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A study found that a “Atlas Adjustment” lowers blood pressure. High Blood Pressure and Chiropractic Care
By Daniel J. DeNoon, WebMD Medical News; Commentary by Dr. Louise Chang
March 16, 2007— A specific chiropractic adjustment can reduce significantly reduces high blood pressure, according to a placebo-controlled study. <<This treatment produces the effect not of just one but of all blood pressure medications administered in combination, >> Dr. George Bakris, the study's director, told WebMD. << And it does not appear to cause any adverse effects. "We did not detect any side effects or any other problems," >>added Bakris, director of the Hypertension Center at the University of Chicago.
After eight weeks of this type of treatment, 25 patients with early-stage high blood pressure showed significantly lower readings than the 25 patients with identical profiles who underwent a simulated chiropractic adjustment. Because the patients did not feel anything during the treatment, they were unable to tell which group they were in.
X-rays showed that the treatment had realigned the atlas (or first cervical vertebra—the doughnut-shaped bone at the top of the spine) in the treated patients, but not in the patients who had undergone a sham treatment.
When comparing those who had received the treatment with those who had not, it was found that those who had received the treatment had an average drop of 14 mmHg in systolic blood pressure (the higher number in a blood pressure reading) and an average drop of 8 mmHg in diastolic blood pressure (the lower number in blood pressure).
None of the patients had taken any blood pressure medication during the eight-week study.
Bakris says. The statistician said: <>
Bakris and his colleagues reported their findings in an advance online publication of the *Journal of Human Hypertension*.
Adjustment of the Cervical Atlas and Hypertension.
The treatment is called specific adjustment of the C-1 vertebra. It is called the Atlas vertebra because it supports the head, just as the legendary Titan Atlas supported the world in Greek mythology.
Marshall Dickholtz Sr., DC, of the Chiropractic Health Center in Chicago, is the 84-year-old chiropractor who performed the entire procedure in the study. This doctor refers to the Atlas vertebra as “the body’s fuse box.”
<> Dr. Dickholtz tells WebMD.
This gentle adjustment is performed by a very small subgroup of chiropractors licensed in National Upper Cervical Chiropractic (NUCCA) techniques. The treatment uses precise measurements to determine the alignment of the patient’s Atlas vertebra. If a readjustment is deemed necessary, the chiropractor uses his or her hands to work on the vertebra with the utmost care.
says Dickholtz.
How does all of this relate to blood pressure?
Bakris states that some researchers suggest that a damaged Atlas vertebra may affect blood flow in the arteries at the base of the skull. Dickholtz believes that a Atlas misalignments manifest themselves through signals that cause the arteries to constrict. Bakris says that the treatment does not indicate whether the lesions heal.
Bakris began his study when a fellow doctor revealed that something unusual was happening in his general practice. This doctor had been referring some of his patients to the chiropractor, and some of them had high blood pressure.
And so, after seeing the chiropractor, their patients' high blood pressure had returned to normal, and some of them were even able to stop taking their blood pressure medication.
So Bakris, who was at Rush University at the time, designed a pilot study involving fifty patients. And he is currently organizing a much larger clinical trial.
High Blood Pressure and Chiropractic <> <>
Dickholtz has been teaching, practicing medicine, and studying the knee-chest technique for 50 years. He asserts that high blood pressure is not the only condition caused by an Atlas misalignment.
"<>" he says.
References: Bakris, G. *Journal of Human Hypertension*, online advance publication, March 2, 2007. Grassi, G. *Journal of Human Hypertension*, online advance publication, January 25, 2007. George Bakris, MD, Director, Hypertension Center, University of Chicago. Marshall Dickholtz Mr., D.C., Chiropractic Health Center, Chicago.
