioned neck and upward tilted head lock up your neck’s vertebral joints. They chronically over-stretch your back-side neck ligaments and muscles and compresses your neck’s intervertebral discs. These abnormal posture and movement patterns generate neck stiffness, pain and headaches. In addition, your forward head carriage chronically stretches your spinal cord, which in turn stretches your brain and spinal nerve roots. This nerve tension interferes with neurological function throughout your central and peripheral nervous systems and therefore, all organs and systems throughout your body.

Respiratory Stress

Anterior head carriage with superior Frankfort Line disrupts normal breathing by shortening your respiratory muscles, compressing the front side and tensing the back side of your rib cage. The resulting shallow breathing reduces your lung capacity, requiring more frequent breaths. This respiratory impairment diminishes your lung function (O2/CO2 exchange), reduces your energy production and alertness, but also affects your mood. Shallow, rapid breathing correlates with anxiety and resignation.

Overcoming Anterior Head Carriage

Healing neck ligament injuries involves body-awareness training to wake up to the blind spots in our postural and movement perception. Along with posture and movement training, spinal misalignments must be corrected. Doing so facilitates your joint movement and activates the nerves and muscles to successfully execute, strengthen and stabilize that new upright and aligned posture and movement.

You must develop the capacity to extend (bend backward) your lower back and neck while tilting your head down (lowering of your chin) for placing the center of your head over the center of your shoulders and holding it there without effort. The relief you feel from your stiffness, aches and pains and improved capacity for breathing, thinking, feeling and being will more than reward you for your time and efforts.

Professional Treatment and Training

During you initial evaluation at Boulder Chiropractic Clinic you head carriage will be examined. Treatment will usually include specific, expert correction of your upper cervical spinal misalignment (deviation of the base of your head from your upper neck). This procedure will be followed by evaluations and corrections of your pelvis, lower back, upper back, lower neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, ankles, feet and temporomandibular joints as indicated. Posture and movement training, neck extension traction, and follow-up examinations and corrective care would continue until stabilization. Occasional wellness check-ups are then required for long-term maintenance.

www.boulderchiropracticclinic.com

Detecting and Correcting Postural Distortion, By Dr. Tom Groover

November 21, 2016 Dr. Groover Way, Performance, Posture, Strength, Uncategorized 1 Comment

Boulder Chiropractic Clinic corrects and maintains correction of your postural distortion as the basis for accurate, effective diagnosis and treatment, and for long-term stabilization and healing.

Postural Distortion?

Your pelvis, shoulders and head may be tilted and positioned to the right or left of your center of gravity. One of your legs might be pulled upward, making it appear short. While standing and feeling like you are balanced, you could be carrying considerably more weight on the right or left side of your body.

You may be surprised to know that these asymmetries are very common — in fact quite typical. In the eyes of most health practitioners, these physical asymmetries are not even considered distortions. But, if a majority of people are crooked, is that normal, or is this a widespread disease condition?

Disease Condition?

Yes, these postural distortions are statistically normal, but for a small group of doctors like myself, they constitute a widespread curable disease condition. Postural distortions exert harmful mechanical, neurological, chemical, muscular and gravitational stresses upon your spinal and extra-spinal joints. When your body’s structures are tilting off their horizontal or leaning away from their vertical relationships to gravity, your joint components become both compressed and closely packed, and stretched open in relation to their neutral operating positions. Under these circumstances your joint surfaces grind and chafe; ligaments, tendons and muscles wear and weaken; muscles deactivate, contract and stiffen, while others loosen and atrophy. Eventually inflammation, pain and arthritic degeneration ensues.

Eliminating Postural Distortion?

Yes, this is the question. Most people, including health care practitioners, do not recognize postural distortion. Some recognize different aspects of this condition, but see each element separately; pelvis, low back, upper back, neck and head; as individual areas of distortion, weakness and muscle length/muscle tension imbalance. Treatment under this paradigm involves stretching the short, contacted muscles using muscle-lengthening procedures. These include stretching exercises, massage and acupuncture. The overly lengthened muscles are contracted and shorted with resistance exercise. This approach fails to eliminate the patient’s global pattern of postural distortion because the practitioner fails to locate and correct, at its source, what’s fundamentally causing distortion of the posture.

Yes, Eliminating Postural Distortion.

Accidents and injuries often mechanically miss-align your head from the top of your neck, and this misalignment is called the upper cervical subluxation. The abnormal position and movement of your occiput (base of your head) with the upper neck vertebra distorts the spine’s neural canal, the passageway through which your spinal cord travels from your brain to your lower body. Resulting compression and tension of your spinal cord and congestion of your cerebral spinal fluid disrupts muscle tone-controlling nerves, thus throwing your body into a pattern of head-to-toe postural distortion. The key to eliminating the tilting and shifting of your pelvis, spine and head, your right-to-left weight imbalance and apparent short leg is straightening out your neural canal. Doing so requires upper cervical specific examination, X-rays, X-ray analysis, corrective procedure, re-examination, post-initial treatment X-rays and X-ray analysis, and successful follow-up.

How to Find A Qualified Doctor?

Chiropractors trained in upper cervical correction are the only doctors qualified to realign your upper cervical spine. Make sure your doctor measures your posture before and after treatment and during every subsequent follow-up visit. Make sure your doctor administers specialized upper cervical X-rays and X-ray analysis. Make sure the doctor’s treatment procedure quickly eliminates your pelvis and spinal tilting and shifting, your weight imbalance and your apparent short leg.

We adhere to these standards at Boulder Chiropractic Clinic. In addition, we screen our patients for joint conditions throughout their bodies, and perform detailed regional evaluations, corrective and rehabilitation procedures for abnormal pelvis, hip, low back, upper back, lower neck, TMJ, ribs, shoulders, elbows, wrist and hand, knee, ankle and foot joints.

www.boulderchiropracticclinic.com

Trauma Release, With Dr. Judd and Dr. Tom Groover

September 26, 2016 Exercise, Performance, Posture, Strength, Trauma Release No Comments

Trauma, both big and small build up and shut us down. Obvious traumas from car crashes or contact sports produce physical pain. Do you know that less severe traumas may not produce obvious symptoms, but their cumulative affect contributes to your mental, emotional and physiological stress load and impairs your capacity for perception, thinking, feeling and physical functioning. Former CU Buffalo running-back and performance-psychologist Dr. Judson Johns joins Dr. Tom Groover to discuss this phenomenon and the best ways to release trauma, reduce your stress/performance-barrier load and achieve much better performance in sports and life.

boulderchiropracticclinic.com

Much Larger Hip Muscle Strength Increases Measured 60 Minutes Later, By Dr. Tom Groover

July 21, 2016 Exercise, Performance, Posture, Strength, Uncategorized No Comments

At Boulder Chiropractic Clinic, we measured a new patient’s hip muscle strengths 60 minutes apart, first before and then after the patient’s first lumbar/pelvis specific chiropractic treatment. The average hip muscle strength increase was 233.8%. There was a 31.98% average decrease in strength disparity between the patient’s right and left sides. The greatest strength improvement occurred with the patient’s left hip adductors, 1215.1% increase, measured with the patient supine while the hips were flexed and knees were simultaneously bent upward.

Manual testing of the patient’s hip muscles was performed earlier during his initial global screening consultation, and his hip adductor musc were noted to be very weak. Hip adductors are core muscles primarily responsible for stabilizing your legs, pelvis and low back, keeping them aligned within your frontal plane (side-to-side orientation when viewed front-to-back). Weakness of these muscles allows your legs to abduct (spread apart), disturbing the upright alignment of your body and exposing it to injuries. Weakness of the hip adductors while both hips and knees are flexed specifically indicates misalignment (subluxation) of the pubic symphysis, a joint subluxation (misalignment less than a dislocation) which contributes to subluxations of your sacroiliac joints, hip sockets, low back vertebra, knees, ankles and feet, and everywhere else in your body for that matter.

Joint subluxations cause loss of neuromuscular control, meaning your movement will be weaker and less coordinated. The subluxation’s associated mechanical problems cause acute joint injuries and chronic joint wear and tear leading to degenerative arthritis.

The huge increase in hip adductor strength seen in this study demonstrates that the patient’s pubic symphysis was subluxated, but also that this subluxation was severely impairing his latently immense hip adductor muscle strength. The patient is an advanced athlete and reported that jumping up into a standing position upon an exercise ball had been a challenge before he began his joint corrective care.

The second measurement taken 60 minutes after the first, was take after the patient’s pelvis was leveled, upper back aligned with his center-of-gravity and standing body weight balanced between the rights and left sides of his body, and pubic symphysis, sacroiliac joints and low back joints were aligned. On the patient’s next follow-up visit the patient reported that immediately after receiving this corrective care, he began jumping up on the ball and standing there without hesitation or instability, and was able to do his cable resistance training there without stumbling, wavering or losing his balance.

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Eliminate This Postural Distortion First, By Dr. Tom Groover

May 11, 2016 Dr. Groover Way, Posture No Comments

Take a look at the angle of these hip calipers…

Eliminating Pelvis Tilt Is Our First Priority

…after measuring postural distortion during yesterday’s global screening assessment. Pelvis tilt is a fundamental postural abnormality which causes whole-body mechanical joint stresses; giving rise to wide-spread spinal and extra-spinal joint misalignments, nerve inhibitions and injuries, muscle weaknesses and contractions, cartilage grindings and chafings, intervertebral disk compressions, ligament injuries, joint inflammations, arthritic degenerations and pains.

At Boulder’s Groover Chiropractic Clinic, we uniquely understand this abnormality’s cause, affect and treatment. Our care plans include straightening your body’s core frame first, before diagnosing and treating everything external to your frame. Otherwise, your frame’s overlying twisting and bending will complicate your diagnosis and severely interfere with treatment, stabilization and healing of your conditions.

Consider these criteria when looking for solutions to your pain, stiffness, weakness, high blood pressure, high or low blood sugar, other metabolic conditions and stress. Do your doctors and practitioners measure your pelvic tilt, understand its source, treat it successfully and perform post-treatment measurements to demonstrate its correction? Our clinic does.

www.boulderchiropracticclinic.com

Can Dr. Groover’s Chiropractic Help with that Troubling TMJ?

February 1, 2016 Dr. Groover Way, Dr. Groover's Digest, General Chiropractic, Posture No Comments

Gently place your hands on your face in front of your ear lobes. Now open and close your mouth. You can undoubtedly feel your temporomandibular joint (TMJ) moving as you open and close your mouth; the joint connects your upper and lower jaws.

Many Americans experience some sort of temporomandibular-related pain or even a temporomandibular disorder (TMD). The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) estimates that 10 million Americans have a TMD, which is often referred to by non-medical professionals as “I have TMJ” or “I have a TMJ problem.” About 2/3 of Americans may experience one or more symptoms of a TMD/TMJ problem. Dr. Groover of Boulder’s premier chiropractic clinic is here to explain how chiropractic care is a practical treatment option for this common yet painful and lingering condition. TMJ and Chiropractic

Dr. Groover’s sequential approach to TMD is diagnosing and treating the joint mechanical problems causing the neurological problems which result in muscular problems.

Dr. Groover’s comprehensive chiropractic care for your TMJ eases pain by correcting directly your TMJ misalignments, but doing so after some careful preparation. Your chewing muscles receive their nerve supply from what’s called the trigeminal nerve. This is a cranial nerve originating at the base of your head, which is sensitive to misalignment at the upper cervical region where your head joins your neck. Diagnosis and treatment of this misalignment comes first. The alignment and stability of your pelvis, low back, upper back, ribs and lower neck comes next, followed by your shoulders. Ideally every joint in your body should be aligned and stable to remove all causes and complications for TMJ dysfunction.

After joint correction and stabilization, jaw dysfunction related trigger points are best treated with neuromuscular acupuncture followed by administering muscle compression and muscle stretching.

Dr. Groover explains misalignment of the jaw that results from improper posture or a back problem can cause your TMJ disorder. Misalignment of your upper cervical spine causes high and low hips, shifting of your pelvis and upper back away from your center of gravity, poor weight balance between your right and left standing body weight and unequal leg lengths. Upper cervical correction eliminates these postural distortions.

An approach to treating TMJ caused by misalignment in your neck and upper back is to perform adjustments on your spinal joints in these areas. In addition, trigger point therapy is used to relieve tight muscles in the back around your spine. This reduces the amount of stress put on your jaw so other treatments to adjust the jaw will be more effective. When these treatments are employed, the motion of your jaw joint improves and symptoms like ear pain, jaw locking, headaches and neck pain are reduced, the doctor continued.

Dr. Groover recommends that patients suffering from TMJ problems should avoid the following:

Clenching your jaw(s) – this is the worst thing you can do when you have a TMJ problem
Chewing gum – puts added stress on both jaw bones and all jaw muscles
Cradling the telephone – irritates neck muscles and jaw muscles
Anesthesia – can affect mouth opening processes and damage joints
Long dental appointments, i.e., those requiring an open mouth for more than 30 minutes

If you’d like to be seen for a comprehensive TMJ consultation, please review Dr. Groover’s Boulder chiropractic clinic online or give us a call at (303) 442-7772. We’re happy to assist and offer x-rays and more to make the process easier and more seamless for you.

IMAGE CREDIT: Still Shot from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_mqNopzTNA

A Boulder Chiropractor’s Winter Snow-Shoveling Tips

December 7, 2015 Exercise, Performance, Posture No Comments

Dr. Tom Groover of Boulder’s distinguished Groover Chiropractic Clinic is hoping to save a few backs this snowy season! Winter weather has blasted into town already…so be warned! If your body isn’t in proper condition, the oh-so-required (and oh-so-not-popular) winter chore of shoveling driveways and sidewalks presents potential for spasms, strains, sprains and all kinds of other unsavory health problems, according to Dr. Groover. This seemingly harmless task can quickly turn into a prolonged nightmare of pain and discomfort; the bending and twisting that’s oft-seen when tossing a shovelful of heavy snow can aggravate lower back discs. Plus, the overall physical exertion required may result in painful holiday injuries if your body is not properly conditioned.

Dr. Groover advises Coloradoans to thus be prepared for the onslaught and to follow these tips for proper snow shoveling:

Layer clothing to keep your muscles warm and flexible.
Clear snow as soon as it stops falling. Freshly fallen snow is lighter.
Take it slow! Pace yourself and take breaks. Keep a cell phone handy in case of emergency.
Don’t pick up too much snow at once. Use a small shovel, or fill it only one-fourth to one-half if you use a large shovel. If necessary, just push the snow as you shovel. It’s easier on your back. Keep the load of snow as close to your body as possible.
Avoid sudden twisting and turning motions, especially if you’re carrying a shovelful of heavy snow.
Shoveling can stress “de-conditioned” muscles that rest in between shoulders, in your upper back, and in your lower back, buttocks and legs. Thus, it’s helpful to do some warm-up stretches before you grab that shovel.
When you do shovel, push the snow straight ahead. DO NOT THROW IT. Walk it to the snow bank.
Protect your back. Bend from the knees, not your back. Lift with your legs bent, stand with your feet about hip width for balance and keep the shovel close to your body. Try not to twist. If you move the snow to one side, move your feet to face the direction the snow will be going.
Again, bend your knees to lift when shoveling. Let the muscles of your legs and arms do the work, not your back.
Take frequent rest breaks to take the strain off your muscles. A fatigued body asks for injury.

After any of these activities, if you’re sore, apply ice to the affected area for 20 minutes, and then take it off for a couple of hours. Repeating this icing routine a couple times a day over the next few days should resolve your pain from normal muscle strain.

If you continue to feel any stiffness, soreness or pain after following these tips, more likely than not, you have misaligned your spine, pelvis, shoulders, etc., and it’s time for you to visit a Boulder chiropractor to properly diagnose and treat your condition and get to the root of the cause. Dr. Groover offers free global screening consultations; for more information, please visit his Boulder chiropractic clinic online or give us a call at (303) 442-7772.

Photo Credit: By Anna Reg (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 at (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/at/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons

What Exactly is an Upper Cervical Specialist?

November 2, 2015 Performance, Posture No Comments

At the Groover Chiropractic Clinic in Boulder, our priority is to help our patients achieve their wellness goals by living happy, pain free lives. It all starts with correcting the upper cervical area.

Correcting your upper cervical misalignments is a necessary starting point for all postural and spinal improvements. One of Dr. Groover’s specialties is upper cervical care, which means he focuses his efforts on locating and removing misalignments of the first two bones in your neck and the base of your head that may be the cause of your health condition. Upper cervical care focuses on the area that surrounds and protects the brain stem. The brainstem controls everything in the body, including the muscles that hold the pelvis in a balanced position. Upper cervical care is all about removing the interference in the healing process, allowing the body to heal on its own.

These kinds of specialists use precise spinographs or x-rays of the head and neck. Measurements are taken and an analysis is made to determine exactly how the occiput of your head, Atlas, and axis vertebra are misaligned so that a precise correction can be made.

An upper cervical correction is gentle. There is no forceful pulling, jerking or twisting motion of your neck. The correction is applied using a precise, controlled touch that allows the head, neck, and spine to return to their proper positions. The intent is to make a correction in these first two bones of your neck and the base of your head, and have it hold for an extended period of time, thus allowing the body to heal itself. Part of upper cervical uniqueness is that it is the ONLY way to clear the nervous system of essential interferences, and it balances primary aspects of the body using a natural, precise and gentle procedure, which results in successful treatment of every nerve, muscle, joint, and associated systems of the body.

We look forward to seeing you in our office so that you can see just how effective our upper cervical services are to treating your pain!

Photo provided by the Atlas of Human Anatomy