Blood Pressure.

What's a good blood pressure for me?, and... do I really need medication?

While I was a student at Palmer Chiropractic College, a retired cardiologist (heart doctor) talked to us one day about blood pressure and EKGs. It stuck with me, so I'll pass it on.

He said that for anyone over 60 years old, a good blood pressure is 100 plus your age for systolic (high side), divided by 2 for the diastolic (low side). For example, if you're 70 years old, a good blood pressure for you would be 170 over 85 (170 divided by 2). Most doctors today want to medicate you towards 115/75 which is unrealistic for most older people. As we age, our arteries naturally become stiffer or harder and less pliable or less soft, so our blood pressure naturally rises a little. Bad habits like smoking, too much alcohol, or too many drugs (legal or illegal) can also contribute to the stiffening or hardening or the arteries (atherosclerosis). Fresh and colorful vegetables and fruits can help keep arteries soft and pliable.

Here's an article from WebMD proving that Chiropractic adjustments help to lower blood pressure:

Chiropractic Cu ts Blood Pressure                                                                                                   Page 1 WebMD

Bettet onformat.on.Better health.

Article    ink: http://www.webmd.comfhypertension-high-blood-pressure/newsf20070316fchiropractic-cuts-blood-pressure

Hypertension/High Blood Pressure Health Center

This article is from the WebMD News Archive

Chiropractic  Cuts Blood Pressure

Study Finds Special 'Atlas Adjustment' Lowers Blood Pressure

By Daniel J. DeNoon

WebMO Health 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 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 Joumal of Human Hypertension.

Atlas Adjustment and 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 man 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."

Atlas Adjustment and Hypertension, continued...

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 dearly 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.

Dr. Lyon's note: I don't believe that the chiropractor has to be a practitioner of NUCCA technique. Gonstead and Diversified techniques work just as well for a seasoned, precise upper cervical manipulator. I have personally had great success helping patients to lower their blood pressure by performing precise upper cervical (Atlas) manipulations, verified by before and after blood pressure readings.

hypertension  newsletter

http://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/news/20070316/chiropractic-cut...         3/3/2009