Upper Cervical

Upper Cervical Specific Chiropractic is a branch of chiropractic developed by Dr. B. J. Palmer of Davenport, Iowa, USA. The oldest chiropractic institution in the world, Palmer College of Chiropractic, has more information on history on its web site http://www.palmer.edu.

Many others have contributed to the development of this chiropractic specialisation - See List of Techniques below.

Upper Cervical Chiropractors follow the work of BJ Palmer - with minor variations - in the diagnosis, analysis, correction and monitoring of kinematic imbalances, vertebral subluxations,

The techniques are characterised by:

1. Main influence on the upper cervical articulation consisting of Occiput, Atlas and Axis vertebrae

2. Focus on vector calculation based upon theory that kinematic joint dysfunction is related to a positional disturbance.

3. Radiographic analysis of positional disturbance based on a cartesian co-ordinate system

4. Documentation of post-adjustment result with objective measures

5. Use of specific vectored force which differs from generalised manipulative procedures

Who practices it?
Registered chiropractors throughout the world whom have completed post-graduate study in one of the recognised Upper Cervical Specific Techniques.

List of Techniques
(Alphabetical Order)

Atlas Orthogonal

Blair

NUCCA

Toggle Recoil

Kale Brainstem

Knee-Chest Specific

(more to be added)

Science
The science behind upper cervical is complex, and can be discovered through journals such as Spine, textbooks such as Gray's Anatomy. From a chiropractic perspective much of what can be found on-line is mere personal opinion.

There are excellent books such as Eriksen's comprehensive book that puts together a convincing argument for it in practice and clinical results. Other books will be listed here soon.

A TN patient reports his ordeal with pain until an upper cervical doctor straightens his alignment with Sonar in 'What Time Tuesday' by James Tomasi