Fix Spine, Lower Blood Pressure

01/30/2008 04:55 AM

By: Ivanhoe Newswire

CHICAGO -- About 72 million adults in the United States are living with high blood pressure. That's one in three people. Statistics show only 35 percent of them have it under control. Now, research shows a spinal adjustment may actually help control blood pressure.

Chiropractor Marshall Dickholtz, Sr., DC, has been fixing spines for 50 years.

"Helping sick people is the most wonderful thing you possibly can do in life. I've dedicated my life to it," Dr. Dickholtz said.

He works solely on the vital top bone of the spine at the base of the brain, called the atlas.

"Think about it. If your neck is not balancing your head, it's like blowing a fuse. Your wonderful brain does not control your body as well," Dr. Dickholtz explained.

He says a misaligned atlas will raise blood pressure.

"When you have a pinched brain stem, it closes out your arteries. If the arteries close down, the blood pressure has to be higher to go through those arteries," Dr. Dickholtz continued.

A machine checks alignment. After taking detailed X-rays and precise measurements, he demonstrates how he does the adjustment. You can see the difference.

A study by University of Chicago doctors shows the treatment lowers blood pressure by 17 points. After her alignment, 80-year-old Maribeth Zickert is now off the blood pressure drugs she's taken for more than five years.

"At my age, to be on no medication is almost a miracle I think," Zickert said.

Denise Niemann had high blood pressure, too. Before her adjustment, her pressure was 144 over 98.

"After one treatment, my blood pressure was 115 over 76," Niemann says.

"Our high blood pressure research, there were, the average age was 53 and they had 40 years of damage in their spine that could have been taken care of years before and maybe never had high blood pressure," Dr. Dickholtz said.

To get the same effect, doctors say you’d have to take two blood pressure drugs. The study was published in the Journal of Human Hypertension. Dr. Dickholtz says most people do have an atlas that is out of alignment. It usually does not cause pain, so it often goes undetected and untreated.

Research Summary:

THE STUDY: Researchers enrolled 50 people with high blood pressure who also had a misaligned C-1 vertebra in the study. Half of the patients received a detailed, tailor-made atlas adjustment based on how misaligned their C-1 vertebra was. The other half of the patients received a sham adjustment, which was designed to be indistinguishable from the real adjustment. George Bakris, M.D., from the University of Chicago says the C-1 vertebra relies on soft tissue to maintain alignment and is uniquely vulnerable to displacement. A misaligned C-1 vertebra is common and can occur without pain. It often goes undiagnosed and untreated. X-rays were taken before and after the adjustment, and for those who received the real thing, the X-rays showed that the adjustment indeed realigned the atlas vertebra.

THE RESULTS: Results of the study show the patients who received a real adjustment of their atlas vertebra had a significant reduction in blood pressure over those who received the sham treatment. Researchers say the one-time adjustment lowered blood pressure by 17 points, which is equivalent to giving patients two different blood pressure medications at once. The lowered blood pressure was still seen eight weeks after the adjustment. The study was published in the March 2007 issue of the Journal of Human Hypertension.

WHY IT WORKS: Dickholtz calls the C-1 vertebra the fuse box to the body. He says, "If your neck is not balancing your head, it's like blowing a fuse. Your wonderful brain does not control your body as well. If you pinch the base of your brain, your brain is losing power of its control over what it's supposed to do." He says realigning the atlas vertebra does more than just lower blood pressure. Among its many effects, it can alleviate back and neck pain, and usually results in people feeling better overall. One theory of why the adjustment can lower blood pressure, says Dickholtz, is that "when you have a pinched brain stem, it closes out your arteries. It's called vasoconstriction. If the arteries close down, the blood pressure has to be higher to go through those arteries."