People are split on chiropractors. There are those who believe they are quacks and those who believe they are skilled medical practitioners capable of providing lasting relief to serious medical conditions. Patients have long been able to describe and voice the benefits they receive from going to the chiropractor, but objective measurement of these benefits has been difficult to obtain.
However, a recent study shows that adjusting the atlas, the top cervical vertebra, can lead to a significant decrease in blood pressure, one of the dangers of sleep apnea. The decrease was the equivalent of taking a double dose of prescribed blood pressure medications. Chiropractors who have eschewed full-spine adjustments in favor of delicate manipulations of the atlas vertebra see this finding as a vindication of their approach.
In a different study, it has been shown that neuromuscular dental treatment can help adjustments of the atlas vertebra to stay in place. Because the alignment of the atlas depends almost exclusively on soft tissue, including muscles and ligaments that can be affected by TMD.
To learn more about how neuromuscular dentistry can increase the effectiveness of your chiropractic treatments, contact Dr. Ira Shapira, neuromuscular dentist, at his Gurnee, Illinois office.