It’s the holidays and we’re all feeling a little bit run down.  Or maybe you’ve had a difficult year altogether.  Maybe you’ve been through a divorce, had a life event or even death of a close family member.  

Did you know that there may be a connection between exhaustion/low energy, immune challenges, stress and misalignments of the spine?  The one thing they have in common is their direct connection to the cerebellum.  Look at the picture on the right.

It’s picture of a chart that I show patients at our office here in Rancho Bernardo so if it looks a little home made…that’s because it is!

Now, notice all the way to the left where it says C1-C3 mechanoreceptors.  A mechanoreceptor is just a fancy word for a joint position sensor.  When the joint position sensors fire or send a nerve signal it means that there is a problem with the alignment of the vertebrae in the upper neck.  More on that  in a minute….

Notice how the brainstem feeds right into cerebellum.  It’s the cerebellum’s job to process the information and then send it to the higher brain for processing, sort of like a computer.  But here’s the problem.  If you have significant misalignment of the top bone in your spine (called the atlas or C1 vertebra), there will be an exaggerated / over-facilitation of WRONG postural information coming from the brainstem.  Sort of like when there’s flooding at the headwaters of a river, there can be a spill-off of water into other areas.

This is exactly how the functions of the other areas of your brain can be affected, namely (in the picture):  the amygdala which is in charge of your stress response, the hippocampus which is in charge of your short term memory  and the hypothalamus which runs your body’s chemistry and, when your chemistry is off, this is when you feel “run down” and more susceptible to the flu and the common cold.

Now, remember how I was talking about the atlas or C1 (atlas) alignment in your spine?  How would you know if you have a problem with the alignment at the top of your spine?  The answer is, you don’t know unless you get checked by an upper neck specialist!  That’s where we come in.  It’s just $49 for the initial evaluation in case you’re interested.

Regarding the atlas vertebra, “Atlas” was the Greed god that held on world on his shoulders, and when the atlas vertebra is out of place, this can cause you to feel like literally have the weight of the world on your shoulders.  So if you’ve had an injury to your neck or if you’re looking for a natural drug free approach to dealing with stress better and optimizing your body’s chemistry, then give us a call!  Because, after all, if your spine’s on your nerves, other people and other things are more easily going to get on your nerves.  Let’s make sure your head is on straight!