At the Craniocervical Foundation, we're concerned with spinal health and specialize in Upper Cervical Chiropractic care. We also love research on the subject and are always looking for research studies and case reports to stay informed. An article was published in 1998 in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics by Dr. Krik Eriksen titled "Management of Cervical Disc Herniation with Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care".

This paper is a case report of one patient with severe cervical pain due to a cervical disc herniation. Up to this point this was the first paper that tracked the progression of a patient with a Cervical Disc Herniation of the Nucleus Pulposus and chiropractic care.

The patient was a 34-year-old male with severe neck and lower back pain. He rated the pain a 10 out of 10 (on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst). This was also rated at 76% on the Neck Pain Disability Index Questionnaire. The scale is designed to show how the neck pain has affected the patient's ability to manage their everyday activities, 0% being no issues with daily function and 100% being complete inability to function. The patient had been under medical care for one year and has exhausted conservative medical treatment with Physical Therapy. He had the cervical disc herniation confirmed using a MRI and with Needle EMG.

After the first correction to the patient’s upper cervical spine, his neck pain was substantially lower. After one month of care he reported only a 2 out of 10 on the pain scale as well as a 26% on the neck pain disability index questionnaire, which was a significant improvement. Also he had a needle EMG that reported his neurologic findings had resolved. One year into care, he had only needed to be adjusted two times and his symptoms were still all clear and confirmed from another needle EMG by the medical doctor.

This is only one case report, but it does show that there may be some link between upper cervical spinal instability and lower cervical spine instability as both his neck and lower back pain were drastically reduced through Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care, and that that relationship should be investigated further.

You can read the case study for yourself here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9467101

Interested in knowing more about Upper Cervical Chiropractic care? Call or email us for more information about the Craniocervical Foundation and our partners Arete Chiropractic.