Tuesday September 11, 2007, 1:20 pm

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.
Importantly, not everyone with high blood pressure is a candidate for an Atlas manipulation and not every chiropractor can do it. It may work for people with high blood pressure who have Atlas misalignment but that should be verified with imaging studies. There is now a large-scale study to validate the evaluation of Atlas misalignment so that it can have broader use in clinical practice. It is important to note that at this time the observations regarding changes in blood pressure need to be confirmed and therefore this treatment should not be used routinely for this purpose. Moreover, not only does the technique work only for a select population, but by no means are all [or even most] chiropractors able to perform this manipulation. Because it can be dangerous if improperly performed, it requires specific training and experience from a chiropractor associated with the National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association www.nucca.org.
Intriguing as this discovery is, Dr. Bakris says right now it is best to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. Single-center observations like this one need to be confirmed with larger multi-center studies before a general recommendation for treatment can be made. To that end, two larger scale trials are being proposed to the National Institutes of Health, which is supportive of this work going forward.
Source[s]:
George Bakris, MD, director, Hypertensive Diseases Center, and professor of medicine, University of Chicago.
Be well, Carole Jackson Bottom Line's Daily Health News
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Tuesday September 11, 2007, 1:36 pm
NOTED THANKS RABBIT

Tuesday September 11, 2007, 3:54 pm
Thanks Rabbit, informative article.

Tuesday September 11, 2007, 8:54 pm
NOTED...THANKS RABBIT!!

Wednesday September 12, 2007, 5:20 pm

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