Parker College of Chiropractic
WebMD Reports How Chiropractic Cuts Blood Pressure
Studies and research regarding the chiropractic adjustment are being performed more and more to show the validity of chiropractic. WebMD has recently released information showing a special chiropractic adjustment called the Atlas Adjustment, can significantly lower high blood pressure. ÏThis procedure has the effect of not one, but two blood-pressure medications given in combination,Ó study leader George Bakris, MD, told WebMD. ÏAnd it seems to be adverse-event free. We saw no side effects and no problems,Ó added Dr. Bakris, director of the University of Chicago hypertension center.
Research showed that 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 are unable to feel the technique, they could not tell which group they were in.
WebMD reported that patients that got the real procedure saw an average 14 mm Hg greater drop in systolic blood pressure and an average 8 mm Hg greater drop in diastolic blood pressure. None of the patients took blood pressure medicine during the eight-week study.
Dr. Marshall Dickholtz Sr., DC, of the Chiropractic Health Center, in Chicago, performed all of the procedures in the study. He calls the Atlas vertebra Ïthe fuse box to the body.Ó
Dr. 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. Dr. Dickholtz thinks the misaligned triggers release of signals that make the arteries contract. Whether the procedure actually fixes the injuries is unknown, Bakris says.
WebMD reported that Dr. 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, but after seeing the chiropractor, the patientsÌ blood pressure had normalized Ò and a few of them were able to stop taking their blood pressure medications.
Dr. Dickholtz has been teaching, practicing, and studying the NUCCA technique for 50 years. 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,Ó he says.
Dr. Bakris is now organizing a much bigger clinical trial on this same subject.
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