This is a common thing to chiropractors and chiropractic patients that have had their HBP reduced after an adjustment to normalize the nervous system. The Nerve system controls the heart (and everything else for that matter) so if the heart is getting less nerve supply than normal, then common sense would tell you that it would have to work harder to pump the blood all the way to the extremities. I think finding the right subluxation in the spine is the key. This article highlights the upper cervical vertebra as the "one" but I find adjusting the upper back which has direct nerve supply to the heart works to lower blood pressure a lot of the time also.

It's great that the media is finally picking up on the research that we have and finally letting the public know that you have a choice. You can take dangerous drugs for the rest of your life or get adjusted so your body can work right......tough choice for some....but not me.

                Chiropractic Cuts Blood Pressure

Study Finds Special 'Atlas Adjustment' Lowers Blood Pressure 

 By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Medical News  Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

 March 16, 2007 -- A special chiropractic adjustment can significantly lower high blood pressure, a placebo-controlled study suggests.

 "This procedure has the effect of not one, but two blood-pressure medications given in combination," study leader George Bakris, MD, tells WebMD. "And it seems to be adverse-event free. We saw no side effects and no problems," adds Bakris, director of the University of Chicago hypertension center.

 Eight weeks after undergoing the procedure, 25 patients with early-stage high blood pressure had significantly lower blood pressure than 25 similar patients who underwent a sham chiropractic adjustment. Because patients can't feel the technique, they were unable to tell which group they were in.

 X-rays showed that the procedure realigned the Atlas vertebra -- the doughnut-like bone at the very top of the spine -- with the spine in the treated patients, but not in the sham-treated patients.

 Compared to the sham-treated patients, those who got the real procedure saw an average 14 mm Hg greater drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure count), and an average 8 mm Hg greater drop in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom blood pressure number).

 None of the patients took blood pressure medicine during the eight-week study.

 "When the statistician brought me the data, I actually didn't believe it. It was way too good to be true," Bakris says. "The statistician said, 'I don't even believe it.' But we checked for everything, and there it was."

 Bakris and colleagues report their findings in the advance online issue of the Journal of Human Hypertension. The procedure calls for adjustment of the C-1 vertebra. It's called the Atlas vertebra because it holds up the head, just as the titan Atlas holds up the world in Greek mythology.

Marshall Dickholtz Sr., DC, of the Chiropractic Health Center, in Chicago, is the 84-year-old chiropractor who performed all the procedures in the study. He calls the Atlas vertebra "the fuse box to the body."

"At the base of the brain are two centers that control all the muscles of the body. If you pinch the base of the brain -- if the Atlas gets locked in a position as little as a half a millimeter out of line -- it doesn't cause any pain but it upsets these centers," Dickholtz tells WebMD.

The subtle adjustment is practiced by the very small subgroup of chiropractors certified in National Upper Cervical Chiropractic (NUCCA) techniques. The procedure employs precise measurements to determine a patient's Atlas vertebra alignment. If realignment is deemed necessary, the chiropractor uses his or her hands to gently manipulate the vertebra.

"We are not doctors. We are spinal engineers," Dickholtz says. "We use mathematics, geometry, and physics to learn how to slide everything back into place."

What does this have to do with high blood pressure?

Bakris notes that some researchers have suggested that injury to the Atlas vertebra can affect blood flow in the arteries at the base of the skull. Dickholtz thinks the misaligned Atlas triggers release of signals that make the arteries contract. Whether the procedure actually fixes such injuries is unknown, Bakris says.

Bakris began the study after a fellow doctor told him that something strange was happening in his family practice. The doctor had been sending some of his patients to a chiropractor. Some of these patients had high blood pressure.

Yet after seeing the chiropractor, the patients' blood pressure had normalized -- and a few of them were able to stop taking their blood pressure medications.

So Bakris, then at Rush University, designed the pilot study with 50 patients. He's now organizing a much bigger clinical trial. 

 "Is it going to be for everybody with high blood pressure? No," Bakris says. "We clearly need to identify those who can benefit. It is pretty clear that some kind of head or neck trauma early in life is related to this. This is really a work in progress. It is certainly in the early stages of research." 

 Dickholtz has been teaching, practicing, and studying the NUCCA technique for 50 years. He says high blood pressure is far from the only thing an Atlas misalignment causes. 

 "On the other hand, if people have high blood pressure, there is a tremendous possibility they need an Atlas adjustment," he says.

SOURCES: Bakris, G. Journal of Human Hypertension, advance online publication, March 2, 2007. Grassi, G. Journal of Human Hypertension, advance online publication, January 25, 2007.George Bakris, MD, director, hypertension center, University of Chicago. Marshall Dickholtz Sr., DC, Chiropractic Health Center, Chicago.

The snow is finally gone and the temps are back in the 60's and the sun is coming out. Just a few more weeks of winter for us. The Olympics are in full swing and I was able to catch a little bit of the womens downhill ski race. As a former downhill slalom racer it was exciting to me to relive the feeling of being in the starting gates and getting the butterflys during the countdown to go. It was great to see the american girls take the gold and silver medals. Linsey Vonn skiing injured made it that much more exciting. The only bone in my body that was ever broken was my right collar bone in a crash at Mamoth Mountan,Ca. in one of my last amatuer races.

Downhill skiing is a dangerous sport but also a very thrillling and fun way to spend the day for the whole family. Snow skiing and chiropractic go hand and hand. Having a spine that is fully functional and flexible is going to provide more protection in the falls that happen as a result of the sport. Also getting adjusted after a day of skiing provides quicker muscle recovery by restoring nerve function back to normal, if subluxated during a fall.

Since moving to texas back in 1997 I have only been snow skiing once but have switched my adrenaline seeking ways to the warmer summer sport of water skiing and wakeboarding. I still have a love for snow skiing but the long summers of north texas are a better fit for the water activities.

More on that in the next blog.....

We will be back open normal hours on Monday Feb 15, 2010. Due to the recent snowstorm that droped nearly a foot of snow we had to close early on thrursday and friday. The threat of icy conditions seems to be gone for now. With the warming temps the snow is rapidly melting and should be gone within another day or so. The nightime temps are also rising and should keep the snowmelt from freezing on the roads.

Our first concern is always patient safety. We would rather have you wait another day to come in than risk driving in icy conditions if it could be avoided.

I just signed up for the California Jam 2010 Its a Celebration of chiropractic and chiropractic philosophy. Where we started in the early days of chiropractic to where were going.

Promoting the chiropractic message to the masses is the mission. To let everyone know that the nervous system is the master system. It controls and coordinates all bodily functions. To have 100% health you need your nervous system  working at or as close to 100% for your body to function efficiently. Interference to the nervous system from the result of spinal misalignment (Subluxated vertebra) will result in less than 100% health which many times will produce symptoms such as pain, tingling, numbness, burning, etc. Without proper nerve supply, organs and glands that are connected to these nerves can start to malfunction and even fail. 

The Body is hardwired from the brain through the spinal cord into an intricate and complex matrix of  nerves constantly comunicating with your brain.