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What is the Altas Body Alignment?
Are you Looking for a Solution for your Body Alignment?
As much as we love our parents and grandparents, we don’t want our posture to become like theirs!
Certainly, there is no escape from either time of gravity, but that does not mean that we are helpless to defend ourselves against physical deterioration.
• You exercise (even if your friends think you’re weird for liking it)
• You take good care of your diet (with a bit of indulgence, here or there)
• You meditate or at least try not to stress too much
• You don’t like depending on the medication, and you prefer natural when at all possible!
So if you are this type of person who is proactive in your health, you want to make sure that you’re doing everything you can (within reason) to remain as healthy as possible. … Alternatively, you may be a health-conscious person who still struggles with certain things, and you can’t quite figure out what’s going on.
If this describes you, it might be because there is a missing piece of the puzzle that you’ve not known about before. So let me ask you: are you taking care of your neck, spinal cord, and brain?
Who is your Atlas body alignment doctor?
You may never have heard about such a thing until recently (which is the reason you’ve Googled it and discovered this page here). In this article, I’d like to explain a little bit about the role of your upper neck, about how it relates to body alignment, and also how it relates to the health of your brain and entire body.
For many people, it also explains why they’re doing all the right things but still struggle with certain elements of their health.
More importantly, it may be a different approach to finally help you discover an answer to the health questions or challenges that you’ve been dealing with for so long.
Interested? Please, then, enjoy this article.
What no one has ever told you about Body Alignment
You don’t have to look very far to see people with horrendous posture. From both ends of the spectrum, you have people in their 70s and 80s with such bent posture - curled forwards over canes and walkers - that it hurts to see! You also have people not even 10 years old with also such horrific posture - glued in front of mobile devices - that you want to scold them yourself!
You are probably somewhere in the middle: not awful, but not perfect. You are only human, after all.
It likely brings back memories when you were in grade school and scolded that you, “Need to sit up straight.” If only it was so simple!
Part of the reason it is so difficult is because of the way that modern life is laid out for us. We go to school for 12 years in tiny desks, sitting for 6-8 hours a day (plus homework). Then we grow up to go to work for 6-8 hours a day in front of a computer. Add to that all your time in front of mobile screens, in cars, etc.
Even then, it is still not that simple. And it is because your posture has NOTHING to do with laziness. … Well, maybe 20%, but the bulk of posture is about neurology. It is about the health of your brain and your spinal cord.
When your spinal cord is healthy, there is no abnormal tension or strain that would otherwise disrupt its normal function. However, if your spinal cord is under stress, your brain will make certain modifications in your muscles than manifest as changes in your body alignment in order to compensate.
In other words, your posture - poor posture specifically - if the result of a compensatory change that your brain has made in your spine.
You see, if it was just a matter of “sitting up straight,” your body alignment wouldn’t immediately rebound back to the same crappy position 30 seconds later.
The question, therefore, is why - oh why! - would your brain be causing your posture and body alignment to go crooked?
What is the Role of your Upper Neck in Body Alignment?
Where your head goes, your body goes.
Picture a bowling ball being balance on a long broom handle. In effect, this is the relationship between your head (4Kg) and the rest of your spine. Your skull sits atop the first bone in your neck, called the atlas or C1 vertebra. The second vertebra is called your axis or C2 vertebra, and it is responsible for the pivot or turning action of your head. The remainder of the bones in your spine have interlocking joints that limit the amount that they can move.
Ultimately, all the muscles and connective tissues in the body anchor directly or indirectly with your head, the C1, or the C2 vertebrae. The reason for this arrangement is to keep your head balanced atop your neck.
The problem is if you have ever had an injury that affected the normal alignment of this system, like pulling the rug out from beneath you or like building a house on a crooked frame.
No, it doesn’t have to be the type of injury where you break or sprain anything. Because the bones in your neck move only a total of 1cm each, even a millimeter disruption to their normal alignment can have a significant 10% effect on the overall function of your spine.
If so, here is where your brain will need to make certain modifications. You see, in order for your brain to function properly, your eyes need to remain level with the horizon. It is called the “head righting reflex.”
So if your head is misaligned relative to the top vertebrae in your neck in such a way that your body is not able to self-correct the problem, your brain will recruit other muscles going down your spine in order to balance the system out.
The result is that your posture can start to change in subtle but significant ways:
• Your head sticks forwards, and you develop a bigger-than-normal bump in the back of your neck (BTW: the effective weight of your head doubles forever 2.5cm of the forward head posture you have. Remember that the neck time you see some kid staring down at his or her phone)
• Your head leans sideways possibly leading to neck pain, headaches or jaw problems
• One-shoulder drops lower than the other possibly leading to pain between the shoulder blades
• One hip hikes up higher than the other possibly leading to lower back pain, sciatica or even hip pain, knee pain or foot pain
So all of these body alignment issues may not actually have anything to do with where you feel the pain or discomfort. They may all be coming from a misalignment stemming from your upper neck!
Can Upper Cervical Care Help your Body Alignment?
If you want your body alignment and posture to be as healthy as possible, then getting the alignment of your head and upper neck is foundational!
As we have already described, body alignment is related to so many different conditions: not just posture, but serious health issues. In the same breath, however, it is also important to emphasize that a perfectly straight spine is not always correct!
Ideally, yes, your body alignment would be completely symmetrical. However, due to the way that your bones form, most people - if not 100% of people - have variations in their bone structure. In other words, you are probably not 100% the same on the left or right sides of your body.
Therefore, if we actually straighten you out too much, we have the possibility of creating a problem!
So there is a difference between an orthopedically straight body alignment and a HEALTHY body alignment.
This is one of the challenges if you try to force your body alignment or muscles to go into a position where they are not designed to go. You run into all kinds of internal resistance!
There are two key elements then that are necessary to make sure that your body alignment goes according to plan:
1 Discover first what your NORMAL bone structure is BEFORE starting care
2 Test your nervous system along the way to make sure that the changes that are happening are the RIGHT CHANGES.
This is one of the things that makes upper cervical care so different from other forms of healthcare. We aren’t just pushing or stretching things the direction that we “think” they should do.
We perform a series of specialized 3D x-rays that help us to see the EXACT position for where things in your body are designed to be. And then, we ONLY make a correction in that direction when the results of specific nervous system testing show that it is what you need.
Have you Tried Upper Cervical Care to Help your Body Alignment?
Upper cervical care or “atlas treatments” are a special division of chiropractic that focuses on the alignment of the top bones in your neck - the atlas (C1) and the axis (C2) - for the purpose of maintaining a healthy relationship between your brain and body.
If these vertebrae are properly aligned, your body is neurological free of interference and should be free to function in a normal, healthy way. If these vertebrae are not aligned, there can be pressure or disruption to your brainstem, which causes your nervous system to suffer and potentially cause, among so many other things, a body misalignment.
Unlike general chiropractic, Blair's upper cervical care does not involve any twisting, cracking, or cervical manipulation. The procedure was developed in the USA through and requires advanced study after completing a normal university chiropractic degree.
Dr. Jeffrey Hannah, our chiropractor here at Atlas chiropractic in North Lakes is actually an advanced certified Atlas doctor, who teaches this work for other chiropractors here in Australia. At present, he is the only advanced certified Blair upper cervical chiropractor not only in Brisbane but all Australia.
One of the things that people remark about the procedure is just how different - how light - the adjustment is. That is actually the key to how upper cervical care and body alignment works. By being specific - in fact, using an adjustment that is custom-tailored for your own bone structure - we don’t need to use much force at all: only the amount you would use to feel your pulse in order to unlock the position of your atlas or axis in order to restore the normal alignment.
Our long term goal is to help you to maintain your adjustments for as long as possible so that you can get back to enjoying your life.
Our services are available for all people without a referral. Whether you are young and want to prevent body problems later in life - or whether you are older and want to resolve your body alignment issues as good as you possibly can - we may be able to help you!
If you would like more information on body alignment and how we may be able to help, please feel free to reach out to us. We are happy to schedule a 15-minute phone consultation so that you can ask any questions you have about your individual case w Dr. Jeff, and if we may be able to help you. You can reach our North Lakes chiropractor office at 07 3188 9329 or on the Contact Us link on this page.
Take care of your neck and start living life again!
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