Top 10 Chiropractic Techniques

When people visit chiropractors, they pretty much always get adjusted.  What most people don’t realize however, is that there are many different types of techniques that chiropractors may use to diagnose and adjust their patients. 

Predominantly, the most common technique is called “diversified” as it is the technique that most chiropractic colleges teach.  Diversified technique is thus the “standard” form for chiropractors and in some ways is a hodge podge of many techniques put together (hence the diversification).  According to the 2005 NCBE (National Chiropractors Board of Examiners), over 95% of all chiropractors report using diversified technique in their practices.  There are at least 116 different chiropractic techniques reported being practiced and that number will grow with each generation of chiropractors.  According to the same NCBE survey, the top 10 chiropractic techniques after diversified, along with the % of DCs that practice it in their practices are:

• 

  BJ Palmer performing his Hole in One technique, not the most popular, but surely the most famous technique in the chiropractic profession

  Activator – 69.9%

• Thompson – 61.3%
• Gonstead – 57.2%
• Cox – 56.5%
• SOT – 49.9%
• Cranial - 38.0%
• AK – 37.6%
• Nimmo – 33.6%
• Logan Basic – 26.0%
• Palmer UC – 25.7%

There is no proof that one technique is better than another, and every technique has benefited some groups of people in the past.  It is important to not let a chiropractor’s specific technique scare you from chiropractic, but to find a technique that works for you!  Feel free to jot any comments you may have on any techniques you may have experienced.

What is the Meric Chart?

Chiropractors can therefore use the relationship of the vertebrae and organ to know which vertebrae they should be focusing on given somatic patient symptoms.  In addition, any discomfort in a specific segment could indicate current or future problems in the organ related to that vertebra.

This chart is one of the fundamental theories that chiropractic is based off of, but is very controversial in the medical world and even in the chiropractic industry.  There are many who report positive results when using this chart, and it does explain how chiropractic can help so many people that do not only have musculoskeletal issues.  Such examples include why adjusting C1 and the occiput has great results in lowering blood pressure and why many people have their T1 vertebrae subluxated, which is related to the heart.

Chiropractic Adjustments Lower Blood Pressure

ABC News has broadcast a segment based off of several studies of chiropractic lowering the blood pressure levels for hypertensive patients.

While this is incredible information for people battling high blood pressure and great press for the profession, I find it a little disturbing at the medical doctor’s response in this news segment.

How do adjustments lower blood pressure?

Cervical manipulations and adjustments can have a large impact on the physiology of the body.  If you just look at the location of the top cervical joints (Occiput-C1, C1-C2), you’ll notice how close it is in relation to the brain.  It is not known yet exactly how the adjustment lowers blood pressure, but one of the proposed mechanisms is that the Atlas (C1) can affect the arteries at the base of the skull.  If the Atlas is not aligned properly, it is proposed that signals in the brain are sent to constrict those arteries, increasing blood pressure.  By getting the atlas aligned, these signals are stopped, relieving the pressure in the arteries, and lowering blood pressure.

Do I need to see someone special?

In the news clip and first journal article, it is mentioned that you need to practice a specific technique in order to get these desired results.  It was even shown in the same article that manipulation produced the results while mobilization did not.  I do not believe that a specific technique is needed however if all that is needed to be done is to realign the Atlas with the spine.  Every chiropractic technique has the ability to do so and should be just as effective.  It is only a matter of whether the doctor is trained well enough to identify a misalignment, which from experience is very common.

More information to follow!

What is Anterior Head Carriage?

Anterior head carriage, also known as forward head carriage, is a postural fault or tendency that the body exhibits because of upper cross syndrome.  Simply put, it’s when the head is held in a much more forward position than it is supposed to be. 

How to Self Diagnose Anterior Head Carriage

The easiest way to tell if someone has anterior head carriage is to have them stand normally while you look at them from the side.  Draw an imaginary line from the top of their head down through the middle point of their ankles.  If it is easier, you can have a weighted string hang from the ceiling and have an actual line.  This is called a “plumb line.”  If the person has a proper standing posture, the line should go through the middle of their ear and the middle of their shoulder.  If their ear is in front of their shoulder, they have anterior head carriage.

Have some fun and go analyze people.  You’ll realize that especially given the normal American lifestyle sitting infront of computers, that many, if not most people have anterior head carriage!

Problems with Anterior Head Carriage

Because it is an abnormal body position, anterior head carriage can bring several mishaps to the individual including headaches, tight muscles or muscles aches, and decreased range of motion to say the least.  All of these symptoms also come with upper cross syndrome.  Aside from poor posture, anterior carriage can also caused by subluxations in the neck.  If subluxated, flexing the neck forward decreases pressure where the nerves leave the spine, which could be an unconscious attempt for the body to alleviate symptoms or pain.  The increased flexion only causes more work on the muscles in the back of the neck, increasing the symptoms associated with anterior head carriage and upper cross syndrome.  Of course it is not known if the subluxations are caused due to poor posture or if the poor posture is caused by subluxations.  They could also both cause each other, nevertheless, correcting poor posture definitely helps reducing and preventing  subluxations.

How to Correct Anterior Head Carriage

Correcting anterior head carriage is not going to be accomplished overnight.  It takes a long time for the body to adapt to a new posture and correcting your own posture is very difficult!  One of the first steps would be to see a chiropractor to relieve your neck from subluxations.  This will provide temporary relief in symptoms (if any) and will vary from person to person.  However this is only temporary because without a change in posture, the body will go right back to its previous position creating the problem again.

What is Lower Crossed Syndrome?

Just like in upper crossed syndrome, lower crossed syndrome is a muscular abnormalities of the body brought on by one’s posture.  Common patterns of lower crossed syndrome include tight lower back muscles, potentially with lower back pain.  The individual might also have sore knees due to tight leg adductor muscles (muscles that move your legs towards the center of your body.

Lower crossed syndrome can develop from someone who sits for long periods of time, leaning in a slightly flexed position.  This causes the lower back muscles or erector spinae to continually contract to hold the body’s weight upright while the constantly flexed position shortens the muscle length of the iliopsoas and rectus femoris muscles.  Through continued concentric contraction or in a shortened position, the muscles adapt and shorten in length leading to muscle tightness.

However, since the body acts like a series of pulleys and levers, when one muscle gets shortened, it usually means that another muscle gets lengthened.  This phenomenon is known as reciprocal inhibition.  How it works is that when a muscle is contracting, the muscle opposite of its function, or antagonist muscle, is turned off so that they aren’t both contracting at once.  Your brain can of course override this, but the purpose of reciprocal inhibition is to make the body more efficient and to avoid injury.  While inhibited though, the antagonist muscle is not only prevented from contracting, but in many cases is actually stretched or lengthened.  If you think of your quads (front thigh muscles) versus your hamstrings (back thigh muscles), if you flex one, you’ll usually feel the other stretch when you maximally stretch (I really feel this if I’m sitting down).  In the end, the shortened tight muscles cause the stretching and lengthening of their antagonist muscles.  This ultimately leads to the weakening of those muscles.

Due to the tightened and lengthened muscles, one with lower crossed syndrome will typically present with anterior pelvic tilt.  This could look like someone is hunching over forward since their feet are more than likely planted on the ground.  They might also have an increased lumbar lordotic curve, or increased lower back arch, which contributes to the anterior pelvic tilt.  Both of these conditions help to further enforce the lower crossed syndrome, resulting in one of the many reasons for lower back pain.

Muscles commonly tight or shortened in lower crossed syndrome include:

• Iliopsoas
• Rectus femoris
• Erector spinae
• Piriformis
• Tensor fascia latae (TFL)
• Leg adductors

The weakened or lengthened muscles include:

• Abdominal group
• Gluteal group

How to treat lower crossed syndrome
What is upper crossed syndrome?

What is Upper Crossed Syndrome?

Upper crossed syndrome, also known as “student syndrome” or “corporate syndrome”, is a pattern of tight and weak muscles the body develops based off of one’s postural tendencies just like lower crossed syndrome.  The most common trait for someone with upper crossed syndrome is tight upper traps (a muscle in between the edge of your shoulder and your neck) and sometimes right at the back posterior base of your skull.  This is a very common occurrence in today’s population.  In fact, there is a good chance that even YOU have it!

The people this effects the most are those that sit all day, usually in front of a computer or at a desk.  This is why it’s called student or corporate syndrome!  Due to poor ergonomics, most people in these situations either find themselves leaning over a desk to read, or hunched at a computer typing all day.  If you don’t believe me, stroll down  your work aisle or school library and take a look.  In order to maintain this unnatural position, the body has to continually contract certain muscles.  If you think about a muscle’s length when it is (concentrically) contracting, it gets shorter.  If you hold that contracted position for long enough, the muscle will actually remain shorter, resulting in tight muscles. 

This isn’t all though…think about the other muscles that you are NOT using in holding these positions.  The musculature of the human body is an amazing example of balance.  When one muscle is working, the opposite muscle is generally not.  This is called reciprocal inhibition.  In many cases, the opposite muscle is actually stretching.  Think about your biceps for example.  If you are lifting something really heavy such as a dumb bell for example, your biceps has to contract to lift it.  Your triceps, the antagonist or opposite muscle, does not work when lifting the dumb bell and you may actually feel it getting stretched at the very end of your biceps curl.  With the continual stretching and overall lack of use, the muscles opposite to the ones doing all of the work will eventually stretch out and get weak.  This can lead to a whole new swing of body aches and make it harder to attain proper posture.

This is why people with upper crossed syndrome have tight shoulders and base skull muscles.  Given the tightness of these muscles, these people will also tend to have anterior head carriage, also known as forward head carriage, a position where the center of their head is far more in front of their body then the center of their body.  The muscles most likely to be tight on a person with upper crossed syndrome include:

• Upper trapezius
• Sub occipital
• Deep neck extensors
• Pectoralis major
• Levator scapuli

The muscles that tend to be weak or lengthened include:

• Rhomboids
• Middle and lower trapezius
• Deep neck flexors

How to treat upper crossed syndrome
What is lower crossed syndrome?

The Chiropractic Diagnosis

A couple nights ago, my sister called me asking for pain advice.  Her friend was in extreme pain in her shoulder area and just underneath her skull.  The pain was described as an “achy” feeling that occured from about 12 – 9 PM and has been going on for some time now.  She was also experiencing headaches and had sought medical care for an opinion.  I pressed on and found out that there was no trauma, that she worked long hours in front of a computer, heat made the pain subside and that the shoulder pain was muscle aches, which I later identified as the upper trap and suboccipital muscles.

Eureka!  This was a textbook case of upper crossed syndrome, also known as “student syndrome” or “corporate syndrome.”  My sister went on to say that the doctor her friend was seeing had no idea what was going on.  Due to the precaution of the headache, she was scheduled for a CT scan the following week!

While it is possible that there could be something far more dangerous going on here, I found it hard to believe that my sister’s friend hadn’t heard of the syndrome from her doctor.  Upper crossed syndrome is extremely prominent in the US, especially for those that have desk jobs or are students, infact there is a good chance that you have it!  It didn’t sound that the doctor considered upper crossed syndrome though so it was scary that he was so quick to jump to a CT scan, a type of x-ray that exposes patients to a decent amount of radiation, in which if it was indeed upper crossed syndrome, nothing wrong would be seen.

As a chiropractic student, we are thoroughly educated in musculoskeletal problems and diagnosis.  While musculoskeletal disorders will probably not be my primary focus in my practice, low back pain is the second most common reason for someone to seek a doctor or go to the hospital, making it very important to know.  With this in mind, I know that there will be many people I can help once in practice and am very proud to be a future chiropractor!

Other conditions chiropractors are great at treating (just to name a few) include:

• pain reduction
• nutrition
• balance
• weight loss
• blood pressure control
• strength building
• TMJ (jaw joint) disorders
• increasing immunity
• memory
• nerve problems
• tight muscles

Students Pledge a Record $102K for F4CP, Standard Process Matches Amount

Despite the sagging economy, chiropractic students across the nation have donated a record $102,000 to the efforts of The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP). Standard Process, an organic nutrition supplement company matched the donated amount to bring the total over $204,000! This money will be used to provide positive PR for the chiropractic profession, which includes ads in Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, and allows for obtaining chiropractic ambassadors such as soon to be Hall of Famer Jerry Rice.

As a current contributor, I find it amazing that students have mobilized to contribute to such a great foundation. At the target donation rate of $10/month, that’s about 850 students that have pledged towards the cause. Not too shabby for a predominantly income-less group!

If you would like to make a pledge or simply want more information about F4CP, click here.

What are Neurovascular Points?

Neurovascular points, are points that are usually on the face and scalp that are used for diagnosing and treating weak muscles in Applied Kinesiology, or AK.  They were originally discovered by Dr. Terence Bennett, a chiropractor, in the 1930s who found out that stimulating certain points would increase blood flow to specific organs in the body.  As a result, the increased blood flow would have a positive affect on those organ’s funtions.  Bennett was able to observe his findings by touching the various points and seeing the reaction it caused under x-ray fluoroscope and spent countless hours recording his points and findings.  Unfortunately for Bennett, his research took his life when he passed away from radiation poisoning.

Dr. George Goodheart, the founder of AK, took Bennett’s work and noticed that touching these various points could turn weak muscles on again.  Since it was found that Bennett’s neurovascular points were correlated with different organs in the body, it was easy for Goodheart to correlate these points with specific muscles.  Today, almost every muscle has its own neurovascular point.  While these points can overlap with other muscles, they are a useful tool to help fix an individual’s neurology.

What are Neurolymphatic Reflexes?

Neurolymphatic reflexes, or “neurolymphatics” as referred to in AK, is a location on the body that is believed to affect a specific muscle and organ.  As mentioned above, it is used in Applied Kinesiology for diagnosing the relationship between weak muscles and dysfunction with that muscle or its corresponding organ or gland/tissue.

Neurolymphatic reflexes were discovered by Dr. Frank Chapman, an osteopath in the 1930s.  Through palpation, Chapman found tender areas in the body, which he believed to be the result of an increase and even congestion in lymph.  Subsequent massage to that area would increase lymphatic drainage and lead to positive effects of the individual’s health, especially to corresponding bodily organs, areas, and glands.

Dr. George Goodheart, the founder of AK, liked Chapman’s work and through experimentation discovered that he could turn previously weak muscles on by touching and massaging these points.  Chapman’s work neurolymphatic points were all associated with specific organs and glands as Goodheart’s muscle testings were.  The first correlation that Goodheart found was that Chapman’s neurolymphatic point linked with the stomach was helped to turn on the pectoralis clavicular muscle, also linked to the stomach.  From there, Goodheart was able to correlate all of the other muscles he discovered and now every muscle has its own neurolymphatic point.