The Central Nervous System Part 3

Upper Cervical Specific--Stress Analysis, and Restoration

Scenario: if you put a long-term tourniquet around your forearm, and then acquire an injury to the hand below, what treatment, therapy, surgery, drug, nutrient, rehab, chiropractic, etc is going to resolve the injury until you remove the tourniquet?

This is the same concept of what is happening to you, except instead of having these tourniquets around your arm, they’re around your brainstem, literally squeezing the life out of you. Some people have multiple tourniquets known as “layered misalignments” and “layers” acquired from multiple traumas in different directions creating misalignments on top of misalignments.

Further complicating things, there’s a “combination lock” on these tourniquets and to remove them, you must unlock them first.

How do you know you have this issue, aside from the fact that your body has all these symptoms?

1. Movement of your head and neck in one or more directions creates a sound of “Rice Krispies” or grinding.

2. There is asymmetrical and reduced range of motion, generalized stiffness or pinching sensations in the neck and the rest of the spine/ribs.

3. There is some sort of injury, dysfunction, dis-ease, of any kind, anywhere in the body, that will not resolve.

4. Scoliosis

Logically, if you want to correct any misalignment you’re going to have to first determine the correct “combination to the lock” — ie the precise diagnosis (3D positional coordinates) of each joint, and the angles of the upper cervical complex.

How might you determine this? Would you image it? Hopefully, if you went to a chiropractor with spine issues they would take an x-ray to see the current state of condition in your spine and body. As is the “standard of care” for spinal conditions and diseases.

Nowadays, technology is so advanced that you could take a Cone Beam CT scan and get a “3D image” that you can “slice and dice” using a fancy computer program to see exact locations, precision detail and angles.

Perhaps that would give you a better idea of where misalignment occurs.

But is this system consistent?

It’s important to note that a CBCT image, an x-ray image, MRI, etc will only show you static (still) positioning of joints.

But, What do joints do?

They move.

If you had a door that was unlocked, hinges attached, but wouldn’t open— Would you take a picture, a static image, of the door to diagnose this? No. You would attempt to MOVE it and then discover the hinges were rusty. By adding some WD-40 —voila! It moves again.

Additionally, could a “fixed/stuck” joint appear to be in alignment but doesn’t move properly? Yes. That’s a movement disorder. Would imaging detect it? No.

CBCT, x-ray, and MRI imaging are excellent ways to determine condition, pathology, and have a clear view inside the human body to see what’s there. But you can NOT use them to 100% precisely diagnose misalignment (a movement disorder).

Upper Cervical Specific—Stress Analysis tests are THE BEST and most accurate and precise way to diagnose a misalignment using the body’s own inherent and built in reflexive systems to objectively show us what is true of the integrity of each joint of the upper cervical complex.

If done correctly, they will produce precise and accurate results, with great inter-examiner reliability, including fixed joints, and occipitalization. It can pick up a listing (misalignment combination) change if layered misalignments exist, or a new misalignment is acquired through trauma, as well can tell you if you are in alignment thus knowing when to leave it alone—“if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”.

Remember from the previous article when we talked about how upper cervical misalignment causes the CNS to direct the paraspinal muscles to pull the spine into a compensatory scoliosis that “unkinks” the neural tube? (This happens as part of the sacrifice to protect the CNS communication and vital functions.) Well those paraspinal muscles travel down both sides of the spine all the way to the top of each side of your pelvis. If one side is contracted more than the other what will that side of the pelvis then do? Shift/move up. What else is attached to your pelvis? Your leg. If your pelvis goes up, where does your leg go? Up with it. This gives you the appearance of having a “short leg”.

If you have been to a half-decent chiropractor you have discovered you have a short-leg. Some of these chiropractors will elect to put a “heel lift” in to correct the problem. Does this work? No. This actually makes it worse.

Some medical doctors will suggest they perform surgery on your leg to lengthen it. Does this work? No. (And it’s insane). Real patients of mine have had this procedure performed on them by MD/DO’s.

Some chiropractors will tell you that the short leg is coming from your pelvis and they need to adjust your pelvis to correct it. Does this work? No. How you do you know? Because it comes from your upper cervical spine and goes THROUGH the pelvis. As soon as you get off the table your short leg will return.

Has your chiropractor ever shown you that your short leg has been corrected?

Have you ever not had a short leg on the next appointment? No?

Have someone look right now— I bet you they’re uneven.

This short leg is not FROM your pelvis—it’s THROUGH your pelvis.

»It’s FROM the upper cervical.

In the Upper Cervical Specific—Stress Analysis I can go to each joint of the upper cervical spine, and knowing how they move I can stress them in certain directions either 1) into further misalignment or 2) back into proper alignment.

If the stress is further misaligning the joint, what do you think will happen to the short leg?

>It will get more short.

If is further aligning the joint, what do you think will happen to the short leg?

>It will improve, or balance out with the other leg.

If the joint is “fixed” and you push on it what do you think will happen to the short leg?

>Nothing. It’s stuck. No movement occurs.

As you work through every upper cervical joint in stress/motion testing (skull on C1, and C2 on C3) you will arrive, through binary algorithms, at an accurate diagnosis of the 3D coordinate positions and the functional integrity at each joint. This provides you with a “listing” or a “combination” to unlock the lock that holds the “tourniquet” around your brainstem.

Now that you know what it is, can any chiropractor fix it?

Well……

1: To adjust a joint in traditional chiropractic you need to move the joint along its joint plane and vector, all the way to the end range, and then gently and quickly push past along that vector. If they move the joint just past full range of motion it will make a “pop” or “crack” sound. This sound is a normal sound of a joint undergoing depressurization. This is different than “clicking” or “grinding” of ligaments and tendons over bones that can be repeated over and over again at request. Depressurization can only produce a sound if there is pressure inside the joint, and after releasing it the joint takes minimum 20 minutes before it can have pressure inside again enough to produce an audible sound upon adjustment.

2: In the lumbar spine, if you look at all the joint planes and vectors you will notice something. They are virtually all in the same plane and same vector, in parallel, designed the same to allow and produce a certain movement in your lumbar spine.

When you get to the thoracic spine their joint planes and vectors change from the lumbar spine to allow for specific thoracic spine movement but are virtually all still in the same plane and same vector as seen below.

And when you get to the cervical spine, between C7 and C3, their joint planes and vectors change from the others to allow for specific cervical spine movement but are all still virtually in the same plane and same angle.

Meaning, in general, you can adjust these areas, and get multiple “pops” and multiple joints to move without too much of a problem (a bit more complicated than that but you get the gist).

All the way up to the upper cervical spine (C3 to the skull) where the joint vectors and planes and movements are ALL DIFFERENT at each level. Further, the C1 joints under the skull exist and move in converging vectors—like a wedge. This is not only because different movements are necessary up there but also because these joint vectors and planes serve as anatomical boney locking mechanisms that provide built-in increased stability to PROTECT you from gross misalignment in order to maintain the integrity of the neural tube and brainstem.

Think about a car. If you were to turn the front two tires inward like a wedge to a converging point, where would you be able to drive? Parallel wheels can move readily and freely, while non-parallel wheels, and especially wedged angles, can not.

Meaning if you try to “adjust” one joint in the upper cervical spine using traditional chiropractic, and multiple joints move, you may have corrected the initial joint but you CREATED multiple other misalignments on the opposite side which now need to be corrected. On attempting to correct those created misalignments you may over adjust AGAIN creating misalignments on the opposite side AGAIN. Why? Because the joint angles and planes directly oppose one another. Around and around and around you go.

If the chiropractor adjusting you discovered your “scoliosis” to have specific side-to-side and rotation misalignments of the spine, and attempted to adjust it WITHOUT FULLY CORRECTING the upper cervical spine first, what will ALWAYS happen within a short amount of time?

It will come back.

Why?

Because the scoliosis and subsequent misalignment was put there ON PURPOSE by your central nervous system (due to the upper cervical misalignment).

They know it’s going to come back which is why you’re instructed to come for the frequency and duration that you are. I don’t believe they want that to happen, I truly believe that most do want to fix you, and they know they can provide relief because when they free up any joint it makes people feel better, but it does indeed come back every time. So of course they are going to invite you back. They are either ignorant or incapable of correcting the nuances of the upper cervical misalignment complex.

Just as an example, due to the complexity of the upper cervical joint anatomy C2 and C3 joints can have 12 different combinations of misalignment, and the Skull on C1 can have 10 different combinations of misalignment. Each upper cervical complex (C0 on C1, C2 on C3) having the possibility of having any of the combinations of misalignment being paired with any of the combinations of misalignment of the other level makes people unique and their treatment should be specific to them.

Furthermore, a standard chiropractor is traditionally taught that because there is a thick Anterior Longitudinal Ligament running the front side of the entire spine that there can’t really ever be “forward misalignments”. Upon clinical evidence and further thought this is simply untrue. The ALL is in front of the BODIES of the vertebrae, not the joints, AND about 50% of my patients have anterior (forward) misalignments. Sometimes they have forward ones at one level and posterior ones at the one below.

Because the standard chiropractor is taught this they are also taught how to adjust by contacting the backside of your spine. This leaves the resulting force applied as invariably having a vector of some degree forward… if you are forward and get pushed more forward, are you better or worse?

Once the adjustment is performed:

1. How do they know the joints are in alignment? Are they going to re-image you? Rely upon symptoms and subjectivity?

2. When do they decide not to adjust? If you adjust an upper cervical joint that is in alignment do you make it better or worse?

3. What about all that excess radiation if you have to re-image?

All of these reasons are why a decent portion of the population tries chiropractic for their health care only to quit because they get adjusted and are made worse, not better, or they are going on forever without an end to their treatment plan or their condition. There may be long periods of relief of symptoms but invariably it returns at some point.

To adjust the upper cervical spine correctly it must be done in a certain way, specific to each joint and its precise position of misalignment, and it must be done in a certain order from least significant to most significant (neurological input). Starting with C2 minors then majors, and ending with C1 minors then majors. No bending, twisting, cracking, popping, or otherwise removing the spine out of a mid-line neutral position to avoid any injury or further unintentional misalignment.

However, currently, ALL upper cervical specific and traditional chiropractic techniques use some form or fashion of imaging as the final director of diagnosis. What are the odds that they will determine the right combination to clear the first layer? What are the odds that they are able to determine a subsequent listing change—a layer? What about objectively knowing when not to adjust?

While they are still going to make huge improvements and changes on people’s lives/conditions because they are focusing on the correct area, most will still inevitably fail to fully resolve some of their cases because their diagnosis is reliant upon a static image which gives you incomplete information at best. And incomplete information won’t fully “unlock” it.

With stress/motion testing, you do NOT have to image to determine if a patient is in alignment or out of alignment. When they are in alignment 1) the feet will be dead even (assuming no fracture along growth plates in the legs growing up or any surgery/fracture that created an anatomically short leg), and 2) when re-testing stress/motion at the specific joint planes and angles the legs WILL NOT MOVE; they will stay even. They will stay even as long as the upper cervical stays in alignment. Period.

Further, as you continue to live life after this first misalignment, and it was never corrected, you can have ANOTHER trauma in a separate direction. This can misalign you from an already misaligned position, and the spine below will also move to match it and compensate from an already compensated position. This is called a "layer" of misalignment. 

When you are already misaligned at C1 and C2, the built in stability of joint integrity is not strong, therefore it doesn't always have to be a huge force to create another misalignment. 

Sometimes major traumas can create misalignments that take a significant percentage of communication from you.

Some traumas will be minor and only take a small percentage of communication from you. 

Each misalignment will take something specific and different from you, each adding and contributing to the total loss of communication. 

And every time you add a misalignment and a compensatory scoliosis, you add energy to the system to activate muscles to contract to keep it there as you essentially increase the tension of the vice grip on your central nervous system. 

As far as the chiropractic profession is concerned, they do not know nor understand what a “layer” of misalignment is—they’re not taught this.

This is not one bone out of place or even multiple bones out of place that just need to be adjusted back into alignment.  This is layer upon layer of misalignment and torque due to intentional compensation of the spine that matches each acquired layer of upper cervical misalignment, AND all of the traumas to the spine directly layered and added at specific moments in tension and time of the spine. 

This is why if you do not correct the upper cervical spine first in this manner, you will never hold any adjustment to the spine below as they are all doing what the CNS is telling them to do INTENTIONALLY. 

As a 12 year chiropractor who has searched under every rock to find the answers for people's health, with countless continuing education efforts and experiments on myself, I have personally found that The ONLY way to fix this situation is to start at the top and begin correcting the upper cervical misalignment(s) first.  Don't forget, the top one is just the one that was from the most recent trauma that misaligned you, and it took something specific from you. Once that layer of misalignment is cleared that specific loss of communication that it took from you is immediately restored. The torque on the spine below that was holding it in a compensating scoliosis for that misalignment is immediately removed. But, All of the other torques for each of the other upper cervical misalignments are still there and they will start unwinding. All of the previous upper cervical misalignments will come back out of alignment in reverse chronological order and resurface at C1 and C2 as the spine unravels like a pez dispenser or a gun magazine. The rate of which is dictated by how much you move, the degree of torque of the scoliosis, the degree of arthritic degeneration present, and any surgical procedures done that reduce motion of the spine. But ALL can cross the finish line and remove all layers and have 100% open central nervous system. 

How many layers of misalignment do (you) have? 

How many can you have? 

So far in my experience, 98% of people will have 7 or less layers. 

A few outliers can have quite a few more. It all depends on each person's unique life experience.

BUT... You can NOT have an infinite number of these so at some point, there are no more. 

And since you are Designed to have built in anatomical stability of the upper cervical joints , you won't come out of alignment again at some point unless you have another significant injury to the head or neck. Sleep, work, daily activities, sport, weight lifting, and physical activity -- ie normal use of the body -- will not misalign you. You can injure tissue, but if not misaligned you will recover from it through the regenerative capacities of the human body. 

It is important to note that a specific condition won't respond to this process until the layer of upper cervical misalignment that caused it resurfaces and is cleared. 

And even if you manage to clear all of your layers in a short amount of time you STILL have to do all the Regenerating. 

This is going to happen in a process that we call "retracing cycles" which is the 63 day, or 9-week, cyclical nature of healing built into your DNA. This is a precision operation your body does to heal you and it can be objectively measured and predicted in everyone. 

You have been doing this 9 week healing cycle for your entire life, you just didn't know it. Every 9 weeks there is a 3 week span of time where your body ACTIVELY AND INTENTIONALLY inflames specific tissues in order to heal them. This will produce symptoms and pain that are specific to the degree of healing and the specific tissue(s) involved. We have been told our entire lives that these symptoms ARE the disease and we do things and take things to get them to stop.  But these are not necessarily signs of THE disease rather they are often the signs of your body RESPONDING to the disease and trying to heal itself. Like a fever when you have an infection. Don't treat the fever... treat the infection. But I digress... 

So, what does healing actually look like? 

Well, as soon as you come in and fully clear an upper cervical misalignment, and restore a specific percentage of CNS communication, your brain will then recognize the need to heal and regenerate those specific tissues involved. This changes the vector of your health. You were in a state of progressive degeneration, and now your body will determine that it is in a state of progressive regeneration. This resets your healing cycle clock to day 0. Healing is a 

Whatever communication you were given back, those tissues have to "wake up" and "come online". This process can be minor or intense depending on what percentage of communication was given back, and it will take 21 days (or 3 weeks). This is not healing yet, this is turning online and it will cost some energy to do! Think about a time where you sat down too long and your legs went to sleep, or you laid down and your arms went to sleep, once you stand up and decompress these nerve structures they "tingle" to some degree as they wake up. The longer and greater degree of compression the longer and greater degree of intensity of symptoms as they wake up. Except we aren't aren't talking about legs or arms, we are talking about your brainstem, so it could be ANYTHING. Expect some degree of fatigue as your body restores its functions. 

Assuming you don't "throw your next layer" and maintain your alignment, you will have 3 weeks of stability immediately following. 

And then we arrive at the last 3 weeks of the 9 week cycle. 

For 70% of people, they will become "symptomatic" as they "retrace" through old injuries, diseases, degenerations, dysfunctions, and illnesses, inflaming them in order to heal. 

This process will cost energy resulting in fatigue, and produce various degrees of symptoms and intensity. People tend to have PTSD as they think their conditions have returned but have NO FEAR as this process is TEMPORARY. It will only last for 3 weeks (21 days) and then you will repeat the cycle except without the initial 3 weeks of "turning online" symptoms. 

The cycle will then progress forward like this where there are 6 weeks of blue (stability) followed by 3 weeks of red. 6 weeks of blue, then 3 weeks of red. On repeat for the rest of your life. Now you won't have to deal with the same type or intensity of healing each cycle as you will make significant and permanent headway in the healing process, so these do become easier over time. And eventually you do finish healing everything but this process usually takes 1 month for every year the original first misalignment occurred which could be birth, and we just assume it is to keep the answer conservative. 

Now every 4th cycle, you will do major healing, tissue remodeling, function restoration, and regeneration. These active symptomatic periods will last for 4 weeks instead of 3, and are usually more intense. These cycles will be the 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, 20th, etc. cycles only and every cycle in between will go back to a 3 week symptomatic period. It looks something like this. 

The other 30% of people will not be symptomatic during the "last 3 weeks" and instead will be symptomatic the "first 3 weeks" of the next 9 week cycle. Their cycles look like this: 

You are either the "last 3 weeks" or the "first 3 weeks" and you can't be both. To determine which you are, you will have to be found 1) in alignment 2) symptomatic 3) on the schedule. Once this is objectively discerned you can map out the next years of your life and predict precisely when you will be symptomatic for healing and when you shouldn't be. 

As a reminder, as each layer comes out it only gives you back what it took from you, and your body only heals what it has back. This may produce some frustrations if the layer responsible doesn't show up right away or quickly, but all layers do show up to those who pursue this until the end and clear them. 

Every time a layer is cleared, you are adding to the positive progressive regeneration your body is capable of. This continues you on the upwards vector of healing and therefore does NOT restart your 9 week recycle clock. Everything is still based upon the very first adjustment date, assuming NO NEW TRAUMA occurred creating a NEW UPPER CERVICAL LAYER that would alter your healing vector. 

When the specific percentage of communication is restored again after each layer cleared, there will be a 3 week (21 day) symptomatic period where your body has to turn online. This 3 week period of time can occur at any point in your cycle depending on when you have it cleared. It could be overlapping your retracing cycle, it could be the 3 weeks prior to your retracing cycle, and extend symptomatic periods. That isn't fair to some, but it will only be temporary so DON'T PANIC. 

At some point you won't have any. more layers to clear and you will stay in alignment. This will put you Into a very predictable groove of your healing (retracing) cycle and you will move through these like clockwork. Every day that passes by and you don't have new traumas, you will gain an inch of function and healing. Every 9 week cycle you will gain a mile. Some start out with only a few miles to go. Some have many many miles to travel. All you have to do is put one foot in front of the other, show up with all your essential building blocks (nutrients), and clean you and your filters out... and VOILA! 

If you have a human body — this works.

The proof is in the pudding.

This. Over and over and over again. Different patients, different compressions, different misalignments, different number of layers, different symptoms and levels of dysfunction/dis-ease/etc.

Same result—system wide healing, regeneration, and resolution.

Such a simple solution for so many complicated, compounding, and elusive problems.

Almost like God designed it that way.
Man screwed it up thinking we know better than what is written on our DNA.

We don’t know better than the innate intelligence of the human body. It is a self-regulating, self-adapting, self-healing supermachine that defies the laws of the universe (entropy) and death DAILY by STAYING ALIVE.

It can handle what you need - you just have to give it the opportunity to.

Note to reader: the information about the chiropractic technique described in these articles is called Upper Cervical Specific and was developed by BJ Palmer. It is implemented through Stress Analysis, which was developed by Guillermo D. Vazquez, D.C. Articles are written with permission of Dr. Vazquez. Opinions outside of the subject matter are my own.