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Patients with medicine Allergies can treat their conditions using Upper Cervical Chiropractic
Are you allergic to drugs?
What happens when you take medicine or a drug?
You put a chemical into your body that changes your nerve physiology and body functions. Whether it is for the purpose of reducing pain, inflammations, fevers, insomnia, a cold, the flu, or other unpleasant symptoms, you are deliberately choosing to put something into your body in order to change how you feel. But have you ever stopped to consider what the medicine actually does? Does taking medicine actually allow your body to heal better? No, it does not. The purpose of medicine is to provide symptom relief and facilitate the process while your body heals itself naturally. That is the way that the body works. It heals itself. If you cut your finger, for example, it isn’t the bandaid that does the healing. The bandaid only protects the area from infection so that your body can heal from the inside out. So what does that mean if you are allergic to medicine? Or even to a bandaid (because many types of glue adhesives also cause allergic reactions)? Does that mean that your body cannot heal? Of course not!
What it means is that you simply need to find another way besides medication to find relief. Here is where natural therapies are often able to help. The question you may have is, “What natural therapy do I need or that will work for me?”
Ideally, wouldn’t you also prefer a natural approach that could actually help your body during the healing process, and not just mask the symptoms as well?
Read more.
How do I know if I have a drug allergy?
Unfortunately, it usually isn’t unless you take a certain kind of medication that you know you have a drug allergy.
When I was a teenager, I took a standard over-the-counter medication just as I was going to bed … and the next thing I know is that I have a sharp pain through my chest and I can’t breathe. Fortunately, my mom was a nurse and knew the signs of an asthma attack, and she was able to help me get things under control.
But that was damn scary, not being able to breathe, As you may imagine, I’ve not taken that particular type of medication since!
The symptoms of a drug allergy, which usually occur 1-6 hours following administration can range from mild irritation or discomfort to life-threatening.
- Mild signs of a potentially dangerous drug allergy include skin responses such as itchiness, a rash, or hives
- Moderate signs of a drug allergy include sweating, light-headedness or dizziness, nausea or vomiting
- Severe signs of a drug allergy include difficulty breathing or even anaphylactic shock
How common are drug allergies?
A 2014 health report from the UK considered the nature of drug allergies.
- Drug allergies and adverse reactions accounted for 62,000 hospital admissions per year. [Assuming the UK population at the time of the study was approximately 60 million people, that would mean that there was a 1/1000 chance of ending up in hospital as the result of a drug allergy]
- Up to 15% of people already in hospital required additional care as the result of an allergy or other adverse reaction
- Penicillin was the most common drug allergy
- “Allergic reactions to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen , diclofenac , naproxen and aspirin are common. In particular, 5–10% of people with asthma are affected.”
- Anaphylaxis-type reactions occur in 1/1000 people after NSAIDs.
- “Analysis of patient safety incidents reported to the National Reporting and Learning System between 2005 and 2013 identified 18,079 incidents involving drug allergy. These included 6 deaths, 19 ‘severe harms’, 4980 ‘other harms’, and 13,071 ‘near-misses’. The majority of these incidents involved a drug that was prescribed, dispensed or administered to a patient with a previously known allergy to that drug or drug class.”
A natural approach
Even if you do not have a drug allergy, I recommend the following approach:
- Natural Therapy first
- Non-natural therapy (e.g., pharmacology) second
- Surgery third
Of course, there are instances where you would skip to emergency surgery first (e.g., heart attack, stroke, broken limbs, etc).
What I am instead referring to are conditions that are chronic in nature and affect your quality of life:
- Pain disorders including headaches, migraines, low back pain, sciatica, neuralgia, chronic fatigue, and fibromyalgia
- Organ disorders including heart disease, diabetes, pulmonary disease, and digestive disorders
- Nerve disorders including multiple sclerosis and dementia.
In brief, start with natural therapies: diet, exercise, supplementation, meditation, massage, acupuncture, physiotherapy, chiropractic, etc. Then, if you do everything you can think of but still not experience any improvement, then you may need to consider upping the ante to non-natural methods including medication.
Have you ever read the fine print on a box of medication, in an advert, or on the bottom of a commercial screen? When you take drugs, there are potential side effects. Even with natural therapies, there are certain potential side-effects.
Granted, there is a time-and-place when such medication is necessary. When the reward is greater than the risk. Nevertheless, it is one reason why natural therapies that are effective may be a more-desirable first option.
And then, of course, if even pharmaceutical agents are still not solving the underlying problem, then surgery may need to be considered.
It also deserves attention that there are three general categories of health problems that can affect human beings:
- Emotional
- Chemical
- Physical
Commonly, drugs are seen as the first approach to solve all three problems. However, doesn’t it reason that if you have an emotional problem that the best solution would be to focus on an emotional solution?
And if you have a chemical problem that the best solution would not be to add more chemicals, but to reduce chemical imbalances as much as possible?
And if you have a physical problem that the best solution would not simply be to mask the symptoms, but to resolve the underlying physical cause?
Upper cervical care - A natural approach for a physical cause
One of the most important forms of natural healthcare that I know that can have an effect on all three aspects of your wellbeing - emotional, chemical, and physical - has to do with the health of your nerve system.
The reason is that it is your nerve system that controls and coordinates every process in your body, including all aspects of healing.
So whether it is rewiring your brain, detoxing your liver, or repairing from a physical injury, every person needs a nerve system working at its full capacity in order to be as optimally well as possible..
It is the very reason that I do the type of work that I do: a unique approach to healthcare known as Blair upper cervical care.
Upper cervical care is a special division of chiropractic that was developed in the USA and that does NOT involve any twisting, cracking, popping, or spinal manipulation.
The focus of upper cervical care is on the unique relationship that the top bones in your neck - called your atlas (C1) and axis (C2) - have on your brainstem and on blood flow within your brain. If either of these two vertebrae is ever injured - misaligned even a couple of millimeters - it can shift your center of gravity and disrupt the normal function of your nerve system.
If left uncorrected long enough, these misalignments may have the potential to cause severe health problems down the track (like unpaid interest on your car or house payment).
- Headaches may evolve into migraines, vertigo, tinnitus, TMJ or neuralgia
- Neck pain may evolve into back pain, arthritis, disc bulges, sciatica or carpal tunnel syndrome
- Whiplash may evolve into dizziness, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia or even neurodegenerative conditions such as multiple sclerosis
It is one of the reasons that I advocate natural therapies first - including upper cervical care - because if the reason for your health problems is actually the result of a misalignment in your neck, you may never need to go down the medical route … and the entire concern of a drug allergy may simply wash away.
Start at the source of health - your brain and C1 vertebra
Does that mean that it’s too late for you if you’re already taking medication? Or have had surgery?
Absolutely not!
Remember that no matter what happens, your body is always working to heal itself! (As an aside, many of the mild symptoms of a drug allergy are not actually because of the drug itself. They are part of your body’s normal defense system trying to rid your body of the substance that it does not like being there).
In my opinion, the best medical doctors agree that the fewer medications that you need at the smallest dose possible are the best way to be.
Yes, there is a time for all things including drugs and surgery. However, if it was possible to manage your condition naturally and without the side effects of drugs - and especially without the complications of a drug allergy - wouldn’t you agree that would be more ideal?
If you have been dealing with a challenging health issue for some time - either your specialists can’t find what’s going on, or you want to know if there is a different drug-free approach that may be able to help you and you have not seen a specific upper cervical care chiropractic doctor, you owe it to yourself to have a look.
Even if you have seen general chiropractic, upper cervical care is different.
The level fo detail and nature of the tests performed in an upper cervical office, despite their simplicity, are specific and uniquely tailored in order to provide the most precise care possible for the greatest potential for a favorable outcome.
If the concern of a drug allergy or adverse response to treatment is a concern, upper cervical care also has an exception satisfaction and safety track record with a 2011 study that found, “a high level (mean = 9.1/10) of patient satisfaction. The 83 chiropractors administered >5 million career upper cervical adjustments without a reported incidence of a serious adverse event.”
The cause of health comes from inside-out
Atlas Health is the premier upper cervical chiropractic health center in Brisbane. We are one of only 5 practices across Australia providing the Blair upper cervical method, and the only practice with Advanced Certification.
Our chiropractic doctor, Dr. Jeffrey Hannah, is the foremost authority in upper cervical specific chiropractic in Australia. He is an Advanced Certified practitioner in the Blair work, intentional lecturer, speaker, researchers, and published author.
If you have any questions, or if you would like to schedule an appointment with Dr. Hannah to find out if upper cervical care may be right for you, we would like o to extend a special invitation of a 15-minute free over-the-phone consultation.
You can click the “Contact Us” link at the top of this page, or call us direct at 07 3188 9329 to schedule an appointment.
So if you are concerned about medication - or if you have a known drug allergy or concern of a drug allergy - and want a more natural approach to health and wellbeing, give Blair upper cervical care a fair go.
Atlas Health Australia - A passion and purpose for helping enjoy a better quality of life.
References
Drug Allergy: Diagnosis and Management of Drug Allergy in Adults, Children, and Young People.
Editors National Clinical Guideline Centre (UK). London: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (UK); 2014 Sep. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25340226
Drug Allergies. American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. 28 Feb 2018. Accessed 11 Feb 2020. https://acaai.org/allergies/types/drug-allergies
Drug Allergy. Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy. February 2019. Accessed 11 Feb 2020. https://www.allergy.org.au/patients/fast-facts/drug-allergy
Eriksen K, Rochester BP, Hurwitz EL. Symptomatic Reactions, Clinical Outcomes, and Patient Satisfaction Associated with Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care: A Prospective, Multicenter, Cohort Study. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2011, 12:219 doi:10.1186/1471-2474-12-219. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1471-2474-12-219
Eriksen K. Upper Cervical Subluxation Complex: a review of the chiropractic and medical literature. Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins. Baltimore (MD). 2004.
Flanagan MF. The Downside of Upright Posture. Two Harbors Press, 2010.
Flanagan MF. The role of the craniocervical junction in craniospinal hydrodynamics and neurodegenerative conditions. Neurology Research International, 2015; Article ID 794829: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/794829. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285392403_The_Role_of_the_Craniocervical_Junction_in_Craniospinal_Hydrodynamics_and_Neurodegenerative_Conditions
Runciman WB, J Moller. Iatrogenic injury in Australia: a report prepared by the Australian patient safety association. October 2001. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dddb/b24ed4d96e2f61c6f774551ddaa9ba640985.pdf
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